The Sevan Podcast - #392 - Alexis Landot

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

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Starting point is 00:01:01 Bam, we're live. We are live. Mr. Beaver, hi. Good morning. Is it Alexis? Yeah. Can I hear you say it? Yeah, I'm Alexis.
Starting point is 00:01:17 Hello. Alexis. And say your last name for me. Yeah. So in French, it's Alexis Landau. But you can say Alexislexis lando or alexis alexis alexis lando yeah oh yeah nice uh my last name from france alexis lando from france hola no fuck No, fuck. Can you play, Mr. Beaver, the most recent post by Alexis Lando from France? This is a beautiful post by him done while I put my socks on.
Starting point is 00:01:58 Can we watch this? Oh. Ah, yes. Here we go. How did we climb this building? Ah yes, here we go. How did we climb this building? The main difficulty on this one is that the windows are really really wide, which only allows us to move really slowly. We are going barefoot because we have a way better grip on the building this way.
Starting point is 00:02:17 Also keep in mind that we trained for about a year before we actually climbed it. And don't worry, we made it safely to the top. How did we climb? Oh my goodness, Alexis. Are your parents alive? My parents are obviously stressed, but also proud of me in a way. I'm sure. I'm sure.
Starting point is 00:02:42 Can you imagine? Thank you, Caleb. Can imagine you um have a kid it's your greatest project of all time i mean there's no building you can climb that's greater accomplishment than what your parents think of you and then your greatest accomplishment in the world wants to climb buildings without a rope. It's funny because it's, it would be, it would, it would make me really stressed because I don't like when I see other people doing dangerous things. Right. For the simple reason that I, I feel confidence when I, when I own what is happening, you know, when like I'm in control.
Starting point is 00:03:26 So this is why I like to climb without a rope because when there is no rope, I'm the only one who has a control over the situation. And it makes me really, it's really, really, really stress. Like I'm not stressed when I'm in this kind of situation, but when I see somebody climbing without a rope or something like this, I can be much more stressed. That's interesting. You hear about that about fighters, right? They say the most stressful thing is watching their friends fight, not when they're fighting.
Starting point is 00:03:58 Yeah, I totally understand. Because when you are doing the thing you are in control and what happens with your life will depends on your ability on your own ability but i don't i don't think i would like to see other people uh actually climbing like or you know like having a a kid that climbs like this um i i was at an event one time and there was the motorcycles jumping off of ramps and doing backflips. And when I watched that on TV, I enjoyed it,
Starting point is 00:04:35 but in person I hated it. It was so stressful the whole time. I was just worried about the kids on the bikes, but on TV it was great. Yeah. Well well there's also the things where when you watch things on tv um it feels like everything is well prepared like everything is going to happen the way it should because you know like on tv there's only like uh everything is you know thought through uh when you see things in life, it's really different.
Starting point is 00:05:05 You're living it much more. Right. That's a great point. We have this illusion that nothing can go wrong on TV. But then we saw Chris Rock get slapped across the face. So I guess we all know that shit can go sideways. Yeah. Oh, man.
Starting point is 00:05:22 Oh, man. Caleb, can you bring up one of these portraits on his Instagram where you can see his body? You can see how he's all jacked and shit. Yeah. How old are you, Alexis? I turned 22 in February. And this climbing thing, you know, some people might have a goal, right? Like, Hey, I'm going to climb. Um, crazy. And how, how much do you weigh? Uh, I'm really light. So I used to be around, uh, 70 kilograms and now I'm more around 67, 68 kilograms. And I wish for like, I'm going to try to lose weight for the next two weeks to be as light as possible for my next climb.
Starting point is 00:06:13 And can you talk about your next climb or is that always a secret until it happens? Yeah, I can. So I can talk about it. So I don't know yet which one it's going to be. It's going to be either a building that is in Paris. It used to be like it was built
Starting point is 00:06:33 to be like the business district and everything, but they ran out of money, so they just let the building there and now it's almost abandoned, like almost a ghost place you know so it's really scary because i think the holes the holes looks look safe but you know that they didn't check anything like a few years probably so this is a little bit challenging a
Starting point is 00:06:58 little bit scary and i'm sorry to interrupt sorry to interrupt alexis this one of the comments says he'll be climbing your mom's bed next uh excuse me fuck off okay go on sorry i apologize for the interruption i apologize and how can you talk about that aren't you afraid like if you say it then the six people who listen to this podcast will then report it to the police and they'll they'll come stop you? So it's like an American, USA podcast. So I feel confident that it's not gonna go over to the policemen in France. But I don't think I would say this to a French, because it's, yeah,
Starting point is 00:07:37 I usually don't talk about my next climbs. I usually keep them secrets, but I'm trying to tease the thing a bit more these days because i feel like sometimes it can work so if this time if i don't do this to climb uh on those next weeks i will do a one in um in poland so it's either or so if you don't do france in two weeks if you don't do paris in two weeks you'll do poland What if you do Paris in two weeks, then will you also go do Poland? Yeah, I'm going to do both anyway, but I don't know which one. Fuck, you're a boss.
Starting point is 00:08:10 I have to call my friend to see how we're going to deal, like how we're going to organize and stuff because we're not sure yet. But I cannot tell exactly which building I'm going to climb in poland uh because uh then i could have problems but uh in france it's you know like i've done almost all the most famous skyscrapers in france except eiffel tower because it's not eiffel tower is not interesting there's no challenge in climbing eiffel tower uh everybody does it uh it's more like exploration thing, but it's really easy. But except Eiffel Towers, there's like one building that I didn't climb yet. And this is the one I want to do this summer or this autumn. Can you show us the Eiffel Tower real quick?
Starting point is 00:09:00 We can't let that go. The Eiffel Tower is too easy for our guest, Alandis Landot. Can you put – and Caleb, good job showing the weight. 147 pounds he wants to get down to. I'm assuming you want to be light because then you get more – you have more control over your body. Easier to train, right? Same thing with when I do muscle-ups. It's easier if I lose 10 pounds. Way easier.
Starting point is 00:09:20 I used to be even lighter than this. I used to be even lighter than this. Basically, I was 72 kilograms, which is starting to be a lot for my height because I'm really small. And I went down to 65 kilograms, like 65. I was like my, you know, my cheekbones were like this. Yeah. Yeah. Conor McGregor. But I had like the one arm pull up easy. Like everything was easy. My weight to strength ratio was the best. Oh, strength ratio. Yes. Now I'm a little more,
Starting point is 00:09:55 I gained a little bit of fat, a little bit of muscle. So I'm like 70, 67 or 68. But I'm going to try to go down to 67 or 66 for my next slams. Oh, hi. What did she say? Can I have your phone number?
Starting point is 00:10:12 I'm French. Oh. How tall are you? I'm really small. I'm one meter 70 centimeters. One centimeter. Caleb, who's taller, me centimeters. One centimeter.
Starting point is 00:10:26 Caleb, who's taller, me or Alexis? I think you are taller. No, I'm not taller than anyone. I'm not taller than anyone. I'm taller than my seven-year-old son by this much. Oh. Well, in France, people are usually also a little bit smaller than in the USA. People in the USA are really tall.
Starting point is 00:10:49 When you climb the building, do you wear a mask? No, I'm joking. I'm joking. I feel like we've passed. Oh, we're the same size. You're a little bit taller than me. Oh, just a tiny bit. Tiny, tiny. It is not.
Starting point is 00:11:08 Well, for the French standards, I'm small, but I'm not incredibly small. Right. You can't tell in a picture. In a picture, you look normal. Oh, thanks. Yeah. We were talking about... What were we just talking about uh
Starting point is 00:11:26 eiffel tower yeah so why is the eiffel tower easy why is the eiffel tower it's like a ladder you know it's like uh 250 meters ladder uh it's it's really not interesting the holds are so obvious that a fat lady could do it. Maybe, yes. I didn't climb it. A fat lady with a mask on could do it. And if she's vaccinated, she could do it. Obviously. So it's like, it's a little bit too easy.
