RHAP: We Know Survivor - Talking with T-Bird: Sue Hawk

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

Talking with T-Bird: Sue Hawk Watch this podcast on YouTube! The time has come for the return of “Talking with T-Bird.” Each episode, Rob Cesternino (@robcesternino) and Survivor: Africa‘s Teresa “T-Bird” Cooper (@tbirdcooper) will catch up with a former Survivor player and talk about anything and take listener questions. Just when you think you know Survivor 50, the legends themselves return to shake things up. Host Rob Cesternino teams up with T-Bird Cooper for a memorable “Talking with T-Bird” deep dive, retracing the roots of Survivor history and connecting it with the unpredictable energy of the current season. This episode stands out as T-Bird finally tracks down the elusive Sue Hawk, whose raw, unfiltered perspective on Survivor Borneo still sets the standard for honest gameplay and legendary jury speeches. Survivor 50 is back in the spotlight as Rob and T-Bird relive Sue’s iconic story, all while comparing early Survivor’s “wild west” style to the fast-paced idol hunts, immunity twists, and softer conditions of the modern game. Sue doesn’t hold back, critiquing how much easier conditions seem now—from 26-day seasons to the abundance of clothes and comforts—and reflecting on the real threats and alliances that shaped Borneo. She breaks down the truth behind those first alliances, the sting of betrayal, and why every move on Survivor comes with lasting consequences, both in the game and back in the real world. Key discussion points include: – Sue’s behind-the-scenes journey from “off the grid” legend to Survivor All-Star, and how she finally agreed to talk after years of letters and texts with T-Bird – Insights into Survivor Borneo’s original alliances and Sue’s “snake and rat” speech that rocked reality TV – Raw comparisons between old-school survival—sand fleas, rain, boredom, and bush medicine—versus Survivor 50’s so-called “softball” era – How modern twists (idols, shortened seasons) impact the intensity and credibility of winning – Reflections on loyalty, trust, and what it really means to survive—on the island and beyond As Rob and T-Bird revisit Sue’s legacy, they question whether today’s players could endure old-school hardships or if strategic complexity now outweighs environmental grit. Can emotional honesty still change the game, or has the new era made it all about flash and fleeting power? Dive into this episode for Survivor storytelling that bridges generations, reveals hard truths, and keeps your torch burning for what’s coming next. Listen now to see Survivor 50 through the eyes of legends—and decide for yourself if the game will ever be the same. Chapters: 0:00 T-Bird’s Epic Sue Hawk Journey 2:47 Landing the Elusive Sue Hawk Interview 6:07 Borneo Origins: Sue’s Survivor Backstory 14:25 Survivor Softballs: New Era Critique 19:17 Creating the Gilligan’s Island Audition 24:56 The Wild Survivor Casting Process 32:59 Crafting the Legendary Final Speech 39:03 Growing Up Tough in Wisconsin 45:56 Adventures Hunting Bears in Russia 1:14:21 Losing Out on Survivor Endorsements 1:26:20 The Missed All-Girls Alliance Opportunity 1:35:38 From Horses to Trucking Life 1:45:09 Playing With Sue: Rob Reflects 1:55:04 Hero or Villain: Sue’s Survivor Legacy 2:21:40 T-Bird’s Toast to Sue Hawk Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

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Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free free. from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca. You stay here and listen. Your life will never be the same because we're talking with Tiberg now. This Tiber you cannot change. Yes, we're back talking with Tiberd. And this may in fact be

the biggest talking with T-bird yet because today T-Bird has tracked. down an all-timer. Of course, we all know from Survivor Borneo, Survivor All-Stars, Sue Hawk. And here's the woman who tracked her down. It's Teresa, T-Bird, Cooper. I was waiting for you today. Hi, Rob. Yes, T-Bird.

Incredible. After so much time, this was somebody, when we first started to come up with the idea for talking with T-Bird, who could we find? I think this was maybe one of the initial names that we started working on. And T-Bird, the amount of work you've done to get us to this day is acts incredible. Like, this could be, like, its own podcast of your journey to get here. So, Rob, I think when we started talking with T-Bird, this is our seventh episode, you gave me a short list of maybe 12 names, real short.

Seventh year. Of what? Seventh year. Seven years. Seven years ago of a short list. And for me, I always wanted to do people that are all. the radar that are not here. So Sue Hawk was and has been off the radar. So I finally found or someone helped me find a mailing address for her. But Sue was moving around a lot. So I just started writing

her letters. And I'd wait a few months and I'd write another letter and then I'd, you know, when it would come back, you know, address not good. So I'd, you know, send another letter that all of a sudden one day, one day in 2022, the first letter came back from Sue Hawke. And it says up here, Hawk is a PO box. I mean, I have cold chills now this many years later because I started maybe two years prior. And that's where it started from there. We just started letter writing. She writes letters very much old school, old soul.

She, when I first mentioned about the podcast, it was absolutely no, she has no interest and I got it. I totally understood, but I really enjoyed communicating with her that it just, it didn't matter. I was just going to keep that going. And then from there we started, she texted me one day. So the last couple of years, we've been texting. And then I think I mentioned again, because she tells these phenomenal stories, which I'm sure you'll hear today with her podcast. And then I said, Sue, you know, if you ever want to talk with Rob and me on the podcast, she goes, oh, no, I don't have any interest in that. Then all of a sudden, a couple of months ago, when I, she said, I'm turning 65, I think I'm ready, I'm ready, you know, to do a chat with you and Rob.

So I don't know. It's, it was, and of course I was nervous that it might not come together because I wanted it so badly to come together. So we've got Sue Hawk today. All right. T-bird, kudos to you. It's an incredible job, a testament to your dedication. And so we're so excited. Why don't we go ahead and bring in the great Suhawk?

Take it away. Picture yourself stranded on an island with 16 strangers where snakes devour rats. In 2000, 6,000 hopeful applicants applied for an adventure of a lifetime, dropped off in the jungles of Pulao Tiga, a remote Borneo island. Our guest today applied. Her audition video, a Gilligan's Island inspired rhyming theme. She was a 38-year-old truck driver from Wisconsin who described herself as motivated, resourceful, and flexible. She was tough and figured being outdoor in the bush would be a lot easier than driving a truck every day to Chicago.

There was no blueprint on how to play the game, no preconceived notions. Her strategy was simple. Just play the role of the dumb redneck. People like think rednecks are so vulnerable and dumb. They'll talk to them openly. End quote. She understood the assignment. She said the hardest part was the boredom,

also challenging the sand fleas, cold rain, and the stingrays, which had stung her twice. She didn't trust anybody, but thought she had formed a real friendship with another player, saying, quote, we are like sisters, end quote. But on day 37 of 39 days, she was voted out by the one that she had trusted 100%. At the final tribal council with more than 50 million viewers, she fiercely stood up with her honest, authentic, unfiltered, emotional speech comparing the final two to a rat and a snake stating,

quote, I feel we owe it to the island spirits that we have learned to come to know to let it be in the end the way Mother Nature intended it to be, for the snake to eat the rat, end quote. And so it was. She made television history and reality TV exploded into real life. Her fiery tirade set the standard for jury speeches to follow. No surprise she would be asked back for the first Survivor All-Stars in February 2004, but on day 17, feeling sexually violated during an immunity challenge, she does. decided she could not continue in the game. She did appearances up to 2005, but since has lived a life out of the public with her husband of close to 40 years. I introduced the smart, no nonsense, loyal, philosophical woman turning 65 on August 17th, who agreed, who agreed that,

quote, a happy birthday to Susan podcast, end quote, was now the perfect time for our chat. I do. The unapologetic Sue Hawk. Wow. That was so good. You're so good at writing.

Oh my God. Thank you very much. Yes. A beautiful intro. And Sue, it's so wonderful to see you. And I'm so excited that you're here. I am.

It's wonderful to be here. I'm with you guys. So the story is, yeah, I left in, 05. The door, you know what I mean?

It was like actually, we'll just get in that right away so we can get it out of the way. When I was on Survivor 1, I was like, oh my God, I can't win this. I'm too rough for these youngsters.

They're not going to like me all that much. But they'll really like Kelly. So me and Kelly actually formed alliance way before Richard came even to us. Mr. I made the alliance. No, you did.

Whereas we made the friendship, which is basically alliance. So we made this alliance. We'd never vote against each other. And then I even told Kelly, I said, girlfriend, I said, in the end, I said, this is perfect. I said, well, get Richard. It'll be me, you and Richard. Chances are he's not going to lose the win the last challenge.

We'll vote him out. Just stop on him like a bug and he will lose his mind. And it would be fabulous. And I said, you're going to sit up there. And you'll win. You'll win over me because we knew who is all going to be in the jury. at that point. Well, of course, then that game is wild. It's like, it's like at the end, especially with 39 days at the end, because you all know that, your mind is racing and you're like,

you got this paranoid thing going on and Kelly got super paranoid. And Richard, of course, took, uh, took her, uh, took her, uh, you know, like, oh, that's opening for me. She was vulnerable. So he started whispering her ear, you know, oh, Kelly, you'll do so much better with me, there. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Little did Kelly know by her burning me was the one vote that helped Richard win. And it was like, I can't believe that speech. Everything like worked out the way I said.

It was so judicial. I'm on a jury. You know what I mean? I'm not a lawyer. I'm the jury. I get to say what I want. And it wasn't being a sore lawyer. I never thought I would win that million bucks.

So it was being chaffed by the friend. So then in the end, we go on the All-Stars, and we're playing, and I'm just pretty much ignoring Richard. And Richard, I don't know how come they have to learn as they go. They're a bunch of youngsters still doing a show on the All-Stars. They really were. I was still early in the thing. And how they let him just be butt-ass naked for that challenge is beyond me. And Richard thought he had to do that to try, because he's a guy that walks in the room and has got the biggest voice and the biggest, and I'm here and everybody pay attention to me.

ever. And that happened and they weren't acknowledge it at all. They wouldn't talk to me. They went to not. They were just like, oh, the next, when we hit the beach the next day, oh, Richard got voted out. Like, oh, that's going to be good for her. Screw you people. I got feelings too. I got, I got, you know what? I'm a person. Treat me like a person, not just a number on your little cardboard. And so that's why I walked away. But hindsight, I actually in the end, squashed him with my one vote. Because mind you, I don't have a lot of friends. I got just a handful of close friends. The older you get, the less you get, but the closer they get.

But I had a lot. We had 50 million, like Tiberd said on the last show. I had super fans, super, super fans. You know what I mean? And I believe some of these super, super fans were in powers of position with the state. And all I can say, is he got stopped. IRS in prison. Over with done. You got to watch what you what you, you know,

you reap what you saw, buddy. And there you go. So I was like, oh my God. It couldn't work all better. Just, I hate to be, like, I don't want to wish bad things on anybody.

But my God, it was like, oh my God, you get to watch what you do. So you just, you know, make sure when they hand you that check, right, Rob?

Right. Make sure what they had it. Pay your taxes. Right. It was pure karma. It was pure karma. And you know what? There are no coincidences in this life.

None. This is all pre-planned. Yeah. What a Suhawk monologue opening everything? So we got that off. We got that off. So I got to ask, now, do you guys? I watch, I hadn't watched Survivor then.

I'm sorry. I work. I work a lot. I like it. I'm okay with. working a lot. I enjoy what I do. I'm in zone when I'm driving my truck. Even if the traffic is jacked up, I'm still on, you got to be in zone. Anyways, I was thinking about this because I watched 49. I watched 49. And I was like, oh my God, look at all these idols and this. And

that I'm like, I can't keep track of this. And then I watch 49. So then that kind of like prep me to watch 50 because I was like, wow, 50's coming up. I got to see, you know, 25 years or whatever. this is and see how it plays out. And then I kept, on 49, I kept turning to Tim because we would have to watch it like on the computer because they don't put it up for a couple weeks. You know, each episode they like to milk it out. And I don't have like I have zero paid TV.

I don't watch TV. I never was a TV watcher. Yeah. And I only watched myself on the show once. And that was like I'd come home Wednesdays. I couldn't watch myself live. No, or whatever. I'd have to, because it's summer.

And you're working. I was throwing mud. I was running concrete truck then. And it's Wisconsin. You got to get things done in the summer because come winter, you ain't doing Jack. So I'd come home and Tim would record it. That was the only recording device we ever bought. And he recorded.

And then we'd sit there and watch it on a Saturday or Sunday. And we'd be like, oh, my God. And we'd be laughing. We'd be laughing at me because I, you know, I'm not. I'm just like happy. But anyways, so I kept turning to him. I said, how many days? are they doing this?

He said, 26. I said, and I can't ever, I'm like, how many days? He said, 20,

I'm like, 26 days. Oh my God. So I decided, you know, they called this, they're gonna call the new one survivor,

new air or something. Yeah. No. The open, call it up. Call it, you know, softballs.

Let's call it survivor softballs. Because that's what they are. I'm sorry. And then all these calls they got. Why are we getting all these clothes? And these clothes are like shirts that are like blankets and then they're going to sleep at night with hoodies on? With hoodies?

I mean, my God, look at Teresa went through in Africa. Oh, my God. It was just, and we, like you said, we were like the rain and the cold and sand fleas. And sand fleas were so bad. Well, you all know about how Colleen had bug eggs in her legs, right? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, she had like all these bite marks and everything. Was it worse? what we saw? Oh, it was so bad. So these things are biting us up. And then while we're sleeping, it's so bad, you're scratching your legs in your sleep. And we would literally wake up with blood all over our hands. I am not kidding you. And the doctor is like doing nothing. So then after about like 10 days of this, 10 days of pure torture, because they really affected the girls because I think the guys had more hair on their legs and thicker hair. So the Sampleas didn't bite them like that. Anyways, he finally come up and he's like, hey, I got this pill for you all.

It'll stop the itching. And it's like the size of a number two lead pencil head. And we're like, where were you when we really needed this? He was a, where were you? They didn't know. They wanted to see how far they can torture the people. And then I watch now and I'm like, I got hit with that stingray. We didn't know that if you peed on your stingray hit, it would draw it out right away.

Like the one chick did that, the guy got hit with the urchin, which is worse than a stingray. you know and i think her name was kathy pete on it yeah yeah yeah yeah peed on it which is so smart and i dent and so then i'm sitting out there getting horse shots of penicillin and the doctor's like hey uh this ain't working that good we're gonna have to wrap you up and keep it dry because you know you got 200 blood veins in your hand if that infection goes into one of those blood veins it's going to go immediately brain and we're going to have to airlift you to hospital and you're lucky if you'll survive i stayed in the game the case the case you're I mean, I'm like, okay, whatever.

