RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 49 Preseason Interview: Steven Ramm

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Mike Bloom interviews Steven Ramm, the final member of the Hina tribe, in this Survivor 49 preseason interview. Steven, a 35-year-old rocket scientist from Denver, brings a unique blend of technical expertise and creative passion to the game.

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with a TD small business banking account manager. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to our Survivor 49 preseason interviews. here on RHAP. My name is Mike Bloom and all good things must come to an end. Not the season, of course. Survivor 49 hasn't even started yet,

but we have finally reached the end of our preseason interview series as today I bring you my interview with the 18th cast member of Survivor 49 and the final member of the Hina tribe, Stephen Graham. A little bit to know about Stephen,

Stephen is 35 years old, originally from Littleton, Colorado, decided to stay up in the mountains where he currently resides in Denver, and he is a rocket scientist. Specifically, his official job title is spacecraft system architect, but he collaborates a lot with NASA in making sure all of these programs that explore the moon and Mars and deep space go off without a hit. and we shall see if he will rocket in this game. Stephen is admittedly a bit of a newcomer to Survivor, but as soon as he saw Rupert steal those shoes, that stole his heart to the point where he even has named his golden retriever, Rupert. I bet he digs holes as well as Rupert digs log cabins. But regardless of being someone who only discovered Survivor a handful of years,

ago. Stephen feels that this is the game for him. Stephen actually grew up with an undiagnosed hearing condition. And so as a result of having to adjust to that, he picked up a lot of almost superhuman observational skills, reading body language. We talked about this a bit with Nicole as well, that he believes will make him a metaphoric satellite that hopefully some of these other players will orbit around. Stephen wants to play like a self-proclaimed supermassive black hole, and

if you can tell from the energy in his interview, I got sucked in by just his enthusiasm and excitement to play this game. I'm going to have a spiel towards the end of this podcast for a change, so I will just quickly give some

plugs at the top here. If you miss any of the other interviews I did with Stephen's castmates on Survivor, 49. You can check out the podcast versions at we know survivor.com or if you want to watch the video versions, you can go to watch rhap.com or search Rob has a podcast on YouTube. Now for my interview that I thought was pretty out of this world, here's my chat with Stephen. My name is Stephen Ram. I am 35 and I'm a rocket scientist. Oh, my official job title is spacecraft system architect and I'm also a program manager. And I work on

some of the coolest studies trying to send humans to the moon and onto Mars for NASA and also designed some really cool spacecraft for deep space exploration, like an astrophysics type probe. Have you always had an eye to the sky? I have not always had an eye for the sky. It was not something that I was born with right away. I grew up being much more into like the humanities and the arts. Growing up, I was much more of a writer. I loved speaking French. I loved brooding and making music. Sounds very French. It was very French. It was very French. I couldn't grow a mustache. So that was really the thing

that ended it for you, yeah? That ended it, yeah. And so I ended up going camping one time in the Colorado Mountains and I got to see the Milky Way with no light pollution and she was basically naked. And it just was incredible.

Just like seeing all the stars and seeing all the detail and it really put a lot of things in perspective. I had my first existential crisis. Yeah. And started asking myself questions like, how did we get here? Yeah.

Where are we going? What is love? Baby don't hurt me. And I knew I had to devote my whole life and career to helping answer some of those questions. And so I kind of pivoted and math was like my least strong subject. And so I kind of took that in stride. I buckled down and I had to study extra hard to kind of rewire my brain. But I ended up pursuing a field, a degree in aerospace engineering.

And graduated in five years instead of four. Took me a little longer. But I got there. Who's counting besides the math of it all? Yeah. And sorry. I will just keep talking unless you just. No, listen, man, this is what we're here to do.

So then what does your day-to-day involve? You know, how much are you directly liaising with what goes on up there? So the day-to-day differs, and I've worked on a lot of different projects, and I've worn a lot of different hats, which is super exciting. And so what I mean by that is that I've been part of my career, I've been the lead systems architect. And what that means is I'm in charge of making sure all the different subsystems in a spacecraft fit together.