Starting point is 00:12:00 So yeah, I try to like keep um doing harder and harder challenges because this is why this is how i want to build uh myself i want to progress uh with finding uh the hardest challenge i can not uh you know like i'm not trying to build to climb iconic buildings. I'm really doing this for the sports aspects. So this is the main difference between somebody who does urban exploring, for example, and me is that I don't care about. I care about how the building is beautiful, but I really see it as a sports achievement, physical achievement. There are people who like set goals for themselves, you know like um i don't know why they do it but but they do it um they'll say um there'll be a local mountain in the area right like i'm in california we have all of these mountains and some people will be like okay even though they're not mountain climbers they'll be
Starting point is 00:13:01 like i want to i want to go to the summit of Mount Shasta. That's a mountain by me. And so they'll work. They'll go to a CrossFit gym and train, and then they'll take some mountain climbing classes, and then they'll hire someone, and they'll climb, and they'll chuck it off their list. That's not – yours is not that, right? This is a lifestyle you have. This isn't a – the buildings are goals unto themselves, but urban climbing is a lifestyle. So I feel like basically if you want to do any activity really well and you want to do it at its best, it has to become your lifestyle. You know what I'm saying? Because we are not shaped by our training or by our diet. We are shaped with our environment. And with this in mind, you have to like, in my opinion,
Starting point is 00:13:59 you have to choose what your environment is. Is it the couch? Is it the couch in front of the TV? Or is it the wild? Or is it in the mountains? And for this reason, I feel like my goal in life is to climb buildings and, you know, like get better or climb, you know, even climbing or just doing achievements in sports in general
Starting point is 00:14:26 like if today if tomorrow i don't want to do buildings i'm just gonna go to regular rock climbing i will i i want to make um to set goals and achieve them but i feel like my my environment is like the urban places you know and it was especially this way when i tried when i tried parkour and i trained for like two or three years parkour and the urban and the urban place became my my environment and this is when i thought you know like well it's the natural thing to want to climb you know then your girlfriend wants you to come back to bed no no i i just heard the keys so uh it's my mom coming home but i'm not sure um uh can you pull up a picture of um can you pull up daniel brandon's um instagram caleb do you have a girlfriend alexis yeah i have a girlfriend
Starting point is 00:15:21 and uh does she how does, does she do urban climbing? No. No. She likes, she's really supportive though. What is her, what is her lifestyle? She's not a kid. She doesn't sit on the couch, does she? No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:15:36 Well, she also does sports. And yeah, she's really supportive. Who is that so this is a girl who um um every four times she's been on the show a handful of times but every four times i invite her um she doesn't show up uh once or twice and i was just thinking you're the two best looking people i've ever had on the podcast and i think you're besides a ufc fighter who's probably has some brain cells that are dead um can you put to play the video of her climbing on the couch? I think it is the most beautiful.
Starting point is 00:16:08 Do we know where that is of her walking around? I think it's my favorite picture. Ah, yes, my favorite video of Danielle Brandon. She's just opening the blinds. It's very simple. She's kind of like an urban climber. Indoor. Look, she climbed up onto the couch.
Starting point is 00:16:23 She's waiting for you to climb by, Alexis. She's opening the window. i just found it fat i was just uh um she's probably one of the most beautiful guests we had on the show and then i and i look at you and i'm look like and i so i just thought it would be a good joke to say okay the two most beautiful people have yeah but she didn't came to the show india she did in the end she did yes she's come on several times she's a great guest she's a great guest uh and then so we invited you on the show you came on at the end instead of the beginning and then i don't know if you believe in god i don't but maybe i should believe in God. The next day. Oh, yeah. Were on Joe Rogan's Instagram account. And a bunch of people text me and goes, he didn't flake on accident.
Starting point is 00:17:13 He big timed you. He's big time now. He's on Joe Rogan. He's too big for you now. It wasn't excellent. I know. I know. And I was so happy for you.
Starting point is 00:17:21 I was so fucking happy for you. You were on the joke. Is this Joe Rogan's? Yeah, yeah, here it is. Did this blow you away? Were you like, wait, wait, what? Yeah, at first. And I thought he tagged.
Starting point is 00:17:36 At first, I was like, wait, he tagged me. Did he tag Leo? Because Leo is my friend. We're climbing together. But then I saw that he did actually like repost leo urban and then i was in the end of the credit but still i think leo gained like 50k followers or something wow like he gained like 50 or 60k followers and i gained um uh 15 he gained 50 i gained 15 nice well what's what's fascinating too is people then also did say, and I appreciated this compliment, even though it's not true,
Starting point is 00:18:06 they said, oh, someone on Joe Rogan's team must be watching your podcast, and that's how they learned about that post. Do you know how the connection made? Do you know how Joe Rogan stumbled across you? I have no idea. Maybe the video was from Leo's Instagram. It was not from mine, but it's not a video that went viral. It's weird.
Starting point is 00:18:27 I think he saw a video of Leo that went viral. He was like, okay, this is cool, but this is not his best work. He just picked a video that is better, even if it's less viral. It's very well shot. Do you have the same guy who does all of your drone work it's not always the same guy but we have a team of people um that are passionate about what we do and they film us with a nice camera and drones and stuff like this so it's really cool yeah some of that um footage when you guys are wearing the GoPros and you look down, it's some of the most dramatic footage I've ever seen. When I look down, I want to throw up. You know what I mean? Even though I'm just looking at my phone, I feel a little woozy. Is that you up there?
Starting point is 00:19:27 funny thing is usually the people that does drone shots are they are not urban climbers per se but they are urban explorers you know like they love urban um urban places like this so and this is funny because the tower you see behind the antenna you know the one we saw the one we see You know, the one we saw, the one we see. And yeah, this one. Yeah. This tower, I climbed it three times. Wow. Why three times?
Starting point is 00:19:54 The first time was the first time. Right. The second time was because my friend wanted to do it. And I wanted to do it again because I wanted to use a different technique, which is way less, not dangerous, but way less exposed and way better. And the third time we... Wait, wait, sorry, sorry, sorry. Way less exposed, meaning it was that you chose a safer technique? You chose like a... Less safe technique. I felt like the technique I did before was like almost like cheating, you know. Can you tell me what the difference is?
Starting point is 00:20:27 One was like this and maybe one was like this? So one was like this and my feet was like, I can't really show you. Let's show my feet. But one, my feet were like this, which is really safe because I was close to the thing. The glass. Okay. The glass, yeah. And the other one, I'm really like Spider-Man, you know The glass. Okay. The glass, yeah. And the other one, I really like, like Spider-Man,
Starting point is 00:20:45 you know, like. Okay. And then the third time, and then the third time? The third time we climbed dressed as, with the Ukraine color. So the people saw us climbing,
Starting point is 00:21:00 you know, I was in, I was in yellow. Leo had the blue shirts and we just climbed you know for ukraine like as a symbol because this this tower is uh really nice it's it's a tower that we can do one time two times three times it's it's not a tower that we have much problem when we climb it they are they understand when we climb it they are nice so yeah they are yeah people are nice you know like they understand it's a sport achievement that's so usually people are nice obviously sometimes we have to go to like uh
Starting point is 00:21:36 pay fines or go to court stuff like this but it's it's okay you know um have you ever gone straight after a climb, you get to the roof and the police take you to jail and you actually go behind the bars? Oh yeah. Always. Always. So they do take you to jail every time. They do take me in jail. They, it's the procedure, but we usually don't have, we usually don't go to court after this.
Starting point is 00:21:59 So it's okay. So it's sort of just, they have to do it. Yeah. Okay. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cops are always really nice with me because they know I'm not a criminal. They just have to do their job until the court says, are they going to have a fine or are they just free? Have you ever started a climb and abandoned it? Get halfway up a building and then turn back uh no but i keep but this is an option you know like once i'm like halfway uh it's always harder to go down than to go up that was my next question yeah yeah so usually if i'm starting to climb it makes more sense to just keep going. But if I'm like on the three first meters and I feel like something is wrong, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:22:49 I have a, I need to go to a toilet. I don't know. Anything I can go down. Yeah, I can. There was, there was a post I was reading of yours or it was in an interview and maybe I'm saying it wrong. Please correct me. But you were saying the blood is not the concern. If your fingers stop bleeding, start bleeding, no problem.
Starting point is 00:23:09 You'll keep climbing. It's something you can work through. But you were talking about if the joints get stiff, that's no good. If you start to lose mobility in your joints. Can you explain that to me? Why would you lose mobility in joints? It gets cold or tired or why does that basically like the it's it's an effort uh of endurance so it's endurance in the muscle but also you know in in the joints because
Starting point is 00:23:35 it you're really like it's really sharp you know it's it's like this and you're holding and it's really sharp so you have to to have to you need to have your joints prepared. So if I start bleeding, it's not going to feel good, but I'm going to fight until I go to the top. But if my joints start to, I don't know, break or something like this, then it can be dangerous. Just because you can't exert enough strength to hold on, I still don't get it.
Starting point is 00:24:03 Or you can't, where is the issue? where does the issue, where's the issues? Like if my joints, you know, it's, uh, it's like really sharp and it's cutting like this. So at some point, if my joints feel, um, too, too destroyed, it can be dangerous, but this is why I train first. So this way I know, like, uh, for example, yesterday I trained the climb. I did 50s ups and down, which is like almost twice the tower, even more than twice the tower in terms of movements. And where do you do that? Where do you do that? Oh, I just go to where some skyscrapers are and I just go there and train when no one can see me so you go up
Starting point is 00:24:47 one floor down one floor up one floor down one floor and you did that and you do that 50 times yeah exactly and at the at the end i was breathing like my hands were destroyed can i see your hands can you go like yeah i got my hands uh are actually really like, uh, they are not destroyed, uh, these days for some reason I have like, look at your knuckles compared to my knuckles. Wow. And even look at the tips of your fingers. They're different. They're wider.
Starting point is 00:25:18 You have bulbous fingers, right? Oh yeah. This is, this is because of rock climbing. Uh, it makes the knuckles like wide. Wow. And you're about to lose a fingernail there on your ring finger. There? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:34 Oh, no, no. So I wear a strap, like a bandage. It's just some bandage that is left from yesterday. Oh, okay. How many buildings have you climbed? I climbed buildings probably around 15 times. And I would say I climbed 10 buildings, maybe. I'm going to count.
