Modern Pentathlete Olivia Green
Lasers, Swords, Horses, Swimming and Running. The Modern Pentathlon is one of the most unique Olympic Sports. Pentathlete Olivia Greens joins us as we talk the unique history of the Modern Pentathlon, training for five very different events and new changes to one of the oldest sports. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Movie Montages of All Time.
Olivia Green: 01:22
Pointless: 24:26
Top 5 Movie Montages: 46:13
Interview with Modern Pentathlete Olivia Green
Nick VinZant 0:00
Nick, welcome to profoundly pointless. My name is Nick vinzant Coming up in this episode the wildest Olympic sport and movie montages.
Olivia Green 0:23
When I tell most people what's in the pentathlon, they say that's really random, such a random array of sports, when you come into the shooting range, you have to take your body to the opposite extreme of that. You have to calm your breathing right down. Calm your heart rate right down. This is my third year, and I'm still learning hard lessons, which are costing me competitions.
Nick VinZant 0:47
I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate. It really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show if you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So I want to get right to our first guest, because she participates in a sport that is just fascinating to me. It has lasers, swimming, swords, running, all of it. This is modern pentathlete, Olivia Greene, so the modern pentathlon like this looks like, to me, a wild mix of different events. How did these like? How did this come together?
Olivia Green 1:35
Modern Pentathlon is an old war sport, and basically it's designed for if you're in the military, you're supposed to be able to sword fight, ride a horse, shoot a gun, and then if you're being chased by someone, you have to be able to run away or swim across a river. Did the sports go together when I tell most people what's in the pentathlon, they say that's really random, such a random array of sports, but if you think about the skills that you would need to go to war, they actually fit together. So it kind of works like that. I need such an array of skills to be able to be the best at each discipline.
Nick VinZant 2:23
So how did you get into it?
Olivia Green 2:25
So when I was young, I used to run and swim a lot, and in the UK, we have these schools by AF ones, and it's just basically for school kids. You go and compete at running and swimming, and then it's basically modern pentathlon's way of recruiting people. So I did those competitions. Did quite well, and they had taster shooting sessions, taster fencing sessions, and I kind of liked it. I was like, This is so cool. I'm shooting a gun here and stabbing someone with a sword. I was Yeah, young me was absolutely loving it.
Nick VinZant 3:05
It does when you kind of think back to it, right, like early 19th century, like, Oh yeah, that makes complete sense. Maybe it's just now that it seems like kind of a more random mix of things. I guess it seems like a really interesting sport. Is it popular? Or is it not a super popular sport?
Olivia Green 3:24
I think it's more popular than people would imagine. The problem with it is, obviously, it's really time consuming doing five sports, and I would say the top level, there's quite a few of us, and it's really the standards really high, but I guess it kind of misses that intermediate level where, when you go to a run club, you see people with all sorts of abilities, but in pentathlon, you don't really get people, too many people doing it as a hobby. You get the odd few, but not so many people do it as a hobby. Yeah,
Nick VinZant 4:02
there's not like local events, like I can think of here in the United States, like we have local triathlons all the time. I don't it's kind of like you're either at the highest level or nobody's doing it. Yes,
Olivia Green 4:13
I think in the United States as well. I actually don't think Pentathlon is very popular. It's a lot more popular in Europe. Is
Nick VinZant 4:22
it a sophisticated sport? For some reason, to me, it seems like a like a gentleman or a gentle woman sport? Yes,
Olivia Green 4:28
I would say so. I would say so. I don't want to sound snobby or anything like that, and I want it to be as inclusive as possible. But yeah, it does feel a bit like that sometimes, just because to well, to get into pentathlon, you have to have some sort of money to be able to buy the kit and go to the training sessions. Obviously, I'm fully paid for now because I'm part of Team GB, so that's not a problem. Them. But when I was growing up, for my parents, they had to be. They've been so supportive, having to take me to all these different training sessions, because I absolutely loved it, and then I was always like, oh, I need a new epee for fencing, or I need some new trainers. And it definitely adds up,
Nick VinZant 5:20
yeah, and I could see that's one of the reasons, maybe, why it's not more popular. It's like there's a barrier to entry. But I think that there's a lot of sports that there's a barrier to kind of entry in that regard. So if we can, let's kind of go through the different sports. So for the fencing part, what are you doing for the fencing part?
Olivia Green 5:38
So the fencing is Epee fencing, and you fence there's three types of fencing. There's epee saber and Foyle in the Olympics, and yes, pentath one has Epee fencing. And in the Olympic Games, 36 athletes qualify, and you fence those athletes to one hit. So you just fence everybody to one so it's 35 matches, and it takes two and a half to three hours. Takes quite a long time, and you get points based on how many hits you've got. For example, if I had 18 hits and someone else had 17 hits, I would have five more points than them. And you just get five more points for every single hit that you get.
Nick VinZant 6:23
So, oh, I should have, should have done this, really from the beginning. But there's, is there an order to it? Like you always go, this, this, this, this, this, in terms of the sports Yes,
Olivia Green 6:31
there is yes. So I'll just talk about the Olympic Games format, because that's the easiest day one of competition is the fencing ranking round. So that's when you fence everybody to one hit, and then day two of competition will be the semi final day. So you ride, and that's a show jumping course of 10 jumps, about one meter 10. Then you do the fencing bonus round, then the swimming, which is 200 meters, and then the laser run, where you do five, six hundreds running with shooting in between. Oh,
Nick VinZant 7:14
you're doing the cross country running. So you run five or 600 meters, then you shoot, then you run, then you shoot. The
Olivia Green 7:21
total is five, six hundreds with four shoots. So it's 3k run total.
Nick VinZant 7:26
Do you carry the firearm or the laser, or whatever it is with you? Or do you just, no, it stays there. You
Olivia Green 7:31
grab it. No, you just leave it on a table. Which one of
Nick VinZant 7:36
like if you look at those events, which one would you say is the hardest event?
