RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 47 Pre-Game Day 3: Sol & Teeny

Episode Date: September 7, 2024

Today, Rob and Mike discuss two more players on the Lavo tribe, Sol Yi and Teeny Chirichillo.

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your espresso will be handcrafted with care at Starbucks. Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Cicinino back again. And today, day three of our Survivor 47 preview, we're going to talk about and hear from two more contestants as we round out our first tribe as we talk about saul and teeny here with a guy who talked to them both before they played survivor 47 give it up for mike bloom yes i better call saul and i called teeny as well we talked over zoom and yeah very excited to not only talk to two other big personalities on this season even even if one of them is named Teenie. But also, Rob, now get to have a full bird's eye view of what the Lavo tribe might be for the first half of the season.

Okay, all right. So we'll do maybe a little bit of that at the end of the podcast after we hear from both of these players. You can, of course, see everything we've done on day one and day two by making sure you're subscribed either to our YouTube channel or rob's website dot com slash subscribe.

All right, Mike, up first, we're going to hear from Saul. What do you want to set up about Saul? Yeah, so Solomon Yee, though he goes by Saul, at least in this interview, is 42 years old. is 42 years old. He is the oldest man on the cast from Weston, Connecticut, from my old neck of the woods, Rob, back in southwestern Connecticut. And he is a therapy sales rep

for a deep brain stimulation. I will butcher the description of it. He has a much more eloquent way of describing it in our interview. But yeah, suffice it to say, this is a guy that has a very solid way of looking at things in a manner of speaking. All right. So let's hear from Solomon. We'll come back and talk about it after the interview. Well, let's start with the easy stuff here. Why don't you give me your name,

your age and your occupation? I'm Solomon Yee. I'm 42 years old. And I'm from or you didn't ask me. I'll tell you anyways. I'm from originally from Oklahoma. I live in Western Connecticut now. And I am a deep brain stimulation therapy representative. It's the best job in the world. Okay, you're gonna have to tell me about what that is, especially because it's the best job in the world. Yeah. so basically um i help people with neurodegenerative disorders like parkinson's disease epilepsy ocd um and it's a life-changing therapy like these people they have been dealt a hand that they have no control over and their lives are crap because of these um you know, the symptoms that come from, for example, Parkinson's,

like you're just shaking like this 24 seven and DBS or deep brain stimulation. We basically put electrodes in the brain, not me. I wish I did, but the neurosurgeons put electrodes in the brain and the part of your brain that control your movement. And once we turn it on, it's like a pacemaker. There's a pacemaker like device in the chest. I'm sorry, the leads are in the brain, but there's a generator in the chest that delivers electricity to the brain. And then boom, those tremors stop like in an instant. Wow. So then let's talk about, you know, a major career shift, as it were, maybe temporarily to Survivor Player. Talk to me about your history with the show and what brought you out from western connecticut to the islands of fiji well um i'm

i'm like a covet baby i had never seen her yeah until 2020 my colleague from work she was you know we're feeding off each other like what are you watching now what are you watching she's like oh i'm watching survivor i'm like oh damn that show is still on and she goes yes it's the best show ever I'm like all right I'll give this a try and boom first episode I'm hooked like I watched like four seasons in like a week I'm not kidding you and um I just remember going, something inside of me was telling me like, you have to try to play this game. And I applied once, probably in 2021. And it was, I almost said, cursed. I don't want to break any rules here.

You tell me. You haven't been talking for a while, so feel free to say whatever comes to mind as explicit as it may be. I made a shit video. I was trying to impress. I wasn't being myself. I was trying to think, what do they want from me? And try to put something out there like that. And when I submitted it, I just knew I wasn't going to get on.

And then literally almost every day for two years, it's like I I had this itch inside of me, you know, like, dude, apply again, apply again, apply again. And it is hard to apply, but you know, that itch just, it wouldn't go away. And finally I'm like, fuck it, just try again. And, uh, I really tried to be myself in it, really try to bring it. And, um, just cause I knew like, dude, you're 42, man, you ain't got that much longer to play this game. And so, uh, yeah, I brought it and I don't know why they picked me, but I'm like, so blessed to be here right now. Like you guys, I don't know if you've ever been to Fiji, but I've been here for, I mean, yeah, it's like, as soon as I stepped off the plane, I'm like, got slapped in the face with this beauty.

And I'm just I'm in heaven right now. Like I'm married and my wife's not here. So she might get a little upset about this. She'd also be very happy for me. Yeah, it's I haven't even been there that long. And my outlook on life has just changed dramatically. Oh, wow. That's amazing. Well, I know you're a recent convert to Survivor, but look, better late than never, first off.

Second off, from all the seasons you've recently blitzed your way through, give me one winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most. Definitely Gabler. Gabler and I were both in medical sales, but that's really, um, that's not necessarily why it's, uh, I don't know Gabler obviously, but I feel like Gabler has, has gone through some shit in his life and he's overcome it. And, um, but his attitude, it, the way he just, his outlook on life is beautiful. And when, saw that, it really did inspire me. And his ability to create bonds with people, I remember in the final tribal council, he had a story about every single individual person with those one connections that he's made.

