The Zach Nichols Podcast - The Justin Hinsley Interview! | ZNP EP. 124

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

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What's up, everybody? This is Justin Hensley on the Zach Nichols podcast. I'm here to talk about all things season 4th1 of the challenge. And what better way to come from your new threat of the season? All right. Make sure you get your tickets to the live show. It's going to be September 20th, 2025 in San Diego featuring Carl, Pauli, Horacio, and Naurice, and possibly some more guests.

So get on that now. You're not going to want to miss this one. What's going on, guys? What's happening? Not much. We're here on the Zach Nichols podcast. very special guest, Justin Hensley, star. Let's go.

Star, I'm gonna say star of this season. Everyone's favorite. You got Ashley Mitchell to say she loves you, so. Ashley Mitchell fell in love with me the moment we started talking to each other. I think it was like the cheerleader cheerleader thing. As soon as I told her, found out she was a cheerleader and I was a cheerleader, we just bonded. And then we were inseparable from then. Did she let you borrow her hat that she wore in the elimination round last night?

No, but I did. I did play with it behind her. That hat would make that hat. That hat would make Cam jealous. How did I miss it? What was the head? It's like the big Russian fur thing. Right after that they told us we couldn't wear white anymore.

Because that hat was absurd. Yeah. Yeah. She literally had a fucking polar bear on her head. Was she looking like the people that protect Buckingham Palace but just a white hat? It was furry. Yeah. It was she was like huge.

Yeah. You couldn't see anything but the fur on her head. Yeah. Is actually an icon fashion icon or no? from West Virginia yeah She's gonna get so mad about that She's a mountaineer model Don't don't I didn't say that

She grew up in the suburbs Pierre Her mom her mom drove in Accura What did she get mad about on all-stars? When Anisa was like making hillbilly jokes Hillbilly all right well My school had like a thousand people in it Anyway my mom had a Volvo This like I was just saying

Your mom had a Volvo No it was just adding on to my mom My mom always drove you Suburbanes Those were McDonald's fries underneath the scenes. They came with the car. A hometown kid from Texas by way of L.A. now. Is that correct? Correct. Round of applause for Justin Hensley in the house.

We're in Texas. I grew up in South Texas with America, actually. We went to the same high school. Had no idea of each other. Same high school. You didn't know each other, though? Nope. She graduated and I went into my freshman year. So she was older than me, but we were in the same town, grew up in the same place.

Had no idea. I found out during filming. And then when I was 16, I moved to Dallas by myself for cheerleading. And then my mom followed me the year. I was 16? At 16 years old. Yeah. Amicipated minor?

No, I wasn't emancipated. I went and lived with the host family because of cheerleading. Because there was no cheerleading down where I was living for me to, like, excel. And I was doing level six, five skills on a level two, three team. So at 16, my mom and my grandma were like, yeah, you got to go. Yeah. So I moved to Dallas by myself with a host family, lived with multiple different host families. it was a terrible, terrible thing.

And then my mom ended up moving the year after. Well, I was like with her. Host family's bad? They weren't bad. I just got stuck with bad host families. Gotcha. And bad situations of people stealing from me and it not being good situations

and family dynamics. It was like when it was just awful. Camilla was on the challenge, you had to lock your bags up. Thief. You had to go for going through everyone's bags. Well, just off rip, I mean, that's got to be pretty cool to be that young

and have a passion and have your parents be like, yeah, or your mom at least be like, hey, like, let's double down on this, triple down, go accomplish your dreams. Did you cheer in college? Yeah, I did. At Navarro College. The cheer documentary on Netflix,

the whole cheer doccy series. You win it? Yeah. That's where you're, is that like where the channel? That's the original show that I was on before I went on the challenge. So unlike Ben, you had an original show.

Yeah. Yes. I was a show that came from. I wasn't, I wasn't a nobody like Ben that came out of nowhere. You said it, not me. Justin said Ben's a nobody. again Justin said Ben's a nobody

so let's talk with Ben is going those Twitter thumbs are going off Solves one Sudoku and now he's the fucking king right now he's chatting shit now he's CT those those Twitter fingers are causing some more between Sydney too

he's beefing with Sydney bad right now well I can see why people would beef with Sydney what I want to see is I want to see Sidney bring her interview energy into someone's like into someone's face. Don't hold your breath, I don't think. Please tell me it happens.

Please tell me she calls people out like hardcore in person. We'll see about that. We'll see about that. It's not going to spoil that, but he also gave me this face like. We'll see about that. So why don't we start at the beginning? You go on the show, cheer, which is a documentary, and then how do you get cast on the challenge?

I'm still trying to figure that out. I don't know. I was, when I got my call for the challenge, I was dumbfounded because I've never seen the challenge before. I was not a challenge fan, a super fan or anything. I didn't know. I was hung over as fuck. It was the day after Halloween.

