The Zach Nichols Podcast - Vendettas Episode 5 Review + Exclusive Jordan & Diner Interview! | ZNP EP. 155

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

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Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast. Gilbert, Arizona in the house. We're currently in Gilbert, Arizona. Pierre. Yeah, I know. You like ravioli? Yeah. Because boy, are these nuts tasty.

Oh, shit. What's up, dog? What's happening with you? Nothing. How's the caffeine addiction you got going out? Bro, I love Alp. I absolutely love Al. Shout out to Alp.

Shout out to Alp where I got it on the chain today. Big sponsors. Absolutely. You see this. The holster is sweet because. anytime I just want it, it's so close. I'm going to wear it when I golf. Oh, right here.

Also, guess what? What's up? The weather is making its turn. Oh, we're past Groundhog Day. And night. We're like a month out. From golfing? Probably, yeah.

Whoa. Whoa. We're a month out. From Michigan golf. Outdoor Michigan golf. Not Arizona golf because that's going to be this week, if you're listening. It already happened yesterday. Yeah.

You're an asshole. Um, big shout out to the weather in Michigan making the turn. We're getting a little bit of that spring fling going on. Have you, heavy rain the last couple days. It's going to chill down for a couple days. But then guess what's going to happen? What? It's going to get warm.

We're going to golf. Wednesdays. What do we get from general? We got Wednesdays and general horseplay on Friday? Wednesday, Saturdays, and every other Friday for General Horseplay. It's a great deal. What a deal you made. Honestly, yeah, no, it was a good deal.

I think I deserve it. Do you know why? Why? Because I agree. I do think you deserve it. No, here's why. And I'm going to be honest with you. So I'm a selfish person.

I think everyone's a little bit selfish. But I've always had activities. Like when I was a single bachelor, I played basketball three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday. I was a big bird hunter. And I would shoot shotgun. I would shoot skeet and trap.

We gotta do that, by the way. Yeah. I put a gun in my hand, dude. Yeah, we'll go out, like, you know, pull and the clay pigeon goes out and you shoot it. Yeah. Kill some birds. Well, I don't like killing birds as much as I like just shooting the guns. But I used to do that all the time.

I coached basketball. I had a thriving legal marijuana grow. Oh, shit. Yeah. I did it all. Good for you. Yeah, dude. Oh, I had so many.

Good for you. I had so many hobbies. and once we got married, I kind of said, okay, I'm not, I'm only going to bird hunt once a year with my cousin. I have not shot Trapper Skeet since we've been married. What? I've been married for almost five years, five years next month. I have not shot a shotgun at Clay Pigeons. I've only bird hunted.

I stopped coaching basketball. I sold the legal marijuana grow. What are you doing? doing, man. I stopped smoking weed. Good job. And I don't play basketball anymore. So all I do now as a hobby is golf and smoke meat in a smoker. I actually smoked my first brisket this weekend. Oh yeah. Was it, do you feel like gourmet? What was it? Was it as good as the barbecue places that we go to? It was really good. You squeezed it and the juice came out, all that good stuff. Shout out to barbecue in San Diego, which we are going to announce.

Phil's barbecue. Yeah. Shout out to Slowes in Detroit, one of my favorites. What about Zach Nichols' barbecue? How was that? I would give myself, and I'm going to be tough, a 7.8 out of 10. Where's my brisket? No, you didn't save anything for me?

You didn't get my taste test? It doesn't mean shit if I don't taste test it. No, because I smoked it on Sunday and you left for Arizona on Tuesday. Damn it. All right. Well, the next time, the next time you smoke this shit. Yeah, I'll bring you some brisket. Yeah, bro, because I want to try it on here and see if you're actually good at this thing.

Would you rather have brisket, burn ends, or pulled pork? Pull pork, dude. Yeah. I want a little, I want a little bun with some barbecue sauce. Briash. Yeah, no, I'll, I'll do a pork. I haven't, so I'm new to it. So Jenna got me a smoker for my birthday two years ago, and I've yet to use it.