I'm really good at that. I've had to do that. I've had to develop one-on-one relationships with people just because of how I was raised. And, you know, if I needed it, if I wanted to go anywhere in life, that's what I had to do. And when I saw him do that, they don't really show that on each episode,

but they did explain it in that final jury. And that really hit home to me is also, he has an incredible, um, he's very self-aware. I remember in that first episode, like he tried it or not in the first episode, one of the first few episodes, he took somebody out. He's like, man, I need to go under the water now because I'm, I'm up here. I know. Yeah. The Alligabler. Exactly. Yeah. And,. And I really hope they can't hear me. But yeah, like I'm I'm very self-aware. I have I don't know what to call it, but I can see things that and pick up on things that maybe most people can't. That gives me information on like, OK, you need to calm down, Saul, or Saul or hey that person's a little upset with

you right now Saul you need you probably go talk to him or her um and then as far you said a non game a non-monometer as well yeah the flip side of that is uh Adam uh isn't that his name Adam with the with the long hair he got voted out um he was the first member on the jury um the season d1 caleb caleb caleb yes very charismatic guy like could connect with anybody i can i love doing like i love going to parties i love you know i'll talk to you for one minute develop a relationship really quickly and then I'm bored. I'll go to the next person. And the problem with that is, and I learned from Caleb, is that you can't be doing that right now. And I'm dying. That's the hardest part of this. I just want to celebrate with everybody and just develop bonds with everybody. But I also don't want to be the first on the jury or be the first

one voted out. So yeah, I can really identify with that too yeah so if i were to ask you what is your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite that you're bringing into the game is that superpower what you were speaking before with gabler about that like adaptability and ability to connect one-on-one with so many people i I would call it, it's not willpower. I mean, yes, what you just said, I absolutely have those capabilities and they're very, very strong skills for me. But I call it, it's not willpower, it's called Saul power.

Saul-er power, if you will. Well, my name's Solomon and people call me Saul. So when people say say you got a lot of willpower man I'll be like who's will I got Saul power and Saul power to me is like I can do anything

and being picked to be on this show it's proven to me because if there's any doubt in the world you know the things that I've tried to do that's all gone now because I'm on freaking Survivor like that's undeniable they picked me to play this game and so um now salt power is at its fullest strength like nothing can stop me now don't get me wrong i understand i might not win this game but do i believe i will win this game absolutely and that's like, I think

for me, that's, that's the biggest thing there is because if you don't believe you can win, if you don't believe that you can do anything, then you're probably not going to. And whether you're right or wrong, and it doesn't matter. It's the point is believe in yourself. It's not cockiness. It's not arrogance. It's just a belief that you can do anything and um that's probably my biggest strength is my my belief in myself now what about the other side of things yeah what's the what stands the greatest chance of bringing down that soul power man the very soul power is it's i feel like um when people when i when i walk into a room like i grew up in oklahoma i'm a korean kid There weren't very many Koreans in the room.

When I'd walk into a room, all eyes would be on me. And in order for me to, you know, at least have a chance in Oklahoma, I had to do something. I had to make, so I made people laugh. And I've done that my entire life. And so in this game, if you, that could be my kryptonite, is that I could walk into the room and people would be like, hey, that guy is dangerous. Get him the hell out of here. Oh, interesting.

Sort of like the jam jam side of things of like, oh, he's making us laugh. That means that people will want to keep him around. He's dangerous. If they're smart, they will see that. And well, let me rephrase that if i don't tone it down and i am my absolute self and they don't notice that like damn he's good then that's their

problem but if and they are i'm sure they are very smart they will notice that so that will be my kryptonite if i don't tone it down. Well, let's talk about some of these people that might be laughing it up at your jokes for the next 26 days. I'm sure you're picking up vibes from people over the past few days. Who are some people that you're getting good vibes from that like best case scenario,

you wind up on the beach with them with day one. These are possible ride or dies. It's a hard question to ask or answer because, you know, we're just here chilling. But oh, yeah yeah there's um one person um she's the shortest person here and just got a very warm smile and every time i've looked at her um we've just connected like i don't know i'm feeling it at least i'm like that girl could be like we could be tight, we could be tight here.

We could take this thing the whole way. Um, it's also, we're very, very different in terms of, you know, um, I don't think anyone would ever catch it. So, uh, she's probably one. And then there's another person that when we were at the hotel going to the bus, we first person, first person that I saw, we kind of connected and we've been like kind of unintentionally being like around each other a lot. But other than that, I'm trying not to like go too deep with who play with right now,

because I know that everything's going to change once we can start talking. So I, I hope that I'm sure that's not a great answer. But yeah, that's what that's where my mind is right now. What is the biggest thing you're taking away from Survivor 45 and 46 that you are incorporating into your own gameplay in 47? I think right now you just got to keep my mind right the entire way. Don't get my emotions too high. Don't ever get low.

Stay in the middle. That's my biggest takeaway. Because when you get emotional and you start getting crazy, your thoughts are just, your decision-making is very, very poor. And the other thing, too, is, and Jeff said this, actually, act like it's your second time to play. The other thing too is, and Jeff said this actually, act like it's your second time to play. I am a, I'm not a pro poker player by any means, but I love poker.

