This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Jason Ward

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Mike's guest today is his chess co-worker Jason Ward.  They talk about chess, being tall men (Jason is 7 foot tall), geek culture, celebrities, and the fact he was (until recently) neighbors with some dude named Travis.  Must listen for the Swifties.

Hi, my We'll go in live Stories told they rise and dive Topics fresh with every spin You won't guess what's coming in Every week A new surprise Mind's away never lies

Conversations bold and free Tune in now just press play Where's a shop a pin Hi everybody, welcome to the podcast Please have another great guest with me today So if you could introduce yourself, please. I'm Jason Ward. I am a chess coach with Mike and gotten to hang out and do chess stuff with him for a number of years now.

Yeah. I'm also a former neighbor of a local celebrity, one Travis Kelsey. But I don't know what else. All right. So let's start with the chess stuff first because that's our gerb. Yeah, I think you started shortly after I did. About 2018. Yeah, so shortly after I did because I started 2017.

It was, we were still up in the Liberty office. And I remember I interviewed with Mike T. And we were down there. There was a bunch of stuff going on. Like there might have been a tournament or a club happening. And I had no idea what any of it was. I just saw the little ad and was like, well, I like chess. I'm an only child, so I grew up playing it because games with fewer players worked better than the big multiplayer ones.

Right. I always played with mom or dad. And so I had answered the ad, and it was fun. Yeah. Yeah. Chess is one of those games you could play forever, and it's always going to be two-player unless you're playing one of these very instant. some of the online multiplayer ones beyond just the two player the four player variance I've looked at some of those and they kind of make my brain hurt

a little bit my brain hurts they turn you into a Gumby yeah and I'm talking to Monty Python gumbies of course the other one is when I last year I had the chance

to go over and go to the St. Louis World Hall of Fame for chess yeah And that was really cool. And I picked up, I got it up there, one of the three level chess sets. Yeah, I saw that. The three layer, and that's got the board and the instructions behind it. It's not, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

anticipating having to learn. It was just three chess boards stacked on top of each other. Mm-hmm. That you can just work horizontally or vertically. Right. And, yeah, it's fascinating to incorporate that extra round of variables into it. Sure, sure. Yeah, that's funny.

It's cool that you're bringing Star Trek into this because being a trucking myself, I sometimes, yeah, put it at the back of my, oh, yeah, chess has been part of Star Trek since the beginning with that special three-level. In fact, I believe our boss, it has. in his position, a signed Leonard Nimoy photo with Spock and the 3D chessboard. I got a book signed by Chekhov over there when he was at the Comic Conn. That was a lot of fun. He's a Southpawat, too.

Oh, he's left-handed? That was fun. When he was signing things, I was like, hey, I recognize that. And so that was a nice, a fun little moment there. Yeah. I think probably because I remember that's one watching Star Trek when I was a kid like on the weekends was when it would be on like I'd catch it Saturday afternoon and syndication you'd get like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and something else it wasn't like

the regular Thursday night lineup that was the Hulk and Dukes of Hazard right there was that that power couple but you get the Saturday afternoon yeah So I remember watching old Star Trek episodes, and it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere in the back of my brain, seeing those little chess sets, boards being played, planted a seed about, oh, that looks like an interesting game. I'll check that out some more. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I had sort of the same thing watching the original series on the Saturdays and TNG as well.

I was on Saturday. and I do have a couple of a Trek cast autographs as well that's cool but they're more recent far more recent like Strange New Worlds recent oh there you go yeah I really like that

I've been watching it and I really I didn't have any trouble getting into it discovery I've got to take another run at but I'm Strange New Worlds I didn't have it It really is. It told me right in.

I liked it a lot. So the Strange New World's autographs I am in possession of. One is Anson Mount. And that's because I gave $5 to his Indiegogo to send his podcast co-host to Wilderness Survival Training. And you can find this video on YouTube. I think it's Island Survival Exit or something like that. So that's pretty cool.