This is where I die. Die. You know, I'm going to die standing happy. Yeah. So what was the reason why you started watching Survivor 49 after all this time? Why? I didn't watch it because I was just too busy and I don't watch TV. But why did you come back?

Why did you start watching it again? Why did I start coming back? I don't know what brought me back. I think I was getting ready for 50 because they already, they had 49, was going to go. Got it. And then they started,

they already started hyping up the 50. And I'm like, yeah, I'm like, oh, 25 years. Wow. So I'm like,

yeah, I got to watch 50. I got to watch 50 because I knew they bring back a bunch of old players, which, of course, I'm watching these people. I'm like, who's this?

You know, but I had no idea. Most of them, like, like, I had to check the stuff out after I watched them. Like, who are they?

We're the, you know, I didn't, I didn't Google them that hard or figure that much at all. But yeah, yeah, it was fun. So, Sue, what did you think about Jenna being out there for 50? You know, when somebody made that comment, she's just standing there like a statue, I was like, I think Colby made it. Colby and Colby, Colby was so funny. He's like, she just stands her like a statue. And I was like, oh, my God, this is, that's exactly right.

It's, that's, you know, boring. Like, I don't think she should have been there. Well, I really don't. Sue, so I'm interested. You called her, you nicknamed her Speedball in Borneo. You called her Speedball. Where did she get that nickname? Because Speedball.

Oh, Jenna. Oh, Jenna Lewis. I was thinking, Genevieve. Oh, Jenna Lewis. Well, she's exactly, Jenna. She is. She's jacked up all the time. she's and doesn't think cohesively as we watched her on number one on this get the first one out.

I mean, that's a worse, I would think. Like you go out there and you wouldn't, that would be the one position you wouldn't want. She's flapping her mouth right away. People are, people nowadays, they're just so like, oh, I got to have the camera on me. I got to be saying this mouth fit and that mouth fit. I got to, I'm going to make it. No, you're not going to make it. You know, you're going to make a little, but it's Hollywood.

And you know what? When the first Survivor came along, and I don't blame the actors and the writers for hating us. I mean, if I was in their position, I would have hated us too. I mean, we bypassed unions, and they got this, and we're basically cheap labor for them. And, but everybody, you know, they're like, oh, all these people are falling in one with all these regular people. And we've worked our whole life to do what we're doing, you know. And so even now, so now, but, so I don't blame them for hating us. I was like, we ain't making it in Hollywood.

They, they're shunned. So take me from, let's start back at the very beginning when you applied. I guess the applications came out in 1999. And, you know, right away you did your video, which was Gilligan Islands themed, which was really cute of those you can look at the internet and find it. what gave you that idea? I mean, did Tim help you with that? Of course, Tim is her husband.

Yeah, Tim did. But see, so this application was huge. And like this house, like non-computer I am. So Tim's doing real estate. And he's not good with a computer. But the queen in the office, I forget her name. She was so sweet. I said, have her download this application from Survivor.

I gave him all the information. She downloaded it. It was like, I don't know, three pages long. But one of the question, was, what character of Gilligan's Island are you? And I grew up watching Gilligan's Island. I mean, that was my show. It's Gilligan's Island. Leave it to Beaver, you know. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, joined thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer

Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca. Right now, for a limited time, everyone's part of the Buick team, even you. Buick's employee pricing for you event is on now. Get a purchase credit of up to $3,168 on a 2026 Buick Envision. Surround yourself with signature Buick refinement from an available massaging driver's seat to an expansive panoramic moonroof and a stunning ultra-wide 30-inch diagonal screen. Don't miss Buick's employee pricing for you event. Visit buick.com for more details. So I was like, I turned to Tim, I said, well, I'm like everybody but the hollows because money,

money's money. You know, I'm just like, if I can pay the bills, hey, cool, and I'm healthy, better yet. I'm way ahead of anybody with a bunch of money and unhealthy. So, So I said, I said, I'm like everyone. So we're doing that. So we're saying, we had a pretty chill house then on a little lake. And we're sitting there chilling before going to bed. And I said, and he'll come up with a song now that he'll pull a song out of his ass. So I said, you got to come up with a song for me for this survivor thing.

They show a little bit of that song. The song was huge and it was funny. And he said he sat there. Okay, we had a hot tub. And he was sitting in the hot tub. We had a patio doors open. He said, he said, I think I went to bed at like 8 o'clock or 8.30 because I got up at like 2.30 at that time, start today.

And he said at 11 o'clock, he got the hook line. And once he got the hook line, he was able to write the song. So we did this song. So you can see me doing the song like I don't memorize anything. So it's on cardboard. My eyes are flashing. I got all our mouths behind me like, hey, I'm a big enterman. fisherman, which I really am.

And so then, but then our is like, it's got to be, we're like, what's three minutes? We've got three minutes. We're like, okay. I said, okay, I'll tell you what. We'll come up. I'll dress as each of those one characters. I'm in Gilligan Island. We'll write one line for it, one little line. And he wrote the lines.

And I had whipped together whatever I had in the house. I didn't go buy anything special for what I had to do. And now in the morning, where we're going to tape is Saturday morning. And I now I worked all wig, busted my balls, you know, working 55 hours, 58 hours and six, five days and our home, our back door. So I said, okay, we're going to do the tape. And he's like, okay, I've got the tape. So he does the song. And then we're going to.

And he's like, hurry up. Hurry up. I got to go show a house. I got a house showing. So the tape wasn't even like maybe two minutes long. And so that night, we actually take the tape over by his boss because we had dinner over the his aunt was a fabulous cook. She was Italian.

She's just so good. She said, come over for dinner, y'all. So we took the tape and we threw it in. And Howie looked at the tape and he turned to me, he said, you're going to be a superstar. I said, shut up, Holly. And so it just went from there. It just went from there.

And basically, when you went out, you know, to the green tree, it was fun. I was like, all I really wanted, really wanted out of this was a vacation out of the cold. Because they were like, oh, this is in March, April. Oh, it can be nasty up there in Wisconsin. in March and April. And I thought,

all I wanted it was a vacation. And so in January, I got called out to Cal, they called me like, you're coming out to California and I was going to be out there nine days. So I was like in the first herd that came out. And I stayed there for nine days. It's out there on Venice,

just by Venice Beach. And I never been to California. And I needed, and I was like, well, hell, I got my vacation. I don't care.

You know, and the biggest thing I probably got. So then you're like, stuck there and you're checking these people out and I see Jenna there and she's hanging out with her brother because she's just so you know, has to have somebody with her all the time and I

didn't remember who else I saw I don't remember. I seen some other people like, oh God, I hope they don't end up if I end up on the island, I hope they're not there because I can just tell they're just a bitch and so we're doing that and then so they got that

final interview. Did you guys do that? At night they bring in for the final interview and they got all the directors and all the producers sitting around. You remember that I had one? Okay. So this lady that was in charge of like kind of the controller, you know, she was like the she'd tell you where to be, blah, blah, blah. And she tells me, come down to the presidential suite, this number suite at like nine

o'clock at night. I'm like, okay. So I get all jacked down. I'm like, ooh, you know, nine o'clock at night. I go down there and I'm standing by the door. And up comes this little chick with like a cashmere pink sweater on like, hey, like Miss Chile. You know, she would have been the Jenna in our thing or the Colleen. And she didn't make it on.

But she comes up next to me and this lady opens the door and this lady did not like me. She didn't like me at all, which is fine. You don't have to like me. I don't like you either. We're working together here. We're doing this is a job. And she says to me, She goes, what are you doing here?

I said, you told me to come at 9. Oh, no, no, no, no, that was wrong. You just go back to your room and we'll call you when we want you. Nine. Okay, that was the last, that was the last straw. You don't treat me like a piece of dirt, okay? Yeah. The way she said it.

So I go back to the room, 2 o'clock they call me. I'm fucking pit. Excuse me, I don't want to swear on this. I really don't. So I am mad. I am so mad. I just throw on some jeans, no shoes. 2 a.m., they call you?

2 a.m., 2 a.m., though. I got a sleeveless guys, like, v-neck t-shirt on. I don't care. I got my vacation. I really don't care, and you people don't impress me. I don't care who you are or how much money you are because that's the way I've gone through life. And we sit down and they started asking me these questions,

and they could tell, like, I didn't care. And they're flipping out and laughing and like, oh my God. And then I was like finally, you know, it's like crazy. I don't know if I told them, hey, I got to go or something like that. Like I got to get out of here. And I did the same thing on the first interview that I had when I had to go up to Green Bay, Wisconsin. So the whole time I'm going to my, look, my boss, she's so sweet. And I'm still friends with them to this day.

And it was a husband and wife, small business, own small business trucking company. And when I went to Green Bay, I said, I need the day off. I said, I'm going to go apply for a part-time job. And they asked me what was involved. And they started laughing. They're like, good luck on getting that part-time job. They're so supportive. Like, they treat their drivers almost like their kids.

And so I go and I do the interview. I'm watching these people. And I'm kind of nervous on this. And I'm watching these people go in and out of the room. Like, bam, they go in, they're out in five minutes. Go in. They're out in five minutes. 10 minutes.

You know, I'm like, oh, geez. So I go in, I was in there, I bet you an hour. An hour, an hour. We couldn't stop laughing. They're asking these crazy questions. And I see, not watching a lot of TV. I listen to a lot of radio. I use my own self-imagination for my life and for what I'm listening to.

It's a good brain exercise anyway. So we're laughing. And I finally told them, I said, guys, I said, I got to get out of here. You got a whole bunch of more people. at an interview, you know? And I would kill, I would kill to this day to see that interview on tape, full blown, the whole thing. It was so good and so funny.

So that part of it was, it was fun. It was fun getting, you know, going. And then the doctor, the doctor's like, oh, we did a psych test on you. I mean, you might like know what they said about you guys. So they do it like, there's something. He goes, you're a high school dropout and a drinker. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, you're way off.

I graduated high school because my mother was mean and she made me. Thank God. And I don't drink. I hate alcohol. I'm actually like allergic to it. So he was all like off the money. But the one thing he was on the money was you're like a John Wayne. I was like, yeah, true grit.

That was a good movie. Yeah. So anyways, yeah. Do you remember if Mark Burnett, do you remember if him and Jeff Proops? I'm sure they were. but did you, did you, I mean, at the time, you wouldn't have known who they were because you were the first season, but did they stick out at all after the fact, after you got out of the island? Did you remember they were there? Oh, yeah.

Well, I didn't know they were there. You know, talk, because it was in the book. Mark Burnett wrote a book about the first survivor, I believe, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I can say this. So we're sitting there.

We're, we don't, you never seen Mark. You see it actually Mark Burnett would show up at some of the challenges and chat with the people a little bit. I think that was just to help calm them or keep them upbeat. You know what I mean? Even though we were upbeat, we were like wild. Thank God we didn't have such a regiment schedule like they do now. Like now it's like, oh, you got tree mail. You and you go check tree mail.

You know, we're like we'd be sitting there like, bored. Okay. Let's go see if there's tree mail. And they'd come back there. You know, tree mill. So it, you know, but he would be. there at the challenges. Jeff would come in if we were doing challenges and they'd give us a heads up on the rules and the regs. He'd come in and talk about that. Jeff disappointed me on a

couple things. Like he's like, oh, the spear is only going to be 15 yards away. So I was practicing that 15 yards. We get to the spear throwing conscious. Now I never practiced running throwing the spear because I didn't have to because I could hit the bulls like at 15 yards standing there. Now it's 30 yards away. I'm like, you're a jerk. You're a jerk. Oh, God. He He irritated me with, you know, not sticking to the, he likes to go out. He can do whatever he wants. He might have changed the rules right now. You can't.

There's only, what, a few rules. You can't hit anybody. He can't split money. And I don't know if there's another one, but yeah, he can, he can change rules as he goes. Of course, we didn't know that on the first one. Well, Sue, I thought they had changed the rules at the end, not really changed the rules, but I thought Mark Burnett had said, this is going to be just like the jury. where you ask a question.

And then I believe you approached Mark and said, well, I don't have a question. I just want to make a statement. And so they're kind of thinking, well, I think he changed it. And I think Jeff then said, you can either ask a question or make a statement. And so then there you were. Yeah, I did. You know, it was funny because you're like, so I was 37 days starved. Like these people are like freaking out if they're star for for two days.

Anyways, I'm like 37 days, which really I'm a low maintenance. No matter how hard I work my metabolism, bird's slow, because I got a really low heart rate too, like resting rate. Like the doctors will freak out. Like if I'm going for a heart rate test, I'll actually palm my foot up and down to keep it up a little bit because I can sink it down low. And I've done it on purpose just to freak people out.

I don't know why, probably because I've been working since I was three years old then haven't stopped. So anyway, my dad, my dad was so funny. He's like, my allowance, my allowance was this. When the work's done, you can go play. That was my allowance growing up my whole life. So, you know, you'd work your tail off fast, so you go play. So anyways, so I'm get off.

Now, I had quit smoking six weeks prior. I've quit years ago now, yeah. I don't smoke no more. Thank God. It was like the hardest thing I ever did in my life. I think I quit 12 times before I finally quit. But so I quit smoking for six weeks because I could back then. If I wanted to quit for a while, I could quit and it wasn't a big deal.

And I quit drinking coffee because I was an avid coffee drinker back then too. I only drink like one or two cups a day now. But I went to black tea, which is not even any better. And so we get off the island and they got food. Food's like, ugh. slept that night, slept really good, actually slept really good, and woke up and I found the little, we were on our island, we didn't realize that we thought these were park rangers, but these were actually soldiers protecting this island because it's a hot spot. And so they had

their little cabin and their big porch, you know, because it's Malaysia. You know how that is out in the jungles. You all know that from being in the Amazon and stuff. And up on the from porch they had their coffee pot with their coffee and they oh my god and they put real cream in like this is probably so organic cream real cream and raw sugar they didn't eat this homogenized sugar that people eat nowadays so that raw sugar so i started i hulked on to that that coffee it tastes like hot chocolate i started smoking my marlboro reds and i did that for two days straight and that was when you wrote the speech yeah yeah That's what I was like, I really didn't have no questions for them.

I knew exactly what went down and what happened. And so I was like, give me some paper. So these guys bring back, they bring back a whole pad, a whole container of paper that you put in a copy machine. Yeah. But I wrote, I'd go off and I'd write, right, right, right, and people were white. And I'd go away from everybody. You know, I'm not, I'm not, I didn't care for a lot of those people. Like, the ones that I ended up with the end to, I did, but I wasn't going to get tight with them.

like I really like Greg and Colleen. Actually really like Greg. He came off on camera one way, but if you got him on the side, he's super intelligent, super nice guy. Me and him would talk, we'd be walking to tribal council and we'd be at the back end of the line talking about cars and because he could talk about anything and talking about cars. And that was weird because that jungle was very weird because then they're a challenge. And then we'd be way back at the far end and the people.

one or two in the very front would holler back to us. What'd you say? Did you call me? And we're like, no. And we didn't think not enough of it until there was this challenge Jeff gave about talking about the island and how it would take your name, that the spirits would take your name and actually play games with you and say your name to yourself.