Starting point is 00:26:01 So NG, Ariane, Total, Alto, Franklin, Skate. Yeah, around 10 buildings, I would say. And yet, in the next month, you might do 20% more of that. You might do two in the next month. Yeah. Will that be the fastest two you've ever done? Probably not. two you've ever done probably not because i i remember climbing like total tower for the second time uh like in in the same month i climbed montparnasse for the second time too
Starting point is 00:26:33 so yeah it's i i try to climb basically like uh once a month something like this ma'am and and what have you had anything happen on any of these ascents where you're like hey it's time to quit that was too close uh no because if if at some point i'm thinking this thinking this it means i'm already dead you you know, somehow like, uh, yeah, I have to stay calm, whatever happens, but I don't think I can close enough to, uh, to, to the end at any point, because if I'm close enough, you know, it's like, there's no in between, you know, I'm either 100% good or dead, you know, on the ground. So there's no really in between like um when i train for something i know i can do it and if everything goes as planned or if everything goes well
Starting point is 00:27:34 i'm on the top if there's a problem i end up on the ground yeah have you ever have you ever gotten injury from climbing uh yeah i always always have injuries because when people climb a lot, they always end up with their fingers destroyed and stuff like this. But no broken bones, no broken leg or arm? With what I do, you can have a lot of injuries because you climb too much. Like my joints, joints for example of my forms are bits sore stuff like this but if I fall I die so there's no really in between I either have like Joel in Spain or I'm just not in the world anymore but the the thing is that when I'm climbing, like 99% of the time, I have a rope because I'm training.
Starting point is 00:28:27 And it's this 1% of the time where I don't have a rope, which is why I train for. Wait, so when you did those 50 ups and downs on the building, you have a rope on you? I don't have a rope, but I'm like two meters from the ground, you know? Okay. But you're saying there's other times you do have a rope? Yeah, when I'm training in a climbing gym i have rope and does that frustrate you do you wish you didn't have rope uh no no no we don't it's not a frustration because i i trust uh you know it's like i trust the process you know it's like um it's like you know a bodybuilder that does reps
Starting point is 00:29:03 uh yeah when he's off season he's not frustrating because he's not on stage you know, a bodybuilder that does reps when he's off season. He's not frustrating because he's not on stage. You know, he has a vision, like he knows what's going to happen for him. And he knows he has to train hard. And also I love climbing. Like, you know, like it's, I do urban climbings as goals, but I love, I also have goals, you know, in climbing gym, you know, I'm like, oh, next week I'm going to do this, this time I'm going to succeed, you know,
Starting point is 00:29:29 but it's like, I also have goals in the, in the gym, in the climbing gym. Have you, when I see people climb, I haven't seen a lot of urban climbing up close, but I've seen a bunch of, you know, documentaries on, on, you know, climbing nature rocks, all the Alex Honnold stuff, all that stuff. And there's, there's places where you see where the guys have to make some, I don't know what you call them. I don't want to say they have to jump or they have to go outside of their boundary of where they can grip, or they have to do some sort of small explosive movement in the transition. And in the climbing that I've seen you do there, it doesn't seem like
Starting point is 00:30:03 there is a lot of that. It seems like it's just really – go ahead. Oh, no. So, yeah, I feel like sometimes in climbing, let's divide climbing in two types of movements. Please. There are the static where you move and you don't use your inertia. In French, it's inertia. Like your own body moving. You're not using your own body moving.
Starting point is 00:30:31 You're just climbing. Yeah, no momentum. No momentum, exactly. And there's the dynamics movement where you use momentum. And usually in climbing, you don't always use momentum, especially in what we do. And when people do free solos, it's always, first of all, it's almost always down their maximum grade. So they know they are training pretty safely.
Starting point is 00:30:56 And also, it's rare that there's actually jumps or stuff like this. it's rare that there's actually jumps or stuff like this. And this is why the boulder problem that we see on screen is really famous because it's almost maybe the only time you have to either jump or do a dynamic move. But in his actual ascent, Alex Sonol did not jump. He actually used another technique. So he has to stay the most static as possible as static as possible and especially especially when i climb but for example on total tower when i climb it i'm
Starting point is 00:31:33 dynamic but it's not you don't see me jumping but i'm still using momentum you know like i'm putting a foot and i'm grabbing the thing but i'm not using i'm using momentum but it's it's not like jumping or stuff like this yes i hear you okay there's there is some efficiency you've trained yourself to have some efficiency and momentum i want to go back i want to ask you about that but i want to go back are you saying that alex honnold in one of these movies where they showed him jumping he didn't actually jump so he jumped but when but when he actually climbed it for real, like without a rope, free solo, he didn't jump. He didn't. He used another technique, which is much safer.
Starting point is 00:32:16 And did the movie, I can't remember, but did the movie depict him actually jumping it? No, no, no. They're not lying. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Man, I thought They're not lying. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Man, I thought we were going to break something huge here. Sorry, man.
Starting point is 00:32:31 But no, he trained like multiple ways to do it. And on the day he actually climbed it, he chose to not jump, but to do another move that is really risky. But it's less dynamic, more static. But even when climbers use momentum, it's not like they're jumping it's really it happens sometimes sometimes you have to jump to get some move but it's it's really like it's almost like a side of climbing you know like something else what do your parents do what's's their job, their vocation? My mom works on the marketing side of a museum, and my dad is a lawyer. What kind of museum?
Starting point is 00:33:17 History. I'm going to ask you a question. I don't want you to think about it. I want you to just answer very quickly, okay? Are you smart? No. You liar. You are so incredibly articulate and well thought out. And it's pretty amazing that English is your second language. Yeah, but I lost, I used to be fluent in English, but I completely lost my English because I used to go almost every year in the USA.
Starting point is 00:34:04 And I haven't gone to the USA in like three or four years, three years. So I lost my English because I haven't been practicing in a long time. And is your French impeccable? Do you have a do you have a great I mean, obviously, it's the first language, but I mean, do you have a very big vocabulary? Very big vocabulary. I would not say that I have a huge vocabulary, but I know how to express ideas. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:27 I speak French. When you are – you said you're either 100% in or not. Do thoughts enter your mind ever and you just push them out? Like I forgot to – did I turn the stove off? Oh, yeah, yeah. And then do you just what what's what's the mech do you just tell yourself um stop that back on track or or do you have a physical thing you do you tap yourself or do you have a protocol to get yourself back in 100 focus so i have none uh for um a reason is that this is what I like about what I do, is that you can't start to have parasite thoughts because this is dangerous.
Starting point is 00:35:15 So it's automatic. Like when I start climbing, I automatically focus. I don't even have to tell myself to focus. It just does it by itself because this is how I can save myself from falling. You can't not cunt. You can't have parasite thought. Yeah. It's, it's, it's so good to, um, there was a, a poet named, uh, Khalil Gibran. He was a poet named Khalil Gibran. He was, I think he was Lebanese. And he wrote a book called The Prophet.
Starting point is 00:35:50 Do you know this book? Could you pull it up, Caleb? It's a book of poetry. I bet you your mom or dad knows it. Parents know this book because there are some incredible things in there. And English was his second language. And the reason his explanation for why this book is so good is he wrote it in english he didn't write it in lebanese he wrote it in english and therefore his thoughts are very concise and very
Starting point is 00:36:18 powerful and this is such a powerful phrase you're saying. You can't have parasite thoughts. I've never heard anyone who speaks English say that. Use parasite like that. But I mean it's fantastic. It's fantastic. What about things that are out of your control? What about you're up there and there's a transition you didn't expect? Let's say it's a building that has another building on top of it. You're on the 50th floor.
Starting point is 00:36:46 And all of a sudden it's like, oh, shit. Like, have you ever looked around and like, what? What's next? Like the shit you were holding on to, the pattern you were in is now gone. Yeah. So this happened recently. But first of all, we always try to like check everything we can check before like we don't let
Starting point is 00:37:08 anything happen how do you say like I'm going to go on Google Tradition do you this show is perfect for that coincidence yeah there can be any coincidence what did you look up to find coincidence Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you. This is a – this show is perfect for that. Coincidence, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:25 So there can be any coincidence. What did you look up to find coincidence? You looked it up in French and then got the English word? Yeah. Nice. But it's not – I know the word coincidence in English, but it's not exactly the ones I can – To chance.
Starting point is 00:37:40 You don't want to leave anything to chance. Chance, exactly, yeah. Chance, okay. But obviously sometimes things can go, you know, not wrong, chance you don't want to leave anything to chance chance exactly yeah chance okay but obviously sometimes things can go you know not wrong but we can something can not be seen for example on the last tower we climbed which is my hardest achievements yet franklin tower the one i do barefoot with the really wide windows really really, really wide and, and tall windows. Um, so, and the last floor, there was some kind of, um, um, like a windows on the window,
Starting point is 00:38:14 which made it so much harder to climb a window on the window, like a double window. Yeah. So I didn't have any place to put my feet and my hands, so it was really, really hard, but I still made it. So even if sometimes things don't go as planned, what matters is that everything goes well in the end. Caleb, can you show me him climbing that building? It's the one that was really wide.