Not only did I get mentioned in the credits, but they sent me a postcard, and that postcard is part of my little poster that I have in the background for, for, uh, for, uh, no, podcast and stuff. So that is pretty cool. The other one that is that I saw more recently that was fun when he was here for the Comic Con was Will Wheaton. It's probably, it's been a number of years ago now, but I got to see him and, and, and, and, you know, and, you know, and, you know, and, it's been a number of years ago now. but I got to see him and got a picture with him and I've always, he's always been one of my favorites even when nobody liked him. Same, yeah, Will Whedon. I'll just, yeah, we'll go on tangent

before I talk about the other autograph. So Will Ween, I'm a huge fan of his tabletop series. Oh, God, yeah. Which got myself and a lot of other people into the board gaming hobby. I thought it was interesting that after he left Next Generation, and as a regular.

He lived in Topeka for a little bit. Yeah. There you go. That's interesting to learn. I really liked to add in his books. Was it the 2013 Comic-Con by chance that you're? That's probably it. I was at that Comic-Con.

That was also the Comic-Con that Friends of the Podcast, Bill Butz, and Sam Tottie did their... Planet Anime Planet Comic Con. I would just add Polly Anime. But

Planet Comic Con video which you can still find online and they got a few interviews. None of them with Will Whiten although I heard

from Bill that Will was quite nice to deal with. As for Taked it sounds like they couldn't get access to him because his manager

was a dick. Yeah. But they got some of the other celebrities there like Lou Ferragno and Adam Baldwin and Walter Jones. Gotta be careful how I phrased this because one time my words were misinterpreted as Lou Ferragno with the Black Power Ranger.

Just a slight, slight difference there. Yeah. Yeah, I think that was the big Star Trap. That'll been the next year, I think. That was... Yeah, that would be the next year, or sometime shortly or after.

Yeah. Because I remember they had, I got to see the big, there was a big panel that had a whole bunch of them on them. And Will was up there with Gates McFadden and so he was making jokes

about his TV mom. Yeah, his space mom, he calls them. Yeah. There's space mom and space son. Yeah. Yep. And then you had

I think it's all the rain yards except for Sir Patrick. Yep. Lebar Burton let us all in a round of reading rain bow. It was a fun. It was a fun time. There was a good family. I liked it. Sometimes when you get to those, they're like, you can tell when the castes are really, I don't know, have that vibe together and they're up there, having fun, as opposed to my publicist said, I'm supposed to do this. Yeah, I'm supposed to show up to this thing. I don't want to be here, but I got a perfect of you.

I grabbed those hammer. Galaxy Quest reference of course of course yeah that actor Hans Gruber I mean that was a phenomenal cast I mean that's really one of the

Hons Gruber chef of nodding him the Metatron hello the almighty and voice of the one true gold dogma yeah

yeah I got the yeah I got I got Ratzenberger's signature at one, Planet Comic-Con, two, because I lost a bet. Yeah. But he was a nice guy anyway. The other Strangely World's that Ardraff I got was Christina Chong.

Okay. The Anunian Singh context here. In addition to being a kick-ass actress, she is also trying to get into pop music. as a singer and she put out a limited EP with four tracks and everything. I managed to get a physical copy. Nice. Shipped all the way from England. Very cool.

With her, because she's English. With her signature. The bona fide actual thing. Yeah. That's something I think that I don't see as much going on now as the appreciation for the physical object. Yeah. I think I was just talking to somebody recently about like comic books and how as soon as everything was able to be scanned and for whatever 599 on read everycomcom.

Yeah. You can have a monthly subscription and if you want to read episode, you know, issue number such and such whatnot, well, you can. You don't have to go to convention and hunt it down and paw through box after box after box. I guess it was a third Trek-related autograph I got to think about it. And he's not exactly known for being in Star Trek. He's more known for basketball. That'd be James Worthy. Oh, okay.

James Worthy for those. He played a Klingon in one episode of TNG. He's best known for playing for the Lakers. Really nice guy. And I got a few sports a lot of us over the years, too. So Eric Dirkerson won my favorite players all the time. Nice. Kurt Warner.

That was a cool story, meaning Kurt Warner, right after Super Bowl 34. They had a few Rams players that had come and do all of ours. Kurt was one of them. And when I was in the line for him to sign my thing, the guy in front of me, was having some problems. dealing with all his stuff. Yeah. So I helped him out. Kurt had already finished with my algorithm.