So there's different specialized areas. You've got your electronics subsystem. You've got your thermal subsystem. your structures, you've got all these different things that are fitting together, command data and handling, you've got avionics, you've got telecommunications, everything fits together in a neat package. And as the system architect, I'm the one making sure that it doesn't go haywire, that everything is talking to each other properly and that when one group changes one thing, the ripple effects don't cascade and make an end result that won't work. So I'm kind of keeping my

eye on the big picture. And that's kind of what my day-to-day was in that role. As a program manager, now my scope is a little bit bigger. The most important thing, or like the biggest killer of projects in the space industry is cost and budget and not being in line with like prior, you know, the strategies of NASA. Right. Right. They're long-term priorities. So my role now is keeping my eye on that bigger piece of the pie and making sure we stay within scope, making sure that we're delivering the right thing at the right time. So then let's talk about what has you stargazing in Fiji, though I hear that's, according to say, that's not what you're supposed to do out here, But, you know, what brings you out to Survivor?

What's your history with the show and what made you decide to go from fan to player? I'm so glad you asked that. Of course. I'm one of those pandemic babies that I'm sure you've heard of that during the pandemic, life slowed down for me. I got a chance to watch reality TV again and reconnect. And Survivor was one of the shows that I just fell in love with. I started with the Pearl Islands because that's what everyone online said to do. Oh, God, yeah.

You can't go wrong. I knew I was going to love the show as soon as I saw. Rupert, and he gave his speech, and I think he said something along the lines of, like, Pirates Pillage. Pirates Steel. And I just, at that moment, knew I loved Rupert, and two, knew I loved the show. And I love it now so much that I actually named my golden retriever Rupert after Rupert from the Pearl Islands, because I think the world needs more Rupert's. I think he has, like, such compassionate, like, loyal to a fault qualities that, like, you just don't see in a lot of people sometimes, and he's just so unabashedly himself. So I got a dog,

and he was a golden retriever, and I was like, this dude, this is a Rupert. So then what made you decide to then, you know, be able to leave Rupert behind for 26 days and come out here and play? Did you always, as soon as you fell in love with the show, did you have the intention that you wanted to play it yourself? Actually, no. So I watched them in the show. I immediately was like, there's too much sun, I'm pasty as hell. I'm going to burn up. I'm going to melt like a wax statue out there. It just seemed too outside my comfort zone. And it seemed like it was something that I just wasn't ready for. But I kept watching. And like, as you're watching, you put yourself in the shoes of all the players that you're watching play the game. And you're like, oh, I would have

done this differently. Or, oh, I didn't even see that move was a possibility. That was brilliant. And you start to think, okay, maybe I can do this. And then I read a book called The Comfort Crisis. Okay. And it's all about how being in your own comfort zone is actually really detrimental to your help. And so I started getting outside my bubble and I just started thinking, this game just encapsulates everything I love about strategy games. And I just, it just seems like the adventure of a lifetime. And so I wanted to discover where are the edges of my abilities? What am I capable of both good and bad? Yeah. You know, am I going to be a scoundrel Steve out here? Who knows, dude? I love that nickname even for yourself, the scoundrel Steve. That's the, you can even

say in Final Travel Castle, like, no, that wasn't me who did that. That was Scallengel Steve. Dude, that was Scallengel Steve. Sorry, I need a fall guy out here. Yeah, I need a mark. I need a good mark. Exactly. So looking back on Survivor history, you know, with the recent influx you've had of these seasons, give me one winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most. Would Rupert be your non-winner? Rupert would be up there, for sure. Uh-huh. You're going to hate what I'm about to tell you, but I have not seen every season of Survivor. I'm not as big of a super fan as a lot of the folks that I'm sure are out here, especially new era players. It would be quite literally better late than never, you know?