Starting point is 00:38:41 I think we showed it once already. Is it the same one that Rogan showed? Yeah, it's this one. Or is it the one we played at the beginning of the show today also yeah okay same one okay so so there's there's those big windows and then there were some little ones right yeah it was on some big windows the windows had like something um added to it but it was okay because we were thinking about uh i mean like it's only one floor so it's okay and if this happens like midway and all the windows after this were like this well first we would have seen that before but even if that happens we would have gone down just you know like down climbing you would have yeah man it
Starting point is 00:39:28 down climbing seems so much it seems so scary yeah it's i i it's a little bit more delicate than climbing up but it's okay can you play that again i just can't believe you did that right there. What I'm looking at. So do you do a lot of climbing barefoot? Not always, but sometimes. Are your feet tough? Like, can you put a cigarette out on your foot? Is your foot tough? Maybe. Well, my, my, my, my feet are not, I don't use them much, but if I have to go barefoot, I will. If I have to put my, get my shoes off, I will.
Starting point is 00:40:06 Because sometimes it's better this way. Sometimes it's better with climbing shoes. Sometimes it's better without, you know. My son the other day, my son's almost always barefoot. I have three sons. And the other day he played a tennis match and it went 12 sets. And then it went to a tiebreaker so six i think they're called sets six sets six sets and then they did the tiebreaker and my son played
Starting point is 00:40:31 the entire thing barefoot against this other boy and even with all the experience he has barefoot he's barefoot almost all day every day that running around on the tennis court i mean his feet were raw i mean they weren't bleeding, but they were raw. How were your feet when you got to the top there? Were they tender? They were okay. Not tender? Sometimes it can bleed a little bit on the side, but it's okay.
Starting point is 00:40:57 Yeah. And, and is there any, is there any ego component with your buddy next to you there? Is there any racing? Is there any like he's getting too far ahead, I'm getting too far ahead? No. No, no, we try to – no, no, this is not a good idea. We are now climbing in a duo, you know, like together. Because, you know, this way we are not climbing one against another,
Starting point is 00:41:24 but we're climbing together so the goal is to go as far as possible together do you ever say anything to him like do what's his name leo uh leo i have to tell you something last week i banged your girlfriend i'm sorry no that that cannot happen Last week, I banged your girlfriend. I'm sorry. Oh, no. Okay, okay, okay. All right, all right, all right. No, that cannot happen. This is a moment where we focus on pure climbing. How about anything, Leo, I love you, or Leo, I can't believe we're doing this, or maybe you can hear him maybe breathing, or is there any, oh, wow, on top of each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:17 Because we trust each other. So is there any communication up there? Yeah, we can talk together. For example, when we were almost at the end of Franklin Tower, the one just before, I was telling him, like, oh, after this climb, I'm going to get wasted. I'm going to drink. I don't drink alcohol. I don't smoke anything so this was
Starting point is 00:42:48 like the first time i had a drink in like a few years yeah smoking stupid especially if you want to be a good athlete or would you say would you say you're addicted to this to climbing yeah yeah in a way maybe in a way but i feel like everything is like an addiction you have to find like a uh healthy addiction alexis is this a healthy addiction you have uh yeah i think it is oh shit god what if my boys grow up to be as great as you you're scaring me what if what if my boys grow up to be as great as you you're scaring me don't show that in this podcast then um there is um what i think you're addicted to is the stillness you are experiencing in your mind i think it is the same addiction when we see a beautiful woman
Starting point is 00:43:45 um we our mind goes still we're um or when we see a cheetah running across the landscape our mind goes still or when you see um uh the world famous arm wrestler cobra roads when you see his forearm and you see how beautiful his forearm is your mind goes still i think maybe you're addicted to um to that what do you think i mean i mean very few people have ever get to find an addiction like that i know i'm addicted to feeling like my life belongs to me and knowing that um nothing can happen as long as i'm in control this is why i do this in the first place. I heard you say that.
Starting point is 00:44:30 I kind of like this thing that you said, that you were so afraid of your loved ones dying and you were always concerned about your loved ones so that in this situation, you sort of can get control of your own life. Yeah. Where did you find this? This is true. I didn't remember saying did you find this? This is true. I didn't remember saying this, but this is 100% true.
Starting point is 00:44:49 Probably, I mean, I found it somewhere on the internet. Can you talk to me about that? I don't really, I understand having that fear of like, of losing a loved one. I understand that a little bit. I don't have that sort of phenomenon in my brain, but I understand it because I have kids and I do have some things similar to that. But how does – so do you think that it would be unfair to say it you just said it yeah i i um it's i i'm scared to losing my loved ones like in something i cannot control like your mom and your dad specifically like your mom dad girlfriend um to losing them uh sisters and brothers and stuff i guess i'm
Starting point is 00:45:40 scared of like losing them in accident, like a car crash, a plane accident, disease, cancer, an attack, a knife attack, something like this. I'm always scared of this because I cannot control this. The only thing I can control is what happens with me.
Starting point is 00:46:01 I feel like the only thing I can focus is me. I cannot change anything else but i can work on myself so this is this is what what's happening you know but i'm also scared of me for me i'm also scared of dying of cancer of dying a car crash stuff like this and i feel like when i put myself in danger that i and i'm saving saving, saving myself. It feels great. It feels like I'm over, it feels like I'm overpowering this, you know. You're free from those thoughts. Discover more value than ever at Loblaws, like price drop. Hear that? Loblaws lowers prices
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Starting point is 00:47:05 You can enjoy free beer, wine, and premium snacks in economy class. Now extended to flights within Canada and the U.S. Cheers to taking off this summer. More details at aircanada.com. Yeah, exactly. It makes me free from those thoughts, exactly. it makes me free from those thoughts exactly i had a friend last night tell me that they were addicted to social media and that they got rid of their social media and that when they got rid of their social media they after seven
Starting point is 00:47:36 days they realized they had put on like 15 pounds oh and they said instead of scrolling they just now make trips to the refrigerator to eat. Yeah, yeah. And I thought, wow, that's fascinating. And I used to smoke cigarettes, so I understand the desire. Anytime you have to cope with something, do you know that word, coping mechanism? Yeah, yeah. Then you would run and get a cigarette. Then you would run and get a cigarette. What about your peers?
Starting point is 00:48:09 Do you share this with your peers? Do you know what motivates them? Peers means like a colleague? Yes, sir. It's funny because with my peers, in some points, we are really the same. In some other points, we are really, really different, different like opposite so I feel like it's a little bit different for everybody like the reason why
Starting point is 00:48:31 like in our inner self is different but the way to do it is the same you know like seeking for freedom of us you know we're looking for freedom so I feel like it's always different reasons, but it's the same way to proceed. Um, do you feel like any of them are reckless?
Starting point is 00:48:54 Uh, so, uh, a lot of, uh, more and more people are doing, uh, like us, what we do. And also a lot of people do things like hanging on one arm on cranes, stuff like this. And a lot of people were doing this before we came along, but this is not really urban climbing. It's more like urban exploring, but people doing stunts, dirty, dirty, all stuff like this. But this is not who we are.
Starting point is 00:49:19 But a lot of these people are starting to get interested in urban climbing. And I think a lot of people are reckless. So I know somebody is going to end up falling at some point. But I'm pretty sure it's not one of my buddies. And if it is, it means he set a goal that is too high. It doesn't mean that he's reckless. It means he wanted to climb something. That's what's on his mind
Starting point is 00:49:46 and he's going to try it anyway but I think some people are reckless and I'm scared I think somebody will fall one day yeah so when you say one day you mean no one has fallen yet yeah well yes I mean like
Starting point is 00:50:01 two years ago the only person who was free soloing buildings like this was Alain Robert, the master of our discipline. You know, the guy who was climbing, the French Spider-Man who was climbing skyscrapers for like 20 years, 30 years, actually. So this is the guy that started it all. and then we came along with leo there's a polish guy called martin bannett that started to climb buildings too like three years ago and i feel like so there was like a wave of new people like four or five people climbing buildings with a few people climbing easier buildings yeah. This picture shows it all. But I feel like there's going to be a lot of new people
Starting point is 00:50:48 climbing buildings, but climbing easier buildings, you know, because there are easy buildings and hard buildings. There are a few ones that are really, really easy to climb that some people already climb, some people that doesn't do climbing, and I'm scared to see them do actually harder climbs.
Starting point is 00:51:05 Have you climbed with Alan Robert? Yeah, this is us climbing together on the picture. Wow. I love the, yeah, the first picture was taken. Oh, so good. Yeah. So good. I'm the guy on the right.
Starting point is 00:51:22 Martin is on the left. Alan is in the middle. And Leo next to me is my climbing buddy. Yeah, it's such a cool picture. It says so much. These clothes you're wearing right here, are those your favorite clothes? Do you have a favorite outfit to wear when you climb? Like that's my climbing shirt.
Starting point is 00:51:40 Those are my underwear. I wear my sponsor my sponsor shorts and yeah this is what i wear and and how about your pants and your underwear do you have favorite underwear you wear it doesn't matter or do you know i don't even know what i'm wearing as an underwear right now right and and the pants they have to do you wear shorts ever it's always pants i like shorts shorts i like shorts when i climb i don't know for some. I like shorts. Shorts. I like shorts when I climb. I don't know. For some reason, I like shorts. I feel like I'm lighter with them on, you know. Above the knee.
