The Illuminati, Freemasons, the Bilderberg Group, Historian Dr. Rick Spence has spent decades studying secret societies. We talk how secret societies have changed history, the most influential secret societies and what secret societies really want.
Then, we unveil a new Candle of the Month and countdown the Top 5 Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies.
Dr. Rick Spence: 01:19
Pointless: 31:22
Candle of the Month: 57:36
Top 5 Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies: 01:03:45
Interview with Secret Societies Researcher Dr. Rick Spence
Nick VinZant 0:11
Nick, welcome to profoundly pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode secret societies and Schwarzenegger
Dr. Rick Spence 0:20
film, I'd argue that that's probably one of the most important places for decision making in all of human history. That was where the people who participated in this military uprising and revolution, that's where the whole thing was organized. The possibility that that organization has continued and continues in a disguised form to the present day would be one of the greatest disappearing acts within history.
Nick VinZant 0:53
I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance subscribe, leave us a rating or a review. We really appreciate it. It really helps us out. So I want to get right to our first guest, because they study something that, even though it's secret, has had a huge impact on our history and on society. This is secret society researcher Dr Rick Spence. When we think about secret societies. The first thing that comes to my mind is people in a back room plotting to take over the world. To be dramatic. Is this what secret societies really are? Or are they something else
Dr. Rick Spence 1:33
you're right about one thing you're right about the idea of a small group of people, half dozen dozen, probably no more than a couple of dozen, meeting in a room somewhere privately to make important decisions. That stuff goes on all the time. And I'd basically argue, whatever this is worth, this isn't historic, saying this, I'd argue that that's probably one of the most important places for decision making in all of human history. That's the way important decisions tend to be made by small groups of people operating in isolation from other things around them. Maybe the place to begin though, is, how do I define a secret society. The main thing about them is that, generally speaking, their existence isn't a secret. Let's take Freemasonry. Freemasonry does not hide its existence. The secret part is what goes on within the group, and that can include what do they believe? What things do they practice? And, of course, beyond that, the idea of what, what influence or meaning does any of that have, beyond the the lodge itself. So this is how it generally works. People are generally recruited. They're always vetted for membership. You can't just go in and demand that you become a member. Generally speaking, you know somebody who's already a member, you're sort of scouted in a way. You may express an interest in becoming a member, but it's up to the existing members of that group as to whether or not you are admitted. There are a series of of ritual initiations. There could be one of those. There could be several of them. And there are also oaths that you take as part of that. And these oaths are obsessively about secrecy. You also, practically speaking, needed a certain amount of money because membership was costly. You don't want a society full of peasants. You want a society full of what you want a society full of men of wealth, influence and education, because those people are important.
Nick VinZant 3:59
So what's the reason that they're usually secret like because the first thing that I would go to is, well, if you're secretive, you're doing something that I don't want you to be doing. So are these groups generally doing something that is against the larger public interest in someone?
Dr. Rick Spence 4:14
So what you can almost never get a straight answer on for any groups, whether it's Freemason or outside of it, is he okay? What's What's the special stuff? What do we get out of this? What are we actually doing? The assumption, and it's not a totally paranoid assumption, is that when people meet in secrecy, when they conceal something, it's because they have something to hide, or more to the point they are doing something that, if known to the general public, would turn the public against them.
Nick VinZant 4:53
When we look at the United States, how influential would you say secret societies have been throughout our history? It.
Dr. Rick Spence 5:00
Well, what you're really asking about there is what influence of Freemasonry have on the on the American Revolution, the Masonic influence in the American Revolution. There is one there. It is real. It is a palpable thing. It is not a figment of imagination. How critical it is. Is something else. George Washington, Freemason, proud of it, has a whole portrait painted in his regalia, Benjamin Franklin, Freemason Thomas Jefferson, probably won, but he was kind of mealy mouthed, and he would never say one way or the other. He certainly Freemasons would later claim him. There was nothing in Jefferson's attitude or public statements that would suggest he was not sympathetic to the Brotherhood as a whole, and a lot of cases, if you go through and you look at the founding organizations, somewhere between and this, this is a gross estimate, but somewhere between 20 to 40% of the people often involved in key meetings or congresses or Freemasons or probable Freemasons, but
Nick VinZant 6:08
that's a massively significant number
Dr. Rick Spence 6:12
and but then again, you've also got to look at, you know, look at things like the Continental Congress, right? Look at who those people are, and they were not a cross section of American colonial society. Firstly, it's pretty obvious who's not there. It's not so obvious that the fact that these are all you know, if somebody says it largely consisted of a bunch of rich white guys, yes, yes, that's there wasn't much else it was going to be.
Nick VinZant 6:37
To me, it goes back to that conversation that we had at the beginning of like, small groups making decisions have massive amounts of influence throughout the world, and in maybe your secret maybe you're not, but it's that everything starts with a small group making a decision.
Dr. Rick Spence 6:53
Well, here's why. And maybe this goes back to the whole idea as to why these groups exist to begin with, a secret society, generally speaking, creates a nexus of connection and influence and action by a select group of people. Remember, it is, it is taken a selected group of like minded people and bound them together in loyalty for some particular purpose. This is, this is, you know, arguably, this is the kind of deep, dark, little secret of politics, and it has been since the Stone Age. You want to try to keep things working by creating the illusion of some kind of consensus. Because people think that they were going to need to be included or recognized this in some degree. So you create some kind of system that will make it look as if they're actually doing it. But the other part of this whole system is to make sure that only the ones who that is, most of them, have no real input at all, that all the key decisions are made by a group of people who can work together and to some degree trust each other.
Nick VinZant 8:08
And I think that you know, for me, that's why you have that skepticism of secret societies, because you have this small group of people making a decision, but you don't know exactly what their real priorities are or what the real goal
Dr. Rick Spence 8:22
is. I mean, there were other people who sort of looked at them and argued that this, this was just kind of silly. There's people doing sort of silly things.
Unknown Speaker 8:31
And, well,
Dr. Rick Spence 8:33
here's one guy who said that, one guy who said that looked at Freemasonry in the 18th century and said, Yeah, that's just a bunch of rich guys doing silly things. It's of no consequence. Was a professor of Roman Catholic canon law in Bavaria by the name of Adam Weishaupt, who had founded his own organization, his own secret society, which he dubbed the Illuminati. The real Illuminati, these guys actually existed. And he actually did have this whole plan for completely reforming the world, a general reformation of the world, that it would be placed under the control of an enlightened elite who he would recruit and train. But after forming the Illuminati, the next thing he did, and he told all of his newly recruited Illuminati to do, was to join Masonic lodges. So vice hopped was not a Freemason. When he formed the Illuminati, he became one after he formed the Illuminati and and he did this despite the fact that he thought that Freemasonry itself was silly and nothing of nothing of consequence. So why would he do that? Why would he have everybody in his organization join a group that he basically thought was stupid? Well, here's why, because he said that these groups are numerous. Yes, and they no longer attract much attention. Nobody tends to be terribly concerned about them. Yeah, they know these lodges exist, and you know people go into them, and you know it's just like the Masonic Lodge in your town, wherever it is, you know what's there. And you may occasionally wonder about it, but you don't generally walk past and quiver and fear. I mean, that's not on your mind all the time. They exist, but so what? So vicen's idea was, this is an organization that, in itself is just a bunch of nonsense, but it provides a cover for the activity of our organization, because what we, brother Illuminati, are going to do is we're going to join these lodges, and who else is in the logic? Well, remember, men of wealth and influence, and those are the people we want to recruit into the Illuminati. So we have a recruiting ground. We don't take everybody. We'll just choose some,
Unknown Speaker 11:02
but we will
Dr. Rick Spence 11:05
infiltrate this existing secret society, turn it to our purposes while it continues to function on its own, because most of the people in it would just go on doing their stupid stuff, and they won't realize that we're here. And we will use it as a cover for the activity of our own, because this was one of his statements to his brother, Illuminati. Our order must never be known publicly under its real name.