Oh, thanks, Kurt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got to shake hands with the man. Right there, the one, the only. That's a pretty good checkmark, though. As far as, you know, bucket list kind of people to come across and see. Yeah. That definitely is noteworthy.

Yep. And same with Dickerson. I got to shake his hand on that. Kevin Carter was a good one. Really funny guy, Kevin Carter, and Isaac Bruce got to meet him. Well, probably on the, my publicist who's forced me to be here. By here, he's still active in the St. Louis community, and that's awesome. I also got to meet Karim Abdul-Jabbar and not a nice guy.

That's awesome. I am always having people ask me when I was younger. The kids would always ask me if I was somehow related to Mnup Bowl, only because of my height. And it's funny, I've run into recently at the Quick Trip and just down the street in Riverside. I ran into somebody who was asking me, you know, tall questions like they do.

And then they said, well, I was asking because, you know, my uncle's Mnup Bull. And so, and I'm kind of like, are you kidding me? Wow. It's like, hey. I think he did live like a lathe or something. I think so. I mean, it was, it's not too far.

So it was kind of one of those small world moments for sports celebrities. The new ball for those who don't know, he stood 7 foot 7. It was a really tall guy. And there was a great SNL sketch where he was getting an award for tallest player ever. He actually showed up. say, I am not the tall bear. And for further context, folks, Jason stands at seven foot himself.

Which makes me feel short, being just six foot one. We all have our jobs in life, and one of mine is to make everyone else feel short. It's all good. It's all good. It's nice. My mom told me. me a long time ago that people like to walk into a room and be noticed and you'll see people doing all kinds of things in order to do that and you will not have that problem no you will be able to be

noticed anytime you walk into a room you've just got to make sure you're doing good things at the time oh absolutely like like uh helping that teach at chess or helping to run tournaments and that's some of the stuff i've got a seven-year-old so i try and share some of that stuff with him along the way too Good deal, yeah. Seventh magic number today, I guess. I guess so, yeah. Yeah. And since I brought up at legs,

it is also good to point out to Jason. We are actually recording this at his house in the Briarcliffe neighborhood. And on the way down here, I passed by the at least one-time residence of one Travis Kelsey. The one and only original site where Taylor came to visit that first fateful weekend. Yeah.

And that made the neighborhood an interesting place, let me tell you. Yeah. A little one lane and a half kind of sleepy with tree covered thing all of a sudden was lined with all of the stretch SUV things. and I think at one point they ended up having the Ken City Police Department coming to keep track of traffic coming in and out from one side of the other of the neighborhood because there were so many people just coming in to just drive by. Fuck by. Oh, there's Taylor.

Where's Taylor? We are recording this on Taylor's birthday, so happy birthday, Taylor. Happy birthday indeed. Yeah. An excellent, excellent year. Oh, yeah, no question. She got her master's, she was able to buy her master's back, and she and Travis are now happily engaged.

So, which happened right after her, they recorded her appearance on New Heights. Yeah. But yeah, what you described to me was that was Taylor's security, asking everyone driving in and out for their ID. Yeah, it was kind of like you had the one white, big SUV that she probably came in and then there were a couple big black ones that were kind of the the trailer security type SUVs and then you had like the three or four kind of beat up beater cars with the guys with cameras

sitting in them right that were following behind them and so it's kind of like you had her security paparazzi all just kind of lined up with the police sort of standing around making sure everybody behaved i guess i'm not sure right right but that made for yeah that was a that was a that was I was an adventurous weekend, just trying to get in and out. Wow. It was just, it was a constant stream. I'll bet, oh, man, yeah. Yeah, we don't get to see many celebrities of that caliber,

but she has obviously been around our area a lot the last couple of years. It was kind of funny. Up until that point, the celebrity in the neighborhood was just Travis himself. Yeah. When he had moved in, it was, you know, we were kind of like, oh, oh, did you hear? There's a chief in the neighborhood now. And then, you know, shortly after that it turned into, oh, oh, it's that chief is in the neighborhood. And so then we just kind of had our little neighborhood pride of, you know, Travis Kelsey.