Starting point is 00:52:10 Cut above the knee? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like to have like a really small, tight shorts. Spoken like a true Frenchman. Small, tight shorts. We have this absurd thing in the United States where the shorts go below the knees. It's idiocy. I've never seen that.
Starting point is 00:52:33 Oh, it's idiocy. It's fucking. And we have the kids who walk around with their pants hanging down so you can see their underwear. We have so many idiots in this country. Yeah, we have this too. Oh, I'm so sorry. I think every trend that's in the USA comes to France like three or four years too oh i'm so sorry every every trend that's in the usa comes to france like i'm so sorry years after i'm so sorry well then you're about to have a lot of
Starting point is 00:52:51 fat people you're about to get ready get ready it's gonna be something you've never seen before it's coming no every trend every like um trend uh everything everything that happens in usa happens three years later in France or sometimes even months after you know it's crazy everything it's 2022 you climbed your first tower in 2019
Starting point is 00:53:14 I wow yeah right I think yeah so yeah it was the end it was December 2019 or 200 no I think it was 200 I think it was the end it was december 219 yeah or 200 no i think it was 200 i think it was 2020 uh yeah yeah um was it the albert tower oh you mean this one yeah yeah yeah you're right you are correct sorry thank you if you have any questions about yourself just ask me i know
Starting point is 00:53:41 um alexis was covid good for urban climbers everyone got the fuck out of the way and you guys could climb wherever you want oh so uh some yes and no so i was in containment when leo started climbing and i was planning on climbing the sky milia in barcelona and he climbed it before me and And I was like, wow. What do you mean you were in containment? What do you mean? What do you say? What do you mean you were in containment?
Starting point is 00:54:11 I was like a whole, uh, like, uh, like everybody was home from COVID, you know, like, no, not urban climbers. I was not an urban climbers yet. So, oh, I'm so sorry. So basically I was planning on climbing a building in Barcelona. And I saw my friend doing it. And I was like, no. Nobody climbed this building in 20 years.
Starting point is 00:54:34 And the same date I want to climb it, somebody does it too. Like what? And then, so this is how I met Leo. We were climbing the same things. So we were saying, well, let's climb together now, you know, makes more sense. And the media understand better what we do. Because if I climb the building and he climbs it the week after, the media, they don't understand. They're like, what?
Starting point is 00:55:00 Because it seems like you're just a copycat. Yeah. Because it seems like you're just a copycat. Yeah. Even if people don't understand, if people climb buildings every week, they're going to start to think everything is... Who are these people? They understand better when they say,
Starting point is 00:55:18 oh, it's the two French people that climb buildings. Yeah, that's the way we think. When we're labeled as the two french urban climber it's way better than oh it's just a guy and there's another oh okay okay yeah i see that um does he live by you does leo live near you oh he's like an hour of uh an hour of driving away something like this and is there is there a third guy is there going to be more well there's more and more people joining like i mean joining us they're not joining us but they're inspired by by anna robert and by what we do so they try it and this is why i'm saying i was i'm a little bit um scared
Starting point is 00:56:00 i'm a little bit scared because i see that uh more and more people are trying to do to do what we do but not all of them are ready to do it you know this this fear of um of of loved ones dying um since you've started climbing has that has that has it evolved well Well, now I have... Has it lessened or gotten worse? Well, it's like now I have to be really focused on staying alive. So obviously, I don't have energy and time to think about, to be scared of other people. I feel like almost everything in life is like this. We have to find ways. we have to stay busy you know so i'm like i'm now i have to focus on staying alive so yeah obviously i i have to plan
Starting point is 00:56:55 everything think everything train for everything so now i have something to focus on do you remember that do you remember that as a child being five years old or four years old and real and and you drive by a cemetery and your mom says oh so and so is buried there and the light bulb goes off and you're like oh what do you mean they're buried there and then your mom says well that's where your great-grandfather's buried and then you're like are you gonna die mom and your mom's like yeah and you're like what the fuck all of a sudden you're like old children are like this uh i i was saying that they're they're gonna be another way like i was um i was sure in my head that there was another way you know like dying is not the end and um yeah i was always scared for my for my parents when i was
Starting point is 00:57:40 a little kid always scared for my parents so i guess I guess now I have to focus on me, you know, which is good. I was sure there's another way that dying wasn't the end. That could be the opening line for a movie. I was sure there's another way. Yeah, I was sure there was another way yeah I was sure there was another way yeah what a beautiful French way to speak English yeah this this is this is a beautiful line this could be a song I was sure there's another way that dying wasn't the end well have you explored that anywhere else have you have you taken up Christianity or Buddhism? Is there anything you're exploring that can give you fulfillment with that?
Starting point is 00:58:38 My girlfriends say zombies because I like walking dead. I like zombies. I don't necessarily believe in an afterlife in the way most people would think. But I grew up for a few years with a Boy Scouts group. But you have to keep in mind that Boy Scouts in the US and in France are really, really, really different. In France it depends. Sometimes it's like a holiday, you know. And some places are more like a military
Starting point is 00:59:15 place. So it's really it's like a military slash a Christian place which makes you basically just more tough and more resilient, you know? And I think I learned a lot in this, if this is what you meant with the,
Starting point is 00:59:34 like what else brings you to this, like is it Christianity or? So I would say this was really a good thing in my life uh and i would say uh i don't know i feel like yeah just achieving goals is like my main focus in life you know and i feel like also to achieve those goals goals i need to be focused on this like i can't just do this as a side job you know like i can't risk my life every month as a side job it doesn't work this way because i have to be like really focused on this in order to stay alive so i wish one day i can live with my passion you know by coming with sponsors or with um like clients that want me to climb their
Starting point is 01:00:26 building, something like this. We had maybe something in Dubai, but this isn't standby. So we don't know when this is going to happen, but yeah. And I feel like also I've been more like brands in the U S and in the UK are talking to me way more than French brands for some reason. It is, it is fascinating what you're doing. The, I mean the vast majority of people must look at it and just think it's just batshit crazy. Like they must think that, you know,
Starting point is 01:01:01 I'm sure it's a common phrase to say, hey, he has a – this doesn't end well. He has a death wish. There's all of these things that they're – and those are their thoughts, right? Those are just their mind reacting to what you're doing. When you're climbing, are you familiar – do you do any – are you familiar with meditation? What does that word mean to you does that word mean anything to you well i don't i don't meditate as uh people would think i think but i i do sometimes get lost in my minds uh like and just think like usually when i'm in cell and and I'm by myself, I don't have my buddy with me. I'm in a jail cell and at this point I just start to think and think and think.
Starting point is 01:01:54 Maybe this is what meditation means. I want to try to describe an experience to you and see if it resonates with you or if you have an experience like this. You're climbing, and there's thoughts going on like, oh, what was that? I felt something on my finger. And then you look over, and you see that there's a broken screw on this window, and it's coming loose. And then you have a thought, oh, I wonder if anyone's ever told the engineers that on all of these windows, they're coming apart here. You know, like something you might see that no one else in the world see. But it's not you having the thought.
Starting point is 01:02:32 You're watching your mind have that thought. And then it's kind of like, well, who the fuck is that? If I'm not having the thought and I'm watching the thought, then who the fuck am I? Well, I didn't think I experienced things like this yet. Okay. But you understand what I'm saying, right? Yeah. In some way, it's like I have to be so focused that it's like there's another me just doing a thing.
Starting point is 01:03:01 And there's like a part of me that is that doesn't have any thoughts just climbing and the part of me that is listening to what's what's happening you know yeah yeah it's like this somebody on the chat said great show i think oh yeah oh yeah you can see that oh thanks thanks jim let's see what else Jim says. Dying is not the end. Okay, well, that's good news. Thank you. Fuck. It is the beginning.
Starting point is 01:03:31 We are dying from the moment we are born. Our living starts when we die. Life and death are just words that have been given in a meeting. Fuck, can't argue that. I wish I could know more about how you know that shit, but it all seems to make sense. know more about how you know that shit but but it all seems to make sense you you when you when you're going to the to the building to climb what is there is there a time you start every climb is it like okay every climb has to start at we sunrise is at 652 every climb will start three minutes before sunrise um we will uh check the humidity to make sure the building is not slippery in the area um we have to know that the we check the winds um what have
Starting point is 01:04:10 i eaten when's the last time i took a piss did i poop before i went is is there this do you have a checklist okay i took a shit i kissed my girlfriend you know what i mean the wind is not going to go about five miles an hour, that kind of stuff. So there are these things, yeah, in the way that we – for some things we check before. Like we look at the weather. We're like, okay, there are no clouds or there are a little bit of clouds. So not too much sun because obviously rain is dangerous. But rain is dangerous. What people don't know is that sun can be
Starting point is 01:04:46 just as dangerous oh shit like the building gets too hot you can't hold on wow or with the reflections of the windows it goes go stretch my face you can like get burned and just like pass out from the sun yeah it can be dangerous especially if you're climbing like on a tall building. Like my next building, I think I'm going to climbing in like 25, 30 minutes. So if there's sun, it's okay. But for something that is like more than an hour, yeah, it has to be cloudy. So things like this, yeah, we check. We check the weather first.
