RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 47 Pre-Game Day 4: Andy & Anika

Episode Date: September 8, 2024

Today, Rob and Mike discuss the first two players on the Gato tribe, Andy Rueda and Anika Dhar.

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be handcrafted with care at starbucks hey everybody what's going on rob sestrino back here with day four of our survivor 47 preview series talking about two more survivors here today with uh the unofficial king of the preseason it's uh mike blue mike how are you i'm great rob because today we got to got to travel a little tenderness wow okay could have gone a lot of different ways for uh the uh gotta pun but we got two more days rob just to wait yeah okay a lot of a okay. A lot to do here, okay? So we're going to talk about Andy and Annika here today. Very excited once again.

Mike, what color is the Gada tribe? They are yellow. Maybe that should be another song parody I can come up with. I'm just trying to slow roll a wand off into this. I'm just trying to manifest now that Josh Wigler is watching Modern Day Survivor again. But yes, this is our second tribe. Of course, if you missed the Lavo tribe, we're here to now talk about another group

and see how they might fare by comparison. See if we have indeed, as we have the past couple of seasons, a disaster tribe wasn't so great for the last yellow tribe we've experienced. So we'll see if they can improve upon that. Now, if you missed any of our previous coverage, you can, of course, hear it all in our Survivor podcast feed.

Go to robinswebsite.com slash subscribe to get that all or watch them here on our YouTube channel as well. OK, Mike, up first. Let's talk about Andy. Oh, Andy, he is 31 from Boston. It's clear I've lost my mind. Yeah, what's with you today? What's going on?

I've got a song in my heart, Rob, because I had such a great time. I want Andy. We'll see if people are saying that about their winner picks, because Andy is certainly a big presence, one of the most knowledgeable people certainly coming into the show and we should be cards up here at rob as we have been doing with

people like asia and even with someone like teeny to a certain extent andy a pretty well-known member of the rhap patron community gotta love it gotta so yeah so talk to me more about this because he has a certain nickname that he goes by right yeah so Yeah. So Andy, longtime listener, and he'll touch on that a little bit in the interview. But Andy was also sometimes referred to as Baby Andy. That was the nickname that came up. And you know what? Let the mystery be, I kind of feel like. Yeah, though I am intrigued by the, yeah, the... That's his story to tell, not mine.

Gotcha. I didn't know if that was a takeoff on like the little baby 80 back when those videos were popular. Nope, it was not. Okay, well, maybe this could be a nice icebreaker. I'll give people a hint. The rest is behind the paywall.

Yeah, there's roughly 270 Renap episodes, plus many non-canonical episodes for you to feast your ears upon. All right. Well, we've spun the wheel. It's landed on Andy. So yeah, as I've sung before, Andy is 31. He lives in Waltham, Massachusetts, and he is currently a grad student getting his master's in AI.

So suffice it to say, maybe he was someone who was in the era of Big Brother production shortly after playing Survivor. Yeah. Did he do Ainsley? Was that his work? Ainsley might have been his calling card. And who knows? Maybe, you know, he comes in with a million dollars in his pocket from Fiji. He's like, the first thing I'm doing is I'm getting the ears of allison grodner and rich mehan and i'm saying have i got a twist for you okay mike uh let's get to andy's interview we'll come back and talk about how everything is looking for andy hi good to see you buddy it's been a while it's been a while. It's been a while, but like we had a conversation pretty much to this day, one year ago. Yes. And we said that you would be out here.

And look at this, man, the power of manifestation. We've come a long way since we've been on a Brant Steele together. You remember that one? And now your actual face and name are going to be on a Brant Steele proper. Dude, oh my God i'm so so excited i am so unbelievably happy to be here like you said i feel like it's been a long time coming um i was a finalist last year so to go through that and to not know if you were ever going to get contacted again you know it brings up a lot of emotions but it just things have fallen into place so well for me.

Like I've given myself back to my life in the year between. I am so much more ready to go. And I just like I wanted to get started like now, like right now, dude. Well, let's get started with this at least. Give it give the deets for those that are ready to put you into their brand seals preemptively. Give me your name, age and occupation. Hi, I'm Andy. I'm 31 years old.

I live in Boston, originally from the great Buffalo, New York. Currently a master's student in computational linguistics, which focuses on machine learning, specifically natural language processing. Okay, so you are going basically to like the opposite of what AI is right now, only reliant on nature.

Are you excited to get away from tech for a little bit? Oh my God, I'm so happy. Just to not have my phone. I don't miss the scrolling, the doom scrolling, Twitter. I don't miss it at all. Only just like being able to contact my loved ones is the only thing I miss about it. But I mean, this is so, so freaking cool. We just did like safety school the day before talking about like how we're actually going to be living outside with nothing but just our clothes. And I'm just ready to go ready to go dude well let's talk about what brought you to safety school from grad school to safety school talk to me about your history with watching survivor and then what made you decide that you wanted to be one of the many players to participate

in it yeah so I grew up watching a ton of reality TV. I was more into like the real world and like the challenge, a lot of MTV stuff. Survivor caught my eye a little bit. I remember I watched some of All-Stars, the post-merge. I didn't see our guy, Rob Sestorito, but I did love Boss and Rob when I was a kid. But I really became a super, super, super fan about a decade ago out of college. And the first season I watched was Token Sheen's episode one, who left Carolina, got me hooked, dude. And so whenever I get into something, I have a very, very obsessive personality. I have to be an expert on it. So I just immediately dove into

everything available at the time I got into Rob's podcast, you know, pretty early on as I was watching all the seasons in chronological order. And, um, like our, our HAP was the coolest resource there. So I really wanted to get involved. I became an RHAP patron, like got to know Rob just by like calling in. If you're like a $10 patron, you can just call it and talk to him. So, um, I just, I've just been, it's been a huge, huge sort of North star for my life. It's just been incorporated into everything because as soon as I knew that, as soon as I like fell in love with the show, I just knew I wanted to play. I think Gabby Piscuzzi said something really wise when she said, not every super fan needs to play.

