The Zach Nichols Podcast - Vets and New Threats Episode 17 Review! | ZNP EP. 137

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

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Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast. I'm here with an inflated Gilligan. What's up, Kiki? What's up, Doc? Why does that say Kiki? Oh, that's what you're talking about. This is from Kiki on the River. Have you ever heard of it? No. It's a restaurant slash club scene thing in Miami, very chic, very cool.

You guys. I guess I'm not chic or cool. You haven't been chic or cool in years. Yeah. You're also wearing a t-shirt with your name on it. The big Fettuccini. You see that? You're wearing a t-shirt with your likeness on it. Yeah.

You swamp donkey? That is a spitting image. Whose idea was it to have the cigarette? That was mine. Oh, well, listen, if you haven't enjoyed a good cigarette in your life, then you haven't lived.

You're literally not living. What's your favorite cigarette? Palmals, baby. Palmals? Non-filters. The blue pack, the red pack. My grandpa smoke. That's,

every now and then back in the day on a really good bar night, I'd end it with a pal-mouthed. That's unfiltered, baby. That's delicious. Straight to the lungs. If you want this shirt, which you should, it's great. It looks good.

It is an amazing gift for that swamp donkey in your life. Yes. It is now available. As you can see, we are wearing new merch, some new merch that we just rolled out this week. For those of you guys that went to the San Diego show, you VIP people, and we didn't get you a shirt there. You have a swam donkey shirt on the way. and if you haven't getting it reached out. But yeah, so we're just, we said screw the Zach Nichols podcast stuff.

We're definitely starting making cool shirts. Yeah, so Zach said, hey, we need a big Fettuccini shirt. I don't know if I belong on a shirt, but if you want to laugh or if you have someone in your life, that's a big Fettuccini fan. And I know there's a few of you out there. You're in the DMs. Get your family member and or yourself a big Fettuccini shirt. So the designs are available and you can pick whatever color.

There's hoodies and there's shirts right now. And then we got some good stuff that we're going to be rolling out. So yeah, we're going to be wearing our merch. that's in the link tree go check that out um yeah so i'll be sure to post that um you did bring up um your grandpa i do want to take a moment to to honor uh your grandma who passed away this week and thank you for coming in and doing the show um under such um serious circumstances and uh yeah let's just talk a little bit about her and in life in general yeah so um my uh grandmother passed away Tuesday at 8 28 p.m um she was a she fought it she had been

in out of the hospital for the last year more time in the hospital than not and then when she was in the hospital she was in a nursing home um pretty heavy thing to deal with uh i don't like to make you know it's not about me here it's about watching my grandpa take care of her uh for the last couple years and um they were married for 71 years so watching him say goodbye wasn't the easiest and my heart's broken man and no you've been dealing with for a while we appreciate being vulnerable we just wanted to bring it up on it we wanted to honor her honor her life um remind you guys you know uh zach has done a great job of coming into work and being enthusiastic about what we do but it's just a reminder that everyone has something on in their life um make sure do you treat

everybody with kindness and respect appreciate your family tell them you love them while they're here and um yeah just wanted to to honor her yeah for sure yeah so Sorry about that. Wasn't prepared. Family is everything. Family is everything and cherish them while you're here. Tell them you love them. Tell them that you appreciate them.

Tell them all the amazing things that they did for you. And I mean, a lot of people didn't even were born and their grandparents went around. I'm lucky that she was here for 38 years in my life. She saw me get married. She saw me have four kids. she held all but one of them because by August of this year she was already pretty much bedridden so yeah no I'm lucky I just struggle because it just is really hard to see somebody lose their life partner of 71 years I can't even imagine what my my grandpa's feeling right now I mean I talk to him but you can only do so much you know so anyways appreciate you being vulnerable want me to be doing this she would want me to work um my dad he went into work the next day he's on he's unbreakable i am not she's tough she is a

tough woman um some people called it spunk some people said she had a fiery spirit she didn't take shit from anyone um apple doesn't fall far yeah she created bruce that tells you everything you need Yep. And then came me. So, yeah, she, I mean, never missed a basketball game, never missed a football game, wherever it was. Like, if it was Ohio, Wisconsin, my grandparents were there. So I'm incredibly blessed. And, yeah, it just is a huge hit for our family. Because if you really think about it, like, that's all we've ever known. So this holiday season is going to be a little heavier. She won't be there telling everyone what, to do and how they didn't do it right um yeah i mean like i said got a couple of voicemails still on my phone read the text messages back and forth so i always have that and i like i said she was there for 38 years in my life which fuck i mean a lot like i know people that don't never met any of the grandparents and i knew all four um my mom's mom passed away 10ish years ago now and that was a little bit because her husband was already gone and she had dementia so it was like kind of like hate to say it's

very sad but a relief because my you know people that were taking care of her were struggling with it and and she was the shell of who she was the problem this time was my grandma was she never lost her brain or her heart she just everything else just kind of shut down um but i'll tell you doctors give her much time and she beat it every single time she was you know so yeah it was a couple long nights in the hospital for everybody because we all were there for want to make sure she wasn't alone um shout out to jena for holding down the fort at home and just being completely understanding of me being there and knowing that that was important and um she's in a better place So that's what I got to keep telling myself

But it's sad for the people that she left behind Yeah huge huge void is in Is uh we're all dealing with that but um You know 90 she was 92 And uh that's a hell of a life man It sure is Yeah appreciate you being vulnerable and also you know Just just you know letting the people know

We don't get a chance to talk about grief a lot of times You know this in this episode there's a moment where Justin talks about calling his mom as soon as they win the final and then, you know, he's sitting there with 90 not. Maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't, but in her head you could see her and be like she wishes she could call her mom. So these moments of grief, I'm sure, like everyone can relate to it. So thank you for being vulnerable.