Yeah. I got the call. They were like, hey, it was my agent. They're like, hey, do you want to be on the challenge? And I was like, yeah? And they're like, have you ever watch an episode? And I was like, no. And they're like, okay, well, you should go watch an episode.

Let us know. But just so you know, MTV is the one that found you. They're like, they want you. They need self-tapes in 24 hours. And I was like, okay, let me go watch an episode. I went and watched an episode. I immediately called them back and I was like, fuck you, no. Absolutely.

What episode do you watch? Like a real human. I don't even know what I watched. I watched an episode of somebody doing math problems scaling down a building, a building. And if they got it wrong, they had to climb all the way up the mountain. That was stairs again. First of all, I've been failing fucking math since the fourth grade. I saw math and I immediately started to know.

Can't do math for starters. Immediately no. And one, heights, I'm not scaling down a building. For what reason? And then I watched Olivia get a golf ball thrown at her forehead. She did that to herself. However it happened. Did you laugh?

No, I saw blood and I was like, what the hell? No. I mean, because this is, they're like, you want me to do this. I laughed so hard when that happened. I was like, you want me to go do that? Risk this pretty beautiful face for what? That was my mindset. I just saw them doing all these crazy things.

I saw somebody on a 18 wheeler doing shit on a rope. And I was like, no, I'm not doing that. So I called them back and I was like, yeah, no, you've lost me. I'm not doing it. I called my mom. And I was like, I just got asked me on the challenge, but it's just like not happening. Like, I'm not doing those things. My mom lost it.

She freaked out. She has been watching real world road rules all since the beginning of it. Where how old are you? 26. Okay. So your mom's probably like a little bit older than me. Yeah. She's watching the challenge.

Does she know who Zach is? She's a niece's age. She does. She does know who Zach is. Can we do something we've never done before? Can you FaceTime her? Yeah. FaceTime her right now.

I mean, she's been watching. Pierre's just loves older women. That's why we're actually doing this. She's been watching the challenge since the start of it. So when I called her about the, they flipped out. It's like an old person show for you. Yeah. My mom watches this show.

Kind of. Leo gave us the same shit. But if she answers, we just want to put her on the pocket. That's why we're calling. Give her a shout. See if mom answers. But yeah, you're, you know. We do good in that demographic.

And the mom demographic. I tell you guys the Justin Timberlake story. Yeah, you have. With the high schooler in the middle school. schoolers? It's Justin Timberlake. They're like, no, no, no. Like, you listen to Justin Timberlake?

I'm like, yeah. And they go, the kid goes, that's old people music. My mom listens to that. And I said, well, shut the fuck up. Your mom has great taste. She does that great. All right. If she calls back, don't be afraid to answer, but that's huge.

So she knows the show. Yeah, right? Yeah. So she knows the show and she was excited about you going on. Yeah. She was the one that told me all the things about bananas and CT and Nani and all the people and all the things. to know about who the legends were.

So what made you change your mind? Just her? No, it wasn't her that made me change my mind. It was... And it definitely wasn't the paycheck. It definitely wasn't that either because I was paying more in rent than I was making. For those of you guys who don't know, for rookie to go on the challenge, a lot of these guys make way more than they do there.

Just so you guys know. What changed it for me was just wanting to prove to myself that I could actually do something of the caliber, of the things that the challengers were doing. Because being a cheerleader, I was never allowed to do anything. I couldn't even go to a trampoline park and jump on a trampoline park and have fun because I was one of three boys in my town, couldn't risk getting injured. So I never got to do fun things.

So after I thought about it a little bit, I was like, well, maybe this will open doors for me. Maybe this is my, this is what I needed to start something, to kickstart a new career. Because I was like, I'm living in L.A. I'm a front desk manager at Equinox right now. I'm just doing nothing. I'm just having fun and enjoying my life. Maybe this is what I need to open doors. So I was like, fuck it.

This is just going to be my door opener. Let me get on it and just see what happens. Now you're addicted, aren't you? And now I'm like, I want to go on every challenge season. I can possibly get on. Yeah. Call me right now. I want to play the game.

Yep. I'm ready to get back in there. Yeah. That energy is insane because it's so good to see that young blood fiery and excited about going on. And one of the stories last week we had game on. He said that week one, he took a story that you may have told about maybe you're, I don't know, not so sureness about wanting to go on and used it to try to get you thrown in. So I want to know your perspective.

How did you end up being the House Vote in Week 1? The very first episode you've ever done, how did you end up being the House vote? Well, for starters, that concludes the free preview of the Zach Nichols podcast. So go to Patreon and subscribe to see the rest of the shit that we talk. Go do it now.