RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 49 Uli Tribe Preview

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Rob Cesternino and Mike Bloom dive into the first tribe preview for Survivor 49, focusing on the Uli tribe. In this comprehensive breakdown, they analyze the six castaways who will make up this dynamic group, exploring their backgrounds, strategies, and potential alliances.

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What should we talk about? No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple. Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Sesternino, back with you for the first of our are three tribe previews for Survivor 49. We're talking about the Oolie tribe with a guy

who has been talking with all the Survivor 49 contestants as they get ready to go play in Survivor 49. Give it up for Mike Bloom. Oolie, Oolie, Oli, Ola, Olly, O'ly, O'ly. Rockin' Everywhere, Rob. And I'm here with Rock and Rob to break down this very interesting tribe, A very fun kickoff, I believe, to the cast of Survivor 49.

You all have hopefully listened to my individual chats. But then, but now, Rob and I, much like these fateful survivors, will finally try to put the pieces together as to how this is all going to happen. Yeah, this is going to be a lot of fun. We've been dropping our daily interviews. We've dropped six total so far of Mike's conversations with players before they kicked off Survivor 49. Now all of the Uli tribe is out there.

And then today, we're going to recap some of what Mike has done, some interesting moments in case anybody missed something. And then we are going to put it all together and try to piece away of what is this tribe going to potentially look like when they get together when Survivor 49 starts. First off, Mike, how are you? I am thrilled, Rob. It's always the most exciting part of, I would even say this season because we're going to have an entire. asked, you know, 13-week season to play on. Hopefully it is not asked. But for me, it's always so much fun,

especially when I get the opportunity to go out onto set and interview these players to sort of lie purgatorial state, much like these players are when they get the chance to speak with me, to then wait until, you know, the cast gets revealed, and these people get to discover them. I get to sort of rediscover them all over again. And again, I think this was a very fun group to start with, in particular. I think it's full of a lot of big personalities,

some of which have been talked about since the preview that dropped at the end of the spring. So happy to finally uncover what's going on behind Duley. And I've really gotten to enjoy going through all these interviews and your first meeting or second or third meetings with some of these people in some of these cases. And I really feel like that there is a theme that, and you've alluded to it, but I feel like that it is like a greater theme of, This theme of the idea of like, these are like the replacements. And it's like so literal where so many of them had been alternates on previous seasons to then when you have two people as we'll get to in a future tribe preview who were not even supposed to be in this season.

They weren't even supposed to be there today. They weren't supposed to even be there. And then you have this whole other idea of like that this is the season that to so many people, this is. is the overlooked season of, you know, that people, look, the people that listen to this stuff, they love Survivor. But there is sort of like this other, like, idea of like, this is just the filler season in between now and Survivor 50. Who even cares about Survivor 49? And I feel like that just, it's such a great metaphor for the people that are in this season of that they're sort of the people that, okay, you all are.

thinking about this other thing, but we're the people who are here now. And I kind of like it. Yeah, I mean, listen, we're not going to go out and say don't sleep on 49, because that certainly has some connotations behind it. But I definitely agree with you that. I think, especially out there, there was sort of this mentality, at least from my perspective, I certainly did not think, oh, there has to be someone from 49 on 50, let alone two people. And I think a lot of people were very much operating in the present motivation of like, they're not necessarily saying, yes, I'm playing to get called back for the next season. It was more so, as you mentioned, this idea of like, okay, we know what comes next,

but that doesn't mean we can't be an absolutely bang-in appetizer before the main course. But for all we know, as you mentioned, it's an entire course in and of itself. And so it was very interesting to gain that mentality. As you said, we have four people that are taking this as a second chance in so many ways, one of which we're going to be talking today in stage. But everybody else, I think, was ready to grab at this opportunity. being like, I don't care if this results on whatever happens to me in the future. All that matters is what I'm doing right now in the present.

And that means hopefully, you know, creating a very fun season that we get to salivate on over the course of this fall. Okay. So we're going to go through each person in the tribe individually. And I have something that I showed to Mike before we came on. Okay. We're going to try to do something different here today. I have brought with me today a visual aid of all of you listen to the podcast.

version i have printed out the six people from this tribe and let's well like let's put the let's let's let's move them around and see who's gonna beware okay or beware advantage in some cases and then uh let's let's see we could like sort of like piece together what like what will the alliances look like after we get to meet everybody here in this group so mike anything you want to say before we talk about joan no i mean uh as you mentioned we certainly have heard the comment loud clear from the previous preseason about how again we're all getting to know these people some visuals would help putting the faces to the names and so uh this podcast is in the hands of the fans in a way in that we brought in a lot of visual aid because yeah even when you're watching the

videos of these people which you should do every day yeah we got two more tribes coming but even if you're forgetting a bit who's who especially we got a lot of s names this season rob we got two whole ass sophies it could be tough to mix a lot of people up so happy to facilitate as much as possible for people what they need to know about everybody. And Mike, I would love for you because you have the knowledge of all of this stuff, that there's sometimes, they're talking about initials and I'm not cross-referencing of like, you know, SM, like, ah, who's that? Sam Moore?

Okay. So I would love if you could bring some of that into full color for us. Happy to do so. Okay. All right. So, Mike, let's talk about Juwan, the first interview that we dropped this week. yeah so let's get into joanna so just as a reminder because again it was you know six days ago as the crow flies uh joan is uh currently in los angeles california specifically uh he works in

video editing yeah and sam are we able to get the pictures up of the the cast for these people as we said we were going to do so as we start bringing up the photo uh you know all again reiterate what i mentioned in our cast uh reveal podcast Rob, which is, yes, looking at Joanne's cast photo, as we do right now. Thank you, Sam. I mean, it's a very big rarity in Survivor that we do not have someone beaming as all gut out or even smiling in their cast photo. Joanne, truly a unicorn in that variety. But as you experience in the interview, that is just a mask that he puts on because this guy is giddy as all get out, especially when it comes to talking about playing Survivor.

Yeah. And Joanne was somebody who was such an interesting person to hear you talk to because he had done so much prep to get ready to come out to be on Survivor. And he really gave a lot of credit to you for helping him prepare. But the thing that I thought was the most unusual, and he had someone impersonate you, Mike Bloom, to prepare even for his interview with you. This was wild. Suffice it to say, there was a lot of surprises that came in this preseason. We'll get into it in this pockets. As he mentioned, we'll get into it with the alternate situation. This blew my freaking mind. And look, I am not going to to tube my own horn. You know, I would be the last to be a trumpeter when it comes to, you know, talking about my

set of skills. But this is not the first time I have heard this. You know, Quinn from Big Brother 26. I think he's been public about this information that he used my survivor interviews to help get on to Big Brother, where essentially he did not have another party in person. impersonating me, God help that person. But he did have, you know, he would watch my interviews for Survivor 46, pause after each question, and answer it as if he was in that interview. This is so interesting to me, because I would never think to do this because that you're not in casting. And so this is a free-

Thank you for letting that be known, okay? This is a pre-season interview. So I think I understand it for, like, if Joanne is like the type of person who is so detail-oriented, I don't want to leave anything to chance. I want to nail my interview with Mike Bloom. And I certainly could understand, like, okay, I'm going to write prepare. Because, you know, you will often have questions that you will ask season after season. So let me prepare what I'm going to say to Mike Bloom.

The Quinn thing blows my mind so much more considering that they don't do stuff like this for, yeah. To be fair, like I'm not exactly reinventing the wheel. I like to think I get creative with some of the things. that I ask. But I do think a lot of things that I'm asking, what's your biggest strength and weakness? What do you value in an ally? Like, these are things that could typically get asked to be in a casting final setting. So I do see some value to it. It just was really freaking strange to me. I don't have another like a mind-blowing moment that comes up in a future interview. But yeah, it had me having my own sort of personal reckoning out there, the jungles of

Fiji, Rob, for once I felt in the hot seat. Yeah. Okay. So that was very, interesting to hear that you but i think it speaks to joan's character in terms of that he's not leaving things to chance if he's having somebody role play as mike bloom again i want to get inside the head of that's maybe the person that i want to interview usually it's mike bloom who's doing the role playing oh boy uh if i had a nickel uh when it comes to joan yeah i mean what is so interesting about why did you get so many costumes exactly Listen, it wasn't necessarily getting those things completely new to the doorstep if you catch my drip. But what is so intriguing to me about Joanne is almost like this overweening positivity that he has.