We just definitely want to take the time to honor her. Yeah, the grief is, I mean, again, for me, like I understand my place here. Um, the grief for me is just, I couldn't, I couldn't imagine trying doing something since I was 18 years old with the same person and then having to navigate without it. So, or her. You know what I'm saying? Um. And I know that he's probably, I mean, I know for a fact he's hurting pretty bad. So if you pray, if that's something you're into, pray for my grandpa. you know um it's just a really tough time for him well you're going to be there for him the family's going to be there for him he's in a he's in a stick it out and and be uh you know uphold the uh the nickel's name and yeah called him today and he said that the life your life is beautiful as long as you're tough and he said right now i'm not really uh the best example of that but i will be soon so

he said that so i mean there you go we we lost a nickel's life life, and we added one this year, and that's a circle. So we'll go ahead and appreciate it. We'll go ahead and turn the conversation to our live show. In the moments that we were just talking, it just got some text. I don't know if you could zoom in from Johnny. We're getting all the logistics going right now, and now it can finally be revealed, which we had an idea, but we didn't know for sure, but it's official.

We knew for sure, but we couldn't tell you. Okay, well, we will be watching the final at our live show in Austin, Texas with two finalists. and it's actually going to be, yeah, it's going to be two finalists. It's going to be Jeremy, Sidney, Leroy's going to be there. Zach's going to be there and John is going to be there. But come on, let's give him his flowers. He's a multi-time finalist. So is Johnny.

So am I. Yes. Some of them luckier than others. And actually, I got news for you. There are going to be two people that are not on the flyer that will be joining us at this live show. One of them was eliminated this episode. That's right.

Justin will be there in Austin, Texas to join us. and also Aviv, eliminated last episode. She will also be in Austin, Texas. Really? Yes, she will. Oh, good news. Yeah, so we're going to have a big fun time. Make sure you're there. We're going to watch the,

we're going to do the meet and greet. For those of you, there's actually only a couple left. So I don't know if you're going to be able to do that if you haven't gotten your tickets already. But meet and greet, then we're going to watch the final, the final, episode two, the final. Episode two, the final. And then we're going to do a live reaction pod right after. So make sure you get your tickets for that. Can you believe that 42 is coming to a close?

It's 41. Oh, 42 is being... Oh, damn, bro. You getting calls or what, man? No, I'm not. You got 42 on the brain? No, I honestly thought this was 40. It's been a long week.

Haven't gotten a lot of sleep. I know, I know, I know. Trust me. If I was getting called, I already put it on Twitter. I mean, you're... I would have already hit up Pink Rose, who I'm friends with now. I'm friends with Pink Rose. Are you friends with her?

Oh, him, her? I don't know. I don't want to assume your gender, Pink Rose. I've been, I've become good friends with Pink Rose via X. Cool. I actually said that we just become best friends the other day and she can, they confirmed. Whoever they, whoever they are. That's awesome.

So, uh, anyways, uh, we'll go ahead and move. Yeah, so you got the T-shirts. We talked. Okay, cool. Live show. Awesome. So you guys know what's going on. Let's get into this episode.

We come back, uh, from Michaela and Cedric, eliminating Aviv and will in an airplane bathroom. Have you had some fun in an airplane bathroom? Actually, we talked about it. We did. I have not had that kind of fun. But on the way home from Disney, I did get to all this. Like, you know what it's crazy about kids?

They're like middle of the flight, two babies sleeping on each of our laps. And Anthony and Beanie decided to go, Dad, I got a poop. And I'm just like, this is the worst timing ever. Mid-flight, so you know the pigs that got McDonald's that before the flight had already unleashed in there. So I took a sleeping baby and two kids up. to the front of the plane and the steward and stewardesses were like, oh,

sorry, only two people are allowed in the bathroom at a time. And I'm like, that is the weirdest rule ever. Only two? But I guess I guess it makes it legit for the mile high club. So maybe that's why they do that. So it's a lot. So you were taking, first did you try to tell them, like, do you realize both of my

children are half people? So it should equal to all together. One plus half has half. It's really two people in total. I just was like, okay well here's the problem is there's a sleeping baby in my arms and they were like then they started to argue over who got to hold the baby and I was like this is odd but here whoever and then I took each of them one by one in and neither of them pooped they just both peed and they're like up I don't have to poop and I'm like oh thank God this is the way home that's funny is the the phrase

that uh Anthony used the other day is that podcast material or no yeah so the other day Anthony while we were playing super tendo I get a text like 930 at night or whatever Well, it was not 930 because that would be bad parenting. It was more like 845. But Anthony, I are playing Super Nintendo, and he's like, hey, dad, I got a poop. I'm like, oh, my gosh. So he runs upstairs and all of a sudden he goes, hey, dad, time to wipe my asshole. And I was like, I'm probably the worst parent ever.

I thought it was the way I was like, look, if you're using asshole anatomically correctly, you're kind of smart. Honestly, because he's like, hey, if he hears the word asshole, he knows what it actually is. It's not a mean person. It's an ass. Well, and then he sits down to play the game again. He goes, yep, I'm going to beat this shit. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. Get him in church, dude.

He goes to church every weekend. I don't even know where he gets that. I don't swear in front of him. No. Yeah, maybe I do. All right. So we come back from that. As Cedric feels like the energy has clearly.

shifted he stated hey yeah no shit i mean that concludes the free preview of the zack nichols podcast so go to patreon and subscribe to see the rest of the shit that we talk go do it now