I've won over $200,000 playing Texas Hold'em in tournaments. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's a passion of mine. I'm not a professional by any means. But when he said that to me what, not to me, when Jeff said that to me, I understood exactly what he meant. When you were playing poker, you have to take risks and you might lose and you might go home. But if you don't take those risks, you will absolutely never, ever win a poker tournament. And so it's gotta be the same thing here. I have to take risks. And, um, so keeping a level head but understanding

you better take some risks dude otherwise you ain't gonna win yeah is that gonna be incorporated into things like idols advantages journeys you're taking any opportunity you can oh yeah i mean well probably i mean i'm definitely about it like i'm gonna like if there's a beware advantage i'm not just gonna say yep i'm doing it like i'm to make sure that I like level headed, read it, make sure that it's beneficial and strategic for me, my game. But at the same time, I'll tell you, going back to last year, this current season right now, idle plays like what the hell? Like, guys, come on. What are you doing? Read the room. And I'm going gonna it's very easy to say that like on the couch um so i hope i don't do that here but at the same time i ain't planning on using idols like a shield i'm using them as weapons i will be targeting people um we'll see how many times i play an idol on myself but i genuinely anticipate to play idols for other people more than I do on myself. That's what kind of game I'm trying to play. What is your most controversial

survivor opinion? What's your hottest take about a season, a player, the show in general? So my parents, my family, they've been like, don't lie. Make sure that you're being honest with everybody. Don't come off as a person who's, you know, a liar or a sleaze, they've been like, don't lie. Make sure that you're being honest with everybody. Don't come off as a person who's, you know, a liar or a sleazeball. I'm like, that's my pet peeve. It's like, guys, this is a game. This ain't real life. You know who I am as a person.

I'm trying to play a game. And the best way to play a game is to lie your ass off. So, like, I'm going to deceive people like that's and that's what i was telling them like stop it stop it and so that's my pet peeve like who goes into a game and like i'm not sure if like for example like balderdash where you try to write a definite could you imagine like if you played that game, telling the truth, like why are we playing then? What is the point of this?

It's like, you know, that's, that's my pet peeve. Like this is a game. They relax, chill out. This is not who I genuinely am.

I don't get me wrong. I'm going to be a lot of the show. I'm going to be myself. I have to be, that's how I'm going to create bots. But in terms of strategic gameplay i mean i gotta do what i gotta do and if you're not if you're not then you ain't gonna win that's just the truth yeah last thing i want to ask if you could bring a celebrity or a fictional character

out as a loved one for a loved one's visit on the island who would it be and why a celebrity or a fictional character yeah wow um i gotta go with my boy matt damon oh there we go jimmy kimmel will not be happy hey you jimmy kimmel why why is that because matt that's what matt damon always says to him no no i mean in general i i know the yeah why you big a big damon head um i just like his he's i think he's one of the best actors and i could use you know some coaching from the best actor and in my opinion um to act better than i already can and uh and on the loved one, oh, and by the way, everyone would probably be like,

oh, you're friends with Matt Damon. I'm like, yes, my boy. There we go as well. And I'm sure once you end up blindsiding someone, you can hold up your vote and say, how about them apples? Exactly. Because I got a number. Well, this was such a great time to talk with you.

I know that obviously there's probably so many feelings that are swirling about in your head right now as you're just waiting for your feet to hit the stand but i can tell just by talking with you you have for lack of a better term a great heart and soul uh so i am so excited that you get this chance to showcase yourself to us to yourself as well and you know i'm sure it's all pins and needles right now, but I can't wait to see what happens with you over the next 26 days. Oh, thank you. It's like, I, I, I cried this morning. Like I went to the, we went to the beach. I was there by myself. It was so beautiful. And I like, I have never done that before.

So I'm going to cherish this, this next 26 days days like I've never cherished anything before. I'm so lucky. I'm so blessed. And doing this with you, it's so fun. So thank you. So it's a new year. You know what that means, setting big goals. Maybe you promised yourself

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start automatically saving and investing your money so it has a chance to grow for you, your kids, and your retirement. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that fits you and your money goals. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you invest with the spare money you've got right now. You can start with just $5 or even just your spare change. You don't need a ton of time either. You can create your Acorns account and start investing in just five minutes. Basically, Acorns does the hard part so you can give your money a chance to grow. Using Acorns is a game changer for somebody like me who spends a lot of time thinking about strategy, whether it's on Survivor or behind the scenes. It's refreshing to have an app that makes investing simple and automatic. It's a small step that gives me confidence that

I'm building a better financial future without stressing over the details. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by investing, this is a great place to start. Head to acorns.com slash RobPod or download the Acorns app and start saving and investing for your future today. This has been a paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Tier one compensation provided. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash robpod. All right, Mike, there you have it there. Saul Yee. Saul Yee. And I will say the word that comes to mind for me when it comes with to saul is

sustainable and i'm not just speaking about the fact that he has his own internalized source of power apparently with the self-proclaimed saul power but saul just seems like a guy that that seems very grounded and has i think an all-around pretty good set of skills to do well in a game like sustainable yeah i think i've never heard a person described as sustainable well i'm so what do you what do you mean by that well i think it's it's the fact that uh this is somebody who comes in and yes he is a more recent fan of survivor but again i think he'd be a little more surprised to know that he's surrounded by more of those types of people than he may think hell rome who's the last person we talked about this is even more of a recent fan than him but i

feel like between his his physical status you know perhaps his life experience giving him a very grounded way of looking at things but also having a little bit of a streak of strategy to him in the form of his poker skills i think he's set up to do at least pretty well you know see i feel like that for me that salt, I feel like came across as like mysterious. Like I feel like that he, to me was almost like holding back. And I wonder if, and I think that I found him to be fascinating. I really feel like that.

He seems like a character who's like stepped out of like a prestige drama. Like he seems like such an interesting person. Better call Saul maybe. Better call Saul. Especially that when he says that, like one thing he's not going to be afraid to do is lie in this game, like another Saul that we've seen on television.

So I just think he seems like a, I mean, he has a super interesting job. This focusing on deep brain stimulation, which again, sounds like something that would be fake in a movie or a TV show. Like, oh, I've been working on my deep brain stimulation technique. Not to imply that it's anything

but the legit truth in his real life, but it does sound a little bit out there. And he seems like a guy that his, his way of speaking, I thought like, uh, was, I, I was at the edge of my seat, not knowing what he's going to say, but he doesn't seem outwardly gregarious to me. Uh, and I do wonder how he's going to fit in, uh,

when, and maybe, maybe that's people will come to him as opposed to, uh, he also said that he was going to have to hold back a little bit, that he has this wild side of his personality, which was interesting. Right.