He talks to me about the idea that he sort of has this, again, this persona that he sort of presents as a lovable, sweet, goofy nerd. And that was incredibly palpable to me in my interview. This is a guy who loves to geek out about Survivor, has that, you know, that reference to Sean Rector, which is tragically deep cut, but was so incredible to talk about with him. But I do think that as, you know, as this photo shows, he's got his game face on. I do think he is somebody who on paper would have the ability to make the moves that he needs to. Again, this is a guy that works in a very cutthroat industry, not the only person that works in the industry as we will get into very shortly. He's doing a lot of cutting. Yeah, exactly. He does a lot of cutting, does a lot of splicing,

able to, you know, clip together certain alliances. I think what it comes down to for Joanne that it will honestly for a lot of people, not only in this tribe, but in this season is this idea of, as Joanne says, like his biggest superpower and piece of kryptonite is that he's a people pleaser. And it's this idea that Joanne is someone who is very caring. You know, he is the rare person to not get brought into the show through Big Brother. Again, we'll get into that later in the podcast, but he is a Big Brother. he is the oldest of five.

And so he admits from the jump here that as much as he knows that this is something that he needs to do in order to advance himself in the game, it's not like it's going to be exactly an easy thing for him to do to be able to cut somebody that he has spent so much time getting to know. It's not as easy as a deleted scene, Rob, to leave on the cutting room floor. Sure. Mike, what else about Ju-Wan stood out to you? so we're going to get into this again very very soon but i i'm not going to say to people out there

who are listening and might bring these interviews into their own future interviews like you don't need a gimmick when it comes to going through the list of the people that are around you but i did love joan's categorization of comparing he says on paper everybody to a marvel character i think we only ended up getting about three or four at the end of the day but that's still a lot especially when you don't have them written down in front of you. But considering who we'll talk about next, that was very fortuitous comparisons. Okay. Well, maybe that's a good segue to get into talking about Nate.

Yes, we can absolutely do that. Last thing I will quickly say about Joanne is that, you know, we will talk about, obviously, the fact that this is not Survivor 48. You know, one of the reasons why Jake is going to stand out. He has talked about positively from Joanne's perspective. he's called the Punisher. He gets noticed a lot because he is probably one of the most, like, externally, physically presenting people as compared to Survivor 48. But this is also a cast where I would not necessarily say that, like, even the least physically presenting people are slouches either.

Like, Joanne is somebody who has done a lot of stuff. He says he's a big swimmer as well. And so I think this is not necessarily a case, like people typify with the new era of like, look at these nerds who stay inside reading all day, haven't seen a gym a day. in their life, whether it's the work that people have done ahead of time or just the fact that they are naturally athletic. I think that they'll be able to showcase they have more survivor muscles than they might initially seem. That's the first question I want to ask you about Nate, who ends up being the second member of this tribe that we will talk about. And so could you just give me, it's very hard to tell from this picture about Nate's physicality because

I didn't necessarily you know like I feel one way or another about him but then I felt like that Savannah talked about him as potentially like the third strongest like most buff guy that was out there so do you tell me about Nate? Yes so

Nate first off again for those that might not remember Nate is 47 years old currently lives in Hermosa Beach California he is a film producer we will get into the IMD bags of it all later on when it comes to specifics but yeah If we're talking about from an athletics perspective,

I mean, Nate is somebody who tells me in his interview that he loves exercising, that he really runs a lot. So I think he's someone who is very lean specifically. He's also very tall. I think he and Jake are probably the two tallest members of the cast. And so I think they really- How tall? Give me a six-six?

I'm definitely not six. Well, actually, but I believe that one of his stories, I think in the CBS social media clip he did two truths in a line. I think one of his truce was that he was like a walk-on member of his, the UCLA basketball team. So I think he does have a good amount of height to him, but he is certainly someone who keeps fit. And so I think that makes sense from a stature perspective, like he would sort of be tagged as one of the quote-unquote bigger guys, even though, again, I think you look at his career, you listen to him. You would not necessarily think he was cast as such. Okay.

All right. Yeah, Nate, I think is an interesting guy, somebody who's super knowledgeable about the game. I mean, he was talking to you about Australian Survivor. I hope he's loving Australia versus the world, by the way. This must be his dreamt and true. I mean, Joanne also, did he mention Australian Survivor, too? Yeah, so we're going to get into this. Yeah, Joanne had recently been getting into Australian Survivor.

Both guys mentioned Ferris in their interviews. So, yeah, Nate is tapped in. It's really interesting because, again, not to like besmirks Nate's credits too much. She has been, like, one of the foundational cornerstones of making the MC. what it has been over the past 17 years. I would not say he's as much of a household name as like a John Lovett as an example, but it's pretty incredible that like this guy

who we have largely associated with a lot of other Hollywood projects and you would assume, oh, he's going to be on Survivor, oh, he was probably recruited. Oh, he was probably hobnobbing with Jeff at some sort of industry event and Jeff asked him to be on the show. No, no, no. Nate is in like an out-and-out super-duper fan has watched seasons multiple times, has been watching since the beginning

when he was living in a frat house, has shown seasons to his daughters, has checked out international seasons. Like, this guy has been committed to the show from the very beginning, to the point, Rob, where he actually applied to the show before as well.

So I think that, you know, him being associated with this show happens to be a complete coincidence considering his sort of like meteoric rise to fame in the film industry. Yeah, it's cool that there are people who love Survivor,

in all walks of life. And so it's really fun to see somebody, you know, step out, step away from something that is, you know, his true career to do this thing because he's passionate about it. So what also, I think that fandom also really informs Nate's mentality, which is not to, you know, speak on his age too much, but sort of this old school idea, right? I mean, he ends up telling me at one point, like, you know, I know there's deception in lying that are necessary, but I also really hope to come away with 17. new friends.

And so he very much, especially when it comes to idols and advantages, has this mindset of like, I'm just going to keep to the shelter. I don't necessarily want to look for them. They cause more harm than good. Now, part of that also might, again, be like the perception that he feels naturally comes because

of his age. He probably feels like he is going to be the oldest member of his tribe. He certainly is. And so he might sort of have that, like, dad vibe affiliated with him, something that he has already acknowledged as like, I don't want to speak from a leadership position too much just because I know people will automatically assume I will be just based on the fact that I'm in a different age

bracket than literally everyone around me. Yeah. So Nate seems like an incredible dad, seems like an incredible person to me. And somebody who's just here because he really loves this experience. To me, I am thinking that could he be a little bit like Cedric that we had last season? And I know Cedric ended up being like in a tough spot. And I think that in some ways Cedric found himself in tough spots because I feel like that he, I think he kind of came into the game with a, you know, and he's a doctor. I think he came in with a mentality of sort of like do no harm. Like I think that Cedric. really was trying to go out of his way not to hurt people.

And then the way that Survivor can work sometimes, I think he ended up in circumstances where then he was forced into having to make some really hard decisions, which he ended up being like really caught in the crosshairs a bunch times. But I don't think it was his intention. I think that Cedric ended up in those positions just sort of like by a lot of like bad circumstance. chance. Yeah, I think what is sort of a one-to-one comparison with Nate is that Nate really talks up his role as a producer. And for those that are not aware, Nate has been a producer on such

mega-hit films as the majority of the Captain America franchise, including Winter Soldier, Civil War, Brave New World, which was also very fun because that was one of the movies I watched on the flight over to Fiji, Rob, being none the wiser that the final film that Nate Moore worked on was on my flight to meet Nate Moore, a matter of hours later, but also, you know, the Black Panther films, too. And he talked at the fact that as a producer, essentially his job on set is peacemaker. It's this idea of making sure, now that's a different, that's DC, not Marvel, but this idea of making sure that everyone feels comfortable and that everyone feels heard on that set,

from, you know, the lowliest grip all the way up to the multi-million dollar talent, if they have some sort of grouse or grumbling, Nate is one to receive that information and hopefully placate them. And so from that capacity, as you're talking about with Centric, I wonder how much that role will carry over into this tribe as well, where if there are interpersonal conflicts or difficulties, will Nate find himself in that position where he's like, I just want to make this tribe as cohesive as possible? He says he's a big team player. He's a cheerleader. Could he almost be too generous in that way of like, all right, I just want everybody to get along? And by consequence, Rob, especially with this small tribe structure that comes in the new era,

could have put him in a lot of danger where he might be forced to choose between multiple people that he is close to, which might be one of his worst nightmares. Did Nate give you a sense of the people that he really wanted to work with based off the preseason vibes? Not from a Uli specific perspective. The two that he really outlined when it came to not so good vibe, he sort of gave more of a generic, again, peacekeeping answer of like, I'll work with anybody. The pros for him were Stephen and Jake. So there is a possibility that if they all get to a merge-like setting

that we could see a little bit of like a physical alliance brew between the three of them. But yeah, those were the people that he was pretty much eyeing. But again, he very much came across as like, I'll work with anybody and everybody. You know, what's also really interesting is speaking to once more the old school kind of perspective that Nate has. when I asked him, you know, who are, what types of people are you looking to work with? He's like, I want to work with people who are having fun. I don't want to, I don't want to play with people who are sociopaths that are sort of just like lying for the sake of lying. And obviously, that is always a tenuous line as to like, how far do you go when it comes to lying with certain pieces of information?