Yes. And me and Greg were like, when that went down, we're like, holy shit, we see that. happened, you know, that stuff is real. Sue, I never knew you liked Greg. I feel like in the clips I was watching, you would call him psychotic. He was. In front of cameras, he was, but you got him away from the kids. That's, you know, but that was that, I guess some people did go out there for the cameras.

I did, so I didn't get that. But, um, no, super nice kid. Like, he would have made, I don't know what he's doing now, but he should have gone into being like an herbalist. He really should have. He's so smart. He'd be like the most homopathic, rated doctor in the United States right now if that's what he went into. Because he was just that. Oh yeah. The dude was his IQ is probably off the roof. Off the roof. I'm sure he was probably one of the most highest IQ people that's ever played Survivor, probably to this day. Of course, they're not going to tell you that. No. You talk about how you wrote

and you wrote and you wrote the speech and you were drinking all the coffee. How did you memorize it. It seemed like that you... Oh, God. Oh, no. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Because we... So, long story short, I write. I write. It's actually a full page. It's tiny, tiny writing front and back on this paper. Okay? And I put it in my pocket. I'm like, ah.

And I'm like, it's in my pocket. I'm like, God, I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't pull this out and read it. I'm just... But if you watch me, I'm very slow. And you can see my head. head spinning. So my husband said, equated it to, he goes, all you did really, he goes, that was just like the final sales pitch is what you did. And probably being around him being a salesman, some of that's hooked on to me. But if you look at what I wrote, I outlined, that was a final outline.

That was a final cut was that moment. And it was probably better that way. I mean, I was so, I was like, I'm going to, I got to cover my bases here. And, and it was very, I thought it was good. It was very judicial and knowledgeable. And these people are like, oh, she's a sore loser. No, I don't care. I still really don't care about my, you know, that's how bad I don't care about.

So I came home. So I'm running nights now. I was living up in, I lived up in Missouri for 10 years, loved it, but the floods chase me. down between Springfield and Branson, right on a crane creek, man. And the floods were hurt. We went through what, you know, that Texas is going through now back to back. I went through that up there. Oh, Jesus crazy.

Until you've been through a flood, you can't even fan on it. So, but I'm down in Missouri, and I'm running line hall nights. And you're running line hall nights. You're driving. This is before we had the electronic logs. We're running log books. So we run 11, 12 hours at night driving. and I listen a lot of AM radio and stuff.

And I got sidetracked on this. Remind me where I was going on it. So you, we were talking about this, the speech. Oh, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, 2010, 2010, so that night, I listen, I'm listening to East Coast because now you don't, I don't have serious radio and you don't have your phones

with podcasts yet or anything yet. Right. And I come home to my husband. I said, hey, and we had the money. I said, I'm going to take $1,000,

I want to buy this Bitcoin. Okay. My husband says, no, it's stupid. And I didn't want to argue with him. And I was like, got you. You know, and it wouldn't have been easy for me to buy it because I had to go find somebody to figure out how to buy it. So it wouldn't have been that easy of a step, but I wanted to buy $1,000 of Bitcoin

in 2010. So it had to like in 2019, I just turned to him. I said, there you go. I said, get your ass back to work. I would have, you know. know so hindsight. So it's not like I got super mad at him. I just,

but when he brings it up, when he talks about, I'm like, don't even talk about it. Don't even talk about. Don't even go down about it. So yeah, you learn a lot.

Yeah, driving truck is later. Yeah, I bet. Do you realize that they've done all these lists of like the greatest moment in Survivor and almost every single one is your speech at the end.

of the first survivor is the greatest moment in survivor history in 25 years and 50 seasons. It'll never able, because it was, I went into the game. I'm, there's nobody else like me.

I don't want to pat myself on the back, but how many of these people were raised in government schools that had hot lunches and all this and that? I was raised in my grade school. Let's just get an idea. This way, phantom a little bit of where I come from.

I was my folks, we've started it in the city. We had the tiniest house. It was so cute. But my dad, my, see, I get a lot of this from my father,

too, and my father's got a weird backstory. So anyway, and my mother, they're both farm kids. They're both raised on dairy farms. So my dad's an excellent mechanic. He goes in the Korean War.

He wrenches on the big old cargo planes. And he comes back. and actually he had a friend that had drakster in, he was in Hawaii, and the buddy, his Hawaiian friend had a drakster, and they would test run it at night out on the runways. That's where I get my speed freak out of. But so he's working for the Ford dealership, just down the road from our house.

He doesn't even, he can walk to work. He got in it, he was there about three years, now three years, maybe four. And he's got three little kids at home. us three first three symbolies were back to back to back to back. I was the third and five, but I had two older brothers. And he got in a piss-a-match with the boss. And next thing you know, he quit his job. And he went at least the old Enko station.

You wouldn't probably remember that name, gas station, Enko. But at least old get Enko station and went off to work for himself. So in the meantime, then, things went pretty good. He moved us out to the country. We moved out to the country, which was kind of, it was like our neighbors, I had neighbor across the street. We weren't like miles apart. But it was cool because you knew all your neighbors.

You knew all the neighbor kids, the neighbor kids, the neighbors, parents would discipline us if we were being bad. And my schools now, this is a deal. I went to three room classrooms. The first school was first grade, second grade, and fifth grade. They put the fifth graders there kind of help keep the little kids, you know. I don't know. It made sense instead of first, second, third.

Well, that was about one mile down the road from my house. So that's where I went. And when I had fifth grade there, I actually had finally got my pony that I cried for like a month again. Because everybody else had horses. I wanted a pony. Finally got my pony. I would literally, fifth grade, ride my bike to school.

Because at lunch, while all the other kids were hanging out having lunch, I would jump on my bike, ride at home, check on my pony, spend like 10 minutes to eat lunch. That's probably why I'm not a foodie to this day. And then right back to school, I'd be back to school before the half hour of lunch was up. And then the other school was the second, third, and sixth grade. And that was only three rooms. And our library was in our classroom along the very bottom of the windows.

That's where our library was. And we were taught by the neighborhood ladies. Like my third grade, my third grade was my third. Yeah, third grade teacher was a sheep farmer that lived up the road. Turns out my fifth grade teacher was actually the mother to that mom and pa trucking company I went to work for. But mom was this jazz game. So I grew up in a completely like the last of the good days where people were, you know, character was made and hard work was recognized. And you know, and you had to figure things out for yourself.

I didn't, my mom, I hope your parents did this to you. You screwed it up. You figure it out. Or I don't have time to help you. You figure it out. That was the greatest thing you could ever do for a kid. Greatest thing. So yeah, that's where I, yeah, that's where I come from.

But yeah, to be, it's kind of cool, actually. But, you know, so this is weird. And so we're talking about this. Okay, I got to get my feet off that. Okay. So the year before we go on Survivor, okay there's moments i mean i've been married 40 years but there's times like if i had a if i could choke my husband i would have um so he says me or just slapped them upside the head really hard because it's

like what are you doing so uh and i'm sure he said the same about me so we get we have that we get married we don't buy a house we buy a run down camp up in the canadian bush revive it i realize a Canadian government is crazy and control freaks back then. And this is 87 and 93 that we own the camp. And it worked out great. We actually sold the camp to some Canadian kids that were like the same age as us. And to this day, they still own that camp. It was the greatest camp because it was rare camp. Because we actually owned the three acres of camp was on. We owned a mile up and a mile down, the mineral rights, which is kind of weird. And it had a beach. It was beautiful, beautiful camp. And they're still there and they raise their family. there and I hope their kids take it over.

So anyways, we come back, 93. And we're home about a year. Now, we did all this bear hunt. I had, I went, I hunted two bears wise up there. And after I shot my second bear, I said, I can't shoot no more bears. I'm like, eh, because you skin a bear out, this is weird. You skin a barrel. If you skin a barrel out and cut them off at the head, he looks just like a human being,

like a bodybuilder. It's kind of creepy. And they're so cool. and they're so funny and each one's got personality. And we had to manage our own bear area. So we'd like make up names for bears in different areas. And we'd bait them accordingly because if we knew there were mother and cubs there, we'd bait them to keep them there.

So they wouldn't go wandering off to somebody else's area and get shot. And we did a good job. We guaranteed a shot. We didn't overhunt. But I shot too. I shot one with the gun and one with the bow. And I'm like, I'm done. And we come back.

And Tim now in the meantime had all the chance in the world to hunt a bear up there. But he was always involved with the hunters. He'd take him out. Like, it's really like he timed everything. When the hunters were coming close to coming, you took the bait in the woods about the same time you're going to take the hunter out there. So you're training the bear, you know, to make this easier. Long story, he never hunts a bear.

So we come back a year later, he says, I want to hunt a bear. I'm like, really? Why? Why didn't you hunt a bear? Well, I want a hound a brown bear. Okay. I said, were you thinking about it? Well, he says, now remember, Russia fell on 91.

Okay. So the Soviet Union dissolved. And he says, now Russia ain't been hunted all these years. The Russian, the cordiac bear and the Russian brown bear are the same species. They are. They're coastal. They live on fish. They're huge.

So Tim says, well, they're shooting. All the big ones have been shot up in Alaska. There isn't many big ones left. But Russia's wide open and they're shooting huge brown bears there. And I'm like, okay. And then he's like, tells me how much it's going to cost. I said, okay. I said, well, let's figure it out.

We started saving the money. So by 99, the money was, the trip was planned way ahead. But we knew we went in 98, I think we put the money out for it. We'd save the money for the trip. Tim to buy, to do his bear hunt. Now, none of his buddies had enough. money or I'm gunching to go over to Russia with him. So the tag along, if you tag somebody along, was only like 3,500 bucks for the Russian part of it.

I'm like, okay. I said, I'll go with you. We'll just find somebody to watch the dogs. I think we moved his mom into the house where we were gone to watch dogs. And I'll go with you. And you can go bear hunting and we'll do it. And oh my God, it was the wildest trip. I can't, I can't, dudes, they said, oh, you're going to go in with a helicopter.

Once you fly from Alaska to Comchaca, no, the front half of the plane is passenger plane. Now, I'm on a passenger plane with guys that own, like, factories that make gate spells and stuff like that. We're just a bunch of dumbass rednecks, you know, poor kids that just save their money. So then, and the back half is actually, like, you know, packages and stuff like that. So we get over there. and this so they tell now this it started out crazy ass right off the bat right off the bat you go into this like building that's like a pole barn like i've seen nicer pole barns at horse stables and it's only the size of like 1500 square feet is there entry into russia there but there's guards there with AK 47s i mean these guys are serious and so the the guy told tim he said when they give you all this things what to do what not to do do not put your bullets in with your gun

in your gun case. Well, it's a habit. It's a habit for hunters to put their bullets in with their gun case. If they're there, they're in there, keeping dry.

Tim puts his bullets. So when they open up his gun case, his bullets are sitting a wide off. The guy that's, now the guy, Victor, I'll never forget his,

I don't know his last name because they're all, but Victor was in charge of these hunters coming over and watching, getting them through the customs onto the bus that would take him

to the helicopter airport. Victor took the gun case and supposed. And supposedly he used to be the head of the KGB and KMchaca. Okay? Remember, they just had a big ass earthquake there a year or so ago. Yeah. Yeah.

And Comchaca. So Victor takes the case and slams it down on the guy's hands practically. This is great. We go. And I'm like, oh, my God. So that started it. We get on the little boss. And it's wild because this is 99 now.

So they've had eight years of like semi-freedom. Because basically what was running on them was a mob. which I'm fine with because, you know, just don't piss them off. So we're going down and you see their apartment buildings are like what we consider warehouses with windows, but they're like seven stories up, just concrete walls. Some would be painted like yellow and pink. And then some were still that Soviet green. So it's like, seeing them come out of this transformation as wild.

So we get to the helicopter airport. And me and Tim are like getting off the bus and we got our stuff. And this guy comes up to us and takes us on. arm and puts it in front of you guys are going, you're going somewhere else. And I'm like, and you know, Harley, so I spent a year in the truck playing a tape trying to learn rushing. And I learned like 10 words in the end, but I remember Horatio, Horatio was good, you know, like, yes.

So I learned, that's about all I could do. I'm not a language learner. So we're like, oh, my God. So we get in the back of this little truck and their trucks, you think these trucks are are little, like they're really little. So we're in the back. We're shoved in this guy, this Russian guy, all he said was interpreter, interpreter, we're going to go to

an interpreter. So he goes to a house, he gets his package. And Tim, of course, has got going off like, oh my God, they're taking us away. They're going to kill us. They're going to take your passport. You're going to go into it. They're going to make you a sex slave. He's like freaking my brain out. So we end up at an apartment building then. Victor's

daughter, who's 16, well-educated, spoke English, come out of the apartment building and she sat in the front seat next to the driver because we were in the backseat. It was like a crew cab little truck. And she started telling us what was going on. And she says, she says, you're going to go on a snowmobile. You're going to go to a snowmobile camp, which means you're going to go over rivers.

There's so much snow there in the winter. You literally go over snow bridges to get into this camp on the snowmobiles. We're like, okay, she goes, but you can't go until tomorrow because they're bringing the other hunters that were up at this camp out tomorrow. we're going to meet them back at the airport and then your grades will go with them and they'll take you in on the snowmobiles. But in the meantime, they didn't want to keep me in the city because it's so dangerous now because it is run by the mafia. My passport was worth like $30,000 back in 99. So they took us out, I'm not kidding you, to a brothel.

And these people are so smart. They got these concrete swimming pools. Now this place has got, it's got all these rooms. And the lady at the brothel, the headmistress, all she could say was a few words in English, but could she say University of South Carolina because she was working so hard and making such good money that she was putting her kid through college in America. You know what I mean? America still rocks.

So they got this. Now, we don't really, it's dark. It's at night. So we go in this room and it's wild because you got the velvet wallpaper, the lumpy bed. You got the sink that's pink. You got the toilet that's the lime green. These people just grab whatever they can to make things work. And they're happy with it.

And we could hear the girls out in the room at night, giggling and laughing and all this stuff. So then in the morning we woke up and they fed us like kings. Like I had caviar for the first time and they were fish and it was like wild. So then she showed me a tour of the bruffle. And they had two huge concrete pools. They weren't painted. but you know how they ran this year round is because that's a fire and ice up there.