You don't have to get off the couch just because you love Survivor because it's going to change your relationship. That was, those are very wise words. But as soon as I like heard that, I knew I was the one that did need to play. Like this is just burning inside of me is the biggest scratch that I cannot wait to itch. Well, let's talk about some other players

that have been scratching away for many, many years. Give me one survivor winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most. Have any of those aforementioned names falling into those categories for you? Sure. Okay give me uh yule and give me todd yule i love dude like he has a really big reputation for being like a super intelligent guy he really is but you know i think that it was his emotional intelligence that won him cook islands the way he talked to penner was so different than the way he talked to Becky to Ozzy even cooking

up a little jury deal with Adam that got him the win I think that was ahead of its time I think people should do more of that but um it was really his EQ that I really was drawn to the most from him Todd dude he just knows the game he loves the game like that's how you got to come in like Todd like just a savage just ready to do anything um and then uh non-winner I think the uh the new era player I want to play most like is Omer Omer really really he didn't win he got really close but I think he laid a really good repeatable blueprint on how to do well in the new era he did not touch advantages which we'll get to but his game was based off of you know social capital information

and options and he did it in a way that you know there was a path for him to do it while sustaining his threat level marianne came in the last second got him out but um yeah i want to play like him and then okay let's see i watch australian survivors so okay let's go international here absolutely i could play a ferris game oh my god i would live for that i would love that transporting that to the u.s meta might be a little bit difficult but um he's an absolute star and then hayley leak creme de la creme people are like oh she got voted out i don't give a fuck like look at the material she is the most amazing polished player innovative like a challenge beast um she's like definitely like you know aspirational and uh actually just this is i'm just saying this off the top of my

head but like you i watch a lot of reality tv dude a lot of reality tv of course um of all the people who've come and gone who've played in the past i think the one person i actually felt like i related to the most was kevin martin the winner of the five just in the way his energy that he brought but the way his competitiveness the way he looked at competition his level of preparation i feel like is probably the best template for what i'm trying to bring even and this isn't even game related but for me very recently coming to understanding of my own bisexuality was a very you know watching him it wasn't like a one-for-one but like looking back i just feel like i relate to him more than anyone i've ever watched you talk about level of preparation obviously you were someone who was well studied in the game and as you mentioned

you also came very close to being in this exact same spot a year ago. So what has this prep process been like? How comprehensive was it for you? I tried to do everything under the sun. Obviously, what's become very popularized is Carson and 3D printing all the puzzles and studying it. I did a lot of that. I did a lot of the puzzles, but there's more to that. He lost the fire making challenge, right?

So I became sick at fire. Like that was the number one thing I needed to do because honestly, you can't call yourself a prepared survivor player in the new era if you're not really, really confident in making fire. Obviously you want to win the final four challenge, but you want to have those options. You want to play an end game confident

in your fire making ability. And then just challenges at large. I watched, what was it like peridiums, like four hour challenge hacks video. I like wrote them all in my notebook and I have it here. Um, and so I take the level of preparation really seriously. I did start working on my grip strength before Charlie told me to like a few weeks before it's good. My forearms aren't special, but, uh,'ve improved there so anything any edge you can get especially when you're just sitting there right going getting ready to play survivor you have to do you have to do so i try to maximize that besides uh a you

know latent uh surge in grip strength give me your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite that you think you're bringing into this game? I think I have two superpowers. I think that one of my superpowers is I just have the ability to charm and disarm. Like when people meet me, they vibe with me like really, really quickly, especially at this stage of my life where I'm confident just to be myself. I have my little quirks. I have my high energy and I just let it shine. And I haven't met anyone in my adult life who's like disliked that or disliked me. My other superpower is I feel like what really, really started to draw me into survivor and survivor strategy was like number crunching. So I work in, you know, AI. I was a data analyst in big tech before. Like I'm really, really good with numbers

on the fly. And I feel like i'm very very confident no matter what situation i'm thrown into i'm always gonna know the optimal whether it's a vote split or like some plurality option i'm gonna be able to see that and i feel really confident to to have that plan and have the bonds to like execute on that um kryptonite dude i'm a huge overthinker i like like the surface i'm like laid back i know that but underneath it's like i'm constantly constantly thinking like i like i was overthinking how to tie my own shoes yesterday i'm like oh like because i'm gonna be at the airport i don't want people to know i'm like bad at untying knots. So I got to like tie it really loose. But like, what if I, so like my brain is like, it's like a whirligig really.

So what I have to do is really know that about myself and just be conscious to take deep breaths while I'm making decisions out there and trust my instincts. I mean, you talk about the idea of being judged for even something as small as the knots on your shoelaces. I'm sure you are also, you know, executing the same judgments onto others. So in these days that you've been observing each other from afar, give me your thoughts.

Let's start on the positive sides. Who are some people that right now you're vibing with? You're thinking, OK, best case scenario, I end up on the beach. These people can be my ride or dies. This is the best question you ask, and no one ever gives you a satisfying answer. Let's break it down. I'll go through all of them. Okay. So at the top, all right. Okay. All right. I'm an RGP patron. I'm heavily involved. It goes without saying, I know who Asia Welch is. I can give you 10 fun facts about Asia Welch. We have the same birthday.