And so I think what we're going to get from Nate is, again, kind of like this refreshingly down-to-earth perspective with all of these factors and energies and personalities. is flying with this particular tribe in the new era. I do think Nate, despite talking all about people who fly, is going to be the most grounded. I think that he is somebody who is very much going to be about playing the long game. Again, he is used to

running. He's used to pacing himself. The question is is that a set of tactics that works out well in the new era? Considering how much people pride their games on what you're doing every single cycle to further your own business.

Yeah. And the thing that, you know, is, I don't want to say it's a concern because it's, it's from a place of that, like, I think that this is like very admirable where here's Nate who is somebody who is like a role model and a father and somebody who is here for the right reasons because he has a passion for the game. You know, is he willing to slit throats and really betray some of these people when it is. It may not feel as good. I'm sure he has to make all sorts of tough decisions in real life. But here, like, on a, you know, to go on this adventure, like, is that the type of game that he's willing to play when at all costs? Yeah, considering that, again, and, you know, this is not necessarily a million dollars is always nice. But I would imagine, given, you know, the job he recently left at the time we filmed this, he's not hugely hard up for cash. And that's another big thing as well, Rob, is that we talked about whether or not he is going to reveal his profession. I think what he ultimately settled on with me, again, he was a little iffy on depending on the circumstances.

I think he said initially that like he was going to say he was a producer. He just wouldn't necessarily get into specifics just because he doesn't want to automatically come in having to lie on something with something that's something that I know gets talked about amongst survivor discourse is like, why come in almost at a deficit when you have to lie about something automatically? right off the bat. What we can get into is, you know, could he be someone that gets recognized and basically cannot lie about his job, given what he's linked to? All right, Mike, so I want to stop down

and talk about our first two players that we're talking about here because I feel like that this is not typically the case, but I just feel like that there seems to me that there's so much connective tissue potentially here, between these first two people in the tribe. I would think it would be wild if we didn't see an alliance here between Nate and Jouan.

Again, I mentioned this in the cast preview. I don't think since D and Austin, and that was a very different capacity, have I thought about, wow, they really stacked a tribe with two people that would click in immediately and could be one of the strongest pairs in this entire game.

Think about this, Rob. They both live in L.A. They both work in the film industry. Correct. Joanne compared every single person around him, including Nate, the MCU producer, two characters in the MCU. Joanne talks about how he wants to play with people

that he can have fun with. Nate talks about wanting to play with people that he can have fun with. They both come from very similar, backgrounds. Even Rob, coincidentally enough, I talked to these two men one right after the other. We are ordinarily given a just sort of random order in which we talked with these players. I happened to get these two guys back to back. And my brain was firing on a whole synapsis of if these two guys are on the same tribe, look out because they could absolutely demolish this game

together. It just seems like too good to be true for these two to be on this same tribe together. And I'm sort of thinking about like sort of like a Danny and Deshawn where it's just sort of like that they are just like in lockstep from the start of the game all the way through the time that they're in the game together. Yeah, I can't really see a reason why one would turn on the other unless it really came down to one of them is more, you know, presented as a threat over the other that they felt the need to say, okay, I can't go with this person to the end. Or maybe they feel like our stories are too similar. Maybe that's where the similarities cause them to diverge. But there's just so much commonality between them. I can't see a situation where in the initial

stages, they don't immediately glom onto each other. Now, maybe we'll talk about at the end, does that become so visible that they're going to get immediately clocked for that? I mean, yeah, they could be together and then it could be everybody else in the four person alliance. That's true. But I also feel like, again, if we're looking for

who among this cast would Nate reveal his big secret to, of like, oh yeah, I've worked in Marvel. It would be Jawan. And for all of me, no, Nate maybe thinks this could be another John Lovett situation where he's like, oh, by the way, I've worked on some Marvel films. They're like, yeah, who cares? Like, yeah, I guess I've heard of it.

But Joanne is someone that will very much know about it and definitely have a lot of respect for it. So as we bring in the other four members of the tribe, and I think it's great that we talked about Joanne and Nate first, I think that we should be sort of like looking to see who do Nate and Joanne want to bring into what we expect to have come together with this pair? Right. I mean, to forecast a bit, I really feel like this layout reminds me a lot, Rob, of Bello, which was the blue tribe from Survivor 45 where I think we have one gendered pair, another gendered pair. And then there's two that I think are going to be in the middle that might determine

the flow of where the tribe goes. Just remind me that that's the Bruce's tribe from Survivor 45. Bruce, Jake, Brando, Kelly, Cotora Kendra. Yes. And who do you see as the pair in the middle? So we'll get into this. I think that it's going to be Joanna, Nate. I think it is going to be Sage and Shannon. and I think we're going to have Rizzo and Savannah as our mental group, as our Kelly and Brando. Okay. Mike, let's bring in somebody that you mentioned already. Let's talk about the third person that we got to hear about this week. And I believe that was Rizzo.

Let's talk about the man, the myth, the legend, R-I-Z, G-O-D, Rizgod, Rizgod, B, baby. Here he is. I mean, this is a key example, Rob, of what. I was talking about at the very beginning of this podcast because we all watched the teaser at the end of Survivor 48th. The first thing we hear is this guy come on, call himself the man the myth of legend, R-I-Z, G-O-D, Riz God, Baby. And the collective eye roll from the community would put Courtney Yates and Eliza Orleans to shame. Everyone's like, who is this kid? He's branding himself the Riz God. Oh my God. Let's get rid of him. And for what it's worth,

Rob, the comments that I have seen, at least, since this interview came out, a lot of people have turned around on this guy. Not everybody. Again, there might not be a 100% conversion to the Riz God. But I think a lot of people were largely impressed of once we got the time to sit down and get to know his POV, what he brought to the table. Yeah, he does have a very impressive background. And of course, a great conversation with you, Mike. And so it was very interesting to hear about all of the stuff that he had to do as a young person to help his parents

make ends meet. His parents, they are from their Albanian. Are they first generation immigrants? Yes. So he is a first generation. His parents immigrated from Albania. And one of Rizzo's big stories is that

his parents worked a couple of jobs just to put food on the table. That made Rizzo kind of grow from an early age where he was put in charge of things like doing taxes and helping buy a house for them as well as take care of his younger brother while his parents were away. So even though Rizzo is one of the younger members of the cast, just to give a brief background on him, he is 25 years old from Yonkers, New York, currently works in tech sales. I think that he is somebody who, I still think he has this like youthful vibe to him. So I wouldn't exactly say that like he's an old soul.

But I think he is someone who brings a lot of surprising. maturity to the game despite the way he might present yeah he has his brother is special needs and he has a lot of sweet stories about how he's really helped be a caretaker to his brother a lot of youthful energy he's excited you know he certainly has his super fan bona fides but isn't necessarily so super in the weeds where that he is like uh you know stuck in his head like crunching numbers when he should be doing other things out there. So, yeah, it is a pretty impressive resume for Rizzo coming in. Yeah, a Rizumet, if you will.