But I will say, out of all, like, I really identify winner-wise. I love Tyson. He's got beautiful golden locks in a man-bun. But number two, I just really like his sense of humor. I think he's pretty funny, and I enjoyed the way he played the game and navigated the seasons that he played. So I really like his style of gameplay. A non-winner, dude, my boy Charlie, he's a winner in my heart.

No disrespect to Kenzie, dude. He played a killer game. I watched her game and I was like, in awe. That was one of the best final threes I've seen in a very long time. But Charlie, I thought, played one of the best, like, under the radar strategies. I loved his strategy about having options. Yeah. And just always having options in an off ramp.

We call that an off ramp in the space industry. Like, when you're managing risk, you have an off ramp for every risk. Like, if you can't salvage you, if you can't mitigate the risk, you have an off ramp, something that you can go to as a backup plan, basically. Oh, interesting. And he has, and like, redundancy's huge in the space industry because if one thing breaks down, you can't have the whole mission die. So I call it, he calls it options. I call it redundancy.

Yeah. But I want to have lots of redundancy in the game. So I want to have lots of different options and paths forward. If one fails, if one breaks down, that's how I want to play. What is one life experience you feel has prepared you the most for this? Honestly, I think being really well-rounded. So let me, let me phrase it this way. I have hearing loss.

Okay. So it was something I was born with. I went undiagnosed until I was in my early 20s. Oh my God. Yeah. What was it? Was it just like one time you're like, I should probably get this checked out? How did that happen?

It was like a culmination of events. So I had a girlfriend at the time who was thinking that I wasn't paying attention to her or listening to her because I kept asking her to repeat herself all the time. And I just literally couldn't hear her at times. And I was like, I promise, I'm paying attention. And she's like, no, you're not listening to me ever. And so that happened. I was recording and like mixing music that I was making on my own at the time. And so I'm making these mixes and I'm sending them, showing them to friends.

And they'd kick it back over the fence to me. And I realized they re-equalized things in a weird way. Interesting. It sounded worse. And so I found out I was boosting frequencies and they were like, dude, every time you boost that, it sounds super harsh. Stop, stop. And they kept like smacking my hand away. And so those kind of things added up.

I decided to go get a hearing test and looked up underneath. the hood and they tell you to raise your hand every single time you hear a beep and I think I'm crushing it because a beep happens. The thing about it is every time you don't hear a beep, they just increase the decibel level until you do. So I in my head was like every time I hear a beep, I'm getting the answer right, which I was. Technically, yeah. Technically. And so it turns out I have a hearing loss type called, it's called cookie cutter bite. I think is what they call. Not as tasty as it sounds. It sounds cute. It sounds cute. It's not as bad as it sounds, but it's Basically, it looks like someone took a bite out of my hearing frequency spectrum.

So you have low to high frequency, right in the middle. It looks like someone bit it. And middle range frequency is conveniently where a lot of human speech exists. Yeah. So a lot of times when people were saying different words or saying phrases, like the context clues would be necessary for me to fill in the gaps I was missing. And so this is a very long way to say. No, no.

I mean, this is incredibly interesting, especially finding this out so late in life. I know. There certainly has been stories of kids that have been diagnosed and, you know, underground cochlear implants, but, like, you lived two decades. Literally, yeah. And now you find out, like, oh, there was so much more of your, to your point about coming out here and, like, getting to see those edges. Like, you got those edges discovered.

Dude, totally. I had no idea what I was missing out on. I remember when I first got my hearing aids, I put them in, and I sat in the car, and I turned the car on. The engine sounded richer and louder than I had ever heard it before. Wow. I started hearing the keys jangle in a way I'd never heard. and I just kind of like rolled the windows down

and the world sounded so much richer and more vibrant and I just kind of broke down and started crying because like I had never heard the world before I kind of felt how much I had been missing out on but then also at the same time I realized how many farts I thought I got away with. They ain't silent but they're deadly. Dude, for real.