But I wasn't getting that from hearing from him. I mean, I don't disagree. You know, he compares himself to Caleb talks about how like his piece of kryptonite right was like oh when i usually walk in i'm having everyone laughing everyone's yelling saul like it's cheers or something but i have to tear back on that because much like caleb i don't want to be the one to stick out and yeah again maybe it was just i don't know the the time place we were speaking or maybe you know it

wasn't coming across over the medium we were using. I wasn't necessarily getting that as well. But to your point, maybe when he has people in front of him or the game actually settles in, he'll be able to turn that on. Though, much like a faucet, you need to be able to turn it down to a drip as well sometimes. Otherwise, again, as we've seen very recently, that's something that could get you targeted almost immediately from a merge situation what else uh stood out to you mike

yeah so let's talk about saul's poker side as it were because players have not done great on survivor yeah yeah you know i saw that's giving me a little bit of i don't know if it's if it's just like his size a little bit of John Robert energy as well. Perhaps one of the best poker players, ironically enough to do well on a survivor. But I'm intrigued to see what Saul is going to reveal about his background, because obviously I would imagine he's going to obfuscate the poker stuff because that comes with such a stigma associated with it. But something that I'm surprised he didn't really talk about as much when it came to his own interpersonal skills is the fact that he does work in sales and look it's been a little while since we've had this conversation not since the days of cody assenmacher and justine brennan but i do wonder is is he going

to be sales forward when it comes to his job and how much might that semi come up especially if again if he does open up and be a bit more gregarious and personable as he says he usually does does that come with that than a veneer of people thinking okay are you just trying to pitch me on something yeah I don't know if he ends up I don't think he should talk

about that in the game I'm thinking if he sticks with the I'm a therapist and I work with you know people and I help them uh over i mean he had a very great description of like what he gets to do uh and helping people uh with uh all sorts of like horrible uh diseases uh that he can uh really i think come across well i just um he says he'll play idols on other people yeah which yeah which i think you know may not be great for him but if i'm looking for an ally that's a fantastic quality to have

like you want to use them as weapons i mean this is right out of carolyn playing the idol on carson right and yes it's that can help him honestly yeah i think it's it's something that invites you to want to work with somebody, right? I'm like, oh, you have an asset that you will use on our behalf cumulatively? Great, I'd much rather work with you than somebody who's just going to sit on that thing and not tell me about it

and then maybe selfishly use it on yourself. So I do think, depending on what parts of himself Saul opens up to others, I think he could get in good somewhere I also think he is one of the probably physically strongest people on this tribe he does list in his bio that one of his hobbies is crossfit and there is some talk by some of these other players that we'll get into about like him being I think one of the bigger guys that they refer to. So again, I would imagine strength isn't everything, but in these six-person tribes, it certainly helps in the beginning.

I just envision a situation where like, Saul is able to maybe blend in personality-wise with some of the bigger people around him, while also being personified as an asset to the tribe. And then it kind of becomes like a nice ride or die down the line is that a winning strategy i don't know necessarily and maybe much like we saw with hunter could saul's physical prowess work against him in the merge but i ironically enough despite it being on a red tribe i don't see many red flags about him initially he said he had great vibes with the

very short girl is that who we're going to talk about next see i am assuming so i didn't get a chance obviously to get the heights from these people because i didn't see them in person but i know i think there was also talk about maybe caroline being a bit smaller i'd like to imagine that it is teeny just because i do think a saltini alliance which just sound like a nice uh happy hour drink could be a fun, low-key dynamic to see on this tribe. Okay, Mike, we should talk about teeny. Anything else on Saul? No, nothing else on Saul at the moment.

Again, I'm very intrigued to see. My brain is stimulated, Rob, by this conversation with Saul. Yeah, I think that there's an interesting amount of potential to him, but those upsides come with downsides as well. Okay, we got one more person to talk about. Let's talk about Teenie when we come back right after this. Mike, the sixth and final member of the Lavo tribe

that we have to talk about is Teenie. Yes, so Teenie Chirichio. She is 23 years old, currently in manahawken new jersey and she is or i should say was a uh salute tech consultant a associate solutions architect uh but she's one of those people that left their job shortly before coming out to survivor hoping to net a million dollar paycheck okay all right so formerly of uh the tech world now in the survivor world yeah it's quite the opposite unless you count those coconut phones yeah okay mike anything you want to set up about teeny teeny is i mean it's tough this is a heavy competition to see rob who is the biggest super fan in this cast i know we've been talking about a lot of recent fans but uh teeny is someone who lives and dies by survivor she wrote in her bio as

hopefully just lives yeah exactly it's one of her favorite hobbies she said literally survivor avid podcast listener attend all nearby watch parties have played mock versions written research essays and find a way to weave it into every conversation I have with someone new I meet. Not kidding. So this is someone who comes in with a deep seated love and passion for the game, as well as the content around it,

which means perhaps identifying one of a couple of notable faces in this season. Okay. All right. Let's listen to Mike's interview with teeny. We'll come back and talk about teeny and then all of the Lavo tribe in full. All right. How are you doing right now? I am feeling good that I'm talking to you.