Not to be confused with Rizumet. Yeah, I think that for Rizzo, you know, the major downsides I would see. Is he a Yankees fan? I'm a, I hate to say this. I'm a Yankees fan as well. But not really. Like, I mean, this is a, you know, listen. You're a, you're like, you're like,

you decided to jump on the bandwagon like 20 years after they won their last championship. Like that's fine. Better late than never. But I think when it comes to Rizzo, I think that the area where he might get in a bit of trouble, especially in this premier setting, is the fact that, you know, he might be one of the least physical members of this tribe. And so if they feel like at all, they are deprived of physical strain from the jump. And we'll certainly talk about Savannah predicted that this could be a disaster tribe. we can certainly prognosicate about that moving forward that like if they're looking to you know keep the tribe strong he could be someone to be cold out but I do think that Rizzo has this endearing quality to him

I think especially the way that he presents himself and this is going to be such an interesting dichotomy to watch Rob is that I don't begrudge people for feeling the way they did about Rizzo upon that initial soundbite because what he says is that that persona, the man the myth, the legend, R-I-Z-G-O-D, Rizgod baby, he says is going to be entirely inconfessional, that that is, you know, this almost this, this wrestling facade, right?

This persona that he wants to bring when he's trash talking to the cameras, when he is face to face with you, he's just going to be Rizzo, this sweet kid from Yonkers, who's just trying to, you know, help his blue-collar Albanian family get a million dollars to start the next stage of their lives. It's a tactic we admittedly have not seen a lot. One of the things I think we taught about, especially a show like Survivors, that the deprivational aspects make it so naturally over time,

any sort of permeable barrier you put up around your personality wears down and you showcase who you truly are. I feel like it's very rare that we see you're one way in the confessionals, you're different in reality. The few examples I can think of are honestly like the golden god from Australian Survivor is winning season. in All-Stars, apparently he was completely different to the cameras than he was at camp. But I think the closest comparison I would have to Rizzo in general, especially from this conceit,

is actually Kagayan Spencer, where if you remember, you know, Jeff Probst Seamus famously said, Spencer's zero percent chance of winning the game, because in his preseason press, he was so incredibly braggadocious about his intellectualism, about the fact that he can outsmart anybody, that he was going to be one of the greatest players this game has ever seen. But then actually once his feet hit the sand, whether it's due to circumstances or the fact that that helps you get a foot in the door in the way, he definitely softened a bit in terms of his personality. I could see that from Rizzo as well. It's this, it's this, you know, young person with a huge amount of survivor fandom who on paper you might think, oh my God, this kid is way, way too cocky. But then once he actually gets in front of people, you realize that it might have been a front the entire time.

Yeah. I definitely feel like even I could relate to something like that where in Survivor of the Amazon that maybe I'm saying things in the confessional to the producers that I'm not necessarily like showing that side of my personality to everybody in the tribe. So I definitely think it's something that you can do and we'll see like what the audience responds more to. I tend to think that the audience looks at this favorably when it happens. I think what is going to help Rizzo as well.

that he has Jolinsky upside here in that I think a lot of people were kind of comparing him to Jolensky in three season. I don't think anybody's ever said Jolinsky upside before. Well, I think it's almost that as much as I love him, it's the upside that you're not Jolensky. That similarly, this is a passionate, young, super duper fan. And as long as Rizzo doesn't do too much,

I think that it's like, okay, he's not Jolensky. We feel like we can keep him around. You know, I think another thing that might stick against Rizzo is if he is indeed starting to wheel and deal a bit too much. You know, if he's someone who can take advantage of sort of this perception as this young kid, I think he could get away with doing a lot of things. It could catch up with him to a point, though, right? Where it's like, oh my God, like Rizzo snuck up on us.

What was this, this 25-year-old was getting the, getting the wool over all of our eyes? How did we let this happen? And we experienced this inimitable times in the new era, the uncertainty. suspecting threat that emerges and gets taken out at the final eight, final seven. So even though I talk about Rizzo, probably being in the most danger in the premerge from a challenge perspective, there still might be a world where like he emerges as the big surprise threat and gets taken out closer to the end. Because I do think, you know, unlike maybe a Jawan or a Nate as we were talking about, he didn't seem to at least express to me in this in the moment that we were speaking like,

yeah, I'm going to have a really tough time. getting rid of people and emotionally reconciling it. Now, he still might do so over the course of the season. You know, just because he didn't talk about it with me, doesn't mean that it won't happen. But it does seem like because of his passion for the game and these, you know, mantras he walks through, you never give up, dream big.

John, he loves John Sina. He loves John Sina and they're never going to see him. Uh, I like that. Thank you. Is he going to drop the five knuckle shuffle on anybody? Yeah, we were watching Peacemaker. We were mentioning Peacemaker before, actually. So maybe he will work with Nate there.

But I do think that... Does he need an attitude adjustment? Exactly. I do think that Rizzo is someone who could be seen as someone to leverage a lot of these social relationships to make big moves happen. Not to say that fandom necessarily predicates you on being this massive player. But I think, I also think the way he spoke about a lot of things was very sound illogical. Even when he does have these hot takes like, I don't think JT made the,

wrong move in heroes versus villains given the information or like the best player doesn't always win. I think the way he talked about it logically helps that it wasn't just him putting forward this outlandish statement and being like, yep, I'm resting on my laurels. You can't challenge me on that. It's clearly he sort of has a method to his madness. And so I do think if he gets his feet under him, he could be somebody that could surprisingly make a cut in this game subsequently i think that could get him cut in the process okay the name riz god i think will make him insanely popular especially with the uh you know very young people that watch survivor they love to talk about riz is riz out at this point no i don't think so it doesn't go away

riz is still part of the uve amongst uh the youths uh yeah i mean speaking about some people that i will hopefully be in with Riz as well. So Rizzo listed out a bunch of, with one exception, a bunch of previous player comparisons to the rest of his cast. He did want to work with Jake, who he called Canadian Connor McGregor. So maybe Jake will have a better run at a prime minister than Connor McGregor himself has done.

He talks about wanting to work with MC, who he compares to Missy from Island of the Idols, Sophie, both so he loves Island of the Idols. He mentioned Island of the Idols a lot, More so that production has had for the past five years or so, that's for sure. Talks about being inspired by D.K. Chillen. But yeah, he talked about Sophie B being compared to Chelsea Walker. Sophie S.

He compares to Kara K. Some people he's not so high on. He did mention Matt gave him big Mike Turner vibes and thought he was a poker player. Not really sure where he got those vibes from, but very interesting. And he talked about, the person will mention next stage compared her to charity. and I was putting himself a bit in the hands of the fans by saying that she has big fan favorite energy. Okay.

They don't really do that anymore on Survivor, but... Listen, Sia might be coming back for 50. Maybe we'll stop it on 40. One more thing I'll mention before we move on here is that I did not note upon this in our cast reveal, but Rizzo does have some experience playing social strategy games, I should say. There have been a number of people that have talked

after the cast release about the fact that they have played in Big Brother orgs, ORGs, if you will, online reality games with Rizzo. Rizzo is a Big Brother fan as well as a Survivor fan. And look, I am never one to say as much as I appreciate the ORG space, the LRG space, we love it, we love fan-made Survivor games, that it's going to be a one-for-one comparison to success in Survivor. I should also mention that Carolyn Weiger was very much to Survivor ORG before her time on Survivor 44.

And I do think that really helped in terms of at least just the basic skills of liaising with a bunch of different personalities, especially behind the sort of anonymity of a screen. So again, I do think that Rizzo has sort of this, this blend of strategy that he can bring that I hope he's able to disguise, you know, through this, this nice 25-year-old persona. Okay. All right. Mike, should we talk about the potential fan favorite, sage? Let's get into this, the Survivor Spice Cabinet.

The bottle we're looking at next is none other than Sage. Sage Orange Nichols. Sage is 30 years old from Roxborough, North Carolina. Originally, that was a small town. She broke out of Rob to go on to bigger and better things going to Olympia, Washington, where she currently lives and works as a clinical social worker. And like we talked about with the replacements, Rob, she was the alternate for Survivor 47.