Olivia Green 7:40
They're all difficult in their own right, and I think different athletes find different sports more challenging than others. So I would say, for me personally, I find the shooting to be most challenging. Because when you run before a run race, and any runner will know this, yeah, adrenaline's really high, and you're ready to run hard. You're kind of shaking a bit with the stress. And then you run, and you kind of release adrenaline as you run, and your heart rate goes up, your breathing goes up. But then you have to, kind of, when you come into the shooting range, you have to take your body to the opposite extreme of that, you have to calm your breathing right down, calm your heart rate right down, not panic, try and decrease adrenaline so you're not shaking and just be totally and utterly focused on what you're doing and your process. So I find that change from being really pumped up to run hard to then the super focused, calm athlete, quite difficult to muster, to be honest. Is
Nick VinZant 8:46
there any kind of strategy in that regard? Like, okay, I could run faster, but then I will miss the shooting.
Olivia Green 8:53
I don't think it's a case of, if I run faster, I will be worse at the shooting. I think it's more you have to pace your run so you don't run out hard. But any you would do that in any running race as well. But I don't hold back on the run because I don't want to waste the seconds I want to win. So I go as hard as I can, over 3k basically, but about 2030, meters from the range, from the shooting range, I will slow down. I will shake my arm out. I have a thought process, which I go through as I come into the range so I'm in the correct headspace for when I pick up my gun, to make sure that I am focused. How
Nick VinZant 9:37
much time is usually going in between the time you stop running and then start running again. Like how long does that all take when
Olivia Green 9:44
you run into the shooting range, you want to take as little time as possible to take the first shot. You also want it to go in so you have to make sure that your sights are lined up and you're calm and collected. So you have to designate. Time for that, but you want to get your first shot off as quick as possible, and then it's five shots, so you have to hit the block of the target five times before you can move on. And you get 50 seconds. If you take 50 seconds, you time out, and then you just run anyway. But you don't want to spend 50 seconds there people generally a good target. Some of the best athletes have shot it down in six seconds.
Nick VinZant 10:27
So when you look at kind of just for a comparison sake, right, how well do modern penned athletes generally compare against the athletes who are doing individual events at the top right. So for example, the 200 meter you're swimming. What somebody who's swimming the 200 meter just in the swimming events? What are they swimming? Because
Olivia Green 10:51
pentathlon, it has a weighted point system, and it's more heavily weighted towards fencing and running than any other sport. So I would say the standard of fencing and running is the highest in pentathlon, because they are the most important. But everybody has strengths and weaknesses because it is five sports. So I'd say, like the top swimmer, for example, over 200 probably isn't far off Olympic standard for the 200 swimming, but you do get a range of abilities, so the average time will be quite a bit lower than the Olympic swimming 200 time we
Nick VinZant 11:37
had, I don't know if this episode will come out Before or after this, but we had a decathlete Track and Field decathlon. They do the 10 events. We asked him kind of the same question. He said, we're not at the top, but all of our times would be respectable. Like the 100 meter champion would look at my time and say, That's not world class, but that's pretty good. Would it be kind of the same? Yeah.
Olivia Green 12:02
So I'd say that on average, if you look at the average times, it's not Olympic standard, but you would look at it and think, yeah, that's, that's a really respectable time.
Nick VinZant 12:13
Is it a pretty consistent sport, like the people who are the best are usually always at the top, or can it be just all over the place, I
Olivia Green 12:22
think compared to other sports, it's not consistent with who's at the top, because there are so many variables with it, and there's so many elements to master, from technical to physical. And there, there is a certain amount of luck with the horse draw, because we don't ride our own horses.
Nick VinZant 12:41
You know, ride your own horse. You just, like, get somebody's random that can't be easy, though. Like, here's this random horse you've never had before.
Olivia Green 12:49
So there's a horse draw. So the competition hosts have to provide horses that can and they're all test jumps by their owners beforehand, so they can all do the course, they've proven that their horses are able to do the course. And then the horses all get a number, and basically there's a random draw of which athlete gets which horse. And then you have 20 minutes beforehand to warm up the horse and get used to how it rides and try and form a connection with it, and then you have to go and do the show jumping. That
Nick VinZant 13:24
makes it a lot more challenging. But even amongst that competition, even though all the horses pass the test, do the competitors kind of like, Yeah, but that's the good one.
Olivia Green 13:31
Horses are like humans. They all have different personalities, and they don't, you don't know what mood the horse is going to be on that day. You don't know. You might not ride them in the way that they're used to being ridden, and they might not like it. There's so much variability, because they're an animal at the end of the day, and you have to, I think it's really important that you form a connection with them in the 20 minutes that you have beforehand, because they're so sensitive, and if they sense that you're nervous or scared, that's more likely to influence how they perform.
Nick VinZant 14:09
Is that fair or unfair? Like, that's just how the sport is.
Olivia Green 14:13
That's just how the sport is, to be honest.
Nick VinZant 14:15
Can you, like, give them a carrot or an apple or something beforehand, like, Hey,
Olivia Green 14:19
I take polos sometimes, you know, the Polo mints, they're like, just little circular mints, basically. And I just, oh, like, a
Nick VinZant 14:27
little piece of candy, yeah,
Olivia Green 14:29
like, a little, you know, like, Do you know what a mint is? Like, a little mint?
Nick VinZant 14:33
Do you feel kind of crazy doing that? Or, like, no, everybody's doing that. Like, everybody's trying to do that.
Olivia Green 14:39
I am a crazy horse lady, to be honest, yeah, some people, yeah, some people don't. But I always ride well. In the past two years, I've been one of the most consistent riders on the world stage, I would say, so that always brings my score up. So. I'm just gonna keep doing what I what I do. It seems to be working for now. Is
Nick VinZant 15:05
there, like a prime age for most modern pent athletes like this, is when people are usually really good,
Olivia Green 15:11
I would say, particularly in the women, I would say late 20s, just because normally in other sports, it's early 20s, but because there's five disciplines to master, experience is so important in pentathlon, and yeah, I found in the past year, I'm 24 and I've just I'm still learning things. I've been on the international world circuit for this is my third year, and I'm still learning hard lessons which are costing me competitions. Basically,
Nick VinZant 15:48
how much like, what's your usual? Like, what's your training week or day or whatever? Like, how do you train for five different events?