Starting point is 01:05:20 But I try to poop before, obviously. I go to the bathroom to the bathroom multiple times but about what i eat i just try to eat something that will not make me sick and not too much there's a bit of sugar but i want to be as light as possible i don't want to feel like i'm digesting you know give me give me an idea what you would eat before you ascended if it was and what time do you start do you start them all at the same time i know this is where we don't really check because it doesn't really matter we just oh it's it's good now there's a little bit of sun not too much it's still the day all right let's go not too much wind let's go you know it's not like we have to start precisely on time it's still the day all right let's go not too much money let's go you know it's not like we
Starting point is 01:06:06 have to start precisely on time it's like you you you just listen to your body and you're like you're like uh ears open eyes open you feel like everything is good yeah let's go not too much humidity let's go uh do you take water with you sometimes yeah sometimes wow oh you do why do you take water with you so if there's a long long and easy climb i will take water because for example if i have to climb like a 350 meters skyscrapers or something like this and it's an easy climb i will take water because you know at some point i'm going to be thirsty and i can let go of one hand drink keep climbing and it's okay if it's easy it's okay if i have water on me a little bit of extra weight it's okay if i climb something
Starting point is 01:06:56 that is like 100 meters or 150 meters that is hard i'm not taking water i'm not taking extra weights on me plus i don't know i don't think if the climb is hard i cannot drink it technically oh my last climbs i'm not able to drink like i'm like this oh let's see that again caleb so there's nowhere how long is that climb that you um the last time i did yeah 45 minutes it's it and the whole time you're holding on there's never like you can't scratch your balls maybe yeah i can scratch my balls i can i can let go one arm but really really slowly to catch to catch chalk i can like but really slowly you can see it i think in the video i'm just like letting go one arm but really slowly. You can see me at some point, I think, in the video. I'm just letting go one arm, but really, really slowly.
Starting point is 01:07:49 Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Has your mom seen this video? This video, I don't know. She sees me, but I don't show her the video because I don't want to make her scared. Has anyone
Starting point is 01:08:04 close to you asked you to stop um yeah uh people say oh it's stupid it's terrible but i honestly i think i uh i know better what i'm doing so yeah i wonder the people who have wow i mean it must be so tough for your parents because there's nothing more you want in life than your kids to be happy. But they can't – like I can't have my kid – I can't die before my mom. That would be the worst thing i could do i if there's one thing i just never want i don't want to die before my mom yeah you know what i mean i just don't want to put her through that like i just like i just it's really fucking stupid let me see so so if i as a father crazy to our son to do amazing things but wow i think what he said and by the way this i think this gentleman
Starting point is 01:09:03 if it's the guy who i think it is, this gentleman had cancer and went through chemotherapy, so he almost died. Right. And so he, and he has two sons. And so it's, it's kind of, it's, it's, it's interesting. Right. Um, and, and I don't mean this in any way. I'm so impressed by you, Alexis, by the way, I truly have a profound love for what you and what you're doing you're so fucking cool you only get cooler every minute i talk to you but but this man was uh was trying is trying to stay alive on the most fundamental way right and and so that he can be probably i don't i don't know him that well but so he could spend every second with his kids that's all the fuck he wants to do i guarantee it like there's nothing this guy could give a fuck about being alive except for his kids and yet you have taken such control of your life that that that you do this activity
Starting point is 01:09:58 that um that takes your body up over the surface of the earth oh my god i don't even know how to describe what you're doing i i really i really don't i wish there was like a pot of gold at the top of every roof or like a big dinner waiting for you so i could be like well he's going up there to eat you know what i mean i need like yeah like people need a reason to go to and you have a great reason your fear of death it's fascinating reason it's my patient yeah it's your what i mean climbing is my patient you know well and and the fear of death right you're doing it to sort of mitigate this fear of death yeah probably too this is what i think about me and also like um i feel like I'm really lucky to being born without a condition, you know, like no disease.
Starting point is 01:10:53 Yeah, you're healthy. You don't have Down syndrome. To be healthy. Yeah. To have family that raised me in a good environment, stuff like this. And I feel so grateful for all these things. like this and i feel so grateful for all these things like i do i i'm so lucky and also so grateful to have a life i'm not gonna waste it uh doing nothing you know what i'm saying like um how do you feel about abortion oh my god uh i it's actually a subject where i don't have um
Starting point is 01:11:23 i don't have a point sorry no no no it's okay i don't I don't have I don't have a point sorry I really don't know what to think I don't know what to think either I don't know what to think either say that again say that again really
Starting point is 01:11:39 that I don't know what to think no it's fucking it's horrible one thing it's killing babies one thing it's you're putting laws on women's body I don't know what to think? No, it's fucking – it's horrible. One thing, it's killing babies. One thing, it's you're putting laws on women's body. I don't want to do it either. Oh, okay, yeah. I don't know what the fuck to think.
Starting point is 01:11:52 I don't know how to deal with it. I wish every person would make – but I wish both sides were kinder to each other. I wish the side that wanted to put laws on people, that wanted to save babies would be like understand these women who don't want laws on their bodies and i wish these people these women who don't want laws on their bodies would stop saying stupid things like well the baby's going to be born into a poor environment or or or this this is crazy we're talking about babies lives and and i and it's it's but but um yeah i don't know what to think either and it's people are so sure on either side and i'm like how can you be so sure how can either one of you be so sure this is because people like find like a side to settle in yeah and they will move from their side you know it's like it's part of their identity yeah exactly it's part of their identity identity. But the thing is, I really don't understand the argument about it's a woman's body because we're not talking about a woman's body. We're talking about a baby's body. Literally, we're not talking about why people feel so self-centered. We're not talking about a people's body, like an adult's body. We're talking about a kid's body with like um an adult body we're talking about a kid inside a
Starting point is 01:13:06 body but it's not about your body nobody cares about your body we're talking about the thing that is inside but also i i respect the people that say well you know like i don't want to get pregnant now i'm gonna have problems my baby is gonna be like uh we're gonna grow up like you know it's not gonna work and this i understand too i feel like, we're going to grow up. Like, you know, it's not going to work. And this I understand too. I feel like it's also hard to have an opinion on this because of the fact that it's like on the ninth month, the baby is the people, is someone. And on the first week, it's nothing yet.
Starting point is 01:13:47 And like, the thing is that it's not black or white you know it goes from being nothing to being a whole individual and where's the line there's no line there's multiple lines you know so how do we deal with this because laws means either yes or no it doesn't mean like oh yes but no it's either yes or no so it's really hard because there's no line it's not like murder like murder is bad so good murder bad this is good no murder is good abortion is like it's like a scale you know at zero week it's nothing literally it's still a sperm and egg you know like zero weeks and nine, it's nothing, literally. It's still a sperm and egg, you know, like zero weeks. At nine months, it's literally a people. It's literally a person, you know, with a name.
Starting point is 01:14:32 So, yeah. And people also have big debates on where do life start. Does it start with the brain? Does it start with the heart? Does it start when the baby is male or female? You know, when does it start? So, yeah, it's a really complicated subject. And it's a subject that is also massively really anchored in other political subjects.
Starting point is 01:14:56 It's like, oh, I'm with this party, so I must think like this. Or I'm in this party, so I must think like this. Or I'm a liberal, so I must think, I this party so I must think like this or I'm a liberal so I must think I must be yes abortion or I'm a conservative so I must be against and even though people are still thinking like this there's like a scale you know like
Starting point is 01:15:15 for example like I think almost everybody would think that abortion at nine months is horrible I think almost everybody would say that abortion at nine months is horrible i think almost everybody would say that like abortion before like at the first day is nothing the first day because there's no it's barely fertilized you know but the problem is in the in between you know there's this um very well said i do very very well said there There's this law they're trying to pass in California where I live where if a baby dies, I think it's up to seven days after it's born, that it's not allowed to be investigated.
Starting point is 01:16:02 Seven days after? Yeah, I know. You can't even believe it. You can't even believe you can't even believe it pardon me so let's say the baby's born yeah and then the baby dies three days later they're trying to pass a law that you cannot investigate that baby's death because what they're saying is that what if the mother was doing they're trying they're saying Right. opens up a seven-day window that you could throw your baby away that a baby's life isn't protected regardless of what your intention is and so for people like me who don't i don't want to put laws on women's bodies but but but but but i can't have babies being killed either yeah it's a mess it's a mess and you're right about the politics and the identity thing the hey what what are people who climb are the um do um
Starting point is 01:17:05 conservatives or liberals like urban climbers more i feel like um both okay all right all right no no it's it's good like even in the urban climbing scene we i think we have uh just like so people that do things like we do there's only like four or five people in the world really there's that few of you oh even fewer like if we talk really about climbing skyscraper do things like we do. There's only like four or five people in the world. Really? There's that few of you? Oh, even fewer. If we talk really about climbing skyscrapers like this, there's four people. Four or five, maybe.