She loves her dogs. I know a lot about her. And I feel like we're going to click really, really well. And if I ever get a chance to link up with her, I'm definitely down to work with her deep into the game. So let's put her at the top. I feel like the past two seasons of the new era in particular have been such like a marked

advancement from even what we had seen the four seasons prior. What is your biggest takeaway from these past two seasons that you plan incorporating into your game? Here's my big thing. Here's my big thing. It's my survivor hot take two. There is nothing more overrated in survivor history than the hidden immunity idol. These things are not worth the parchment

that their notes are printed on. I mean, like, just think about it. Like, okay, in the new era, let's talk about the new era specifically. Marianne is the only winner in the new era to ever touch a full-fledged Hidden Immunity Idol, one without like a quick expiration date like Gabler. And, you know, she used hers to her advantage

in certain ways, but she never had to play one for game reasons. None of them did. That goes to show that holding an idol is orthogonal to your win equity. Right. And you see so many times people get the idol. They get so excited because they think it's their like, you know, ticket to the end. And more often than not, it blows up, you know, In 46, how many people are leaving with idols in their pockets because of the idea, the myth of the idol? It is so clear to me that the real advantage is knowing where the advantages are. If you are someone who knows

where they are on your tribe, but you're not holding it, you have all the power and you could do exactly what you want without having the target on your back. So that's where I want to be. I will be Brandon picked up the beware advantage and then like handed it to Sabaya right away. But I think if I get the chance, I will be the first one to leave it, hook up an idea of how to use it to my advantage and definitely get someone else to take it. All right. Well, I'll go a non-orthogonal for this last question. Love how you threw that in, by the way. Do you know how I end these things? If you could bring a celebrity or a fictional character out for a loved one's

visit, who do you pick and why? Yeah, I don't know, Mike, because it's like people always say like, oh, Beyonce, like Beyonce doesn't watch Survivor. You know, she doesn't know who you are. What is that? It's like a meet and greet. I don i don't know like what is goku gonna tell me on day 18 i'm like dude i just want to see my girlfriend but okay so okay i'll answer your question i feel like i'll just pick celebrities i want to meet regardless of the context so give me josh allen i'm a big josh allen guy uh i would love to be friends with him um i'm a massive k-pop stand so i'm going to bring in my favorite group, aespa That's my favorite group, that's Karina

That's Ningning, that's Winter, and that's Giselle Which is my bias order, for those who are curious And who else, I don't know Okay, my favorite author, he's this guy Named Thomas Pinchon, he's a total Recluse, like no one's ever met him People don't even know where he is So, you know, bring him here

Bring him all to me at the same time I don't know know where he is so you know bring him here bring him all bring him all to me at the same time i don't know what we talk about but i mean that's that's a hell of a reward table yeah i imagine you all eating at applebee's together the conversations but just uh run as wide as the shark gummy bowl i am so thrilled that you're going to do this to your point i know this has been a long time coming for you but i I think unlike the Bills, you're ready to bring home that W and you're ready to show what you're truly capable of. And man, I'm so pumped for you. And I cannot wait to see what you get to bring to this game.

Thanks so much, man. The Mike Bloom interview, like close to the top of the bucket list. Every little piece of this has been a dream come true. And I've been waiting for this one, man. So thank you so much. We'll see what happens. This could be the happiest season of all time've been waiting for this one, man. So thank you so much. We'll see what happens. This is going to be the happiest season of all time. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

We'll call it right now. We'll be talking again in December when you're cashing in those million dollar bills. That's right. All right, see ya. Awesome. Have a good one, Andy. Thanks so much again, man.

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It's a way of life. You'll be solving customer challenges faster with agents, winning with purpose, and showing the world what AI was meant to be. Let's create the agent-first future together. Head to salesforce.com slash careers to learn more. All right, Mike, great job there by Andy. Yeah, Andy, full disclosure, he was my first interview that I got to do for Survivor 47, and he very much brought in that welcoming energy. I was a little nervous. I hadn't done

it for a year, obviously. He was nervous for a myriad of reasons but just such such a great vibe to him and we spoke about this at the beginning just to again be a bit more transparent uh so that time last year so late may during the survivor 44 finale there was an event in new york city i believe that's when i met Andy for the first time. And as he mentioned on the interview, he had just gone to the casting finals of 45 and did not get onto the cast. I know he was certainly asking me questions about like, what is the 45 cast like? And I know he was in an understandably tough space given the fact that like he is now going to watch the preview of 45, a season that he was nearly on the cast of 45 was gathering a bit then as well.

So I'm happy that he was able to finally, you know, grab that golden ring and wind up on the Golden Tribe. OK. All right. Let's talk about the prospects for Andy. And, you know, the thing that Andy has going for him, he's just so likable. You come up to him and he's got such great energy. The vibes are on point and just such an easy person to get along with and to talk to. He talked about the charm and disarm. I think that the charming, the disarming, I think that he like whether he can do anything with that after that is up to him. But I do think that that should be working.

He's got the great thing going for him of the long hair, which I think hair don't care. Long hair don't care. But I think it's just like such a shorthand of like, oh, that he's probably kind of a dummy and anything but. Yeah, I mean, listen, to be transparent and there will be a contestant that we'll talk about later on and down the line that makes this comparison as well. I think there's a little bit of a line you can draw between Andy's perception and the perception of someone like Austin from 45. And listen, what some people argued about Austin

was that he was a little too loyal, that he was a little too supplicating to his allies and it cost him the game in the process. And so like, it's not the worst person to be compared to from season 45. I guess he got to the end and nearly won in a five to three vote, but he was never necessarily looked at as like,

oh, we got to get rid of the Austin type. So I think for Andy, incredibly, and I don't use this word lightly, but a brilliant person, incredibly smart. You could hear how fast his mind is racing, much like the aforementioned Akiva, he mentioned issues with tying his shoelaces. Could he potentially trip himself up going too fast?