Olivia Green 15:57
Yes, my week looks pretty hectic To be honest, I'd say we train. We do about three or four sessions a day, one day, for example, we fence in the morning for two hours. So that's fencing training. And then we swim train for about an hour and a half with some people before stretching and things like that. Then we have lunch, and then I normally have a nap for about an hour, and then I'll come back. I'll either have a fencing lesson with my coach, which normally lasts half an hour, or I'll shoot for do some shoot training for about 45 minutes, and then we'll have a run session in the afternoon, which we normally cover about 10, 11k, in that session, we are trained up. We train day after day, and we're all very fit, but the mental stress that a competition takes is so much more draining than training.
Nick VinZant 17:03
Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions,
Olivia Green 17:06
yes.
Nick VinZant 17:07
What is your favorite event? What is your least favorite event?
Olivia Green 17:10
Favorite event is either running or horse riding, mainly because I'm good at them. Least favorite event shooting, because it's the most frustrating spot in the world.
Nick VinZant 17:28
That's one thing that I've never quite understood in terms of, like, shooting or archery. Like, once you got it, it seems like you should have it, right? But like, why is it more complicated than that? Because to me, it seems like, okay, you can do it. I hit the target. We'll just do that same thing again. But why is it more difficult than that?
Olivia Green 17:47
I think with shooting, it's so psychological, and dealing with pressure and shakiness, basically, nerves, is just really difficult for me in the shoot, and I feel as if some sports, you work hard, you get your award. And I don't feel like that's the case with shooting. It is something that you either have or don't have, and it's really hard to be to have it, to try and have it, if, like me, I've really struggled with shooting, and I'm finding it really hard to improve, because it's just not something that you can work hard at. And it improves. You have to be really clever about training for it.
Nick VinZant 18:34
Is there an ideal body type? And I think what they mean in the sense is that, like, Okay, if you were going to design a modern pentathlete, they're going to be this tall, they're going to be this big. I
Olivia Green 18:46
think Modern Pentathlon is one of the most varied sports for body type. So quite often you look at runners and you see they're absolutely ripped, they're really lean, and you kind of see that generic body type. But I would say Pentathlon is really quite varied, just because, I guess there are different things, and if different people are better at different things, they might have a body type that suits that their best event more. But I would say you have to be quite strong to be a bent athlete. We spend quite a bit of time in the gym. Just our bodies need to be robust to deal with the amount of training that we have to deal with so we don't get injured. Okay,
Nick VinZant 19:27
if you could switch out an event, what event would you get rid of? What event would you bring in?
Olivia Green 19:35
Well, I'd definitely get rid of shooting. But it's funny, you should ask that question, because basically at the last Olympics in 2021 the Tokyo Olympics, there was a big fuss about the riding, animal rights and things like that. And there was this incident with a German girl who was. Kind of crying on the horse, she was in the Olympic gold medal position, and if she'd had a good ride, she would have won the Olympics, basically. And the horse, she wasn't getting on with the horse for whatever reason, I think it had been upset by a rider that had been up, that had ridden it previously. And essentially, there was a big uproar about riding. So the international body of pentathlon, the kind of governance of pentathlon, decided to get rid of horse riding out the sport, and replace it with obstacle course racing. So this comes into effect in 2025 after the Olympic Games. So after this Paris Olympics, horse riding is gone, and it's the introduction of OCR. That seems
Nick VinZant 20:50
like a huge switch. That seems like a totally different kind of thing. Yes, I
Olivia Green 20:56
think it's really sad, because I think there's a lot that could have been done over the years to improve standards of horse riding, improve everything, basically from athlete welfare to horse welfare to just so many different things that could have been done. And the governance of Pentathlon the international board kind of just did nothing, and they've just sat back for years, and then they've kind of gone once there's been a big problem. They've been like, right? Well, let's just take out the sport and do something else we can't be bothered to deal with it. So yes, there was a bit of an uproar from the athletes, because we were like, What are you doing? This is a sport that we've been training for for so long, and it's just not it's been like this is the sport. It's been like this for 100 years. It's one of the old, oldest Olympic Games sports. It's a really traditional sport. And I know there's so many more modern sports coming in now, so it'd be nice to have the contrast between the modern sports at the Olympics and a really traditional sport. But it's kind of, yeah, yeah. It's kind of like taken, like, this modern twist, I guess. And yeah, no more horse riding from after this Olympic Games.
Nick VinZant 22:16
That seems to me as an outsider, right? Like, that's a totally different thing. You know, it's not like, All right, we're gonna switch out the 1500 meter run for a 2000 meter run. That's like, Okay, we're gonna switch out horse riding for boxing or for weightlifting. Like, that's totally diff. Do you think that will just completely change the dynamic of the way that the sport is,
Olivia Green 22:42
yeah, it does just make it a whole different sport, really. And I do think it's going to change the dynamic of the sport, because one of the most exciting things to watch in the pentathlon was the ride, the ride, and the laser runner definitely the best things to watch. So hopefully they can. I've kind of got over it now, because this went through about a year ago, but I'm just hoping that they can make the obstacle course racing really interesting and really engaging for a new population of athletes. Basically,
Nick VinZant 23:18
oh, miss this one. What is the first thing someone says when they find out you're a modern pentathlete?
Olivia Green 23:26
What's that?
Nick VinZant 23:29
Yeah, I would say, so. Is there, is there a country that you'd say this country? This is the country for modern pentathlon. They love it more than anybody else.