Nick VinZant 11:36
We talked about the American Revolution. Are there other things that have happened in history that you would say, Oh, that's pretty tied to a secret society.
Dr. Rick Spence 11:46
Well, the Russian Revolution has secret societies running through it on various levels, and again, mostly French based Masonic lodges where much of this political activity went on. See, it's where you could meet in this in a in an atmosphere of mutual confidence, and you could dare to discuss things and plan things that if you tried to do that in public, would get you arrested or bring a great deal of scrutiny on you. So and you know, another example is that in the early 20th century, in a thing then called the Ottoman Empire, there was something called the Young Turk Revolution. Somebody can go look that up, like 1908 and that effectively overthrew the Ottoman monarchy and created this military dictatorship, which was supposed to be freeing everybody, but it turned into a military dictatorship. But that whole revolution, which was basically a military revolt, can be traced back to a single Masonic Lodge in telesonique, in what was then called Salonica. Today it's in Greece. Then it was part of the Ottoman Empire, and there was a lodge, the Macedonia resort, a lodge that was where the people who participated in this military uprising and revolution, that's where the whole thing was organized.
Nick VinZant 13:16
Are you ready for some harder slash? Listener submitted questions. Yeah,
Dr. Rick Spence 13:20
I'll give him a try. Most secretive.
Nick VinZant 13:24
Which secret society would you say? Oh, that's probably the most secret,
Dr. Rick Spence 13:28
Adam vice house, Bavarian Illuminati. Which was the two things that I think are most notable about that is that he had a very highly developed plan for infiltrating other organizations and basically trying to rule the world, but through other means. And that the order was never supposed to be known public, only under its real name. It also never really goes out of business. I mean, it's, it is banned, if you if you look at his history, it only lasts for about 10 years, because it's formed in 1776 and by 1786 the Bavarian government has banned it in Bavaria, but nobody's ever arrested. Vice house lives until, I think, 1830 it goes on to recruit hundreds and some 1000s of members throughout Europe and to spread throughout the world, even to America, because in 1798 George Washington is asked in a letter what his views on the Illuminati are and whether or not he thinks they have infiltrated American Freemasonry and Washington says he doesn't like them. He thinks they're bad and he doesn't think they've infiltrated too much. That's interesting. So well, think about this. Supposedly, the Illuminati was banned as an organization in Bavaria in. 786 now, more than a decade labor later, all the way across the Atlantic, Washington is being asked what he thinks about a group that supposedly has been dead for 12 years, but he knows it's not dead. In his discussion at that point, it is still very much a thing, and which has some kind of activity within American lodges, my suspicion. And this is purely suspicion. This is speculation. Is that the Bavarian Illuminati, the Illuminati, a real thing, continued to exist in other forms, and there may have been many of them. The carbonari that I mentioned might have been one of those. And they also probably continued to work within free make. Why would they have stopped if that was already successful? And therefore, I think that in terms of the secret society that has most kind of hidden itself could be vice house Illuminati. Now don't ask me exactly where they are, what they're doing today, but the possibility that that organization has continued and continues in a disguised form to the present day would be one of the greatest disappearing acts within history. But what I can't see is that there's no sign it's like this. There's no particular sign of life, but neither is there any indication of death.
Nick VinZant 16:33
What do you think is the most misunderstood secret society?
Dr. Rick Spence 16:37
Well, you know, I hate to harp on it, but I probably argue that Freemasonry is a misunderstood secret society, because it's assumed to be this monolithic thing that it's not. You have a whole variety of different jurisdictions, and again, it's never been united in it was never just one thing. There was no sort of pure form that later then changed into the others, and for the most part, you know, I'd say it fellows, but most Freemasons really don't do much of anything. It's probably more a social organization than any and people do use it for a certain degree of advancement. And can't you maybe get a better business deal from a lodge brother than you could from someone else? Yes, but that's the way it works. In it you do with your friends, isn't it?
Nick VinZant 17:30
Is there one that you would say is the opposite of that one, that where Freemason seems to be kind of more style over substance? Is there another one that you would say is like, Oh, they really have these intentions that we, the public seems to think of them this way, but really they're that way.
Dr. Rick Spence 17:52
Anybody listening from St Louis has probably heard about a thing called the Veiled profit organization, or veiled profit society, and this was a private club, society of rich guys. It was the rich people in town. I mean, look, one of their annual celebrations was a debutante ball in December. All right, so if you're part of club that's going to have a debutante ball, okay? This, this is not a for the general public, and they created this whole kind of mythology out of it. And they partly based it on the New Orleans Mardi Gras. And each of these little crews and Mardi Gras its own little secret society. And then they borrowed this obscure ninth century Middle Eastern political figure, the veil prophet of Prophet of Horace on that was a real guy as their mascot. And they would have these huge public parades in which some would be chosen as the Veiled prophet, and they would have debutante balls. And it was generally recognized that the key judicial, political and economic leaders of St Louis were all part of this organization, even though its membership was technically secret and that that was and that's the same people who were in that society. Were the people who ran the city. One of the things about it is that by holding these public pageants every year on full display, they're proclaiming their dominance. The police clear the streets for them, and everybody else just stands on the sidewalks and watches this society proclaim its power and glory. And the gravel province society dominated St Louis from the 1870s really, up to the 1990s I mean, their power began to one but for 100 years, this was the public face of a secret order of the elite. State that ran the city.
Nick VinZant 20:01
Conspiracy theory about secret societies that you don't believe is true, one that you think might be
Dr. Rick Spence 20:09
true, whether or not Adam vice house, 18th century Illuminati, in some way, adapted and morphed and sort of became like a virus. Think of it this way, an ongoing human organization that over time, even though the people within it who will change, because they'll die eventually, but that the organization doesn't, the organization becomes this thing, which then goes on and is perpetuated by no groups of people as to whether or not there's there's this almost ideological or causal link between the Bavarian Illuminati in the 18th century and communism in the 20th century, or even and take it in whichever direction that you might want to Go, but those are all within the realm of human possibility. Again, there's nothing spooky about it. It's in some ways, all too simple, if you simply keep in mind the way to reduce decision making down to the fewest people possible.
Nick VinZant 21:20
These are some that are just about specific secret societies. I saw this two ways, Skull and Bones, or skull and crossbones,
Unknown Speaker 21:29
Skull and Bones, skull and bone.