And it's now getting a second chance on the island. Okay. Sage is an interesting person here to have in this cast. And, you know, it's hard to get a true sense from just the pictures, but she just seemed like that she is going to be formidable in the challenges. She has the military background to her. So you would think that she'll be able to handle being in these survivor challenges. So I think that that's certainly a good thing for her, especially early on when tribe strength is very valuable for the tribe. And she also, like, you know,

I think is a straight shooter, but also talked about, you know, her, you know, that she has, you know, I don't even know how, the right way to say this, Mike, that is really, taking shrooms is a good way to prepare for Survivor. who would have thought we had two Spencer references in this podcast but yes sage I mean listen we're going to talk a lot about unique preseason approaches in this

podcast but I mean one of the fun things about talking with Sage and Sophie S was me being like hey it's been basically a year since you were out here last did your prep change at all between sort of attempts at playing survivor and stage is like yeah yeah basically did more drugs which like again if you want to be in sound mind body and spirit essentially you do you I don't know if you can find similar items out on the island. I thought it was even more interesting was the fact that Sage went to a singing coach to practice

the use of her diaphragm, which I find so incredibly intriguing because I imagine it's like a natural calming mechanism too if she ever feels anxious, but like also in these challenges where again your muscles are screaming and you're aching physically. Like I think

having control of that breathwork is probably going to pay off a lot. So especially from a challenge perspective, I've reviewed you that Sage could be like a low-key beast here. Yeah. So I think that she's somebody who is going to be a powerful presence. And it's going to be interesting to see to me how she fits in with the rest of this tribe. Yeah, because Sage, I think as someone who's able to talk about this a couple times in this tribe, is able to benefit from her career, which is this opportunity as a social worker to kind of meet people where they are and be able to bond with them on a very emotional

capacity. Because again, we talk about maybe the assets that Sage is able to bring, but also fundamentally, her job is all about, you know, allowing her clients to feel to kind of work their way to their own solution while she is facilitating that. It's something that's a skill say you could arguably use on Survivor as well, right? If you want somebody to get to a conclusion, Boston Rob said it best that the best way to enact a plan is to make other people believe that it is their idea rather than yours. And I think Sage is really going to be able to connect with people. She might be the most emotionally connected person on Uli because she is someone who absolutely loves emotionality. She will not blanch at a conversation when someone pours out their life

story to her. She will weep with them on the beach. But as she says, that is just fluid coming out of your eyes. I think she is also someone, maybe unlike a couple of other people on this tribe, who I do think has a bit of that killer instinct that I think because she acknowledges so much upfront how much emotions dictate her game, it is something that she can actively weaponize for the veteran to potentially use moving forward rather than being like, I didn't know this what happened to me. I'm so bum-puzzled as to how I get rid of my closest ally. Sages almost, I think, anticipated the scenario ahead of time, which I imagine certainly helps. Now, Mike, she was in the casting mix for Big Brother,

and then ultimately did not get Big Brother and then got thrust into Survivor. Yes, she was apparently a finalist specifically for the cast of Big Brother 25. Yes. So just imagine her in that particular situation. Yeah, that's another, like, low-key theme of this as well, Rob. There's a lot of, like, Big Brother fans or people came to survive this Survivor casting pooled away. One big melting pot. Yeah, and let me have Big Brother players on the Amazing World.

race. Well, it's a really Big Brother coded fall on CBS. And can you remind me, like, was she a Big Brother superfan? How did she end up in the mix for Big Brother? It was that she was deployed in Afghanistan, and there were not a lot of channels on at the time, but something that was on at the time was Big Brother, but she was a survivor fan first. Yeah. She was only brought into Survivor by way a Big Brother through casting. It was just that she basically was like, she grew up watch. Yeah, exactly. See, sorry, Rob, you know all too well that like she had watched the show previously. she was probably a bigger fan of that

but I think for whatever reason she thought she could never play it herself and was more so like I'll do Big Brother but happened to sort of fortuitously find her way to the island instead the island came calling for her inevitably Yeah okay

Sage to me is a person that I just think that there's so much variance here I could see where it doesn't work out I could see where she's like incredible of this Yeah I could see really a couple of different universes here to quote one of the Nate's main properties and that like I do think that stage could go the route where she just goes hard from the beginning, that she is somebody who

is going to be able to connect with nearly everybody and tries to weaponize that power, especially if they go to tribal council in the original phases, initial phases, I should say, to be like, okay, I know what everybody is doing at all times. I'm going to get done what I want to get done because she can be very to the point, as you mentioned. I mean, she has great at her job, I think, in being very soft with her approach. I imagine, but I could also see, like, her be able to, wants to enact something, I could imagine her absolutely getting done, which then could come back to bite her if they feel like Sage is too vocal. Sage sticks out too much. And if we feel like that's something that we want to nip in the bud ASAP, she could end up playing her way out of the game, too.

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in Canada. Okay, Mike, let's discuss the next person that you got to interview. And this is Savannah, Louie, who had a very interesting interview with you, talked about her back. going from working as a reporter to ultimately working in marketing and all of the steps along the way. Mike, I think I've never described myself this way, but I think that maybe I might also describe myself as a reformed party boy. Well, you used to say you used to be the bad boy podcasting, right? I used to be the bad boy of podcasting, but your hair was slicked back. Now it's pushback. Yeah, Savannah has, has lived a lot of lives up to this point.

Yeah, I don't drink that much, you know. I mean, back in the day, people call me boring. Exactly. And you also. But was I always boring? Who knows? Again, there might have been a different version of you. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to try that on, reformed party boy, Rob's sister, Nino. Listen, if you want to make the business cards, I'll distribute it need to be. I'll take care of the East Coast side of things, operations. Yeah, let's get into Savannah here. So interesting, Savannah. I really was, really enjoyed this interview. And her, she talked about how she has no poker face. Such an expressive face, such expressive eyes from Savannah.

Yeah, I think that I mentioned Indira cast revealed that the 49 cast in particular, obviously they are all individuals in their own merit, but a lot of them reminded me a lot of previous players. And Savannah mentions a couple in this. interview. I really am getting a lot of Harvey vibes, but especially Venus vibes from Savannah where she is kind

of blunt. You know, she is this smaller woman who is you know, not afraid to sort of like state things as they are, maybe cut some people down in the process, but do it with a smile as well. But I do think that Savannah has

as much as I love Venus and certainly, listen, we'll get into somebody who had an interaction with Venus, you know, before the season that hopefully means I won't get involved in an automobile accident anytime soon. But I think that what Savannah is able to possess that could be instrumental to her in this game that maybe Venus did not necessarily have

is the skill set she brings in working as a former reporter. And that is why, Rob, Savannah, Louis was my winner pick for Survivor 49. Wow, Mike. that's okay good to know let me file that away yeah exactly picks taken moments before disaster

because I mean honestly it's it's you know pretty dang biased but I really really do think that the skill set of a reporter is so inherent to the minutia of a survivor game and Rob you're part of the press as well I think you can speak to this

it is an environment where you are oftentimes being met with people who are in a state of heightened emotion. Sometimes they are incredibly sad, they are incredibly angry, no matter what, they are incredibly anxious. And it is your goal within a certain time period to be able to get on a similar ground with them to make some sort of brokerage of trust over the course of that extended period of

time to the point where they can look to you and give you the information that you need to know. And I don't want to speak about, you know, the journalism profession so glibly. but I do think that there's so much involved in that that can translate to so many moves that are involved in a game like Survivor. I would say that great points that you're making.

I think that another big part of that though was the environment in which she worked which was in some kind of like TV newsroom which can be potentially like a very cutthroat environment where she talked about, like, people who are professional gossipers and people who are fighting for positions. She's a got-the-pearl. And, yeah, backstabbing, all sorts of things that goes on in a TV newsroom.

And so I think that that is also an experience that, I'm sure, informed her greatly. You would ask her about that she is also from Georgia. You'd asked her about that had she ever encountered Rick Devin's. And she said, and I really hope they do one day. Yeah. Well, she said that she has some mutuals with Rick, and she's hoping that one day she'll get to meet Rick Debbins. And I always tell people like, hey, dream big and, you know, follow your dreams.