The green egg? No, a Trigger. Trigger. When am I going to get 14 hours to smoke a hunk of meat? You know what I'm saying? Like there's not a lot of time to do that. So we had Carmel's birthday party at our house and I decided I'm going to smoke a brisket for my family. I can't wait to try it.

It was amazing. Yeah, I'm going to start doing it more because it was, I felt a lot. I think my testosterone went out. Yeah, the hobbies. You have to have those hobbies. Yeah, I smoked a brisket. Good job. So, yeah, no, anyways, why I deserve the golf?

This is why. also I gave up a lot we both gave up a lot don't get me wrong however I gave up a lot of activities and I went into everything saying I only wanted two children with a possible whoopsy down the road I have now gone above and beyond the compromise

and five is on the way there's a lot of people that say brother you agreed to six a lot of people would say that it's on tape is that not on tape after we had Anthony I did say like it is what it is like I guess I'm just going to keep doing it the process The process is just out of this world. And I'm good at it, apparently.

Yeah, no. I was going to say earlier when you said he hadn't been shooting skeet, I'm like, you sure? Not, not. Are you sure? Listen, I got a lot of bolts in the chamber, apparently. I, that's, we are very good at conceiving children. It's a, it's actually a blessing. You do need to be studied because there's a lot of people that struggle with infertility, not you.

No, not me at all. At all. Actually, I have the opposite problem. I am too fertile. You defy science. Is it not that's factually true that you defy science? I defy science. Okay.

Anything else by this time, you miss Champ Camp, but it's okay. No, I'm just kidding. If you're still in Arizona, you have one day to get your tickets to Champ Camp. It's tomorrow. February 28th. Hopefully we see you there. Hell of a lineup. Hell of a hell of a lineup.

Might be getting bigger. That's all I can say. All right. Episode five. Episode five. The prequel. Where Zach comes alive? It's right.

The prequel to your first Troika, where you will choose Sylvia's elimination opponent. Shane starts off this episode. And a lot of people, like this early, it should be easy. But like, you got to remember, I had to tiptoe through a lot of this season. I had to really be careful about what I said, how I went about things.

So I was losing a lot. Like, I was like up all night, like thinking, like, how am I going to get out of this? And luckily there was some rookies to throw in. but also if you know Johnny and you've competed with Johnny, you know the pressure that he can put it on you because a lot of times Johnny will convince you that what's good for the goose is good for the gander,

which is never true in the challenge of us. And I was set on playing my own game, you know? So, I mean, because if I was, think about it, if I was really smart on champs for stars, I might throw Johnny into that first elimination round, keep Corey there. Johnny loses on the fidget spinner because we don't know how good Johnny's going to be on that large fidget spinner.

Now, CT wins. or West wins that water challenge, and I might make it to the final. So I learned these lessons at this point, and that's why I say, like, from Vendetta's on, was kind of when I learned my lesson and started to just make my moves and only play for me rather than let that pure pressure come into play. But like I said, last episode, Johnny was pushing super hard for me to throw in Brittany to weaken that side of the house.

But I kind of have some things, good things going on that side of the house. Like, not even Tony knew about me and Brad. Mm-hmm. like that nobody knew about that the only person I knew about me and Brad was me and whoever Brad told but I kind of made it clear like I'm not trying to spread this around like we have to play a covert game which fuck him in the long run but it it helped me out yeah and you we've mentioned in the last episode you covered your basis with those guys saying Brad's insane Brad's crazy we got to get them out I was sprinkling crumbs yeah I was giving them enough so that if things got

out I would look good but I was not yeah I'm telling you it was stressful like playing this game, it is like, obviously, being in the challenge house is like a lot of adrenaline and a lot of fun. But playing this game, you have to, you can't get sloppy. And that's the one thing I pride myself on on this season. This is why this is one of my favorite seasons is because I came in and I was locked in from day one on how to go about things. And I picked the right horses and that helps. But 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.