That was the second thing that went through my head was like I wonder how many of those I didn't get away with. Yeah, yeah. Probably a lot. So you go through those like roller coaster of emotions, right? And so where I'm going with this is by living two decades of my life without hearing aids, I developed a lot of coping mechanisms unconsciously. I got really good at reading people, just like being a really active listener because I had to focus twice as hard to understand what people were saying sometimes,

especially if there's a lot of background noise. So I got good at like making eye contact, reading body language, picking up on like subtle context cues, like shifts. and energy. Like, I can sense the shift if, like, a vibe has changed probably, hopefully quicker than most people can. Yeah. And now that I've got the hearing aids, I kind of feel a little bit like a superhero at times, because I still have that, like, sixth sense. Like, you know, when you, like, they say, like, blind people, like, their sense of smell and, like, touch. Oh, yeah, Daredevil. And hearing goes up. It's like, I kind of feel like the other senses got dialed up a little bit for me, too. And now that I've got this, I kind of got just dialed up

senses. Well, on that note, give me your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite. I mean, is that, would that say, is that your superpower? Do you feel there's more something from like a social, interpersonal variety that you profess as well? I think really what my superpower is, is that I'm a pretty well-rounded individual. I bring a really unique blend of like left brain and right brain skills. As an engineer, as an aerospace engineer that's been working with NASA, I can be very technical, very logical, very data-driven and strategic. Like, I have to be thinking five, 10 years down the line to try to understand like what technologies do we need now or to start now for them to be ready in time for astronauts to get to the moon or on to

Mars. And on the other side, I've been making music for my entire life. I play guitar, I play bass, I play drums. I sometimes sing. You're one-man band, baby. Yeah. I used to kind of do solo music stuff. I played in bands.

I played shows. I love like indie rock. Anyway, super into making music. and that's been a big part of my identity as well. And so I've been working with a lot of people from both ends of like the brain spectrum for my entire life. And as a result, I'm pretty well-rounded.

I'm not like, I don't know. I'm like a jack-of-all-trades. I'm a master of some. But master of nuns, but that allows me to relate with a lot of different people from a lot of different walks of life. I'm not very one-dimensional. And I think that Survivor is all about meeting people

where they're at and connecting with people and making them feel heard. and like making those connections so that people feel like they can trust you even when maybe they shouldn't be trusting you. And so I think that will really lend itself well because just looking around at the faces I'm seeing here, I guarantee you there are people

that I would have never crossed paths with in my day-to-day life if we hadn't been playing this awesome game together. And I am so excited just to dig in and start meeting these people because Survivor cast some of the most phenomenal and unique people and like that's one of my, Well, that's one of the things I'm most excited about is just connecting with everyone.

So what's your kryptonite then? What would you say is your biggest weakness when it comes to all this? Yeah, I do. This is coming up. Dude, so my kryptonite is definitely overthinking. Okay. I mean, this makes sense. Given your day-to-day, you have to think through the redundancy, all the different options that can happen.

Yeah, I have to overthink everything. And on top of that, like, a part of it comes from the fact that, like, I'm surrounded by a lot of really, really smart people and creative people. And I know enough to know I don't know. everything. And so that gives me a little level of like, okay, I'm not the smartest person in the room. There could be things I'm missing out on. There's probably more behind this. Sometimes my first impressions are spot on. Sometimes I'm wrong. Yeah. And I'm aware that I'm not like, I don't know, I don't want to come in here super cocky being like, dude, I'm going to freaking steamroll everybody because everybody here is playing a really unique game. And I'm going to be

trying to decode that, like what their angle is, where they're coming from. But I'm not going to underestimate anyone. And so sometimes overthinking like that, though, can be a detriment because there are times where you just got to trust your gut and go with it. You just got to be like, you know what, I got to trust that my read was correct and I just got to keep moving forward. And sometimes I think that hesitancy that I have just from being aware, just in my career of like there have been times where I made a call and I was wrong. And you remember those failures more than you remember the successes. And I think that's why I kind of tend to be very introspective when it comes to that stuff, to a fault.