Yeah, is that what happens with Akiva? It's not that he necessarily doesn't know how to tie his shoes. It's that he's actually so in his head about the way people will perceive him tying his shoes in public that he decides to beat them out. don't believe that that's it yeah i mean that's the thing that really drew a red flag for me and we'll talk about this at the end of this whole process who my winner pick is andy is definitely in the conversation for me because i think there are so many pros in his column to your point he has this real unassuming you know easygoing charm to him that really masks a love passion and knowledge

of the game as well this is an incredibly heady person that does come with the downside of as he mentioned to this kryptonite overthinking and maybe the consequences of the 26 day game as people have talked about is that like you don't really have time to overthink because they're always throwing something at you every day basically but it's always something to kind of look out for i mean look at 46 for instance where people were overthinking all the time and targeting their number one allies and not playing their idols when they needed to though i should also mention they did watch most of 46 before coming out so it also might revert back to that yeah so i think that andy i mean he knows the game extremely well and so i i think that that's not going to be an issue he's super likable

um i don't know if he mentioned any um athletic uh accomplishment but but he's uh you know i'm not worried about him in any way shape or form seems. Seems like he's in great shape. And so Andy, it does seem like he's got a lot going for him. I just, I just worry, you know, could, could he either a trip himself up, you know, the shoelaces metaphor and then, or be like, could he sort of like tip his hand in a way where he starts talking about you know these things uh things that are not orthogonal and uh might be a scoot and the people sort of realize what this guy is very smart and he's smart and he's likable and he's physically fit and he's too big of a threat he's got to go that's the thing we go to all the time with these new era players. We've done it a couple times even with Asia, with Rome, which is like,

I think Andy on paper, very well set for the pre-merge. You know, I think from a challenge perspective, like you said, he's probably going to perform pretty respectively, though we don't know. It could all fall apart, but he certainly has been putting in the work

to prevent that. And then from a personality perspective, he doesn't seem like someone that would necessarily stick out for the wrong reasons. But of course, when the game turns individual, then yeah,

all those superpowers can be turned into big red X's that can get put on your back. And I would not be surprised if Andy does get that target suddenly thrown his way, especially if to your point, like once he starts getting

his feet out from under him and if he decides to start really word vomiting about how much he loves the show hell what if he goes to tribal council sits down and just starts listening off to jeff like well i love the set that you did in season 34 when it was this and then the one in season 17 when it was this there are worse reasons to target someone in terms of super fandom. And Andy could stand a chance of that. I think the best guarantee he has of going far is to hide that really super intelligent aspect of him. He did mention he recognizes A.W. Knows a new 10 fun facts about Asia, including having the same birthday as as Asia.

I don't know when Asia's birthday is. Wouldn't it be fun if they both made the merge and celebrated it out on the island together? I do not believe that you're in the right time of year, Mike. Ah, a trap. Well, maybe they'll have a joint birthday party together at some point. But yeah, I mean, obviously,

this is another thing in both of their corners that if a merge situation does happen, that they at least try to look out for each other initially, even if the tribe aspects they come into the merge with might not necessarily bear out. What did you think about Andy's hot take, Rob, that the idol is overrated? No, I think that that is actually, you know, Andy,

you might even say Andy is a bit of a hot take expert. Always has good hot takes, Andy. That his hot take about the idol being overrated, I agree very much so. He had the data to back it up, as you would expect, and that the idol has not been especially fruitful here in the new era. Yeah, I mean,

I think our next person is going to put it even better of the fact that the way idols are, I wouldn't even say the idols are being overrated, but I think compared to the way that they are being used right now, which is like, you get an idol, everyone finds out about it. And then as a result,

you get voted out with it in your pocket. That's where it really loses its power. And I think Andy, as well as a bunch of other people that we've talked about so far, have brought up really salient points about how it's almost become less and less about who has the advantages and more so about you knowing who has the advantages. Because then you can be much more tactical. And as we saw last season, nullify a lot of those powers. Yeah, I think that that's a fair point.

Is it the idol itself that has jumped the shark or has like the metagame evolved so much where that once the knowledge of the idol gets out, then it's like open season for the idol holder. It ends up being much more of a vote magnet than a vote nullifier. Right, exactly. And I mean, yeah, you do look at even just the hit rate of not even idols but like advantages in general especially with 41 through 44 where they were really throwing everything in the kitchen sink there and it's it's not a great hit rate and

i think also it maybe speaks to maybe the opposite effect that production was intending of like you throw all these factors out and the production or sorry the contestants are more likely to turn inward and play a little bit more of just like a human-based game than having to worry about all these other things that are getting thrown in and i would not be surprised if the trend continues for 47 well i think one of the staples of the new era has been sort of like uh the public uh knowledge or the cooperation required to get the idols. And I think that the fact that these players need to bring other people in or signal to other people in some way, shape or form that they have an idol, I think that that has proven to be more of a detriment

than a benefit of having the idol. Yeah, I mean, Andy brings the one Marian and bound was just without any sort of like, uh, beware component. Yeah. And of course then she chose not to tell anybody about it. And yeah, outside of that.

