The Zach Nichols Podcast - The Keanu Soto Interview! | ZNP EP. 183

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

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Yo, what's going on, guys. Kiano here. I'm on the Zach Nichols podcast this week, and we're going to be talking about the challenge, talking about Big Brother, you know, how I ultimately pulled myself out of depression to even go about doing these things. And you're going to have a good time.

Lots of laughs. All right. Or Lily pads. Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast. Big guests here today, not just in terms of size, but first season of the challenge. Big performance.

Took out of that. Keanu Soto, welcome to the pouch. Appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for having me, man. Absolutely. From one big D to another, Dallas to Detroit. Thank you so much for making it all the way out here, man. It means a lot.

Man, no, thank you for having me. And before we're getting further, I think it does need to be noted that that episode last night, I'm not just saying this, was one of the best episodes we've had in... In the history. At least I don't know a history, but I would say since for 12 years. I mean, you're coming...

Twelve seasons, I mean, that... There was never a dull moment in that. whole episode. The stakes of this episode, the decisions that had to be made in this episode, the longevity, kind of like the foreshadowing. There's a lot happening. The romances. Yeah. Oh, God. Quite a bit of those. The drums. Listen, we literally saw Tori form tackle Keanu, solid tackle. We saw Brian Dawkins to me, bro. Yeah, bro. She came from behind and just pulled these shoulders down. Yeah. If you were Sydney, your ACL will be gone too because those those hip-drop tackles.

They're a league. Oh, yeah. The horse collar is like, we'll get to the horse collar. Into the hip drop. Yeah. Just swung those hips. Oh my gosh.

That was vicious. You know, I asked like she doesn't know she's doing. I will say, I will say it's funny because I totally thought like she, she like looked as I was running in, she looked like she was going to square up on me and try to like take me on. So I like braced for it.

And then she ended up like doing one of those like, whoop, let me go through and then end up going me from behind. So I was already like falling. and then she just kind of sealed the deal. Yeah, the drag. A lot of... That's my fourth kid was conceived. Let her slip by and headed from behind.

No, but that's an athletic move. And can we also mention that, like, on what other reality television show, do you actually see the host be like, all right, basically, we're just going to kick the shit out of each other in this mud pit. And by the way, we're doing it all together.

There's no same-sex heats. Get in there, ladies. Literally, Leo, Chris Henry, stiff-armed Letty into the into the turf and then she karate kicked him and somehow flipped him. This episode was insane. Yeah, it was a good one.

I will say, I will say I'm upset that I left this week because this was the first week where I was like, finally, bro, we're doing some challenge shit, dude. And for the people that are, that are watching, that are like, yo, why, why has it been so tame up until this point? I don't know how reality TV works in terms of like if they already pre-plan everything ahead of time.

Like it's set in stone. It's gospel. We got to do this. This day. Yeah. I don't know if that's how it is. So if it is, then never mind.

But I will say that up until this point, like 75% of our cast was peeing out of their ass. Because we were all just sick as shit from like being in Thailand. Right. That'll happen. Yeah, dude. So like I know, I know for sure like when the teacup one came, the daily before this, bro, we were all like, Thank God, dude. Yeah.

Thank God. Because it was like we were at, like, that was like the pinnacle of everyone just, just like on the toilet. There was no toilets in the house. People were shitting in the bushes. Like, dude, it was, it was bad. I'm obviously exaggerating. But it was like. This is like the really one of the first times where, hey, people are at their past.

That's their peak, right? Yeah. This, yeah, this was when everyone was finally like in the pool like, oh, I'll exfoliate and all shit in the pool. Like that's a swamp. She didn't give a shit, dude. Yeah, she was wild. That is swam donkey tendencies. Not going to lie.

Listen. For those of you guys, you guys weren't here before we started rolling, Zach was explaining to Keanu, the swamp donkey situation. Name, like, a reality show where they would literally, this is insane. This is amazing. This is like, hey, we're kicking it back to 2006. Everybody in the mud pit. And guess what?

Guys, beat the shit out of the girls because it's legal today. Yeah. It sounds stable on days like today. That's why this morning I was digging a mud pit in my backyard. Like, babe, get in there. Let's make number six. Yeah, I was just about to say that. Six on the way.