But hey, Savannah, give it up. You're never going to meet Rick Devin's, okay? This man is so at a far distance. You got to wait until the Ron Clark event. Keep dreaming, Savannah. dream big dreams bigger if you will uh but again i think that you know listen rick i think it's going to have a very different journey in uh than savannah compared to survivor 49 uh but i think that again the skills that he possess as well at least initially in the beginning translate directly to

what savanna can bring as well i do think some downsides to savannah you know i i will in me down now you know this is not going to be uh someone who's like flawless in every single way i think as you mention the poker face is something that if Savannah is expressive enough, it could be something that gives away the ghost if she's planning something out. I could also see a world where Savannah might get caught with her hand in the cookie jar. That she could be someone who, again, given this competitive background that you talk about, I could see a world where like she's planning and plotting a lot of things behind the scenes. And like we were talking about with Rizzo, like, there could be a moment where people just compare notes being like,

wait a minute, did Savannah just like make the last two blindsides happen? How did we let that happen? And so Savannah's going to hopefully make a lot of headlines in this, but you know, as reason people can tell you, you don't want to make the headline every day. Sometimes you want to be kind of like the

you know, you want to be on like page section C, you know, nestled into the newspaper rather than automatically being the first top story every day on the broadcast. Okay. Very much looking forward to seeing Savannah get the play here in Survivor Forna. Any other thoughts on Savannah?

Yeah. So we should mention that part of the people that should be mentioned in terms of getting vibes at Ponderosa, one of them was Nate. Oh, yeah. She said that Nate apparently wrote down every winner's name, just in pure recreation, which is like, both choice cotton. Let's see if it works out for them. But she basically feels like, real Jacob Kane. Exactly. But I think that she, she says that he's somebody that, you know, she would be threatened by from that perspective because it's clear he knows the game, but like she also could work with him to a certain extent. So that might speak to another tribe connection that will forecast later on.

So it's because she feels like she's on the disaster tribe. No, maybe it's that idea of like coming to, you know, the game with the worst case scenario already planned out in your head. It's a reason why new to this season I asked the disaster tribe question of what would you do if you were on that tribe, because I imagine your gameplay changes a lot once you find yourself in a quite literal no-win scenario, but it seems like Savannah kind of already had that concept fake in and already has this motto of like, this guy's going to be kept around for a while anyway due to tribe strain. So like, let me try to at least have some sort of working relationship

with him. I got a hot take for you, Mike. Please. Somebody that can name the winner of every single Survivor season is somebody that I'm not that worried about because, okay, I have 46 people to date have won this show, okay? How many of them do you think could write down the, all of the winners in order? Give me a, like, give me a number. How many of these people, 40, there are 46 human beings who have won U.S. Survivor. I would do over under half of them

I would say 23 No way You're thinking way under Way under I think it's like Maybe five Five Yes name names Okay

I will say And I have to go through it in order I'll say Todd can do it Mary Ann can do it I bet Jam Jam could do it Rachel could do it And

I think that might be it maybe there might be somebody else no i think sophie could do it uh i don't know i don't know like i think it may maybe on a good day if you catch her if you catch her on the right day no cochran cochran could do it um and no i don't i don't think tyson could uh off the top of his head give give you all the seasons and winners in order maybe i i do it's less than 10 and maybe this is also my hot take like yeah i don't think new era u.s players should hide their super fandom yeah Because specifically of the way they're casting nowadays, by and large, everyone has seen at least a good chunk of Survivor.

I think we are well past the days where it is recruiting 75% of the cast. And it's like, oh, man, this person really knows the game. We don't. We have to get rid of them. There's a baseline level of survivor knowledge that every single person in this cast has at this point. And so, like, I agree. Maybe it's because I'm speaking from my own super duper Uber fan perspective. Like, I would not find that threatening whatsoever.

I think Ethan could do it. I also think that we'll get into this. I think in another interview that, like, as much as, you know, there might be past precedent and things you study on. Like, you have to have the mentality of, like, you're not playing with those people. Yeah. You're playing with your own cast at the end of the day.

Sandra could do it also. Yeah, I think Sandra could definitely do it. Yeah. Okay. Adam Klein. Adam Klein. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Adam Klein.

Okay. So it's probably, the number is. probably about me and i think about boston rob if you like prompt i think we're going double digits yeah i think so but it's i'm just saying that that it's not as many as you would think yeah i i think that there are much more threatening qualities that you could do at ponderosa to expose yourself as like a player let him live savannah let him write down all the winners names come on you've got nothing but time listen maybe he was just testing himself for a hunter-esque journey later on where it's like, I got to remember all the winners in order.

I don't want to get my vote taken away. Okay. All right. Let's talk about one more person from this tribe. And we've got Shannon Fairweather. Shannon Fairweather. So Shannon is 28 years old, currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. And we will certainly talk about her connections to Boston. And she is a wellness specialist. Rob, did you like hearing about her vibes?

Yes. Okay, so, Shannon is somebody else who has a very non-traditional approach, especially non-traditional for the new era approach to the game. The person that she reminds me the most of, certainly from the new era, is Kendra. Yeah, which is, again, why I think it maps so well onto Bella that I think, or Bella, I should say, and that, like, Shannon has, comes from a very spiritual background that she is somebody who will approach a situation and more so, I think, act a place. on her innate gut sense than more so of a method of like figuring up, exactly, you know,

and maybe Stajja is operating from a different gut situation considering what she ingested. But Shannon is somebody who I think feels this inherent like connection to the presences around her, that that is going to dictate her actions more so than I think any sort of sense of, okay, if we work out the vote split in this way. Yes, okay. So Shannon is probably the person that I worry the most about in this. group because I think that there are probably other groups in which

that Shannon and her energy would work better. I don't know if this tribe is a great landing spot for her. I think it's really going to her. I think her game is totally contingent on how does Sage react to this?

I mean, I think the two of them are going to be thick as thieves. Sage talks about in her bio that one of her pet peeves is not only the patriarchy, but people who plan. Mine too. for the record. Who mentions the idea of the Patriarchy and obviously Shannon being, you know,

and the Patriots. I'm sorry, Shannon. That's, you know, Shannon might have just heard Pat and be like she's my enemy's life. My least favorite is the Patriot Archie. Sorry, Boston, Rob, if you're listening. Yeah, the Patriots definitely had anarchy over the course of the 2000s there. The Patriot Archie and the Yankee Archie

have really been just my crosses the bear throughout my entire adult life. Yeah, shout out to MJC, the MJC alliance between Shep. Shannon and Rizzo between the Yankees and the Patriots there. But yeah, Shannon, I agree that I think that Shannon. I do like Bumerouss, and shout out to Shannon's dad. I was going to say, please, don't get into bad, you know,

Shannon has a lot of people she can introduce you to from her dad. It's well connected there. I do think that Shannon, she has a lot of great stuff to say, she took up a lot of space in my interview. My worry, and look, there is a very realistic world where like she comes into the game and she scales that back. Again, talking about the vibes thing, she really susses out, like,

who are the people that are around me? What energies are they occupying? How can I sort of serve to match that? If she does come in more so from, like, the Wendy Joe vibe, I say lovingly, of like, all right, I'm just going to kind of communicate what I'm feeling to everybody at this moment. There is a world where people are like,

this is not my vibe. That's her vibe. Yeah. So I don't even want to, like, I hope that it isn't coming across as like a, you know, gatekeeping the fandom. Like she's, uh, because she knows a lot about Survivor. She's watched all these Survivor season. So, uh, that's not it.

I just don't know necessarily, uh, if this is like as touchy-feely of a group as like maybe other landing spots might be for Shannon. Like it's really going to come down to that do they think that, you know, what she's talking about if, is this is like a group of like very like, practical, grounded people, are they going to, you know, go with Shannon's vibes? I do think that Sage is really going to go with her vibes.