And like he mentioned, you know, the one-time idol that Gabler found and ended up not using, there has not been a single new era winner to, uh, to win the game besides the two of them without using an idol and i guess going back to andy's degree of choice we have to figure out at this point is that a feature or a bug okay all right great stuff from andy looking forward to seeing what he does out there

in survivor 47 we've got another person to talk about. We are going to talk a little bit about Andy's tribe mate, Annika, when we come back right after this. Mike, time to talk a little bit about Annika. We're doing it for Annika. What's in it for Annika? What's in it for Annika? A neat lady for sure. Hopefully a million dollars along the way uh wouldn't it be wild if she held up a vote and said this one's for you brad if there was just a brad involved in

her life at some point a rad maybe yeah exactly rad it's just removing one letter at a time every what uh like 20 seasons or so survivor 67 it's gonna be nika and Ad. All right. Tell me about the manager of finance, Anika. Yes. So Anika Dhar, she is 26 years old from L.A. And as you mentioned, she is a manager of finance and operations. And so she's going to go from number crunching behind the scenes to on the beach. It does seem like here in the new era, we do have a lot of like

finance types, people who are like data analysts, like I mean, who knows? Maybe that's actually Rob. That's what the workforce is right now. But it does seem like this does come up a lot more in Survivor in the 40s than I feel like at any point earlier in the show's history. Yeah. I mean, you talk about the putting the magnifying glass on the times we live in. We just got off talking with a guy who was studying AI engineering in school. But yeah, it's an interesting point. I haven't done the math as well to figure out like, listen, I know there's certainly been comments. We're not numbers analysts. Oh, certainly not. I'm more of a comfort analyst than I am a numbers analyst to go to the Tony mentioned there. But it is interesting that we've had more office workers, it seems.

And maybe it's just because it's been more concentrated in the new era coming in. That also might come from the fact that, like, you don't have to ask for six weeks off of work. I don't necessarily know in certain lines of work if you're able to do that but yeah annika is is here to have her white collar hopefully yellowed by the end of this not only with her buff but with the uh hey that was what the white collar tribe was the first time too mike there we go exactly uh and hopefully she and she's as much of a character as one on the titular white collar show we didn't get a backdoor, uh, uh, worlds apart, did we? Wait a minute. I mean, maybe I'm trying to think,

I know that it's a fan exercise where sometimes people like to sort cast into like, what if this was brains versus brawn versus beauty? Maybe if we have enough time, maybe we'll sort this cast into white collar, blue collar, no collar. Yeah. I don't think there were any ER doctors on the original no collar tribe, but maybe. Well, I mean, I feel like ER doctors have their colors, their colors covered in red at certain points, depending on what the emergency is. All right.

Let's listen to what you talked about with Annika and then come back and talk about it. How are you doing right now? I am so hyped. I can't stop smiling from ear to ear. It's every moment about this experience has been already so incredible. It's amazing. Well, let's hopefully keep the momentum going.

Let's start with something nice and easy. Why don't you give me your name, your age, and your occupation. Okay, my name is Anika Dar. I am 26 years old, and I am a manager of finance and operations at a marketing agency. Okay. So you're crunching the numbers. Seems perfect for Survivor.

Crunching the numbers. Always got to pay attention to the numbers. Absolutely. So then what has you out here on Survivor? What's your history with the show? How did you decide to go from someone behind the scenes to hopefully someone running things behind the scenes? you know, go from someone behind the scenes, hopefully someone running things behind the scenes. Absolutely. So I, I am a COVID watcher of Survivor. Season 28 came on Netflix. And I genuinely mean this when I say that I watched one episode of that show and immediately Googled how to apply to get on Survivor because it was like an instinctual need for me. Like I watched the show and I was like, okay, this is the greatest challenge to exist mentally and physically. And I was like, it's not a want, it's a need. Like I need to be a part of this game to complete this challenge. And of course, like everything that

I've, you know, all these moments throughout my life have really like made me so confident in my abilities to win this game. So when I like see that first episode, I'm like, I can do this and I'm going to do this and I'm doing it. So there you go. Manifestation at its finest. Talk to me more about your life leading up to this point. If you could boil it down to like one life experience you feel has most prepared you for what you're about to jump into, what would it be? There's a lot of life experiences, but I think one of the most impactful ones to know specifically helped me mentally prepare for this. There's like obviously a lot of things that can prepare you physically. But the one mentally was that my my house, my family home actually burnt in the California Tubbs wildfire in. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it was it was really shocking,

a very unexpected, really emotional for me, my family and my community. But what I will say is that I learned throughout that process and dealing with it, how to live with nothing. Right. So I think that that mentally prepared me going through that life experience to be on the island because without your phone, without your mementos, without your family, with nothing, you know, some people can be driven crazy. But I think that genuinely that life experience prepared me for this moment so that I can focus on the game instead of thinking of things back home or thinking of the things that I'm missing. Like, I'm going to be so focused out there. I would also imagine that it allows you to kind of like look and inward, not even necessarily in yourself, but like the people around you. Right. That support system. And it's pretty equivalent to like if you get hit with a hell of a storm and you're all huddling under the shelter for warmth.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, out there, you know, people also needing material items like that's not going to be a worry for me out there. You know, I'm going to be able to focus on the game. Think of the people who support me back home and just be, I feel mentally clear, essentially. So I know you're a recent convert to Survivor, but from the stuff you have blitzed through excitingly in the process,

give me one Survivor winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most. Okay, great question. Identify with, see, there's so many winners that I love, right? So there's some players that I love to watch and I will watch their game a million times. And then there's some winners who I actually think that I'm more closer to how I'm going to play the game.

I got to call out Parvati and Sandra. I love Parvati. I think I could persuade people like her. I love Sandra because I think I can be a little bit blunt and straightforward in my day to day, just like she can be. However, I think I'm going to play the game closest to specifically Sarah and season 34. Oh, interesting. Because I think that she was kind of friends with everyone. She was on multiple different alliances.