So I hope that doesn't come back to bite me. That's one of the things I'm trying to work through in the game of Survivor is acceptance, self-acceptance, and then discovery, like I said earlier, just trying to get to the edges of where I am. Well, let's talk about these people that you're going to discover over the next 26 days. We talked a lot about occupying the same spaces then. I'm sure you've got some thoughts rolling through as to, you know,

who you're getting vibes with. Let's start on the positive side of things. Who are some people you're picking up good stuff from that, like, best case scenario, you hit the beach day one? You can use initials, you can describe them. These are your rider dies. Okay, okay, cool. All right, so first off, good vibes from everybody. Okay.

And I try not to put too much stake in first impressions, too, especially when they're so little to go off of. Yeah. But there is a statistic that says that I think 70% of first impressions turn out to be pretty true. They did like studies. It's a fairly good percentage. It's not a bad batting average. C minus, you know. Yeah, it could be worse.

So let me take a crack at this. Sure. There's a guy that looks like he just popped out from like a beach, like a yacht beach. He's got dreadlocks and he's wearing like these Hawaiian type shirts. And he's just the only thing missing is a toucan on his shoulder. And he just gives me Rupert vibes, man. He gives me like caretaker vibes. Reminds you of your golden retriever.

Dude, I like, I vibe with that guy. Like he just seems so just the way he carries himself. I just get the vibe that he wants to be a provider, a caretaker. And like, if he's on my tribe, I feel like that dude probably knows how to fish and is going to help us stay warm and well-fed. So my whole strategy is I want to behave like a supermassive black hole. I, which sounds cheesy, but stick with the space. I mean, please, yes. Stick with me.

I'm not Neil deGrasse Tyson, but I'll do my best. So there's a theory in astrophysics that at the center of every single galaxy exists a supermassive black hole, but they've gone undetected by astronomers for centuries by virtue of being invisible to the naked eye. but there's this big central focal point of gravity that our solar system included orbits around. There's one at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, there's one at the center of the Adramida galaxy, and there's about to be one in Fiji,

hopefully named Stephen. And my game plan is to find the stars that are burning just a little bit brighter than me to kind of hide behind. You know, work with those people, like understand how things are moving, like what trajectories people are in, who's about to go supernova,

and be making moves in the back, laying low at first and then if people get too close to you they get sucked in spaghettification dude you stole my line but exactly yeah they've crossed by a men horizon oh my god I love that so then from that perspective you know is there anyone on the other side of that you know anyone you're not vibing with I would say you know see as a threat but it sounds like from your perspective you're more so turning those into assets than liabilities exactly like there are like some other really good vibe people can I go through some more good by people keep the list going

Um, there's, uh, this she has, or he or she, I don't know how they identify yet, but they, they have short brown hair and they do seem really bubbly and fun. Um, and let's see, I'm going through the list. There's an older woman with like pink braided hair. And I think I saw her with like a drummer shirt on at one point and I drum. So I'm like, dude, I want to vibe with this chick. She seems awesome. Yeah. There's a guy who looks a little bit like Lauren's Fishburn. and I mean that is a compliment.

I kind of like from The Matrix. He's got these round brim glasses. He's real friendly, giving out super friendly vibes. He's an offer. You can be in an alliance with me or you can maintain the reality that you live in. Exactly. That would be a good pill to swallow.

Well, let's talk about some other things you plan to keep in your orbit, maybe idols, advantages, journeys, the DNA of the new era. How much are you going to incorporate that into your game? Yeah, so I've been thinking about this a lot. lot. And basically, I think that a lot of those end up putting a target on your back and being a detriment. I think the more important thing is actually understanding where the advantages are within your tribe and hopefully you're working with those people and maintain those relationships because if things flip, then that idol that your former ally used to have is now something

they can use against you. So I don't want to be the person going right out the gate searching for idols unless I feel very threatened like I'm completely on the aisle and it's my only means of escape. It's like my emergency import thing. Sorry, I hit the table. That shows the intensity of it. Exactly. I'm so excited to get rolling. I'm just. Yeah. So from that perspective, if you do end up having something, you know, even just fall into your hand here, are you going to tell anybody about it? If I can solve the puzzle on my own, no. So I would like to keep it to myself. I, even my closest allies, I will let them know when they need to know. And I understand that by doing that, they might be offended.