I think the two of them are going to connect on this idea of emotionality. Shannon has spoken so much in my interview about like pursuing that sense of truth and that spiritualism and the fact that she does feel so connected to what exists around her. That is Sage to a certain perspective that she really connects to other people's energies as well. And so I think the two of them would have a lot to bond over. I do agree that, like, I don't know, like, Shannon and Rizzo might be very accommodating of each other's energies, but I don't know if there's necessarily like a ride or die pair locked in there. We got to talk about Shannon's preseason prep here, Rob, because I touted it as maybe the most

unique I've ever encountered. Does it live up to the hype? Now, what are you talking about specifically? The AI Jesus? We could talk about a couple things. We can talk about the corporate. person and we can talk about AIG so i guess let's start with the boston rob of it all because yeah indeed people have found this shannon did have boston rob on her podcast before she was in the mix forecasting uh so i mean when it comes to this aspect in general rob do you have any hot takes as to like if this matters at all when it comes to the game of survivor seeking out previous players words of advice um you know i have to say that there's a little bit

that you can glean from it but you know you can't call boston rob and say you know tell me how to be you know how to play survivor because only boston rob is capable of doing what boston rob does so yeah there's there's a little bit that can be taken away from and god knows i love hearing about the um things that previous players have learned from each thing but everybody has their own individual strengths and weaknesses. So I think it would be very hard for, you know, Boston Rob to like mind meld to Shannon. Exactly. Now, maybe if, you know, if you're going to be on Big Brother, maybe Boston Rob could teach you a thing or two. As we know, as we know, newly renowned experts. Yes. But yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure that there are things that were

helpful, but I don't think it's necessarily like the ultimate deal breaker or like deal winner for her. And for what it's, or deal or no deal? For what it's worth, Shannon does agree with you that she basically says, like, I realize a lot of the way he plays the game is not the way that I have to play the game. He is more of a masculine coded numbers-based way of thinking about it. I am more of a feelings type of approaching the game. She does cite a couple things that Boston Rob has said a lot in terms of advice of like, look who's sleeping next to each other in the shelter. You know, if you want to catch somebody in a lie, like tell them something that you already know the answer to.

and see how they respond to that. So I do think that there are some, like, basics that he could espouse to her that she could carry forward. I do agree, though. This is why, you know, Phillips game only worked to a certain extent in Karamoan is, like, at the end of the day, you can't come in playing one for one like somebody else, you know, unless you have a fun little set of facial hair, four daughters and a black tank top. You are not Boston Rob Mariano.

Yeah, it's very hard to, you know, take somebody, like, The things that make these greats, the greats, like, you just can't necessarily, like, take in part of, like, what's, what makes them these legends and then just, like, run their playbook. Yeah. So let's talk about the other side of things, Rob. Let's talk about AI Jesus mixed with Ram Dass. Now, you are an avowed AI fan.

What do you think is the tactic? Listen, Mike, don't put it, don't put me and put that on me, okay? Bus is coming in. I am, look, I think I have as a business owner. I think that it is in my duty to always explore emerging technologies, and I would say that. I don't know necessarily if that there is, I think that if you were going to use AI in this capacity, I think that it can be useful in terms of distilling known knowledge of, okay, how would the author of this book look at this?

Now, again, I guess if you were going to, it was, she took Jesus and who, and who else was it? Ram Dats, he is more of a modern day guru. She's really saying W-W-A-I-J-D. Yeah. So I'm not sure necessarily if, you know, I would take a lot from, you know, how would, you know, use the teachings of Jesus from the Bible and how would, you know, can you adapt that to, you know, playing in Survivor? I don't think there's a lot there. Yeah, I think that, you know, it sounds like from what she was trying to specifically do is like figure out how to play the game within her own sort of sense of morality, which is like, listen, part and parcel with the game.

We recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Borneo finale, which like tested that first and foremost with the Sioux Hawk, rats, and snake speech. It's been in there from the very beginning. And so I could understand from her own worldview. She wants to come in with sort of like this baseline knowledge of like, okay, how do I do this rather than figure it out on the fly? I agree that I think the unfortunate news for Shannon is that you do have to figure it out on the fly. I think as much knowledge as you could get either artificially or from, you know, an actual flesh and blood person, like it's all going to kind of come out in the wash and the Pacific Ocean.

Here's the thing. If it's helpful for Shannon, then it's helpful for Shannon. It's not something that I would prescribe to somebody that like, hey, here's a great idea. But it's very fun to talk about. It's fun to talk about. And if it's getting her like more in the mindset of like, yeah, I can do this. I can like, this is going to work. Then these are just things that. that feed into positive momentum for Shannon. And so I love that for her. Yeah, and I think for what it's worth, again, at least what she reflected to me, at least some of JASIS's wording, as I refer to it, is this idea that see it all as sacred,

see each aspect as sacred. So I think that it more so kind of prepared her for the mindset of like living in the moment. I'm not sure how that's going to translate to the game. Does that mean she has to be like, I got to cut, you know, screw our final four lines. I'm going with this person now.

I'm living in the moment. or is it more so like embrace the experience? That's the thing I really got from Shannon's interview was that she seems to be more of the like experientially forward contestants on this season. I don't know if that phrase makes sense, but that she is really kind of approaching this from the perspective of like,

I'm not necessarily here to cut a bunch of throats and prove myself as one of the greatest of all times. This is something that I have been put on this particular setting with this particular group of people to do. I will embrace it wholly. with my spirit, I will embrace all the people around me, and I will embrace every single grain of sand that touches my feet on these beaches.

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Who's the best you are? I wish I could spend all day with you instead. Uh, Dave, you're off mute. Hey, happens to the best of us. Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. Mike, should we try to put it all together now

and try to figure out where this tribe is. headed okay let's do it all right let's hopefully not to tribal council hopefully not to tribal council uh but you know potentially this could be the disaster tribe but i don't know if i necessarily am uh as pessimistic as savanna was talking about this group i think if it comes to like it's always tough because people are like uh oh you know uh the physical strength tribes are always at a deficit for my money there really is only one major physically forward challenge and it is that first immunity challenge. You know, we saw this most prominently

with the giant geckos they were lugging around in 46. I feel like outside of that, we get more of like swimming challenges, dexterity-based challenges, puzzle challenges, et cetera. So maybe they're a little outmaned in that department, but we mentioned obviously Nate, very physical. Yeah. Stage has that physical background. Savannah mentions in her bio that she's an under-the-radar physical asset.

Joanne is somebody who's physical as well. So even if on the surface they're presented, as more of a vibes tribe, I do think there might be some challenge marriage. It's hard. I don't know what the other tribe's makeup is yet, so I also don't have a comparison. So Mike, okay,

so we have up here, we have Joanne and Nate that we are both pretty confident that they are going to be a pair. Juan, Nate. They perfectly merge into each other's names as well. And you feel like that Savannah, no, that's a Sage,

Sage and Shannon. I'm sorry, Sage and Shannon. Okay, there's too many S's. Okay, that you think that this is also another duo here. I think that to your point, if there is one person to pick up on Shannon's vibe the most, it would be Sage. Okay.

All right. So we're left here with this other pair, okay? Rizgod and Savannah. Okay? I don't know if anybody's ever linked them together before. Probably not. are do you see a commonality here for them starting this game or are they just sort of unlikely that if they're the only two people necessarily like without a final two is it sort of like

we saw like with Daniel Strunk and Chanel in Survivor 42 it's like okay well they're a pair and they're a pair so I guess are we just a pair or do you think that there is some like common bonds between them? I mean, I think there might be some sort of idea of like, hey, we see these other two pairs forming and it's almost like bonding over not bonding with anyone else, you know, like as weird as that is that there is this sort of logic of like, hey, nobody else is together. We can bond over the fact that all these people are together and we are not. And that might involve them to work with each other.