She played this very fair middle game. And I think she had a lot of people trust her. So I think a lot of people are going to trust me. And also she did have advantages in the game. And then she also played a very honest and true game, but still strategic and still a little villainous. But, you know, so that was her goal, right? She went in that season saying, I'm not going to play the cop. I'm going to play the villain. And so I think that's how my game is going to be like a pretty friendly to all, but I will be still playing advantages and I will still play a strategic game. What about a non-winner? Non-winner. Oh, great question. Oh, who I play

the most like or who I love watching because I have to give it up to Kelly Wentworth. I love Kelly Wentworth so much. She's a badass, if I'm allowed to say that word. She, I just think, again, she has so many iconic moves that I could only hope that when I'm out there, you know, I play my idol

and it's Wentworth, Wentworth, Wentworth. Like, that is my dream for her to happen, to play an idol that correctly. I mean, I hope not because that means that you've got so many votes against you. Actually, you're right. Actually, you're so right. Take that back. Take that back. Oh, my goodness. Well, on that note, I guess besides attracting votes unintentionally. So

what would you say is going to be your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite that you bring from your life into the game of Survivor? My biggest superpower, I think, would be my experience being a project manager, because in that role in my life, I learned very well how to analyze different personalities and different personality types and then tailor my communication styles to each one of them. Right. So there's some people who are a little bit more sensitive and some people who are a little bit more loud. And you basically know how to talk to each person a little bit differently for the most successful outcome. And then I think my kryptonite is that I very well know that I can be a very expressive person on my face. Like, and I've been told this

many times in my life. So I know going into this game, I need to watch this because it is a tell tale for if I'm annoyed, if I don't like something, if I don't like your plan, or if I do like your plan, like I need to rein this in right now. So that's my kryptonite. You speak about your project management skills. Does that leadership just naturally come out of you? Do you expect that to come out on the beach as well? It is natural for me. I would say like in my friend groups and in my life, I am the planner. I'm the person to go to. I'm the one calling the shots. I'm the one saying, hey guys, let's do A, B, C, D, and E, F, G. But on the island, I'm going to play it very carefully. I don't want to be flagged as that person who's obviously calling on the shots, right? That is a red flag. That is a threat. So being aware of that, I think that hopefully with a very strong alliance, I can work

well with my alliance and be maybe that leader within my alliance instead of necessarily trying to run the shots everywhere or be that leader. While you talk about people that might prospectively be in your alliance, let's try to put some faces in there because I'm sure you have been sitting with nothing but your thoughts the past few days, and I'm sure you have plenty on the people that you will be playing against. So based on first impressions right now, let's say on the positive side, who would you identify as like best case scenario? You hit the beach day one. These are my ride or dies. Are you identifying some people right now that fill that category? Absolutely. Since before, before we even got here, when we were on the airport, the moment we like hit the lobby, right, you're eyeing everyone and their

behaviors. You're seeing who smiles back at you, who's like giving signs of you're willing to work with sensing their vibe. Um, and I do have a few key players in mind, guys and girls, who I would love to align with, hopefully. Of course, I've never heard them speak, but... Describe them to me to the best of your ability. I'd love to hear who they are. Okay. So one, there's this one woman from her bags, we know initials. Okay. So it's RL. Okay. Very, very sweet, seemed very calm and composed. And I can tell she's very smart as well. I think me and her just from the eye contact already, that's all that it was needed, purely based on intuition here. Got good vibes from her. There is another guy, again, very smiley,

very happy, very excited. I don't know his initials exactly, but he looks like a skater boy wearing his Vans. I feel also similarly vibes with him. Again, very kind eyes. Looks very nice. On the opposite, though, am I allowed to say things? Oh, please open it up. Yes. The library is open.

So the thing is that I find myself to be a very introspective person and I journal a lot. So I'm keeping tabs on all of the people who are also journaling just as much because I mean, that's someone to watch out for. Because if you're as introspective as I am, that is a big red flag for me. So SP, those are his initials. He's journaling a lot got my eyes on him um definitely seems like a strategic smart player could be a great alliance member obviously if we're aligned however also dangerous to watch out with he also seems like he could be a really big challenge threat um uh and then who else oh th could be be someone that I would align with. Vibes.

She also very smart. You could just tell. But also seems down to earth. Anyways, there's also things that I'm looking at as in such and like like their behaviors, their mannerisms, how they talk to the staff, like all of their little little things. I'm paying attention to constantly and journaling about them immediately. So how did you prepare for this experience? Because it seems like you are a comprehensive person. Was that carrying over into your preparation for this as well? Yeah, totally. So obviously there's like the long prep, right? So like while you're going through this audition process, it's so long. Like you don't know if you're actually getting one on the show during that process. It's like, I do want to like study up on all the different seasons. And I do want to like obviously start working out and gaining my muscle mass and all that kind of stuff. However, once I got the official call,

the moment from then to now within that month, I'm one of, I actually got a shout out D the survivor winner of season 55 she on a podcast on the on fire podcast did say that she read two books prior to going into the show which was the 48 laws of power and never split the difference so immediately i purchased those books read both of them props to d excellent reads so that was like how i was studying up also strategically um on top of those two books, also other books like the art of seduction, which is not necessarily like sexually seduction, but like, you know, seducing people and getting them on your side, like playing to that. Um, and then also in general, working out,

preparing myself mentally, um, amongst many of those things. Cause I think my, my strengths lie in my social abilities, not necessarily my challenge abilities. I also do love puzzles. So I was puzzling on my phone and every single puzzle app that you could ever download was on my phone right now. Well, you have manifested yourself a Wentworth does not count moment. So I guess that segues into what is your approach to idols, to advantages, to journeys, things that are so important to the new era? How do you bring that into your own game? So great question.