Otherwise, a little bit paranoid taking in everybody. I mean, so thrilled to be here. This has been forever a dream of mine. And yeah, overall, I'd say pretty good. Well, listen, I'll hopefully be a friendly face that you can come to in the midst of all the other treachery around you. But I'll start you off nice and easy here. Why don't you give me your name, age and occupation? OK, so my name is Teenie. I am currently 23 years old. So my occupation, I had to basically quit my job to come out here but I was working as a tech consultant and I think the story of how I got that job is more interesting

and will probably appeal to more people than the actual work of being a tech consultant. Do tell please. Okay so it all starts I was 16 years old. I was scrolling on my phone as I do. And I saw a meme on Instagram that was like, if you text the phone number, that's like one digit above or below your own, that's your text or neighbor, like a play on next door neighbor. So obviously, you know, I pull out my phone, I do it. The text goes through blue. I know it's delivered. And on the other end, the person responds. And we have this back and forth conversation, not revealing who we are, anything. And then it comes out. At the time I was 16, she was 26. We ended up kind of maintaining this friendship. She lived in New York City. She was the first person I ever came out of the closet to. And then when I was in

college, she actually helped put me in touch with the tech company she worked for. And then at 22 years old, when she was 32, we worked together at this company. So yeah, that's like a crazy story. I feel like, yeah. But what a perfect setup for a type of show where it's, hey, I don't know you from a hole in the wall, but we have to work together to create this communal exercise, pretty much part and parcel what you just did with your tech store neighbor. Precisely. Yeah, I feel like that story is like very representative of kind of like how I like can create and maintain relationships and like how I also kind of spontaneously fall ass backwards into jobs and things like that, which is I think a skill that could really help me here. Well, you mentioned Survivor being, you know, a long-held dream.

I know you wrote in your bio that, you know, one of your hobbies is literally Survivor and everything contained in and around it. So give me your history with the show and what made you decide to, you know, say, I've been a super fan for so long, I think it's time I start being a player. Right, so my mom watched the show from its conception,

which is like right on par with my conception. It came out a few months before I was born. And she saw me like running around backstage. I like my sister's dance recital, just kind of willing and dealing with all the dancers and was like, she's going to win Survivor one day. So she put me onto it. It was Fabio's season, which randomly,

I feel like a lot of people start with Nicaragua um everyone's feeling that post heroes versus villains glow they're like surely the next thing should be great yeah exactly and like for some reason it's like a lot of people's first seasons and for some reason it hooks us I feel like it's like if you like it and you get it you get it even if it's like Nicaragua um so I started watching it. I was also a huge Big Brother fan. I don't know if that's like a bad word to say around here. I was obsessive about reality TV and watching adults communicate and fight

and all of that from like a very young age. It was just my passion. And yeah, I've just been obsessed with Survivor. I wore a buff every single day of high school. I've like, you know know gone out of my way to pest players i don't even know if you're aware the two of us have a picture together at one we do yeah we do yeah so once i saw your face i'm like okay i have uh quite literally this picture perfect memory when it comes to it um so yeah i've like i've met survivor players in extremely

serendipitous ways like i met dean kowalski was eating at my restaurant one summer before this season even came out. And the two of us kind of like forged this friendship. I hung out with Richard Hatch when I was 19, when I was visiting Rhode Island and just shot him a long DM about, hey, I'm a super big fan. So we went out to lunch and I've tried to, you know, incorporate Survivor into my life in so many ways. I've tried to, you know, incorporate Survivor into my life in so many ways. But I think the place in life that I'm at now, you know, in college, I'd made a few audition tapes and I watched them back. And I was like, there's just something not right here. Like, I am not ready. Like, something about the way I'm articulating myself isn't real.

I needed to kind of, I feel like, get out of college, pick a few of my, like, college-esque habits. And I lived in New York City for a year. I moved back home. I was like, now's's the time I applied and it's worked out so looking back upon your voluminous knowledge of Survivor give me one winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most any of those previous names popping up so my winner is Mike White and it's not. And I feel like Mike White, I relate to so much. I feel like he sort of was strategically and physically underestimated, which is what I anticipate like my energy will be. And I feel like he is just really good at like making genuine relationships with people and like having just sort of like very subtle ways of doing so. Like just like the way I feel like he can like look at people and make them feel comforted and just like tiny moments and things like that.

And just kind of like forgoing the bullshit. I feel like he's I don't know if I can curse, but I feel like I'm just somebody who can like really get to the heart of somebody quickly in a way that he can. And I also think that I'm a I'm a writer as well and that's like something I definitely want to explore more after this it's something I do on the side um both kind of professionally and just personally and I feel like the way that I sort of like conceptualize things is similar to him uh I have a cynicism that is like him and yeah i hope to i hope to play like him and then non-winner i feel like ty is somebody who i'm like i feel like ty i am very sensitive um i feel like ty is also very sensitive um the aspects of the game that are like super like numerical and things like that

are like going to be a struggle for me like the very like technical like strategic parts are not things that like I always need to listen to like 20 RHAP podcasts to understand like the prisoner's dilemma things and stuff like that and I feel like Ty also didn't have like the tightest grasp on that aspect of the game he had such freedom within relationships because people liked him and he was a very present player who made decisions and had the freedom to make decisions uh based on just like his intuition and things like that and i feel like that's a way that i will also play and he's had some he's both of his placements are awesome so yeah like third and fourth nothing to sneeze at absolutely to that

point give me your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite you're bringing into the game does that relate to what you were just talking about about being a bit less numbers oriented or a bit more uh soul oriented as it were perfectly put um yeah so i think that like my biggest superpower will be my social relationships and my ability to make people feel comfortable my ability to kind of like hopefully bring just like yeah a sense of home to people around camp

and also just like to be this sort of like bumbling little sibling type character energy like for people in a tie and sort of also in a Lane Stott way that I think disarm people about me um but I think yeah my kryptonite would definitely be that I just am not very left-brained like

puzzles are you could give me 24 hours with a puzzle and it's just not gonna go too well I've practiced a lot and I've improved but that kind kind of thing. And yeah, just like the types of like very technical, like vote splitting type things I'm going to need help with. So I'm sure like hopefully working with people and kind of being a yin and yang situation is what I'm looking for. You talk about studying the puzzles to the best of your ability.