Like, why didn't you tell me right away? I thought I was your number one. And I just think there's a time in place. I think premurge, what's tricky about idols premerge is that like, not the rest of the tribe can really see what, or the contestants can see what you're doing, the rest of the jury. And so, like, if you're making big moves too early, I think you're prone to like, one, now all your current tribe, they're like, this guy's sneaky, this guy makes big moves, this guy's a threat. And when you hit the merge, eventually you're going to stick in your

alliance probably for a little while as your tribe. But then things will start to disintegrate or you're going to have to start picking each other off. And they know that you've got a resume from back there. And other people haven't seen that resume. So it's kind of like a wasted move sometimes. So I think it's only out of self-preservation that I would want to kind of search for an idol. But I don't think I would tell people unless I absolutely had to. If it's something like, I can't do this on my own or it's going to be so obvious that I'm searching for clues. writing on a scribe, then yeah, dude, come on in. Let's make this a team effort.

And if that's the case, then it could be an opportunity to really bond and cement some loyalty. So I see both sides. If I feel like I can get away with it on my own, I'd love to pull a Marianne and reach the end and be like, guess what I've had in my pocket this whole hat? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's stay on this production side of things.

I'm going to have you step into Jeff's shoes for a second. So you can pick an advantage or a twist from a previous season, or you can come up with one on your own if you want to, but you get to put one thing in this season for you to play with. What would it be and why? I'm going to need some time for this one. Please, dude, take your time.

It's all the 25-year history to pour over. I know. It's a lot. It's a lot. So the one advantage I thought was kind of interesting was exiling somebody on an island, giving them the little time hourglass and seeing if they'll smash it or not, like right at the merge. I thought it was interesting,

but I also didn't find it super fascinating because I feel like everyone's going to always choose to smash that glass. Yeah, exactly. And so maybe that's why it went away. But I did find it really fascinating when it was there at the time because nobody saw it coming.

And all these people that previously thought they were safe suddenly had to scramble, which I think was the intent from a production standpoint, seeing how do you, you know, when the tables are shifted, you got the rug pulled out from under you, how do you react? And that's what Survivor's all about. It's all about how do you adapt

and, like, roll with those punches. So I thought that one was really fun. I do think that something along those lines would be cool. Like giving one person a singular power at the merge. Something, yeah, just something unique. I feel like we've been reusing a lot of the same advantages the last couple of seasons. And it'd be really fun to see something new that like none of us have seen before that is going to make people think differently and like push us outside our comfort zone and really, I don't know, do something wild.

What is your hottest survivor take? What do you think is your most controversial opinion about to be a. season, a player, the show in general? Okay. Yeah, I don't know how hot or lukewarm this take is going to be. I'll be your thermometer here. Yeah, you be my thermometer, but I think players should not be forced to risk their vote. I think that if you go into a journey and you are not given the choice whether or not to play whatever challenges in front of you and risk your vote, I think that sucks. I think Survivor should be about the choices that the players make. And if a player wants to risk their vote, that's their prerogative. And they can do that. And they can like, take it. And they can, like,

that gamble, or if they're not a gambler, I'm not a huge gambler, they might take a step back and be like, you know what, my vote's more valuable, I'm not going to do it. But forcing someone into that situation, I understand the intent, it's probably to get everybody to risk their vote and see how the people that normally wouldn't risk their vote, how they would do in that situation. But I think people should have more agency over how they want to play the game. And forcing someone to maybe lose their vote, I think, I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah, totally get it. Let's talk about jury votes. Because I think what's so interesting about sitting on the jury is that you have an unlimited amount of criteria you can use to vote for someone to win, right? It could be relationships, likeability, strategy, challenge wins, resume, etc. Right now for you, is there a core value that you would have when voting for someone to win? If the sentence is, as a juror, I am voting for blank. If you're sitting on that jury, what would that blank be? Well, as a juror, I'm voting for the most well-rounded person.