They literally pumped that thermal germal water, the warm water from the volcanoes underground. Okay. They pumped that into the pool. And what they do, so they really didn't have chemicals or anything, it was a continuous pump through. It would just keep coming through and going out,

coming through and going out. So they swam in warm swimming pools when it was like zero degrees out there. in Siberia. And it was wild because we're hanging out, hanging out all day and she could tell we were getting bored.

So she's like, she told me enough. She says, you want to go see my greenhouse? I was like, yeah, like, how do these people survive

in the middle of winter? Because all they got is these little carts by the apartment buildings that would sell little provisions of food and stuff, not much. And she took me to the greenhouse, which I'm sure,

I'm assuming now is probably a community greenhouse. They made it with, two by fours and plastic and they were growing a lot of beets in there. They live on a lot of beats and cabbage. And because they're easy grows. They're just easy grows. And they would pump the warm water into this greenhouse, the water of these plants. And that would warm the greenhouse.

And we walk in the greenhouse. It's like, oh, God, it's hot here. We've had barkers and stuff like. So I was like, oh, this is wild. And this is so smart. These people are so smart. So then we're like, it's going to go back to the brothel. So because this is like a couple miles.

away from the brothel. And we're in our car and we're driving in the back. And I get along with people. It's what they show on TV. I really do enjoy people. I don't care who they are or what they are. I just enjoy people. I don't care anything, what class of life they're from.

I just love people and their souls and their intelligence. All of a sudden, underneath her dash, it started smoking, like electric with fire in the car. And we're like, oh, my God, we can't drive the car no more. Now me and Tim are like freaking out because our passports are all back at the room. So if somebody stops us and we're like Americans with no passports, we're like, screwed. So we got we walked. I never walked so fast in my life. And Tim even hooked it.

We got back. Everything's cool. Her car, I asked her about her car. She's like, yeah, it's going to be okay. It's just a little wire and stuff. So then the guy comes to pick us up to take us to the airport that owns a brothel. He shows up in like this Cadillac with Gold. rooms. I am not kidding you. He smiles and his teeth are all gold. I'm like, dude, you're making

it, man. And so he takes us back to the airport. We meet up with our guides. Tim was lucky. He had two guides. And Tim went, we were hunted back in the bush. We went in on the snowmobiles. They pulled us. Their snowmobiles are weird. They're like different than what we're used to. They got one fat ski in the front and then two tracks on the back, probably because they handle better. I'm sure one ski handles better than two. So then they pull us in on dog sleds. And I mean, literally, like, these would be what mushers would use in Alaska that are wrapped together with the trying to make, no metal.

It's all dog sleds. Pull us in on dog sleds. We get to the camp. We got an interpreter who is a principal. Now, she's a principal at the high school and an English teacher. But she comes out to this camp. The Russians, you know, everybody's like, oh, but they, they, they, they, monitor their bear hunting very well.

They only had 28, 21 days of it. It started in the spring and it would end on the 21st day. The first one comes to bears, the first guys out of hibernation are the big boys. The boys, the big bores are the first ones out.

So they're the ones that are going to get shot first. And then the littler guys start coming out, the younger males. And then at the very end of the hunt, when the hunt is over, is when the females come out. and the cubs. So the females and are hardly ever shot, hardly ever shot. And these big boars have been round long enough. They have passed their genetics on to the younger male cubs that are to be

coming up. So it's not like their genetics is lost. But you're not losing your breeding pack that way. And they'd only have two hunts, two 10-day hunts. So we go in and this, she speaks pretty good English. She was our cook too. And you know what? It's amazing what you can make for, we had two, five of us she'd made soup out of like, you know, three chicken legs. And, and they made a sweet bread, which reminded me of a pancake, was their big staple with the bread and lots of vegetables, beats some, like I said, beats and cabbage. So, so Tim's got these, now Tim's hunting with these guys and these guys are hunters. They're hunters and trappers.

And they've been guiding heart surgeons, guys that are like, oh, take me to the bear, shoot bear for me or let me you know what I mean I gotta be within 50 yards I you know they ain't hunters I'm sorry some of them might have been there might have been a few hardcore ones I noticed the guy that owned the the belt company on the plane I was like I think you're you've been out and about too a lot of these guys have gone on safaris you know where everything's taking care of for them not like me and Tim just little bush asses just going out there you know hunting rabbits whenever we could with bow and arrow just shoot things so anyways um they're like excited.

One, God, one was Victor, another Victor, and Sasha was the other guy's name. And they were so excited to have Tim with them hunting, really literally hunting. And these guys went out to get Tim a bear.

They're like, we're going to get this guy, because it's going to be bragging rights too, amongst this whole crew. Because you got to remember, there's other guys out there with these other helicopter people. So this is like a community.

This is a community. they were on the side, but you got to remember that. And it doesn't matter if you're in Russia or America, boys like the boast. Puff, puff, puff. So they take him out hunting and he hunted, he hunted his tail off. And they're seeing some, but not in big. And May Day, and they told us on May Day, I forget what day was our last day of hunting, was like maybe the 5th of May or something.

They're like, on May Day, don't plan on going out hunt because that's a national holiday. everybody from eight-year-old up gets drunk on potato vodka. It's just something big went down with them. So that's her national holiday. Well, these guys forgot. They took Tim hunting on May Day. And that's a day Tim shot his bear. And it was, but in the meantime now, Tim's, they've, these guys are so excited with Tim.

At one point, the one guy, I think he rode with Victor behind him on the dog sled. And then not, uh, Sasha pulled the other dog sled in case they got a bear. They had a way to bring it back to camp. So Victor parked the snowmobile and forgot to set the break. And these guys, they're on mountains. And Tim's in the dog sled kind of strapped in. And Tim's not the real lot. Like, go, you know, athletic type of guy.

So the sled starts falling backwards, running down the hill, the mallard backwards. Tim said, oh, my God. He said, I was scared. And they freaked out. He said these shoes. And now you're in deep snow, but they're like, they got snow shoes on. or the other thing they used was a lot of skis. And on the bottom of their skis,

they literally put seal pelts, because if you run your hand on a seal pelt and run it backwards, it's really stiff. And that would act like grabbers on the snow. So you could literally walk up a hill on skis. So these guys get, so they shoot this bear. The bear was a phenomenal hunt for Tim.

Tim shot it about 150 yards shot. It was a perfect shot. When they got to the bear, the bear was holding. But the bear, it was a sad shot for him too because he's never hunted. He never has hunted a big game animal since because the animal was so majestic and so powerful. He did a good shot on it. It was a perfect shot.

Right through the flank came out through the armpit, took out the vitals. The bear dropped. But then the bear got up and it turned. He said, and it looked at me and he stomped. his feet like, bitch, I'm still the king. And the Russians, of course, are freaking out. So they're unloading their guns on them. Little they know the bear was going to die anyways.

But they got the bear. So on the way back, though, they put the bear on the thing and they're excited because this is a big bear. It actually scored like 34th biggest bear shot in Russia at that point in 99. Because they measure the skulls, you know, they don't go by body weight or high length or anything like. It's all in the head. And on the way back, Dan,

it up. Now, these guys don't really know where they're at because they were actually on top of a volcano because the steam is coming out of this thing through all that snow that's laying on it. And they go down and they end up going by an army camp that they, because they're kind of lost and kind of guiding them army camp and these guys. He said, he said, Susie, Russian soldiers came out of the camp instantly when they heard the snowmobiles holding AK-47s again. He said, Victor and Sasha both got up on their snowmobile on one knee. They weren't right next to the camp, but he said it was like they puffed themselves up. Like, hey, we're out here, hon.

You know, leave us along. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, joined thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. But you could, he said you could feel the tension between the two of them, even though they're both

Russians, you know what I mean? It's like, dude, what are you doing out here in this part? This is our army tour. So anyways, we made it, and we made it home. I did see, no, I actually got it in with them. See, they had, they have a lot of jack rabbits up there, which they're huge, they're huge jack rabbits in Siberia. But then when I, they were off hunting, I'd be outside.

It was so nice. It was actually too nice for Siberia that time of year. And I'd be sitting on a stump, reading a book and just watching the, we were right by a creek. Actually, I took a bath in the creek on day five. I didn't care. I couldn't take it no more. I put on oversized t-shirt and got wet.

I seen a white wolf. I'm like, whoa. I see you over there. I see you over there. And I tell, so they come back from her and I'm like, hey, man. I told the turquered, tell him I saw a white wolf today. And they're like, no, no, she did. She didn't see no white wolf.

They don't come down this far. They don't come down this far. I'm like, okay. Okay, I know what I saw. And then a couple days later, I see it again. Now this time I go high tailing around right where it was. And sure enough, the snow now is so soft. It's leaving tracks.

left tracks. So when they come back from hunting, I showed him, I said, dude, you got a guy of warfare. And they're like, oh my God, wow. It was such a greatest trip. And then the Tim shot the bear. I don't drink. But that night I drunk. And Tim said he's never seen me so drunk in my life. I partied with, they called their friends from town to come out and party. And the one lady, Tim's like, could get over how beautiful her teeth was. She was a teacher with the principal. And her husband was a cop in town and we drank potato vodka, Russian champagne, and there was some moonshine, somebody left back from one of our hunters. We were so, he said, you guys are so drunk.

And I didn't speak a word they spoke and they didn't speak a word I spoke, but we partied all night long. Wow. It was wild. That was a year before Survivor. So, only not Survivor to me, you know, flying out there was Jack. So Sue, that was in 1999 where you applied for Survivor. That could be a movie.

You went to audition. I'm sure, I know why your interview went over an hour. You started, you know, I'm sure. I'm a story teller. I'm sure they thought this woman is going to be confessional gold. She can talk. And so you mentioned, you mentioned Tim, and Rob would ask you, when you did your crazy, your wonderful speech, you were telling us, when Tim was listening to it, what did

he tell you about that? And did he realize? I didn't tell him anything. I didn't want to take away no surprises. I was just like, because I think the finale, I don't remember did the finale. Oh, I was actually off work for the finale and I had to watch it next to those people live. I'm like, oh my God, I'm ready for that. I'm like, oh my God. They're going to be, they're going to, they're going to shoot spears at me after this, especially the ones that didn't see it. So I told him, I said, just, I said, I said a few things at the end. I said a few things at the end. And so he, all he said to me, he says, oh, he goes, that was great.

You did a perfect final sales speech. It goes, that was good. It did surprise him because I'm sure I've ripped tongue on him a few times prior to that. I have. I've scolded. I had, you know, 40 years. Now, you got to, you got to scold. the other part now and then. Hey, it's good. So I had read that you and Tim got hitched in Vegas for $100. Tell a little bit.

You got hitched there for $100. And you mentioned the gentleman with the gold Cadillac. Wasn't the gold Cadillac involved when y'all got married? Oh, God. This is so funny. This is funny. I was a riot. James Brown?

Yes. Tell us. James Brown preacher man. So we get, so we're like, okay, we go visit Tim. Tim's dad, Tim never met his father. Tim, you know, it was a shotgun wedding. Six months later, Tim's dad left. Tim's mom raised him herself.

That was a way back then. But Tim knew his father was there. He tried to contact him like when he was 16, but his mom had put the knife in between him, you know. And Tim's dad lived in Arizona. We lived in, Tim lived in Wisconsin. So finally, I was like, dude, you at least got to know your father. If he's alive, you're lucky that you can actually. actually know who your father was. I said there's a lot of people out here don't even know what

their father was. So we went down to Arizona meet him and it was great because Tim's got a lot of his attributes. Tim's really smart with math. He's like a mathematical savant. And his dad is the same way. His dad ended up without a college degree ended up working for a company and head of, he was a manager of I don't know how many people on a computer that built parts for the Conquest airplane that they don't fly anymore. So that's where he came from. But in the meantime, Tim's dad likes to play cards just like Tim, blackjack and poker.

So we're like, oh, and Tim's, now Tim's dad is on his, he wasn't good at the marriage thing. I think it was his third wife. She was really nice. She was a redneck from South Carolina, I think. And so she worked with him, and that's how they hooked up, got married. They had retired early, took their early retirement. So we drove up to Vegas together, and it was on.

mother's day and we started to plan on a wedding because we weren't engaged and I'm like I don't want nothing to do with this is pain and you know behind forget it so we're like we'll just elope up in Vegas and we'll tell our parents when we come back yeah we knew our parents would be mad but my dad really wasn't mad though I think he was relieved and uh because he had five kids to raise you had two younger kids that I mean you want to dish somebody out for a wedding so um we went hundred bucks. And I found the chapel because there was a movie going across America where a couple sales, everything they have in California, buy a motorhome, and they're going to replant themselves on the East Coast. And in this movie is a Silver Bell's wedding chapel

because they're going to renew their vows on the way through Vegas. So that's how that I was like, we got to go to Silver Bells. Okay. So that's where he went. Ernie, I'll never forget the guy that ran, his name was Ernie. He was our witness because we told Tim's dad, you can't be here. If his mom can't be here, you can't be here. And they were like, yeah, that's smart of you. And so then Ernie's like, well, I called the preacher and it's taken forever. Now, we're nervous. We're so nervous.

It's taken like forever for this guy to show up. And it's like 20 minutes later. And then all of a sudden this gold, this Cadillac is so gold, gold paint, gold ribs, pulls up. And James Brown imitator, preacher man walks out. And I'm like, oh, my God. It just like, no way. And I'm like, yeah, way.

I'm like, if you don't marry me now, I should never get married. And we're both like, you know what? And they put it on videotape. It was so quick and so great. And this guy was so wonderful. He was the greatest preacher ever. He's a guy that you'd like just go to Sunday church just to hear is wailing it, like how you're going to go to hell because, you know, you sin last week and you didn't repent.

And it was, it was a hundred bucks, 100 bucks. So Tiber. So in the meantime, after Survivor, I got to think Survivor got me the ticket to get out of Wisconsin and the cold weather finally. I had been wanting to get out for years, but we just couldn't find the way or the ambition or the courage to leave the homeland, you know. And with the little extra money in our pocket, I was out on some kind of gig somewhere in New York. It was December. I came home. My Tim doesn't do heights at all.

Well, it had snowed so much that winter. I had like two feet of snow on the roof. You had us go shovel the roof off. I'm halfway through the back half of the roof now. I'm three quarters way through. I turned on to Tim and he's just there as a little angel, like, you know, protecting me in case I do thought. I said, we're moving.

I said, I'm done. I'm done. I can't take this no more. We're done. We're going to Vegas. So we moved to Vegas. We're not in Vegas, but a couple months. And I said, we've got to go revisit our Silver Girls Welling Chapel, you know.