Obviously, again, as a student of the game, what has your prep process been like once you found out you were coming out to play? Yeah, so I did CrossFit five days a week for like three months. But then my shoulder and my back started to hurt. And I was like, I don't really need to like keep like increasing my deadlift weight. Like that's not necessarily going to like help me so much. So once I got like that sort of foundational athleticism, I just took it back to Judgment Free Zone Planet fitness and was working out there um I also like

live by a beach very close to a beach so I would like go to the beach and do some sprints and run there to get used to like the sand and things like that um I did do puzzles I have like three or four survivor puzzles that I would sit down and do every single day just to get my brain you know used to how a puzzle works because that's just not something in my in my wheel of tricks um but also a practice fire every single day got pretty good at doing that and I would also try to every weekend like put myself in a situation with entirely new people just so I could like gauge how new people responded to me like different types of people how quickly I could get somebody to like me what types of people I felt like gauge how new people responded to me, like different types of people, how quickly I could get somebody to like me, what types of people I felt like were harder to. So I would sort of just try and put myself, you know, either on a barstool next to a stranger and talk to them or just ask my friends to bring me along to different situations.

All right. So you mentioned at the very beginning how you're happy to see, you know, a familiar face. We have all the strangers that are around you. I'm sure you have takes about them. Talk to me about some people that you're picking up good vibes from. You think best case scenario, we hit the beach on day one. This could be a ride or die for me. OK, so I'm going to start with someone who I think you and I both know and that is AW who I recognize to be a RHAP podcaster um so yeah I saw her and I was like I think it's her got a little closer was like I'm 99% sure heard like the smallest snippet of her voice I was like I'm 100% sure that is an RHAP podcaster would love to work with her. Have no intentions of telling anybody

that she's an RHAP podcaster because that would also reveal that I know who a really niche commentator of Survivor is. And I think if I'm trying to blow up her spot for being a super fan in that way, I'd be simultaneously taking myself down too. But would love to work with her. Obviously, I'm a huge fan of RHAP.

Think she's amazing. And like, that would be great. Also, mom and mom. I know, I don't even know. I don't even know if she is a mother. I don't know if she has children. She could be mother. Well, she, that's what I was just going to say.

I'm like, she is mother to me. I'm obsessed with her. Like, I love her vibes. Just like the woman who's a little bit older than the rest of us with blonde hair. She seems like one of my friend's moms who I'd like sit around the counter and drink wine with and talk shit with. And like I would love to be with her. Yesterday, she was wearing like head to tail blue.

And I'm like, I don't know. This is like an overt signal to all of us. You're on the blue tribe, which I'm on the red tribe. So I kind of mourned just in preparation that she will not be with me but would love to eventually get to play with her uh there's a guy who's tall who has some facial hair um and he's skinny and he just kind of reminds me of New Jersey like he looks like sort of an amalgamation of like all the cross-country boys from my high school and like every line cook from every restaurant I've worked in which is like really like comforting to me um there's a there's a Hawaiian girl who has a really

like nice smile um she's charming the pants off of everybody I've saw her at the airport like chatting up the guy at the ticket line um I've seen her just she's made me feel good I'm sure she's made everybody feel good so I think she'll do really well i could go on and on dude well let's go let's let's go to the other side name a couple people that maybe you're not picking up some uh good vibes from yeah so there's two so uh one of them has the haircut that i had all throughout high school which is like down pin straight down to um my shoulders it's a dude he parts it like at his ear um he i think his initials are ar um i've seen him every step of this process literally when i was at my finals i saw him he's just giving me nothing absolutely nothing like i've convinced

myself he hates me um he anything i've gotten for him has just been like that like that dead eyes just like and so there's him and then there's also the other guy with shoulder length hair both of them have been putting it up in man buns which is like questionable um and so both of them and i've also just convinced myself that they will be on my starting tribe and i've just started to try and mentally prepare myself for that um but yeah both of them have just been giving up like they have not been playing the eye contact game have not been playing the wink game and i'm like i don't get that um so obviously they could be very different but that's where i'm at what's your most controversial survivor opinion what's your hot take my hot take is that i believe every season

of survivor should have a handful of people who do not know a single thing about the show who have not really seen it who have maybe seen a season that was shown to them like are you just manifesting this that you hope that's the case on your season i said okay listen here's the thing of course i would like that because then i could you know know, it would, it would work well for me. But in general, like even on Nicaragua, like Nyanka was plucked off of a boardwalk. I'm pretty sure Courtney Yates was taken from a restaurant in New York city. Like some of the most captivating, entertaining people who play just unpredictably and who are kind of learning the ropes as it goes are people who just aren't, you know, me who literally has a picture with you and like, you know,

knows every little intricate detail of this game. Of course, it would be beneficial to us game bots because, you know, we can kind of like take advantage of their cluelessness. But I also just think it adds a level of like entertainment and unpredictability to a game where like even, you know, as many twists as you can make, like the people who really know their shit, sorry, I keep cursing.