I know that's a cop-out, but I think that Survivor is a culmination of all the different skills. I don't think that you can, I don't think you can get along just by comping out, winning all the physical comps and not have a good social game. I think I'd probably prioritize in, I would say, strategy, social, those are tied really close, and then physical below. So I don't know, you got your outwit, outlast, outplay. There we go. Outplay, I guess, would be like the one I'd rank the lowest because I think in a game that is representative of what, like, it's like a microcosm of like society, right? I think social skills are the most important part for that type of game. So show me your social game.

Show me how you worked with people, how you bamboozled people, how you got in people's heads and like gaslit or incepted them into thinking one thing and made a move. And then also manage to survive because it's so hard. Like I said, the star that burns brightest is probably going to go into supernova and being able to maintain, you know, like a constant pulse of like shining when you need to and then going down, I think is a really underrated skill. So I would look for someone, actually, let me back up. Please. I thought of a much better way to sum this up.

Intent. Ooh, I like that. Intent. I think making moves with intent. If your intent was to not be an overly social person or to not, as long as you can explain your game and there's intentions behind it, I love that. I know you're used to talking about stars, but I'm going to bring them up in a very different way. So we're doing the loved ones visit, but you have to bring out a celebrity or a fictional character as your loved one.

Who are you picking and why? I'm picking Jeff Goldblum. Jeff Goldblum, you kind of have that like, a little bit of that energy. I do? I think so. That is the best compliment I've ever received. Oh, well, I know that you wrote about, someone described you as Ryan Reynolds previously. That was the highest compliment you ever received.

So happy to one up it. Yeah, this is one up. I, yeah. Dude, I was on this YouTube video by The Verge. They came, they interviewed my work, and they were, like, looking at what we were doing for Deep Space Habitats, and I was a super early young career at that point. I was just happy to be on camera. They were like, hey, do you want to talk about this part?

And I was like, yeah, do, sure. And so I'm in, like, a four-minute segment of this, like, 30-minute video. And I remember looking at the comments, which they tell you to never do, because it always is going to hurt your feelings, but curiosity killed the cat. And I went, and, like, one of the three top comments said, I didn't know Ryan Reynolds worked at that company and it had a timestamp and I clicked the timestamp and it was right when I came on camera. So I didn't read the rest of the comments after that. I was like, all right, I'm going to take this one. I'm going to ride this till the day I die. It's going to

stand my gravestone. Ryan Reynolds lookalike. Survivor winner. There we go. Hopefully put the survivor mirror above Ryan Reynolds look alike. Hopefully that will make the top headline. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I flip those two. But when it comes to Jeff Goldblum, you're just like a fan of his work. I mean, Independence Day. It's obviously a very fictionalized version of things. He plays like an astrophysicist or something like that, I think, or a scientist. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I just really like the way he carries himself off camera and on camera. I think he's a very unique person. I think he has very, um, he just has like very cool taste and style in the way he dresses and presents himself. And he's like a bit of an artist

outside of just being an actor. He's also like a jazz musician. He plays piano. Yeah. And I just think he's very funny. He's very unabashedly himself, which is a quality that I really value in people, people that like aren't afraid to let their like weirdness out and just like be who they are as a person and like Jeff Goldblum just seems like that every time I see him I have a shower curtain with his face on it and like every time it's like it's like you can like Google it on Amazon do it'll be like the first one that comes up but now all my coworkers found out that I like told them I got this like shower curtain is like a joke it's like super funny it's like him with like a monkey it's super weird but it's awesome and it's terrifying because it's double-sided so when you're on the other side

You just have Jeff Goldblum and a monkey just looking at you down while you're doing your thing. It's a nice sense of judgment of like, it's almost like, you know, people that can't do this God is watching. Like Jeff Goldblum is watching over me right now. Dude, I'm like in and out. Save some water. Let's go. Yeah, exactly. And listen, you know, the whole Wizard of Oz thing is a little bit like the black hole idea you were putting out of like the man behind the curtain. Oh, dude. That could be the better metaphor moving forward. Who knows? Well, regardless, thank you for pulling back the curtain on yourself and letting us get to see. I mean, it's very tried to say, but you seem like such a star to me.