Let's go. Yeah, that's where the mud. That's the, you know, I was not in the mud pit. No, this is the Twilight Lounge. What was crazy to,

when we were going to get back to this, we're going to speak more on it, but I've been highly critical of your gameplay. And it's really not a knock to you. It's just like being a rookie in a situation where there's people with 10, 15, 20 years of history. Like, you don't know the,

you don't know the social. landscape. Of course. And I thought you came in aggressive, which rookies either have to come in aggressive or play the lovable rookie card. But I kind of feel like now that I met you in person and seen your stature, I think the level of rookie thing was out the window for you. You probably had to go more intimidator and play a game. But you were spot on this week on what should have happened. And you guys had a plan. But selfishness kicked in. Obviously, it didn't work out. But like, you were 100% correct. You guys need to start getting rid of of orange players.

Yeah. Pretty soon it's going to get very ugly. Yeah. I will say this and like, keep me on the rails because like I got ADHD like a motherfucker. So when I start talking, I will go on tangents. You're on the right podcast,

but, oh, perfect. Okay, I'm right at home. Perfect. So I will say that like part of the reason why, and I've seen that criticism before,

not necessarily from you, but just in general, they're like, oh, why did he come in so hot? And I was like, have you guys never seen this show before? Like,

the rookies are not like, don't get free passes. You know what I mean? Right. They go in first and I'm the only rookie on my team. Like I got to come in doing some sort of gaming. Yeah. Because that's the only card I can play.

Like my team doesn't have my back. So I got to go try and find it elsewhere. Right. And so that may be initially why like the initial interpretation of me coming in and playing hard or whatever may come in. But I had to. Yeah. I was kind of, well, championing a lot of the moves I thought last week was a little misguided. But we'll get to all that in the, you know.

Yeah. I'm sure we'll probably go in like week by week. We'll dive in. Here's the other thing, too. Well, like, I've been there. It's been a long time, but I know what happens, right, in these, in these situations. And when you have, like, Johnny and C.T. had no reason to help Nelson because they're not on his team.

But when you have the two, those guys didn't want, they wanted you. They wanted you out of that house. Oh, 100%. Like, as soon as they saw you up there, I'm guarantee you in their head was like, well, I don't want to have to take him out. So let me do everything I can from here in a safe place to help Nelson get him out of here. And that was a, that's a brutal elimination round. I'll just say that.

Not so fast has gotten, uh, gotten a lot of good. The vats have 100% an advantage and not so fast. Oh, 100. And, and like, it's funny, like, Nelson and I have a great relationship off the show, but like we were obviously, you know, it was my first season. So, you know, we were building one on the show as I am with everyone. I know like the way that they edit it, especially because Justin's saying like, oh, they hate him over there, like on week two.

I think that was a little bit like over, a little bit over exaggerated. I think maybe in terms of game, people were justified and maybe winding me out because I didn't understand certain relationships. Primarily because I didn't go back

and watch season 41. Forgive me for not watching the one season that like apparently mattered on this season and going to back and watch maybe like, you know, 39, 40 other seasons of the show, you know, prioritizing history over recent history.

Right. Like fuck me, dude. And they brought a whole... And they brought everyone back from 41. So like, yeah, when I got into it with Adrian that one time, it was because I didn't know how close her and Izzy were. And I know that one of the biggest criticisms I've seen out there was that like I over... I'm putting too much stock into that initial challenge. And people think that like, oh, that's crazy.

Why is he putting so much stock into that challenge? I don't think people understand because they didn't say it. So for good reason, they don't understand. We had to go down 42 flights of stairs and run... basically seven miles through the streets of Thailand. So I think it's pretty justified in thinking that if you do well on a seven mile run, that you're probably going to do well on a final. Yeah.

Like I don't think that's out of bounds to think. You know what I mean? It's not a bad metric point, you know? Right. So, and maybe where I go wrong in a lot of these games is like I'm very much a logical strategic thinker. I don't really think too much with emotion. So that's perfect for the challenge.

Well, you would think so. And it's perfect when it comes to like my personal game. And maybe if I was in it. You making moves. Yeah. Yeah. Me making moves for myself. Oh,

that's great. But when I have to consider relationships within a team aspect, that's where it became like, okay, Adrian thought I was ruffling her feathers, which to be fair, once I learned that her and Izzy were close. And that's why people think like,

oh, I was lying to her saying I wasn't going to throw her. I wasn't lying to her. when I was, you know, constructing that plan, I didn't know how close they were. As soon as I had that conversation with CT and he told, which they didn't show, by the way, and he told me like, oh, you think Adrian's going to let that pass?