Dr. Rick Spence 21:32
Well, Skull and Bones gets talked about a lot because I think what was it back in 2004 that George Bush two and John Kerry, both the candidates for president were also members of a senior society at Yale called Skull and Bones. It's another sort of select group. So Skull and Bones is one of a dozen or more. I think there are more than at Yale alone. There are these things called senior societies, and in your senior year, in the case of Skull and Bones, traditionally, they have changed, but the malaise information in your senior year, 15 people out of that senior class would be chosen by the existing members of skull and bone to be the next year's cohort. And they have their own sort of house. They're like their frat house, although, again, it's not technically a fraternity called the tomb. It is probably the most prestigious, or at least well known, of these senior societies at one of the two most prestigious universities in the United States, Yale and Harvard, and there are others at Harvard and other schools. They would always seem to have a rather wide spectrum. So you might find that out of those 15, you'd have a very prominent lefty, but you'd also have a very prominent conservative, and you'd have a jock or two, and you'd have somebody who was in the arts, but someone else who was more force in finance, probably somebody who was good at math. So you would try to get these, if you looked at it, you wouldn't find any kind of real academic or political solidarity among them. They seemed to be sort of across the board. But that arguably was the whole point, because it meant that as these people then went out into the world, they took the organization, the order to which they were now sworn members for life, out they spread the influence and reach of the order into every facet of society.
Nick VinZant 23:40
Yeah, that makes sense, right? You cast a wide net,
Dr. Rick Spence 23:43
which then brings the question to what end? What is it that they're supposed to do to the benefit of the order? Why are you trying to place people who are part of the order into positions of authority and influence in every facet of society. When did Skull and Bones begin? Well, it begins in the 1830s when two Americans. Alonzo Taft is one of them, and I'm going to space on the other guy's name, but you could find there there are two Americans, Russell, a fellow named Russell, William Taze Russell. They go on an exchange, a college exchange, to Germany. Go to a German university. Sure you could probably figure out which one. And then they come back. And when they come back, they say, Hey, we found this really cool secret society at this German university we were in, and we know we're now going to start a branch of it here, and that will become Skull and Bones, lodge 322, no, they're different theories as to why they chose. Or there, are there 321, other lodges. Or here just is this number F. Mother kind of meaning, you don't know, and we're gonna so what they argue is that this was a lodge that we already a secret society we found in Germany, which we're now bringing back to the States, and we're going to start here. Now, what other lodges, secret lodges would have been Germany. I think they were in Bavaria, or somewhere near to that. So, yeah, some people argue. See, that's what it was. This, this, you know that the Illuminati had spread into into college, into collegiate organizations. And by the way, German universities were infested with secret societies that were you couldn't turn around and not bump into one, so there wasn't anything weird about that. So that that's what it is, that Skull and Bones is the American branch of the Bavarian Illuminati, brought here by these two rich exchange students in the 1830s and in which is his sense, made his purpose to do what, to recruit potentially influential members and to send them out, to do something, to exert some kind of influence of the order in every facet of American society. Wouldn't Adam Weishaupt be proud, if that's what they were doing.
Nick VinZant 26:22
Another one that we had was the
Speaker 1 26:25
Bilderberg Group. Well, the Bilderberg Group,
Nick VinZant 26:29
that's one I'm not familiar with. Well, listen to the
Dr. Rick Spence 26:33
builder burgers is there, sometimes called this is a group that came into being in the 1950s so it's kind of a creation of the Cold War, and it's considered to be a kind of advisory group to the Atlantic Alliance. So it's another one of these Atlanticist organizations America and Western Europe. Yeah. So its members are basically Germans, French, British and Americans, with, you know, Belgians and Canadians thrown in. And it was its meetings, I think, commenced in 1953 or 1954 and the first meeting was held at the Bilderberg hotel in the Netherlands. That's why they're called The Bilderbergers. That's not what they're actually called. That's just what they publicly answer to. It's by invitation only. And the one thing that everyone who agrees to come swears to is that they were never divulged Who else was there or what was talked about, because they're an advisory group. So the number of people there is maybe 100 to 150 every year, but different people, some people are invited over and over again. Some only come there once. But those aren't the those aren't the members. We don't even the organization, to the extent it exists, is controlled by something called a steering committee, which consists of a smaller group of people, but no one knows who those are. The whole thing is completely secret, and it's unclear what, other than it offers advice. So these people are supposed to come there. They're sworn to secrecy. They discuss various things that are going on, and then they go back to their home countries to presumably advance or advocate for some kind of agenda that was talked about there. But on the other hand, the Bilderberg Group, which, remember, isn't really the Bilderberg Group. So here's the question, what is it? And again, remember that thing, our order, will never be known publicly by its real name, but always is something else. Y'all coming back seeing how these things tend to count. It's get spooky.
Nick VinZant 28:56
Yeah, that's that's the kind of thing, right? Like when we talk about secret societies, I'm very aware of the idea how it can be bad for me that there's a small group of people in a room somewhere making decisions that could affect me. But then it's balanced out by the idea that people are kind of inherently idiots in groups, and maybe it doesn't really ultimately amount to something like the best laid plans of mice and men at the end of the day,
Dr. Rick Spence 29:24
you know, this is what I'd say about secret society is not the type of thing that you want to freak out about, because most of the time, there's nothing there to freak out about. But on certain occasions, you should pay attention that they're there. And it's a good way to be aware that when you look at, when you look at the kind of organized decision making process through which the world is run, I'll just put it this way, the world may not be run efficiently. It may not be run the way that you or I would want it to be, but it's being run. Okay? All of this stuff operates. There's a whole world order which is going on, and no matter how dysfunctional it may be, somebody's running it. So see, it's not, it's not. A question is, will somebody rule them? There already is somebody running the world. They may be competing with each other, and they could be completely they could be complete idiots. But this, and this, by the way, is, is my actual fear is not that the world is being run by, you know, Dr Evil, because Dr Evil at least has some kind of plan. You know, at least he has, at least he has something. But if it's being run by idiots, it's being run by people who don't know what they're doing but are absolutely convinced, but somehow, by the grace of God or whatever they believe in, that they should be doing this that, to me, is kind of Terrifying. It's like being on a train driven by someone who doesn't really know how to operate the train.
Unknown Speaker 31:05
I want to thank Dr
Nick VinZant 31:07
Spence so much for joining us. If you want to connect with him, we have linked to him on our social media sites. We're profoundly pointless on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube, and we've also included his information in the episode description, Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. When do you go
Unknown Speaker 31:28
full Christmas mode?
John Shull 31:30
I mean, I'm kind of ready now. Let's do it now.
Unknown Speaker 31:32
That's
Speaker 1 31:34
that is what I like to hear. That is what I'd
Speaker 1 31:37
like to hear. I go full Christmas mode right after Halloween, I would have put my lights up this weekend, if I wouldn't have been in trouble with the wife.
Nick VinZant 31:47
As far as I'm concerned, as the Christmas stuff, as the Halloween stuff, is going down, the Christmas stuff should be going up. I can skip right over Thanksgiving. Go straight to Christmas.