Starting point is 01:17:37 Can you tell me their names? I want to write down their names. What are their names? Alexis Landot from France. There's Alain Robert, which is a French Spiderman you know him we saw his picture
Starting point is 01:17:49 Leo Urban Leo Urban there's this Polish guy named Marcin Banot Marcin Banot do all these guys speak English Marcin not okay a little bit uh my friend leo
Starting point is 01:18:10 he speaks english uh better than martin i think okay but this guy does a lot of things he doesn't just do urban climbing he also does like urban exploring okay and this is like a time he just explored this place so this is not actually it's not real climbing in a way that it's not like uh he used like a you know a big ladder thing but he did like really really amazing uh climbs uh especially the if you take the last post yeah the the last one he posted yeah this. This is a really big achievement. You can see it's, it's a really hard building.
Starting point is 01:18:49 What, what, why do you say that? What's did that looks easier than the one I saw you do. It's maybe easier. I don't know, but it's still hard, but it's still crazy.
Starting point is 01:19:00 We'll see in a few weeks. Oh my goodness. Okay. And so that's four. We have Alexis Landot, we have Alan Robert, we have Leo Urban, and Martin Benoit.
Starting point is 01:19:18 Who's the fifth one? Maybe we can add my friend Titouan, which I climbed Montparnasse with and he climbed total recently so he's going like he's going at our level you know what i mean like he's like climbing our skyscrapers um we like those two towers i just said are like part of the hardest that are done a lot of times but it's not as hard as the one I showed you or the one we did with Leo Barefoot, but it's still really good achievements.
Starting point is 01:19:49 There's my friend Enzo that is planning on climbing one of these towers for this year. So yeah, there's like five people, five-ish, you know? And there's also a lot of people that climb easier buildings, like some buildings in La Défense, like Engie, Ariane, etc. So if you take really those hard buildings, there's like five.
Starting point is 01:20:13 If you take more buildings that are easier, but that people climb, it can be like 10 or 15th. And I would say, yeah, to answer your question, your primary question, it's like everyone is like, there's some conservative and so liberal. Caleb, will you show a picture of his body again?
Starting point is 01:20:36 There's other shirtless shots of him. Alexis Landot, he's 20, Adam, he's 22 years old. And his climbing, like preferred climbing weight, he's about 150 pounds. And he's 20 uh adam he's 22 years old um he and is climbing like preferred climbing weight he's about 150 pounds and he's a little bit taller than me he's uh five five he's almost five six and but i mean he looks like a perfectly proportioned man maybe his arms are a little long for his height do you know what your wingspan is like this when you go like this? I don't have a really big wingspan because I'm small.
Starting point is 01:21:07 My friend Leo is a little bit taller than me. He's like one meter, 80 centimeters, but he has really long arms, like big wingspans. So this is good for climbing. So this is good for climbing. I have a large waist, actually. No, thin waist, but large hips. I have large hips. It's weird.
Starting point is 01:21:39 I have a really thin waist, but large hips. So this can be good for climbing if I have to be on on windows because it gives me a lot a nice wingspan on my feet but it's it makes more weight on my ass oh right right not as good but you know like i'm good i have a healthy body so um on on march on on february 24th, something happened. I don't know what happened, but Russia invaded Ukraine. I don't know what they called it. Did they go to war with them? Is it special operations? Is it fucking – they're taking –
Starting point is 01:22:15 I don't know how it's called, but I think it was supposed to be like deal with fast. This is what I heard. I heard that it was supposed to be like three weeks something and now it's just over and over and it's not stopping okay so from where I look in California it looks like this country named Russia that's led by a guy named Putin
Starting point is 01:22:36 went into their neighboring country Ukraine is trying to take it let's say that that's my guess and that started on February 24th 2020 on March 7th, 2020. On March 7th, two weeks later, you entered the country of Ukraine, which was under attack by Russia. And you climbed a 700 foot building. So I did two minutes with 200 people watching. That's a lie. I made that up. That's not true.
Starting point is 01:23:02 So I did not do this, do that in Ukraine. i made that up that's not true so it's just i did not do this do that in in ukraine i did that in paris ah oh wow doing this in ukraine would have been absolutely crazy but i think i would have been put to jail or forever if i would have done this okay i misunderstood okay um uh caleb can you pull – can you Google what's the tallest building in Ukraine? Let's find a – let's find a – I think it's a spire. There's like a spire in Ukraine. But yeah, I was in like Eastern Europe.
Starting point is 01:23:40 I was thinking about climbing maybe in Eastern Europe. I don't know when though. The Klovski Descent 7. It is 533 feet tall. Can you scroll over a little bit? It's a skyscraper in Kyiv, Ukraine, the tallest in the country designed by Andrei Mazur. The building is 168 meters, 47 floors. That's doable, right?
Starting point is 01:24:06 Oh, and it's a primary residential building. Are the residential buildings too easy because you can go on the... Yeah, it's too easy because sometimes it's too easy or sometimes it's just not climbable, but it's not a good idea. People can wait me at the balcony and stuff. It's better to do office buildings.
Starting point is 01:24:24 People can do what on you on the balcony? Talk to you, push you off, shit like that? Yeah, exactly. Have a hose and squirt you? Yeah, like catch me, push me. Cops can be there. Office buildings is better. Has anyone ever knocked on the window when you're climbing up it?
Starting point is 01:24:42 Not knocked, but waving, stuff like this. Do you wave it? Uh, not knocked, but waving stuff like this, you know, do you wave back? Yeah. Sometimes if I, if I, if I'm, uh, yeah. So this is, this is Leo. I was just, um, I was just, uh, a few meters down. Hey, do you ever see footage from people? Like who shot this footage here? People inside the office. And then how did you get it? They sent it to us afterwards.
Starting point is 01:25:15 Hey, you're a hero if you do that. If you see a guy climbing on the outside of a building and you take footage for him to give to him, I mean, that's a dream come true, right? That's awesome. Yeah. People do that all the time, though's a dream come true, right? That's awesome. Yeah. People do that all the time, though. Like people are like, what? They take their phone and then they're like, okay, who are these guys?
Starting point is 01:25:35 Let's check who these people are. And they sent their pictures. There's a picture of me that is absolutely gorgeous. That's a photograph I took. Is it on your instagram yeah it's my instagram it's like a few well i posted it like uh four months ago i think can we scroll his instagram caleb and see what this one was taken by a by a stranger it's uh really really really nice it's um it's a little bit down.
Starting point is 01:26:06 Yeah, it's this one. Yeah, this one. This was taken on the last floor. Oh, that's incredible. Last floor of Montparnasse with the sunset behind. Say it again. I interrupted. Say it one more time. So this was taken on the last floor of Montparnasse Tower.
Starting point is 01:26:20 I was about to reach the top, and you can see the sunset behind me so i'm like outside of the the windows and the people taking pictures are inside it's like i'm in the zoo you know yeah that whoever took that except they are except they are inside and i'm the one outside yeah it's such a good photo hey would you ever do one of these shirtless? Yeah. Yeah, one day. That's for sure. Man.
Starting point is 01:26:52 Man, oh, man. What is this term flow state? Does that have any significance to you? Yeah, it's the state which I'm in. Yeah, that's for sure. Do you ever experience it anywhere else besides climbing? Um, I,
Starting point is 01:27:12 yeah. When I'm in the shower. Yeah. Wow. Except when I'm in the shower, I don't have anything to do when I'm climbing. I need to be focused. It's like a different type of focus.
Starting point is 01:27:26 How about, how about when you're laying with your girlfriend and you know, you're going to climb tomorrow. Yeah. Does the thought come in your head? This could be the last time I ever touch a woman. So it's not uh it's not i i don't um i don't expect me to fall like right like succeeding is the only way right but i do appreciate the calm of the moment, you know? Right. Oh, shit.
Starting point is 01:28:13 So when you're climbing, it's totally calm and it's totally not calm. It's like I have to stay calm. I don't have a choice. But it's a different – so when you're laying there and it's five in the morning you wake up and your girlfriend's asleep in your arms the everything's up at 10 okay at 10 um uh you wake up everything is calm but on the outside but you're saying when you're climbing a building all the calm has to be inside exactly like uh i feel so i've never done um martial sports this thing yeah but i feel like it's pretty much the same feeling you get before a fight i think i think it is the same uh it's like when you're about to fight and you have to empty your mind
Starting point is 01:29:06 but at the same time it's uh like my friend said this leo my buddy he said that his friend was doing martial arts and it was pretty much the same way to way like you have to get mentally. He says you have to keep a cold mind and a warm heart. And this is the state I have to be in. Is that a police car driving by? I think it's an ambulance. Everything sounds different in Europe. Oh, yeah. Everything sounds different in every place cold cold mind warm heart
Starting point is 01:29:48 did you watch the fights last night no what i was oh so many fights do you watch the ufc not really i sometimes i watch like youtube compilation uh-huhations because I like violence. But I never thought of doing any martial arts myself. But I think I want to try boxing a little bit. There's a box swing where I train. So one of those days I'm going to try to focus more on boxing. One of those days I'm going to try to focus more on boxing. Have you ever been climbing and your hand goes into something slippery?