We're going to go just drive, do a drive-by. It wasn't a couple nights later if that place didn't burn down. Oh my God. It burned down. We never did get to go see it again. But it's funny. Vegas in the weddings is great. I mean, you could ask for a better way to get hooked.

Sue, I really want to add this in. My daughter Ellie got married about three years ago. Rob, Sue sent Ellie a card. And I just want to put one little parts she put in the card for Ellie was this is what she said to Ellie. 40 years in worth all the work talking about, of course, her Tim, her husband. And this she says this, quote, now remember the vows are sacred. I told by Tim when we got married, I didn't believe in divorce, but I damn well believe in murder till death do us part, end quote.

Thank you for sending that to Ellen. Oh, good, good. Because you know what? People just give up so easy. So we're talking about easy. Well, let's get off of me all together now. Oh, no. I'm like, oh, no.

We're not for you. The powder pops out there now. Just blow them. I'm like, I don't know. I'm so disconnected because I don't do Facebook. I don't do none of that. I just hear what I hear. And I see what I see.

And it's sad. I'm like, I feel sad for you people. Because if something really hits the fan, you're all just going to, you're going to just be walking to the gate. hand in hand and not questioning anything. Sue. And I just don't get it. Sue, I want to know after your first season, which totally blew up with reality TV.

Yeah. And then you did, y'all, you did all your media. So I wanted to find out from you of all the media you did, what was the most special? What did you enjoyed the most? What was the most memorable that you did? Oh, you know why? All the media I did was working with TV guide. TV Guide was a wonderful crew to work with, and we had so much fun.

Like, I did have, like, when I'd go back to looking, like, the following week, I'd go into a studio to review what went on, like, the next day so they could air it. I had a guy Bart wrote for me, and me and him hooked up, like, he was into my head, like, right off the bat. This dude was so smart. Barr was there, and then, I can't think of the boss at CVS. that was my handler. He ended up actually running TV guide, I think. But they were cool. The media, I had fun.

I had to parades. Like, I met so many people. Like I did a parade in Virginia. I think it was called the Apple Blossom parade. And little dynamite Peggy, Peggy Lee, I think her name is. The singer was one of the big on-a-trick. Rocking around the Christmas tree, Peggilly? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

She was rocking it. No, I mean, come on. It was just, it was all good. And I'll never forget. But this is, you know, in all hindsight, it's been fun to watch. They owned you after Survivor, right? Well, you don't, so you make the money in advertisement. I mean, nobody knows that.

I was like, I like to make a little change. So maybe I wouldn't have to bust my balls in the truck every day for the rest of my life. Well, sure enough, I had three big advertisement offers. and Les Moves sitting around his little Wednesday poker table with his buddy was probably laughing like, that's the last thing I'm going to let her do because we don't want. Or we don't want to associate beer with Survivor. The other one was Wendy's. There were two beer companies in Wendy's.

And Wendy's didn't advertise with Survivor. So, oh, no way we can let her do that. You know, I love Wendy's too. When I did eat fast food, Wendy's was a choice. I haven't ate fast food for 20 years now. I quit. I quit a lot of things in 2006. Actually, in the end,

Richard set me into my darkest space in my life. And I went to Missouri into the bush, into the Ozark Hills. And in 2006, I had epiphany one day when I'm out running my dog. Me and my dogs hung out. Like, my dogs ran free anyways because we lived so far out.

There was nothing there. Like the next door neighbor was a mile away. And I had epiphany. I said, because listening so much talk radio on AM radio, I learned about Mancenteau, and I'm like, oh, my God, they're trying to kill us all. I'm like, and that, of course, I had started a garden. My garden, freaking blew up after that. I love gardening. Oh, with hairlum seeds.

Do you garden, Teresa? Yeah, we have, not a big one. Not a big one? No, not a big one. Do you do the harems off? No. Oh, my God, you got to do the hairlooms? their room seeds are so much fun because then you plant them again.

It's like, oh, this is third generation seed that I raised like little babies and they actually taste better. So anyway, my garden blew up and I decided that's why I really started cracking down trying to quit cigarettes. That was tough. I didn't quit to like 2010, but I'm like, I ain't eating no more fast food. I ain't eat another jock. I ain't ripping open no packages.

Okay, so Sue, you said CBS owned you and I know that we had a. Yeah, they said, aren't you. And you couldn't do anything unless they said. Only for just a year or something, right? Wasn't it just a short time? No, no, no, no, no, no. I think on the first one, the first one might have been six months, but they still owned Survivor Sue to an extent.

You know what I mean? They always own me with thoughts. Did you get an agent like so many people did? Yeah, yeah, I did. I did. I actually got an agent because she did a great. job. Sherry Spillane. And she

understudied under a lady, I can't think of Ruth's last name, but Ruth was an agent that found a childhood actor. Wow. And brought him out of a mobile home in Florida. He was living in a mobile home in Florida. It was famous. Rudy, I can't think of it. Because I'm not big on TV.

Brought him up, got him the biggest contract in Hollywood at that time when he He came out of hiding, like the actor who played Rudy? No, no, he's a childhood actor that if you guys seen him, you know him. And he was like lost forever. And then he came back as an adult with like the biggest contract. It was a half million dollar contract at that time. But anyway, so yeah, I had an agent because I got, how are you going to deal with that stuff?

You know what I mean? You just can't. What all were you doing? Because I know you had to have been doing all kind of stuff that they did approve. well just game shows just other game shows like i did cannonball run and a doggy dog and then some celebrity stuff but there was no there's no lucrative like oh then the tv guy you know yeah uh but there was no actual lucrative advertising thing then like with rebuck or um just it's just you know you're only as hot as you are when you're hot because after one well then you all uh

came back with Australia you know so then it's like oh we got some newbies we can and we cannot tap into let me mention this you actually won Dog Eat Dog yeah I did what was dog eat dog

it was like I forget we were Richard was on it and a couple of reality people I think from Fantasy Island and it was questions and then you had to have challenges you had to win the challenge and if you won the challenge and you got it went on to the next stage.

And there was two of us at the end. And it was, it was crazy because you were on a, the end. All I remember, Tiberd was at End Challenge standing above the water and way above the water. And you're on a little pedestal that's just on a pole. And you got to have both feet on it.

And you had a balance. And you had a balance. And I outbalanced the other girl. Barely, barely outbalanced the other girl because I wasn't much of a balancer. But, yeah, that chick that co-host of that is a big game show.

co-host. Like she did the Beast show, I think. Brooke Burns? Yeah. Burns did that show. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Burns did that show.

I was on so many. I can't. Five years. It was a five years. I did go five years and actually made a little bit of a living off. It made basically what I'd make driving the truck. It wasn't a whole lot. But it was enough for me.

You know what I mean? But then after and then went on the All-Star and blew it. I was like, oh, no. No, this is, yeah, I don't need it. Go back to what. what I enjoy, what I know, what I'm really good at. And trucking's been, I got to say, the trucking's been very, very good to me. It has.

And you know what? Sure, you work with your crew and your boss and you got, you know, dispatchers and stuff like that. But a lot of times you're your own captain in your own boat, in your own space. But people don't realize how much, like when you are in your own space and you drive a truck, you're thinking about, you can be thinking about two different things at time. first and foremost is the traffic. After 35 years, it becomes second nature, but you never take it for granted. I hit a green light.

If I go through a green light, even with my car, my husband hates driving in a car with me because I drive it like I'm driving my semi-truck and drives them wild. I'm like, no, I still cover the intersection. I don't care if three, four cars have gone in front of me. I still, as I'm going through, the foot's off the gas,

it's over the brake, and I'm covering the intersection. You know, you can't, nothing for granted. I've seen a lot of, I've seen a lot of bad accidents, man. I'll tell you what. Did CBS, had they ever ask you back? Like, Heroes versus Villains, I would have for sure thought you would have been on there. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. CBS hasn't talked to me since.

Is it hard to believe that the age that you are now, you'll be 65 tomorrow? Yeah. It basically is the same age that BB and Sonia were when they played with you in Borneo. is that right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right. Actually, you were older now than they were when they played, when Sonia began.

Right? Wow. I think they were around 62 or 63. And I didn't even realize you were the same age, but you and Rich and Gretchen were all 38, 39. Y'all were the same, basically the same age. Yes. When we played, when we played. Yeah.

Yeah, we were. Me and Rich was the same. age and we were like wow and gretchen gretchen was the same age as me yep gretchen was 38 and head oh she disappointed me so bad because me and gretchen because me and gretchen we hooked up on the boat that was taking us out because on the border it was free for all you can talk to wherever you want they weren't they weren't isolating us on that first one we were on this Malaysian boat full of all this stuff with their fish traps and the survival gear and me and gretchen are like we go on my We both come up to each other and we're like, hey, I know you, you know me, because we're two of a kind.

And we were same age, strong women. And Gretchen told me what she was and survivalist from the Marine. I'm like, shit. I said, I'm a redneck hunter. Same darn thing as that other than, you know, you're surviving against whatever, mother nature. So I said, so we said, you know, they're going to throw us off this boat. She says, yeah. I said, you know what?

You see all this stuff around here? I said, we should start splitting it up. Your team make a pile for your team. I make a pile for my team. And she's like, yeah. So me and hers are splitting stuff up. Okay, one for you, one for me. And we were doing it fairly.

And we were doing so fairly, there are three serons. Those things you wrap around you that they wear in Malaysia. There are three of them. And we're like, well, so we took it and we ripped it in hell. off and she got, and Jenna, I'll never forget, started freaking out there. We were ripping the sarin and half. And me and Cratchett and earlier, like, whatever. So then the crew, now they're not fine, Burnett and I'm on the board.

They're seeing what's happening and they're freaking out because they can't say anything because it's not against the rules. We only had a couple rules, and that wasn't against the rules. So they go below to have a powwow, and they come up and they come up. And Burnett comes up to me and Gretchen, like trying to be a badass, which he didn't not make the bad cop. Greg Philancheon made the bad cop. Burnett's too soft.

So he comes up to mirror. Okay. You got to put all that stuff back. I mean, Gritchin fit each other like, okay, yeah, right.

We didn't say, we didn't argue. We took like a couple things, put them back and left it at that. Like, ha, ha, we got you. We got you.

So then when the time and throwing us off, they're throwing the bucks out and showing us what teams are going to be with teams. And because of Gretchen and Susan, doing what they did with the supplies, you were going to have three minutes to exit the boat. Now you only have one minute to exit the boat.

So, I was like... I wonder what the other of these people because we were wild. We broke loose. It was so much fun dropping off that boat. And then when I heard, we had it so easy because the tide took us in

to our camp. We were dragging all this stuff that we never even used half of it. But the other camp was fighting the tide to go in. literally had a hook a boat to them to finish tone them in. They wouldn't never made it. Never. They didn't think about that.

But Sue, what was the part where Gretchen disappointed you? Oh, when she, so then I'm looking forward to Gretchen. I'm like, I'm getting along with Kelly. What day did we merge on, Rob? You're the, I would guess, uh, day 19. Okay, day 19. So day 19, yeah, because then we got 20 days left. So halfway through.

That makes sense. Um, so then me and, uh, uh, uh, I've been hanging with Kelly, getting along great with her. We're building benches and we're doing all this cool stuff to make camp great. But then we're looking forward to the merge to have new people to associate with because we're getting bored with each other, which is a big part of being out there, the boredom. So they come over and us girls go hiking out right away. We get Gretchen and Jenna and I don't know who else was left with the girl, Colleen, on their thing.

But a few of us girls get out. And me and Kelly get Gretchen off to the side alone. And we're like, hey, hey, what do you think we do like a girls' alliance here and take the guys out? And something on that line. And Gretchen says, oh, I don't know about that. I think we should get to know everybody. Me and Kelly look, I did get along.

We looked at each other like, Oh, she's dumb. We don't have time to get to know everybody. She is so dumb. So then that was, we were so mean. Everybody hates us because we're so mean, but it was so much fun. And it was strategic. Like when the girls, I was the first one to do a liar's vote, I think.

Like I told the girls, I'd vote for the guy, but I vote for Sonia. Yeah, because I'm like, this is strategic. Your skin is ripping open. and just something brushing up against it, which I'm big about, like I'm 65 and I eat a lot of salmon so my skin stays tough. Because I'm in a lot with the truck. I cut myself easy.

So they had to vote her out. But then when the team came over and we're discussing who to vote out, I literally said, told Richard and Kelly like and other people that, because Sean's going to vote with us because we're still a tight team. This other team might have come over, but we're not going to bond with these youngsters. because Sean's actually older now at this point. And Sean's very mature in his mind, too, as well.

We're going to vote out Gretchen because that's like taking away their mom. That was the exact word. So when we put it around, they collapsed. They just collapsed. Like, oh, my mom, it was like, so don't raise your kids like that. Raise your kids like, you figure it out. That was wild. It was so much fun.

I had so much fun. If Gretchen had a latched on to you and Kelly really latched on where you knew, then you would have had an All-Girls Alliance, which would have changed. Oh, it would have. Oh, it would change everything. And I was really sad with Ramona going.

Like, when I heard Ramona got voted out because she couldn't eat the rice and she got sick, I was so disappointed because I liked Ramona. I'm like, she was a strong woman. Oh, my God. Could you imagine had it been like, Ramona, Gretchen and me in the alliance. Oh, and we would have been loyal.

You know what I mean? Because we come from that generation. Now it's like, oh, none of that matters anymore. And let's all just lie and backstab and be a bunch of lazy cahoots. And there's no, it's like, I don't know. Now, like, I probably won't even watch Survivor. I don't know when the next time I heard they got all new people on this one.

Yeah, 51 is going to be all new people. Yeah, they get, well, they have to because they're aging out their bringbacks. Yeah. Because they ain't going to, Hollywood is very much, which is sad, they reflect what's going on in the world.

And what's going on in the world is we take our old people and we give them a nice little cozy corner in an apartment or a nurse home to finish it up because we don't want to be there during the ugly. You know what I mean? Or during the heart, which is so sad because you learn so much. I have been with old people until the day they've died.

And it's amazing to watch them. My mother-in-law was a prime example of that. I actually took care of her until the day she died. And she died from brain cancer. and she hated me. But I made damn sure those last weeks where she couldn't talk. I like quit work. I actually went to my boss and said, I said, because it was a long fight for her.

She had cancer, but she was like an anomaly. She didn't get radiation or she never got chemo. And it just cutting it out of her, you know, four ribs here and a kidney here and part of a lung here. She never was on oxygen. And she was amazing. amazingly strong because she smoked Paul Malls for 50 years straight, Rob. And when today she got cancer in her lungs and they told her she had COPD, she quit. And that helped me because then I quit because I'm like, I can't, if you can quit, I can quit.