Olivia Green 23:40
Probably Hungary. It's a really random sport in a random place, but I think Hungary as
Nick VinZant 23:47
a history major in college, for some reason that makes complete sense to me. Yeah, it seems like that kind of old world sport, so to speak. Yeah, I want to thank Olivia so much for joining us. If you want to connect with her, we have linked to her on our social media accounts. We're profoundly pointless on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube, and we've also included her information in the episode description. And if you want to see Olivia do some of this events that we talked about, the YouTube version of this episode will be live on July 18, at 12:30pm Pacific. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. So what facial change like, in terms of you could never imagine yourself growing facial hair or getting like an ear piercing, dyeing your hair, like, what kind of change to your physical appearance? Because you never imagined doing probably
John Shull 24:45
getting Botox or something, or filler, you know, something put into my body that's not supposed to be there to make me look younger, or cure wrinkles, or something I just, I don't think I will ever entertain that.
Nick VinZant 24:59
I don't. I could ever get any kind of piercing like I could never imagine myself with like, pierced ears or a nose ring. I could never see myself doing that.
John Shull 25:11
I mean, I've been, I've been in the chair for for piercings and tattoos, and have backed out every time. So I think, I think I could, for sure, get piercings, without a doubt,
Nick VinZant 25:24
you've backed out twice, though. Yeah, the
John Shull 25:27
piercing was over a girl, or with a girl, rather. And at the last second, I was like, do I really want my ear pierced? You know, and I know that they can close up over time, but you know, in the moment, you're like, man, is she going to be around in a year? I'm going to have this hole in my ear. Like, what am I going to do? Oh, were
Nick VinZant 25:45
you just going to do one ear? Are you going to do both? I was
John Shull 25:49
just going to do one ear at the time. Hmm,
Nick VinZant 25:52
yeah, I wouldn't do that for a girl. I don't think I could get a piercing for a girl. I don't think that I would do anything for anybody else in that regard, like get this tattoo for me? Nope.
John Shull 26:06
So how would you feel? So the wife and I are watching this show on Netflix right now called sprints, and it's about, you know, obviously sprinters, Olympic sprinters, and the 2020, Olympic champion in the 100 meter dash, his wife has their their kids names tattooed on her body, but she has their son's name across her neck. Like, is that a little weirder, or is that just me? I
Nick VinZant 26:30
thought that was his name. I've seen this, and I wasn't sure. But then if you What about the other children? That's what I don't understand. If you're gonna get one kid's name tattooed across your neck, which is highly visible, then where do you get the other kids? Like, oh, sorry Tim, but you're down, like on the lower calf. Like you're kind of, you're saying which kid is your favorite? Essentially, by where you get them tattooed on your body.
John Shull 26:54
Well, I think she has, like, the son's name on her forearm or something, I don't know, but it's just or the daughter's name on her forearm. I just don't know why you have, like, one on your neck and the other one's, like, on a forum. I don't get it.
Nick VinZant 27:08
I guess, for me personally, I don't need that much of a reminder that I have children. Like, oh no, I remember that. I have a kid. I don't need to, like, oh yeah, Tim. I got it right. Okay, that's his name. Like, I don't need that much of a reminder. Whatever people want to do, man, it's your body. Do what you want
John Shull 27:25
with it. I that is one thing I don't think I'll ever do is tattoo someone's name on my body. No,
Nick VinZant 27:32
I don't even think that you could pay me enough money. I mean, if we're talking like a billion dollars, like, Yeah, I'm gonna do that. Would you okay? How much money would it cost for you to tattoo another man's name on your forehead,
John Shull 27:46
like, just like a random name? Do they just have meaning? Is it just a random their names,
Nick VinZant 27:54
their name, and it has to say property of how much would you how much money would it take for you to get property of another man's name on your forehead?
John Shull 28:08
Oof, I mean, I'm probably not going to work ever again if, no,
Unknown Speaker 28:12
I mean, I mean,
John Shull 28:15
it would have to be at a starting point of like 20 million.
Nick VinZant 28:18
You would it'd have to be enough money that you would never work again for your life, and that anyone who knew you would immediately understand that, like, I got paid this much money. That's why I did this. It have to be like 50 million, which is probably 20 million in cash. I would do that for
John Shull 28:39
though. I will tell you that if I was gonna get any man's name tattooed, your name would be up there. So imagine
Nick VinZant 28:45
having property of Nick right?
John Shull 28:50
No, I couldn't, actually,
Nick VinZant 28:52
I don't think I could ever. Yeah, it would have to be a lot. You might have to be 100 million plus.
John Shull 28:59
Yeah, because nobody could.
Nick VinZant 29:00
And I think that somebody would kind of raise a question if you were in the double digit millions, but if you were in triple digit millions, I don't think anybody's asking you a question like, Why do you have that tattoo? Got paid 100 million for it? Oh, okay,
John Shull 29:13
I know, right. Like, yeah, why do you get that? I don't know. I got paid like, 400 million for it. So suck it.
Nick VinZant 29:20
Yep, agreed. Alright. Well, let,
John Shull 29:24
let's give some some shout outs to names that we're not going to tattoo on our foreheads, but still deserve recognition. So we'll start with Jackson Bailey, skip Mick friendly, don't get a lot of skips anymore. Hudson Turner, Evan Wiley, Sydney, Fisher, Nicole Anderson, Aurora churnoff, I like a good Aurora, like, I feel like that's,
Nick VinZant 29:49
that's a good name, very
John Shull 29:50
popular name nowadays. Yeah, there's
Nick VinZant 29:52
not a lot of them.
John Shull 29:55
Santiago casillo, and let's see. We'll end here on. Rena Zanny, appreciate all of you this week. Okay,
Nick VinZant 30:03
I don't think that skip is a lot like I don't think that you would ever name your child skip as a first name. That has to be like a nickname ish kind of thing.
John Shull 30:13
Yeah, I don't I skip has to be definitely a nick. It cannot be your first name. Actually, how many like famous skips? I don't even think I know a skip other than a baseball player.
Nick VinZant 30:25
Skip to my Lou, he was like a street ball player back in the day. Can you see that I took my son to karate camp today, and that when he got back, I asked him, like what he learned, and he kicked me right in the face. Can you see the mark that he left right in my face from getting kicked in the face by my son after karate camp.