He lives in our neighborhood. And then, yeah, once Taylor arrived, he kind of outgrew us. Yeah. So he had to find a new house. I'm not going to say this specific neighborhood, of course. but it is a lot closer in me and a lot farther

from anybody that wants to come up and knock on the door right right so all I'm going to say is gated community in Leewood Kansas near the I just saw that the fumble

more context we have Army Navy going on in the background right now so so yeah yeah that was interesting and then his Leewood house gets broken into surely like days after

Mahomes had his house broken into in La Cloid It's crazy I don't I don't quite get the extreme fascination that people get with celebrities and

I mean I can get appreciation and admiration up to the point where you start to, I don't know, when you cross that bubble into their, cross that barrier into their bubble, once you start to interfere with their life, then it turns into something else entirely. Yeah. And, you know, that, that closeness that we have simulated through the internet and through YouTube and podcasts and everything where, well, I sit there and I listen to Travis and his brother talk on the radio, you know, on New Heights

podcast all the time. They're just, It's like, if I see them, we can just pick up our conversation like we've been having, you know, all along. Well, the past year, I know they've done a pretty good job of doing public events. Like, I think they didn't want power and light to this year. Not the within the black itself, but on the streets, they just close up the street and we're set up and everything. I didn't go, but had I known they were in the streets, I probably would have. So that was pretty cool. Oh yeah, Navy just scored a touch.

There we go. Navy got it in and tied it up. This is been a good game. They've been slugging it out from the very beginning. Go Navy. So, yeah, again, for the contests, those who are new listeners to the podcast in particular, I did serve two weeks in the United States Navy. But yeah, you also described the paparazzi.

Yeah, yeah, they were, they were extreme. There were trees that, I mean, just, you know, neighborhood, we've been, I mean, my folks were some of the first ones that had moved in here when the neighborhood was first growing up 30 years ago. Right. And so, you know, these trees have been growing between these houses the whole time and have gotten to be, you know, it was some nice, good-sized trees with some decent coverage. And they would climb the trees behind his house and just sit in the trees and try and take pictures through the windows. or of the backyard or anything. There was no, they went around, you can get around,

the house kind of backs up to another house for, you know, the way the little subdivision kind of roads, the kind of cul-de-sacs that wind around. Yeah, I saw the math, there's all a cul-de-sacs appearance, and it's hilly, too. I mean, I step outside,

and I get a huge view of North Casey and downtown, and assuming it's not snowing, like it is right now. Yeah. But, yeah, heck of a view. I mean. Heck of a view. It's nice to get, you know, a little bit of snow for Christmas at least so you can have that

white's Christmas, check the box, and then I'm happy for it to start warming up. Oh, yeah. My joints and I look forward to the warmer weather. Amen. Amen to that. So, so, yeah, but, but again, talk with you just as it sounds like even though despite the fact this man was your neighbor for a good one. It sounds like I had more interaction with the man.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm pretty sure I passed him on the road several times, you know, throughout the years. When I'm kind of going, hey, was that him? Was that him? You know, like a fan would. Right. I don't think I haven't quite gotten to the point where I, you know, I thought about dressing my kid up and, you know, having him wear his Travis Kelsey jersey like he's got for Halloween

and, you know, taking him up and knocking on the door. But he puts up the police line. I saw, but I did see those photos, yeah, the police line tape. So, yeah, I can't imagine what the line of kids would look like out that driveway. Confercely were just past the second year anniversary of him, quoting me on New Heights. the famous sandwich the sandwich

the sandwich with the mayo ASMR yeah yeah purely by accident I was picking up Conrado to take them to the club

and had a little time to kill so I stopped by that diner which is you know right there in Edwardsville shout out to Grill 32 and they couldn't be

they were pretty nice and all that saw that they had that sandwich on the menu I took a snap to have a photo of it posted to the Reddit's and there is

Travis Kelsey yeah we're officially a sandwich the user So he butchered my name. Yeah other than that yeah I remember Ready for Braden. Read my

post verbatim and then then And then I write all the menu, the items on the menu that are in the sandwich, including the mayonnaise, which led to Jason, the Kelsey that doesn't live here, but he's been around the area too, given props to Peter May's, House of Cabasi, and all that. But Jason's reply was, well, I'm not in the Mayo. Well, I personally like the mayo, but Travis here, he doesn't eat mayo.