And she was tough and she lived for, I think, 10 years after her first diagnosis. And she ended up the brain cancer, then they had to do the radiation. And she wouldn't hardly talk to me. but I kept telling her, I'm like, Gene, make sure you're good with Jesus. And she would go to church, the local church had like luncheon for seniors. And she would go there, which is great because she had an inner car. Then I seen she had some religious sacrament, you know, like things like Jesus Cross and Mother Mary thing. And I'm like, oh, good.

And then when the brain cancer came, they could only. radiator so much and she hated me so much she wouldn't allow me she didn't put me on the hippo she's like oh she can't talk because because it was a fight it was her only son and i took her only son and i'm going to end up with her only son so she was jealous that way and she was but whatever um they do they do not tell you then they had to stop because you can only take so much radiation they they didn't tell my husband and i don't know if i would have known to ask this but brain cancer doubles in size every four days. So this pea-sized tumor grew, bam.

And then the next thing you know, I was at work on a Sunday, and Tim calls me, are you on your way? I said, yeah, I'm just getting ready to come home. He goes, I think my mom had a stroke. I said, what's it look like? And he told me, I said, oh, that was 8 o'clock this morning, because she was very much of a routine woman.

This is what I did. It was the bad thing. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk.

Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. I went to work

Monday. I've seen how bad it was and what was going to go down. And I turned to my boss and I said, I'm leaving. I'll see you in two weeks. And if you want to fire me, I don't care. I got to go.

Take care of this woman. And then, yeah, she was 10 days, 10 days. But it was great because I helped her be peace. It was unbelievable. People can't talk or anything like that. But so they, them shunning the senior citizenship,

like really, like do I look like I, like, okay, Sonia and Beebe were the same age as me. Do I look like I'm in the same shape that Sonia and Beebe were in when they went on my show? No, I still kick a 20-year-old's ass. I'm doing a 20-year-old's job. I do P&D. I do pick up in delivery in the city of Las Vegas, baby. And that ain't easy.

And they don't give me the easy for it either. There's no, and I'm the only chick that works with 40 guys that stuck it out for five years. and it ain't the guys. The guys are great. Like the guys really are good. And we do have the one rule. If you can't get the freight off yourself, you are allowed to call and have another driver come and help. And I did have another driver come and help when we had to unload a whole playground set for some kids.

And this is a playground set that's got the tree house and the swing and the sled and it's 30 feet long. And it weighs 7,000 pounds. Well, I ain't getting that off the lift gate by myself. Yeah. But so they're all, you know, so it's like, no, I still, every day, you know, and I laugh because I'll never forget one time I ran into a driver was delivering to a warehouse I was working at Florida because I had to get out of truck for a little bit because my horse hurt himself so bad that the only way if I was going to have a chance of recouping them and bringing them back, I couldn't be working 14 hours days. I was hauling milk raw milk down there in Florida. I actually go to the farms and pick it up

from the dairy farms and such. So I was at this bottle warehouse and this driver pulls up and he backs in and unloading his freight and he's got electric pallet jack. I'm like, because I had done P&D prior to this in Missouri and I'm like electric pallet jack. He goes, yeah. He goes, we got it like three months ago.

And I already put 20 pounds on. And I started laughing because he didn't have to work no more with running up and moving it himself. So yeah, you know, I actually enjoy my job because it does, it definitely keeps me strong, keeps you mentally fit. And because I'm not done. I've got about five more years in the truck. I'm going to finish it out, all in what I truly love, which is horses.

So I decided to combine my knowledge of horses, which now I was going to be a horse trainer. That's all I was ever going to be. I didn't need high school. Mom's like, no, you need high school. Thank God. And. Goes back to the pony. I'm going to go back to the fur babies.

I'm going to haul race horses. I go back where I'm at in Florida. We still own some property there. And go back to Florida and finish it out hauling the racehorses high-end. You know, it doesn't even matter if they're bought off the meat wagon and they're going to go to the barn to get rehab because they think they can make it. Everyone's, I just, they're special and they're sacred. And when you're, I mean, I mean, I.

I think it's just, you got to think those are live animals behind you. I still, to this day, my driving record is impeccable. Thank God. Here, knock on wood, impeccable. But yeah, I want to finish. I started with the horses actually, Paul, driving. Because when I was a kid, I showed him, I had this registered quarter horse. That was, he was called a Dun, a Buckskin.

Okay. And you could double register them that. So we don't have much money. I actually had to sell my own riding outfit. I believe it or not, I can sew like a holaciously. I can, you want something sold. I could make it from scratch. And so my mom made me do this because we couldn't afford to buy the real clothes.

And me and my dad were getting Sunday morning and when I was 13 and we were hauled the horse to these shows. I had little buckskin classes and then I'd ride them or show them and halter on that. And then I'd get points towards this buckskin championship. And after two and a half years of doing this, we got, I made them a chance. champion, pleasure champion. He was so good. And he come out of an old breed called Pocobino, which was a great cutting horse. But my horse was laid back. He wouldn't cut a cow for the life of him. He'd be just like, let me just stand here and hang out next to him. That's good enough. And he was a great kid's horse. But when I turned 16,

he got my driver's license. My dad said, and my dad had built this great big trailer, two-horse trailer with a dressing room from scratch. He tubed it out and welded it and made it all of them. So we had an old 68 Chevy pickup three speed on the column. And he said, okay, you're driving this morning and I'm reading the map. And that's why I started, I blame my dad for my shop, started pulling that trailer. And then actually as I got into the horses further and I was still in the horse business before I met Tim, I got in with hunters and jumpers, the Grand Prix guys, the guy.

that go to Olympics, the Panama Games and stuff. And I work for a set of twins out of Wisconsin. I had a beautiful farm up there. But in the winter, we go down to Florida and show January, February, March, in what they called the winter circuit, you know, two weeks in West Palm, two weeks in, like, Fort Lauderdale, two weeks over here in Jacksonville. And so they, they, they, we go, we take a ton of horses. Those two drove the semi-truck with like 10 horses in it.

And then I had to drive the duly Chevy old Chevy pickup truck, six-horse trailer, but we could only put five, because I'll never forget, the one mayor was so big. She had to have the middle stall all to herself. She was a big warm blood that come out of Europe. He leaked. And so I drove that. So we took off, I'll never forget that trip. I'll never forget it, Rob, to this day.

I'm 19, 1920-ish. Yeah, 20, 21 maybe. And we take off there, everything's loaded, all the tack. You busted your balls for days getting this crap, because we're moving. We're moving the barn for a while. And they get in the trailer. I'm by myself in the pickup truck. I'm going to drive it.

And I'm following them. I have no clue where I'm going. There's no GPS on a phone. I might have had a map with me in case I got lost. Because I could read a map. My father made me read that map when I was 13. Where we're going today? You tell me where we're going to turn.

You watch that map. And we went through the smoke. We went nonstop, 19 hour run straight through. Through the smoky mountains in the fall. I'm terrified of losing their tail lights because I'm terrified to getting lost. We go to Florida. It was so much. I'll never forget that winter down there was a blast.

We did really well. All our horses showed well. I had a horse that wasn't, he wasn't, he was ill. Like you have grooms. I was a groom. And I had three horses that I was assigned to. And then I had another groom that was assigned to another three horses. I worked for Richard, the one brother.

and then there was Donald who had his horses with his customer. But this guy was sick. He come off the trailer sick. It was too long of a haul for him. There's an extent to how long a horse can be on a trailer and really, yeah. And he got sick. He was owned by Richard's dad. He was actually went to be sold down in Florida.

So I handwalked him for weeks. I'd take him out and handwalk him on the little trails around these parks. We're at these huge horse parks. Staller was his name. And I basically got him back. And then I started lunging him and he's getting his juice. So they'll never forget the day. Donald says, hey, I'm going to ride star in the level four jump class up here, intermediate jumping class.

Because now they got somebody who want to buy him and they think he's ready. So I go over to his grooms who are being really mean to me now because they've been whacked out on Coke for how many weeks because everybody's doing it. It's Florida. It's the 80s. Yeah, in the 80s, I mean, these are, they don't want to give me a saddle. They don't want to give a Donald's got three saddles. Oh, no, we don't got a saddle for you. You're going to have to use a saddle after it gets off the horse in that jumping class.

And I'm like, well, whatever. So I bridle the horse up, get everything but the saddle. We're going to take them up to ring. And these horses now are dossal when you work with them, but when you go to equipment on them, they fire up. It took probably 30 minutes. two guys holding this horse by the bridle to hold him enough to get a saddle on him because he's so wired up because he's now been fucking six weeks of just handwalked and I'm like wah the horse goes out there and literally kicks the class he came in like second

or third place hadn't been in a show ring in weeks and then they take him out and the chick they did end up selling him he worked out law for him and they were able to sell them but uh it was It was fun. We took care. We had some really, really, really good horse. They actually had

won that one. Second year green up in Madison Square Garden the following winter. Randy, a little quarter horse. You wouldn't know,

but there's a difference between hunters and jumpers. Jumpers basically got to make the course. Don't knock nothing down and go to time. Hunters, when they go over a jump,

got to look good. Both their front feet should be together, their ears forward, you know, like little poppies. And when they're hanging their legs and stuff like that is when they're,

they're sloppy. Did you ever, okay, so did you ever spend much time with any cattle or goats? Because this is where I'm going. I'm going to. I'm goats and cowl. I grew up on a dairy farm. Yeah, with a dairy farm in the summer. I love cows.

Okay, good. So, you played with my guy, Big Tom, and with Rob, on All-Stars. Y'all were on the same tribe. I believe y'all all started out together, right, Rob, and Big Tom? That is true. Yes, yes. Yes, we did Rob. And we couldn't drag Tom away from Rob and Amber.

He was like, cooks like an ambiguous, biblical cord. Well, I would have thought you and Big Tom just from your back. Oh, he hated me. Well, I don't know, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, why? Because your background is so similar. Hardworking people work hard their whole life. I would have thought you and Big Tom, and he's very smart, by the way, just like you are.

Just very smart. And you get, you both try to give off. this impression that you're, like you say, a dumb redneck, but both of y'all are very intelligent. Why didn't that play out? Why didn't that work out? Because Rob was there. We tried. How hard did we try Rob to pull Tom? Hold on. Let me get this phone. I don't got really a thing holding it. Okay. We tried really hard. Me, Alicia, and Rob tried really hard to pull Tom away from Rob and Adam. Yeah, it was hard. We, it was in the right. The writing wasn't right off the bat. Those going to stick together and they ain't going anywhere.

And Tom for some reason was like, oh, no, Rob's my guy. He loves me. He does not. That's what Lex thought that too. Yeah. We still see what happened to that. Yeah. Rob and Amber, you know, obviously they linked up and Big Tom was very much with Boston Rob.

And then also, but Alicia, I think also was like very close with Amber. So, because they had already played on Survivor All-Stars and so, Survivor Australia. So it was very, it was very hard to like, come up with anything that wasn't go after one of the people that wasn't like, very close with Boston Rob. It was. It was, it was, yeah, it was hard. It was, it was, the way it played out, we were like, oh, well. But, T-Bird, did you ask me about what it was like to play with Sue Hawke? Oh, God.

Okay, so I'm going to ask Rob this because Rob. So, Sue and Rob. Yes. I've been talking with Sue for quite a few years now. We've never met. She is, there are so many things I've learned about this incredible woman that most people don't know. She's very much old school with an old soul. She writes letters.

Look, she start, we start. I love writing. I love writing letters. Vote letters to each other. She didn't mention this. She kind of alluded to it a little bit. She used to have no TV. She would only listen to late night AM radio for years.

No TV. She considers Gen X is like the last, I think she told me the last of the badass to be born or the Gen X from 1965 to 1980. Works really, really hard. So now I have a bit of problem. She's getting her camera straight. I am. I am. So keep it on, Teresa. So Rob, when most people, I want to ask you what you thought playing with Sue, I'm sure you were enamored with her when you were out there.

Had y'all met before when you played? And would you consider Sue a hero or a villain? Because I can tell you now, after many years with Sue, texting and letter writing, for me, she is a huge hero. for so many reasons. So many different parts of that question. I will say that so I will never forget the first time I ever met Suhawk that she was with TB Guide and she was out there in the Amazon to do interviews with my cast and I was so thrilled. I think that she's the first survivor player I ever met in person. And so she was there to interview me and I had a million questions for her. We had a great interview.

If I remember right, we had a great interview. We had a good universe, don't we? Yeah. I mean, I don't remember what we talked about, but I remembered how fun you were and how cool it was to see you there. And I was just over the moon to meet Sue Hawke. And I'm sure on a couple other occasions, I ran into Sue, like when they announced the All-Stars. But then when Sue was on my tribe in Survivor. So I was over the moon. I loved every minute that I spent with Sue.

I don't have one negative moment. And same to you, Rob. I loved you from the get-go because I just like, why not? You're funny. You're nice. You're cordial. Yeah. We are both looking at you.

They're like, oh, we're so screwed. Well, I knew I wouldn't go. Maybe if you made the merge, that was a big thing. If we could have made the merge. Maybe. But there was nowhere else to go with that group. But Sue, I always worried that I was. Actually, in the end, that was a boring group.

Yeah, Sue, I was worried that maybe I got on your nerves. I was asking too much about your... I teach you. No, no, no, no. Because that's my thing with guys. I guess I growing up around so many boys and brothers and being so involved, like, I was a tomboy because I had no choice. I just learned how to razz guys. I liked razzy.

I still, today's day, some of the guys I work with, I, you know what? Yeah. I razz them. I razz them. That's what guys do to guys. But Sue is the hardest worker. And Sue, you know, that we used to go and get like the shellfish. It's like, hey, we're out here. Oh, my God. And we would get, I remember you would get the eyeballs. Use what.

Yes, the eyeballs, because the tides would come up and these fish were hooked to the rocks. The tides would go down. And all you had to do was go up there and pick their little, like, shells on and boil them up. and they were, we would have never starved out on that one. Well, only me and you would eat them. Everyone's like, no, this is gross. I can't eat this. Oh, did you get, did you continue eating them after I left then?

I was, you were there longer than me. No, God. That's why we had to take somebody out and I was sad about you. Me and Alicia had a little thing going on the side. Mm-hmm. Whatever happened to Alicia? Is she still around? I don't know.

We haven't heard from her. T-bird write Alicia a letter. See if you can find, Alicia. I already have. I like, she was a bomb. She was a bomb. Yeah. Yeah, Alicia was great. She was old salt. Yeah. Alicia was old salt.