The people who like know their stuff, or at least just know that they have to adapt to those kinds of things. Like adding people who don't know any of that would just be super cool. Quick last thing, you know how I end these interviews. If you could bring a celebrity or a fictional character out for a loved one's visit, who do you pick and why? Yeah, so it's so tough because I have so many

like parasocial relationships with all sorts of celebrities and fictional characters. My like fictional characters are probably the most like unreliable narrators. Like I love girls, so I wouldn't pick like Hannah Horvath

to give me any advice. Yeah, and I probably wouldn't pick Nancy Hannah Horvath to give me any advice yeah and I probably wouldn't pick Nancy Botwin from Weeds which is my other like favorite show um but I think that I would honestly bring Trisha Paytas out here because oh my god I don't know if that'll be controversial I think some people will eat that up but it's because I feel like there's only so much like like strategic I feel like conferencing I could do to really help me like Trisha would be someone to gossip with she would make me laugh it would be like a lifelong dream to meet her it would be like

meeting her on behalf of like me and all my friends who are obsessed with her um and I just feel like she would really bring me just like a joy and a light and like a laughter that I need um and she'd probably also bring like tons of fast food to eat um which would be really helpful too so that's that's who I'm gonna pick maybe I'll regret it later and come up with someone else but that's my pick right now I love it and listen everything you were saying about what Trisha brought I think you brought to this interview uh you know i remembered when we met and i picked up such a warmth from you there and i'm so happy we got it here in the form of watching you become a future survivor player i am so excited for you you may be teeny but you're gonna make such big steps in this game and i am so excited to see what happens

with you thank you mike it was really good to talk to you this has been a dream of mine as much as survivor has been too. Oh my God. No, the pleasure was all mine. So best of luck. I know I'm throwing you sort of back into, you know, the pedal pot of anxiety, but I can't wait for that steam

to release and to see what happens in the game. I will talk to you on the other side, my friend. Thank you, Mike. All right. There you have it. Teenie and Mike and Teenie

took a photo, I believe, not the most famous photo that mike bloom took that night uh yes uh listen there was there's a lot of fun faces around at the time not a gasified mike bloom photo well i wonder if it was from that night i think it was i think it was i mean uh listen that night those series couple of days actually had quite a few people from season 47 as well. That was basically like day negative 30 of Survivor 47 and we didn't even know it.

All right. But let's talk a little bit about Teenie and Teenie infectious energy. Very excited to be there. And so I'm always thrilled for people when there's okay this this is my dream to get to do this and you know i'm thrilled for uh people like teeny who uh you know are are right there it's so exciting for them yeah absolutely i mean that's a reason why

jeff likes to bring on people that only know the game, but love the game no matter when you hop into it. It's just that energy and enthusiasm that also helps you kind of meet production as well when it comes to all these things being thrown their way. And I will say, look, I talked about this with Asia, Rob, that just because you have this unbridled enthusiasm and knowledge of the game does not always translate into being a survivor player for what it's worth i think teeny could be like an underratedly good winner pick for this season yeah i think that teeny has uh the upside to sort of like a be underestimated in terms of like you know we've seen it before with players like Erica or players that are sort of like smaller in stature. I think, uh,

especially the women will be overlooked and people do not see them coming. Uh, that could be a deadly mistake for some of the other players that are out here in the game. She says, uh, she recognizes a W and, uh,

is ready to talk in root beer rob right ready to work uh with aw so that's also good and i think that also smartly identifies that okay well i don't want to what do i want to get rid of the the podcaster but that's going to out me as a podcast as podcast listener yeah that's really interesting as well There's a little bit of like mutually assured destruction of not only do I have sort of a, albeit one side of relationship with this person at this point, knowing who they are and knowing their knowledge of the show,

but also like if I go up to somebody in the first couple of days and say, oh, this person knows a lot about Survivor, let's get rid of them. The implication is also, well, don't you also know a lot about survivor if you know somebody who also knows a lot about survivor so there is this interesting sort of dance as well and i do wonder like i would imagine we'll talk about this in a little bit i

think asia and teeny might be one of the tightest pairs that exist at least primarily or initially based on this pre-existing dynamic but you know is it an alliance fundamentally built to last on that as well especially considering that like both of them know the game so well that i think it's only going to be an amount a certain amount of time before they're like yeah we can't go to the end with all super fans like you we all know how to make our perfect final tribal council pitch yeah Yeah. Well, you have to go with somebody. So, you know, good problem to have later on in the game of trying to figure that out. But I think that the idea is just get to a point where you're within striking distance for now.

Mike, have you ever contacted your text door neighbor? I have not. I have not been that adventurous. Do it now. You want me to text my next door, my text door neighbor now? not i have not been that adventure do it now you want me to text my next door my text door neighbor now okay all right should i go up or down rob like up okay all right what should i text to them can you you're my text door neighbor you're my text door neighbor should i include an emoji in there can we circle this up do like the crazy emoji well uh that you know we did reference a certain survivor winner in teeny's interview

uh have like the crazy eyes with like the tongue hanging out oh i like that okay like i'm a crazy text or neighbor what do you want from me hey welcome me in that's that's really the image you want to see on your uh your electronic front door all right so i'm gonna do i'm gonna do the wink with the tongue out all right well we'll see where that goes i think it might go a little worse than the possibility of an asia teeny relationship we might have to extend this podcast another 10 minutes to make sure we uh hear the response but anyway this uh i think is going to be very fun for teeny yeah well what i will say rob is that this is not technically teeny's first foray into the world of playing a game of survivor okay teeny has done