Yeah. Yeah, I remember when you found that sandwich, we were, when you came to the club that day, and you were like, dude, dude, dude, you got to check this out. Yeah. And you're like, pulling up all these pictures. And you're like, it's got, look it. It's got this. It's got this.

Yeah, it's basically a fillet cheesecake and a BLT with lunch meats and barbecue on it all in one sandwich. Yeah, it's definitely. That's not just a sandwich. That's an adventure. Oh, yeah. And the cool thing, the cool thing about it is it's Girl 32. Let me try the sandwich for free. Yeah.

But yeah, I led to Travis's Mayo ASMR, which I will not repeat here. Just go to YouTube, look at Mayo SMR. That'll be one of the first shorts. It shows up, you'll see Mayo SMR, featuring Travis Kelsey, and have Travis's face. on the clips there you go

but it does look like he's fully moved in down in Italywood if you've seen I think

the one where they had Taylor was the first that we actually saw his new setup which

the old setup yeah the white background with the computer and all that

yeah the new set up he has a leather chair and a bookshelf

buying them with all sorts of stuff. And the first time we saw this bookshelf was when he had Taylor on the podcast. Yeah. I think for our neighborhood, the straw that broke the camel's back for him

was the, not necessarily the professional paparazzi. It was the would-be paparazzi and his neighbor that just set up a camera that was running a live feed 24-7 out the window pointed at his house. Oh, geez.

And just sold the feed to, I don't remember which one. One of the rags that would pay for something like that. And so between the tree climbers and the live feed, that kind of pushed him over the edge of, you know, I think I can move into a slightly higher neighborhood bracket on this. But on the fact that, oh, yeah, I'm dating a billionaire and I'm going to marry her. might want to represent yeah

yeah and then like you said shortly after he moves into this new house he gets broken into so yeah

so that just goes so even if you're in a gay community you're not 100% safe but yeah that's just disturbing just hearing that

for the first time about the amateur want to be journalists done life it's dude That is not cool.

No. Because we were all, it was, I mean, we liked having him here. We all got along fine and then, but in that, the way it is, where it takes, you know, there's always that one person has to overachieve to ruin it for the rest. Yeah. A few bad apples, success in a year. Well, I think about, I saw that Disney's getting ready to release the six-part documentary. these two parts already.

Yep, from the Aeros Tour. That looks pretty good. And I was going back and thinking about my first arena concert that I saw. It was actually my very first concert. That was at none other than Arrowhead Stadium. And it was the Jackson 5 Victory Tour. The final tour where they were all together where Michael announced on stage, I don't think it was at that concert,

but somewhere along there where he decided to let everybody know, he wasn't going to be performing with his brothers anymore. He's got Thriller now and he's been on that. Wow. Wow, that is way back to the 80s. That was the loudest thing I think I've ever experienced. So I had to throw in the Michael Jackson at South Park. There you go. Yeah, so.

It's been an Indian Reeds. Yeah. Yeah, I think the first concert I actually paid money to go see was the Spice Girls had Sansone which was fun this was after Jerry had left the group so it's just the two malls

Victoria and Emma performing and it's still a good show yeah everything in it definitely and then went to one other concerts at Sansone it was Journey not with Steve Perry

yeah and Deflepper oh there you go My friends and I did a road trip up to Louisville for the Monsters of Rock tour, and we got to see Metallica without James Hepfield. That was interesting. He busted his knee up on a skateboard or a jet ski or something, and so everybody else just kind of swapped in and out.

So it was kind of interesting listening to Kid Rock singing the lead on Nothing Else Matters. Very cool, really cool. Yeah, we're on this kick of, talking about celebs too I've been in the company of chess

celebrities so short yeah 2018 this was shortly after I got my car uh

Ken took Mike T Conrado and I to St. Louis Oh yeah went to

a day of the Stinfeld Cup oh wow very cool so we got to see some of those guys

playing like Carlson and Nakamura and Caruana and Wesley's so, MVL, car jacking, but what was really cool was near the end of that, getting that photo of Conrado with Vichy Anand. Yeah, that would be.