Again, I mentioned Kelly and Brando. Like those two definitely really seemed very thick before the swap happened in 45. It wasn't out of any sort of convenience or anything. And so I do think that these are two people I could see working undercover together because I do think if this tribe does go to tribal, they will be the swing votes here. I imagine that, again, maybe it's the bellow vibes to me that I think that Sage and Shannon would want to bring Savannah in on a women's alliance and try to like rope in a Rizzo as well. I don't know if Nate and Jawan would be like, all right, Rizzo, we're all working together. there was clearly the men versus the women. So I think, as you mentioned before,

if Rizzo does side with the S's here, you can't spell side without S, that could put this gruesome-tusom in trouble at the top. So you think that it's potential that we could see, like we had in that Bello tribe, the three women together potentially bring in Rizzo as a fourth, and that could be potentially bad news for Nate and Jouan. Now let me talk out of the other side of my mouth

because I could also see a scenario where, as I mentioned before, and, you know, Savannah mentions this actually in her one-minute video on CBS, that she's like, I want to create as much stress as possible for my tribe. This is, again, something that I think could really get her in trouble is that she talks about being brought into the show through watching Johnny Fairplay's dead grandma alive. And, like, she loved watching Russell do what he did. She might not be able to help herself and just sow seeds of chaos. And part of that might be her looking at how close Sage and Shannon are or saying, like,

Wow, Sage is really vocal about wanting this vote to happen. I can't have that happen. I'm going to side with the guys and take out Sage instead. So, like, I don't want to be Fancy Fenterton, Rob, but, like, I could honestly see it going either way, depending on how chaotic Savannah and Rizzo want to be. What do Joanne and Nate wanted to? Do you feel like that they, in terms of, like,

these are smart guys, are they going to want to pair up with one of the other potential pairs? I mean, again, if we're looking at Nate as wanting to be in this peacemaker role, I think he would want to go with like the most Occam's Razor explanation for getting rid of somebody. It would either be tribe strength or it would be like, okay, if this person's sticking out and is just not vibing with us, from both of those capacities, I could see them maybe want to target, Shannon, especially like, again, if somebody bungles a puzzle, then maybe more attention is drawn onto them. You know, if we're talking about like who the two women

with target maybe it's innate situation like maybe it's as simple as like listen this guy's uh you know he's he's a threat early on we've got to take care of him he's a film producer I don't want him to be producing the end of my game or for all we know as you mentioned like

they could go for like Arisa or Savannah for all we know they could be like nope they're not exactly on our wavelength right now we need to bar them from the beach send them to the waves if you will and maybe then we sort of see these two duos that we thought were at either ends of the tribe actually come together to get rid of one of the middle people.

Do you think that Rizzo is going to really value the tribe's strength? Do you think that he would potentially take out one of these other guys from this duo and potentially go further and maybe try to break up that duo? It's a good question. I'm going to say no, and it's only because of the piece of information he gave me when I asked for like winners and non-winters that he identified with.

And he really identified with Denise Stapley. And specifically this idea that she never gave up. She went to every single tribal council in her season. Now look, would Rizzo necessarily be like, I want to get rid of all the tribe strength as much as possible? I don't care about going to tribal council. Not necessarily, but I don't know if he's the type of person to feel like I need to avoid going to

tribal council at all costs. Interesting. thing. Okay. So I feel like that we sort of came in talking about how, wow, this is going to be Nate and Jawan's tribe to run. But in a lot of these scenarios that we're talking about, it feels like that maybe it's Nate or Jawan that could be potentially somebody who goes out first. Yeah. I mean, I think it really depends honestly on what sort of energy are people like Sage and Shannon especially giving off early on if they are not necessarily. necessarily fluctuating the same way that the rest of the tribes are.

It could be just an easy way to get rid of someone early on inside with those guys. If not, again, I think if Savannah and Rizzo are working together, these are two people who I do think have the capacity to be like, F it, I'm going to make a big move. And so from that perspective, as much as we were talking up again, how tight Joanne and Nate are, might not be a partnership to last the entire game. So again, I hate to like keep talking out of both sides. If I had to put down like, you know, a fire token as to who I think the first boot from this tribe would be, I think I would say Shannon.

Okay. I think that if Shannon is giving off the same energy that she did in her interview with me, I think it will take a lot of people, a lot of adjustment in the initial stages. And for all we know, if they go to tribal council in those initial stages, that might not be enough time for people to really get to know her enough to be like, okay, this is someone we don't need to immediately outcast. It's the kind of thing where I feel like that the vibes, the energy, like that stuff is all well and good when the tribe is going well.

When you are on the disaster tribe, people don't want to hear about the vibes. They don't want to hear about, you know, the energy and the spirits and that sort of. I think that stuff like really wears thin when the success. isn't backing it up. Yeah. So I do think that that's probably the most likely person I would pick for a first boot. And if that's the case, you know, I think that no matter who makes the merge, I do think there's, you know, there's a good sense of gamesmanship from a lot of people in this group

that like, if they are the disaster tribe and two or three make it there, I don't know if they'll go the way of Vula. We're like, then they instantly turn on each other. You know, if they feel unified by this, I think everyone does have. have a really good spirit to them in this group that could have him, again, be that vibe tribe tribe early on if they get up to a winning streak. So I do think there's good end game potential for a lot of these people. Hell, I made Savannah my winner pick at the time. But there could be some things to work through initially. I'm not getting disaster tribe necessarily from this.

I don't think that there's like, oh my God, this is the hot mess tribe in terms of these people. I think that there's too many just like even tempered personalities on this tribe. Who do you think is the person, though, that's really going to hit the beach and saying, I'm going to make my four? I could see Sage doing it. I think that there's a world where Savannah could do it as well, because, again, she does seem like someone who is hungry to play. I think Rizzo's a little more laid back from that perspective and that I do think he has that hunger, but like, he can eat later. You know, I think that Savannah wants to sow these seeds immediately. You got to start planting. And I think Sage is someone who can be very vocal and be like, all right, let's get this group locked in early on.

But again, we talk about this being the vibe tribe. I mean, like even look at something like SIGA, which spent forever just kind of living in this weird purgatorial state where they're like, yeah, there's a gender breakdown. But like no hard and fast alliances have really been made yet. I don't know if anyone, I don't know, maybe Joanne actually, I could see as somebody who just like comes in and decides in the moment like, no, I got to lock in my four immediately. I mean, he does talk about in my interview with him about the disaster tribe scenario, and he's like, I've got to get to my four immediately. If he does assess the tribe the way Savannah does, he could do that instantaneously. Okay. All right.

We'll see how it goes. It's an interesting to try because I feel like that we identified, okay, this is probably going to be the tightest two, but there's a lot of scenarios where the other four end up working together. Yeah, two into six does not make a majority. So I think it depends on who are those two able to rope in to try to cement something. And again, as Savannah prognosticated, is this a tribe we're going to see going to tribal council a bunch? And if so, how does that influence the strategy? And, you know, who ends up making the merge out of this group? Okay.

All right. Mike, what's the next tribe we're going to start learning about? So we are going to the Kella tribe next. Kela is the Blue tribe. So over the next six days, we are going to learn about. Alex Moore. We are going to learn about Annie Davis. We are going to learn about Jake Latimer, aka Connor McGregor, the Punisher, Mr. Muscles, whatever you want to call him. We're going to talking about Jeremiah Ing, who I mentioned before a bit in the run-in with Venus. We're going to

talk about Nicole Missoulo. And we are going to talk to the car, I thought. Yeah, exactly. We'll certainly get in, we'll drive up to that concept next time in a week's time. We're going to talk about Nicole Missoulo, and we're going to talk about Sophie Belardi a week from now. Okay. All right. Well, this was super fun to go through everybody from the Uli tribe. I hope everybody else enjoyed this discussion. And hopefully, you know, let's see how things turn out when we get to the premiere of Survivor coming up. What is it?

Wednesday the 26th. 24th. Mark your calendars here. Yeah, I totally agree. You know, if there are, you know, current players that are listening, I am happy to be wrong. I am more than happy. We love to be wrong.

Yeah, I love to walk. up to a zoom interview with egg all over my face, you know? I'm more than happy to be incorrect about the predictions that I'm making, because that ultimately means that, like, you're creating this wild, unpredictable TV magic that has kept us glued to this screen for a quarter century. So even if I'm trying to prognosicate what exactly is going to happen, I am more than happy to have all expectations blown out the window

as soon as that tribe hits the beach. And I'm excited for everyone to get to know the rest of this cast as well. Again, I think this is a really, really fun group that, as this tribe indicates, full of personalities and often makes it difficult to decide who is going to do well and who is, you know, set up to be in a bit of trouble early on. Okay. Stay tuned for everything else that Mike Bloom has coming up for Survivor 49 pregame press. Mike, what else is coming up for you?

Well, Australia, Survivor, Australia versus the world is humming along strongly as Joanne and Nate alike would know. So check out if you're watching, which it really should be, the covers that I'm doing alongside Shannon and Chappelle and Puyah covering Big Brother as well in the form of Exeterpress over on parade and the reality flash whenever there's other reality TV news out there. I've, much like Savannah, I am on the beat, giving you all the news you need to know. And you always follow what I'm doing at A. Mike Blum type. All right. Thank you all so much for checking out our preview of the Uli tribe and check out

everything else we have going on here on RHAP. We love to read what you have to say in the comments over on YouTube. so check us out. Take everybody. Have a good one. Bye.