But, yeah, Sue, I remember we had like one of like the worst nights ever on Survivor of the, like, when they had like the gigantic rainstorm. And we had won the tarp and we didn't even hang it up yet. And we were all just like underneath like that hot ass tarp, like sweating and like a torrential downp. downpour and the camp was starting to flood. And, yeah, there was some bad, some rough nights. But yeah, you and I, I think that we were both, that you could sleep, right? You also were a good sleeper out there? I could sleep.

I could sleep. I could get some sleep. We both could sleep. Like, I think that everybody else kind of was, like, had a lot of more complaints about the conditions. Yeah, it wasn't comfortable. That's why, like, now, I can't imagine. So how many shots did you all have to take to go,

to your locations, say in Africa or down there. I remember a bunch for Amazon. Amazon was a bunch because I almost I almost went. I interviewed you all before you went down to the Amazon. TV guy was going to go to the Amazon. I don't know what happened. It got that part of it got pulled like where I had gone to Thailand and been right there at Thailand covering it for the first couple of days.

So I had, I remember Amazon, I'm like, oh my God, meningitis, yellow fever, all these immunizations you have. had to get to travel. And I can't, it's got to be the same thing over there in Africa, wasn't it, T-Bird? Yeah. I don't remember how many shots, but I want to say quite a few, maybe a lot. It was a lot. Yeah.

Wait, I got it. I'm glad you slept good, Rob, and everything, but this is where I want to go. So, Sue, you knew a lot of the, you knew probably all of the All-Star players because you had interviewed them for TV Guide. Yeah. Right. So, Rob, when you hit the ground, there, y'all knew the game.

Did y'all start talking alliances or were y'all just talking about collecting starfish or whatever y'all are talking about? I don't know. Honestly, I really feel like that there wasn't a lot of Survivor being played. Nobody really was talking

too much about alliance. No, it wasn't. Rob and Amber are together and it was like who can get closest to Robin Amber? That was kind of the whole the whole game at that point. Yeah. But Rob Amber, they didn't have a...

Well, see, until that's right there. Yeah, but the point was then before, like, who was on with us? We had Alicia, Tom. Me, who Rob, me? That was it. That was it. See, yeah, me, you, Robin Amber.

It was three against three. And we couldn't get enough votes with three of us to get those guys out. And I believe it wasn't Rob Boston was in shape back then. So he was, he was. What are you saying, Sue? I see, I kind of seen like a video on them. like here riding a horse and I'm like, oh my God. Yeah.

Oh, they're 65? He's only 55? Yeah, I think he's younger than that. Oh, no way. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Married life is too easy for him. I think, yeah.

Oh, no way. Oh, Jesus Christ. These people, what the hell? But him and Amber, they're still together. Me and see what happened in real life. We saw it happen. We saw the whole courtship. Yeah, yeah.

They're still together. They got kids. They're doing the family. family thing. That's good. Keep it going. We were together, you know, it was 12 days in the game that I was there, but we were together for like a week before the game even started where we were living at the house in Panama.

Yes, yes, which are they called. Yeah, the house in Panama. Yeah, we were there. But we really weren't allowed to talk to each other. But we, you know. Yeah, there was. People talked. Yeah.

Can you remember? Yeah. I remember that. I was like, holy shit. They got us here for how many five days of breakfast to go out there. And then the funny thing about that was, remember, so the water, because we're by ocean, so we can't, it's not like we can go to a river and boil water, which I feel bad for Tiber and those guys in Africa. That was brutal. That was bullshit, really, because I can't believe that crew was that stupid to set them up there.

So anyways, we go to get the water. I think they're like, oh, you got to boil. Remember they had that power at the house, you got to boil your water for this many minutes before you drink it. Yeah. Of course, I don't listen to authority. I don't know. No, no, no. I'm like, really?

I'm like, oh, my God, I spent six years drinking beaver poop up in the Canadian bush. Yeah. I think my body's, my body's, oh, and as a kid, I was drinking out of the water. Teabird, you don't know this with cows and ghosts. As kids, we ran around out on the farm, and but when we got thirsty, we stuck our head in the moss-laden cow trough to drink our water. Right out of the trough. We didn't care. So the water's there.

Kever, this is so funny. And then I'm like, this is boiling the water. Screw that. I'm thirsty. I want to drink it when I want to drink it. So I went to get water. I took put it in there and I took a big guzzle out of it right then and there. And it wasn't what about half hour later.

I'm on the beach and the doctor comes by and looking at me. Like he's looking at me then. Why did you do that? I said because I'm not going to get sick. And I never did get sick. Yeah. You and Rudy. You both.

you both did it and you were fine. Yeah. It was also that we didn't have fire. That was like a big thing. That we didn't have any fire and we couldn't boil the water and we couldn't drink. And so it was like four days that we didn't have any clean water. And then Sue, I guess smartly said, I'm just going to drink it out of the well. It's like they put it in there.

And those sclerty cats, Rob and Amber kept boiling the water probably through the whole show. I mean, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all, the five days ahead on All-Stars, Sue and Rob, did y'all train with the locals? We trained with the Maasai. No.

Okay. No. When you were in Borneo, did you train with any of the locals for fire or money? No, you didn't do that. No, no, no. Yeah. They did in the Amazon. Yeah.

They did in the Amazon, train. Well, they should have because that's a whole different. I mean, starting fire, you know, a drive. What is one thing, starting fire with the dampness that you have in the jungle constantly. Constantly. I mean, it's like you're a mushroom. So, Rob, you didn't tell me, Sue, villain, hero, or a villain? So I think in real life, I think Sue is a hero.

But I think in terms of what Survivor would call a villain, because Sue speaks her mind and isn't necessarily, she's going to say the truth, whether you like it or not. I think on Survivor, that constitutes a villain. Okay. So, Sue, from your playing in Borneo being, well, amazing, to what happened to you in All-Stars, did you notice any shift in your fan mail or how people reacted to you from? No. No, because All-Stars. I am. Yeah, no. I had fan mail, yeah. I actually had some great fans. Like I said, I got super fans, probably in the IRS. So they stayed loyal. They stayed loyal. They stayed in loyalty through the whole thing. They say dead. They did. And and, uh, but then, you know, I just walked away. I walked away. I don't, you know, and I kept moving. Reason I kept moving

actually was a loose trail. It took a while. It took a while. They did peg me, you know, I went from Vegas to Tucson to Missouri to Florida, not here. And I'm going to get. Yeah. I know. You're hard to find, Sue. I know. You were hard to find. You're hard to track. So when you were moving around, you know, when you were moving around like that, were you, I know the answer to this, I'm pretty sure. Were you recognized by people? Oh, oh. And still now, and still today.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Very. Not so much now because I basically just work. But I'm trying to think of any of the guys I drop and pick up at. No, but I do every, I had a guy here. Oh, my God.

I went to go, oh, I had to go to TSA. When you got hazmat, you got to go every four years, get your fingerprints rerun. I don't know why. You got me on file. If I did anything, you'd show up. So I'm at the TSA office. And one of the guys that's in charge of it comes out and he looks at me.

Hold on. I got a drink. He looks at me. And he says, you're a survivor. I said, yeah. He says, oh, he goes, I recognize you. He goes, because he went to church with Kelly Wiggleworth's attorney. I don't what you had attorney for.

He said, so that's why he goes, I'm very aware of. And then I'm assuming because I'm, you know, Mormons out here. So Kelly Wigglesworth attorney. And I was like, oh, that's cool. He goes, but I do. My voice, my voice can give me away. if people are thinking, but most people don't, because most people got short-term memory. They really do.

Even though, again, I don't look the same. I'm built the same. I'm built the same. I ain't changing that. But, yeah, I got more wrinkles on my face. My hair's straighter now, especially when you're in the heat in the desert. It doesn't get the curly anymore. Yeah.

But I do get recognized. I've been recognized on the street where people will literally come up and just hug me. Oh, my God, I love you. And that has been within the last, say, four years. But I don't go on about much on crowds. Yeah. So after I got voted out on Survivor All-Stars, I spent a lot of time outside of the game with Rudy. And that was really such a fun part of that experience.

I spent about three weeks with Rudy. And I know that you were both fond of each other. Did you have a favorite Rudy memory from your time with him? Oh, I do. That is the greatest question ever. The best memory I have of Rudy, the game had just started, Bibi was still in there. There might have been one tribal where somebody went,

but I don't remember who the way anyways. I think Sonia was the first one voted out on ours, right? Sure. Okay. So they're doing this challenge. And the position that Bibi and Rudy had identical positions on the game, and they were standing about 12 feet apart on a platform, and there was an air between them because they were about 10 feet above the water.

I don't know what happened. but Bibi said something or I think Bibi said something and I seen Rudy Ruda Rudy going to action because Rudy was like he was a soldier but he was a soldier for his team. This is a guy tied

to the team. This dude Rudy puffs up like this like oh my gosh they're like oh my gosh they're like all of it and they're going to kick me and they actually the producer had to step in and calm him the situation

down because we really wanted to kick his butt from saying something or going after his team. Wow. Because, yeah, he was such a, he was so cool. He was so fun. He was so fun having, like, the only thing I want is a salami sandwich. That's all he never wanted to eat. He's like, I'd be okay with just a salami sandwich. And then me and him, believe it or not, have matching tattoos.

Oh. The one and only tattoo I have. on my back that I got when I was 18 because I didn't want a rose was a panther crawling down. Well, Rudy had the same panther on his calf climbing up. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, oh, that's wild. That is just wild.

That should have bought so soon when you were asking, when you had the tie vote with Rich and you said, Rudy, you know me, you should, you know, do whatever you want to do. That's when you should have brought them to her. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. Rudy, no, no, Rudy was, he was being soldiered by Richard. Loyal. He was loyal.

And I knew that. And I don't blame him. That's the way, that's the man he is. He was a loyal. Loyalty actually stuck around back then, you know? Now it's like really, I don't know. It's so back and forth, back and forth, deceptive. Oh, talk about it about.

And then I had a blow, what blew my mind on 51 was. Ozzy. I never watched Ozzy in any of his season. But I heard, you know, you'd hear stuff over the years with this Ozzy guy. And he goes on and I'm like, first I'm like, who the hell wears a mullet in 2026? I'm like, this dude, what the, you know? So that was the first thing. And then, then when he had the dream. Yeah. looking forwarded off about the idol. I'm like, do you know, follow your intuition? He is a, he is a shallow soul.

He has a young, weak soul is what he is. And then, so he does that. He doesn't use his idol. And then I'm like, I would have never spilled anybody. I might be truthful,

but I'm not going to tell you truth about what's going on behind the scenes with me, Kelly, Richard, or Rudy. Hell no. You know, except I told Sean at the end, I was like,

God, Sean, wish there was some way to keep you. I really did. I wanted to keep Sean then and get Kelly out. I didn't care at that point. Then my vipers were on Kelly, not so much Richard anymore. And there was no way. There was just there was just no way.

You know, we tried, we did. When Colleen left, we knew it was kind of, it was over with, you know, because that would have been a voting block. So did you and Kelly ever patch things up over the years? Well, we talked after it, like human beings. you know, we were cordial to each other. But no, she hates me. Yeah.

But I wish her all the best, whatever, you know, went on. I know she went and played another year. She did. She played another season. Yeah, she played on Survivor 31. She played. What was that at? It was in Cambodia.

It was Survivor Second Cancer. Yeah. That would have been a cool trip. It would have been a cool. Yeah. Yeah, that would have been a wild trip. oh yeah yeah

yeah yeah so we haven't I don't even know and then she yeah so yeah she always was kind of a quiet girl

though she was a quiet girl she was she liked to laugh and she liked to build things yeah she did she was yeah

and she was yeah she was she was very but she was she was only 24 but she was older than 24

internally more so older than the 24 as you see nowadays. Sure. You know, she had grown up fast, I'm sure. But yeah, no,

I haven't paid. I did talk to Sean. Oh, I think about, oh, how many years ago now? Seven, eight years ago.

Yeah. When I moved down to Florida, I called Sean. And it was so great to talk to him. It was like a day hadn't passed between us. I love Sean like a brother. I love Sean. And he's doing so well.

Finally, finally grew up. I teased him. I said, you finally grew up. I mean, these dude's like, he's down in Miami. He's like a head. He's on the board of like two big fat hospitals and he's doing his neurologist thing. I'm sure, you know, on the side, which is amazing because we absolutely know like my new part about how the brain actually operates. And I'm sure to this day, John is trying to educate himself and figure it out. Yeah. And he's got a couple little girls. Got a couple little girls. They're just gorgeous, you know. And, and he still had his New York accent, thank God.

I hope he never loses that. How did you like his alphabet strategy voting? Oh, that's funny. He was really a guy because he's such a nice guy. That was his way of doing it. And that would work for him. He was, I'll never forget, we actually built a bowling alley because of Sean on our beach.

It was great. And that was all Sean's idea. And then he made the idea. Of course, then we implemented cutting the bamboos a certain tie and bowling alley. And then one day, Sean, I don't know how many of us was sitting there, quite a few, might have been five or six of us sitting around them. And Richard was probably off fishing because Richard didn't like to spend a lot of time with the camp

because he was just into himself. So Sean told us about a book he wrote. He told, he read like, he told us a story of his whole book. And we're all sitting there memorizing. It was about a cop and investigations and action. And we're like, Sean. When you get off the island, you need to write that book because we would buy it and actually read it and be enthralled with it. So I don't know if you ever wrote the book or not.

It was amazing hours spent with him. Yeah, I teased him all the time because he was a bit of a dufus, the alphabet theory, because he was a doofus because he was so nice. Yeah. So speaking of writing books, you know, Rob is a number one best selling New York. What is it? New York Times writer. Yeah, no, I wouldn't say number one. but yeah

you can lie I won't know yeah and you're in the book Sue you are in the book I wrote a book about the history of Survivor Sue Oh did you do that? Yes and yeah

and of course how could we write a book about the history survivor or not talk about it? Without the number one moment and I gave them I gave them their show yeah

I gave them their show I didn't mean to I didn't mean to as a You know, between the, it is, like you say, you're starved, your awareness is all heightened, your emotions are heightened. Why do you think yogi's fast? Because they can get to the next level.

And then actually, I set to end on 39 days, anybody that's there after 32 days, you are at the next level. You are working in a world. You have no idea that you've ever been in unless you've done DMT or whatever, all these other dope. you never done that, you know, between that and then and then being like, I couldn't hit them. God, you know, if I could just go up and slapped them each,

I'd been fine. But I couldn't hit him. So I had a, I just said, I'm going to lash you with my tongue. I get that, that lashing probably, my dad was so nice and so smart. Such a good auto mechanic and father raised. But my mother, thank God, she was a bad cop in the family, you know. And she's very cynical of people and even her own kids. And so I suppose part of that cynicism is buried in me and doesn't come up much.