I think it's just, again, the radiance that you have. And this passion for, again, you had this very unique experience where you had sort of lived life one way for a good portion of time on this earth. And you're like, oh, man, between changing jobs, between your, you know, finding out about your hearing. Like, I think you've lived a life of so much transition and so much adaptability to your point that this kind of just seems like your environment, you know? So thank you so, so much for opening up to me, for opening up to everybody here.

I think they are really going to appreciate getting to know you. getting to fill the comments section with nothing but positivity. I hope so. Yeah, Ryan Reynolds type stuff, okay? Keep it up on that little. And there you have it, folks. 18 players, 18 interviews. You have heard from everyone in the cast of a Survivor 49 about where they come from,

what they're playing for, who they want to play like, their past, what they hope will be they're present and we shall see the future in due time. Of course, coming up in the immediate future for us is that tomorrow, Rob Cessorino and I have one more podcast to do together in the preseason, which is to get together and break down the past six interviews to take a look at this Heena tribe and try to put those puzzle pieces together one last time to figure out how are they going to mesh as a sextet? Who is going to be set up for, success. Who might be on the chopping block early on? Could we see some rider dies or worst enemies come out of this yellow tribe? We'll talk all about that tomorrow. But before we go,

I just want to issue some statements of absolute immense gratitude. First off, to CBS, as always, for giving me the opportunity to get to talk with these players before this season, especially this particular season giving me the chance to fly out and go on to set. These remain one of my favorite things that I get to do with the job that I am incredibly lucky to have. These people are in odd emotional headspaces, to say the least, having left any sort of form of comfort behind at home, sort of in the hurry up and wait period where they are just lying in anticipation for this game.

to finally begin, where they can hopefully emerge a million dollars richer. And then they get the chance to sit down and talk with some random guy in the form of myself who happens to be in the right time, in the right place, in the middle of the jungle. And what they all gave me was nothing short of gold. I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know with these players. Thank you to the cast of Survivor 49 for being so open. with your energy, with your answers, with your stories. I do really pride myself on these interviews

and how I think it really gets a nice dive into getting to know these people before we know them as players. And so I immensely enjoyed getting to talk with this cast in Survivor 49. I hope you all enjoyed it as well. I'll admit, there were a couple of moments that really,

stuck with me. I promise I'm not going to make this about myself. I am a conduit to these 18 wonderful individuals, but as someone who has been watching this show for a quarter of a century and someone who counts their lucky stars and star to me each and every day that I get the chance to do what I get to do around this show, to have Jason say that he wants me to be his celebrity loved one to have Jawan talk about how he watched these interviews and it helped him prepare for his final round of auditions. I don't know. It just feels surreal. It feels really special. So thank you. Not only to those two, but again, to everyone in the cast of Survivor 49, to Rob for again giving me that chance all these years ago to do this, to lead to all of this and to all of you.

you as well. I would not be able to do this. We're not for the support that I have received. Listen, the preseason may not be for everybody. I absolutely get it, especially there's a lot of reality TV going on. But for what it's worth, I think those that are missing out on the preseason are missing out on some pretty damn good stuff. At least, that's my perspective. So again, thank you all for listening or watching this entire preseason, whether you were listening every day alongside us or binging all of these the day before the season starts or checking these out after the season to see how different these people were from right before the game to how they were once their feet hit the sand as every preseason passes my heart just grows

with the stuff I am so grateful to do for RHAP and for Survivor. Okay, that's enough sappy stuff Especially because I got one more podcast with Rob coming tomorrow, breaking down this Kina tribe as we look ahead to Survivor 49 starting in just a couple of weeks. Again, thank you all, as always, so, so much. Until tomorrow, everybody, take care. Bye-bye. Thank you.