one of these live reality games these lrgs i believe she recently participated in a season of i think it was like survivor gettysburg that aired earlier this year on youtube and look i'm sure there's plenty of arguments as she did survivor gettysburg is she out of the running for survivor 50 or that's okay oh i mean i guess that's the they say play like it's your second time playing i I guess that technically is for Teenie. But I'm sure there's argument out there as to like, do LRGs count, especially online? Do ORGs count? I do think that, you know, again, it's not a one for one comparison, but Teenie did have

to play a game of social strategy where she was interacting with people, trying to persuade them, trying to, you know, sneak behind their back, pull off some big moves, trying to find idols, trying to persuade them trying to you know sneak behind their back pull off some big moves trying to find idols trying to win challenges and she did respectable i think she ended up finishing in sixth place so i think it's at least going to come in handy somewhat you know there are at least some skills that carry over from doing one of these like four day things in a park versus going to the island and playing it proper. Okay. All right,

Mike, we've got six people and some interesting developments. I've got my cards out. Yeah. So, all right. So if Asia and teeny are going to be there that you would think off the bat,

aren't going to go after one another. Right. I would imagine that the two of them are going to be in pretty lockstep. Initially. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't want to turn on each other, why they would want to turn on each other. I think even Rob, there might be a mention that will obviously not make air,

but like, can't you think they're on the beaches of Fiji looking up at that beautiful starry night and say let's do it for Rob I don't know about that Mike but um look I love that for them so now

Kashan was the person that I have bad vibes from Asia bad vibes from Tini they he sees them together he's not gonna like that yeah I have bad vibes from Asia, bad vibes from team. They, he sees them together. He's not going to like that. Yeah. Now.

Okay. Now, Mike, we have Rome. We have Saul. We have Genevieve still. Now I am very curious about could Saul's buddy be Kashanan do you think that uh you know is that saul works in the medical field here's kashan the doctor is it possible yeah so the way that i was seeing lavo laid out

here is not too dissimilar from what we initially thought the dynamics of sega would be which is i'm not surprised at all if we get uh you know a coalition between the three women of asia and teeny and they bring genevieve in and then they pick up a guy either saul if indeed like teeny was the person that saul was talking about saul's angels saul's angels or rome as well i think that we talked about this last time that i think rome and asia could have a good connection as well and so i imagine that would be the group which would leave a combination of kashan and either rome or saul on the outs i just um we have genevieve also um is it possible that Genevieve and Kashan could link up?

Could that be a duo? I mean, Genevieve is definitely the biggest wild card here, partially because the way she obviously talked about herself in my interview was like, well, I really could go one of two different ways. So I could also see a world where like, even for a brief portion of time, you know, the women decide to work together,

but like Genevieve presents herself as maybe too much of a loose cannon or doesn't necessarily vibe with what's going on that they decide like, okay, she's too much of a liability here. We need to borrow her from our, our Alliance court, if you will. So I don't,

wouldn't necessarily count her out as a prospective first boot either. Honestly, I think it would be between depending on when this tribe goes if they go early enough I would say it's probably between Genevieve and Sean yeah I feel like I could see Rome with Asia and teeny and then

I really it's gonna come down to like, what, what are the other three people end up doing? And okay. Uh, interesting to see how it, uh, plays out.

But I feel like that. Uh, yeah, I think, uh, Genevieve or Kashan have a lot to say in terms of how this is all going to go down. Yeah.

But who knows if it turns out that like, they really need strength in puzzles. Again, I would imagine that Kashan would be someone to turn to go down. Yeah, but who knows if it turns out that like they really need strength in puzzles. Again, I would imagine that Kashan would be someone to turn to just based on his scholarly way that he presents himself. And so maybe he'll be seen as an asset there. Genevieve might be somebody

who actually does get in really well and hits the positive end of that mood spectrum. I mean, who knows, Rob? I don't really see anything glaringly uh as much of an achilles heel quite literally for rome challenge wise with this group do i feel like all that assessment kind of got thrown out the window last season when we're like look at yanu they're so strong and all around surely they're going to crush the challenges only to see what happens i'm not looking at this group. Really seeing a huge hot mess tribe.

But from what we saw. Between Yonu and Nami. It's almost incorrect to even make those assumptions. About how often they'll go to tribal council. So who knows. Maybe there's a chance that they all win out anyway. And it doesn't necessarily matter. But I do think the three safest in the premers for me.

Would probably be. Asia, Rome, Tini. And then maybe like saul probably being kept around for strength and then one of kashan or genevieve or both going early but you know if this group immediately decides to start playing if you have someone like rome that is looking to start hustling like he does and then you have someone like saul who has that poker player knowledge wanting to come in and be his ride or die, then we could have chaos cause almost immediately here.

OK, Mike, who's coming up on day four? All right. So day four, we are going from red to yellow. It is time to move on to another tribe as we are talking Gata, the yellow tribe. And tomorrow we're talking about two A's here we have andy who might be yet another familiar face to those that are in the rhap community and annika okay andy and annika coming up on day four make sure you hit that subscribe button to get that episode as well and mike what's

coming up for you over on Parade.com? Well, listen, if you're already chomping at the bit to hear about Gata, I got to you covered over at Parade.com. I already have at this point, all written interviews with the six members of Gata. Feel free to check that out. I'll be moving on next to the blue tribe, the Tuku tribe. So check all that out over at Parade.com and everything else I'm doing at amikebloomtype.com. All right. Thank you all so much for joining us once again. We love to get your comments on these interviews that you hear, how you think it's all going to play out. Just of course, keep it classy, everybody. All right. Thank you so much for checking out another Survivor 47 preview here.

Take care. Have a good one. Bye.