John Shull 30:45
Oh, is that the, is that the mark right there before on your forehead? There right in
Nick VinZant 30:47
the middle of the forehead, right in the middle of the forehead. It was a good it was a good kick. I'll give him that. I figured we
John Shull 30:54
try something a little different now that we're doing, you know, live shows. Oh, okay, maybe we would just talk about current events. I don't
Unknown Speaker 31:01
know see
John Shull 31:02
what happens. So I picked up 567, 12 topics, and we'll either breeze through them or spend 12 hour talking about them. I'm not sure.
Nick VinZant 31:10
Okay, okay, okay. So I feel
John Shull 31:13
like we need to, we need to at least bring up three deaths that happened this past weekend, and I would hope you know who they are. Uh, Richard Simmons, Dr Ruth and Shannon Doherty
Nick VinZant 31:28
all like icons in their own way, right? They were all iconic at a certain point in people's lives. I think Dr Ruth is a little bit before my time. She's somebody that, like, Oh, I knew who that person was. Richard Simmons was somebody that, I mean, like, that was just a dude, like, enjoying his life. I don't know what happened towards the end of it, like something went on, or there was all kinds of confusion. And then Shannon Doherty was what she was. They were all iconic in their own way.
John Shull 32:03
Well, Shannon Doherty, I think, got got her break, or became famous on Beverly Hills, 90210, and then she, yeah, Charmed, yeah. I was actually, I was trying to figure out what happened to Richard Simmons, like he kind of went into a state of depression, and just like never surfaced. There
Nick VinZant 32:21
was something with his family. I don't know. It was all a confusing situation that like, what exactly was going on. People didn't know where he was. I don't know, and I could look it up, but I'm not gonna. It's probably best
Unknown Speaker 32:37
that you don't. I wouldn't
Nick VinZant 32:38
say they were, well, he was probably Richard Simmons, who was the other ones, who are the others who died,
John Shull 32:45
Dr Ruth and Shannon Doherty. Richard
Nick VinZant 32:49
Simmons, the most famous of those. Then probably Shannon Doherty, then Dr Ruth, but Dr Ruth was very influential in terms of, I think that she was kind of like Dr Spock, like introduced people on how to do things like, Oh, she was a voice for that cause, so to speak. Yeah,
John Shull 33:06
I think Dr Ruth is probably the most influential and popular of the three. Richard Simmons started a whole like, he made exercising and caring about your diet cool when it like, didn't have to be right in the 80s, yeah, dancing and jazz, you did something.
Nick VinZant 33:23
I don't know if I would go cool, but he brought it to people in detention. Like, I never looked at Richard Simmons. Other people may do what you like, but I never, personally, Richard sim looked at Richard SIMMON and be like, I want to be like that. But other people were, I mean, I mean, he was motivational, man, anything. Look doing anything is better than doing nothing.
John Shull 33:42
Hey, the three keys of losing weight, love yourself, portion control and and be active every day. The Richard Simmons playbook right there for you.
Nick VinZant 33:53
Yeah, that's pretty much. That's a good advice. I mean, that would work. That would work. All right,
John Shull 33:57
let's see here. Uh, soccer for a second, just for a second gone two things so the euro and Copa America tournaments just wrapped up. For all you sports fans out there, don't know why those are Spain has a 16 year old superstar, and I can't even imagine I was playing Pokemon at the age of 16. This kid is scoring goals on the biggest stage. It's insane. Apparently he was recruited when he was four years old.
Nick VinZant 34:24
That's that's a little much here. That's incredible. Here's my thing about soccer. I don't care about soccer. I don't care about soccer. And I don't think that the rest of the world should really think that they're hot for how they do in soccer. Because if we wanted, if the United States wanted to be the best country in the world at soccer. We would be the best country in the world at soccer. All of our best athletes are doing other things, but if we took our best athletes and had them play soccer, you're not stopping some guy running a four two down the a 422, 20 pound guy like the rest of the world is good at soccer. Only because we have decided not to be that's why, that's my soccer thing. If we wanted to, we would be the best. We don't want to.
John Shull 35:07
I disagree. But anyways, disagree.
Nick VinZant 35:10
We have the best athletes in the world. The United States has the best athletes in the world. Would you that there's other countries that I think can have just as good as athletes, but I would say that, on average, the US has the best, best athletes in the world, whether that's for whatever reason or training. I don't think other countries are touching us. We're bigger. I mean, like we got three, 50 million people. It's a size thing.
John Shull 35:33
I think it's hard to argue, though, because, you know, but take away American football, basketball is pretty competitive, especially with some European nations, Australia. Um, if you, if you want to do rugby, like we get our ass beat and rugby, which is kind of football without pads, but we wouldn't
Nick VinZant 35:53
be if we took our football players and had them play rugby, yeah, that's where you kind of lose that like that, yeah, but okay, I think that being big and strong and fast works out in just about every sport
John Shull 36:11
except for soccer. I mean, where you have to be finessed sometimes tall and skinny and quick. What are
Nick VinZant 36:17
you gonna do when six foot eight LeBron James comes down, and they're just like, just kick it up in the air, and I'll get it like you're not. What are you going to do to that?
John Shull 36:27
Listen, I'm not. I'm not disagreeing with you. And as American myself, of course, I want to you know, but to say that we could be the greatest at I just, I don't, just, I don't, I don't agree with that. I'm
Nick VinZant 36:39
gonna go ahead and say that if we took all of our best athletes and decided, You know what, let's really invest in soccer, we would be the best. Within five years, we would be the best. It's like we're one of the biggest countries. It's just a population thing. We have more people to choose from.
John Shull 36:58
All I'm gonna say is, India has a billion people, and they are not good at soccer at all.