Because, you know, they're pretty fucking close, bro. I don't know. I don't know if she's going to let that pass. I was like, oh, okay, yeah, that's a pivot. Deb's going in. Yeah. Say less. End of conversation, right? But then, of course, I didn't have a chance to talk to Adrian yet.

And she's like, you know, I heard that you were going to throw in easy. I was like, fuck, dude. Yeah, that was spot on. Yeah, both of those were pretty good. Spend some time with these people, man. Well, we'll get into it from the beginning of the episode, and then we'll talk about the personal moves throughout the game. But real quick, Keanu Soto, is that's correct?

Yeah. Bro, what's your ethnicity? Because I'm pretty bad at guessing these. I thought Michael was some type of Hispanic for like two years, and then I found out he was black. So what is your ethnicity? Get the fuck out of here, really? Yeah.

Yeah, no one knows that. That's it? Just black? I'm not half black. Okay, all right. makes much more sense. You put all those in a cocktail. Right.

That makes much more sense. I was like, brother, if you, you're going to tell me you're all black, dude, get the fuck out of here. Okay. Let's go. Drop them drawers. Let's see. That's the only 100% identifier. I think he said black, not Asian.

Brother, I think you just got an like permanent invite. You can live here if you want. Dude, I'm always down to talk shit, dude. That's like my number one thing. I love that. My number one thing I'm down to talk shit. So yeah, so your ethnicity is.

Dude, I'm Cuban. A hundred percent. Oh, I'm Cuban. I think people get thrown off because of how I look. And obviously, my name is Keanu, which is a Hawaiian name. But I was named after Keanu Reeves. My parents, you know, whether they choose to admit it or not. They named me after Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,

which tells me a lot about them in their youth. Right. You know what I mean? There's no way they did not smoke a shit ton of weed naming me, like Keanu after Bill and Ted's. Are you kidding me? I mean, the quarterback and replacements,

the guy from Lakehouse. Hardball legends. Like, well, yeah, but he's known for that now. I was born in 92. So I think his only role at that point was like Bill and Ted's maybe speed.

Speed's badass too. But anyway, it's a great name, but I am surprised. I didn't know you were Cuban. Yeah. From Miami, man.

I'm originally, yeah, I'm originally from Miami. Oh, from the D heritage, from the Josh heritage, Cuba. Yeah. Is Josh, is Josh Cuban? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't know. I didn't know that he was Cuban. I thought he was like white just living in Miami. Nah, bro. Martinez is that guy when it comes to the Cuban culture. His last name is Martinez?

Oh, that Josh. Yeah, Josh Martinez. That Josh Martinez. That, he was a goalie. I thought you're talking about Goldie. I was like, that motherfucker's Cuban. I didn't hear him speak Spanish at all, dude. I mean, it is Goldstein.

So I think we had missing in the end. Yeah, I was, I was about to say. No, no, no, Martinez. Yeah, and it was Goldstein. You know, as soon as you see a Z, if you see a Z in the last name, you're Hispanic, brother. Hell yeah, dude.

Okay, so Josh Martinez, I knew is, yeah, that motherfucker's very cute. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, very Cuban. I was like, are you Cuban if you don't know? All right. Clearly, I'm like, this guy must be the most Cuban guy in the world defeated things.

Josh Martinez is white. I'm like, listen. What accent? I don't know how much more Cuban it gets than Josh Martinez, but it doesn't be kind of. That is funny. That is funny.

Okay, so let's go back to the episode. We come back to the Elination, and they haven't been doing a lot of walkbacks, but they do a little walkback here. I love a good walkback. Why not? You know, why not? Norese is, Noree, she just got bounced.

She's gone. What was your, what was your relationship with Norese after she decided to send you in instead of? Chris? You know what, dude? All right, let me preface this by Sink. I don't want no smoke with her, dude.

Fuck that. I love Norese as a person. All right. Let me knock that shit out right away. But there were a couple things that they, like they didn't, I'm surprised, honestly. You know, and they're doing a great, they're doing a great job with the show, especially within the confines of what they have to work with. As far as I know, like, budget cuts maybe is why the episodes are a little bit shorter.

Is my understanding. I don't know 100%. Try some different stuff out. Yeah. And so, you know, there's a lot of things that happen that are not making it into the show that provide like a tremendous amount of context. So when 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.

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