John Shull 31:57
As my children get older, I want to savor the moments more, because they're only going to be in a Christmas, you know, as little kids for so many years. So I may put my Christmas stuff up this weekend and just say, f it just Oh, I think you
Nick VinZant 32:09
should, I think you should go full on.
John Shull 32:12
We're always to get our first snow of the year, of the season.
Speaker 1 32:16
God, 30 seconds in and you brought up weather. Technically, it's a minute and 53 seconds, but, yes, right? But we
Nick VinZant 32:26
were started recording before we started, like, actually recording, if that makes any sense, that's got to be a record 30 seconds in. You brought up
John Shull 32:33
weather. Probably is, I mean, yeah, I don't know. Let's do it now. If I'm definitely, as I get older, I'm much like, I really enjoyed Halloween this year, and I never
Unknown Speaker 32:44
enjoy it. Oh yeah, the
Nick VinZant 32:46
when you have children, holidays start to mean a lot more to you, especially like Halloween and thanks, or Halloween and Christmas, I would say, have become a much bigger deal.
John Shull 32:58
Like Thanksgiving just seems trustful this year, like, apparently we're gonna host and I'm gonna have to cook food. Like, I don't know. Let's just, let's move on to Christmas.
Nick VinZant 33:09
I firmly believe that over the last five to 10 years, Thanksgiving has really taken a downgrade as holiday. You could make an argument that it used to be number two. I think Thanksgiving has slipped down significantly. Like, people don't really want to do it anymore. I don't think,
John Shull 33:25
well, and it's just, I mean, it's so expensive. Like, chocolate for Halloween this year was expensive, by the way, my packs of cards were a
Nick VinZant 33:34
hit. No, they loved him. No, they did them. No. Kid wanted that did what did they want? Like, whoa, wow. I'm really thankful for this Greg Maddux, this Greg Maddux card from 1986 thanks for that.
John Shull 33:51
I mean, kids can't buy cards now, because they can buy them. They don't want to. No, they're expensive. So here are some free cards from 1989 your parents probably weren't even born yet. And here, you know,
Unknown Speaker 34:07
Jim Abbott, John Burkett,
Speaker 1 34:10
Tom Glover, yeah, they really loved that. They loved it. Those kids really wanted those baseball cards. Like, I'm sure they're gonna, like, they're gonna egg your house.
John Shull 34:19
I we've set out some chocolate too. Just wasn't cards. They got some.
Nick VinZant 34:24
Okay, oh, wait a minute, you put out the chocolate and you
Unknown Speaker 34:27
handed out the baseball cards.
John Shull 34:30
So no, we put out both, and we had my father in law sit here and monitor. Imagine that's kids and families are walking up, and they just see this gangly old man who they think is dressed for Halloween, but that's just how he looks all the time.
Unknown Speaker 34:46
Oh, he's sitting there.
Nick VinZant 34:48
Oh, if I see somebody standing out, like, I'm very particular about what house I'm going to let the kids go up to. Like, if I if I saw your father in law out there, that's a red flag. We're not going to that house. So we're gonna skip that one.
John Shull 35:04
I I'm the opposite. I was sending my kids up to houses that you knew were not like, open for for Halloween or whatever, giving out treats, but the porch light was on, so I would, I would tell them to go knock on the door anyways. It's their fault.
Nick VinZant 35:18
I don't understand people who don't do Halloween like you. You can participate in society for one night, one night, you can participate in society.
John Shull 35:29
I mean, I Okay, so I agree with you, but I will say it can be a little nerve wracking. It can like, if you're not a social person, and you know, you continually have to, you know, sit outside and communicate, or open your door and give candy some some people that they're just not comfortable with that, but there are alternatives.
Unknown Speaker 35:48
Like, well, you could, like, I
Nick VinZant 35:50
get that, but you can just put a bowl of candy outside of your house and leave it there. You can do that. If you can take the trash out. You can put candy outside of your house. Now, if you can't afford it, and I that that I totally understand, right? If that's your title and budget, yeah, that's an acceptable reason not to do it. But if it's just your social anxiety, no, you got to be part of society for one night. You got to do it. I saw when we were trick or treating that I thought was very strange. For some reason, some lady put up on a sign that said, free candy.
Speaker 1 36:24
Well, yeah, it's Halloween. Like, why did you need to put the free in there?
Nick VinZant 36:30
I was baffled by this. I won't went to the door to ask them why they wrote free on there. Like, well, oh, okay, because we were paying for it other places.
John Shull 36:42
I mean, yeah, you need to get to the bottom of that. That's, that's a question that needs to be addressed. I
Nick VinZant 36:47
don't know. Well, they didn't have children, so maybe they have no idea how to like Halloween.
John Shull 36:52
I mean, that's actually quite funny. Um, yeah, we don't, I don't really have any good stories. It was, it was a boring trick or treating, but it was, it was good, and the weather was fine.
Nick VinZant 37:05
See, dude, you can't, you can't be stopped. Can't, I can't do it, but I can't do it. Can't be stopped.
Unknown Speaker 37:11
Okay? Like,
John Shull 37:14
I'm so crazy about the weather that, again, I look weeks in advance, like I'm already planning out outdoor weekend activities on a Tuesday. You know, for the weekend, based upon the weather
Speaker 1 37:27
that could change, you've gone you have to stop.
Nick VinZant 37:33
You're not only getting older, but you're accelerating, like exponentially, you've gone from going to be 65 in 10 years to you're going to be 65 by the end of the day.
John Shull 37:46
I was, do you ever? You ever have this feeling? So I was on on Facebook, and a friend that I haven't talked older sounding older already, a friend that I haven't seen or talked to in probably a decade, popped up randomly, and they were like, you know, oh, this is what 46 looks like. And I was like, Holy shit, I don't I hope I don't look like that at 46 and like, I'm not that far away from 46
Unknown Speaker 38:12
oh no. So I'm a little
Nick VinZant 38:15
bit older than you, I think, like, three or four or five years older than you. And I've really reached the point, like, once you hit 40, your body really starts to change, like you kind of you're approaching going over the hill as you're getting to 40, like you're approaching it right now. But my age like, Oh no, you're solidly in middle age. And I see people that I went to high school with who look like crap. Like, you can really go one of two directions as you age. And some people have been like, Oh, my God, you
Speaker 1 38:47
look terrible. Just terrible. Like, I thought you were 55
John Shull 38:54
I'm just kind of glad I don't, like see these people in like, I don't plan on going to a reunion. I haven't been to a reunion. I mean, listen, that's not like I aged amazingly, but I don't look that much different than when I did when I was 18. I don't think. But, man, some people, they turn left when they probably should have turned
Nick VinZant 39:14
right. They if you go too big or too skinny as
Speaker 1 39:17
you get older, ooh, like
Nick VinZant 39:21
some of the women that I went to school with who are a little too thin as they as they age, like, Oh, you got to put some on here. You're looking like, you're 55
John Shull 39:31
seems like everybody in my social circle, in even at work in other places, like everyone's on these shots now, like even people that aren't fat are like, Yeah, I want to lose 20 pounds, so I'm gonna take the shot like, like, Guys, be
Speaker 1 39:45
careful with that. Oh, I mean, I think that that,
Nick VinZant 39:51
I think that that's gonna be one of those things that's like the shovel.