I obviously am not going to be a Tony in the season where he's running out to the forest and trying to get all of the idols immediately. I will not be running out day one on the beach trying to announce that I'm looking for idols. However, my eyes will always be on the lookout. In terms of beware advantages, I mean, obviously we all say this, like you want to find it when you're alone, right? However, I do think in this new era with the beware advantages,

it does sometimes help to have an alliance member in on it just in case you lose your vote or you need to be gone for a little bit or whatever. Having someone watch out for you and have someone have your back, I think is important. It all just depends on the scenario. I'm hoping I'm going to be looking. I hope I find one. I hope it's when it's I'm alone. And then I can share the news as I

strategically plan to. What is your most controversial survivor opinion? What's your hottest take about a player or a season or the show itself? Okay. My hot take would probably be that people don't play their idols enough. I don't think that it's embarrassing to play it incorrectly. I understand as a survivor player that you want to play it with that Wentworth effect, right? Like you want every vote to be canceled out, which I think drives players to then prevent themselves from playing it because if you play it and then no votes are cast for you, I understand how that could be,

you know, a little embarrassing. However, I personally don't think that it's embarrassing at all. And I think that if you have any inclination, any at all, that you are the target, there's no harm in playing your idol because it is worse to go home with it as a souvenir. I mean, we've seen it in the recent season a lot. In 46, all three went home with it as a souvenir. I mean, we've seen it in the recent season a lot. In 46, all three went home with it in their pockets. And then we've seen it in many seasons prior too. And I understand wanting to keep it till like final five, final six,

but play your idol, play your idol. That's my hot take. Last thing I want to ask is if you could bring a celebrity or a fictional character out as a loved one for a loved one's visit, who are you picking and why? Oh, this is such a good question. OK, my first person that comes to mind, OK, is Rosalia. She is a singer.

Rosalia, she is a singer. And the reason why is because throughout this whole entire process for me, the one song that I listened to before any audition, before any interview, before any of this to hype myself up is a song called Dispatcha by Rosalia. And to have her be there with me, like on the island, just hyping me up would be everything I ever needed to just be full circle and have her there and have her presence. She's a powerful woman who gets me so hyped. So that is, that's my answer. There you go, Mike. There's the shot caller, Annika. Yeah, there we go. Or a shot in the dark caller. Is she in the dark, Rob, when it comes to her chances of winning the game?

No, I don't think so. I mean, I thought that she seems very accomplished. Seems like she's saying all the right things. She talked about having maybe a little bit too of an overexpressive face. Which is amazing. We love that as the, you know, the content creators. We love the gift fodder. We love it so much. I feel like that if it goes sideways, maybe does it look kind of like an Ellie from Survivor 43? If it goes sideways, maybe does it look kind of like an Ellie from Survivor 43? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. And the red flag for me was not necessarily the my face is overly expressive. It is, to your point, the very first thing you mentioned, which is like in my life, I'm used to the being the one to make the decisions. And I can understand that she wants to bite her tongue as long as she can. understand that she wants to bite her tongue as long as she can but survivor is a game inherently just due to the deprivational aspects that like does how you view at least from a personality

perspective eventually acting like yourself at the end of the day you can only go so far pretending there's only only so many calories you can expend putting on a mask and i do fear once that mask slips or it could be as immediate as like they start working on the shelter and like Anika's worst instincts take over. And she's, you know, already delineating the orders as to what to do. And that could be something that could put a target on her early on. Very interesting. She found Survivor during COVID. many people uh have that story in terms of like the seems like it's almost like 40 50 percent of the players from the new era that were people that just became super fans from watching it on netflix

that i think that like when we look back at the history of the show that i think that you know the two things one which seemed like a major detriment to the show was sort of like that COVID knocked it out for a year. But in that pandemic, having Survivor start streaming on Netflix, like really opened up this whole like I don't know if you'd call it a second or third or fourth act for Survivor. But it is uncanny. Yeah, it is really interesting i mean listen maybe the covid uh comparison is is tough to say but like it almost felt like there was a wave in viewership when it came to the fact that people were stuck inside for with nothing to do and there also wasn't necessarily a new season coming out as well so it wasn't like people were trying to watch that at the same time it was almost

like okay well there's an excuse there's no new survivor on there's no new tv on in general let me go catch up on this and yeah people do say like oh this is ridiculous you only just discovered survivor five years ago but it is five years ago and look well i don't think anyone can accomplish the feat that rome did of watching it all in one year it still is a good amount of time for you to be able to sink a lot of effort into doing it. And what I think is also very fun as well is that all these people do come into my interviews and they're like, I'm sure I'm out of the ordinary here, but I probably come to Survivor the latest out of anyone that you're talking to. Ma'am, you're the fifth person today.

Yeah, exactly. So I think people should become more accustomed to that and i also think for people applying as well that is also something that should not be a barrier to entry for you that like just because you came in late to the show quite literally better late than never when it comes to your survivor fandom because we are experiencing now even more so people hell our winner last season kenzie found survivor by peeping in on her psychics tv like that's what got her into the show you have no excuse not to apply okay mike so the vibes people okay she gave out some initials uh people that i don't believe uh that we've talked about yet but one is on her tribe.

Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about the vibes people she was talking about? Yeah. So the good vibes, the first one that she spoke about, the one who is very calm and composed, I can tell she's very smart. RL,

that is Rachel, who is on her tribe. We'll talk about her. I was going back. I know we talked about Rome, but unless his last name is Adunze, then I do not have it still at my recall. Yeah, exactly.