Nick VinZant 37:05
Well, who knows what's going on over there, right? Like, I'm not in depth, they're playing cricket, man, I think they like cricket. Anyways,
John Shull 37:12
this they do. The second part of this was, uh, Sunday night's final. The Copa America final had to be delayed two hours because Columbia fans and Argentina Argentinian fans literally broke down the gates of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami to get into the stadium. It got so bad. And this is per reports. I didn't fact check this, but per reports that security was not checking people for weapons. They weren't. They weren't scanning tickets. They just let everybody in because they couldn't control it. This is an American stadium less than two years out from us hosting the
Nick VinZant 37:49
World Cup. Wait, that was here in the United States that happened? That was in Miami. Oh, yeah, they should have known better than that. Like, because we're not that is one thing that I do, I would say, is that I don't think that people in the United States understand how much people in other places like soccer and how into it that they are in other sport like we don't have a level of fandom of any sport that rivals Other countries, love of soccer.
John Shull 38:21
Yeah. I mean, I, I think because we re once again, if as a nation, if we loved soccer, we could rival it, but I feel like we're so regionalized, right? Like, with sports. Like, if you're a Detroit Lions fan, you're a Detroit Lions fan, you're not a Seattle, you know, Seahawks fan. Like, the you know what? I mean, the whole country was a Seattle Seahawks fan. Like, imagine how crazy it would be if they actually ever won anything.
Nick VinZant 38:44
Yeah, we don't have the same level of passion, and we're not used to it, like we don't. We're not that into it. We don't realize that, like, how much other countries love soccer. That was we messed that one up is pretty much what it goes down to.
John Shull 39:00
Let's move on to to the dumb criminal of the day. Oh, I
Nick VinZant 39:04
do love a dumb criminal. Uh, Aiden Studer,
John Shull 39:07
18 years old, from New Hampshire, arrested and charged with pushing over a porta John that contained a four year old and her mother, uh, according to the police report, the mom and the four year old obviously were inside when the Porta Potty was tipped over a kid, and when they came out, they were both covered in feces.
Unknown Speaker 39:33
That's a bad day.
Unknown Speaker 39:34
That's a bad day
Nick VinZant 39:36
when you go into a porta potty. Do you ever wonder, like, what would happen if you fell in there.
John Shull 39:42
Yeah. I also always think about like, first off, it's It's difficult enough to get your kid to go to the bathroom and then to get them to use a porta potty and then some little shit. No offense. Aiden might actually be a cool kid, I have no idea. But regardless, then somebody comes along and flips the Porta Potty. I think I would be, I would be irate.
Nick VinZant 40:02
I would Oh, yeah. That's one of those things where, like, you are, if they park a car in front of you, you feel like you're gonna tear through the car. Like, just pure unbridled rage, like,
John Shull 40:17
yeah, just Oh, you're going
Nick VinZant 40:19
after something. You can't do that. Why did she tip? Did she know that they were inside? Did she do it on purpose? Yeah. I mean, obviously she tipped it over on purpose. But did she know who was inside? Like a
John Shull 40:30
he and yes, yeah. Apparently he didn't know who was inside, but he knew what he was doing and that there were people inside
Nick VinZant 40:37
that. That's one of those kind of things where, like, Look, if he just gets a public beating, nobody's gonna, nobody's gonna feel bad for that. I would just lay there and like, Alright, everybody come for it. Oh, you feel so terrible. Yeah.
John Shull 40:50
I mean, if you know, to a kid, I presume he's a dumb kid, right? A dumb you know, he made a mistake. But it's like, man, being a parent, if I was in that situation, man, you just see red. And I feel like every other parent would agree in that situation, like, Oh, if you're not covered in the blue dye stuff and shit, like, it's over, you're going, you're going after somebody,
Nick VinZant 41:14
yeah, that's, that's, oh yeah, you're, you're moving Heaven and Earth for that one poor kid. Oh, son, somebody does something nice for him.
John Shull 41:22
Uh, let's see. There is a Dutch startup company that apparently is trying to develop a fully electric plane. I'm
Nick VinZant 41:31
not going to be the first one on it, right, which, like any kind of technology, I'm not going to be the first or the 1,000th, or wait till the millionth.
John Shull 41:43
Once again, politics aside, as a new, newer, new owner of an eV myself, it's actually kind of cool, like I'm kind of a fan, and I was never against them. I was hesitant, but so far so good. So if I was offered one of the first rides on this EV plane whenever they come out, or whenever, whatever, I probably do it. Why not sure put me on there? Beat me up. Scotty, I
Nick VinZant 42:08
mean, I agree, right? Like, I'm all about embracing technology. I'm just not going to be the first one to do it. I'm just like, let's make sure we got that down before I'm getting on the plane. What if, 10
John Shull 42:19
years from now, we are sponsored by this Dutch startup company, and they go, Nick and John, you guys can be on the first plane ride ever make history. Would you do it?
Nick VinZant 42:31
Yeah, man, somebody's giving me a check that changes a lot. Like, oh yeah, I'll do that. But can I have like, a parachute?
John Shull 42:39
Oh, my God, man, just in case. Let's see here. I thought this was interesting for all you climate folks out there. Apparently it's been proven that the melting polar ice caps is changing the way the Earth spins, which is making our days longer. So really, by us not taking care of the earth, the earth is like F you, I'm gonna make your days longer.
Nick VinZant 43:03
I would say, without getting into the left or the right or any kind of politics or any kind of viewpoints in that regard, don't mess with the planet like we're gonna lose that battle. And I think that sometimes people maybe get a little bit they forget what we're really talking about, we're not worried about the earth, the earth is going to be here. We're worried about our ability to live on the earth. Those are two different things, right? Don't mess with the planet, because nature's going to hand you your ass.
John Shull 43:34
Yeah, right. That's the thing. Nature's always going to find a way, always going to rumble us.
Nick VinZant 43:39
I just general against messing with the planet in any way, whatever that way is, don't mess with it.
John Shull 43:45
Like a week ago and my power just went out for no reason, just because
Nick VinZant 43:48
you live in Detroit, dude. And is it even considered to be a is it a third world country? One last, one last
John Shull 43:57
thing here, and this one just caught my eye because the headline. But apparently, along the Atlantic coast here in the United States, they are using drones to search for sharks, because they've had some shark attacks recently. Well, apparently it's not about what you see on the ground, but what's coming through the air and hitting these drones, which are birds. Seagulls are attacking these drones, sometimes breaking them and ruining them 1000s of dollars just destroyed by a friggin Seagull, which may be the most annoying bird bird on the face of the planet.