Speaker 1 39:56
When we first invented the shovel, you were like, Oh, you're cheating. Dig it with your hands like a man.
Nick VinZant 40:02
Oh, wait, this shovel is a lot easier. We should probably use that. I think it'll become like that. I think that that will become the new
Unknown Speaker 40:09
normal for people,
Nick VinZant 40:13
which is really a good thing in the sense that they Yeah, there's probably some side effects to that that we don't really know about, or we're gonna have to really see how this plays out long term. But I don't think that there's a lot of things that are worse for you, from a medical perspective, than being significantly overweight. I think it's hard on body,
John Shull 40:31
unless you just never mind. Ah,
Nick VinZant 40:35
I painted you into a pretty big corner.
John Shull 40:38
Oh no, listen, I I am overweight, but my levels, I've always remained active for a bigger person, my levels are fine, like other than I was an alcoholic when I was 25
Speaker 1 40:49
like you didn't you do have had multiple kidney stones
John Shull 40:53
and but none, none in the last None, none since I left Florida. So it's going on 15 years.
Speaker 1 41:01
Oh, that's that long. Then turn it around.
John Shull 41:05
Sugar's always been great, like everything. I mean, you know, I could still go out and run a mile faster than 90% of our audience. And I guarantee
Nick VinZant 41:13
it. I guarantee it. How fast are you running? A mile?
John Shull 41:17
I'd run it at 10 minute pace. I know that doesn't sound fast,
Unknown Speaker 41:22
but if people don't run miles,
John Shull 41:25
I mean, it's, I'd run it between nine and 10 minutes if I was doing only one mile.
Speaker 1 41:30
Oh, I think if you're a runner, that's not super fast, but as a runner, that's really fast, yeah. So you
John Shull 41:40
know, I can also, I don't know if I ever, if I ever told you this, but I can also outrun a bison in a 40 yard dash.
Nick VinZant 41:49
Not getting in this again, it's one see that that's the problem is that I was on your side about you running a nine or 10 minute mile. And it's like, okay, yeah, that's pretty good. And then you go ahead and ruin it, right? It's like you have a good point, and then you completely blow it at the end, like you're making some astute societal observations. And then you say something like, we faked
Speaker 1 42:09
the moon landing. Like, can't trust anything this person says,
John Shull 42:14
Listen, I watched Jurassic Park rebirth the other night. Dinosaurs were never real.
Unknown Speaker 42:21
I mean, they were, they were definitely
Nick VinZant 42:23
kidding. Terrible movie, though. Don't watch it. Oh, I haven't seen any Jurassic Park since the first Jurassic Park. Like you're not, you're never going to top that movie. I think that there's lots of sequels that maybe have been better than the original, especially if there's, like, big, long franchises, but I don't think that. I think Jurassic Park is still the best movie of the whole Jurassic Park things. I don't think you can say that necessarily about like Star Wars or Marvel movies or other ones that have like 15 movies in them.
Unknown Speaker 42:52
Yeah, I would. I
John Shull 42:53
mean, it's tough, maybe a top five in the future.
Speaker 1 42:58
Why do you why do you slurp? It's weird. That's what they like. I mean, I don't know she's
John Shull 43:06
gonna do drink like a human. Why do you have to
Unknown Speaker 43:09
criticize? Like, does your
Nick VinZant 43:10
wife criticize everything? You'll think you do like, God, look at him
Speaker 1 43:13
over there. Just Oh, you're gonna, you're gonna say that to me when you're the ultimate criticizer. Oh, yeah, I'm
Nick VinZant 43:20
very critical of people, but I don't really have any judgment towards it, like I criticize without judgment. I'm just making an observation. It means nothing to me.
John Shull 43:29
All right, let's give some shout outs to people who never buy let's just give some shout outs. Addison Shaw, Chris Armstrong, and Chris is with a K, by the way, so is Addison a man or a woman? Addison was a man.
Nick VinZant 43:48
Oh, I like Addison as a man, as a woman's name, not necessarily. Hear a lot of Addison's as a man's
Unknown Speaker 43:54
name.
John Shull 43:55
You don't he was on some on our YouTube, if you want to go look him up yourself. Ah. Leslie Thompson, Danny Martin, here's another Danny is d a n, n, i That's got to be a woman. Then, yes, Jordan. Car Jordan man. These are Jordan was a man. Is a man.
Speaker 1 44:16
Aaron, usually a woman. Would you say Jordan is usually a woman more than a man,
John Shull 44:25
yes, but I know a few Jordans who are men, but I know more Jordans who are women. Cool. Let's see Taylor Hooper, justice, Weaver,
Speaker 1 44:39
Angel Blankenship can and Chad. Ryan, Chad, what do you think is more difficult right now being named Chad or being named Karen i.
John Shull 45:00
I probably Chad, because I feel like the Karen, whatever that was, it wasn't a movement, but, you know, whatever, whatever was going on with that, with the Karen, I feel like that's gone away for the most part. Now,
Unknown Speaker 45:11
yeah, I would agree that Karen is
Nick VinZant 45:15
on the like. I would agree that Chad is on the rise, and Karen has started to drop off a little bit, but Karen is still significant. Okay, let me ask you this question. Would you rather be named Chad, Karen or Alexa?
John Shull 45:35
Alexa Karen and Chad would probably be my order.
Nick VinZant 45:40
Yeah, because Alexa, it's kind of just a coincidence, like you can just play it off. Chad and Karen carry too much social stigma. I would go, Alexa, Chad and then probably Karen, because even though Karen is starting to fall off, it's still like, Oh, everybody knows that one. I don't think as many people know Chad. Which did
John Shull 46:03
we ever did? Did we, as a as a society, ever identify the original Karen?
Unknown Speaker 46:11
No, I wonder who that was.
Nick VinZant 46:13
That'd be funny to talk to her like you're the original Karen, like, I'm sure somebody made it up.
John Shull 46:21
Uh, let's see here. Um, the RIP section of the show this week
Speaker 1 46:27
goes to Dick Cheney rip dick,
John Shull 46:32
probably most famous for shooting somebody while on a hunting trip.
Unknown Speaker 46:37
Isn't that
Nick VinZant 46:39
crazy that you could be the Vice President of the United States, and arguably, I think you could make an argument for him being one of the more influential, whichever way you want to take that, good or bad, he was one of the more influential vice presidents. But ultimately, most people just remember him from shooting somebody in the shotgun in a hunting trip.
Unknown Speaker 46:55
He shot somebody,
John Shull 46:58
yeah, at point blank range with a shotgun. Like
Speaker 1 47:03
the guy lived, though he lived, didn't he
John Shull 47:08
for a while? I think he's dead now. Yeah, I think he did survive the actual shooting. Man.
Nick VinZant 47:15
How does that conversation go like, Hey, you just shoot this guy while hunting, yeah, well, I'm the vice president.
Speaker 1 47:25
Yeah, you know you I've had a D good, go ahead. Do you think when he shot him with the shotgun that there was a conversation? If they should just disappear the guy?