That was really cool, Anon, very nice guy. And then just a couple of years ago, they had the thing over at the Truman Library. And was out at the Genealogy Center? No, the Truman's. presidential library. Yeah. Yeah.

And that was Kasparov. Yep. That is such a cool experience, just standing right next to arguably one of the best chess players to ever live. Absolutely. And with his perspective that he brings,

not just from the chess, but just international relations. And the way that chess has played a role globally throughout, at least recent history, has been very, very important. I mean, that's interesting what while Kasparov has had to go through.

He renounced his Russian citizenship. I think he's Croatian citizen now. He lives pretty much full-time in New York. And for good reasons, he is hypercritical of Russia and the current Russian regime. So I understand that, he doesn't want to be

have a hit job on him yeah which is a kind way of putting it because Russia has had a very nasty habits in recent years of murder-deathing

critics of Putin yeah I have not had a chance to meet any actual chess celebrities. Yeah. Yeah.

But seeing the some of the stuff at the Hall of Fame was really interesting. They had some displays. They have the Chess Hall Fame at the St. Louis Chess Club. Across the street.

Right across the streets. Yeah, and the USCF moved there, headquarters there too. That once again, billionaire, that's Rexinkville. Right there. That help. Nothing like...

Rex actually showed up to the Kasparov thing too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that always helps to have a nice a nice sponsor. But what was really cool about that event was that we specifically asked to bring sets for the kids to

play chess. And a lot of the kids that showed up were our students. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that was a really cool to see some of them and to see them. I really love our students.

They're really, the way that they really get after it and tackle them. Some of them. Certainly the ones that Woods come to an advance to play in front of Kasparov. Those are some of our better students, I think. But let's be honest, the vast majority of our students,

especially the elementary school kids, they're just there because they need babysitting I think so I get the sense in a lot of them well the ones that wants

to pay attention will and that's why I like working with the middle schoolers is they're there for the most parts to pay attention

yep yeah yeah you don't get the middle schoolers don't get signed up just because it was either this

or something else that they liked less. Right. It's not just the lesser of two evils. It's the, hey, I want to do this. I want to play more, learn more, do more. Yeah. But even among the middle scholars, and this is just my observation,

there are some that probably don't know what is going on, and some that are not paying attention. And by that age, 13 and 14, they should, at least not the basics. Yeah. And there was a bit like last week that a couple of the kids came in and were not familiar with the basics. Like, what the heck? You don't know how pawn moves or how a pawn catchers? That's some basic stuff that you should already know by the time you're coming to a chess club in middle school.

Right. You would think at least... At the middle school, at the point of middle school, you should be learning how to play, give ready to play tournaments and stuff. With the elementary kids, you can understand them coming in. It's pretty easy to split them up

into the ones that are learning and the ones that are just starting to find their way around the board. And so you can really find the interest level there and the ones that are engaged. It's like no, this guy's the limit. I mean, you just see them just,

they're little sponges, and I'm envious of that, that ability at that age to just absorb information in that, in that quantity that I have to work far away at. I'm always reminded of San Elizabeth's

doing that club, and there was one kid in the entire club that actually paid attention. That was Noah. Yeah. Noah has since come back to the club

He's now a full member And comes to a play Casualty or whatever And he's still a pretty decent player Now as a young adult And Doing good He's brought his brother

And to the club too His brother's also a decent player but he was also one of those kids Scurring around back in the day Yeah That'll throw you off a little bit with the ones that you get to see kind of year after year growing up is one of the things that I really like is they get better and better and each year for the schools that I'll go back to and have you know repeated seeing them after the summer I'm always just amazed how much oh yeah yeah how grown up they become in that small period of time and then they're It's like back with the upgraded version.

And away they go. Yeah, one of my current students, he was in the tournament today. Not playing the youth, playing the adults in the USCF. Yeah, I think you did a good job. That's good. Especially when it's somebody you've been working with to see some of that stuff you've been doing. It's Phoenix. Finding root.

and come into play in actual games so they can go, hey, there's a reason they were telling me this. Yeah, there's a reason we tell you this to prepare you for that next level. And it's nice when they kind of cross that threshold from their goal is to prove you wrong, to the goal being, okay, well, how can I learn and get better? Yeah. And not feel like I have to prove that I know what I'm doing. All right. Yeah, you should be comfortable with what you're doing and everything.