We'll see maybe if Rome might be commentating on, he'd be more likely to commentate on a Madden game, let's say, than appearing in any NFL lineups anytime soon. Another guy, unfortunately not on her tribe, but this is, I believe, the second mention we get of Kyle's, not an RO,

but a KO here of like love his skater vibes guy with the long hair so we'll definitely get into him that's something to maybe check off when it comes to getting to his tribe and th th thirst in hell uh exactly uh very different island that she'd be stranded upon uh the premiere will be a two-hour tour of this deal huxtable uh well i would say that uh you know maybe wants to get out of the house don't do it mike don't do it th who is it tiana who was unfortunately not on her tribe but i guess the good or maybe not so good news for annika here is that one of the people she does not vibe with is on her tribe oh sp the guy who is journaling too much for her liking is don't get

keep the journaling annika come on well i think it's it's less so like uh i don't like what they're doing it's more so like i see what you're doing you know like if you're because she even admitted like i'm journaling as well what's good for the goose good for the gander too come on annika well that's the thing about survivor as well is that you like can sometimes breed like of oh we're interested in the same things we like we think the same way sometimes yeah what we don't like about other people is what we don't like about ourselves we're a complicated species rob in many different ways and so yeah so so she has a friend on her tribe and rachel and perhaps an enemy and sam say okay just tell me a little on her tribe and rachel and perhaps an enemy and sam say okay just tell me a little bit more about sam and we're gonna get to sp yeah we're gonna get

to sp in a couple days uh sam is our our nfl reporter our beat reporter for the titans and so yeah it only makes sense for him to take copious notes on everything that is happening okay all right mike anything else about annika no i mean i think that annika is going to be a very fun personality uh you know she talked about how she loves sandra because she can be blunt and straightforward the same way so i do think no matter how long she lasts she is going to give us like very fun confessional content and again i think if she is able to maybe keep that tendency to step forward a little bit under wraps like i could see her as she talks about with me like if she wants to take the lead

of her alliance i think that is like perfect though that might also set her up for failure as well considering that you mentioned ellie she was a very key example of like being perceived as the figurehead of her group to the point that when she came into the merge there were so many reasons to target her can i pick on annika's hot take oh yes please i don't think it's that hot i think that this is the take if you talk to like every single person that watches survivor and like so what's going on with the idols like oh my god people need to play their idols what is with these people like that's everybody that's every single person that watches the shows is that go on twitter well that's the people on the street every universally this is the take that people have about the idols so i i think she is

correct but i disagree with it being a hot take well that's the thing though is that is this less so of a barometer of like your thoughts on the show and more so your thoughts on the fandom like how tapped in is she to the fan i think a hot take it would be like the hot take would be people need to hold their idols for even longer that would be a hot take yeah there's that i want to see a season where no idols are played it's like well we got season 46 even if you think you're going home don't play your idol that night like you need that souvenir yeah a million dollars get you a lot of stuff it can't get you a great function i agree with i agree with the point that she's making i just disagree with that it's a hot take yeah well i don't know i mean again we don't

know the circles that she's watching this show and who knows maybe there are people that are sitting around her being like i don't know i think they could have hung on to them for one more round. They just caught with their pants down and all five times in 46. But yeah, I mean, I think Anika's logic is also. We watched a survivor episode in Chicago with 900 people screaming at the same time. Venus, play your idol. There you go. It was universal.

Firsthand evidence, in-house polling. I think Annika does make a salient point, at least, that maybe perhaps some of the psychology behind not playing your idol is that you feel like, I got to save this for a big moment. I got to have my remember-does-not-count moment. And so I think she's on the right track, even if the temperature is quite the opposite. She's 100% correct.

It's just not a hot take. Yeah, so it'll be interesting as well. I think her and Andy are sort of two sides of a similar coin in their argument, which is like, you know, if you don't need an idol, if you find one,

you should probably play one. I think we're obviously going to get a much larger sense of goth tub once we find out about everybody, but. Yep, and hopefully the two of them find an idol together uh andy's like after you uh she picks it up plays it at the first tribal council she goes to yeah i mean andy certainly it's a win-win for everybody yeah andy sort of put forward the genevieve thing right like not outright i'm gonna have someone find it

and sabotage the beware advantage but he's like i'm gonna do one better than branded i'm gonna lead someone to find the advantage so that i know it and I don't have it. If he knows that Anika is someone that's looking to play idols immediately, hook, line and sinker, my friend. OK, Mike, tell us what's coming up tomorrow. All right. So tomorrow now, technically, at this point, if you were watching along on YouTube, you have already seen my my individualized interview with John Lovett. But we are going to finally contextualize it. We are going to put the interview in and get your thoughts and my thoughts, Rob, about probably the biggest name to appear on the show in quite some time. Really looking forward to getting to talk about John.

Yeah, it's a very fun conversation in multiple ways. And I think we're going to have a lot to talk about with his own approach to the game, his surprising fandom. How much will that recognizability come into play as well? And we'll also talk about one of the people mentioned as one of Anika's good vibes people in Rachel Lamont. Okay. All right. If you want to make sure that you don't miss any of our Survivor preseason interviews, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast. We've got so much great stuff coming your way. Why don't you take a moment and make sure you are subscribed on any devices that you listen to the podcast to

at robinsofwebsite.com slash subscribe. Mike, where can people check out what you're doing? Over at parade.com, I have written versions of these interviews also being released twice a day. And at this point, actually, if you want a little bit of a sneak preview of the entire Gata tribe, I have that all up in written form right now. And I've started on the Tuku tribe, our last of three tribes that you and I will be talking about. Rob, our blue tribe, which is Caroline and Gabe, someone who has also had some eyes on him at Ponderosa.

So check all that out for the written versions and much more other miscellaneous stuff to come as well. Okay. You gotta believe. All right. We'll be back tomorrow for more from the God of Tribe. Take care of a good one. Bye.