John Shull 47:40
I absolutely, I do think, though I'd have to go back to see who he shot. That's what I was looking up. But I think we shot was like somebody in the political sphere, so probably making them disappear would be hard.
Nick VinZant 47:52
Somebody, somebody like adjacent right, like, if you're hanging out with the Vice President, other people, you're going to be someone who's missed. People are going to wonder what happened to you? But I guarantee somebody brought that up, or at
Speaker 1 48:04
least thought about, Oh, do we need to make this guy disappear? Like, should we say somebody else did it
John Shull 48:12
so his his name is herring Whittington. At the time, he was 78 years old. He was a Texas lawyer who was shot in the face, neck and torso with bird shot.
Speaker 1 48:25
Do you know I've actually been shot with a shotgun before?
John Shull 48:31
I think I've heard this story, but it was like one little nick of
Nick VinZant 48:35
one little thing, right? It's one of those, like technical things that you can now say you've been shot because we were pheasant hunting and somebody wasn't really using good gun protocol and fired
Unknown Speaker 48:48
man I've
Nick VinZant 48:49
never seen like my dad and grandfather so pissed off,
Unknown Speaker 48:53
like you just shot my
John Shull 48:54
son? Yeah, I bet, like fucking a man that was a
Nick VinZant 48:59
type of rage I had not seen before. Never seen a seven year old man get out of a suburban so quickly after drunk.
John Shull 49:10
Let's see, this is actually kind of fun learning about history. So Whittington survived. Obviously lived to be 95 and died in 2023
Nick VinZant 49:21
Oh, man, he should have tried to stick around just to outlive Dick Cheney, just to prove it,
John Shull 49:29
the incident was the first time somebody had been shot by a sitting US Vice President since Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr in 1804.
Nick VinZant 49:39
How funny though that like, even though it's such a ridiculous thing in history, it's happened before. I didn't realize he was the current vice president. I thought that he was out already.
John Shull 49:53
No, he he was still in because Obama got elected in oh eight, right? So Bush was president from 2000 to 2000 Eight.
Nick VinZant 50:01
What year did it happen? What I mean, what like was he already on the outs? That kind of like dead area between when one is elected, but he's still president for like, three more months?
John Shull 50:12
No, this was in the middle of their second term, February of Oh, six.
Speaker 1 50:17
Oh, man, that was like, right in it, hey, Mr. Shot somebody then, as
John Shull 50:28
if it wasn't that bad. A couple of days later, Whittington suffered a non fatal heart attack.
Nick VinZant 50:36
Indestructible, sorry. Shot by the what a story like, hey, what's his name? Whittington. Harry. Whittington. Like, hey, Harry, haven't seen you around the club. Where you been? Well, I got shot and then had a heart attack. Oh, who's shot?
Speaker 1 50:52
Vice President, what did
Nick VinZant 50:55
you imagine somebody has a story like that?
John Shull 50:59
I mean, so here's the question, would you take a bullet and survive to be able to say you were shot by somebody like that, right? Like, Hey, I was shot by President Trump in the league, or whoever. You know? I mean, it's a it's a story you could always tell.
Nick VinZant 51:18
I'm gonna need to know the outcome pretty, pretty substantially before I'm going to go ahead and say yes to being shot like, I'm going to need real assurances that I'm going to survive this with minimal injuries. I'm not just going to be like, Hey, he's going to shoot you, but you'll be able to say you were shot by the Vice President. Like, well, am I going to live? Am I going to, like, retain all my bodily functions and current physical appearance, I
Unknown Speaker 51:45
would need some pretty strong guarantees.
John Shull 51:47
Can I trust that guy that he's gonna shoot me where I think he's going to
Nick VinZant 51:52
I can't think of any kind of situation in which I would be like,
Speaker 1 51:57
You know what? Go ahead and shoot me, because that's just there's too much
Nick VinZant 52:00
possibility for that to go wrong, like, I'll give you $10 million if I can shoot you
Unknown Speaker 52:06
in the leg.
John Shull 52:08
Done, Eric, shoot me in both I don't care.
Unknown Speaker 52:11
Okay, all right,
Nick VinZant 52:12
but somebody's gonna pay you $10 million
Speaker 1 52:16
to shoot you in the leg, but they're gonna be 100 feet away. At what distance do you feel comfortable letting somebody try to shoot you in the leg? Jesus, I mean, are we what kind of gun? Are we talking about, just a handgun, handgun. At
Nick VinZant 52:35
what distance do you feel comfortable letting someone shoot you in the leg for $10 million
Unknown Speaker 52:40
Jesus, man. I mean,
Unknown Speaker 52:43
comfortable. Yeah, I'd
John Shull 52:45
say, let, I mean, I'd say point blank range, but I mean, for the for the sake of this show, I'll say, I don't even know how far 100 feet is, but I feel like I go, but 50, I guess 50 feet?
Nick VinZant 52:59
Oh, I don't know if I'd go much farther than, like, 10, maybe if they had an experience, I would
Speaker 1 53:05
go to 20, like, right? And they're out of mid thigh. There's just too much equipment that, like, that's just a bad I mean, I could go
Nick VinZant 53:18
if they were going straight for the leg. I could go as I would want 10. I could go to 20. If they were saying I'm going
Speaker 1 53:24
to shoot you in the shoulder, I might actually go a little bit farther.
Nick VinZant 53:31
I would try to miss away from somebody's head.
John Shull 53:36
No, if they're going to go shoulder, I want them closer.
Speaker 1 53:39
If they're aiming up. I just feel, for some reason, like the shoulder, you've got a little bit more leeway,
John Shull 53:49
especially because I wouldn't get, like a sharpshooter, you know what? I mean, I get Joe Biden, or somebody, oh,
Speaker 1 53:55
somebody that's just like shaking. I don't really think that I would go more than 10 feet away.
Speaker 1 54:01
Okay, I'm gonna be 20 feet new.
John Shull 54:04
Yeah, no, I'm, no, I'm good with that. Um, let's move on from that. I wanted to ask your opinion, have you? Do you? Does anyone care when People Magazine names their sexiest man and woman alive?
Nick VinZant 54:21
No, I paid no attention to it. I actually saw that this morning, and I saw somebody was named the Sexiest Man Alive. And I have no idea who
John Shull 54:30
they are. I mean, he's actually one of the up and comers of film, but it's fine
Nick VinZant 54:35
a film. Is that like film? Or is that something you feel and I believe in the south, what's going on inside your house? Why do you keep looking over there? What's happening out there?
John Shull 54:45
There's a, well, it's election day, right? And there's people walking around knocking on doors. I'm really hope, hoping that they don't knock on the door when I'm on the podcast, because then I'm gonna have to get up and talk to them. No, you could just ignore it. No, I want to interact with. My fellow
Nick VinZant 55:01
citizens, are you gonna, like, try
Speaker 1 55:03
to convince him like, no,
John Shull 55:08
no, no, I'm not that kind of, I mean, no, I do not push my I don't even know if I have strong political beliefs, but I would never try to push them on anybody else, because,
Speaker 1 55:22
you know, that's just not, oh yeah, I would say that I have strong religious and political beliefs, but I'm not ever going to bring it up unless somebody asks me, you got to ask me before you're getting those. And I'm probably still not going to really tell you, even if you ask me, oh yeah. Like, if
John Shull 55:40
it's brought up in a public forum or even out at a restaurant, nope. No sir.
Unknown Speaker 55:45
All right. Um,
John Shull 55:48
I don't, once again, I don't really have any, like, good news to talk about. It's kind of depressing.
Speaker 1 55:53
There's no good news, man. We're just waiting for the whole collapse of everything. Like, that's what we're in right now, waiting.
John Shull 55:59
Like, I thought it was kind of ridiculous that, like, the government shut down one but now, like, for the last couple of weeks, airports, like the biggest airports in the country, have been doing, you know, temporary work stoppages because they don't have enough pilots or air traffic controllers. And I'm thinking, like, if I'm on the tarmac and you tell me that we can't take off because there's like, you know, we don't have somebody in the air traffic control center. Like, I don't even know if I'd stay on that plane.
Unknown Speaker 56:30
Oh, I think people are gonna, like, I don't I
Nick VinZant 56:31
think that is a recipe for really quickly pissing people off when they have a lot riding on something, which you do when you're traveling. Like, you got to make this time, you got to do that thing. You got to make this connection, make that connection, and you're paying a lot of money, I think that's going to piss people off real fast. Like, people can get pissed about that, because it's something that I think a lot of the government shutdown stuff, you don't really notice it, like not, not really, unless you're employed by them, but if you're somebody like me, like you don't really notice the everyday effects of the government shutdown. You do when you go to the airport, and that's when like, oh, people are gonna start getting pissed. Yeah.
John Shull 57:15
I mean, it's, it's kind of funny, because the middle class are the ones who have to put up with everything. But when the government shuts down, for some reason, it seems like the middle class are the ones that don't necessarily get affected that much. But you know, it's also only been a month, so we'll see. We'll see where we go. So exciting.
Speaker 1 57:34
Move on top. Oh no no no,
John Shull 57:38
no, no, no. We're not ready. I have, all right, I have, yeah,
Speaker 1 57:46
it's time the outlaw candle connoisseur Rides Again. Candle of the month. All right, so I came
John Shull 57:59
across by accident? Well, not really by accident, but I came across a candle, and I swear I what, I literally was gonna have it, but I decided to burn it early, and then now there's none of it left. And why is there none of it left? Because it's called Jelly wax. Okay.
Nick VinZant 58:19
I mean, don't, don't say that, like you're expecting some big thing from me to be like, Jelly wax, whoa, right?
John Shull 58:29
Like, don't, don't hold for applause. Well, get used to these, because these are huge in the candle forums. Oh, so, okay, okay, there's been, there's been a couple of startup companies that have, so it's literally, like a jelly wax, right? It's, it's, think of like, like jello you eat, but it's wax, it's clear, and it's, it looks awesome, right? So there's this company that came across got Bodie candle, B, O, D, I candle calm, and they have five or six to choose from. And I got them from the from the candle forums. They were one of the companies, you know, locally sourced companies, that does these. And I got to tell you, they are awesome. Like, I got two of them. I got the Santa's velvet treat, because obviously I'm a holiday sucker, and then I got the chemistry one for my girls. And they're awesome. They burn faster, right? Because the jelly. What's inside? It's not, it's not like the old fashioned wax. But that's okay. It's only one wick. But I'm telling you, watch at Christmas time, you're gonna see these pop up some major retailer, if they haven't already. It's a big debate on the candle form, some major retailers gonna outsource one of these companies that makes these, and you're gonna see them in stores. Okay?
Nick VinZant 59:49
So just to clarify, because we are talking about candles, when you say you got some for your girls, you mean like my girls, or do you mean like your daughters?
John Shull 59:58
Do? I don't know who my girls are, but yes, my just
Nick VinZant 1:00:02
one. I think, I think you need to clarify when you're talking about candles, like, I got them for my girls, right? Like, I don't know, maybe you're hanging out at the candle club with all the girls.
Speaker 1 1:00:12
Is there any other Have you ever run into a man who likes candles more than you do?
John Shull 1:00:19
No, but I also don't, I mean, I don't, I don't like interact when I'm when I walk into a store that may have those scented gifts from heaven. You know what I
Speaker 1 1:00:30
mean? You're like, you're like the closeted candle connoisseur.
Nick VinZant 1:00:34
Because what, this is what I'm imagining. This is what I'm imagining. There is a Pilates gym that is next to my house that has all of their windows open, and the class is maybe 30 people, and you all women, but every once in a while, you're gonna see a man in there just bopping around very one out of 10 classes, and he's gonna be one guy out of 30 women. I feel like that's going to be you at the candle club. And like, Who's that? Oh, that's John. He's great. He knows a lot about candles. He's just really into candles. He's not a perv, right? Like, you're gonna have to wait, if you go into the candle, the candle places, you're gonna have to be like, Oh no, I'm not a perv. I just love candles. Like, I'm not here just to be around the women. I just
Unknown Speaker 1:01:23
love Pilates. Just love candles.
John Shull 1:01:26
That's the thing, right? Is I wish I discovered this a decade and a half ago, because I would think it'd be quite easy, and I would probably be very attractive to certain individuals in candle stores if I was in there and just started talking about candles, you know what I mean? I mean, what, what woman or man, if that's what you're into, or vice versa, wouldn't be like man. I really like this person, because they they love candles too.
Nick VinZant 1:01:52
I mean, I could think probably about 99% of population, but I'm sort of, there's probably right, that that's the, you know, like, the sexual magnetism that you seem to think. And it is like, what do you like about John? Those candles? So well, like, Oh, who's coming in today? Girls, John's gonna come in. It's the first of the month. Oh, it
Speaker 1 1:02:14
comes John. Yeah, I don't know, their socks.
John Shull 1:02:20
So hey, all I'm saying is candles. I don't know why. I'm sure this podcast has a little bit of that's pushed me even more towards my love of candles, but I have never come across a type of candle, like a jelly wax candle. And they're not new, but they're not they haven't been mainstream, like I think they're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 1:02:42
You heard it? You heard it here. First America, in the world, the universe. The candle connoisseurs was predicting, jelly, wax candles. There you go. Gonna be the next big thing? Yeah, man,
John Shull 1:02:58
head out over to the candle collectors forums and learn all about
Speaker 1 1:03:01
them. Oh, I'm sure people are racing over there right now. Also, all right, if you're looking for a date, you could be athletic, you could be well built, you could be rich, you could be funny, you could be smart. But all of that pales in comparison to just knowing a lot about candles. You want to be swimming in it? Get you some candle knowledge. Hey,
John Shull 1:03:25
man, I'm, you know what? Out of all those attributes you just named, I would say candle is right up there.
Nick VinZant 1:03:32
Candle is right up there, right? Professional athlete, candle connoisseur. That's, that's how that's the ranking. You ready for our top five professional
John Shull 1:03:40
athletes don't know anything about candles, but yes, I am. Okay.
Nick VinZant 1:03:44
So our top five is top five Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. It's your number five. He's been in a lot of movies. He's been 35 movies,
John Shull 1:03:52
random like list to just come up out of nowhere with, by the way,
Nick VinZant 1:03:58
like, oh, I took some edibles over the weekend and watched a certain movie, and I was like, oh my god, I forgot how awesome this is. I forgot that was when, like a movie was a movie, and it was good and entertaining, but not super serious, like this is life or death.
Speaker 1 1:04:16
You need to be careful with those things. Take more of them,
John Shull 1:04:23
all right? My number five is and I feel like so Arnold had sections of his career, right? And I feel like the weakest part of his career was where he was trying to be like a family friendly actor, right? So my only movie from that era of him and I went with Kindergarten Cop as my number five. I
Nick VinZant 1:04:48
thought a lot about Kindergarten Cop. I can see it on the top five list, but to me, it's not in the top five. It's a good movie. But then you realize how many other good movies that he did, and I think kindergarten. And cop gets bunk.
Speaker 1 1:05:01
It gets knocked out of it for sure. What's your number five? Conan the Barbarian. That's a great
Nick VinZant 1:05:10
movie with some iconic lines like Conan the Barbarian kind of gets you started on
Unknown Speaker 1:05:15
Arnold. Where
John Shull 1:05:17
was that hit? Like his first breakout? What was his breakout role? Was that
Nick VinZant 1:05:21
that I technically Hercules in New York, I think was his first big movie. I think Conan the Destroyer was the first movie, and Conan the Barbarian was the second one, but that was the
John Shull 1:05:35
big one. Okay, yeah, I think you're right, yeah. So, oh man, his first movie was a 1970 good. God, yeah. Conan the Barbarian was first, by the way, 1982 was his breakout rule.
Speaker 1 1:05:53
Conan the Barbarian is the one with that classic line of to hear the lamentation of the women.
John Shull 1:06:02
Um, all right, my number four is Commando.
Speaker 1 1:06:07
Ooh, I have that higher, okay, I think we can. I keep,
Nick VinZant 1:06:13
yeah, I think that might be a little bit higher, but definitely needs to be on the list.
Speaker 1 1:06:17
My number four is twins. Twins is his
Nick VinZant 1:06:21
best comedy movie. It's his best non action movie. By to me, by far, it's better than Kindergarten Cop.
John Shull 1:06:30
See, I would actually, I would say, and I this is all my honorable mention, his best comedic movie, or comedy movie was Jingle All the Way, hmm,
Speaker 1 1:06:39
okay, but it's wrong, but I can understand that your opinion.
John Shull 1:06:44
Hey, man, that's why we do this, right? I mean, I wouldn't have I, I wouldn't have any movie of that era of his above five. I just wouldn't
Nick VinZant 1:06:53
twins. Is such a great concept of a movie, such a great concept of a movie to have him and Danny DeVito. Like, I can just imagine when that got pitched and people were like, Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:07:05
that could be really funny.
John Shull 1:07:07
Well, that's the thing is, like, when it got like, can you imagine sitting at home when you didn't have social media? And on comes a trailer with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, you know? And that's the movie. And you're like, What is this?
Nick VinZant 1:07:20
Oh, yeah, you're hooked from the very beginning with that. Like, you're gonna say it could be a train wreck, but you're gonna watch it, because
John Shull 1:07:27
didn't DeVito, wasn't he the penguin already by that point? I don't know. But, like, yeah, he, he was an established star too. It's like, what are, what are you guys doing? Yeah, he was famous by then. My number three. And, I mean, this is tough, it doesn't I mean, this is a tough, tough list, but my number three
Speaker 1 1:07:46
is gonna be true, lies. Oh.
John Shull 1:07:52
I mean, I will say that Jamie Lee Curtis steals the show, but it's still one of the better movies that Arnold's ever done. I
Nick VinZant 1:08:02
think that's the same as Kindergarten
Speaker 1 1:08:04
Cop. It just gets pushed off the list. He's got too many other good movies. To me, my number three is Commando. Okay, all right.
Nick VinZant 1:08:13
Commando is a great movie, and I still send memes to people from commando at least once a month.
John Shull 1:08:21
I mean, the Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a great movie. My number two is Terminator two, Judgment Day.
Speaker 1 1:08:30
I also have Terminator two is judge as my number two. Oh, man, what's your number one? Man, predator. Predator is his best movie. I think that
Nick VinZant 1:08:44
pret term. The only reason I think that Terminator might go ahead of it is because you kind of group Terminator one and Terminator two together, and that could push them ahead of predator. But I think predator
Speaker 1 1:08:55
by itself, is his best movie. Predator.
John Shull 1:08:58
I mean, I don't think predator gets enough credit. I feel like predators should be amongst the alien you know that, like that conversation of just some of the greatest, you know, Action Adventure horror of all time. And I feel like it just doesn't get its fair share. T2 I put above Terminator because I feel like t2 is the better movie, and it's the movie on the top of that franchise. But also, I mean Robert Turner, or Robert Patrick Turner, whatever his name is, it's a great co star with Linda Hamilton in that movie. Like Terminator was all him. It was more of a movie in t2 but t2 still goes as my number two.
Nick VinZant 1:09:38
I think that that scene in predator. I I think that that jungle scene in predator, when they're all just shooting everywhere, is the greatest
Speaker 1 1:09:47
scene in movies. I think that's the single
Nick VinZant 1:09:51
best scene in movies.
John Shull 1:09:52
I mean, it's good. I mean, there's so many. I mean, and what a what a weirdly put to. Other fantastic cast that movie had,
Nick VinZant 1:10:02
right? Like everybody in that cast is great.
John Shull 1:10:06
It's just, they all just gel. I mean,
Speaker 1 1:10:09
I've been trying to look up if twins. If no, he was not, no.
Nick VinZant 1:10:17
Twins was in 1988 Batman Returns was in 1992 he was in a ton of movies. That's his whole time. I've been trying to look up all his filmography. He's been in a ton of movies. Danny DeVito,
Speaker 1 1:10:31
yeah, yeah. Twins was out breaking out. Star. Throw mama from the train. Actually was
Nick VinZant 1:10:37
his first big movie, I think.
John Shull 1:10:40
Throw mama from the train. What do you have in your honorable mention? I mean, we kind of mentioned most of them already. You know, Terminator, the original Total Recall.
Speaker 1 1:10:51
Yeah, Total Recall is probably in the top 10
John Shull 1:10:55
Jingle All the Way. It's kind of I I had put on my phone eraser. But that's more of just like a like, a homegrown favorite for me. I really like that movie.
Nick VinZant 1:11:09
The other one that I think that gets left out is running, man,
Unknown Speaker 1:11:14
running. Man, yeah, forgotten about.
John Shull 1:11:17
I'm not gonna lie. I couldn't even tell you what that movie is about, like, off the top I
Speaker 1 1:11:22
got a guy who's goes running Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is about a guy who goes fishing. In my mind, do you know that? No, who? Nothing. I don't want to talk to you anymore. Okay, that's
Nick VinZant 1:11:40
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 Schwarzenegger films. Predator is so good. Like, if you don't think it's predator, watch predator again, and then you'll be like, yeah, it might be the best movie of all time. You.