Before you even think about doing tournaments, you should have that comfort level, and that's what if a chess coach being done the right way, that's what we're preparing you to do is just to do your best in the tournament. That's the really cool thing about chess, I think, is one of the aspects how you're able to teach kids a lot of life skills around the game. I mean, there's obviously all the Swartzmanship stuff, and then just interacting with people and the way that you can have a game like that

that is recognized internationally. And, you know, if someday they're traveling around the world in some coffee shop, and there's a chessboard, it doesn't matter what the native tongue is, they'll be able to sit down and go to war across from whoever it is and have a common language in chess. I agree. I agree.

So, so. But let's be honest, I'll have these grandmasters know English. I think, I think, yeah, hearing Magnus talk, yeah, he definitely knows English. Yeah.

I think, yeah, I'm not so sure about the two guys that fall to him is a world chest champion. Yeah. Yeah. Which would be, which of course would be Ding Le Wren,

who was, who's Chinese. and what Ding Le Ren he's the guy that immediately followed Magnus as World Chess Champion Oh yeah

He's from China And I think they do a pretty decent job of teaching English in Chinese in China and then

Gukesh is the current guy and he's from India Yeah I was really interesting to me when I learned about the way that different countries approach

chess competition and countries like China will sponsor their players yeah and have you know resources and finances available for yeah them to continue their work whereas you know as in the states it's where you have the whoever has the most money gets access to that's that's kind of unfortunate but we we've been seeing it's with our clubs particularly in the Shoney Mission District. Yep. Because you notice, all the clubs that we have in Shoney

Mission are in the Rich Kid School District, the East Featers. Definitely a more affluent part of the city. Whereas you get out to, well, actually there is a West feeder that we have a club at that's just down the street from my house. But the other West feeders,

uh, no, not so much. So same is true of, uh, North and North, Northwest's and we have I want to say a couple that feed in the south that we have clothesettes but for the most part they're all east feeders the funny thing is regardless of where we are around the city it seems like the classes of the kids generally I mean there's some differences but the kids are generally the same yeah the parents

are definitely different though yes the parents that come with those kids have very different approaches to parenting and different ideas about interacting with everybody. But the kids seem to be pretty universal. There's always that, the ones that want to know more and the ones that want to beat you. And yeah, we're in the closing minutes of Army Navy,

Navy is up by points and they're doing the kneel downs. And yeah, go Navy. I think the Navy about to pull out a win here. Thinkers away, yeah. Cool, cool. Go Navy. Go Navy, be an Army.

And, of course, we say this with full knowledge that to Fort Lemurth is very close by. But like I said earlier in this episode, I was in the Navy for all two weeks. So didn't quite make it that basic. And that was an experience. Just put it mildly, was an experience. Yeah, I got to meet all sorts of people from all over the country. During my time there, made a couple of friends, at least for a short term. And if any of them are listening, you know, great.

Great. It would be great to hear from you guys. some point you know who you are and uh yeah i'll always remember my last day in the navy uh the drill instructor this puerto rican guy was like if any of you guys that are separating from the navy if you if you decide to have a run for president i will hunt you down and i will shoot you and some wise acre asks well what about vice president kill it doesn't matter i'm so going come and shoot you there you know which is why despite having run for office myself. I will never run for president. I don't want some angry

prior Rican drill instructor hunting me down to shoot me. Yeah, I can tell him with a whole lot of more reasons beyond that, but that's a pretty good one. They're not going for president. Politics is hard enough. Yeah. Yeah, politics is hard enough with that thinking about, oh, some guy wants to shoot me. All right. All right. All right. I think. I'll wrap up the recording here. So Jason, thanks for being on. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. This is your last.

Yeah. And for everyone to listen at home, I will talk to you again next time. This podcast is Uncalled for. It's hosted, produce, and edited by myself, Mike Jernivsky. Our opening music is the, this podcast is uncalled for theme.

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