Nick VinZant 44:33
I live in Seattle. I live fairly close enough to the water where seagulls will kind of make their cell ways in. They're huge. They're big birds. I mean, I don't know how much a bird weighs comparatively, but you look at it and you're like, I bet that thing weighs like 30 pounds again, man, don't mess with nature. Like, don't mess with it, right? Birds. Birds can bring down a plane. They're gonna, really gonna do a drone.
John Shull 44:57
Well, next week, I'm, we're gonna top. About something that I didn't get to look up, but seemed cool. And hippos, apparently can jump pretty high, and I didn't realize that that,
Nick VinZant 45:06
yeah, these powerful animal. Man, they look like they're big and fat, but they're not. They're a lot of muscle. If you ever get a chance look up a picture of a pic hippo like what it would look like if its skin didn't look like that, if it wasn't so thick, and it's basically a beast, like it's an animal. Man,
John Shull 45:20
those things are not about anything. Take away my fat and I look like a must, no, but like you,
Nick VinZant 45:27
yeah, well, no, but I'll give you. I'll give you that. But like, don't mess with a wild animal. Man, you're going to lose, I would lose a fight for my life with any animal over 45 pounds. Yeah,
John Shull 45:42
you said 40 you say 4500 or 4545 oh, I don't know about 45 I mean, I
Nick VinZant 45:49
think a wild animal. I'm not talking about a dog. Like a wild animal you think you're gonna beat a 45 pound Fox think is gonna kill you if it wants to.
John Shull 46:01
Let's have unfair advantages four legged animals. Like, how are we supposed to defend against four legged you can't. You can't do it. Well,
Nick VinZant 46:07
not without technology, no. Like, we're losing that fight. Okay. Are you ready? Are you done?
John Shull 46:14
I yeah, let's this one please. Y'all enjoyed it, and it should be an interesting top five for sure. So
Nick VinZant 46:21
our top five is top five movie montages, only talking about evaluating a movie based on the Montage itself, not the quality of the entire movie, but how good is the Montage itself. What's your number five?
John Shull 46:36
It pains me to put this on the list, but I feel like when you're talking about movie montages and memorable scenes. This one has to be on there. So my number five is the volleyball scene from Top Gun. Oh,
Nick VinZant 46:54
yeah, okay, I'm not gonna. I think five is the right place for that. I think, I think if you're going to put it on the list five, is the right place for it. It's not on mine, but it is probably the most memorable part of a very memorable movie.
John Shull 47:12
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it obviously gets a lot of criticism for a lot of things, but it's just memorable. I mean, it's just a memorable montage. And agree too. By the way,
Nick VinZant 47:23
I would agree with that. My number five is Scarface, the push it to the limit scene, okay, where he's building the business he's getting the money. Ooh. That makes you want to, that makes you want to engage in that lifestyle.
John Shull 47:37
You know, that's a funny. It's funny you bring up Al Pacino, because I feel like him and Robert De Niro, when they do end up, you know, passing away, we're going to look back on their career and their lives and be like, Man, they really did some great work. Like they've, they've contributed a lot to, like, cinema and and, you know, theater and things
Nick VinZant 47:56
they have, interestingly enough, I would say, like throughout their careers, really had great movies. Where somebody else that you would have said a couple of years ago that really had great movies would have been like Brad Pitt, but he's really fallen off. He hasn't had a lot of like, really great movies. And up until Oppenheimer, I would make an argument that you could say that about Matt Damon, George Clooney, you could say that about too like, their careers haven't been as good for as long as those two guys,
John Shull 48:25
well, and yeah, I mean, I agree De Niro and Pacino six. I mean, they were successful in any kind of role like, and I know the other actors kind of too, but like all encompasses, like Tom Hanks, like you might as well for me, put De Niro and Pacino just up there with Tom Hanks because, you know, they're great in almost any role they're in. They've done some shitty movies, but almost every other movie is good.
Nick VinZant 48:51
Yeah, they've done some, they had some, like a phase that they went through, but overall, the the length of their career is pretty good, like they've done pretty well throughout the length of their career. What's your
John Shull 49:06
number four? So I was looking at some other lists, and I wasn't going to put this on my top five list. But then I decided, You know what it is, catchy. I still find myself singing the jingle to this day, and that's a Team America. America, yeah,
Olivia Green 49:21
yeah. That's
Nick VinZant 49:22
a good one. That's a good one because it was a parody of a montage and it was a montage at the same time,
John Shull 49:28
yeah, and it's, once again, if you've seen the movie, you know the jingle and you know the song, and it's just, just lives rent free in my head for the most part. Okay,
Nick VinZant 49:38
my number four, I'm gonna go a little bit out of left field here. I'm gonna go Devil Wears pride. Devil Wears Prada. Devil Wears Prada where she's, like, classing it up, and she's learning how to dress. I don't care at all about clothing or fashion, but I was like, Oh, that's interesting. Devil Wears Prada. I'm gonna throw it out there is
John Shull 49:56
that in the beginning of the movie where, like, she's just coming in. To the to the city, and just dealing with, no,
Nick VinZant 50:03
I think it's like, if it's, if it's an hour and a half, it's maybe like 30 minutes in,
John Shull 50:09
that's my guess. Maybe for the beginning, it's
Nick VinZant 50:11
not that's like a little bit closer to the it's in the middle. It's in the middle, between the beginning and the middle.
John Shull 50:16
Okay, all right, fine. Uh, my number three, and man, this was the toughest number to do, because my one and two are pretty much, I feel like they're interchangeable, okay, but my number three, I put down. I put Ghostbusters.
Nick VinZant 50:31
I don't remember the thing in Ghostbusters at all. Oh
John Shull 50:35
yeah, it's, it's the scene where, you know, where Ray Park, where that song is first introduced, and they're driving through the streets and the in the, you know, the Ghostbuster mobile. And it's awesome.