Starting point is 01:30:40 Like they oiled the edge of the windows or something or they greased it and then you're like – there's like a panic moment? I don't see why they would put grease on the window. Right. But those kinds of things can happen. So this is why i have to stay vigilant i have to really stay like there you know and at some point i remember i remember putting my feet on the windows and the windows go so i'm thinking okay like you heard heard the window come off of its, you heard the actual window crack. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:31:10 And I'm thinking, okay, so this happened. The windows is probably not going to fall. No, it cracked, but it's not going to fall. Let's stay focused and just keep moving. And you did. And did you ever see the crack no i i we didn't break anything but just that it's like things that were put a few years ago so you know it's like not used to having weights on it do you ever see stuff on in the architecture when you're climbing up close that you're like, man, this building is a pile of shit. Like the whole fucking outside of this building is rusting away.
Starting point is 01:31:49 Yeah, sometimes. But this is not when I climb buildings. It's sometimes a little bit. But when I found really dangerous things, it's when I'm on rooftops of Paris. Wow. Sometimes I can find literal glass, shattered shattered of glass or piece of like, uh, rocks like hanging like this close from an edge where there's a lot of
Starting point is 01:32:13 people passing by. Wow. You can, I, sometimes I'm thinking to myself, okay, there's going to be an accident soon. Like I have to move the rocks.
Starting point is 01:32:22 Otherwise somebody is going to get hurt, you know? And I'm thinking there must be so much things like this in Paris, like where the wind, soon like i have to move the rocks otherwise somebody's gonna get hurt you know and i'm thinking there must be so much things like this in paris like where the wind the roofs are just nasty and there's gonna be there can be things heavy things falling on people on bystanders and i'm like wow this is the kind of things that worry me. Yeah. Like, that makes me nervous. Like not controlling what happens. Like if something falls on someone, I,
Starting point is 01:32:49 I, I, yeah. Or on me, it's like, um, yeah. Once you see this,
Starting point is 01:32:56 you cannot walk in the streets and be like 100% reassured. Cause you're thinking, okay, something can fall like a little bit of wind. Something falls in my head or on someone's head on a kid's head like this is the kind of things that makes me absolutely stressed there's this thing that i do if i see a nail or a screw on the ground i have to pick it up yeah even if i even if i'm running or if i'm riding my bike and i saw it i have to stop and go back and get it because I always think, Oh,
Starting point is 01:33:26 that's going to go in someone's car tire and ruin their day. Right. Yeah. It can't be. I have a question. How long is the show? It's over. We're done. Oh, Oh really? Yeah. We're done. Oh, okay. No, it means it's, it's, it can be how long as you want, but it's just my mom. Yeah. I live at my mom's. Yes don't have a i have a actually i started my job a few a few uh days ago what's your job i'm a graphic designer oh you don't need a job quit your job yeah i wish i could live with rock climbing. I'm trying my best.
Starting point is 01:34:05 Have you ever done – okay. I'm not training hard enough though. You're not training hard enough? I'm not trying hard enough to live with my passion, I think. Everyone should still live at home when they're 22. That's good. I lived at home until I was 34. I got kicked out like 10 times, but I always – I just kept coming back.
Starting point is 01:34:24 I just kept coming back. I just kept coming back. I was going to ask you one more question. Oh, have you ever done a podcast before, Alexis? No, I don't think so. I think it's my first. Oh man, you're good. I've done, oh yes, but live, I've done live stuff, but not online. Like I was, I was on the real place, you know what I'm saying oh like you were actually talking to them face to face yes well i have good news and i have bad news for you
Starting point is 01:34:54 you want the good news first or the bad news uh the bad news first the bad news is it's going to be another until you come on this show again every podcast is just downhill from here there's no one as good as me you're fucked oh okay you're fucked it's like you've just i'm like the most beautiful woman ever like but but a podcaster i'm like the best podcaster that ever lived you are handsome thank well not my looks just my ability to interact thank you but but but the good news is is you are fucking amazing you yeah you you are you are a uh a gentleman and you are uh articulate and your parents should be so stoked and i can't wait to talk to you again and uh maybe i'll bug you in a in a um in a in a couple weeks maybe we could even do at some point it would be fun to even like um do you ever do you ever call anyone from the tops of the buildings i called i think at some point i sometimes i can
Starting point is 01:35:51 send messages yeah but i usually get uh in the police car really really fast really is it always like that you get to the top and they're like okay let's let's go. No shit. Wow. Okay. All right, brother. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for inviting me. Tell your mother thank you. Tell your girlfriend thank you. And we'll be in touch. I have your phone number.
Starting point is 01:36:15 I know how to get in touch with you. And if you ever need anything from me, I'm here for you, brother. Cool. Great. Well, thank you very much. See you. Okay.
Starting point is 01:36:23 Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. What a great show. caleb you the man buddy thanks holy shit it's getting nauseous just looking at these videos man oh man uh training with someone for rogan fair enough fair enough i'll take it i'll take it i want i want to get angry but i'm fair enough oh i wonder if you did not go ahead i wonder if he's sponsored by his mom's museum oh why do you see something on one of his shirts that like yeah like his sponsor is the is a It's a gallery in Paris. Oh, then, wow. It's a beautiful gallery.
Starting point is 01:37:08 They have incredible pieces of art there. It was a history museum, I think she said. He said. She said. He said. Oh, thank you, Melissa. I have to pee so bad, but I can't stop staring at my hair. I look like the wolf man.
Starting point is 01:37:26 It's beautiful today. It looks great. Hey, when did you have hair last, Caleb? Probably six or seven years ago. Have you accepted the fact that you look the way you do now? Oh, for sure. I can't fucking accept the way I look. I'm just like, who the fuck is it? Every time I walk by a mirror, my back feels like I'm 50, but I feel like I'm a three-year-old.
Starting point is 01:37:53 And I look in the mirror and I'm like, what the fuck? I can't believe I look like this. No, I've been balding for a while. And then I was like, I just said, fuck it. I'll just shave it all off. So you don't walk in front of the mirror and be like, who the fuck are you? That's you now. You've got it.
Starting point is 01:38:07 Yeah, pretty much. I wonder if I'm ever going to get it. I just, I feel like I'm looking at like a caricature of myself, like a drawing. Like I can't possibly be like, like have like this hair and this beard and a mustache. And I can't believe how big my nose has gotten over the years. It's like I'm a fucking like, you know what I mean? You think it's getting bigger? I years it's it's like i'm a fucking like you know what i mean it's like you think it's like bigger i think it's getting yeah it's getting bigger for sure i'm like a caricature of myself i feel like i should just be able to pull this off and like the 17 year
Starting point is 01:38:35 old knee would be under there beta wolf man so fuck yourself nicky nicky mclean mclean nikki mclean beta wolf man beta wolf hey that's actually a good leftist cartoon beta wolf yeah it's probably a good like alt rock band name too beta sheepdog he's just getting ass fucked by all the wolves out there uh your side profile is michael j fox teen wolf it's awesome well thank you i'm going to actually in for uh i'm gonna have my nose uh reshape i'm going in for plastic surgery i'm gonna have it this raised up a little bit is that gonna take your bridge down or is it just gonna be the note like the non-linear they're gonna um they're gonna yeah i had a plastic surgeon clean all the hair.
Starting point is 01:39:27 There's so much hair in my nose that I need a plastic surgeon. No, the Nair, not the hair. Oh, oh. What's the Nair? What's the Nair? It's like the edge of the nose here. No, no. I just, I just haven't, I'm just going to have it more pointy.
Starting point is 01:39:43 More pointy. Oh, okay. They're just going to, they're going to shoot it up with a testosterone. Yeah. Hey, we have Alex Stein on tonight. What's fascinating about that is it's Mother's Day and his mother passed away. I didn't even think about that. Oh yeah, that's right.
Starting point is 01:39:58 So that should be interesting. I really like Alex Stein. It's going to be, he's, he's a handful. Alex, primetime alex stein 99 and don't anyone like text me and like in my dms and be like don't get nose job i love your nose i'm not getting a nose job i can fucking barely fucking take time to take a shower in a day i'm not gonna go out i even if i wanted to get a nose job like what does that take like six doctor's appointments like i don't have time for that shit i can't do half the i have four motorcycles i want to fucking sell they're just sitting there
Starting point is 01:40:29 you still have that electric harley no i sold that i just called the dealership and they came and got it yeah um i remember i dm'd you about it and i was like how much was it but you also also on completely different coast so there's no way i was going to pick that up oh it's fucking crazy if i told you that story people would hate me i'd probably lose fucking half our subscribers was on completely different coast so there's no way i was gonna pick that up oh it's fucking crazy if i told you that story people would hate me i'd probably lose fucking half our subscribers if i told you how cheap i sold that for and it was what a fucking idiot i'm an idiot it's like a one-of-a-kind motorcycle okay um are you are you around tonight. Are you seeing your mom today? No. I'll probably call her.
Starting point is 01:41:07 Okay. Well, I'm going to do that right now. I'm going to go hunt my mom down. Get off here. So sorry. I didn't even listen. I asked you a question. You will be on tonight with Alex Stein or no?
Starting point is 01:41:19 Yeah, I should be around. Okay, cool. All right. If something happens, let me know. I'd love to see you. Okay. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. Great show. Alexis Landot, Urban Climber, Caleb Beaver, Salamatossian. No, no, Liver King out. That's what I meant. Liver King.

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