But what it does, oh boy, I am. So I called it as a bitch, but the bitch stand for a babe in total control of herself. So I had to. I had to. And I felt good. I felt relieved. It took the load off of me. And I was done with it.

I didn't care what happened then. And I'm sure, I was like, yeah, I'm sure all these people are going to hate me. And they did. All those youngsters were like, oh, my God, how could you say that? Oh, my God, you know. How could you say that? Get real because you're going to get in a job someday and somebody's going to tell you something. You ain't going to like.

So, Sue, I mean, you're such a storyteller. Just today, all the stories. You could write a book. It would be fascinating. You know, this is, I'm not a lot. I can't. I can tell a story verbally, but to sit there and write,

I get too, nah, I probably get too worried about details. And then like, what are you going to write about? You know, like, it's like,

eh, and I'm still going. My story's still going. So maybe in the end, because like I said, I'm going to spend, I'm hoping I'll go back here in six months of Florida,

which is a plan. The plan's working out. Great. Actually, we jumped a year ahead. Thank God. Things are working out. You know,

his hand, I'll come down and I'll get little favors. I never get the big, big favor, like a big hunk out, like a winning lottery ticket or anything, which is fine. But I get little favors and I get them every day and I thank God for them. It's just stupid stuff with the truck. Like, oh, thank God you had that truck wasn't parked where it was when I got in here because I'd never been able to back in and stuff like that.

But little favors over your head, that's just wonderful because I'm going to, I'll get with the horses and the fur babies. and I'll probably never stop working. Oh, you've got to retire. No, I don't. You did live with Regis. So you've talked to and interviewed and met a whole lot of people. I wanted to know who the most fascinating person that you've met through your whole experience to Survivor.

And I was also curious. You actually interviewed President Bush, right? I'm Survivor. I'm Regis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I didn't even know. Yeah, yeah, I was Regis. The most fascinating person that you met with all your survivor experience.

I'll tell you. I'll tell you. And people probably like, oh, I hate her. Bush thing was really cool. They prep me. They think,

yeah. He was a nice guy, but I could care less because he's a Bush. But it was funny because I asked. He was a candidate Bush then. He was candidate, candidate Bush.

It was like a summer of 2000. Yeah, I mean, they're doing makeup. And all of a sudden, these German shepherds are coming in. I was more enthralled with the dogs and the guy,

the candidate. So I had made up, Because they gave me some information on him, like the night before. So I was like, okay, I'm going to ask him two questions. Because I was like, I know you ain't going to get a bunch of time. So I asked him two questions because they showed the picture of him and on his pony. I'm like, do you remember that pony's name? And he remembered that pony's name.

Anybody who has a horse always remembers your first pony's name. Mine was named Sugar. God, I love that horse. I'm bald when my mom made me seller finally. Oh, it just killed me. But then the other question was prudent. that because I tried to play dumb redneck, but I'm really not. I actually study history, old history, repeat history.

And I'm like, oh, Bush is talking about letting us take 10% of what we put into Social Security into a separate savings, which he really wanted to do. But of course, Congress won't let them because then that would take away from the honeypot of the Social Security. So it never happened. Had he back in what year did he win? 2000. 2000, had he back in

2000, say 2002, they would have got it implemented. Me, you, T-Bird would have been able to put 10% into the fake stock market. Who cares? It's doing good. We would have been like banked. We would have been banked. You know what I mean? And

everybody's setting good, but they wouldn't let it happen. And he wanted to, though. So I got to give them credit for that. But the most interesting person I met was probably Rosie O'Donald and Donald Trump. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, Rosie. Rosie is a very, like me. She's very in your face, very honest, very to the point. Love Rosie. Not as you gave me a car or anything.

She's just, her energy is great. Okay. So then I'm, she gives us a trip to go to Australia, a bunch of us. So I go to Australia with Tim. That was wild.

That was fun. But now, as I'm going to go on the trip, I'm forced to actually cut the trip two days short because she's, that was, she was interviewed. She did the finale show. The only time Jeff gave up the crown, the finale show to do it in Central Park in New York. And it was a, it was to show, you know, strongness after 9-11, like, hey, you're not knocking us down. We're not stopping. So they did, that was the first event done in Central Park after 9-11. him and it was done live and Rosie's like I want you here I want you to be with me on the

start because I want to do B roll with you I'm like oh my god how can I turn her down she gave me the car she gave me a trip and I'm like jet lag and we go to central park and they put it you know it was nice they put me up in like one of those things you can look out on it yeah and so a room and uh so we're going to do it and I go to meet her I'm in a room her dressing room for maybe a minute and a half we talk about what we're going to do, minute and a half.

This chick knows what's odd. And she goes, we're going to introduce, we're going to do like a wrestling thing. And so now everybody's got assigned seats, okay? At Central Park, it was called or getting, the sun's going down.

I wasn't thinking, I didn't have a jacket. I only had on a little short sleeve shirt. It was sheer material. Everybody sat and got a signed seats. Well, right fifth row back about was Donald Trump and his wife. What's her name now? Melania. Melania. Melania. And there's two empty seats next to him. Well, that's me and Tim's seat. Okay. So I do the B-roll. I'm not thinking about this as I'm doing B-roll with Roe. We do the B-roll and I could feel it. When you do something, not that I'm a camera hoard, but I did enough in front of the camera. When I do something in front of the camera, I know it's good. You can feel it. You can feel it.

feel it. You feel it through your whole body. So I did this with Rosie. I'm like, oh, God, that was awesome. That was good. She got her shot. This is going to be great. I go sit on in the audience with Tim next to Don. I sat next to Melania and then Donald Trump sat next to Mauna's

right side. I sat and Tim sat to my left side. I am freezing. Well, now Donald had given his overcoat to Melania because she's called he sees up called, he gives me his suit jacket. Wow. To wear for the whole. show. I didn't say much. I didn't say, but thank you. He's like, here. And I'm like, I'm going to

accept it because I'm dying. And this is great. And he's, he's a guy that's tough enough. He's got longer sleeves and me. So good. And let me wear his jacket. And afterwards over with, I returned it to him and said, thank you very much, Mr. Trump. And that was it. But, uh, yeah, Rosie. And it's too bad they got a piss a match. You know. You can feel a rift. There are two of a you know um it was it was it was good everybody yeah but yeah it was uh it was wild chuck norse i met chuck norse yeah because so the rest roomed so i absolutely would i j like he didn't know when he meet me that

anything i said to him was basically a dig on him because he was he was pretty much at those after parties he was pretty much on a buzz when he by time he met you you know what i mean cock eyed up a little bit on the liquor. And he's like, come on. Come on. I got to meet you somebody. I'm like, okay.

So he goes and meet me Chuck Norris, which of course, I wasn't, I liked Chuck was just, I only met him for a couple minutes, but the nicest guy ever. Yeah. And yeah,

yeah, it was funny. It was funny. Like he had dragged me halfway across the thing to go, to go meet his buddy Chuck. And then I was like, yeah, that's Bob because I'm like a Bruce Lee fan.

Those kind of people that do. that juditsu and the karate i have so much respect for them so much respect boxing boxers i have ultimate respect for because remember me and kelly were going to get in the ring and box a hell out of each other i don't remember that oh you're all right they're going to do it so they set us up they set us up she's in california at the time i'm over here in vegas early because it was early 2000s and baseball was going to go on strike was on strike okay and they were doing those boxes matches remember the partridge kid where it gets a Brady kid.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there was said me and Kelly up for boxing match.

They gave us trainers. And literally we both fell into training like we were going to be pro boxers. And in the meantime, I could do it because I had the juice shop. Okay. The smoothie shop. So I could fluctuate my schedule. And you train. Oh my God.

You train like three times a day, four days a week. And then two times a day. two days a week and then one time a day, one day a week, something like that. But the morning, the morning was a couple mile run. And then in the afternoon you might go to the gym and spar and then take a rest. And then after that go to the gym and pump iron. And this is on and on. When I first started, I literally, my thighs were so, I could hardly walk or sit down.

I was so sore. And after doing that, and we did it for like six months. We did. we were like eating and going to be boxers did it for six months and then they called it off because baseball ended the strike end of the strike i guess Kelly that's this funny somebody told me that was at my training gym was in the same gym out in LA because that's how these guys roll in LA where Kelly was training and Kelly had a big picture of me up on the um heavy bag yeah so oh soon I'm just I'm asked up sue this so soon so soon I'm just I'm asking so this so I've heard you say that this quote, this is a quote, me and Kelly don't belong in Playboy

because we've got tattoos. We belong in Hustler. And I heard Larry Flint pays more, end quote. Oh my God. That was just being a smart ass. So, yeah. All right. So why were tweezers your luxury item?

Tweezers. Oh, because I was worried about like hairs. I'm 38. I was worried about black, having like, freaking, and you know, having the eyebrows like, come together. So, like, that was the only thing in the TV thing, Land, I did wine was like, oh, God,

I don't want on my eyebrows. So I take them and I'd just be like, you know, randomly talking to somebody, we'd be just fucking away. Yeah. But they came in handy because we actually pulled some tweezers. We used them to pull slivers out of people and stuff. Yeah. So they came in handy.

I mean, you couldn't have anything useful. They ain't like you bring anything useful. This just had to be stupid. All right. So, Sue, one word to describe Jeff Prope. Jeff Perps Oh my God Now

One word After I see him now I can say it's one word Botox I'm sorry I don't think we've got that before I don't think we've got it's creepy Yeah

I think you and Jeff are I think pretty close to the same age Are we really I think so I don't know I don't keep track But yeah Yeah

I think you're right You know Maybe I think I heard, didn't they, I've seen a snippet somewhere where they're thinking the next crew coming in on 51, there's going to be somebody in it that's going to have a chance to replace Jeff's seat. He said that you're very tapped in, Sue. He said there's somebody in this new season that he could see replacing him. Yeah. Yeah. So Jeff's starting to psych himself out to finally step down.

It would be good. What is his birthday? So his birthday is November 4th But he is November 4th 1961 Oh same year as me Yeah

I'm just a little bit older Same age I'm just a little bit older Yeah By months by months Yeah I know we have I could talk to you

I know I could talk with you Teresa Because how is it Grandbaby How is that How is that grandbaby? great thank you so much for asking Sue

all right Rob Sue talking to you today is been a highlight however hold on yes oh my God all right

so yeah we'll see you probably we'll do it at five when I retire out of a truck we'll get we'll hook back up okay and I promise you I will have no Botox in my face

Sue what do you or Tiber what are you doing you've opened the bottle of champagne absolutely this is oh my God good for you So Sue, get your glass. Rob, get your glass.

Yeah, I have potato vodka. Oh, no, that's a nasty. Yeah. No, why. Sue, here's the 65 years of living life on your own terms. Thanks for showing us what it means to play with heart and passion and that you don't have to win to be legendary. may your torch burn right through all your adventures in the years to come to soon. Oh, Teresa, you're so nice.

You make me want to call it. Teresa. I love you. Hey, thank you. And now, so now this is good, though, because now Teresa can finally get off my ass because you've been bugging me for, what, four years? She's got through a lot with me. She knows more things about me that we won't even cover here.

Well, actually, more years than that, it took, it's probably been almost. six years. And then my husband will remember the day I came in with this letter where I put it. It's here. It's here. I'm like, baby, you're not going to believe this. Look, because you had your little name up there in the return address. So anyway, Sue, it has been such a pleasure.

And Rob, this is the last thing that one of the things that Sue had written in her letters where she's, again, she's very old soul. But she wrote this. And I kept this because it. It means a lot. You said, Tiberd, life is never meant to be an easy road. Most time, it's tough. But pulling through grows a strong trunk, soul.

See, if a tree has a drought year, it really helps to make it stronger. That layer of growth is thin, but very tough fiber. We are all just like a tree of life, end quote. Oh, that's so true. That's so true. Teresa, I get down, I get down closer to you. I'm not going to be all that far from you in the trucking world. You know that we're going to hook up one day.

Oh, yeah. And we're going to share, and even though I'm not a drinker, I definitely share a glass of wine with you just because. Excellent. Excellent. I love it. I love it. Okay.

Thank you so much. Okay. Rob, thanks for being here and doing what you're doing. Yes. So great to see you. I think it's been, I feel like the last time I really talked to you was, I think, 2005.

I saw you at the, they had like a five. reality channel launch party and it was it made my night that you were there and so it's amazing it's a matchup to you it is it's been a while it's been a while ride you know like yeah but thanks for filling me in all that I didn't know I actually still hold the top spot you guys all have the best of time with all your kids and remember what I told you tell the kids and Tricia, you do this too, the youngster. You figure it out.

You figure it out. All right, Sue Hawk. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Been wonderful. Love you. Bye-bye. All right, T-Bird, there you have it.

There was Sue Hawk. How about that? How about that? Where do you go from Sue Hawk? Where do you go? I don't know. I don't know. Everybody okay?

Everything good? Yeah. So, Rob, again, I thought about how badly I wanted Sue Hawk all these years, especially when I knew we had developed a friendship. Yes. But I enjoyed the friendship. I enjoyed, she's very philosophical of everything she would write to me or text to me. And I thought she's such a fascinating.

One of a kind. One of a kind. And so I was just grateful and blessed to have her friendship that we had developed a friendship. When she mentioned about wanting to do the podcast, because I've never mentioned it for quite a while, I never mentioned it again. I was thinking, this may be my retirement. Where do you go from Sue Hawk?

However, if you'll keep me, we move on. There's still more survivors out there, T-Bird. Yes, there are. Yeah. Sue Hawk is, again, one of a kind.

So I hope her fans and her listeners will enjoy her as much as I enjoy. And I think this was an unforgettable interview. Yes. T-Bird. All right. What else are you working on now? I don't know. I'm kind of, I've been so anxious in a good way about doing this and I couldn't go past thinking, what's after this? Yeah, this has been on the calendar for a while, so we'll figure out what's going to come up next.

Yes. T-Bird, where can people keep up with you? I think it's at T-Bird Cooper. Yeah. Any ideas? Any ideas? Please text me, message me, and I'll get right on it. Again, like I told Rob, I like for us to find people that are off the green. that people haven't seen or haven't heard from. Maybe people that aren't like Sue that are kind of moving around from state to state periodically.

We can find somebody a little more grounded. But if not, that's okay too. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for joining us for talking to Tiber. Take everybody. The good one.

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