Nick VinZant 50:46
Yeah, I don't remember it. I don't remember at all. That's why don't it. Doesn't it speaks to me the quality of the montage that I do not remember a montage scene in there at all. Um, my number three is Requiem for a Dream. Okay? That montage basically ensured that while I would finish that movie, I would never watch that movie again.
John Shull 51:08
Okay, I mean, that's that is up there with, like, for me, if I had to compare it like the Kill Bill montages, like, where they're just so violent and just so crazy, yeah, just different that you look back. Okay, I saw it once, but I don't think I have to watch it again. What
Nick VinZant 51:26
movies have you watched and enjoyed? But said I could never watch that again. If you need a moment, I can think of a couple that I've seen, uh Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, girl with the something, something, whatever the ending of that was. I was like, prisoners. I think it was like a Hugh Jackman movie that I was like, Oh, that was good. I will never, ever watch that again.
John Shull 51:49
I mean, I'm gonna go out and live here and say pretty much any DC or Marvel movie, like once I've seen them once, I don't need to see them again. I would
Nick VinZant 51:59
agree with that. I would never watch the whole movie, but I'll watch YouTube clearly. YouTube clips of it.
John Shull 52:04
Yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, maybe Guardians of the Galaxy, I'll re watch but like, Avatar, like those movies, I don't need to rewatch them, like I've seen them once. You know, I don't need to see them again.
Nick VinZant 52:14
What movie Have you seen the most amount of times?
John Shull 52:19
That's not a child's movie, not a kids movie,
Nick VinZant 52:21
right? Like a movie that you've watched the most, the highest number of times.
John Shull 52:25
It's going to be a tie, and it's going to be either Titanic or Jurassic Park.
Nick VinZant 52:34
I've never seen Titanic. That's why I refuse to watch it, because people talk about Titanic. Mine's a different one. Mine's the gentleman. Just an easy movie to watch, right? Well, if you're going through Netflix, I'm like, okay, I can watch that. It's pretty easy. It's easy. You don't have to think it's entertaining enough, but smart enough that you don't feel like
John Shull 52:52
an idiot. I don't think I've ever seen that, to be honest with you. Oh, it's
Nick VinZant 52:56
a good movie, man. You should see that.
John Shull 52:59
Uh, alright, my number two for all time movie montages, I put the the Rocky series. But if I have to get specific, I'll say rocky four.
Nick VinZant 53:12
I don't understand how that's your number two.
John Shull 53:16
My number one's a dark horse, but it's, it's, it's my number one. And it's actually, I think it's a good number one when I talk
Nick VinZant 53:22
about it, okay, I'll do my two in one, because you kind of already brought it. My number two is the Godfather The Baptism scene when he kills all of his enemies. That's a great movie montage. Like, oh, that's really good. And I would almost say it's so good that you can't count it as a montage, even though it is kind of a montage. But my number one is, I don't understand how anything isn't, how you ever even hold any kind of candle to Rocky four. I don't if that movie was just that montage. I would still it'd still be a great movie,
John Shull 53:57
all right. Well, and all of that, my number one is the movie up.
Nick VinZant 54:02
Oh, sad though
John Shull 54:06
it is, but it, but it's, it's, it's, it is sad, but it kind of lays out the entire movie in three minutes. It's well done. It gives you the feels, and anyone who struggled in fertility or anything like that, like, it's, it just hits home and like, it's just, it's, it's a, it's a montage out of everything. I could watch my my top five over and over, but I could probably have that on repeat, and I don't think I would ever get tired of watching it.
Nick VinZant 54:31
That's too sad for me. Man. I don't know how you go that sad. I don't know how, but to me, like Rocky four. Rocky four is, like, if you were gonna put montage in the dictionary, like, you would have the rocky four montage there. Don't
John Shull 54:48
get me wrong. I mean, I also put up the montage in the beginning of the way as my number one, because it's the only montage that I remember watching that kind of caught me off guard, where I was like, Oh, I didn't. Spec this and, and it's just stayed, you know, Rocky, you know you're getting something right, Ghostbusters, you know you're going to get something throughout the movie, like, with up. It was like, Oh, damn. Like, yeah, I didn't expect them just to hit me like this.
Nick VinZant 55:14
Yeah, that's too tough, man. What's in your honorable mention?
John Shull 55:18
I limited it. I mean, I could have gone for 50 movies, but Deadpool,
Nick VinZant 55:24
oh yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, actually,
John Shull 55:27
that could be top five material. Like, that's really well done, Dirty Dancing, Footloose, both dancing scenes and then Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Unknown Speaker 55:38
Yeah,
John Shull 55:39
that one's that one's fun too. Yeah, I kind of capped it there, though I could have put a ton more on there.
Nick VinZant 55:46
The only other one that I would add in there that you didn't mention, because this actually has two montages, is predator. Because they've got the montage where they're, like, getting ready for the group to fight the predator. Then they've got the montage where they're getting where Arnold is getting ready to fight the predator. Predators probably the best movie we've ever made. I don't want to see any top five movie list without predator.
John Shull 56:17
It's spoiler alert.
Nick VinZant 56:18
What's what's wrong with predator? Tell me where predator goes wrong. Tell me when your mind where predator fails to be at the one of the best movies of all time. Well, I
John Shull 56:30
mean, it could start with the fact that it's about an alien that lands in the jungle. Uh, discrimination.
Nick VinZant 56:36
That's discrimination. Talking right there, right? Oh, alien. I don't want my movies to be unrealistic.
John Shull 56:42
No, I love predator. I mean, I can't say anything negative about predator exactly
Nick VinZant 56:46
any other movie you can kind of say something negative about you can't say that about predator. Maybe
John Shull 56:52
that should be next week's Top Five is movies that are near perfect. Top
Nick VinZant 56:56
five reasons why predator is the best movie of all time. Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of profoundly pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a quick review. We really appreciate it. Really helps us out and let us know what you think are the best movie montages. I I don't I can't believe John didn't have rocky four at number one. I think that that is, oh, I mean, that is the movie montage in my mind. But I also think predator is the best movie of all time. So there you go.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai