Transhumanist Zoltan Istvan

Can we become more than human? Transhumanist Zoltan Istvan is trying to take Transhumanism mainstream. As a thought leader, futurist, and presidential candidate, he believes we will soon be incorporating new technologies into our bodies. And that we need to start preparing now. We talk Transhumanism, robotic advancements, uploading our consciousness to the cloud and immortality. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Fictional Robots.

Zoltan Istvan: 02:22ish

Pointless: 32:34ish

Top 5: 50:52

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

316-530-7719 (Show voicemail)

http://www.zoltanistvan.com (Zoltan’s Website)

https://www.amazon.com/Zoltan-Istvan/e/B00ARY87WC/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 (Zoltan Istvan Books)

https://twitter.com/zoltan_istvan (Zoltan Istvan Twitter)

https://www.instagram.com/zoltan_istvan (Zoltan Istvan Instagram)

Zoltan Istvan Interview

Nick VinZant 0:10

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, transhumanism, and fictional robots,

Zoltan Istvan 0:19

humanism is always taking the human being experience to the next level through technology, we anything from exoskeleton suits to random plans, you know, you're probably looking at in the next 10 to 15 years, being able to upload large chunks of your brain into a kind of a consciousness of some sort in the cloud. This is where a lot of the stuff gets really fuzzy. And it's, you know, we're all in the Wild West, nobody knows where the laws are gonna end up. I mean, I did death, the version of death is definitely going to change. As we get into the future.

Nick VinZant 0:55

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, it helps out the show. And we just like to hear from you. So leave us a comment on the app you're listening to, or leave us a voicemail at 316-519-7719. So our first guest is a leader in the transhumanist movement. He is a published author who has wrote extensively on transhumanism. He's a futurist, and he's also ran for political office, both governor of California and President of the United States. And he believes that transhumanism will go mainstream this decade, as we continue to bring about new technologies that could make us more than just human. This is transhumanist, Zoltan Eastmont, real quick, I have to apologize, I did something to parts of the audio in this interview, that make it sound computerized, and I just could not figure out how to fix it. So please bear with me, because I think the things that Zoltan talks about are very interesting. And definitely something that I think that we have to think about moving forward. The word transhumanism, like what does that mean to you really what it

Zoltan Istvan 2:27

is now there is tension. This is a social movement of many millions of people around the world that want to use science and technology to radically modified human body and modify the human mind. We anything from exoskeleton suits to random plans, even things like driverless cars or, you know, robots inside your house. But Transhumanism is always taking the human being experience to the next level through technology.

Nick VinZant 2:52

I guess the question that jumps out immediately, right, like if we're modifying and changing ourselves, our bodies? Are we fundamentally changing who we are? Or is this kind of just the next step in our evolution?

Zoltan Istvan 3:05

Well, that's a tough question. I mean, people are always worried and humans are going to become some kind of cyborg entity be so different, but I don't think we're gonna lose our inherent values. I think the thing you and I value right now said, Well, you know, we're kind to one another, to care about each other. You know, we haven't best each other's best interests involved, I think a lot of mutual ethics and morals will probably pass on, no matter what type of things the human being becomes the next 100 or 1000 years, or whatever it is. So even if I put a bunch of chip implants in my brain, and I have a cyborg, synthetic, hardened prosthetic leg, I don't think that's going to fundamentally change me much. Maybe when I upload my mind into, for example, in artificial intelligence, that will become something substantially different, but even then, I still think I'm gonna retain my core values, because I don't want to lose those. So even if transhumanism does changes, I don't think we lose a lot of what it means to be a human being.

Nick VinZant 4:04

How close are we to this? Right? Like we, you know, the thing that I think of, I'm a Star Wars person, so I think of like Luke losing his hand and he gets the robotic hand. I feel like people would be okay with that. But how close are we to the idea of like, I'm going to upload my consciousness into the cloud, like, where are we in that kind of possession of this making becoming a reality?

Zoltan Istvan 4:30

Sure, well, you know, about seven or eight years ago, they had the first telepathy between the person and France in India where they said hello to each other through the minds using brainwave reading headsets. Today, you can basically read a novel using this type of brainwave interface technology. So I mean, it's completely like just gone through the roof and how fast it's increasing. So if you take that trajectory of science, you know, technology out, you know, you're probably looking at in the next Next 10 to 15 years being able to upload large chunks of your brain into a kind of consciousness of some sort in the cloud, at least one that mimics us very closely. But is that actually you? I think that's still 30 to 50 years away to we're able to just have like a perfect identical version of ourselves.

Nick VinZant 5:21

Are we ready for that, though?

Zoltan Istvan 5:23

Well, I mean, that's the that's, that's the million dollar question. And the answer is probably no. You know, I'm currently a graduate student at University of Oxford. And a lot of the ethicists are in the philosophy department, or worrying about these issues. Most people don't think we are because technology has increased so much faster than morality than the development of morality. It's so much faster. Also, in terms of politics. This is why your, you know, presidential candidates and debates, they never talked about artificial intelligence, they never talked about genetic evidence, they never talked about radically against the human being, because it's just too wild. cost them votes. But the reality is, in Silicon Valley, this is all they do. All they taught us where the biggest companies in the world are, where all the money is. So yes, we're not we're probably not ready for a lot of this stuff. But because capitalism works the way it does, it's probably going to come. So the big question is really, what can we do. And, you know, we just need more emphasis to get involved and more politicians to really speak their mind, try to come up with regulatory or regulatory framework for a lot of these wild and, you know, absolutely insane ideas that are out there that are going to happen in the next 10 to 20 years.

Nick VinZant 6:30

I hope this doesn't come off as rude or offensive or anything like that. But I'll just be direct to kind of get the point across in my mind, right, like 1020 years ago, if you came forward, and I was hearing this and be like, This guy, what are you talking about? Now? I'm like, Whoa, we got to start. We got to figure this out. Is there any worry in your mind that like, by the time we finally do this, it's too late?

Zoltan Istvan 6:55

Well, to be honest, you the big worry is not about whether we do is too late, the biggest worry is who doesn't first, because in the last 10 years, I've seen China take the lead in a lot of these technologies. And one of the reasons is because China is a secular nation, they don't have that kind of a Judeo Christian framework that would, for example, stop them from doing genetic editing, or stop them from trying to create a cyborg person with an AI mind these kinds of things, they don't have those same kinds of cultural baggage that the United States and in other Western countries have. And so the question isn't, in my mind is like, Should we do the question is, who doesn't first and who does it first, who's actually gonna leave the world and the way forward, so we have to be very, you know, even Vladimir Putin has said, from Russia that, you know, a whoever controls AI is going to end up controlling the world, the last thing we want is him to think like that and control an AI. We have to get our politicians to pick up this ball. Whether we like these radical technologies like genetic editing and artificial intelligence, we better be the first ones to created first once the leader Florida in the world, because it's much better at democracy leads than let's say, a totalitarian government like China.

Nick VinZant 8:07

You talked about this a little bit the idea of religion getting into it, right. And that's a big that is that is a thing in the United States to put it lightly, right? Like, how can we adjust the idea that love No, but God created us this way? You're messing with this. You're messing with him?

Zoltan Istvan 8:26

Yeah, no, you know, as I've traveled across the country, talking to people about technology and transhumanism systemically, it really is defined along lines religion, most people think most Christians think the body is a temple created by God. And that temple is not to be messed with. Whereas transhumanists believe that we can overcome death. We can have godlike characteristics, new technology, we can overcome these things, like somewhere in between is everyone else, you know, who's like, well, and we, like, you know, modern medicine. And we, if we lose an arm, for example, fighting in a war in Afghanistan, we'd like that person to have a robotic arm so that they can play again again, or hold their wife or grab a beer or whatever, whatever it is. So somewhere in between, we have to find the middle ground. What I tried to tell people is that you know, Jesus was going around the world healing people healing the sick, making blind. See, these are very transhumanist traits. I mean, transhumanist is leading the charge to overcome blindness. Hence, transhumanism has already 100% Overcome deafness, because we have cochlear implants, if people want to have that. So, you know, if you look at it, from a medical sector perspective, helping disabled people, senior citizens, then I think a lot of Christians will accept transhumanism as the proper method forward, but you just have to be careful to beat out the godlike stuff as soon as you start talking about God like stuff and becoming enhance, you know, like beings that you know, then I think a lot of people get scared. So I tend to try to tone it down a little bit less than trying to cause a ruckus to get more and more people interested in the movement because in the end of the day, we're just interested in people's health and their ability to live the best life you Sometimes that best life is going to be filled with technology,

Nick VinZant 10:02

this may be kind of pie in the sky stuff, right? But does this get really complicated in the sense that look, the Supreme Court has said that corporations are people. If I've got a robotic left arm, is that a person? Does it have rights that aren't that are different from mine? Who owns that arm? Do I own the arm? Does the corporation who owned who made the arm owned the arm? Like how does? How's that? How's that going

Zoltan Istvan 10:32

to work? Yeah. And in an emergency, who controls that are right? Well, the government have some kind of override, you know, thing, and you're just about to, like, do something, you know, I mean, yeah, this is this is, that's why I said it again, and again, to young people going into the world with professions that I say go into cybersecurity, because whatever happens, technology is increasing. And we're gonna need more and more autonomy from people that control this technology. But I think, you know, it'll probably be like your iPhone, where you own the phone to some extent, you have all the privileges over whatever technology is, and, you know, you can utilize it in that way. But that there are a lot of people that are already having implants put inside their body and whatnot. And, yes, they own the actual implant, but they don't own the technology, that technology can then be upgraded, while it's in your body, just through Wi Fi signals, whatnot. And this becomes a, you know, a very challenging scenario, privacy, ownership. And, you know, the New World, I guess, I think, as long as we maintain our sense of ownership, self ownership, I think we're going to be fine, we're just going to insist that the technology we put inside ourselves actually belongs to us. But that becomes a little tricky, because now you have you know, for example, Alexa will record a conversation of a husband and wife and then use that in a divorce court or something that's, you know, wild, this is where a lot of the stuff gets really fuzzy. And it's, you know, we're all in the Wild West, nobody knows where the laws are gonna end up. I wrote about East where a woman claimed that she was raped in virtual reality, and that the rate was a real rate in terms of legal justice for that person whose story happened Australia, brand new ideas that no court has has any laws in the books for so we're writing history, as you know, that's happened to you in many ways,

Nick VinZant 12:21

when we kind of get into this right. Like, how, how can we balance the fairness aspect of it in the rich people are going to have the bionic implants and the lower income people? Well, you got nothing sorry, man. Right? Like, how do you kind of balance the societal inequities of all of that, as we get going, where some people have this and other people? You don't?

Zoltan Istvan 12:48

Yeah, I mean, that's one of my primary concerns. And I just hope, I'm not going to end up being an advocate for some transhumanist movement that really leaves the world a giant dystopia. You know, in 50 years. You know, I'm a big supporter of something called a universal basic income and for, for the very reason that I just think, if you need to create a floor for people to at least have enough to eat and shelter and the kinds of in health care and things like that. But outside of that, I think it's really up to a lot of the very rich people to billionaires, as a government, to try to make sure that the technology is spread evenly across the time. The good thing though, is that like a cell phone, cell phone technology, over time does become increasingly very cheap. And even, you know, in the muscle note, villages, Africa, people have cell phones, what they still don't have no sleep water, or enough food. So I'm hopeful that technology will, the transhumanist technology will make its way through every level of society. That doesn't mean though, that we're going to have equality and doesn't mean we're going to have a good, just fair society that requires people, billionaires, government regulation, people making solid hard decisions that may take some money off the top line, but really helped out even the class to society. So we're in a better place.

Nick VinZant 14:03

Where's the kind of like we're based in the United States and most of our audiences in the United States, we have listeners all over the place, where to kind of countries and areas like where do they rank in terms of, alright, they've got the best scientific development, they've got the best societal like who's kind of at the forefront of this? And where does like the US rank and kind of it?

Zoltan Istvan 14:26

Well, ground zero for transhumanism this technology is still Silicon Valley. It's no question that they're leading the charge. And but I would say China is catching up very quickly and fast. That's, you know, definitely like a national declaration to develop AI by 2030. And they may end up surpassing us. We've been going back and forth on who has the fastest supercomputer every year like they take us over and we take them over. On another hand. There's a lot of weird stuff happening like a lot of biotechnology companies are no longer doing their experiments the United States because the The process is like eight to 10 years to get a drug through the pipeline. So what they do is they'll go down to Honduras, and those El Salvador there go to somewhere in Eastern Europe, and they'll do the trials, which will take half or a quarter of the time. And then those companies will essentially move here, but still have the drugs come out. These are radical drugs, your cancer or whatever it is, whatever. So that's happened to so it's not even really, you know, way that we're humans are trying to start a company centrally located, a lot of times it's they go for the environment, business environment, that stimulus to that, and, and then try to utilize that. So that see the best place to develop companies.

Nick VinZant 15:40

Right? We've talked a lot about the kind of the benefits of this, I guess, like what are the what do you when you look at it like, man, we've really got to make sure this doesn't happen.

Zoltan Istvan 15:52

The benefits are numerous. Created, humans will make people live longer if you bring more prosperity to their lives. And science and technology have a really great history. If you look back hundreds of years, like we just don't die from cavities anymore. People used to die all the time from an infection from a catalyst. So technology's really good history of making people live better, longer and with more prosperity. And so we believe transhumanism will continue in that vein, therefore, it shouldn't be supported. The question, though, is some of these technologies are so radical, like artificial intelligence, controlling nuclear weapons, for example, or genetic editing, where you can genetically edit yourself to have a smarter brain than your neighbor? Is that fair? You know, especially if you can afford him. He can't, you know. So these are some of the more fundamental questions I think ethicist philosophers and transhumanist have to address before they sort of happen. But I think that's that's the big dilemma, right now happening in the world to figure that all out.

Nick VinZant 16:52

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yes, of course, the your vision of the future, right, like when you look at what you think the future can be, how far away do you think that we are from that right now?

Zoltan Istvan 17:08

Well, you know, it really changes, I think, I tend to think of it in terms of 10 to 15 years, and then 30 to 50, and 100 years, so 10 to 15 years, we got some big progress happening on the horizon with life extension. That means 3d Bible printing Oregon's artificial artist, genetic editing therapy, so that we don't get, you can't get HIV, or maybe even make us we can't get monkey pox, things like that. So I think that's the 1015 year window, where we develop a lot of things to make us live better. But that's not very exciting, I think what really gets exciting is when you start talking about uploading your consciousness, something, like I mentioned are probably 20 to 40 years away, we will start experimenting with that people start trying to do that stuff, but it gets really wild, get to the 100 year window, because then you're in a virtual avatars and living machines, maybe you're often facing multiple selves, you know, like, it's not just don't think yourself, just upload yourself and then your machines, actually do your human body on the surface still be here. And when you upload yourself, you may not just upload one version himself, you may have 100 copies, maybe 100 Gold fans running around doing his thing. And so and that becomes like what's your family and with all these little mini nice, but you know, the shrimp skinless world is really bizarre when we start taking it out that many years because AI and consciousness expansion, your brain is probably going to have, you know, 1000 or 5000 times more intelligence than we have now, maybe a million times and progressing at a much quicker rate than before. If you think what's happening with technology now, just imagine how a Moore's law is gonna apply in 30 or 40 years when technology is still doubling. So I think we're all at some point have to put an implant around brainwave headsets that connect us to all the machines around us, just for convenience sake, but I think you know, there always probably been a human leftover somewhere on planet Earth. But if you don't embrace technology, there's no question you're gonna get left behind. And, and I think finally, on a final note, the the 30 to 50 year future also involves getting off planet you see people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos pushing the space companies. We're just at the very beginning of this, we want to create bodies that are able to withstand pressures outside first system, environmental system so that we can go off planet and not just outside our solar insider sources, but really into the galaxies. See if there's other life out there, see if anything else is worth, humanity decided to kind of ponder. So I think getting off when it's going to be another huge transformative session. One

Nick VinZant 19:37

of the things that I've always seen about is like the idea of kind of being immortal and for me, personally, I guess I'll ask this from a person, like I don't really want to be immortal. Do you think that we could really handle that the idea of living forever?

Zoltan Istvan 19:51

I also am afraid of immortality. I'm not sure. I want to have the ability to overcome death and the specter of death is a huge negative influence in my life. But I also want to retain the freedom to end my life by one. And maybe you feel like it's not just there's even trenchless technologies like cryonics out there where you could be brought back to life, even today at some other point in the future for developing science. And then you choose to live 10 more years and say, This isn't for me, and I want to go back to sleep. I mean, I think death aversion of death is definitely going to change. As we get into the future, we may like wake up every 100 years, just check in and then decide it's not for us. And some people may decide to like say, Look, we never bring me back, I never resurrect here completely take away, so I'm just ashes like that. But honestly, with 3d printing technology, and the different scanning of your brain, we can already start to see and memories. So if you can start doing that you can 3d print out anything, including an exact replica of yourself. And you may say, oh, it's not me, but that you won't know that it will still 100% think it's you. And so you get into this weird, you know, like, Hollywood time machine, you kinda, I guess movie scape where no one's really sure what is real and who you are. But the reality is, you probably gonna want to live and experience it, even if you don't want to live forever. So I like the idea of living as long as possible. But I also like the idea of having the possibility to say no to living forever. Again, I'm not sure that's possible, given the way that we're gonna have the scanning technologies and ability to 3d bio printer ourselves, there may be happy to do not resurrect clauses in our will, here in the next 50 or 100 years, because everybody will be able to be brought back to life, at least as they were upon their moment of death, just because we've had down to the atomic level with every single memory and brain component and blood vessel Western body.

Nick VinZant 21:43

I don't like the idea of living forever, but I do like the idea of like being able to check in every 100 years, like that would be pretty cool. Then I'd be worried about somebody, like accidentally deleting the server one day or something like that, um, 2020 fours come in, man, you're gonna you're gonna go for it again.

Zoltan Istvan 22:03

So do you know I'm currently a graduate student at University of Oxford, I think that I finished that degree. Before I run for office. Again, it's given me a lot of insight into the academic world giving me more credibility to being there. So I doubt I'm gonna run in 2024. You know, I am watching politics. So I'm watching the forward party, wondering if maybe there's going to be some type of Candidacy possibilities there. What Andrew Yang has done. I'm not really this moment, siding with any single party at the moment, because I'm more of a science candidate. But it is possible I would run again in 2028. And I, in fact, that caught me almost certainly will. I just kind of feel like I should take care of my graduate studies first, and take a break and run a couple campaigns. They all did pretty well. But sometimes it's best to the natural resources, gain a little bit more popularity in your field, and then try to try to strike. What do you think of like,

Nick VinZant 23:00

look, I feel like one of the early ventures into this and correct me if I'm wrong. I don't really know that much about this stuff. But I feel like one of the early Ventures is kind of the metaverse and that seems to have flopped pretty hard, at least right now. Do you think that? Is that a sign that this idea as a whole is not viable? Or just that we're not ready? Or just that we don't like Facebook? I guess, what do you kind of think about the whole Metaverse idea?

Zoltan Istvan 23:28

Well, well, to begin with, I think, you know, if we associate with Facebook, we're not going to like Facebook is in my opinion on the decline just because of management issues. And just because of perception. You know, I do think virtual reality goes huge promise. So I think another problem, virtual reality kind of being tied into the crypto and blockchain market, and whatnot. And look, that's fine. That's very interesting stuff. But a lot of that hasn't actually had any practical value. I just recently gave a speech. So in second and second license, a group called spatial and it was great. And about 100 people showed up. And I was invited to this event. And I thought, Wow, that's a lot easier than having to fly to Europe to give a 30 minute talk and doing so I see a huge future in the virtual world, just because the convenience say it, but they haven't made it enough where I really experienced it even remotely the same as the physical world. So until they do that, maybe that'll be happening to suits for you know, you really put on full gear and it's not just the goggles, I don't know exactly what it is that's going to make or maybe it's going to be some kind of, you know, little beam that shows up in the world virtual world and measures all your movements, and that will conserve immersion, you're starting to feel like you're immersed. I've done some virtual reality stuff like jumping off buildings, and you know, that actually feel incredibly real. So if they can do that, then I think the metaverse will take off, but right now I feel it's just a little too geeky. And it doesn't feel that real to me. So I might the real world still but you They're getting better every year at doing that. And hopefully, Metaverse will not really be a Facebook Association, but just become a, you know, a Technology Association through all these other companies, and then I think we'll be more inclined to adapt, but it has had a little bit of a shaky start. But you know, a lot of these technologies that she starts, and then all sudden, they they finally figure out, I interviewed

Nick VinZant 25:25

an Ice Climber one time, and he was the thing that he said is like, everybody thinks you're an idiot until they don't. And that's usually a sign that you're kind of on the right track, right? Like he said, if everybody thought I was crazy, then it's probably going to be worth me doing it.

Zoltan Istvan 25:41

No, no, and this was happening all over. You know, like, 10 years ago, I started really promoting transhumanism. A lot of people were like, Oh my gosh, guys, and it's mine. And now that AI and all these other things, like for example, universities, reanimating pigs raised with electro, they're recreating consciousness that on brain math looks basically identical to the real consciousness of a living pig brain. So all sudden, we have another way, for example, to overcome death, potentially. And these are real experiments that are already taking place. If you had told somebody that just 15 years ago, they would have thought that was possible, then that was wacko. And you know, something crazy. So it's always seems crazy. But you give them something 1020 30 years and really catches up and all sudden, lo and behold, you know, we're in the transhuman stage.

Nick VinZant 26:26

I'll be completely honest, when we first started this podcast four years ago, we interviewed a guy who was a futurist, and he talked about transhumanism, and I left being like, this guy is kind of crazy. And now I feel like Man, we better figure this out pretty fast. Because it's, it's common quick, right?

Zoltan Istvan 26:44

Yeah, no, let me just tell you like the philosophy department at University of Oxford, you know, if you'd have said 20 years or less, we will, they will be debating artificial intelligence all day long, and the ethics of it, that would have seemed completely insane to the oldest philosophy department in the world. And yet now today, I can tell you, the ethics of artificial intelligence are like literally on the tip of everyone's tongue there because they realize, if you want to make a difference in the world, to philosophy, the world of where humanity is doing it, this is where your expertise is needed. And there are massive change, structural changes like that happening all around the world, in all different types of universities, nonprofits, governments, as people start grappling with the fact that well, technology is really the driver of work of the world, and also culture as well as the military. So whoever's not in control of that whoever's not dealing directly with that is really missing the boat and will be left behind.

Nick VinZant 27:39

Yeah, I interviewed a guy one time who was I think he was a military general, he's like, You got two choices, get on the tank, or get run over by the tank.

Zoltan Istvan 27:47

That's that's your point. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 27:49

Last thing, man, like if you were to kind of look at movies, TV shows, video games, all kinds of what like, what vision of which one? Would you say like, Oh, I think they got it, right. Like, that's probably what it would really be like.

Zoltan Istvan 28:07

Hmm, you know, first off, I'm a huge fan of the matrix. And I do think that there's a very strong chance with my network, we will come to a premise where you actually to live inside virtual worlds, hopefully not powered by machines, I think actually, something very similar to start track is probably the most likely where we will eventually have getting to capabilities to create all sorts of creatures, those creatures will span out around the universe. And and then, you know, humans, who probably cyborgs and interact machines may actually go around the world and interact with them and have adventures and whatnot. It's not that different than Star Wars. But I think you have to ask me, What's one of the most interesting movies out there right now. It's the movie her. And her is the story of an AI that develops, but this time, it doesn't want to hang out with human beings and ultimately leaves. And that's a very humbling, I think, thought it could easily happen to people, even if we have minds that are sort of side over how chipping plants try to connect with AI. Artificial Intelligence is in here in 20 3040 years, and they just say, you know, we're going to lead you and go to the singularity, we're just not interested in your human race. It's almost like something us looking at ants, you don't really take much of a care of ants because we just don't consider their brains worth, you know, focusing on excessive urine and personal air. But I think at some point AI become so smart and may not care about our little three pounds of meat that we carry on our shoulders. It's just not sophisticated enough for them, and they will also leave us behind. So I think that will be an Earth is an excellent example of how technology could be very humbling for humanity. And

Nick VinZant 29:48

that's pretty much all the questions that I have. Is there anything else that you think that we missed? Or, you know, people want to get involved want to learn more? What what should they do?

Zoltan Istvan 29:57

Well, the one thing is, there was a documentary in March. LD or bus that Amazon Prime has ticked up that was made on my ts 16 presidential campaign but it's really a movie about came out recently in 2020, about transhumanism as a whole. And I go around in a giant bus. And this everybody of all these pants, who is across the country, exploring their personalities and trying to figure out, you know, where the world's gonna go. So you have a chance to go to Amazon Prime and a lot of other places to hang out and watch mortality or bias. And other than that, here's your chance. He was on Facebook, despite my not liking Facebook very much as a ton of groups, blog, Twitter groups as well. Now our Twitter followers on transhumanism or just Googling, you'll find a lot of stuff. I have a ton of books out there eight books trade, seamless wager, and whatever it is, you can read, some might work but immortality and bustle the documentary, it's just an hour and a half. It's a really fun way to explore transhumanism because we had a giant bus that was shaped like a coffin, then we drove all across the country. And that's how we campaign for a transfer list during one of my presidential campaigns.


Shadow Artist Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit)

With just his hands and a flashlight, Shadow Artist Boom Shadow Ace creates unforgettable art. We talk Shadow Art, sudden viral fame and how he uses popular songs to create moving shadows. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Worst Vegetables.

Boom Shadow Ace: 02:19ish

Pointless: 24:25ish

Top 5: 49:11ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

316-530-7719 (Show voicemail)

https://www.tiktok.com/@boomshadowace (Boom Shadow Ace TikTok)

https://www.instagram.com/boomshadowace (Boom Shadow Ace Instagram)

Interview with Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit)

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode shadows, and some bad vegetables.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 0:20

So I started when I was a kid, because we don't have electricity or electric power in our house. So it became my entertainment. It's just like, boom, that's where my name is boom shadow is, the idea is like always hitting me boom. And then I just make it just make the shadow. Even if it's on the left on the right. It's about knowing your angles, knowing where you put your hands in the shadows in the light to project the perfection.

Nick VinZant 0:49

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, it helps out the show. But more than anything else. We just like hearing from people. It's been fascinating to read the comments, here your guests suggestion topics that you want us to discuss. I think the show is just so much better, when we have more feedback and more people involved. So if you have a comment or anything like that, we're on social media, you can leave a comment in the app that you're listening to. And we also have a voicemail set up 316-519-7719. I know that's not an easy number to remember. But it's in the episode description just in case. So our first guest creates incredible art and has become incredibly popular, using nothing but his hands and a light source. This is Shadow artist, Philip Gilead, better known on social media as boom, Shadow ace, one quick technical thing. We recorded this episode while Philip was in the Philippines. So the connection is a little bit spotty. We did the best that we could. Phillip did an amazing job. There's just a few places where it ducks in and out a little bit. How did you start doing this?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 2:20

So I started when I was a kid because we don't have electricity or electric power in our house. So it became my entertainment. Since I was a kid. We're very poor. We don't have appliances or television to enjoy when we don't have phones. So it's kind of my kind of my comfort.

Nick VinZant 2:40

Did you really enjoy it? Or was it like, this is kind of the only thing that I have to do?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 2:47

I kind of enjoyed it, because it's actually our playtime with my cousins with my siblings. Yeah, actually enjoyable.

Nick VinZant 2:56

Were you good at it? Like did people say like, Wow, you are naturally talented did this? Or did you just practice and practice and practice?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 3:05

I did practice and practice. And here in our country. And in my neighborhood, I was actually not that appreciated by my talent. Because, you know, sometimes they said, it's actually easy to do. But yeah, I just keep practicing and practicing and searching for other stuff, all the music to do the trending songs and get the top trending songs in social media to do something like kind of different from the other shadow artists or the shadow art that we are doing when we're kids. They're so they I prove them wrong, that it's actually really good. And it's actually amazing to do this kind of shadow art.

Nick VinZant 3:46

You've kind of talked about this, right? Like, do you consider this to be kind of an art form?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 3:54

Yes, it is. It's it's actually hard to do. Because we need to have, you know, the brains, we need to have the idea. You have to be smart. If you want to engage and the people to encourage watch you like you need to be intelligent.

Nick VinZant 4:14

You know, like, I feel like everybody's done this, right? Like make the bunny on the wall, right? How do you kind of come up with all of the different ways to do it? Because I can think of about three things that I could make, right? Like I can do the bird and the bunny. But you've got like a menagerie of things. Like how did you come up with all of them?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 4:41

I actually don't know how I did it. I just ended up I'm just imagining and thinking what to do since I am actually looking always for the trending musics and songs in social media. Just a story my first To dance, they do occasionally have shadows the Gangnam style of sigh, because you know, it's actually very viral. It's a phenomenal song. And I made that just, you know, just listening to the beat of the music and, you know, making my fingers move to through it feeling the music, and then it's just like, boom. That's why my name is boom shadow is this, the idea is like, always hitting me boom. And then I just make it just make the shadow.

Nick VinZant 5:33

I guess what's the more difficult part? Right? Like, your brain getting your fingers to move or your fingers keeping up with your brain? If that makes any sense, right? Like, I guess the idea that I'm saying like, is it harder to come up with the idea? Or is it harder to make the idea happen?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 5:52

The most difficult part is thinking, because it's actually hurts my brain thinking of what to do. And you know, since since many of the people are like, looking for that and expecting more expecting great things for the cerrado. I'm actually, you know, thinking about is it, is it okay. Is it like, is it enough to, to amaze the people? So,

Nick VinZant 6:21

you know, we look at it tick tock, you have 2 million followers roughly. When did you kind of start posting when did that really get going?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 6:33

Okay, so I just posted video, my first video on like, the shadow hand video, with a trending song here in the Philippines, entitled pirate party. It's like about a butterfly. And it's actually very popular here, really popular in the Philippines that saw and then just like, I'm laying in my bed, and then scrolling on Tik Tok, like watching things watching random things on Tik Tok. And I was like, Should I try to do like, my talent here and ticked up, and then I just tried to do it. As when it's last February, this February 2022. I just started February 2022. And after a month, I get a million followers because of that review.

Nick VinZant 7:24

i What was that like? Right? Like, going from nothing. And then all of a sudden, boom, basically.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 7:33

There was actually shocking, cuz, you know, I just, I just made a video that night. And then I just, like, put it there. And I was just like, nothing to me. Like, it's just, you know, I just try. I don't expect things from it, I will just try to do this thing. And then in the morning, when I woke up and opened my Tiktok applications, it got this or 100,000 parts already 100,000 likes already, I was shocked and got a million views in just a short amount of time. And it's like, I was shocked like, oh my god is this like really, really good. I just, I just did it last night, then M was six expecting anything like this. So it was really sharp. I tell my mom and my dad to look at my tech talk to my cousin's like, the mighty just like boom in just in just 12 hours. And I was like, it was really amazing.

Nick VinZant 8:37

As has it kind of changed things for you, right? Like, can you make a living off of this?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 8:43

It's it's actually the reason why I graduated in college performing this kind of why like, is

Nick VinZant 8:51

this the plan for you kind of moving forward like I will my career so to speak, is going to do this are you going to kind of do it on the side or what's kind of your

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 9:03

and then I tried to join Asia's Got Talent Season Three days 2019 And I got the Golden Buzzer and I became a grand finalist and a fourth runner of the show. And then after that many doors opened many opportunities open and I was invited to different countries like China Indonesia, Malaysia, other countries to perform but pandemic happens so it's top my dreams just stopped because of pandemic has is actually prohibited to do like events and mass. Since my career stop. I just you know, stay in our house and open a small business a cake business or pastry business. I actually also did decorate cakes,

Nick VinZant 9:56

you know that there's obviously nothing you can do about it right like the pandemic affected people. but all over the place, but what was? Was that crashing in any way that right, this dream of yours is happening? And then it just stopped?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 10:09

Yes, it is actually crashing since the pandemic started, all of my flights were canceled. That is the reason why I earn money. And it's difficult for us because our savings get fewer and fewer. And

Nick VinZant 10:31

it's so tough, right? I guess, how do you even do it? You just got, like a light and your hands? And that's it? Or like, what do you how do you do it,

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 10:39

I'm just doing those things in our kitchen. So I just using a flashlight, and put it on the counter of our kitchen and doing the stuff on the wall. It's not in a studio, it's that on a big place, or like in air conditioned place that I am making the biggest bet in our kitchen.

Nick VinZant 11:00

So for one of your videos that you make, like how long will it take you to do it? How many tries before you kind of get it? Right?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 11:09

What's that process? So I actually, you know, practice it for a little while. Because if I have the idea, in my mind, I actually just do it in just a one, just just one take. And since my hands are like, you know, I do that kind of thing for for about five to seven years. And it's like it's it has its own life. It's like, I'm just putting my hand on the on the light. And it moves by itself. It's just

Nick VinZant 11:44

muscle memory at this point, right? Like, you just know how to do it. Are you like, obviously, this has become very popular for you. But when you look at it yourself compared to other people who do it like, Are you and all humbleness aside, like are you better at it than other people or to kind of just the world intersect so that you became popular for doing it? Like what other people who do it look at you and see like, oh, man, he's good.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 12:14

Actually, I'm not you know, I will not say that I am the best one who did this shadow art because I actually have, you know, have an idol in doing this in YouTube. Like, I actually admire him for doing like, amazing forms of shadow art. On YouTube. I always watch his videos on YouTube. But I think my edge to them is that I know my audience like it's, it's a generation of trending songs and music. Like, you know, everybody wants to enjoy. Everybody wants to have fun. And I think that is what I am giving to them. And that is my edge for other sins. Other shadow artists just do some kind of animals, like jungles for us, like the sad stories, and then I change that change that thing. And I think that is my advantage to them. I know my audience. I know this generation.

Nick VinZant 13:23

Has anybody ever, you know, look like I'm imagining my dad. And maybe it's a different culture, different upbringing, whatever. But like I'm imagining my dad being like, what are you doing John? Go get a job. Right? Did anybody ever tried to dissuade you from this and be like, he's doing his shadow puppets again? Or is shadow right? Did anybody ever say like, Come on, man. Do something else.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 13:52

Actually, that is actually the point that I am lucky with because my parents is very supportive parents. i They are my assistants actually my mom and my dad. We went to different countries. I went to different countries with my mom and my dad because they are my assistants like my father is holding the flashlights and my mom is handing me the props that I need to use. And it's actually like you know, I've always seen that shadow is or boom shadow is not only me, but boom shadow. This is my whole family because they are all very supportive. Like I'm doing this for a living. And I'm helping a lot of my cousins right now my cousins and my parents to pay some bills and it's actually paying the bills like my our electric bill and pay our electric bills. And then I'm giving like money to my my cousin so are you know, taking up college courses. I am very happy because they are always there for me. That's why I am paying for and giving them back. What are the good thing? Give them?

Nick VinZant 15:04

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yes. Are you right or left handed? Does that matter?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 15:13

Actually, I'm a right handed person. But it's not. It doesn't matter because it's actually not your hands. But it's also, you know, knowing your angles. Even if it's on the left on the right, it's about knowing your angles, knowing where you put your hands in the shadows in the light to project the perfect shadow that

Nick VinZant 15:40

so it's not just like how you're moving your fingers and hands around. It's the distance from the light that you are. Yes. I never thought of it that way. Like, D is there anything unique about your hands or fingers? Like you've got the perfect length, your fingers are longer shorter or something about your hands that like, he's got an advantage, right? Like if

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 16:07

my hands are like, it's more flexible, like doing stuff like? Yeah, I can't do that. It's just like, my hands are fast.

Nick VinZant 16:20

Oh, God, they are fast. Yeah.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 16:24

And actually, it's, it's actually small. I think it's small for me. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 16:29

but your hands you can be looking at him like there. They seem to be much, much more dexterous than my hands. I feel like like, I can't move my fingers around the way that you can. Hmm. does this translate then to any other? Like, your penmanship is perfect. I don't know that. Is there anything else that you've ever noticed in your life that you'd be like, Wow, I'm really good at this because of my shadow art.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 16:55

I am, before I became a shadow artist is actually you know, an artist, like, like painting. Like I actually love painting. And if there's like a, a thing that you can do with your hands, I actually exempt from some of it. Like I play the guitar. I actually play the piano. I actually decorate cakes that I told you. It's all about you know, when it's when you're talking about art, like painting, doing paper mache is doing pots, I actually know how to do because I think my hands is it's more it's made for art. Hardest

Nick VinZant 17:39

shape to make easiest shape to make.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 17:44

Okay, so the hardest shape to make, I guess was the person's face. Like, you know, you need to consider and think that it needs to be like, like, human life. Like, you have to put the nose, the mouth, how it talks, how it open its mouth. And actually, we don't we also also need to know the different kinds of hairstyles of hair of head accessories, like the hats, the hairs. And I think the easiest one is, you know the bird because every everything can Yeah,

Nick VinZant 18:29

I can do, right like the bird everybody can do the bird. Do you find yourself just walking around making shadow art in random places? Like you see your shadow everywhere, like do you ever just find yourself like walking down the street making shadow art

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 18:48

not because I actually have this I actually have this very low self confidence. And when I was out when I was walking down the street, I actually don't like to talk to other people. Because I actually shy I'm a shy person I have a very low self confidence. That's why I think this kind of talent this shadow art talent came to me because you know, my face is not seen it it's I'm actually comfortable with it. If my image is not seen by the people because you know, like I told you I am not really confident with how I look. And I actually don't you know do this thing outside just here inside their house because I'm actually shy and they know I have doubts myself that even I did that outside here in our town. They will not be amazed by it. And so you know it hurts for me as an artist because all I want to, to feel what's to fit to be appreciated by them.

Nick VinZant 20:06

If you were gonna, like, teach me how to do something, what would be something that you could teach me how to do?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 20:12

What do you like?

Nick VinZant 20:16

I like mountains, how can I make a mountain? Like just like this? How would I make a mountain?

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 20:23

No images like this? Can you see this? This one? Yeah. Oh, yeah, you just need to put it since we're talking always about the distance and the angle of your hands on the lie. So you just need this one to be the closest one in the light, so it will look big. And the other one, this one, just put it in front of it. And not too close to eight. So it will have like, dimensions, like they're small mountains. And they just mean

Nick VinZant 21:02

I guess you know, when I think of you doing it, I'm just imagining like, like the flashlights here. And you're just right like that. I never thought of the depth, the depth aspects of it, and how that would change.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 21:15

As actually many of the men of many people actually are, especially here in our county town, saying that it's, it's easy to do, but they don't know different factors you have to consider in making it like, you have to know the depth, you have to know the angle, you have to get the right light to do the thing, the right lenses for your light for your light source. And then the props, the distance of the props to your hand. It's actually not that easy to do. But, you know,

Nick VinZant 21:51

yeah, I could absolutely see that, right, like watching some of those things and be like, I could do that. And then you try to do it like, oh, it's like a golf swing, right? Like anybody can swing a golf club. But to do it well, like, Oh, that's a whole nother that's a lot more complicated than you think it is. Um, that's pretty much all the questions I got, man, what's kind of coming up next for you? Where can people find you that kind of stuff.

Boom Shadow Ace (Philip Galit) 22:18

Okay, so they can follow me in my, especially my tic tock account. Don't shy the A's and also, in my Instagram account, same name at boom, Shadow ace, and I am actually making some commissioned videos now for music videos of different people. Yes, I'm actually earning after being, you know, being invited out with the grills the grill song, like doing the deer and you know, that kind of shadow stuff many of indoor men have, like companies and no artists, rappers contacted me. And you know, I made a lot of videos for them. And it's actually really great, because they are really generous.

CERN Particle Physicist Dr. James Beacham

As a Particle Physicist working at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Dr. James Beacham is trying to unlock the secrets of the Universe. We talk Dark Matter, Dark Energy, how the Universe started, how the Universe will end, time travel, the Multiverse, Magic Numbers and why everything might be made of math. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Space Things.

Dr. James Beacham: 02:19ish

Pointless: 59:51ish

Top 5: 01:17:45ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

316-530-7719 (Show voicemail)

https://www.tiktok.com/@jbbeacham (James Beacham TikTok)

https://jbbeacham.com (Dr. Beacham’s Website)

Particle Physicist Dr. James Beacham

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, particle physics and space stuff,

Dr. James Beacham 0:19

than what my research is all about, is really trying to understand the basic building blocks of reality. What are the basic building blocks of the universe, your body is mostly composed of empty space, you have about a billion particles of something called dark matter flowing through your body every second. And so that's kind of like, if you ask the question, what was before the Big Bang, we don't really know how to formulate an answer to that right now. But we do have a, you know, we have there is an idea that is out there that we could be one universe in a possible, possibly infinite number of multiverse, or sorry, universes in a multiverse sort of landscape, if you will. Maybe mathematics is the actual underpinnings of everything around us in existence, maybe our universe is secretly made of math,

Nick VinZant 1:07

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 support the show. So our first guest is trying to unlock the secrets of the universe. He's a particle physicist, working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, I'm not going to pretend to understand the ins and outs of the lot of a lot of the things that we talk about. But he does a fantastic job of not only kind of diving into the details, that if you're really interested in know about particle physics, there's a side of it for you. But for people like me, he does a fantastic job of summing up what this all means. And for me, it really changed the way that I look at the world around us. And I left with a new appreciation of the universe. Because some of this stuff is just mind blowingly cool. This is particle physicist, James Beecham. What are you guys doing over there? I know what you're doing. I don't know what you're doing. So yeah,

Dr. James Beacham 2:23

so we're doing a lot of things. But at the end of the day, what CERN does, and what our research here is, what my research is all about, is really trying to understand the basic building blocks of reality, what are the basic building blocks of the universe, and the way that those building blocks interact? So, for example, you know, we, it you know, we have this enormous you. So CERN to be clear, is is a host, it's a physics laboratory, right. It's an enormous physics Particle Physics Laboratory. And it was founded in the late 50s, early 60s, by a bunch of scientists that were determined to have a Physics Institute that was specifically designed to investigate the fundamental physics of the universe, specifically for non militaristic purposes. So to try to have you know, Europe and the world heal after World War Two, this entire thing, this enormous endeavor. At the end of the day, I just like to remind people that it all all this research, if it seems very arcane, and weird, and like, it, just kind of like I can never understand this fully. At the end of the day, all of what we're doing comes down to a sliced bagel, I adapt, adopt a New Yorker, so in New York could take a bagel and cut the bagel in half, and then cut the half and half, how far can you go? Eventually you get to a molecule, right? Well, we know that a molecule exists. So then you ask, Can I cut a molecule? Yeah, we know that a molecule is made up of atoms, you know, for example, water is h2o, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom stuck together. So then you ask, Can I cut an atom? Yeah, it turns out that an atom, like I said, has a nucleus in the middle, and some electron particles swarming around in the cloud, then you ask the question, Can I cut an electron? As far as we know the answer right now is No, there's nothing inside of an electron. Then you ask? Can I cut the nucleus? Yes, of course. The nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons stuck together. Can I cut a proton? It turns out yes, there's stuff inside of a proton. There's three little particles called quarks held together by other particles called gluons. I didn't call them glue on some Joker did back in the day, but whatever. The so these individual particles called quarks, then you ask can I cut a quark? The answer as far as we know right now is no as far as we know, an electron is a tiny individual zero volume point of stuff. That doesn't make any sense like how can something have zero volume, but still have things like mass and energy and charge and spin all these kinds of quantities? Turns out this is possible with the kind of weird rules of quantum mechanics we can talk about quantum mechanics if you want, but you know, this is so turns out that when you add when you ask a seemingly simple question like that, how small can I cut anything very childlike? Quite origin? Turns out, you're secretly asking a much more profound question to begin with, which is what was holding anything together to begin with? Right? So this the, you know, the nucleus and the electron, they're not just held together by magic, right? So this it ends up that particles interact with other particles, these tiny individual uncuttable things via forces of nature. And as far as we know, right now, the ones that we've discovered, there are 17 different species of individual uncuttable particles in the universe. And basically, everything around you that you see is composed of these. So that's what we do here at the Large Hadron Collider, we do that kind of at CERN in general. But specifically at the Large Hadron Collider, we're trying to understand what are the basic fundamental building blocks of the universe. You know, the things that make up everyone around everything around us. But so the 17, this kind of List of 17 known species of different particles, and they have names, things that you might have heard in papers or on the news like the electron, okay, you know, the electron, you're swarming with electrons, you've heard of the photon, this is the particle of light, you've heard of quarks, like I just said, there's things called muons. There's things like tau particles, Z particles, w plus minus these kinds of things. But we have a list of what the known particles are. However, we know for a fact that this cannot be the full and complete picture of the entire universe. This the 17 species of particles that I just described, they basically account for all the stuff around you and me. And so we kind of you know, as humans, we get kind of hubris stick, you know, in fact, back in the day, it's like, yeah, we're the center of everything. You know, the Earth isn't the center of the universe, it's everything's about us, it's like, well, No way, man. So in fact, these particles are only account tech can only account for about 5% of all the stuff that we know is in the universe, the 95% of this stuff is stuck into other forms that we currently don't know what they are. So we give them the name, dark, dark energy, dark matter, you have about a billion particles of something called dark matter flowing through your body every second, it's been going on your entire life, it never touches you, it's always there, we have no idea what part of what kind of particle this is, I talked about forces, there's only four known forces that we know of. And three of them are the ones that we care about in particle collisions. Because the fourth one gravity doesn't even rate when I in the Large Hadron Collider, we collide protons, too little protons come together, hopefully, they get close enough to collide. And when they collide, you can calculate the different types of way that they can interact. And in fact, that collision doesn't mean that we're smacking them into each other and stuff flies out of the proton, that's not what happens. In fact, we want them to get close enough so that the particles inside the protons can start to feel each other. And they can start to interact by themselves. So for Imagine we take two quarks out of these protons and they collide. So then that's what happens with a little delta. So we can calculate the types of forces that will that will participate potentially, in this collision. And gravity does not even rate the gravitational force between two protons is basically nothing escapes you. It doesn't even matter. So this is a big open question. We don't actually know why gravity is so weak compared to the other forces of nature, it spits a huge open question. That's, again, we can get into the details of your why it's really quite fascinating. That's one of the questions that's consumed me since I was a child, and, you know, 10s of 1000s of my colleagues as well, and this large hadron collider. For those that don't know, it's a 27 kilometers circular tunnel here on the border of France and Switzerland, about 100 meters underground. And in this tunnel, 100 meters underground, we use superconducting magnets. Some of you may have you may have seen these, these photos online of these big blue tubes that say CERN on the side of them. These are these are casings that contain superconducting magnets inside them. And we use the superconductor we have to keep these superconducting magnets colder than outer space. And we use these to accelerate protons again, you're mostly made of protons and neutrons and electrons, we take protons, and we accelerate them to almost the speed of light 99.999999% of the speed of light, it kind of sounded like I was glitching there, but I was not 99.99999% at the speed of light. And then we once they get to that speed and the highest energy that humans have ever used in the collider experiment, then at four, there's two different beams that are going in opposite directions around the ring. And at four points on that ring. We bend the beams together, cross the streams, we bend the beams together, and then those beams those protons start to collide. And the place where you where you collide these protons, you better build an enormous detector because quantum field theory magic, okay, it's not actually magic. Quantum Field Theory magic is going to happen. And for example, by by big I mean enormous. So the one that I work on is called Atlas is six storeys high, 46 meters long. It's like an enormous soda can tipped on his side. The reason why we have to build something huge like that is because when you collide protons at such high energies and speeds, you're briefly Reek we are briefly recreating the conditions of the universe as they were just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang 13 point 8 billion years ago, because understanding what was happening back then, which we don't currently understand. Understanding what was happening back then will help us explain the universe we see now

Nick VinZant 9:59

you know, When I hear about stuff like this, the thing that always gets me is like, How can this be real? How can this be so small? How can the universe be really this big? I just can't even imagine it.

Dr. James Beacham 10:10

Yeah, it's pretty weird. I completely agree with you. And obviously, that comes from at least I don't know, obviously. But for me, this these kinds of urges, they come from the fact that you and I, as humans, honestly, we evolved for a very long time, with a really, really rare set of conditions that the universe does not overwhelmingly does not have in it, right. So for example, like you and I, as a species, we evolved in a very friendly planet for this kind of a thing with, you know, just the right distance from a star so that the sun has the energy coming toward it was just enough to be able to like heat it in just the right way at the right time. So that then it sort of developed this atmosphere, and just the right conditions with the temperatures and things so that the water and that you'd have that kind of primordial soup, where different types of chemicals came together, and just the right way over a very long time periods, to eventually evolve to this thing that we know is life, and then evolved to you and I. So we existed, we evolved within a very, very fuzzy, friendly range of conditions that the universe overwhelmingly is not like. So these kinds of these kinds of urges that we have where it's like this can't this doesn't make any sense. It comes from the fact that you and I don't didn't evolve in that, that either of those ranges, either the range of the very small, or on the realm with a very, very large.

Nick VinZant 11:31

So if we figure out this dark matter, right, that 95% of the universe, or the number that you said, if we figure that out, then what changes,

Dr. James Beacham 11:39

what would change is hopefully it would deepen our understanding of what the universe is made of, at the end of the day. That's like a big open question for science that it seems obvious we'd have to solve, right? If I tell you, yeah, we are very good at you know, as physicists as astronomers at taking a sort of like budget stuff budget of the universe. And we can say that 5% of the universe is stuck into stuff, that's you and me, we call this baryonic matter doesn't matter. Don't Don't worry about the note name, but it's just stuff that you and I, you know, potatoes and Beyonce are made out of, you know, these things are this is baryonic matter, we know that about 25% of the universe, give or take is dark matter. And the rest of the universe is that thing called dark energy. If we find out what dark matter is, in principle, we will answer that question what, you know, to know what at least 25% of the universe is made of, however, it's entirely possible, what if that, what if we don't understand gravity correctly, maybe there's something else we need to understand, right? So if, for example, we look for dark matter, particles, and all the possible ways that we can think of it so we talk to our theorists, friends, and they give us 10 new ways that we hadn't thought of to do an experiment for dark matter. And we all those are ruled out, then maybe we have to go back to the drawing board and say, hmm, maybe we have to change Einstein a bit, maybe we have to actually change our understanding of gravity, maybe, for you and I, gravity is one thing here on Earth, but maybe on galactic scales, as gravity gets farther away from the center of a galaxy, maybe you have to modify things. And in fact, one of my colleagues from from the Netherlands, he hasn't even wilder idea that gravity is not actually a force, it's an emergent premise, if I can get it right, an emergent property of spacetime due to the fact that the fundamental building blocks of the universe are not quantum particles and fields, but in fact, are informational qubits that create a kind of pressure. So that even goes beyond me. So if you're like, I didn't understand that. I don't understand that either. So this is my friend, Eric. And he has a really great theory about this. But this is just just to say, like, you know, we if we understand if we discover what dark matter is that will allow us to better understand at least 25% of the universe, how can we haven't figured it out yet. That's a tough one. Because we don't have a good suggestion, a theoretical hint, or some kind of like really good suggestion as to where like an arrow pointing, you should do an experiment here. And you should find a discovery. And that's super weird, because we have kind of had these all the time in the past for physics. And that's why right now in physics is a very, is a very exciting time to be a physicist because we have huge open questions. And we're kind of running out of this sort of theoretical hints as to what kind of an experiment we should design to either discover the thing or rule out the one thing that could be I'll give you an example of what I mean. So this particle we discovered back in 2012, here at the Large Hadron Collider is called the Higgs boson sometimes in the press it's referred to as the God particle. None of us like that name because it you know, God honestly, since daily deities are kind of in okay, we can disagree with deities to be there and to a lot of physicists, their human inventions and it kind of does a sort of disservice to this particle as to how awesome it is. So, the but this particle we discovered this, the existence of this particle was predicted way back in the 60s and in fact it turned out that it was there waiting for us discover all along. But we had never built a large enough experiment to discover it. So that's the same way with future, you know, future discoveries. So like the dark matter, the reason why we can't just say, oh, let's go and discover where Dark Matter should be, is that dark matter is a concept. It's a, it's a phenomenon that we observe. But we don't have any idea number one, if it is a particle, but if it is a particle, we don't know what the mass of this thing should be. So it's basically impossible for us to say, oh, we should build this experiment. And we should, you know, either it's there, or we rule it out and have to go back to the drawing board. And the mass of this dark matter could be over an enormous range. So that's why it's both scary. And also kind of, you know, wonderful to be a physicist at this moment. Because we have huge open questions. And we're really out of like, the big theoretical hints, like the flashlights, it's like, go over there. And that's where your discovery is. We don't have those anymore, you know, is it Dark Matters flowing through you all the time, and it's never touched you. So that means that dark matter either never interacts with you and I type matter? Or if it does, it operates via some new force of nature, that is so so so, so, so so weak, that it almost never happens.

Nick VinZant 16:12

I guess the thing that I kind of don't understand about it is it seems to be like, we can't find it, but it's everywhere. It's very rare, but it always happens.

Dr. James Beacham 16:20

Well, the way I would put it is that it never actually interacts with you at all. Think of it this way, your body is mostly composed of empty space. This is a weird thing to think about. Because like you look at your hand, you're like, No, yeah, like James, what that what

Nick VinZant 16:34

you're talking about the seasonal thing. Right, right.

Dr. James Beacham 16:37

Yeah, it's like, look, I can punch my hand, I'm very solid, right? Okay, that's great. But in fact, if I look at your body, if I look at what you're made of, so for example, your body is overwhelmingly made of four elements, we've got hydrogen, we've got carbon, we've got oxygen, we've got nitrogen, basically, like 99 point, something percent of your body is made up of these four elements. But then you ask the question, what is a hydrogen atom? Do you remember what a hydrogen atom is from from chemistry?

Nick VinZant 17:07

It's made of hydrogen. It's okay. If I noticed a list of hydrogen hydrogen atom.

Dr. James Beacham 17:13

No, that's cool. But it's you know, it's a thing you can think of it in your head, right? If you want to, it's like your body is made up of these like atoms. And maybe these atoms are sort of spherical in a way, right? Think of a bunch of balls that are stuck together in a way. And so your body at a very, very small scale, all these balls are kind of like bumped into each other, and some are overlapping a little bit. And that's what you're made of. That's what an atom is. But an atom of hydrogen. My job as a particle physicist, is to say, okay, the atom of hydrogen is not actually like a little ball. Let's look inside this thing, maybe this stuff inside. And it turns out there is stuff inside of a hydrogen atom, a hydrogen atom is made up of a little nucleus in the middle, which in fact, only has one proton. And then it has it has a cloud that's composed of an electron, one single electron particle that's moving so fast around it, that it makes it kind of cloud of electrons ish stuff, which gives it the the the impression, it gives it the effect of be behaving like a sphere. Does that make sense? Like

Nick VinZant 18:10

it's spinning around so fast that like, I'm imagining my finger trying to poke into it, but it's spinning around so fast that I, I'm always hitting the electron no matter what. Exactly.

Dr. James Beacham 18:20

Yeah, exactly. It's always a zoom, zooming around like that. It recreates a kind of a cloud and, and, you know, for physics terms, that has a particular force attached to it. But yeah, but from a distance you like, you know, not a super far distance with like, oh, yeah, that's a sphere of the hydrogen atom with one electron moving super, super fast, that creates a kind of shell around it, right? So that's what you should have in your head. But it we know that inside that thing, that it's composed of one single particle in the middle called a proton, and then there's one particle zooming around at a very high speed called an electron. Okay? But what if I were able to and I could do this, you know, if I'm a physicist, I can stop time, and I stopped the electron, and the proton is sitting there in the middle. So then if I do that, I can then measure what the size of these these individual particles are, right? Again, because what we see is a phenomenon is an effect due to the fact the electrons spinning around so fast. What if I stopped the electron and I have the proton in the middle? Then I asked, okay, how big are these things? How how much stuff is there actually in a hydrogen atom? So if, if a proton in the middle, so the effect the electron, as far as we know, has zero size, zero volume, it's like a little point of something that point and of nothingness that can still carry things like charge and spin and mass and things like that. The proton actually has a size. So for example, if my if a proton in the middle of a hydrogen atom, and the distance between these two things, the proton and the electron is actually so huge that it kind of like it's, it's really hard for me to even like wrap my head around it, and I'm a physicist. So if the proton in the middle of a hydrogen atom were the size of my fist And then the most likely place, you'd find the electron particle going around, it would be something like two and a half kilometers away. That's an I don't know how to translate that into miles. But like two and a half kilometers, that's a large amount of space away, and in between my fist and the electron is nothing, it's empty space. There's nothing inside there.

Nick VinZant 20:24

And then if you go in all directions, that's an incredible amount of space, right? Like in every

Dr. James Beacham 20:30

think about that. So think about if your body is overwhelmingly made of hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon and oxygen, and those other ones are similar in size to the you know, the size is about the same. A hydrogen atom, if your body is made up of a huge number of hydrogen atoms, the hydrogen atom is fact is one proton, that's the size of my fist, and then electron that is two and a half kilometers away. And in between is nothing. It's empty space. So your body is overwhelmingly empty space, the electrons are zooming around at such a rate that it gives this effect of you being solid, but you're not actually solid.

Nick VinZant 21:07

So is there any chance that I could someday just walk through a wall, then?

Dr. James Beacham 21:11

Yes, there is. I don't want to get into the details here. But it actually doesn't have so much to do with the empty space part of you. It has something to do with quantum mechanics. And if if you know if some of you want to dig into quantum physics on your own, there is a probability that if I were leaning against a wall, and I leaned against the wall for long enough, all of my particles, but could spontaneously tunnel through the wall and appear on the other side of the wall. But this, the time that I would have to lean against the wall to make this happen to eventually allow this to happen is something like I forget the number like maybe 10 to the power 35 years, I'm not probably not going to live that long, especially given the fact that the universe is cold. Currently, the age of the universe is currently only 10 to the power 10 years. So the reason I said this, the reason I said this is to answer your question is that your body is overwhelmingly like this empty space. So we know for a fact that there are particles moving through your body all the time, that also we know for a fact they exist. And they also don't interact with you at all, like I said, you actually have every second you have about one particle called a muon going through your head. And this is coming down from and the muon is the kind of a more massive cousin of the electronic and your body is swarming with electron particles, if keep everything the same about the electron, but increase its mass of it, and this particle called a muon. And we know that these are raining down on us all the time from the upper atmosphere, they don't harm you, they don't touch you, they've zoomed through your body, they zoom through your body as if you're not even there, because they almost never interact with your particles. And because they just go through this empty space. And it's not even a problem for them. They're going to the same rate as the electrons, so there's no reason for them to ever bump into like

Nick VinZant 22:49

zipping right through me. Hmm, wow.

Dr. James Beacham 22:52

Yeah. And if you hold if you hold up your thumb, every second, you have about 65 billion particles called neutrinos coming from the sun and going through your thumb, every second 65 billions from the sun through your thumb. So when you think of it that way, it's actually makes a lot more sense that there could be something like dark matter that we just don't currently know what it is. That's also zooming through your body all the time. And it just never touches you at all.

Nick VinZant 23:20

Are you ready? For some harder slash listener submitted questions?

Dr. James Beacham 23:23

Please, please bring it on. When you run a

Nick VinZant 23:25

test? Do you feel it? Does it have a smell? Does it have a sound? Like what's it like being there during one of these tests? Or is it just like, there's one happening in the other room right now? And I wouldn't even know.

Dr. James Beacham 23:37

Well, it's an interesting, it's a very fascinating facility, because CERN is a host laboratory. And there's a large number of projects going on everywhere all at once. And the largest one, the most prominent one is this one called the Large Hadron Collider, right? Because it's very huge, just the largest experiment in human history, a 27 kilometer or 17 mile circular tunnel, you know, under 100 meters underground, that has something, you know, 10s of 1000s of people working on it around the globe, a lot of them are based here, but other ones are based all over the globe, or universities all over the globe working on this research. But on the campus of CERN, which is also quite large. There's a bunch of other experiments going on at all times. So if you ask the question, what you know what happens when we're doing a test if number one, what experiment you're talking about the Large Hadron Collider, that one is always happening 100 meters underground, so you don't hear or see or smell anything. So if you're talking about what happens, what would it be like to experience the Large Hadron Collider colliding protons, you would not be able to get close to the collision when it happened, because there's no possible way for you to be underground. When the collision happens. There's going to be a little bit of radiation whenever you have, whenever you accelerate charged particles like protons to very high speeds and energies and smash them together. Inevitably, this ends up with some things that we think of as radiation. It's not dangerous to humans because it dissipates very quickly after you turn off the machine. But there is some radiation which means that you can be downstairs 100 meters underground, when the collisions are happening, is there a

Nick VinZant 25:04

chance you'll blow up the world? This is

Dr. James Beacham 25:06

a very good question. And the answer is very obvious. The answer is very, very simple. No, there's no chance. So he discovered

Nick VinZant 25:14

dark matter, and then all of a sudden it blows up the world.

Dr. James Beacham 25:17

That's never gonna happen. Think about it. If we discovered dark matter, Nick, that just gives us information about the universe. Like there's still nothing you could do with dark matter. Think about it. Like, we know that dark matter is all around us all the time. Like I can't say if I suddenly know what it is. I can't like collect it and do stuff with it. It's still, what am I going to collect it with? My hands? That's been going through my hands my entire life. I can't touch it. I can't do anything with it. So there's no way if we discovered dark matter, there's no way for us to make like dark buildings out of dark matter. That's not why we do the research we do. We don't do it. Because we're looking for profit or for products or for things. We're strictly curious about the universe full stop. That is awesome in and of itself. And so no, there's no possible way for us to blow up the the earth. And I'll give you a very concrete reason. If you're not satisfied with the, you know, with the answer, trust me, bro. I will give you a reason as to why this is. So when I say the Large Hadron Collider is it currently we're colliding protons at the highest energies that humans have ever used in the collider experiment, maybe that sounds very dangerous or daunting. But the key phrase is that one in the middle by humans, so this highest energy by humans, is you know, we say 13 point 6 trillion electron volts. And we're like very proud of our proton collisions at these high energies. But we're actually no match for nature itself. So above your head just now, for example, there are way higher energy collisions going on in the universe all the time. In fact, some of them very, very close to you right now. So what I mean is that if you go up into the upper atmosphere right now of our Earth, if you go up in the upper atmosphere, the upper atmosphere is constantly being bombarded by cosmic ray particles from far away in the universe, like protons, in fact, that are coming from weird sources far away other galaxies, others, you know, other sources, and they've been traveling for a very long time, and eventually get to the earth. And they're coming in at very, very high speeds and energies, and they're smacking into the atoms in the upper atmosphere. And these are also collisions, these are high energy collisions. So these particles are coming in smacking into the upper atmosphere. And these, as that smacking happens, there's a bunch of sort of a cascade of, of collisions that happens, and a bunch of low energy particles come down, for example, these muons that I said, you have about a one muon going through your head every second. This is sort of this muon rain, that is a result of cosmic ray, high energy particles smacking into the upper atmosphere from outer space. And these collision energies are way higher, it can be way higher than that we use those we use of the Large Hadron Collider. So it's sometimes 1000s of times the energy that we use with the Large Hadron Collider. So if you're worried that this energy, when I say high energy, that some kind of dangerous thing, it's only danger, it's only high for humans, and the universe has way, you know, we're no match for mother nature, she has much more interesting things going on much higher energy the weekend. So it's totally safe.

Nick VinZant 28:09

How does the universe end? Do we freeze to death or burn to death?

Dr. James Beacham 28:13

Whew. That's a very good question. I would probably answer in two different ways. So if you mean, how is the universe itself going to end? Number one, we don't know the answer. We have some good candidates. And it seems likely that our universe, the one thing we do know right now about our universe is that it's expanding, which means that everything in all directions is moving away from everything else. And the farther you get away from us, things are moving away from us at much higher speed and at very, very high speeds, very fast speeds. And so we know that everything in the universe is moving apart from each other, everything is expanding. And as far as we know, right now, this is going to continue. And in fact, it's going to speed up indefinitely. So we know right now, as far as we understand, the universe will continue to expand forever. And so the short answer to this question is that likely our universe will continue to continue to expand indefinitely, and eventually some far, far, far, far future, you know, not even like, we can't even wrap our brains around it, you know, 10 to the power 60 years tend to the power 100 years 10 to the power 10 to the power 1000 years, something like that, eventually, somewhere along this timeline, everything in the universe will eventually decay. So you know, if you feel bad about you know, for example, getting old, it's like, oh, my buddies, you know, deteriorate is like, Don't worry, everything in the universe is going to eventually decay, not just your body, not just planets and stars, but individual protons themselves will eventually just gave birth, and they'll turn into like just kind of raw energy. And eventually the universe would be completely dominated by black holes, and the blood and again, black holes don't care about us at all. These black holes will sit there for a very long time until eventually, even black holes will evaporate. They will give up all their stuff, and there'll be nothing in the universe. It will just be kind of a is a fuzz soup of kind of energy. And eventually it will reach the what we refer to, it seems that it will eventually reach what we refer to as a kind of a heat death, meaning the sort of meaning that the universe will attain a state of nearly maximum entropy, you don't need to know anything about is basically a state of disorder, basically completely disordered, chaotic universe, and nearly absolute zero temperature, which means that nothing can ever happen ever again in the universe, ever. And it will stay that way, probably for eternity. So that's as far as we know, now, the universe will probably end in this kind of like, cold death, it'll just sit there indefinitely. I see look on your face, you want to ask a question or something?

Nick VinZant 30:41

I guess? Well, then how did it? Right let's let's let's go into the let's go into the big question that everybody always wonders, right. So then how did it get here?

Dr. James Beacham 30:51

Yeah, we we do we do know a lot about that, in fact, that's one of the one of the great successes of modern science, right is the fact that we do know, a very large amount of the history of the universe with a few kind of key gaps along the way that we're filling in now, from when the universe was, you know, currently, our universes is about 13 point 8 billion years old. So if you run this in a way, and we know that it's expanding, right, we know that everything's expanding in all directions. So if you just take like the YouTube slider of the universe and slide it backwards, right, as you go backwards, everything has to go get smaller and smaller, and eventually go all the way back closer and closer to something known as t equals zero, the beginning of the universe, everything had to have at some point had to have been packed into a tiny, dense little point, that then started to expand. And we can go in that we actually know quite well about our universe from now, way, way, way back to when the universe was about, I guess, 10 to the power minus, I don't know, minus 15 seconds old 10 to the power of power minus 20 seconds old, something like that. So if you have 0.000, the 25 zeros and then a one, that number of seconds, old, up to 13 point 8 billion years. That's pretty good. There's of course, there's just a lot of gaps in there that we're still trying to understand, like, how did particular types of stars evolve? Like, what kind of black holes were made at the beginning of the universe, all this kind of thing. But that's pretty remarkable, right? So we can go back to like, 10 to the power minus 15 seconds and kind of know what was happening. But that's not enough for us, right? As physicists, we're like, Okay, well, what would before that, what happened before 10 to the power minus 15. That's basically what we do. When you build enormous machines like the Large Hadron Collider, what you're doing is you're built when you build a larger machine of higher energy, you're actually looking farther back in time. So as you go to a higher energy machine, you can, you're not satisfied with 10 to the minus 15 seconds, you want to see what happened 10 to the minus 20 seconds, 10 to the minus 30 seconds, you know, this kind of a thing. So so we know quite well, the way the universe was behaving way back toward the moment of the so called Big Bang, you know, the words that we use to refer to the way the universe started, started to expand and then kind of slowed down its expansion and then sped up the expansion we know quite well, the way this happened. However, if you didn't ask the question, which I think is kind of what you're asking, what was before that,

Nick VinZant 33:09

like, where did all this stuff come from? Right?

Dr. James Beacham 33:13

Where did it all come from? Exactly? That's a huge open question. That is an open question for science. We do not have an answer for that we have a lot of really fascinating kind of edge of knowledge, speculation about what you know, where this kind of universe could have come from. Because at the end of the day, it's also related to, it's related to a question that I think about a lot. And a lot of my colleagues think about a lot. It's weird, because our universe is not just expanding. It's not just enormous and empty, and wonderful and curious, inducing, curiosity inducing, and just like kind of gobsmackingly cool. And always, it's also super weird. Because our universe is kind of filled with magic numbers. What I mean is that there are constants of nature that are just kind of numbers that are put there that we measure that we have no particular way to explain why those numbers are what they are. So I'll give you an example the electron, you remember, you know, learning about electricity and physics, like you know, you have charged like an electron has a particular charge to it, right? And this particular electron charge is the measure of how strong the electromagnetic force pulls on this thing. But why is that number the way it is? We don't know why that number is the way it is it just add that it's just as it's nice that it is because it's really good that our universe is here, right? But why is that number the way there's another one that's like the called the gravitational constant. And this may be something you've never heard of. But in our equations for gravity, there's always this G factor, which is something we just measure. It's like, it's nothing that comes from a theory, nothing that comes from like a clear understanding of the universe. Like Eureka. I'm a theoretical scientist and I write down a mathematical way. This predicts of the universe is just this number there that we measure, and it's always there. It basically measures the strength, the sort of broad global way with which gravity interacts. things interact via gravity. It's just a number. It's always the same. So why is that number the way it is? There's no, there's no explanation. There's no mechanism. And physicists, we love mechanisms. That's what we're looking for. It's like, it's not enough, the physicist says, the person for whom that's just the way it is, is never a satisfying answer. Also, this, we haven't talked about it. But the reason your particles like electrons, the reason they have the property known as mass, is that everywhere in the universe everywhere is permeated with this thing called the Higgs field. And the Higgs field is more or less like an invisible jelly that permeates all of space everywhere, you don't feel it, but your individual particles do. And as they move through the universe, a little bit of their energy is stuck into a point it's kind of dragged by this jelly like an electron, as it moves through this jelly, a little bit of as dragged, it's kind of like, you know, firing a bullet into a vat of molasses, it's going to slow down a little bit, you know, so a little bit of his stuck into this point, we measure his mass, but it doesn't and and the extent to which this particle is dragged a little bit by the jelly, and it gets some mass is set by a particular number known as the Higgs vacuum expectation value, you don't need to know the details of that just, it's trust me, trust me, it's a number that we can measure. And it's just, it doesn't have to be that number. But it is that number of and it but it's really good that that number is the way it is. Because if it was something different, our universe would not be here, the way it is right now, like atoms would never have formed. And you and I would not be here to have this conversation. So it's good that our universe is filled with these magic numbers. But why are these numbers the way they are? It's really dissatisfying to a lot of physicists, because we have no mechanism to explain why these numbers that are they are and it's really, it's really dissatisfying to say, well, maybe that's just the way it is, because it does, it's not satisfying, right? It's like that's, that's not good for physicists. So, some people are like, Okay, what if there's nothing to say it kind of makes, you know, the sort of like, the weird ones amongst us think it's like, well, maybe our universe is very special, maybe something was kind of a rain specially just for us, right? And then it sounds very kind of like weird and sort of like woowoo, in a way. But some of us instead start to think, okay, maybe the reason, we have these particular numbers, these magic numbers in our universe, maybe the reason is that our universe is actually nothing special. And in fact, these numbers could be something on a very large range of values, in fact, a nearly infinite range of values of that number. And in fact, all of these other values, in fact, do exist as the correct values in other universes in a multiverse. And so when I say multiverse, we're not talking about like Marvel movies, we're not talking about superheroes, we're talking about the fact that our universe, when it started, way back at the moment of the Big Bang, it was something tiny, and it started to kind of like expand in this sort of light in all directions, right? Maybe, and it has all these really nice properties, the electron charge, the Higgs vacuum expectation value, the gravitational constant, these values were just right, to allow, you know, stuff to form and then atoms to form and then you know, life to evolve, and for you and I to have this wonderful conversation. But there could be an almost infinite number of other universes in a kind of landscape of universes in a multiverse that also started to pop up next to ours at the same time, but these other universes took on nearly all the other values, right? Took on nearly all the other values of these possible magic numbers. And in most of the those other universes, the values were wrong, so that nothing ever happened, they started to expand, and maybe they everything was wrong. And so they collapsed immediately, or they started to expand, and they're particles in them, but the particles didn't have mass. And so an atom is never formed. And they're just completely chaotic, empty spaces for you know, for basically eternity. So that means that statistically, at least one of these had to be like ours, right? And so that's kind of like, if you ask the question, what was before the Big Bang? We don't really know how to formulate an answer to that right now. But we do have a, you know, we have there is an idea that is out there that we could be one universe and a possible, possibly infinite number of multiverse, sorry, universes in a multiverse sort of landscape, if you will, that these other universes could have also kind of bubbled into universes at the same time where you know, it's hard to define what time is and this concept, but that's kind of an end run around the question what was before the Big Bang? We don't know as before the Big Bang, but if our Big Bang came from this kind of like multiverse landscape, that in principle could provide a mechanism as to why our universe is the way it is right now. All that being said, we have no way to test this hypothesis. If I say, Well, maybe the universe is in a multiverse. I have no way to test this

Nick VinZant 39:54

without getting into necessarily like the religious aspect of things. Is there a plan in case we accidentally prove or disprove that a god exists? Like, is there a plan on paper somewhere where like, hey, what if we prove this or disprove it? Like, what are we going to do?

Dr. James Beacham 40:14

Yeah, that's a good question. And it's also a question that has absolutely nothing to do with particle physics. And I don't mean that in a in a rude way. I mean, I'm, I don't mean that in a rude way at all, I just mean that the, the particular set of thoughts and feelings and sensations and psychological, you know, phenomena and emotions that go into this kind of realm of and also political and social, this realm of things referred to as religion. That's a totally and completely different set and separate thing than what we do in physics.

Nick VinZant 40:53

So this is this is a this is a safe space here. What is your most outlandish theory? Like, oh, I can't share this with my physicist, buddies. Yet?

Dr. James Beacham 41:06

Most physicists were totally obsessed with outlandish theories, we we are trying desperately to find answers to these questions that have been sometimes open questions for like 100 years, like, you know, almost 100 years, you know, for example, one of the big open questions and sciences, how do gravity and quantum mechanics work together, you don't really know the need to know the details of those words. But essentially, we have, in physics, we have these two fantastically good theoretical models that have that are, that describe our universe really, really well, we have one that's called general relativity. And this was by Einstein. And this is the this describes how this is a set of mathematics that really, really, really accurately describes how gravity works on very large scales, that we have a completely separate set of mathematics known as quantum physics. And this, this governs the world of the very, very small particles, like the things that I work on. And each of these by itself, these models, these theories, each of these, by itself ranks among the most impressive intellectual achievements of humankind. But there's a huge problem, because when we do try to kind of naively combine these two, hoping for a more kind of fundamental theory of the universe, everything goes crazy and breaks, we get like nonsense answers like infinite energy, I don't even know what that means. Or like, probability is greater than 100%. Like, what does it mean to have a probability greater than 100%? Like, that doesn't make sense. Like, it's a 200%, there's a 200% chance that it's going to rain today. What? No, that doesn't make any sense, right? I know, when that when this happens, this is the universe's way of telling us that we need to think harder, right? So this is, you know, and so as physicists, we love new ideas. You know, we love new, scientifically based ideas. So I really wouldn't say there's anything kind of outlandish. However, there is one theory that's not mine, that I find fascinating from a kind of philosophical and also scientific perspective. But it's also one that I currently,

I would have no problem with talking with my physicist colleagues that, you know, appears, you know, at beers and burgers, but it's also one that like, I can't really even wrap my mind around, even as a physicist, and so that's why I think I'm kind of drawn to it, because it's also it's almost kind of like, it's really hard to like, understand what the hell it means. I guess this is what it is. So a colleague of mine, Max Tegmark, he came up with an idea a few years ago, Max had this idea is like, Okay, so the weird thing about are you another weird thing about our universe? From a kind of philosophical perspective? Like I just kind of said earlier, like, we have like these magic numbers in our universe, why are these numbers the way they are? Senate score is almost like metaphysical, right? It's sort of like woowoo, man, it's like philosophically, like, why is our universe the way it is, man, you can also think about it in the sense that, from a mathematical perspective, our universe seems to follow certain kinds of mathematics really, really, really well. And for those of you that haven't taken a math class for a long time, Matthew probably means like two plus two equals four, or like, you know, taking a derivative of something and like, you're like, Ah, this is too much. I totally sympathize with that. But math, in fact, is super, super more wonderful and complicated once it gets wonderful when you get to the more complicated stuff, because math is really about the relationships, complicated relationships amongst things and the way that different types of quantities work together. And you can in fact, write down particular types of mathematics, like a mathematician can write down at a large number of possible ways that math could behave specifically in the context of physics. So for example, like I said, very beginning of our conversation, everything around you that you interact with is made up of 17 different species, separate species of kinds of particles and the way those interact. And in fact, I can write down a mathematical set of equations that are based upon some pretty straightforward math that you know, things like group theory and you know, Lagrangian theory and CAC. Kill isn't all these differential equations, it's pretty straightforward. Once you get into it, I can write down a theory that describes all this stuff really, really, really well, like almost shockingly well. And it's a but it's also a kind of a weird theory, you don't need to know the details. But for example, the gauge group of our universe of the standard model is something called su three cross su one cross cross, sorry, su three cross su two cross u one, u two, the none of the details of that, except for the fact that it doesn't have to be that. Why is it? Why why is it su three? Why can't it be su five? Why can't it be su can? Why can't there be something else on the front of that? For some reason, our universe chose this one particular gauge group, and it went and ran with it. It's like, why is that that way? Also, why does our universe governed by these statistical distributions? So well, like everyone listen to this, if I were to take your average resting heart rate and put them on a little chart, I would take your heart rate, it would make a little kind of Gaussian bell curve, like a normal distribution, right? This is just the way our universe uses statistics all the time. statistical distributions, we call these, if you stand on a street corner, the rate with which cars will pass, you will follow some kind of thing all that plus on distribution. Again, you don't need to know the details. But just to know that our universe loves statistical distributions, and I defy you to hear a nerdier statement sent today. But what this means, when you start thinking about this from a kind of philosophical perspective, like, wait a minute, I thought that math was just this kind of thing that humans invented, to better understand the universe around us, right, which is, like magical and mystical. And all of this, you know, majestic is all its glory. Like it's math is our sort of like human, you know, shortcut to better understand like a language right away, like we invented languages, to better communicate, we invented mathematics to better understand, you know, and describe the universe around us. And it's good, the math of good, but it's never perfect, right? It's never a little bit. It turns out that in physics, it's almost perfect. And that's super weird, because Why did our universe choose this particular set of math to use, but as a mathematician, the mathematician can write down a huge number of other possible mathematical structures or equations that are our universe doesn't seem to us at all. Like, why is that? So it starts to make us think that maybe humans did not invent mathematics. Maybe humans discovered mathematics. Maybe mathematics is the actual underpinnings of everything around us in existence, maybe our universe is secretly made of math, secretly, fundamentally made of math, behind the scenes, if you're able to, I don't even know what behind the scenes means. But for example, if you were to look outside of the universe, or like on the multiverse, or you were to look down at the very, very smallest possible thing smaller than we could ever possibly we could ever possibly look, maybe the fundamental structures of the universe are mathematical. And so math is the very basic nature of our universe. I don't fully understand what this means, honestly. But I think it's fascinating because I started to think about it like, it starts to make my brain break. And I like this in a good way. I like it, when somebody comes up with an idea that sort of starts to make my brain break in a good way, because it stretches me out of my comfort zone, I like to, I like to be stretched out of my comfort zone. So this is one, this is one, this is possible candidate for the answer to the question. It's a kind of theory that's very speculative. And not even no one really fully understands what it means. And I'm not convinced that Max does either, and I don't think he does. But this is a fascinating concept that I think is worth considering. Because in the past, you know, thinking about things like this have sometimes led to really profound insights in the future, you know, about the universe. You know, for example, back in before 1915, when Einstein came up with this general theory of relativity, which is a profoundly different way of thinking about gravity than the way it was before, no one could have come up with that, like ex nihilo. It's like, it's like this would come from nowhere. Einstein had to think very deeply about the fundamental underpinnings of everything around us. And it's like, after a long time, it's like, it's like the emoji with the hand like, this is like Einstein was like this for a long time. It's like, and eventually, oh, wait a minute. What if gravity is not actually a force where like, the moon is attracting the earth? What if instead, gravity is a phenomenon that arises, because the presence of a certain amount of stuff within a certain volume of space creates a kind of sink hole in the fabric of space itself? Maybe space is not nothingness. Maybe space is not empty. Maybe space has a kind of fabric to it. And so when stuff is in there, it's sort of warping the fabric of space like a sinkhole, and as the moon is attracted to Earth, what it means is that it's constantly falling toward the earth in this sort of vortex Because in space, like that's mind blowing, no one could have come up with that, you know, to begin with. And if you kind of had that idea to begin with, you wouldn't even know how to formulate it. But I suppose it was those who was the person who's like, you really need to think profoundly about the very, very deep fundamental underpinnings of everything. And once you do that, eventually, sometimes the new profound insight will will come along.

Nick VinZant 50:22

So is it I'm guessing that a part of that potential theory that's not worked out, right, yet would be like, well, how can the universe be made up of something that doesn't physically exist?

Dr. James Beacham 50:32

Well, that's exactly you're asking a really key philosophical question here. What does it mean for something to physically exist? You know, because here's the thing, I totally agree with you, I don't know what it means for math to physically exist. But the kind of connection you can make is, like I said earlier, our universe seems to use certain mathematical structures that can that is a mathematician doing their her job would be able to write on a blackboard a very large number of possibilities. Our universe chose this one. Why did it not choose any of the others? Okay, whatever, we chose this one, that's fine. So does that mean that our universe has a kind of possible set of an infinite number of possible mathematical structures that are being instantiated by universes like ours? And again, it's kind of related to multiverse theory in a way. But again, I don't know what it means for for math to physically exist. But it is a hypothesis that I think is worth thinking about.

Nick VinZant 51:27

Are we going to go back in time? Can we go back in time? Is that going to happen?

Dr. James Beacham 51:32

Short answer, probably not. Time travel? Well, okay. First of all, if somebody asks, can't will we ever travel through time? The question is, yes, and you're doing it right now you're traveling through time, at a rate of one second per second. So we're all traveling through time. And indeed, we are. However, if you want to do some other kinds of travel to a time where you're, for example, you know, traveling at one year per second, then that's something that we have to work on. It seems right now, with the kind of theoretical limitations that we have within, you know, special relativity and general relativity, these kinds of things, we, it seems likely that we'll probably never be able to do backwards time travel, I'm happy to be proven wrong. But the short answer is that we might be able to, at some point, be able to travel into the future far future. But traveling backward in time seems to be less likely. And there's a lot of reasons for that one of them is mathematical. Again, at the end of the day, we have this thing, we have these mathematical rules that are part of relativity, it seems as though it's probably not likely for us to have so called closed timelike curves. I mean, I'd be happy to prove or be proven wrong. But we don't have any evidence that that's really possible forward time travel could be possible, but backward might be impossible.

Nick VinZant 52:45

Why would backward be? Not possible, but forward be possible? Like what's the,

Dr. James Beacham 52:51

it has to do with a kind of technicality of the equations that we use to describe so called relativity, this thing called relativity, basically, when you have objects that are moving at very, very high speeds, or at speeds that are beyond what light can do, there are certain limitations to what they can do. And in the equations of relativity, you can, you can come up with trajectories that certain people that objects like us physical objects, certain trajectories that we could even in principle take. I don't think I've been describing this very well. But you can think of it in the sense that moving forward into space, there's a lot more possibilities that we have, because the future is not really you know, we haven't lived the future yet. Because the past has a particular has a particular set of strictures on it that have already existed, it's harder for us to find a kind of physical way that you could ever go backwards in time. There's, it's a, I don't think I'm answering this very well. But it takes a much longer discussion. I

Nick VinZant 53:47

think I kind of get it right, we can go forward because we don't know what the path is. But we can't go backward because we can't go backward on a specific path.

Dr. James Beacham 53:56

It's a rough way of thinking about it. It's a rough way of thinking about it. Yes. However, another reason to answer another way that I won't answer your question is that it also seems that if you can find closed timelike curves, which means if you could find a way to travel backwards in time, it might take such extreme gravitational conditions, such as those that are only found in the middle of a black hole, that it would probably just rip your body apart, and you might not be able to survive the trip. So even if you were to find some kind of backwards time travel thing, you might not survive the trip at all. Again, this is all speculation at the moment, because we've never been able to see it. There's other reasons to think that backward time travel might not be possible, because you might ask the question, if backward time travel is possible, why haven't people from the future visited us yet? Why is this never happened? Why have they never you know, and people this has been done a few times in the past people like scientists or speculative fiction fans, they're like, let's have a party. Let's just announce it's like, we're all going to be at this one place at one time. And we'll just advertise the universe, both in the future in the past in the future, especially Meet us here is a safe space meet us to say hello, aliens from the future whoever future humans meet us there if if future if backwards time travel is possible, if we discover this in the future, and just meet us here, and no one showed up. So it's this is kind of a logical way of thinking that probably backwards time travel is possible. It is not possible.

Nick VinZant 55:19

That's pretty much all the questions that we have. I mean, is there anything else that you think we missed? Or anything like, Oh, she know about this? Or did we kind of cover?

Dr. James Beacham 55:28

You know, we could go on for hours about all these topics and more, I just, you know, I think that for me, you know, the main thing to keep in mind, when we think about these concepts, who's going to in a conversation like this, we've touched upon a lot of different things, right? Both sort of like, boots on the ground Science here at CERN, the Large Hadron Collider turning back on and world record of the highest energy ever, you know, and, and then we got into philosophy and we talked a little bit about religion and these kinds of things. At the end of the day, all of this stuff to me, you know, the human endeavors that we have, you know, doing science, big science, like the Large Hadron Collider, smaller science, like chemistry, you know, your chemistry professor will do like, you know, tabletop experiments, you know, exploring the universe. All of these things, especially in a moment like this, especially in a moment of extreme, you know, stress and strife and hardship, you know, like large scale war has literally returned, you know, large scale war work waged by a fascist has returned to Europe for the first time in almost 80 years, like a pandemic that's, you know, killed so many of our loved ones, it's like, really a really a bad time. And in moments like this, I like to keep in mind that science, you know, like, big projects, like the Large Hadron Collider, that are mounted solely because our universe, our species is curious about the universe. There's no reason for this research. Other than just curiosity, we want to know how the universe works better. These projects demonstrate that. So 1000s of people come here from around the globe, to strictly work on, on curiosity for the universe strictly because, you know, for the sake of peace, right, the things that connect us, as humans are much, much stronger than the things that are put in place to separate us. You know, I'll give you a physics example. I said earlier that an individual electron right is sometimes you can think of it as a little point of something like a little particle like a BB moving through space. But in fact, if you think about it from a more fundamental way, it's kind of a little wavy packet of vibration that's moving through space. Turns out that that's not actually the most fundamental way to think about an electron, and therefore about all the particles that make up you. Turns out, if you look at the math just right, we've talked about math, if you look at the math just right, it turns out that the much more fundamental and accurate way to think about an electron moving through space, is that it's not a chunk of something moving through space, but in fact, is the little vibration in a field that permeates all of space everywhere, all the time. And this little thing is a vibration in this field, imagine you're playing with a cat on your bed, you're playing with your cat on your bed, and you take your sheet and you spread, you stretch the bed sheet tight, and you put your finger and make a little tent and the sheet and you move this tent around, and your cat chases this thing, right. That's actually what a particle is, is the much more if you took the sheet away you put your finger up cat wouldn't care about that is because it's gonna lick himself and go back to sleep. But if the fact that there's a sheet there makes it so the thing exists is possible to exist, and this electron moves around. Turns out, that's the much more fundamental way to think about our universe and everything in existence. And therefore what that means is that you and I, and everyone listening to us, everyone in existence, we are all collections of particles, that are excitations in the exact same quantum fields that permeate all the universe, we are all connected at a much deeper, much more fundamental way than any of the ways that other people try to separate us. So I like to keep this kind of a thinking thing in mind. And I just want to say I do I mean, I have my own problems. And the world is really frustrated and you know, terrifying sometimes even to me, I like to keep this in mind. And I like to hope to try to inspire other people. To keep this in mind. When you know, next time you get short with someone or you start to make a judgment on someone or make you know, some kind of biased, you know, viewpoint, just catch yourself and realize that we are all part of the same universe. And in fact, I'm really glad that you're all in this universe with me.

Cosmetic Chemist Valerie George

Look younger, regrow hair, eliminate wrinkles, have perfect skin and hair: cosmetic companies make a lot of claims. But do you know what’s really in the products you put on your body. Cosmetic Chemist Valerie George knows what cosmetic products work and which ones don’t. We talk the best skin and hair products, balding, toxic cosmetics, ingredients to look for and the real secret to looking younger. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Band Names and unveil and new Candle of the Month.

Valeria George: 01:44ish

Pointless: 41.50ish

Top 5: 1:00:11ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

316-530-7719 (Show voicemail)

https://www.instagram.com/cosmetic_chemist/?hl=en (Valerie George Instagram)

https://www.instagram.com/thebeautybrains2018/?hl=en (Beauty Brains Podcast)

http://www.simplyformulas.com (Valerie’s Formula Company - Simply Formulas)

http://www.simply-ingredients.com (Valerie’s Ingredient Company - Simply Ingredients)

Interview with Cosmetic Chemist Valerie George

Nick VinZant 0:00

Hi welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode chemistry and ban? Well, I

Valerie George 0:18

think a lot of ingredients are used for marketing fluff. If brands just say, what's the newest hottest ingredient, let's get that in the product. Many years ago, they had formulas that contained an ingredient that under certain conditions converted to formaldehyde. If we invested the amount of research that goes into other areas for hair growth, I think we'd find something, you know, people are suspecting, you know, that things may help hair to grow back. Really, the only way to turn back time on your skin or to really look younger is,

Nick VinZant 0:55

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review. So our first guest is a chemist who specializes in creating formulas for the things that we put on our skin and our hair. And it's really interesting to hear, from a scientific perspective perspective, what works, what doesn't, and what is just marketing. And even if you're somebody who doesn't use these products, I think it's really interesting to learn just how the beauty industry really works, how these different things can affect the body. And for men. Why we haven't figured out how to cure baldness yet. This is cosmetic chemist Valerie George, basically like as a cosmetic chemist, what are you doing?

Valerie George 1:47

Well, I can be doing a lot of things. It depends what my family thinks I do. And then why I actually do in the lab, probably two different things. But for the most part, I am working on a lab bench with cosmetic ingredients. And I'm creating formulas for brands to sell to consumers.

Nick VinZant 2:06

You're using ingredients like what are the ingredients, I don't even know like really what I'm putting on my own bought body honestly.

Valerie George 2:15

Yeah, it's a bunch of different stuff. It could be natural ingredients like oils, or butters or gums, which help thicken formulas, it could be an emulsifier that helps oil and water come together because like Italian dressing, you know, which likes to separate. And then you have to shake it before you use it. The same thing would happen to a cosmetic product unless you emulsify it like creamy Italian dressing. So we may be putting emulsifiers in, we're using preservatives, we're using silicones. We're using petrochemical derived materials that maybe help skin stay moist, or help up product be more pleasing when you apply it. So instead of it being really dry and dragging it might be really slippy and lubricating feeling. So it's a bunch of different stuff. And I think there's probably at least 25,000 ingredients on the market that someone can choose from.

Nick VinZant 3:04

So that's the thing, right? Like you hear 25,000 different products, which for me is like Good lord. Like how much of this stuff this works? How much of this stuff is like, well, we could sell it because it's got a pretty picture on it.

Valerie George 3:20

Yeah, well, I think a lot of ingredients are used for marketing fluff, if if I have to be honest, a lot of them do really great things. A lot of them have great research behind them. But I think a lot of brands just say what's the newest hottest ingredient? Let's get that in a product. And let's talk about it. I think a little bit of that is changing because consumers are smarter. And they're saying well, how much did you put in and then the you know, the brand is being forced to disclose that. But as a chemist, I would say probably a lot of it is, you know, doing the things like it's helping form the structure of the product, it's helping the product feel good when you apply it, it's helping the product, do what it's supposed to do. And then a lot of the other stuff is just marketing fluff, I would say.

Nick VinZant 4:05

So I guess from your if I'm understanding correctly, so I can theory from a chemistry point like this should do something.

Valerie George 4:13

It's either doing something for the formula, or doing something for the consumer when they apply the product. And in theory, you know, when used a certain way, in a formula or used a certain percentage, it could be doing something maybe sometimes it's doing nothing and it's strictly marketing fluff.

Nick VinZant 4:31

Is there anything that you would say like, oh, people should not be doing that, like from a chemistry perspective. Like look, maybe we shouldn't put acid on our bodies.

Valerie George 4:41

I think acids actually a really great example. I think a lot of consumers over exfoliate their skin because you think oh let me get all this dead skin off of my face. Do you do you exfoliate?

Nick VinZant 4:51

I don't know. Okay, well,

Valerie George 4:54

I guess I'm probably not. You probably don't Okay.

Nick VinZant 4:58

My wife has some kind of scrub thing that I put, it's black, it feels like sandpaper, and I wash my face with it. So,

Valerie George 5:06

okay, great. So you're exfoliating with physical exfoliant, but a lot of exfoliants use chemicals to exfoliate the skin because a physical exfoliant is only going to go over the skin surface and physically sandpaper, all the dead skin off of your face, which is great. But to really get all these dead skin cells off, you need to use chemicals to help loosen them. And then you can physically exfoliate. So the chemical exfoliant are usually acids, they're at a very low pH. And people want tons of acids in their skincare products. But it can be really harsh on skin, and then they're exfoliating every single day. So they're over exfoliating their skin, which is making their skin barrier compromised, which is leading to unhealthy skin. So it's kind of doing, you know, the opposite of what they wanted to do. But I would say Yeah, our consumers are over exfoliating, and in general just putting too much stuff on their face at all times.

Nick VinZant 6:04

Is that always been the case? Or has that gotten like a lot worse, like now we're really doing that too much.

Valerie George 6:11

I think it's probably being overdone too much. Because I'm sure people are seeing things on social media and saying, Oh, I have to try this or that or, you know, with a popularity of K beauty. You know, the skin that you see in the imagery of K beauty products is really beautiful. It's like glass, it's so smooth. And now there's dolphin skin, like who wouldn't want skin as smooth and glossy as a dolphin? Right. But I think it's giving an unrealistic expectation of what can be achieved for most people. And so people are over applying these products to try to achieve those looks, I would say people have always used products, right. But I think the over application, or misuse or using ingredients that are too high, too much of the time, I would say that's probably more recent,

Nick VinZant 7:01

when you come up with like a new formula, are you designing the best formula first? And then figuring out like if this is going to work on people? Or do you kind of like alright, well, what's going to be safe for people and then figure out how to do it,

Valerie George 7:16

I think it's probably a bit of both. And everyone has a different approach to doing it. So I'm a minimalist formulator, which means I don't use anything I don't need to use. And I start from that approach first. So I will write down everything that has to go into a certain formula. So for example, if you say, Valerie, I need a hair conditioner for this hair type, and I need it to do these things. I say what has to go in a hair conditioner? Like what's the bare minimum? And this is more thinking about the formula and less for the consumer. So I'll write down all the things that like, okay, a conditioner needs water, it needs oil, it needs an emulsifier it needs a preservative. And then I'll start to say, Okay, but what about the consumer now? So then I'll start to add in the things that I think would benefit and give the performance that a consumer is looking for. And all the while I'm like, How do I keep this within the regulatory limits? So it's safe to use the whole time. Some people have a more is more approach. And they'll just like dump everything they can from the get go in the first in the first pot.

Nick VinZant 8:26

How regulated? Is it? Like? Are the regulations pretty good? Or is it kind of like supplements where basically there is no, no real regulation?

Valerie George 8:34

Well, I think people have a perception that the United States, which would include Canada, they follow a lot of the same regulations as the US is not regulated in terms of cosmetics, and that in the EU, which is much safer. But I think that's an improper way of looking at it. Cosmetics legally are required to be safe to be on the market. That's the regulation and you get there by two ways. Whatever you say is in the bottle has to be in the bottle. And you have to guarantee that it does what it says it does. And that it's safe for the consumer to use. That's the law. So how you get to the safety part is up to the brand to decide. And it's on the responsibility of the brand or the manufacturer to do all the safety testing and make sure it's safe to go to market. In the EU. They actually give you a framework of how you do the safety steps to make sure the product is safe. So the outcome is the same in both geographies if you're doing the work to get there. The other thing that I will say is colorants are actually more regulated in the United States than anywhere else in the world. They actually check every shipment every package of color that comes into the US like a dye for a product or even food coloring. They inspect every shipment and we have a huge risk tryptic colorings list that many other geographies don't have? Is there a reason for that? I think colorants can be dangerous. And they can have impurities. So maybe it's that

Nick VinZant 10:09

when we look at kind of the human body and things like that, like, are we pretty fragile are pretty durable when it comes to what we can kind of put on ourselves,

Valerie George 10:18

I think we're pretty durable. I really think that especially with cosmetics, I mean, a cosmetic is something that is supposed to beautify or cleanse the skin, it's not supposed to cause any physiological changes within your body, that would be considered a drug. That's the definition in most places. And so I think from from that perspective, if it's truly a cosmetic product, you know, I think we're, we're pretty durable, I think there's a lot of other stuff, people should be worried about, like pollution particulate in the air that we're breathing in, or maybe things that we're eating,

Nick VinZant 10:55

um, when you kind of look at different products and different formulas, is, everybody's different. But is everybody really different? Like this works for this person? And it doesn't work for this person? Or is it like it works, or it doesn't work? And maybe it works a little bit better? Or a little bit work? But it's really kind of, we're all kind of the same? Are we all really different?

Valerie George 11:16

That's a great question. I would say it depends on the product and what it's intended to do. So I think most products, whether they're for you, or not for you really depends on the aesthetics. So I have, I used to have really dry skin, now I have combination skin, but when my skin was really dry, it would be appropriate for me to put on really heavy, thick products that were super occlusive because my dry skin needed them and could handle them. Someone who has really oily skin would say, well, that product doesn't work for me, because my skin is very oily, I'm prone to breakouts. And this product would just give me give me more breakouts right. But from if we looked at an actual functionality of the product, let's say the product was designed to combat redness from a functionality perspective, it would still likely cause or combat redness on my skin, which is dry, and your skin, which is oily, it would still do that. But the perception would be this product soft for me because it's occlusive and heavy. I would say a majority of the products try to target as many skin types as possible. And I think consumers are not necessarily great judges of whether or not a product makes a difference or not. I think too when they speak they like it or not. I think they're you know, that's just a general Do I like it or not? Does my skin feel good? When I wear it? Do I like how my skin looks? I don't know that they can actually say, Oh, yes, I see my skin is more firmer or more elastic. I think there's a reason those things have to be validated clinically, for the most part. A lot of products work for most consumers, I would say.

Nick VinZant 13:05

I don't know if this is necessarily your area. Right. But if they do, like clinical trials or whatever the right word should be. I don't know if it's clinical trials. Like, is that stuff usually pretty sound right? Or is it kind of the old Homer Simpson quote of 60? You know, 60 statistics can prove anything. 60% of people know that right? Like, are the clinical trials really sound? Are they like, look, this is funded by x company. And so of course they get this result.

Valerie George 13:33

That's very interesting. I mean, claims testing can be sound and solid A lot of the time. Anytime you see a claim, it's important to say, Okay, well, what did they evaluate it against? Because I think claims testing works, but, you know, marketing manipulates it in some kind of way. Does that answer your question? It's a little Homer Simpson, because marketing twists and contorts it and says, Wow, this is really sensational. But then the test data are just facts. It's how you how you spin it,

Nick VinZant 14:05

right? It's kind of like numbers can prove anything. If you want them to prove something, right, you can find a way to make this work.

Valerie George 14:12

You can design the study to make it work. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 14:16

Is there a like, is there a part of the body or an aspect of the body that like, this part is a lot harder in the sense that like, look, anybody can do this for the hand, but wait till you get to lips wait till you get to hair like what's the difficult part of it?

Valerie George 14:33

You know, so I was on the skin side before I've dabbled in color cosmetics and you know, just personally I didn't like them. And then hair I really loved hair because it's so instantaneous like your hair either looks good, or it doesn't when you apply a product to it, whereas skin I think is like a longer term payoff. You're like wow, I hope in 20 years this eye cream I pay $200 for is making a difference. You just have to like hope for that you'll never really know right now And then I've hired people who suffer me hair is really easy. It's something that comes naturally to me. Whereas I've hired chemists who say, Oh, yeah, I can make a shampoo, I can make a conditioner. And then they come into my hair lab. And they're like, Wow, this is really hard. And you know, they didn't think it would be that challenging to create a styling product or conditioner that worked for most hair types or a specific hair type. Conversely, I've had people leave my lab from hair. And they've had like, a really good training and hair, then they go to skin and they're like, Oh, my God, what do I do? I have no idea what to do. You know, they're just like, paralyzed. I found that. Anytime I try to talk to people about hair color chemistry, if I have a challenge, or I'm looking for an ingredient, I'll say, oh, it's for hair color project, and then they clam up, because they're like, Wow, that's so hard. And I'm like, okay, pretend I never use the word hair color. What advice would you give me? And all of a sudden, they're fine. So I think a lot of it's in the mind, I think a lot of it's, you know, if you know, the subject matter, and you have good critical thinking skills, you're gonna do just fine in any sub sect. But you know, for me, like nails would be hard, because that's really like a polymers and coatings, chemistry, right? So just depends,

Nick VinZant 16:20

like, where along the lines of evolution, are we kind of with this? Are we just getting started? Or are we more towards the like, we kind of figured out everything we can pretty much do and the rest is going to be marketing spin at this point. Like if one was just beginning, and we are at the end, like, where do you think we would be,

Valerie George 16:39

you know, for skin, I think we're starting to, you know, we know a lot about skin, its physiology, what's happening inside the skin mechanisms that work with different ingredients, there's, I feel like we're pretty good there, there's probably a lot more research to be had. But, you know, if we stopped doing research today, I think we'd be in a pretty good spot from a consumer perspective. One area of skin that's a bit of a hot topic in cosmetic chemistry is the microbiome. And the microbiome speaks to the natural bacteria and other micro organisms, yeast that live on our skin, were covered in these micro organisms, and they live in a certain balance with each other. And there's a school of thought that when this balance gets out of balance, that's when different skin conditions may arise. Or it may lead to an increase in underarm odor, or something like that. So that's a really hot and heavy area of research within skincare that I think we've just, you know, put our little fingernail into, we're not even like, we haven't even put our foot into it yet. But there's cosmetic chemists who will say that that's not a real thing, or, you know, they're really skeptical on whether it adds value or not. So that's an area where I would say we don't know anything in the scope of things. And we need to learn a whole lot more. When it comes to hair. Hair is very interesting, because it really had its golden age of research in the 60s. And after that hair research really slow down until perm chemistry in the 80s. That really slowed down after people stopped getting firms in the 90s. And so I think people thought, oh, hair is biologically dead. We've learned everything we absolutely, absolutely need to know about hair, and it slowed down a bit. But now there's been a resurgence in hair research. Because since the 1960s, or 70s, we have new instrumentation, we have new knowledge, new ways of looking at things. And so people are going back and looking at hair and saying, Wow, there's actually a ton of stuff we didn't even know. And you know, they're making lots of interesting discoveries.

Nick VinZant 18:39

I feel like I can speak for all men in some regards. And that as long as my hair is Yeah, I don't care. Like don't don't go Jinx there. Yeah, just don't even look at it. Like, look at my hair. Don't you guys, come on.

Valerie George 18:55

You bring up such an excellent point. Because I would say in hair growth. If we invested the amount of research that goes into other areas for hair growth, I think we'd find something I think for hair growth, like, yeah, Minoxidil is around. But other than that, you know, people are suspecting, you know, that things may help hair to grow back. The mechanisms are complicated, but I think if we could put more resources there, we may come up with some viable options.

Nick VinZant 19:24

How are we not doing? Yeah, like, I feel like men would pay a lot of money. I mean, I know some guys Yeah. Whoa.

Valerie George 19:31

I mean, companies are researching, but they're not putting the same funds towards that as they are as maybe, you know, novel therapies for treating disease. I think, you know, hair loss is kind of lower on the totem pole when it comes to cancer research and probably rightfully so. Right. But I think if you if we did throw a lot of money at it, I think there's a lot of stuff that we could learn.

Nick VinZant 19:54

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions?

Valerie George 19:58

harder questions? Oh, I Don't know what works. There is no miracle product for anti aging. A lot of people will say, What can I use to turn back time for the wrinkles on my skin? And the answer is nothing, probably not even plastic surgery. But you can use sunscreen sunscreen is the best anti aging product because it prevents the wrinkles from forming or reduces them the propensity of their formation before it even starts. So if you can wear sunscreen every day, no matter what, reapply, and do that diligently and you should see some really good results as you progress through your years versus someone who's unprotected.

Nick VinZant 20:40

Does the SPF stuff matter? Right Do I need is 15 different than like I've seen SPF I feel like 500 out there. Right Is that is that different?

Valerie George 20:50

Yeah, I would say the most important thing is to wear a sunscreen that you you like I mean SPF 15 is a good minimum to wear. The sunscreen should be broad spectrum because the broad spectrum raise the UV in suns sun rays. There's two types UVA and UVB. UVA causes aging. Loose loosely and skin cancer and UVB causes burning and possibly also skin cancer. So you need something that covers both of those. So you'll know it covers both. If it says broad spectrum, that's the most important thing. And the second is that you've liked the texture of it so that you actually wear it and are willing to put on have it on because you could have an SPF 100 And it's broad spectrum guaranteed to prevent you from aging. But if it is cakey and greasy on your skin and burns your eyeballs, you're not going to want to wear it right so I think the SPF factor is important. Probably more important broadspectrum a texture you love

Nick VinZant 21:56

since you are a haircare expert, what is harder shampoo? What's harder shampoo, conditioner or shampoo and conditioner?

Valerie George 22:05

Oh, I would say a two in one.

Nick VinZant 22:07

I feel like that's a rip off.

Valerie George 22:08

You're kind of getting like an okay shampoo, and like an okay conditioner. But you're getting one bottle. Whereas you could have like a really good shampoo and a really good conditioner. But you have to buy two bottles for your hair, which is short. Do you use conditioner? Yes. When one might be fine, because you have like shorter hair? You know?

Nick VinZant 22:27

I do? Well, my wife has I use what my wife provides. And I will say, okay, it is better. My husband's

Valerie George 22:34

the same. Yeah. Right. Yeah, it is.

Nick VinZant 22:37

But it is but but yeah. Before then I was always a shampoo and conditioner, man. And now my hair is like who it is a little bit nicer. I have to say that.

Valerie George 22:47

It is yeah. A two in one though from a formulation perspective is hard because it's two conflicting chemistries. Typically, cleansers have a negatively charged cleansing agents in them. They're called an ionic and conditioners have positively charged can ionic materials in them and opposites attract, right just like a magnet. And like Paula Abdul said, so the negative and the positive will attract to each other. And that's not supposed to happen in the bottle. Right? That's incompatible. So the trick with a two in one is how can you prevent negative cleansing things from positive conditioning things from competing with each other? And complexing?

Nick VinZant 23:29

If people are coloring their hair, they kind of ruining it?

Valerie George 23:33

Yes.

Nick VinZant 23:35

Oh, that's not good. Yeah.

Valerie George 23:38

No, no, it's really damaging because earlier I mentioned hair is biologically dead, right? But it's I say chemically alive. I'm waiting for other people to quote me and then like, put my name like after the quote here is by biologically dead but chemically alive. And so with hair color, lightener, perms, straighteners, all that kind of stuff. You're changing the chemistry of the hair, and not in a good way. And that leads to hair being damaged and you can't actually repair that damage once it's done.

Nick VinZant 24:07

No, my wife is gray to beautiful woman gray at 23. And she said like the amount of haircare products that have been in and out of this house?

Valerie George 24:19

Who Yeah, the best you can do is mask the damage that hair color does, that's the best you can do. And that's what a really good conditioner. And a gentle cleanser will help with

Nick VinZant 24:29

like, I guess kind of on a philosophical sense, right? Like, are we are we destroying people with this? Right? Like, you can look better you can change it. Like are we creating kind of a monster in ourselves with all of this?

Valerie George 24:46

Yeah, yeah. And you know, the grass is always greener. If I had really fine soft silky hair, I'd probably be like, Wow, I wish my hair was wavy and curly, which it is now. Alright, so I think you know part of it is You know, as humans, it's our nature to always want to aspire to to be something different or be something better or to fit the image of what we think that looks like. And I don't think it'll ever change beauty products or not. I just think that that's part of who we are

Nick VinZant 25:18

is you know, when you see somebody or that looks like their hair is like this, their faces like this, their skin is like this. Is it ever the product? Or is it really like, it's their genetics, it's who they are. And the product maybe helps a little.

Valerie George 25:33

I think a lot of it is genetics. Lifestyle is also a big one I mentioned at least for skin. Proper, some protection, staying out of the sun is key, not smoking is key smoking degrades collagen, you know, diet helps, at least making sure you're not nutritionally deficient. So then you could take your supplements, right? I think those are like probably the biggest factors and how our skin looks. And then a really tiny portion of it is product. And I almost even don't want to say that hesitated a little bit. Because really, the only way to turn back time on your skin or to really look younger is plastic surgery, or some type of more invasive dermatological procedures like lasers or resurfacing or injections or Botox or, and fillers, I think that's really, procedures are the only way you're going to get the most bang for your buck a cream is probably not going to do that.

Nick VinZant 26:34

If you put a number on it, like a person who looks like this, whatever that this is, what percentage of it is because of the product that they were using, like 10% 1% 20, thank you.

Valerie George 26:49

I would say part of me wants to say like 10 or less, but then I will say there is power in having a beauty routine, because a lot of people will say my skin is sold. I have a friend, we were in Vegas a couple weeks ago for an ingredient trade show. And she was like, my skin is so dry. And I looked at her and she literally has like lizard snake skin all over her face. And she's like, I think I need to go to the doctor and get like, you know, this invasive chemical peel done. And I was like you exfoliate your skin at all? And she was like, No, and I'm like, why don't you start there. And you know, your snake skin is gonna fall off your face. And it's little things like that we're just having a little small routine, it kind of doesn't matter what the product is. I think that's the biggest benefit that you're gonna see with your skin. Are you you know, washing your face with a gentle cleanser in the morning and in the evening? Are you moisturizing are using SPF. And I think if you can do those things cleanse SPF moisturize, you're gonna see a huge exfoliate, you're gonna see a huge improvement in your skin alone. So that's why I would say maybe like 10 to 15% as product. Maybe 20

Nick VinZant 28:07

Is there a price point where I can get something that's good enough, right? Like, I'm not buying the $9 gallon jug of moisturizer. But I'm also not buying the $5,000 whatever, like, is there a price point we like look, that'll get you there,

Valerie George 28:24

I would say it's tough because I'm a sucker for all kinds of products. And, you know, I'll see products that I know are insanely priced, and I still want to buy them because I have some shred of hope they're going to provide benefit to my skin. It's awful. And I just know deep down it's not true. So I would probably say there are a lot of great products you can get at the drugstore that are just as good as ones that you can get in the premier beauty stores like Ulta and Sephora. So don't feel the need to go out of your budget to get something again focus on the routine and make sure you have a gentle cleanser for your skin. And exfoliator a moisturizer and SPF and just right there you should be okay even with you know products if you choose to get them at CVS or Walmart or whatever the mainstream stuff that's under 20 bucks on the haircare side. For me, I don't like to spend a lot of money on shampoo, because I think, you know a lot of companies are using the same technologies and it's, you know, a little more economic. So I would say probably skimp on the shampoo and really invest in a really good conditioner. That would me be my recommendation and I would probably say are really good conditioners should cost somewhere between 20 and 40 bucks

Nick VinZant 29:48

when you look at like the the ingredients in different products, right? Like is it that different between brands for the same thing like or is it they use a and b and this company uses BNA or is it like, well, this this one's different? Yeah,

Valerie George 30:03

I mean, it depends, like if there were comparable textures, they're probably using a lot of the same stuff. I would say it's a little different with a company like L'Oreal who actively patents combinations of ingredients, or different use method methods for ingredients. So one example is, they have a vitamin C serum, from a brand they purchase called SkinCeuticals. And it's a vitamin C, E and ferulic. Serum. And this serum is like, over $100 for like a little itty bitty bottle. So insane. And people were like, is it worth the money, and it's worth the money if you see a difference in your skin. The problem with Vitamin C is that it's not stable. And so L'Oreal has done a lot of work to write, I think this was actually done under the SkinCeuticals brand. But they did the work to say that okay, well, we know that vitamin E helps stabilize vitamin C ascorbic acid, it's okay stable. But if we add folic acid into the picture, it's ultra stable. And so the consumer is actually getting stable vitamin C delivered to the skin. So in a case like that, I would say L'Oreal is doing something different. I mean, everyone uses folic acid. Everyone uses ascorbic acid, which is vitamin C, and everyone's using vitamin D. But it's like the combination and how they put it together. That's different. And a consumer probably doesn't know these things. Unless they say Why can't I find a dupe for it? And you know, they have to Shell out the money for this $125 Serum. But on the formulator side, you know, I can see those types of things. But I would say for the most part, we're all kind of using the same materials.

Nick VinZant 31:43

Is there been a product? Or is there anything that like, look, this is gonna kill you five years early, but damn, you'll look good. Like, has there ever is there anything that's been developed? Like, oh, this vitamin K beasts? riboflavin? Six, you're gonna look great. You're gonna die 10 years earlier? Like, has there ever been anything like, gosh,

Valerie George 32:08

this is so awful. But are you aware of a product called Brazilian blowout?

Nick VinZant 32:19

My wife does it.

Valerie George 32:21

Okay, well, their stuff now is fine. Allegedly. Okay, their stuff now is fine. But many years ago, they had formulas that contained an ingredient that under certain conditions converted to formaldehyde, which is, you know, can be considered toxic and carcinogenic. So, they didn't have formaldehyde in the products, they had ingredients that converted to formaldehyde under under the right conditions, and it was helping smooth and straighten the hair. I did this treatment many times. I loved the way my hair looked. I mean, with my scalp crossed over and fall off over the course of a week. And I couldn't go out in public. Yes, but after that, I felt like a supermodel with my hair being so straight and shiny. I never had to blow dry it. It was awesome. And I knew it probably wasn't very healthy. To use or have done especially like if I'm wearing a respirator and the stylus doing my hair is wearing a respirator, it's like probably not ideal for anyone. And in fact, a lot of people have claimed to be injured by that product. So I would say that is one. And it's a reason why those formulas are actually restricted now, so they had to reformulate their product and all that kind of stuff.

Nick VinZant 33:44

This is a more philosophical question, right? But like, at what point do you think that people would stop in the sense that all right, this product is going to make you look great, but five years takes off your life? 10 years? 1520?

Valerie George 33:58

I would say people would start hair loss. I think a hair loss product, someone would say yeah, I'll take five years off my life if I had a full head of hair the whole time. Don't you?

Nick VinZant 34:09

Yeah, I could go. I could go 10 I could see people saying 10 Right, because, right, obviously the difference. Do you know

Valerie George 34:19

how long you're gonna live? That's, I mean, it's like, Hey, I'm gonna live to 100 Sure, I take 20 off to live to 80 and live Yeah, really good the whole time. Right. But the trick is, you don't know. So if you're 58 you only get to live to 53. Is that five years worth it?

Nick VinZant 34:38

Yeah, now, if you like the difference between 30 and 25, like, oh, the percentages, right. falling

Valerie George 34:44

a little bit. I'll wear a hat.

Nick VinZant 34:48

I think most people would would be okay with 10% of their lives.

Valerie George 34:52

Maybe to have a forehead. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 34:55

For anything that would make them look like great. I could go as high as 20 percent like I bet. I bet people would go 20. That's crazy. Wow. And I think people wouldn't even question it to some degree. Um, what do you think of beauty influencers? And that can be as general or as specific as you want that question to be? Right. Like, what do you think about that people who are

Valerie George 35:20

I think beauty influencers can be great because a lot of them go beyond beauty. And also I would say are more like lifestyle, beauty influencers, or maybe they've evolved that way. And I think it's really incredible because they create these communities have diehard fans, who are willing to support them through thick and thin no matter what, and I have a couple of friends who are beauty influencers, and there are people who, they, this influencer has changed this person's life for the better, or they've helped them get through a bout of depression, or help them through a really challenging life situation, or they keep this person going. And that is pretty cool. And that's actually what attracts me to the beauty industry, especially hair is, if you you know, sometimes I think I can't believe I left like real research to come work in the beauty industry. But then I think, you know, I'm helping create safe products that really changed the way people feel about themselves. And that's pretty powerful. Because when you have a good hair day, you feel unstoppable. Like you can go out and do anything you put your mind to when your hair is looking its best. And that feels really good. And so beauty influencers can also be really influential in in that type of way, and helping people feel empowered. I think beauty influencers cannot be great when they spread misinformation, a lot of them, you know, think they know a lot of stuff about products or chemistry or how the industry from my side is regulated. And it's not the case. And they say a lot of things that aren't true. They'll say an ingredient is known to do this. And it's like, well, not not really that's not how it works. So I think they can do a lot of damage in that respect as well.

Nick VinZant 37:09

Is there one thing that you would say that's recently, right, like we're recording this basically the beginning of August 2022? That you would say, oh, no, no, we can't. Either that that's not safe or that like that doesn't work? Right? Like, stopped? Yeah, people?

Valerie George 37:28

Well, you know, I tried to stay off social media a little bit. So I can't think of anything like to currently but you know, something that always kicks up every now and again, is people are telling other people to avoid products with preservatives or preservatives are dangerous. And I just get so frustrated, because what's more dangerous is having a gram negative bacteria growing in a product, and then you become really sick and blind or you die. So to me, the risk of being exposed to a preservative that's proven to be safe, is way better than having micro organisms growing in your product. Right. Another thing I've seen lately, actually is, there are apps that are out there. And you can scan a product with your phone, and it will tell you if the product is toxic or not toxic. And so these influencers are going to Target and Walmart and Sephora, and they're scanning pictures and giving like Oh, thumbs up, this one's good or down, you know, thumbs down, this one's bad. And I don't like that, because those apps aren't really based on based on grounded scientific information. They're typically not run by toxicologists. And in just looking at a product on the shelf, you don't know enough about the formula, or what safety testing was done to determine if a product is safe or not like that's what toxicologists are for. So I don't like those because they'll walk up to a product by you know, maybe Procter and Gamble and say, Oh, this is toxic or bad for your hair, don't use it. And then like, well, actually out of any company in the world, they probably did the most safety testing for this product. And I would bet that it's safe for use, like they wouldn't put an unsafe product on the market. So I think that is something I wish people would stop doing is posting these videos of products and saying they're toxic off of an app that who knows who made

Nick VinZant 39:15

it, that's what I've always felt like is missing and kind of the influence or like generation is not in generation but that influence or places like the context isn't there, right? Because I can go to WebMD Yeah, I can go to WebMD and my headache is anything from a headache to signs that I've got cancer Ebola virus, right like the context of understanding what it is. For formulas now you've How long have you been making your own?

Valerie George 39:42

Just since March of this year, I actually just branched out for corporate America and opened my own company simply formulas where? Yeah, I just create formulas for different brands and work on different projects. I also have another company called simply ingredients where I sell my favorite ingredients that I've ever come I'm across to people like you at home, so that you can make your own products. I have fun recipes on my website that simply dash ingredients.com. And, in general, I just love beauty. I love science, I love talking about it, we could probably have an eight hour episode if you wanted. But I just love talking about beauty in general. So you can find me online as a science communicator, and really just kind of a avid proponent for transparency in the industry. And I have my own podcast with a co host called the beauty brains,

Nick VinZant 40:32

you know, for your formulas, when you know we talk about that, right? Like what's kind of different about yours than other ones that people might necessarily see.

Valerie George 40:44

Yeah, so there are a lot of chemists or companies that will make formulas. I'm the only company independent formulation company focusing on hair and hair color formulas. But what's I think is so special about what I do is that I used to be Executive Vice President of r&d, a very large haircare brand. And in addition to running r&d, I oversaw regulatory quality, packaging, and then manufacturing in the last year that I was there. So I have a lot of experience just outside of being in a baker that I think is a big point of difference for me.



Paramotor Pilot Chucky Wright

With nothing more than a small seat, a fan engine and a kite, Paramotor Pilot Chucky Wright has soared higher than anyone in history. We talk becoming a paramotor pilot, the joy of flight and his next big adventure. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Fictional Birds.

Chucky Wright: 02:27ish

Pointless: 30:24ish

Top 5: 49:38ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

316-530-7719 (Contact the Show)

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChuckyWright (Chucky Wright YouTube)

https://www.instagram.com/superchuckcw (Chucky Wright Instagram)

Interview with Paramotor Pilot Chucky Wright

NASCAR Spotter Tab Boyd

Perched high above the crowd with a radio and pair of binoculars, NASCAR Spotter Tab Boyd has been the eyes and ears for some of racing’s biggest names. We go behind the scenes of NASCAR, explore the life of a spotter, talk track fights and reveal what racing teams really think of certain tracks. Then, we sound out a special Top 5 Countdown.

Tab Boyd: 02:14ish

Pointless: 42:23ish

Top 5: 59:53

nickvinzant@gmail.com

https://www.tiktok.com/@tab_boyd (Tab Boyd TikTok)

https://twitter.com/Spotter_Tab (Tab Boyd Twitter)

https://www.instagram.com/thetabboyd (Tab Boyd Instagram)

Interview with NASCAR Spotter Tab Boyd

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, the eyes and ears of racing, and the best sounds.

Tab Boyd 0:21

Once you're up on the roof, and you're the one with a radio and you're the one with a button and a restart happens, you're like, holy moly, these cars are going fast. I started whenever I was in high school, sweeping floors cleaning up shop, my mom worked out a deal to get the bus driver to drop me off at a race shop that was not far from our house, three wide and two whites on us for wide, the entire day, bumper to bumper. And if you can slip and move, and it's like a high speed game of chess, and you're just you're planning moves miles ahead of whenever it actually happens.

Nick VinZant 1:00

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. I know I've been saying this for a while. But next week, we are going to be launching the new voicemail system or trying to make the show a lot more interactive. So we're gonna have all of those details for you. I'm really excited about it. I hope it works. And looking forward to making you guys a much bigger part of the show. So our first guest is perched high above the crowd with a pair of binoculars and a radio. He is the eyes and ears for some of NASCAR's biggest names. And he has this fascinating insight into the drivers, the tracks and what NASCAR is really like. Even if you don't really like racing, it's just it's so interesting to hear how all of this really works. And the ins and outs of what goes in two racing cars at 200 plus miles an hour. This is NASCAR spotter, tab boy. So what is what is a NASCAR spotter? What are you doing?

Tab Boyd 2:19

I have to admit it is a really good job. It's a very unique position, we stand on the top of the control tower, which is usually above the grandstands of the racetrack, we have two way radios that were able to talk to the driver and the crew, mainly the crew chief. But we have direct communication with the NASCAR driver during the race. So our main objective is to keep them safe, keep the car safe, and help them navigate their traffic. But there's tons of other responsibilities that we have during the race. So we are the liaison between the NASCAR officials and telling them messages whether it's a penalty or position on the track things of that nature. So during the race, we have to be on it from the drop of the green to the drop of the checker, whether it's green flag, caution flag or red flag, there's so much information being processed that we have to pass along and look for. So it's a cool deal.

Nick VinZant 3:20

Why would a driver need this I guess, with these race cars,

Tab Boyd 3:23

they're closed cockpit. So these cars with all the safety equipment that the drivers have, they're in a very confined seat. They have head risks that really hold their head straight in case of an accident. They have a full face helmet. So the cockpit is very tight knit and you will be claustrophobic if that sort of thing bothers you. But they're able to see straight in front of them. And they have a mirror just like a streetcar that shows what's going on behind them. Other than that they have no view of what's going on. So if just put in, like if you were going down the interstate, and you weren't able to turn your head to look right or left if he had somebody sitting beside you that was able to look all around and say okay, you can merge to the right now you just turn over and go to the right. So that's what we're doing through the radio, we're giving them what's going on around them. If somebody is faster or slower, what they're doing is either helping them or hurting them as far as lanes because the tracks are several lanes wide. So we're looking for so many things like how aggressive they are entering the corner, meaning speed, like some places are over 200 miles an hour entering the corner. So if they can back up the entry to go a little slower in and by slower, I mean just a few miles per hour so that the tires grip better to have a better speed through the center. So we're looking at all this stuff.

Nick VinZant 4:52

Okay, I don't know anything about NASCAR. So, but to me listening to this, it's like I kind of feel like you're driving the car.

Tab Boyd 5:00

Oh, that's it, it's the next best thing. That's for sure. You're so involved in what's going on you, you have the strategy part of it. And it's super intense.

Nick VinZant 5:12

I know you're doing a lot of different things. But if you had to, say a primary focus, are you primarily washing your driver? Or are you primarily watching the other cars around your driver,

Tab Boyd 5:22

there's very little focus on your car, actually. So you, we always have binoculars, even if it's a short track, you have them in your hand, in case there's a bump up or car damage, you can quickly look at what's going on. And that's also to clear them, like if they're in a tight battle, and they need to squeeze up to the wall, you're telling them whether they're clear or not. And a lot of times, they can see in their mirror that these guys are good. Now we're talking about the best 40 drivers in the country, and some sun would say the world, but you are just helping them guide through the day. They, they know what's going on most of the time, but there's that little percentage where they might be in a battle and you can help them slip up into a hole that they need to be in to then gain speed for the next lap. So yeah, it's it's sheer intensity.

Nick VinZant 6:19

You fill out a job application. Just get down there one day, or how'd you get this,

Tab Boyd 6:24

I was thinking about this the other day, how very lucky I am. So this is my 25th year traveling on a NASCAR race team. I started whenever I was in high school, sweeping floors cleaning up shop, I would, I would get the bus driver, my mom worked out a deal to get the bus driver to drop me off at a race shop that was not far from our house. So I literally would get off the bus and go clean up a race shop after school. And that's just what I did. You know, we a lot of people play sports or do other things. But I grew up with my dad racing short tracks my entire childhood. So it wasn't new to me, you know, I've been around race cars for ever, I was at the racetrack when I was two weeks old. So I've become very lucky to be able to be around it and get to know so many people in the sport. And I've never actually filled out a true blue job application. You know, it's you get to know people you make connections, the I would say it's a lot like a baseball or football team, where people know the set of skills that this player has, and they want you on their team or you might fit in to a certain mode of of the driver. You know, an aggressive driver needs someone that's calm on the radio, or a calm driver need somebody that's aggressive on the radio. So there's so many things that play into the success of the racecar so I've been very lucky to be able to progress and stay into the sport as long as I have.

Nick VinZant 8:03

Can you say like okay, my driver one because of the spotter or they lost because of the spotter. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He would have won. But that tab Boyd guys, I told him to break when he should have gas.

Tab Boyd 8:17

There are some tracks that we race that say Daytona Talladega that we consider super speedways. And as a spotter, we really love those racetracks because we feel that we have more of an input of what's going on with the car, and how to navigate through the traffic then we do the other places, because the draft is so much into play. There are three wide and two whites on those four wide, the entire day, bumper to bumper. And if you can slip and move and it's like a high speed game of chess. And you're just you're planning moves miles ahead of whenever it actually happens. Yes, you there are a couple of tracks throughout the year that you could definitely be the one who helps win. But there's a saying that that's been around a long time, you're not going to help them win very often, but you're sure can make them lose.

Nick VinZant 9:18

That makes a lot of sense. Right? Like you you can mess it up. Absolutely. Yeah. Is that fair? Or is that just the part of the job? Well,

Tab Boyd 9:26

that's part of the job. I mean, we understand how much is at stake. I mean, each one of us were lucky enough that maybe 40 people in the world good to make a living doing what we do. And you are responsible for millions 10s of millions of dollars worth of equipment. And so you have to be sharp. Whenever the green flag drops you have to be on it focused what's going on because you have the the race team, you have an organization that might have 500 people People working in it every day of every week. And all their work goes to the racetrack, and you're responsible for it. And so it's you and the driver out there. And then they have the pitstops, or the pit crews got to be fast, and they have to do their job. It's a lot of responsibility. But I don't get nervous before races anymore. It's almost excitement because you know, the preparation that you have. And we talk a lot about different situations. So you're, you're building up to the moment of the race. So nothing's a surprise that you could say. But having said that, you've got to be ready for anything. Because every single race has its own personality, there can be a day where man the race is going to click, there's no cautions. And then they're like, just for instance, we ran a race it Nashville had two lightning delays, we had a rainstorm go through, and it ended at almost midnight. So you have to be ready for any situation.

Nick VinZant 11:03

When you're talking to the drivers, like, go left, go right? Watch 21 Are you more like longer form? Alright, so two laps from now you're gonna want to be able to drift over, like how does the conversation usually go?

Tab Boyd 11:17

on restarts? That's whenever is the most critical timing, I think, because you have a lot going on a lot of information going at a short amount of time. So the lingo is quick, it's either clear or not clear, you have one outside, inside that means to the right or left. And they know exactly what you're talking about. Because they know where they're at on the track. If you say outside, they know that someone's to their right, and they can't use the whole racetrack. So having said that, there's a lot of quick lingo on a restart, because everybody that's the most critical time jockeying for position and putting yourself to where you need to be for a long haul. So you're going hard as you can trying to get every edge and then you all of a sudden have to go into a mode where, okay, we have to make these tires last 50 laps, we can't dig up our car, we can't hit the wall, we can't do this or do that we have to stay out of trouble. So you automatically start racing the stopwatch start rate us as a race the clock. And that means focus on a bath lap time. And pacing yourself basically because if you go too hard for a short amount of time, you're gonna wear tires out, go slower, heat everything up, if you can just be consistent. Most of the time, that's better in the long haul. So there's a there's a lot of strategy to

Nick VinZant 12:44

putting all kinds of humbleness aside, like what makes you good at Well,

Tab Boyd 12:48

whenever I was younger, I raised short tracks quite a bit. I built built my own cars. I'm a fabricator by trade. So learn how to weld cut, build, mainly the whole race car. So I respect the process that it takes to build these things. Because they are works of art, these these race cars are so nice whenever they hit the ground of the racetrack before the race weekend starts. And they're truly works of art. And I think the respect that I have for the fabricators and the mechanics and the engineering, that all goes into building the car. And then having a little bit of experience behind the wheel. I never went to a high level drive. It's like locals Saturday night short track racing. But I know what it's like for the car to be loose. I know what it's like for the car to be tight not handle well of experience, the brakes not working properly, or the steering being heavy in your hand. Lots of little situations that you're only going to know what it's like by fit by doing it. So that helps a ton. Being able to relate to what the driver is feeling. So that you're not just saying, Oh man, you need to go faster. Why can't you do this? Or why can't you do that? Because they're in the car. It is super hot in those cars. When the car's not handling properly, they are hard to draw even when they're handling good. They're hard to drive. So it's, I think that I understand what the driver is going through and the process that it takes for the cars to get there. And try to apply that and and make a good day out of

Nick VinZant 14:31

what happens more often does the driver generally Is he just going to agree and be like, Okay, I'm doing that, or is it kind of a back and forth like no, you're not seeing what I'm doing?

Tab Boyd 14:41

It's a there's a it could go either way there so there's different series a spot in the truck series, they extended the series and the cup series and NASCAR so different levels of experience for the drivers as well as the The experience of the team you know, some teams are small some teams are powerhouses, some teams have 100 engineers working, some teams have five engineers working. So you have to let all that mesh together. And a lot of that is the preparation of during the week communicating with your team, understanding what the track is like that we're going to like, for instance, this weekend, we're going to a road course that has 15 or 16 turns. So it's going to be very, very unique weekend. So we know what we're getting into. We know what to look for we, we try not to be harsh on each other, but there are times a tempers flare, and it's mainly not at each other. But sometimes it is like if a if a car is not him handling to their liking, and they can't understand why we can't fix it. And you have to be the liaison and say, hey, it's it's alright, let's make the best of today and get through it. Because you're always gonna be racing next week in

Nick VinZant 16:01

here, just yell at a driver, like, you're not right, or is that gonna like that like UFC? Oh, like, you can't just do that?

Tab Boyd 16:11

Yeah. It gets a little sensitive every now and then

Nick VinZant 16:15

you got to massage it a little bit

Tab Boyd 16:17

like, Absolutely.

Nick VinZant 16:18

gone a little faster in that.

Tab Boyd 16:23

Yeah, there's so many times that how you say something is definitely and I learn a learn every weekend, something different, something new. Whenever I was younger, I was pretty hot headed. And and I don't know what reputation is all that stuff? Because I do what I think is right. And a lot of people do I respect people that get mad about it, because they want it and they want to do well. So if somebody gets crashed or somebody does something, they shouldn't do them. And they just oh, well, well, that kind of, I want somebody that's aggressive about it. You know,

Nick VinZant 17:06

we usually don't go into this this early, but a lot of the questions are good ones. So are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Let's

Tab Boyd 17:14

do it. Let's fire away.

Nick VinZant 17:16

I don't want to start with this one. Oh, boy, I'm gonna start with this one. So you have to basically be paying attention for what like four hours, five hours just non stop, right? Yes.

Tab Boyd 17:27

Oh, yeah. What if you have to pee? You just pee on yourself? Are you?

Honestly, there are little opportunities that you're able to go like if there's a stage break. If there is a red flag, a lot of times when there's a red flag, like when the lightning pop just the other other day at the last race. You see, everybody immediately headed down the stairs to hit the restroom, because you never miss an opportunity. But honestly, most of the time, you're really really hot. And you're sweating, because we're on the top of the grandstands when there's no shade. You are sweating a ton. And you are literally so busy. And so focused, you don't realize that you have to go until after the race.

Nick VinZant 18:25

Are you mainly watching what's happening or anticipating what's going to happen?

Tab Boyd 18:30

That's a good question. Because different racetracks have different personalities, I like to say, a short track, you can, you can start to see trouble brewing at some of these places. Like if, if a driver does get angry at another driver at say, Martinsville or Richmond, there's probably going to be payback. So you are aware that there's going to be a bump or somebody putting somebody in a bad position to slow their speed down so they can get in front of them. But you can start to see trouble brewing at different places like Daytona or Talladega that we we talked about because people try to fit into a spot that might not be there or forced their way. And a lot of times trouble starts brewing when it's time to pit under green flag. And everybody's trying to get to the bottom to get the pit road and then trouble brews there. So yeah, that's a good question. You, you have to anticipate, if you see people starting to bunch up and momentum being lost, people start to get desperate to get back going. And that's when trouble starts brewing.

Nick VinZant 19:38

It's kind of like I have two boys, right? A five and a three. And you can you can see I'm like okay.

Tab Boyd 19:43

Yeah,

Nick VinZant 19:44

we got about five more minutes.

Tab Boyd 19:46

Here we go. Absolutely.

Nick VinZant 19:49

Now this person says And correct me if I'm wrong, but there's that spotters. We'll get into it.

Tab Boyd 19:54

Every now and then. Every now and then. Yeah. So we we have to get along this journey. Stan, because we are literally elbow to elbow every weekend. So we all know each other really well. And, you know, I've gotten to the point where if you do get into it, it's over with whenever the race is over, you know, and a lot of times, a lot of times you're relaying messages from a driver to another driver, and you understand where they're coming from. So, yeah, every now and then people will, we'll get into it, and there'll be a quick argument, but it don't last long. Because you gotta get back to your task, you know, so it's like, Hey, man, screw you gotta get back to work.

Nick VinZant 20:41

Right? It's kind of like I don't have time for this. But if you're all if you're also close together, right? Like couldn't do you then just listen to the spotter like, Oh, this guy's ahead of me. And his spotter just said he's got to do this. Like, are you listening to the

Tab Boyd 20:53

any other? No, I don't I don't listen to any other people. Because there's so much going on. You sure don't want to miss anything that you're responsible for listening to another driver. Some people can and and, and do but I don't I focus on what we have to do, and worry about keeping our car in position to do well.

Nick VinZant 21:17

Now, will you guys ever kind of work? Then there's teams in NASCAR, right? Yes. What do you guys work with other spotters? Like hey?

Tab Boyd 21:25

Absolutely. Yeah, so there's a lot of communication on the roof during the race. Like with teammate so the team I work for we're a single car organization. However, we have a Chevrolet so you always want to play well with other Chevrolet's, because all in all, we're like a umbrella teammate. You want to see your Chevrolet people do well, Chevrolet, the execs of Chevrolet want to beat the Fords and, and then the Fords want to be the toy, everybody wants to beat each other. So you try to do your part into helping a fellow teammate or a Chevrolet in my, my essence, do well. And the same with the four guys. And same as the Toyota guys. So you want to be there's times where you don't care about anybody, and you're trying to jockey for position. But whenever we get to a track like Daytona and Talladega, and I know I keep bringing it up. But that's how big of a deal it is to be in a tight knit group for pure speed because more cars together being disciplined, front bumper to bumper and not trying to pass each other is faster than people side by side and jockeying for position. So that's whenever being discipline really helps. And that's whenever we all communicate. So if you're on the roof during these races, the cars we going 200 miles an hour, but we will be standing next to each other saying, hey, our car is not handling, right? We might be tight, where you had to turn the steering wheel more to make the car turn. So that scrubs speed, right. So if that cars up front, again, more air downforce, it'll turn better. So they might swap spots to help the handling of that car. Or if a car is running hot, they will need to peak out so that more air gets into the grill. Because whenever they're tucked in behind each other, there's less air coming into the radiator, cooling the car. So there's 1000s of scenarios that make a world of difference. And we're communicating that and we're talking with each other.

Nick VinZant 23:40

Is that cheating? Or is that that's how it is. This is what how the sport is.

Tab Boyd 23:46

That's how it is because what goes around comes around, you know, if say, say there's a piece of paper, like a piece of paper like this, a hot dog rapper comes up to the grill and jams it up. Well, less air is coming in car will get hot. Well, there's a strategy to being able to get that off your grill. If you work with the person in front of you, and say, Hey, we have something on our grill. If a car goes and literally touches the other, the paper will come off. And so we'll communicate that say, Hey, we have and we can do it quickly say hey, we have trash on regret, we need to get it off and they'll say they'll communicate it to their drivers like yep, okay, so he'll stay still, instead of trying to block or move. They'll do that they can do that under green. And you never if you weren't listening, you never know that's what was going on. But there's a lot of that because you might need that somewhere down the road from them. And they'll say Hey, you two months ago he didn't let me do it. I'm not gonna help him out and they'll go on but but they will remember if they did do it. So yeah, let him hook him up.

Nick VinZant 24:57

But it's never like hey, it's my it's my kids birthday. How about you? Oh

Unknown Speaker 25:01

no

Nick VinZant 25:02

no Bly racetrack with the best food

Tab Boyd 25:04

Oh like like at the racetrack or the city let's do both on other roads so I would say cities that have the best food what Las Vegas have awesome restaurants downtown Kansas City I always love to go to because of the barbecue and the same can be said for Texas I just love the like even Fort Worth Austin in Kansas City there's a my favorite places and Daytona of course with the seafood they have some great places. Now racetracks to be honest with you, I don't eat and a lot of the concession stands because we're so busy during the day I usually make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and take it with me to the roof. And that's what I have.

Nick VinZant 25:52

He's can't go wrong peanut butter and jelly

Tab Boyd 25:54

is foolproof because you don't you don't want to go eat jalapeno cheddar brought for race. There you gotta you gotta have some that's bulletproof.

Nick VinZant 26:09

Your favorite track favorite and least favorite not that they're bad. Just that like oh, this is my personal favorite and my personal like oh I struggle with that track.

Tab Boyd 26:19

So I have two that are side by side for my favorite. I love Martinsville and Bristol. The no whenever I say Bristol, I like the night race and August that we have. So as on the concrete. The atmosphere is electric. The place is just so cool at night. Martinsville on like because it's a short track. So same sizes bristle but Bristol's really high banked and mega fast paced, the labs are 15 Second laps every 15 seconds, we're running laps, so it's fast paced, a lot going on. Martinsville is flat, and it's shaped like a paperclip. So the speeds are nowhere near as high. However, the guys can be banging lean on each other and be very physical while driving. And it makes it super exciting for the fans, I think because they can they can be so close to each other and lean and touch without wrecking each other. So it turns into a pretty good race. The track I think that is most difficult is Pocono because it is a huge racetrack that is two and a half miles long, shaped like a triangle. And then is very hard to see the cars like from where we stand. Turn one is so far away. The cars look like ants when they turn off in the corner. And then they have a tremendous straightaway that they go down. And then there's another corner. It's just hard to see. And the speeds are super fast. So you want to keep the car and driver safe. But you can't see very well. That's the hard part. And other tracks like a Watkins Glen, the track we're going to this weekend is Road America. I feel uneasy being the main spotter because I can't see the car all the way around. So those are the things that make it uneasy for me. Whenever even though we'll bring in some people to help. I like to be able to see our car and know that it's in a position to be safe or be able to see the passes and whatnot because these tracks the road courses are out in the out in the woods, basically. I mean what's Yeah, The Road America is a state park, I think. And they're racing in between the trees, and it's so hard to see. So that's a chance gotta be

Nick VinZant 28:52

tough. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So then you just haven't another like you're just kind of waiting for the car to come back into view and you trust in the other? Yeah. Like, okay, I hope he's

Tab Boyd 29:02

right. Exactly. And you're literally listening to the radio broadcast to hear what's going on.

Nick VinZant 29:09

Um, I don't know if you can answer these or not. You may have to be diplomatic. Or maybe you don't I don't know. Other than your other than your current driver. Yeah. Who did like who did people look at and like, oh, that they probably the best driver.

Tab Boyd 29:23

Man. Everybody that starts these races are very good drivers that they have won races elsewhere. They're champions and other divisions. There. They're very fast. And so you have all the guys that are top tier. And if you I've always said if, if you're working on a team, or if you're a race fan, you should walk as close to the fence as they'll let you get and see how fast these cars go. It is unbelievable. I mean, I've been doing it my whole life and when the portunity Every now and then we're able to walk down to the fence and just see and feel the speed. It you can't hardly describe it is unbelievable. So even the guy that's running dead last is very, very fast. So it's hard to put that into perspective, because you're like, oh, man, this guy, or this team is they're running 30th? Well, they're still very competitive. There might be, there might be four tenths of a second between the fastest guy on the planet. And, and that car, which is a blink of an eye, you know, I mean, yeah, so it's so hard to, to describe how good everybody is. Because if you slip just a little, you can fall all the way the rear. So yeah, there are so many that are good, that it's hard for everybody and have a top tier ride, I guess you could say, and have the the people the power the the sponsors behind them.

Nick VinZant 31:08

No, it's kind of just like, right, like, everybody's pretty much equal. But then when you put in other things like the car, well, he takes up a bit. Spot, it only takes up a little bit more. Right. Yeah.

Tab Boyd 31:18

Yeah, it's all situation and you do have rookies that are are learning. So I think the that you could also split up the experience level of somebody like Kyle Busch, Joey legato, those guys are remarkably good. And you have kurt busch, you know, Kyle's brother, he, he, he is a champion, you know, and he wins races a lot. And so the list would go on from the top to the bottom of how good these guys are. But everything's got a lineup, you know, the opportunity of the day, you might you might dominate and win a race one week, well, then the next week, you might, the best you can do is 15th. It's so hard to do. So there's a lot of respect to be had for people that are up front every week, because it is difficult, no matter no matter how good your car is, no matter how good your pit crew or the engineers are. Everything still has to go good. And it never hurts to have a little bit of luck.

Nick VinZant 32:22

What is your favorite experience at the track?

Tab Boyd 32:25

Well, man, I would say victory lane. That's the that's the ultimate goal for everybody. And there are some days where you might run the top 10. And you could say 10th place was a good day. Or you could say fourth place was a good day. But a few years ago, I had an opportunity to win the Daytona 500 With legato so I was spotted in 2015. That was a really cool opportunity because you don't realize how big that race is, until you win it and see everything that happens after it's a it's a pretty big deal. And that you can still say like, I mean, we're sitting here years and years after and, and we brought it up and winning a couple of night races at Bristol. And some of the cool things about my part is whenever you get a driver who has won their first race, so there are several drivers that I've spotted their first ever NASCAR win. And that's huge on I guess the list of accomplishments because as a career changer for you, whenever you win your first race and and you remain closer to some than others, but you've always been on that car whenever that happens. So those are cool things that happen at the track that little moments that you you. You don't ever want to take for granted, but they're hard to come by.

Nick VinZant 33:54

How much money do you make?

Tab Boyd 33:59

That's a hard question.

Nick VinZant 34:01

That's a hard question. Right? But this is like, I'll end on this one. But basically if somebody wants want to be the next you like what should they do like that? They I want to be a NASCAR spotter. Like what advice would you give to

Tab Boyd 34:15

Yeah, so first of all the money thing? Is it ever enough you know, I mean, no matter what happens is, but I can say that I personally and everybody that does it has a great opportunity to make a good living. So you're definitely comfortable and that the travel is fun, seeing the people's fun and I think the things that that I like most about the sport is the friendships because it's like a traveling circus whenever we're all most of us live in North Carolina where there's a few people there we have a spotter lives in Maine we have one lives in Idaho. A couple live in Tennessee and We all come together in the weekend. Like, I have a gentleman that lives like one mile down the road. That is one of my best buddies. And I have to go to California to scene. Because we're always, we're always gone so much. But uh, so I think the friendships are worth more than the money because you it's the connections you make, and everybody looks out for each other. And you do you want to beat each other to death sometimes during the day, but then if you ever need anything, you're there for each other. I feel so yeah, they Sorry, what was the second part of the question? The

Nick VinZant 35:37

Oh, if somebody wants to be the neck, oh,

Tab Boyd 35:39

boy, man. So this is, this is my 16th year spotting in the cup series in NASCAR. The first few years I was actually on a pit crew changing tires. So I've been on that side of the fence also doing pit stops. So man, I would say that if you want to if you have been in racing, and you want to to be the next, a mega company spotter, go to a short track, start meeting people hit find everybody at a short track, no matter if it's dirt, asphalt. Everybody needs help find somebody if you see a car that you liked the loads cool and, and walk up to a meet and say hey, man, I want to I want to come on the weekends and help. And you can start learning about the car learning the rules of the track and and you start meeting people that will then boost up like, Oh, this guy is gonna go to run an Arca race. And so you can maybe go help them and, and just step up the ladder. So, man that it's been a lifetime of learning. It's so hard for someone that because so many people think what we do is cool because it is pretty cool what we do. But once you're up on the roof, and you're the one with a radio and you're the one with a button and restore happens, you're like, holy moly, these guards are going fast. So it's a lot of responsibility. And I would say start from the bottom. Because that way when you get there, if you did get to the top,

Nick VinZant 37:20

you're reading favorite NASCAR movie. NASCAR movie. You know, there has to be days of thought. Yeah, right.

Tab Boyd 37:32

The good. I mean, Talladega Nights is funny. Don't get me wrong. I'll watch it. Because it's hilarious. But yeah, these are thunders Very good.

Nick VinZant 37:43

Do you think though, that the pit crew guy got too much credit in Days of Thunder, and they should have given more credit to the spotter.

Tab Boyd 37:54

But back then they had spotters, but they didn't have near the responsibility, I think that we had today. I think that the role has progressed quite a bit. And I like that.

Nick VinZant 38:10

What do you think? Do you think it's going to change fundamentally again? Or do you think if I guess pretty much what it's going to be? Well, like this This job is it's not like they're going to invent some new technology. It's gonna have a robot up there.

Tab Boyd 38:21

Yeah. So they've kind of been dipping into that they have these really nice like a 4k rear view mirror that that they as a camera. And whenever they're at the speedway's will run this mirror. But I don't think that that will replace what we do, then I think there will always need to be a human element. Because there's too much on the line to just rely on technology. What if some shorts out and then you have nothing. And so I think that they would want the team to have some sort of responsibility for what happens on the track. But as far as everything changing, this new style car we have this year in the cup series has been a mega challenge it because it's totally different than what any of the drivers have ever raised is different than what we've ever spotted. And to me, they look different on the track. The ride height looks different to me. They have little ports under the tire that make the car look different in the corner. So I was just saying we had a meeting earlier today. And we're talking about how the car looked. And I'm like, what they were talking about how the car fell. And I'm like, it's hard for me to see the car bounce the way that you're describing because the cars are different. The tires are low profile, the wheels are bigger, the back of the car is a lot shorter. So our visual is totally different than it used to be. So it's a challenge We're learning every race about something new that the car might go faster with and, and things that we're seeing, like the traditional race lines like high on the straightaway and diving to the bottom of the corner. There's a lot of places that they can change lanes and keep more momentum and be fast. And it just looks strange to us. But we're watching the stopwatch like, man, it don't look don't look normal. But if it's fast, keep doing it.

Nick VinZant 40:30

I did want to ask, so you started doing the 62nd at the track thing?

Tab Boyd 40:34

Yeah. Yeah. How

Nick VinZant 40:35

did you get that? Like, when did you start doing that? Started was a reason for

Tab Boyd 40:39

us started doing that. Because I have my my son is seven years old. And he's starting to understand why dad's gone most of the weekends of his young life. So I started making these videos like he said, Hey, Dan, what do you like when he was about five years old? He said, What what did you do this weekend? And I started listening. I was like, Hold on, I have a couple pictures. So I would go through and show him pictures and describe it. Well, it turned into like, you know, I won't do little video clips. And so I downloaded a video editing app and I made a like a 62nd videos and this is what I did this week. And I started showing him well. A couple of people saw it and then I put it on Twitter or Facebook, but I put it on Tik Tok. And it is really taken off. I think it's taken off. I mean, I don't have that many followers. But it's fun to see the interaction with people. So I started out showing my son what to do on the weekends. And then I just started doing it every week for for the fans.


Financial Crime Investigator Suzanne Lynch

Organized Crime, Corrupt Corporations, Rogue Nations, follow the money and you never know where it might lead. Financial Crime Investigator and Educator Suzanne Lynch has been following the money for more than 20 years. We talk fraudulent businesses, multi-level marketing scams, money laundering and how to protect your identity and bank account. Then we countdown the Top 5 Life Experiences.

Suzanne Lynch: 02:50ish

Pointless: 32:09ish

Top 5: 48:39ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show email)

Interview with Suzanne Lynch: Financial Crime Investigator and Educator

Pickleball Pro Ben Johns

Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the world. And Ben Johns is the sport's best player. He's ranked number one in nearly every category. We talk Pickleball tips, training secrets, being the best in the world, growing the sport and getting hit by wiffleballs. Then, we unveil a new Candle of the Month and countdown the Top 5 Hardest Foods to Eat.

Ben Johns: 02:00ish

Pointless: 31:35ish

Top 5: 46:14ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show email)

https://www.instagram.com/benjohns_pb (Ben Johns Instagram)

https://www.facebook.com/benjohns.pb (Ben Johns Facebook)

https://www.pickleballgetaways.com/ (Pickleball Getaways)

https://joolausa.com/pickleball/ (Joola Pickelball Paddles)

Interview with Ben Johns: Professional Pickleball Player

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode pickleball and difficult foods

Ben Johns 0:20

Pickleball is very much strategic choosing what to hit the correct shot at the right time is almost entirely what sports about, is it hard to be number one, I think it's a little bit hard in that you're always being pursued, like you don't really have affordance to go as a participation sport as the number of people that play it has a scary amount of potential. So imagine that bounces in there and you're at the other kitchen line. So I'm making contact with the ball 10 feet away from you, and I'm hitting it 50 miles an hour at you. I mean, in baseball, that's equivalent to a 300 mile per hour fastball.

Nick VinZant 0:54

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, it really helps us out. So when we first started talking about this, I thought it was going to be a pipe dream that like oh, yeah, we might do it. But no, it looks like we're actually going to be able to set up an interactive voicemail system that will let you guys the listeners be a much bigger part of this show. And we'll probably be doing that Fingers crossed. No, we're gonna do it by the end of this month, meaning July. So our first guest is the best player at a sport that is just skyrocketing in popularity. And when I say the best, he has been ranked number one in the world, in singles, doubles, mixed doubles. You name it, he's pretty much the best in the world. And the best ever add it right now. This is professional pickleball player, Ben John's. So have have I not been paying attention? Or did pickleball suddenly become really popular?

Ben Johns 2:07

Yeah, that's exactly how it went, I'd say. Back in 2019 2018, it started to see definitely a lot of growth. And but people still hadn't really heard of it. And then suddenly, between 2020 and 2021, it kind of became the cool thing to do. It's just kind of a sport for everybody. So yeah, it really has taken over a lot of people.

Nick VinZant 2:27

So I mean, when I have thought of it before, and this is probably just because I have relatives who live there. But like I thought of it as like, alright, this is the 67 year old retirees in Arizona who are doing this. But is it everybody really like? Is it younger people or is it just kind of getting more popular amongst a certain crowd?

Ben Johns 2:44

It caught on with older people first because it has something very attractive. And that's the it's very easy to begin to play. Even if you know you're mobilities limited or whatever. So when people kind of gravitated to it in that sense, it's also pretty social, which they seem to like it at that age. But then people kind of start to realize, hey, this isn't just for for old people, it's actually just a ball for anybody to play. And the same things apply to the old people. It's like you don't need to be athletic and play. Even though you can also be super athletic and have a really good time with it. As far as who plays it. Now, in some cities, I see it as kind of the one of the cool hipster things to do almost like, Oh, you don't play pickleball yet? What are you doing? Definitely kind of a young meetup thing just just for fun.

Nick VinZant 3:27

Is this going to be you know, the trend sport for a little while? Or do you think that this is going to continue to keep going?

Ben Johns 3:33

You know? That's a good question. You know, I feel like a lot of people that play it, because of how they're addicted to it, or how enthusiastic they are about it. They're very bullish on it, or they're optimistic. And from my point of view, I'd say, you never really can tell that with anything like this. Like, there's just too many factors that go into it, you can't predict stuff. But what I will say is, I've been around a lot of sports for a while since I was a kid. And I've never really seen a sport like pickleball as far as how people really get addicted to it one like they just don't want to stop playing. And also just that it covers such a wide demographic of people. So I think it has that going for it and other things fall into place correctly, then it could continue to do very

Nick VinZant 4:20

well. So did you get in before the before the craze or did you get swept up in it?

Ben Johns 4:25

Yeah, so I started really, it's beginning of growth, in my opinion, and that was early 2016. And that was kind of marked by some first initial big professional tournaments. So the very first US Open offer pickleball was held in early 2016. And that was my first tournament. So I got into the competitive scene right when it was growing, and I'd say gotten bigger with the public like where everyone is more aware of it more like 2020 Basically,

Nick VinZant 4:56

from what I buy my you know, three second Google Search You're basically the best player ever. Number one, singles, doubles. Right against pets, like every single type of pickleball competition, your number one.

Ben Johns 5:10

Yeah. So how we distinguish it is we play doubles, singles and mixed doubles satisfying. Girl guy doubles, basically. So there's three divisions. And yeah, I've been top ranked in all three of them for about about three years now, which is kind of the longest it's been. But I mean, what I will say is, it's very hard to say like, best ever, when you know, the sport itself as a professional sport is so young. So in a very short span, I may be the best. But that would be surprising to maintain that for a very long time to the future.

Nick VinZant 5:46

That's what I was wondering about it, like the pros who are in it, the pros who are like yourself, like the people who are really good. Whenever you have a young sport, are they really? Are they still going to be really good? 10 years from now? Right? Like I think of like George Mikan, who was a fantastic basketball player, but would he be in the NBA now? You know what I mean? So do you think that, like, are the pros now? Where is the sport? And since like, oh, they'd still be good later? Or is it such in its infancy that like, man, if you're just pretty good? You're going to be a pro question.

Ben Johns 6:22

Yeah, it's definitely very unpredictable. How I think of it now is there was kind of a that not really a turning point, but an inflection point in pickleball, where it started to rise very rapidly in terms level. And I'd say five years ago, compared to now is going to be more dramatic than five years into the future. It doesn't grow, you know, linearly or anything close. It's more a grows and jumps. The do I think the players will still be drastically different in five to 10 years. Absolutely. And I think players that are getting out can adapt to those times. Yes. But just like any sport, I think the further on you get, the better the players get. That's just the natural course the sports, people figure them out, they get better, they get more athletic, all those things. And I'd say right now Pickleball is the best players are generally the ones that are adapting the most quickly. Why are

Nick VinZant 7:18

you good at it? Like, is there something physical and that like you are the perfect size for a pickleball? Player? You've got the fastest? Like, what about you makes you good at it?

Ben Johns 7:30

Yeah, so right now, pretty much all the really good professional players are former tennis players, they're former D one tennis players, we have former professional tennis players like they were very good tennis players. And that's the background that helps a lot. I had not that high of a tennis background, but considerably high, along with a considerably high table tennis background. And that's another good background score for it. So the blend of the two definitely helped in terms of just a lot of the skills and not many people have that blend of a high level of those two sports, where most are operating on one. So two definitely helps me a lot. And then the other thing is kind of before when I said it's it's about experimentation. To be at the top, you need to keep getting better because everybody is. So you're really kind of experimenting and figuring out new things and learning from other really good players at the same time. Maintaining what you do have

Nick VinZant 8:25

to get bored being number one. Is it harder to be like is it harder to be? Is it harder to get to being number one or is it harder to stay number one

Ben Johns 8:39

another good question. Yeah, it's a little bit of both. You know, a lot of people say or at least something I like to say it's pressure is a privilege and it's definitely a privilege to be where I am I definitely enjoyed a lot and it's fun to strive and still try to get better and all that is a hard to be number one. I think it's a little bit hard in net, you're always being pursued like you don't really have upwards to go. That's also a little bit of mindset, you know, there's certainly still goals you can pursue and there's certainly still a lot of improvement to be made as a player. So it's not really necessarily lack of motivation, but it's can be a difficult spot to be in at times because there's a lot expected of you at all times.

Nick VinZant 9:20

You're getting everybody's best day all the time. Yeah, hi,

Ben Johns 9:24

I have a target. I have a target on my back

Nick VinZant 9:28

is like how is it different from other Racquet Sports right and I can think of like tennis, badminton. Ping pong racquet ball, like how is it different from those are

Ben Johns 9:40

pretty much everyone that plays thinks it's a blend of some of those and it is it's totally a blend of racquet sports. So for instance like size, it's the same size court as a badminton court, but the net is lower than badminton and obviously using different equipment. A wiffle ball is the ball that we use. So that bounces a lot lower than a tennis ball, you can't impart as much spin on it. The paddle is it doesn't have strings. So the paddle is more like a table tennis paddle than it is a tennis racket. And it's in between the legs of the TOC. It's a blend of that right there. And those three are the biggest blend. I think any of the other racquet sports I barely know like squash, racquetball paddle all those they have walls that you play off of. And we don't have that in pickleball. So I'd say it's most similar to badminton, table tennis and tennis,

Nick VinZant 10:29

what's the best part of the game to be good at, like serving, returning, if somebody was going to be good at this aspect, like, oh, the guy who's good at this is going to be really good.

Ben Johns 10:41

So it's actually it's a cool sport in that in contrast, something like tennis at a very high level, at least, the surf doesn't matter. We surf below our waist underhand, basically. So it's not a very big impact, like tennis is, you know, it's a huge impact of your surf. It's also difficult for players that are just learning the game. So it's kind of a detriment to the sport, in my opinion. So think about doesn't have that, as far as your question goes. Pickleball is very much strategic, which is another reason people like it a lot. It doesn't really matter how good of an athlete you are, like, it definitely helps don't get me wrong, like coordination and coordination, you have to have some of that, obviously. But the point is a somebody that is a worst athlete than you can easily be by doing the right things strategically. And that comes back to shot selection, just choosing what to hit the correct shot at the right time, is almost entirely with sports about plus a little bit of conversion, of course. And people find that frustrating, you know, like tennis players that are very good will lose two people to play pickleball, even though they look like complete non athletes, and it's frustrating, and you want to keep playing in order to get better, because you don't understand why you're not good. So you can put up, you know, an NBA or NFL athlete, and they feel like they should be good on the court. And they're just not, not yet at least. So that's why I think they like playing it a lot. And that's why it's very interesting. That's also why it's a big sport, among other professional athletes. There's a lot of NFL NBA players that play that I know, and quite quite a few other random people.

Nick VinZant 12:10

So it's an athletic sport that you don't actually have to be athletic to play.

Ben Johns 12:15

Exactly. You can be as athletic as you want, there's some moves you can make in it that are very athletic, but you don't have to be in order to be good.

Nick VinZant 12:23

So then, is it? Is it strategy? Are you beating somebody with the strategy? Like, I'm gonna go left corner, work in left corner and then go right corner? Or is it like placement? Like you got to be able to hit the ball? Right to this low case? both?

Ben Johns 12:38

It's both it's definitely both. Yeah, absolutely. If you choose the right shot, you're gonna find your placement is naturally a lot better, because you chose the right shot. So it's kind of they go hand in hand, for sure. And there's some people that can, you know, get over those obstacles with pure athleticism. And it's just that disparity between the two, how much one affects the other, it's a lot less high in pickleball than it is in most other sports. For instance, you can now athlete so many in basketball a lot easier than you can our athletes. And

Nick VinZant 13:09

that makes sense, right? Because I played like sports against my dad when I was a teenager. And like basketball, well, I just had to jump. But in racquetball, like, he would just work me by like, I'm gonna put it in this corner, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Like financially, is pickleball at the place right now where like, you can be a pro pickleball player and just be a pro pickleball player.

Ben Johns 13:34

Yeah, so that's, that's been definitely a very recent thing. In the past two to three years, it's become a lot more viable to that. So myself along with, I'd say, I don't know. 10 other guys 10 other girls are at the top enough to make, you know, a decent wage to very decent with nothing but playing pickleball. So yeah, I mean, that's what I do. And that's what some other people do. But it's obviously not as big of a player pool as say tennis. We have the top 200 players doing just fine.

Nick VinZant 14:01

And we talk in five figures, six people hitting sevens.

Ben Johns 14:07

Yeah, so that would be more like massively based on where you're ranked. And it's really just a handful of players. They're getting paid well. Your your mid to very top players can be making six and the top of the top could be making seven

Nick VinZant 14:23

now. And it's a sport you can play for a long time. Right? Could like somebody be like, old man, Ben John's coming in. He's 55 and still working people.

Ben Johns 14:35

Yes and no. So right now, the best older player when we consider older is the number two player in doubles. And he's 44 which is he's an extreme outlier. There's not really almost anybody else like him. Almost all the other pros are below 35. That he's he's very good at especially for his age. So right now you can see that a little bit and the more players that come in, the less we're seeing it so I'd say within probably five years, you're not really gonna see anybody really competing at a high level over 35 Unless they're just absolute freaks like, you have Djokovic, and Nadal and Federer. And

Nick VinZant 15:11

if you're going to be athletic in this sport, is it better to be like strength power, your top two

Ben Johns 15:17

or agility just moving quickly and covering a lot of cord in a very quick way. And quick hands. So hands speed helps a lot. And that's not really something you train as much as you have. Which just doesn't really increase that much via training.

Nick VinZant 15:34

Now, are you big for pickleball? Player? Wikipedia said six one is that that's about the size you want to be, are the best people smaller, bigger.

Ben Johns 15:44

Because we don't have a huge sample size of players, you know, there's a lot of other skills that go into it. So you can't really say this is the best height. And I mean, you came into it in tennis yet. But it definitely ranges from I'd say the majority are between five, nine and six, four. To me, I'd say height helps. So I think you kind of want to be optimally anywhere between six and six, four,

Nick VinZant 16:11

we'll go into this a little bit earlier than we usually do. Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Sure. Let's go for it. Would pickleball be a cooler sport, if it wasn't called pickleball?

Ben Johns 16:24

I think it would be a lot easier to convince people to play the sport if it wasn't such a silly name. But the reality is there's too much based around and out to ever change that now. So it's stuck with that name. But yes, it would be I wouldn't say necessarily cooler, but it would be a lot easier to get people on board more quickly.

Nick VinZant 16:42

Is it better to have a really good forehand or a really good backhand?

Ben Johns 16:47

Yeah, definitely varies player to player, but you can do more with your forehand. Generally, it just generates more power, it's got more reach. So if you can take one or the other healthy and good for him,

Nick VinZant 16:56

everybody's probably got a good forehand. But are there a lot of people who really have a good backhand?

Ben Johns 17:02

I would say yeah, you're right in that there's more players for the good forehand and a good backhand but it's not that desperate, like as disparate as you think there's definitely some some very good backends out there. Yeah, largely depends on the player just because how the paddle mechanics work. It's there's not a huge disparity between one and the other.

Nick VinZant 17:20

Now, do you put spin on it? Are you just you're hitting it back?

Ben Johns 17:23

Yeah, yeah. So there's there's definitely all kinds of spins, side spin topspin, backspin slice rolls, there's their spin at all times, it doesn't look like table tennis because there's a limit to the friction you can have on a on a pickleball paddle. So like table tennis, they use advanced rubbers to grip the ball like severely. That's why the ball ends like it does. We have a limit on on the basically the grip on the paddle so it doesn't grip the ball nearly as much as tennis strings or confidents battle. So there's a lot less of a spin influence, but it's still very important.

Nick VinZant 17:53

Does it have a ceiling though, in your opinion? Right? Like I understand that, yes. Pickleball can get bigger. Clearly, clearly people enjoy it. But can it be? Right? Like is the goal of pickleball? Like, we're going to take over and push hockey out the way? Or do you think that it's always going to be maybe like the biggest of the secondary kind of sports?

Ben Johns 18:16

Yeah, so I mean, it depends on you know, what, how you tear sports, you know, how big can something get? I'd say personally, this is just my opinion, and it could be completely wrong. Because nobody can really and Hispanic sports gonna continue to grow. But I would say it is not going to be a spectator sport like your your NFL is your NBAs MLBs as your tier ones. It's not even gonna be a spectator sport like your tier twos, like hockey here, or whatever. It's good for spectating. But it's not amazing. It's not like, it's not as big of a chord as tennis, you can't have a stadium as big and make it look as good. So I think there's a bit of an issue mechanically with the sport there. However, I'd say, as a participation sport as the number of people that play it has a scary amount of potential like it's as playable as any sport.

Nick VinZant 19:06

No, that makes sense, right? Like, just because of the logistics of it. You can't fill an arena of people watching a pickleball. But if you sell it to TV, well, what does it matter? Like TV is kind of where most of the money is made anyway. Sure. Yeah.

Ben Johns 19:19

I mean, it can still it can still do well. Yeah, it can still be well, like tennis does, it would be a smaller court. So probably a little bit of a smaller stadium. So that's where I'd see it peaking, right, like say a little bit below tennis, in terms of viewership, but in terms of participation, I would expect it to exceed tennis.

Nick VinZant 19:35

So how does your older brother feel about you being better than him?

Ben Johns 19:42

So my brother, six years older than me, he played professional tennis, and we played every sport together basically growing up, and he was always better because he was older. But I got into pickleball before him two years before him and once he was done with professional tennis, I Got into play pickleball and basically from the start once he decided, hey actually want to be really good at this and play, play the sport. We basically trained him and crafted him into a player. That would be my my doubles partner. So we always had the goal of playing doubles together as soon as he decided to get good. So no, he doesn't mind me being better than him because he's got the best partner you could ask for, I guess.

Nick VinZant 20:24

But you know how brothers are man? I got brothers and sisters. There's a little bit like, I'm happy for Ben. I'm gonna beat Ben. Yeah, no, definitely.

Ben Johns 20:38

He's played me many times before and likely is mostly on the same side of the net these days. But he has never been I'm sure he would like to

Nick VinZant 20:46

favorite place to play.

Ben Johns 20:48

I'll give you a variety answers here. So I'd say my favorite place, location venue, tournament wise is San Clemente California. PGA tour runs a tournament there, that's just gorgeous location, really well run the crowds. Amazing. So that's like my favorite tournament to play, especially locations. Great. So for the business, I mentioned, we're taking them on trips we played in Ecuador, and that probably had the best view I've ever seen while playing it was just silly. And let's see, played in Hawaii. And that was pretty, very nice, too. As far as general location, it wasn't the view is just like the whole environment. So those are my three,

Nick VinZant 21:31

who's who's kind of in your rear view, like, who's the player who's coming up? And like, Oh, I gotta watch this person, because they could they could take the title. Yeah,

Ben Johns 21:41

I wouldn't say there's a define one person, especially because we have multiple divisions. So there's, there's different people that are good at different things, mixed doubles, doubles, singles. So I don't really have a specific person in mind. And honestly, I'd be more wary of the people I don't I'm not yet aware of than anybody specific now. Because we get new players all the time that are super talented and want to play. And there's only there's only more than coming, right? So I have a vision in my mind of what the ultimate athlete for pickleball would be. And that's the guy I'm wary of not not who we currently have.

Nick VinZant 22:16

I think this this audit this question is like from a 12 year old, I think, does it hurt when you get hit with the pickleball?

Ben Johns 22:24

That's a legitimate question. That's very legitimate. It stinks. That's about it. There's a strategy and double sometimes we actually do try to hit each other in the body. Because you're so close to each other that it works out that way. And that's not against etiquette. That's just part of the game as long as you are aiming for the face. So yeah, It'll sting a little bit on the body might leave a little bit of a mark for a day. You won't want to be getting hit in the face, though. Yeah. How?

Nick VinZant 22:52

How fast? Like, has anybody ever like clocked it? Like how fast are you guys hitting the ball?

Ben Johns 22:57

Yeah, so usually, groundstrokes will be going maximum probably 50. And overhead is more in the 70 to 80 range

Nick VinZant 23:08

with a wiffle ball.

Ben Johns 23:10

Yeah, with a level ball pops off quick. It makes some powerful stuff. So yeah, I know, I've been clocked on overheads, but at like 70. And I'm sure some people can do it harder than I can. And yet, the biggest thing is not so much the speed is how close you are with your kitchen, the kitchen. The kitchen is the non volley zone. You're 14 feet away from each other minus however long your wingspan is. So that ball can be on you in a hurry.

Nick VinZant 23:35

Oh, there's an area light is the kitchen. It's right next to the net. You can't volley in that area.

Ben Johns 23:40

Yes, yes, exactly. So there's the net. And on each side, there's a seven foot area where you can't hit the ball out of the air while you're in there. So imagine that bounces in there and you're at the other kitchen line. So I'm making contact with the ball 10 feet away from you. And I'm hitting it 50 miles an hour at you. I mean, in baseball, that's equivalent to 300 mile an hour fastball.

Nick VinZant 24:01

That's damn, is that the kind of reflexes where like you're not even thinking it's just straight up reaction.

Ben Johns 24:09

Yeah, it's mostly reactions. But that is an extreme case. Like most people are not trying to tag you in the body from that close anyway. And if I didn't if I hit it, right, and if you didn't move before you saw me, like as soon as you saw me start the swing, like you tried to move as soon as I hit the ball, you have no prayer video, it won't happen. You're just you're gonna sit there and take it. But more normally it's traveling slower than that when you're getting volleys and you're able to react but it is it's reactions. You aren't really thinking that much.

Nick VinZant 24:38

Does being a professional pickleball player help you? And I think you know what they're talking about. I do.

Ben Johns 24:52

Yeah, that's that's a great question. I actually thought you were gonna ask that one before you said it. As soon as I saw your face today. I know what he's gonna ask. Right. So I was actually in School University of Maryland, the past five years. I graduated in May. And a lot of people would ask me like DD Use this. Is this like a pickup line at college at school? And it's not all right. I've never even tried to use it. I don't know how it would work, because I would just never bring that up. Just like Excuse me, miss. I don't know if you notice. I play pickleball this sport you've never heard of, and I'm really good. So yeah, I've never brought that up. So it doesn't help. I mean, maybe I'm sure it helps some people if you spin it the right way. I just have not tried.

Nick VinZant 25:37

What's the best pickleball trash talk? You're gonna trash talk to somebody? What do you what do you come in with?

Ben Johns 25:43

I'm known to be pretty silent on court. So I can't tell you that I have that much that are the guys that do. My personal favorite is more like rejection. So they say they try to attack you and you just hit a stiff counter. It's a clean winner off of their attack. Like it's a rebuttal like, you might get a finger a finger wag, like like a matumbo. And just like no, no, no can do that. Not over here.

Nick VinZant 26:09

I just the total shutdown.

Ben Johns 26:14

Yeah, my favorite guy that talks trash. One of his best slides, just something like, You can't do that. If you attack me, it's a winner. And then he's just like, can't do that. No, no, no.

Nick VinZant 26:28

That's crushing, right? There's nothing better than like giving somebody your best shot. And then you just nothing happens. You

Ben Johns 26:34

just like, that's the thing right there. Right? It's not about hitting a winner. It's about rejecting their winner and just turning them down to say, no, not over here.

Nick VinZant 26:42

You know, obviously, is there a huge difference in the paddles? Like, what are you looking for in a paddle? Yeah. So

Ben Johns 26:48

I mean, originally, the sport started out with wooden paddles. So it got a lot more advanced from there, let's say so yeah, these paddles reach prices up to like tennis rackets. Now they're like in the two hundreds sometimes at the very advanced pro level. So my sponsors here, you'll their former Table Tennis Company, and they got into pickleball recently because they saw the growth. So yeah, they're, they make some pretty advanced stuff. And obviously I endorsed them. So they're, they're the best guys. But yeah, there's lots of paddles out there. There's lots of technology for spin power, other stuff, different dimensions, it's all kind of up to you with what you want to play with based on the player you are.

Nick VinZant 27:26

You use a yellow pad or like, what is it? What are you looking for when you get one? Right? Like, oh, I want one that's like, what do you look

Ben Johns 27:33

for? Yeah, so I actually designed it with them. And just give it to me, like I actually decided with them. So it's a carbon fiber surface, which carbon fiber is the best surface material we use, because it grips the ball well, which you can of course spin with. And it's very stiff, not so stiff, we lose a lot of power. It's so that good power, but stiff enough to where when you miss it it like not in the sweet spot and on the center. It's not a super bad miss it so it's forgiving, basically. So it's forgiving. It's gotten in pop and it's got good spin. That's that's the basic, three things that you really

Nick VinZant 28:05

want. So, you know, we were talking kind of before we started recording, but you know, this business is pickleball. Really, it's that big that you can run a tour company like how does this work with with this, I found that amazing that like,

Ben Johns 28:20

yeah, it's one of my favorite things like within pickleball. It's such a, it was just an interesting hole in the market for us. So me. And a friend of mine started a business a couple years back, called up pickleball getaways. And we basically just take people on all inclusive vacations, either to resorts or touring around the country, with pickleball. So it turns out that because people get addicted to pickleball, they want to go on vacations, but they don't want to stop playing pickleball while they're doing it. So as I'm doing this interview, I'm actually in Croatia for a tour. I just finished one in Portugal, and that's a renewal of my summer. So we got 32 clients, each one Portugal here, previous week, 10 days, 10 days here in Croatia with a new 32. And I'm going back to Portugal for another 32 Because we feel the first one so easily. So yeah, basically, it's just we play pickleball in the morning with some instruction. And then we toured the country in the afternoon to evening, and some different hotels slash resorts. So it's kind of an upper scale, all inclusive vacation with the whole

Nick VinZant 29:21

Is there a country that's like, oh, man, they love them some pickleball

Ben Johns 29:27

Yeah, that's that's funny, because a lot of people actually ask, the only part you didn't really touch on is the international aspect, like is pickleball big elsewhere? And the answer is actually no, not at all that us is by far the biggest pickleball like they're fanatical about it. But they've never even heard of it and other places in the world like where we are. There's no pickleball players, there's no pickleball courts. So we have to use like temporary nets and temporary lines and stuff like that. And that's why like nobody else is doing anything. It's hard to do. You need the right surface you need to bring equipment set up the courts. So that's kind of why we're the only ones

Nick VinZant 29:58

or people in other countries that Look at it like, what are those guys doing?

Ben Johns 30:02

They're just walked by. And there's a couple days ago, I was laughing because in the space of like an hour, I bet like five people walked by, and we're just sitting with their cameras like, what are they doing? Like? These are just I mean, are they dumb Americans? Is this a made up game? Dude, should I know about this? They were obviously just absolutely confused by what was going on.

Nick VinZant 30:24

That's pretty much all the questions I got, man. What's kind of coming up next for you? How can people kind of keep in touch with you? Yeah, so

Ben Johns 30:30

I got a packed schedule, usually about 20 tournaments a year, I got this vacation business, I got various other things. But I pretty much go almost entirely through Instagram, so And John's underscore PB and so people stay in touch. And I can update my tournaments there. And whatever else I'm up to. So it can really be anything at any given time of the year.

Nick VinZant 30:50

Cool. When is pickleball season? Like, when's the tournaments and all that stuff? I would think it was in the summer. Yeah. Last season. This

Ben Johns 30:57

is kind of year round. We don't like we have a pro tour. And they haven't really figured out yet how they want the season to go. There's not really a huge downtime. So my biggest downtime has been in the summer, actually. So I missed one tournament to be over here in Europe. But in June, July, we only had one tournament scheduled, whereas August onwards, I'll be playing two to three every month.

Nick VinZant 31:18

I want to thank Ben 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 Twitter, tick tock and Instagram. 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's the last time somebody gave you a good talking to like, sets you straight in life?

Unknown Speaker 31:46

It's been a while I don't remember the last time I was given like a good talking to I do listen to a an inspirational speaker, you know, like on YouTube from time to time. That's the last time I remember thinking to myself, like, this guy's talking at me like he's talking to me.

Nick VinZant 32:06

The last time you got to good talking to you. What was it about

Unknown Speaker 32:09

probably, in my early 20s, with my father when he was and this is the last one I really remember. And basically, basically, he was just telling me, I mean, I was going out a lot, probably four to five times a week and just getting hammered drunk every time. And he kind of just pulled me aside as I was going to head out and just was like, listen, you're not being very smart right now. And fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life. And I'll never forget, it wasn't really a talking to but that one sentence. I've just never forgotten it.

Nick VinZant 32:42

Do you feel like you learned anything? No, I

Unknown Speaker 32:44

actually think it's worse. No. Yeah, I mean, looking back on it. I was I was reckless. I was young, blah, blah, blah. You know, he probably didn't present it to the right way. Probably could have been a little nicer, a little more calmer about it. But you know, I still remember it. Obviously.

Nick VinZant 33:04

I got one this weekend, who got to talking to you from the white. She was looking at me and she's like, Listen, I'm gonna tell you this right now. You're getting fat.

Unknown Speaker 33:15

You guys are so brutal. Man. You're so brutal over and then came

Nick VinZant 33:18

straight out? Well, well, the thing is, is that the night before I had had, like, look, we were we were engaging in edibles and alcohol. And I was like, I think we need to give each other more talking to us, right? Like we got to hold each other accountable about stuff that we want to do, because we made these lists about stuff that we want to do and like, You got to hold me accountable. And then the next day, she's like, you're getting fat.

Unknown Speaker 33:42

So is this one of those moments where the night before you were you were just bullshitting and then the next morning, she was like, you're getting fat and your eyebrows are stupid, and your fingernails are too long?

Nick VinZant 33:55

No, it was just like, you gotta been constructed criticism, right? And you got to come at people and she was like, you're getting fat. Your gut is getting a little bit out of hand. Like I can see it too much. And it's not acceptable. And I was like, okay, still stings as an adult. Yeah. Especially when you need when you need it. You're like, Ah, fuck, man.

Unknown Speaker 34:14

I well, I mean, for a guy always a buck 50 I think your wife should come see somebody that's 300 pounds and say that, but, man, I'm sorry. I you know, I've never felt bad for you. I kind of feel bad for you right now.

Nick VinZant 34:29

Yeah, but I needed it. Right? Like it was good for me. So I'm 180 pounds, but I don't carry weight. Well, like I'm somebody that if I get a little bit out of control, like Oh, my body magnifies whatever shape that I'm in.

Unknown Speaker 34:46

She might have been a little overboard them and that can really mess somebody up when you call somebody just outwardly fat or tell them they're,

Nick VinZant 34:53

they're kinda that's not what she said. That's what I heard. Right? Like, I'm not one of those people. Like it doesn't matter. Have you massaged the language a little bit? I know what you really say it.

Unknown Speaker 35:03

It took me it took me until about six months ago to realize that I probably should not have worn shoes medium clothes the in my entire life. I tried on a shirt that was, you know, a couple sizes too big. And I was like, Man, this is actually quite comfortable. So, anyways, it's

Nick VinZant 35:20

you can't go down that road though, man because I do that with pants. And the next thing you know, you're rockin like 40 fives and you look ridiculous. Like you. You can't go down the comfort road too early in life. Because there's no common back once you start going down that comfort road. I gotta

Unknown Speaker 35:38

tell you, I I'm in a wedding coming up this weekend. Actually, and, you know, dress pants are always, you know, four to six inches bigger usually? Oh, no, I don't actually well, because because they do the actual waist right? They do it like above your, your your belly fat, like kind of just south of your belly button. And when I when I said a

Nick VinZant 36:03

minute, wait a minute, are you hitching them up? Are you pushing them down? Like which direction are you already going? And you're going to be an old man because there's either going where people have their pants to high or they're starting to push them down a little bit where like, Look, I know that your belt buckle is just about half an inch above where your private parts are. You're not fooling anybody with that.

Unknown Speaker 36:24

Well are you doing I mean, I usually wear my I'm gonna wear my my jeans on my waist, right? But for dress pants, for some reason, they always measure me probably where they measure every man on your actual waist, which is just south of your belly button there. But every time I see it, it just reminds me that I am not a small man.

Nick VinZant 36:48

Okay, you ready for shout outs?

Unknown Speaker 36:51

What's going on? What is it? 36 I've

Nick VinZant 36:59

lost. I've lost track. Everybody's just waiting for it to stop.

Unknown Speaker 37:02

I don't think so. No one's really complained. At least not to me. All right, Cameron bars appreciate you Ronald Miranda. Austin Rogers, Mildred Toray Phil minor. Below era Bochy, Sean Kelly and Shawn Masterson to Sean's back to back there. Lucas Vega and Clint Wim sedie. Come on down.

Nick VinZant 37:28

Are the most other Shawn spelled the same way? Are they spelled differently? They are they're

Unknown Speaker 37:32

both spelled s e a n which is what caught my eye.

Nick VinZant 37:37

I always think of Shawn sh a wn is the main spelling of Shawn that I think of.

Unknown Speaker 37:42

Yeah, I would agree with that. And then s Haun is also a subset.

Nick VinZant 37:49

Oh, I don't know if I was gonna rank my Shawn spelling's I would go sh a wn s EAN and then sh. Au N.

Unknown Speaker 37:58

Yeah, I agree with you on that top three.

Nick VinZant 38:01

Okay. All right. It's your it's your time to shine my excited are you how much you've been thinking about it for a month? I guarantee he's been thinking about it. I gotta tell you

Unknown Speaker 38:10

it's so weird because now when I like order candles, I think about ordering them obviously. But with the thought of bringing them up possibly on this podcast, so this one's This one's pretty basic.

Nick VinZant 38:23

Can we introduce it? Are you just gonna for people who don't know what's going on like, Oh, you gotta get theme music or sorry

Unknown Speaker 38:28

I just get so excited man this is Alright it's

Nick VinZant 38:30

time for candle of the month with the outlaw candle connoisseur himself.

Unknown Speaker 38:36

What's your candle? I can't even intro it and keep a can't believe it's a serious thing. I can't either but it's kind of taken off alright so just rising Lee Yeah, so this one there's a sale going on right now head over to Bath and Bodyworks I purchased two of these because I'm I'm just a fan. Smelt this at a friend's house Believe it or not. But it is passion fruit in banana flour to three week candle like I said it's on sale. I don't know if it's gonna be on sale throughout the week, but you can get it right now half off. Bath and Bodyworks they have a lot of other great sense to but I'll I'll just stop at that one. But there's there's tons of Grayson's out there.

Nick VinZant 39:18

So if you smelled it at a friend's house, did you then ask them what kind of candle that is?

Unknown Speaker 39:23

Oh god. Yeah, I I mean, I was I was like, the awkward hover too. I'm like, this is you know that, like no one's around me. You know? Finally someone comes over and they're like, oh, what what do you what? What you're doing in a separate room just smelling the candle. I'm like, I love candles. Tell me about this candle. So

Nick VinZant 39:43

wait a minute. You just went into the room all by yourself and somebody's house smelling candles?

Unknown Speaker 39:49

Well I've no i We know them. It's not like it's you know, it's not like I was invited.

Nick VinZant 39:53

Oh, wait a minute, who's the main friend who's the first friend? Are you the friend with the guy or is your wife more the friend with the girl

Unknown Speaker 40:00

My wife is friends with the with the girl. However, like we know the family, it's not like it's not like, she's friends with the girl or the woman and I'm just there, you know? Like it's like I'm just there kind of randomly.

Nick VinZant 40:13

Does this person have a man? Significant Other in their life?

Unknown Speaker 40:17

Yes, but But he was not at the time.

Nick VinZant 40:21

So you're in another so you're the only guy there at the party. I want to know her. You're going through why isn't it weird? You're going through another woman's house who your wife is friends with? Your smell and things in the room and stuff? She probably thinks you're looking at her underwear. No, man, we're

Unknown Speaker 40:38

just kids just come in from the outside. I walked in the house. I got the sense. I gotta smell like oh, let me let me you know, maybe the candle is right around the corner. So I I walked down the hallway, kind of into a family room area. There's the candle wasn't like a wait a minute, like I was sniffing the underwear drawer.

Nick VinZant 40:58

But yeah, how many rooms away? Are you from the rest of the group? Are you in the room directly adjacent to the rest of the group? Are you two rooms past where everybody is?

Unknown Speaker 41:09

I mean, two, they were in the kitchen, which is like at the other end of the hallway. So technically, I was like five rooms away.

Nick VinZant 41:16

Yeah, you're snooping in the house. Looking for since

Unknown Speaker 41:19

I was that they went to take the kids to get a snack. I told them I was going to take our kids you know, stuff to the living room. And as I was walking in the living room was following the scent. And that's that's how it happened.

Nick VinZant 41:35

Did you go past the living room to get to the room?

Unknown Speaker 41:38

No if the candle was in the living room. Okay. Anyways, getting back to the candle the month it's packed. Once again, passion fruit and banana flour. It's a three wick candle from Bath and Bodyworks check it out. You won't be disappointed. Alright, let's see here. I've got a couple of bangers for you. What's more overrated waterslides or roller coasters?

Nick VinZant 42:05

Oh, roller roller coasters. Probably I think at least now in my life where I've hit an age where like, somebody explained this to me one time like something in your body in your inner ear starts to change and like you have a hard time with roller coasters and like getting dizzy much easier as you get older. And now I can't I can't even think of a roller coaster like I start to be like

Unknown Speaker 42:30

I haven't been on a roller coaster. It's gonna be 10 years next year. That's the last time I was on a roller coaster. It's been a while. So

Nick VinZant 42:36

it's probably been about the same for me. But I would say roller coasters are generally no a waterslide actually, is the more overrated because if you've been on one waterslide, you've basically been on all water slides.

Unknown Speaker 42:50

Yeah, water slides are, are very overrated. And they're just not. You know, you wait in a line on a hot summer day. You finally get up there, you get on it, and it's over. And it's not even though half the time you have to do most of the work, right? I mean, it's not. It's not a lot of fun.

Nick VinZant 43:06

No, it's very hard to get a good water slide. Like, oh, yeah, that yeah, that's a water slide. I've been on one before.

Unknown Speaker 43:14

Let's see, or would you rather know the exact date and time and you're gonna die, or just live life and when it happens, it happens.

Nick VinZant 43:23

Oh, just when it happens, it happens. Right? Because I think that even if you know the exact date and time that you're gonna die, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the exact date and time that you're going to be critically injured, or have your life changed forever. So like, All right, okay, cool. I'm not gonna die until Tuesday at nine o'clock. Well, that doesn't mean you're not gonna be critically injured Monday mornings.

Unknown Speaker 43:45

That's okay. You know what I was not thinking about the whole, you know, right. But

Nick VinZant 43:51

that's like one of those things that like you wish, like on a monkey palm or a genie, or whatever they call it. It's like a bad wish. And they're like, Well, I told you, you'd never die. But you're going to be a vegetable until for all of eternity.

Unknown Speaker 44:06

Let's see here. Once again, the world's pretty depressing, but when this episode comes out, it will obviously Fourth of July here in America will have passed. So I wanted to know, did you end up buying any fireworks? Did you Did you do anything to fun for the holiday?

Nick VinZant 44:22

I did. I bought the little popper fireworks that you can get like just about any single place that you just throw down in the middle of the room. Right? Like $2 You can't hurt anybody and I decided I was gonna bust those out during bath time, which was a mistake.

Unknown Speaker 44:38

Oh, man, talking about scaring the proverbial crap out of somebody.

Nick VinZant 44:44

Yeah, apparently if you throw 10 of them into a room while two children ages five and three are bathing and not expecting it. It's a slightly traumatizing experience in a small space. So maybe that was a poor decision making.

Unknown Speaker 44:56

Yeah, that's a decision. Yeah. That's not a good thing but I'm proud of I kind of want to give you a high five for that because that's a good dad move right there. Right? No

Nick VinZant 45:06

solid solid dabbing but bad parenting.

Unknown Speaker 45:09

Yeah, I could give you a talking too, but I'm not going to because I accidentally sprayed my kid in the face with a hose on on. You know, the hose nozzle was on Jet the other day and she walked right into it. So I can't really say anything.

Nick VinZant 45:25

I peed on my son's head once.

Unknown Speaker 45:29

I think I've heard rumblings of the story. But if you want to tell the floor is yours.

Nick VinZant 45:35

We were outside riding bikes and I went in into like the back of an area to pee outside, like all guys go and pee outside and he rode his bike up to me crashed his bike and fell directly into the stream. Like before I could stop like I look. Hey, and then he just crashed right into it.

Unknown Speaker 45:52

So did you keep going or did you stop immediately?

Nick VinZant 45:57

Well, I stopped immediately. I mean, he's my son. Like, I'm not not gonna just pee on mo dude's head but Well, I did laugh and he,

Unknown Speaker 46:05

you know, peed on my wife's face once. But, you know, that is what it is.

Nick VinZant 46:10

Let's just have no explanation and move into our top five. Let's do it. Okay, so our top five is top five hardest foods to eat. True. Number five.

Unknown Speaker 46:18

Spaghetti.

Nick VinZant 46:21

Are you serious?

Unknown Speaker 46:22

Yeah. Really? I mean, really? It could be any any any, like, pot, like, pasta, loaded with sauce type of thing. But yeah, it's, it's very delicate and very difficult to eat, especially spaghetti specifically because, you know, how do you roll it up? How to, you know, how do you get it on the fork, etc, etc. It's too, too much thinking to eat.

Nick VinZant 46:42

My number five is also spaghetti but not because it's necessarily hard to eat, but it's hard to eat without making a mess on yourself. Okay, that's really what's difficult. Like my list is based on things that you can eat in public and not look like you're some kind of bear going through a trash can.

Unknown Speaker 46:59

Well, that's, that's where you, my friend are mistaken. Because I look like a bear. And every time I'm in public, people think I'm just eating out of a trashcan. Once you number four ice cream cones, just they're just a pain in the ass. And no matter no matter how, how delicate, you are eating the cone, you're always going to bite it in the wrong place. And then you're going to have a couple of, you know, leaks or the ice cream is gonna start melting. It's just, it's difficult, man. It's not it's not fun. Half the time.

Nick VinZant 47:30

When I see a man eating ice cream out of a cup. I see a man who has given up on life. Like, I don't care. You as a man need to struggle through the cone. I don't care how big it is. How what the problem is, you as a man have to struggle through the act. My number four is a mango. Oh, just a pain in the ass.

Unknown Speaker 47:53

You know, I was gonna put on a pomegranate but I put that in my honorable mention. Mangoes a close second to me. But yeah, they're both pain in the ass things to eat,

Nick VinZant 48:04

and then difficult to eat. Alright, let's number three

Unknown Speaker 48:06

oysters. Okay, once again, it's a lot of work for very little reward. But yet, if I have the opportunity, I'm going to eat some oysters. So

Nick VinZant 48:15

we'll get let's let's, let's get to this later, because I have that a little bit higher in my list. My number three is wings. Okay, pain in the ass. And you can see a lot of people who don't eat wings. Well, you look at most wings. And there's a good amount of meat that's left there on that plate.

Unknown Speaker 48:32

I you know, kind of how we started the podcast. things, you know, talking to us I got to talking to is that when I was in college by a guy about how to properly eat chicken wings, and I've never forgotten it, and I still do it to this day. What's the proper way you have to create you have to crack I don't know what each bone is called. So I'm probably going to confuse people but you have to crack it at the top. And then you basically break it off into two bones. And then you can just suck the meat off each bone.

Nick VinZant 49:01

I usually struggle with like the top part of the chicken wing, right? Where there's usually like too much stuff on the drumstick. Like I could have done a better job there. But if it's the actual wing, I can clean that up pretty well. Okay, is it your number two are my number two my

Unknown Speaker 49:14

number two and it's the only time I've ever been eating where I've thrown an entire plate of food into a harbor. And it's because of crab legs.

Nick VinZant 49:24

Mm hmm. You threw it away.

Unknown Speaker 49:28

I was so frustrated because the party that I was with the people that I was with. Everyone kind of started making fun of me because and I'm not even sure I can properly describe it to you how to how to crack crab legs over the podcast, but I can tell you that from being ridiculed, and just pure embarrassment. And we were right next it was in Boston naturally. We were right next to the water. I just I dumped the whole thing into the water and just walked away. I was so upset and embarrassed and And it shouldn't be my number one, but I don't eat crab very often. Or crab legs. So that's why it's number two.

Nick VinZant 50:07

You handled that. Well. I did not how much? How much did you pay for it? I feel like I wouldn't do that only because I paid a lot

Unknown Speaker 50:14

of money. Oh, it was like $30 Yeah, it's probably 2030 bucks. I mean, it was a decent amount and there was fries and everything with it. And I kept the beer I walked away with the beer, but I dumped the food.

Nick VinZant 50:26

Once you get rid of the fries,

Unknown Speaker 50:29

I you know, I was I was on a different kind of stay. I'm sure the fish ate well, I'm sure they very well that that night, they're in the harbor.

Nick VinZant 50:34

My number two is corn on the cob slash popcorn. Because it's not necessarily hard to eat, but you get some of that stuff stuck in your teeth. Even flossing sometimes won't get it out. You get popcorn in the wrong spot in your teeth. And you've almost feel like you gotta go to the dentist to get that out.

Unknown Speaker 50:54

I mean, I can't argue with that. I've had moments eating popcorn where the kernel gets stuck in the back. And like the more times you bite down or put pressure on it, you can still feel it getting jammed deeper and deeper into the tooth. So yeah, you know, that's a good thought, actually. Yeah, too.

Nick VinZant 51:13

I've had some ones with popcorn where I've like flossed and still is in there and you've got to get like the little pick thing that they give you and you only keep for like a week after you go to the dentist to get it out for sure. Yeah. Cournot it's deadly. What's your number one?

Unknown Speaker 51:31

So, I'm gonna preface this I wanted to put sushi. But then I realized that sushi is a me problem, because I don't I'm not very good with chopsticks.

Nick VinZant 51:41

Well, you can just use your hands. Sure if you

Unknown Speaker 51:45

could also go the Neanderthal route as well. So my number one

Nick VinZant 51:49

you are going to tell you're going to tell me that if you're eating sushi at your house, you're using your chopsticks. You're not picking it up with your hand.

Unknown Speaker 51:57

I'm not no I'm using the chopsticks or I resort to a fork.

Nick VinZant 52:04

By yourself eating sushi in your house. You're not it's not going to pick it up with your fingers.

Unknown Speaker 52:08

No.

Nick VinZant 52:10

Why?

Unknown Speaker 52:12

I don't know. Because some I mean, a lot of times there's sauce on the top or there's, you know, it's I don't know, I guess I don't really have a reason I just I just I you know, I tried to fit in with the culture. I try to use chopsticks and I'm unsuccessful most times.

Nick VinZant 52:26

Okay, all right. No, I get that sometimes you can't let it win.

Unknown Speaker 52:29

So, my number one our hardshell tacos.

Nick VinZant 52:35

Interesting.

Unknown Speaker 52:39

Once again, it's kind of like the ice cream cone thing to me is, you know, no matter how you bite into a hardshell taco, you're gonna fuck it up. Because either the taco is gonna break entirely, or, or the fillings are gonna fall out. It's just it's so frustrating and difficult to eat.

Nick VinZant 52:57

I guess I don't really have very many hardshell tacos. I'm more of a softshell taco guy. So maybe that's why I haven't had much difficulty. My number one is seafood. And I'm including in that basically all seafood like you talked about like crab legs, lobster, mussels, oysters, all that stuff that is basically way more of a hassle to eat than it actually is enjoyable. Like the work to reward effort the return on investment it's just not there for me for any kind of seafood like that. It's not worth it.

Unknown Speaker 53:29

It isn't worth it. But it kind of is but it got to be in the right mood or I'm dumping you in the harbor just it's the way it is.

Nick VinZant 53:39

Even shrimp like it's just too much effort all the time. Like ah I got all this stuff I got to deal with pain in the ass. What's the one you're honorable mention?

Unknown Speaker 53:52

Let's see. Well I mean I talked about sushi what else here I think that's I think that's pretty much it for me. Chicken Wings also but yeah, I don't either. I guess well and some of the fruits I guess the pomegranates the mangoes but not a whole lot.

Nick VinZant 54:10

The only one that I could think of that we didn't really talk about well actually two nachos can be problematic especially if you're in a group and you don't exactly know who should be and how much and peanut butter peanut butter can get you in a little bit of trouble. I don't understand have water. Well, I mean you can get stuck in your throat a little bit peanut butter can be difficult.

Unknown Speaker 54:37

I don't really get the peanut butter the nachos. Even if you're not with a party they can get to be a little difficult just because of you know they get messy or if you're drunk or you have a Super Bowl party and make a bunch of uncooked pizzas and then serve them to people can turn out to be kind of nasty.

Nick VinZant 54:57

Ah, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do We're for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. 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. It really does help us out. And we're going to be I don't know how it's going to work exactly. But we're going to, we're going to debut this voicemail system this month. And I just I can't wait. I can't wait to start hearing from people. Because, listen, we appreciate the comments. We love interacting with you guys on social media, but I think making it much, much more a part of the show is something that that I think will be really cool. I'm looking forward to. So hope you join us and let us know what you think are some of the hardest foods to eat.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai


Pyrotechnician Steve Yoss

From Burning Man to the Golden Gate Bridge to July 4th celebrations all across America, Pyrotechnician Steve Yoss has worked on some of the biggest fireworks shows in the world. We talk becoming a pyrotechnician, how fireworks are made, staying safe and the future of fireworks. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Fireworks.

Steve Yoss: 01:47ish

Pointless: 36:26ish

Top 5: 54:46ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show email)

https://www.youtube.com/user/PyroSpectaculars (PyroSpectaculars YouTube Channel)

https://twitter.com/pyrospectacular (Pyrospectacular Twitter)

https://www.pyrospec.com/ (PyroSpectacular Website)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cpe-today/id1549603293 (CPE Today Podcast - Steve’s Podcast)

http://www.cpetoday.com (CPE Today - Steve Yoss’ Website)

Interview with Steve Yoss of PyroSpectaculars

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode fireworks and fireworks,

Steve Yoss 0:19

what I really love about pyrotechnics is immediacy of it, you get to witness this one little thing. And then if you're not there, it's gone. You know, we use different chemicals to be able to create the different effects that we want it to be, you know, so like, we have different effects that'll make crackle we have different effects that will make it bright and yellow, and you make those by hand. It's important to note every firework every firework out there, everything is made by hand. For me, there's like certain memories, you know, that are very like, like stuck in my head that I can remember, they were like, Oh my God, you know, like that was like, for that time in place, like the coolest thing ever. And

Nick VinZant 0:54

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 really helps us out. We are trying to make this show much more interactive. So starting in July, probably towards the end of July, we're going to be setting up a voicemail so that we can hear more from you. So our first guest is a pyro technician who has worked on some of the biggest shows out there. Everything from Golden Gate Bridge celebrations, Macy's parades Burning Man, you name it, he's done it. And what I found so interesting is there's how I thought being a pyro technician worked and how I thought that fireworks were made. And then there's how it's really done. This is Pyro technician, Steve Vyas. I think everybody has heard of a pyro technician. But I don't really know what a pyro technician is doing. Like I know, but I don't really know,

Steve Yoss 1:56

you know, I would say is a professional who is qualified and is properly trained on the safe execution of doing fireworks displays. And there are a lot of different probably nuances with respect to that particular term. And for myself, you know, I'm coming from the professional display community, you know, so I, when I'm working with pyrotechnics, I'm doing it in the context of a public display for Fourth of July show or birthday party or something like that. And to me that particular word, it means somebody who is is gone through the proper training and has the proper qualifications to be able to execute a show safely.

Nick VinZant 2:34

So how much training will go into it,

Steve Yoss 2:37

being a pirate technician, you know, who has a license. And it's important to note that like, my license comes from, in my case, the state of California from the Office of the State Fire Marshal, it's a license just like any other profession, whether you're a CPA, which I also am or lawyer or medical doctor, you know, you're you're getting a license from the state that shows and demonstrates that you have gone through the proper training and have the proper background to be able to do this. And in my particular case, it's a lifelong thing. I grew up in the profession, my dad, well, not a licensed pirate technician has been in the community for pretty much his life, which means it's the entirety of my life, I grew up doing this. And then when I turned 18, that's when I really kind of started shooting shows that at least during the state, California has, at minimum age to be able to handle pyrotechnics. And for the first several years, it was just apprenticing. It's just basically learning from other people. And I would say that it is very much a tradition that's been handed down 1000s of years really kind of going back to the invention of black powder today, from person to person, whether it be the safe and presentation of a show, or you know, where I actually do is we actually make fireworks to you know, beyond the actual fourth of July's shows. You know, there's a whole community which I'm a part of, where we're still practicing the traditional art of making Pyro the different methods and manners of wiring a show or the different methods and manners of rolling stars to make the different effects that you really learn. You know, there's so much it's just like baking in that particular way where you know, you really can't learn it until you do it. And with anybody who's may be interested in going out and becoming a pirate technician, I would encourage you to kind of learn from somebody who who has been in the industry and who has had those years of experience because there's so much you'll pick up from somebody else. Now beyond that, to get your license. There are specific requirements at every state. And again, I'm here in the state of California. So our requirements are going to be different than Nevada, which are going to be different than Washington or elsewhere. But there's a huge component of it. That's the experience that you pick up from other Pireaus. Working on shows then there's a written test and exam there's a training program that you have to go through. Then there's background checks and other things like that, but and I would encourage our listeners to review their state fire marshal guidelines on what's required but I would tell you just go out and do it, you know, and find a pyro and just start swinging a hammer and start building the show and actually just start learning from somebody. That's the best way of getting started.

Nick VinZant 5:09

So it's a real kind of training thing. It's not like I'm CPR certified. But I took a two hour course. And I couldn't do CPR. Right, like, sure. If someone's life depended on it. It's a, it's a real like, oh, no, you really got to know what you're doing. Yeah, no,

Steve Yoss 5:27

it really is.

Nick VinZant 5:28

No, what's difficult about it? Is it putting together the show? Is it the safety aspect, like what's the difficult part about being a pyro technician,

Steve Yoss 5:39

you know, when you're a crew member, you know, it's often working with the pyro itself, it's a very physically demanding job. You know, we'd like to say it's firework, you know, because it is work, it's a lot of fun. I mean, for many of us, myself included, it's an, it's an ancillary thing to our lives in the sense that it's not my my full time gig, it's something I do many times throughout the year. So it's the way that I earn my living. But it's still work. You know, like, I tell people, like I take vacation from my normal job to go do physical manual labor in the sun, every fourth of July and throughout the year, and I love it, I wouldn't have it any other way. But when you're a crew member, it's often the physical labor side of this, the equipment we're working with the mortars themselves are very heavy, you could be working with anything from stuff that weighs, you know, a couple of pounds to hundreds of pounds, you know, a 10 inch mortar, which is the steel gun has a side in wall, probably about a quarter inch of cold rolled steel, in a sanded mortar box can weigh 1000 pounds easily, you know, and you're working often, you know, with really heavy things, moving them around, to get them into the position that you want them to be. And it's a physically demanding job.

Nick VinZant 6:48

The mortar is the thing shooting off the fireworks Correct.

Steve Yoss 6:52

Think of it as the two okay, you know, so you have the mortar and you have the shell. And so the shell was the firework itself, we call it product in the industry, the product of the show. And then the mortar is what we shoot it out of, in a term mortar is a very generic term, it's used in the military to use obviously, in our profession, it just, it's it's the it's the tube that ultimately the firework will leave from. When a firework goes off, you know, we have fireworks seated at the bottom of the mortar. And when we light it, it produces a ton of gas, like a tremendous amount of gas. And that creates a concussion at the bottom of the water that ultimately projects the shell out of the mortar itself up into the sky. And we know roughly, you know, that size based off of the diameter of that shell, how big it'll go, meaning how wide it'll shoot, how high it'll go in the air, how long it'll take to get to the apex. And all of that's determined by the firework itself and ultimately the mortar you use.

Nick VinZant 7:45

So are they pretty standard in the sense that like, look, this is a math calculation at the end of the day. And if we put this much in at this, it is going to do exactly this? Or can they be unprinted us on predict unpredictable,

Steve Yoss 7:59

the stuff that we're shooting that we use for public displays, you know, and I'll point out like our company pirate spectaculars, by Souza, we shoot the annual New Year's Eve show at the Space Needle. You know, every year, we've been doing it for many, many years at this point. Everything on that that show is tested, everything on that show is professional grade, everything on that show has been cleared to be used on that. And we know 100% We have safety procedures. And we also have testing procedures, that when we receive product that we will put this product through evaluations to ensure it is something that is reliable, that's going to be the fact that we're going forward and ultimately safe for the public. But we know I mean, I apart from this apart from the public display aspect of this, you know, when you're making a firework itself, it's not 100% formula, it's it's art and science, but we roughly know, you know, if I do this, and this and this, it's gonna yield something that'll look something like this. Now, just like a baker baking a cake, I mean, you can, you know, have some variations on that. But for the most part, we know roughly what it's going to be. And what I would tell you the rough calculations, this isn't perfect, but the rough is that for about every inch of diameter of shell, and typically you'll start off with the smallest shells are going to be about three inches and those are our finale shells. And for our we use those a lot in finales and we also use them throughout everywhere but three inches above the standard, smallest size that most of the time we're working with for Ariel and they obviously can change going all the way up to the largest standard production sizes 12 inch, but I will point out they can go much bigger than that much bigger. But roughly for about every inch of caliber. It's roughly about 100 feet of burst, meaning it'll go 100 feet wide. It'll go 100 feet in the air and it'll take a second to get there. So roughly, let's say like an eight inch shell which would be a fairly large Fourth of July production shell that we would use that will roughly go about 800 feet wide. It'll take Eat second state pecs and we'll go back to you 100 feet in the air roughly.

Nick VinZant 10:03

That actually works out very well right? So if you got a one inch shell, it's gonna go 100 feet wide. It's gonna take one second to blow up is blow up the right yeah, that's not perfect is blow up the right word or the pyrotechnicians, I goo. You don't say blow? detonate, or yeah, we've

Steve Yoss 10:18

we've, well, yeah, we have we have different technical terms like a detonation would mean that the shell blows up in the mortar itself. That's, that's what we refer to as a demo, or detonation. That's something obviously you don't want. But no, we would just say that it shoots you know, and then it'll burst in the sky. You know, preppers would probably be the term I would use most, most succinctly.

Nick VinZant 10:41

So in my mind, right, like, are these basically just big black cats in the sense that like, alright, this this is basically just an upscaled version of the fireworks stuff that you buy at the tent? Or is this a fundamentally different thing?

Steve Yoss 10:55

Yeah, great question. So with respect to the Pyro, that we're shooting the we have two major classifications, three technically, but really in production, there's there's two major classifications and actually comes to the Department of Transportation, we have 1.3. And we have 1.4. And 1.3 is aerial pyrotechnics, which is non consumer. These are, these are I want to point out, they're not high explosives or normal, explosive devices. It's not like C four, it's not like det cord or something like that. These are artistic effects. And it's important to know that our fireworks are art. And what we're calling for isn't necessarily a blast, but what that blast produces beautiful colors, sound effects, things of this nature, and those fireworks are designed for that. But aerial fireworks, which is the 1.3, which is the stuff we're typically dealing with here. You know, your consumers should ever handle those. I'm not going to say that they're unsafe, but they do require particular training and safety, awareness to be able to work correctly. And they also require in almost all instances of mortar, which again, most consumers are not going to have, but these shells are I mean, they're fundamentally different in terms of how they operate and they're typically single single thing like you might end up getting a fountain or a cake or something like that from a consumer grade that might have lots of different effects in it. Our effects are single purpose you know, so it's like a you know, let's say five inch red Dahlia or it might be you know, three inch red white blue piani but it does one thing and one thing only

Nick VinZant 12:28

like now you make some of the fireworks yourself. Does that I guess how do you make a firework is it really just like breaking a cake like all right, you take what's what's the thing that's blowing up? Like what are you using? Is it gunpowder? I haven't I don't have any idea.

Steve Yoss 12:45

Black Powder. You so with respect to making fireworks? I want to make it very clear in the context of a fourth of July show like well, I'll be shooting next week. There are no handmade pyrotechnic devices that like I'm physically or personally making all this stuff is is professional grade. All of this stuff is made in very strict production, quality environments, you know, to ensure the safety, accuracy and reliability of the devices. I'm a member of several different organizations, but the two most notable would be pyrotechnics guild, international PGI, which is our international association of let's just call it fireworks enthusiast. And then I'm also a member of the Western pyrotechnic Association WPA. And we host a convention at both organizations where members will come together over a common love of fireworks. And throughout those events, there'll be many opportunities to manufacture your own Pyro and it could be learning how to make, you know, wheels pinwheels, it could be learning how to make you know, you know, different types of aerial effects. You learn how to make all that stuff at those types of events under a environment where you're working with people who know what they're doing that have the proper safety considerations all taken care of, and you learn from one person to the other from master to student. And often with a pyro, you know, you have some pyrotechnic composition, as we call it, or comp, and it could be anything. You know, we use different chemicals to be able to create the different effects that we want it to be, you know, so like, we have different effects that'll make crackle we have different effects that will make it bright and yellow, or bright and blue. You mix different chemicals together to ultimately get the effect that you're going for. And it's the process of kind of pulling it all together, that you will ultimately create what are called stars and stars are those pyrotechnic effects that have been rolled in certain chemicals they end up as kind of if you can imagine little balls and those ends up like pixels in the sky. You know, like when you're looking at fireworks, and you see the individual lights coming down. Those are those are what we call stars, and you make those by hand. It's important to note every firework every firework out there, everything is made by hand. It doesn't matter. If it's made by myself, or it's made by a manufacturing facility, everything is made by hand. There is no real kind of like mass manufacturing of this and somebody's hands ultimately made every effect that you've ever seen. And the difference is when you make it for yourself, you know, you can, you could really put the attention to detail into the shells to get the exact effect, the symmetry, the color, or the orientation, you know, that you're kind of going for. And you know, what's beautiful about PGI, and with winter blast, but the WPA, you'll see, I mean, almost everything at those events are made by hand, they're made by the members that are there, and you'll see stuff that you won't see anywhere else, because that one shell might have taken that person three days or even longer to make, wow, it takes that long. Oh, it could take way longer than that, you know, I have a good friend. His name is Jim Whitman, that He's also a member of all of this, he's a current record holder for pretty much every large caliber firework you've ever seen. And he'll often work on a single shell for months to to get that one perfect shell that goes off. And he's done shows all over the world. Often with very large pyro. And by large, I mean, like, in the 1000s of pounds per shell. And like, I think the biggest one he's done at this first, this point is like 60 inches, so like five feet in diameter, you know, and he could work on that show for months to make that happen.

Nick VinZant 16:24

Do you have to be super careful while you're making it like the one wrong move and the house is gone? Or is it pretty much like look, just don't have a fire next to it, you're gonna be fine.

Steve Yoss 16:34

We have tables of distances that we have to follow. So if you're doing this, this and this, you need x number of feet between structures. They're strict criteria and guidelines about what that manufacturing space has to have. Certainly no flame period, you know, but the other big thing that we have to think about is static electricity, you know, what's the atmospheric pressure? You know, because certain things, for example, create atmospheric pressure, which is going to create more static lightning, you know, as a huge consideration. You know, I would tell you, anytime you're manufacturing the least for myself, the first thing I'm thinking about is egress, you know, if something happens, how can I get away from here? This is absolutely not something you want to do. Just in your house or your backyard, you need to have a dedicated space to be able to do this correctly.

Nick VinZant 17:16

Are there a lot of Pyro technicians? Or is it hard to find people

Steve Yoss 17:20

in the state of California, in terms of licensed operators, there's a list that's maintained by the state. And last time I looked at it, you know, there were several 100 People with different licenses, it's important to note, there's not just one license, there's several different licenses you can have that have one license or the other. So it's only a couple 100 people here, at least in the state of California, which is one of the largest markets for pyro.

Nick VinZant 17:43

Now when when it's time when it's go time, right? Like if somebody's sitting there like, all right, like the match, or is it basically computerized at this point,

Steve Yoss 17:51

there are three ways of being able to shoot Pyro you can physically go out and light it, which many people still do. But then really with our company and other companies in the in the industry, they really kind of started to advocate for the safe presentation of this where instead of lighting it by hand, where you're putting yourself physically near the fireworks itself, you can shoot these things electronically. Where essentially, you can put a firing system, sometimes you know hundreds of feet away or even further, and then be able to shoot it remotely. In the case of something detrimental happening, you're not putting that specific operator in physical risk. And currently, for our company with very few exceptions, almost everything is shot electronically in that way. Now, in a 21st century, we shoot things digitally. And for our many of our shows, now we're shooting them electronically, but they're being computer shot. And that really kind of allowed us to be able to do things with much tighter choreography, where we can choreograph the effects and the time that those effects go up in the sky to be able to produce firework shows that are cued specifically to music. And so when you see, you know, again, like the 1812 overture, and you hear the cannon fire going, you know that cannon fire occurring is occurring at the same time we're shooting Pyro in the air, and it's perfectly synced up. It's not that you can't do that with electronic firing, which is a manual process where the pyro literally shoots each shell, but they're doing it remotely. The computer is just going to do it with such accuracy that really kind of separates, I would say the the ability to be able to choreograph these shows to a much tighter timeline. That

Nick VinZant 19:29

makes sense, right? Like I can still do math in my head if I need to, but it's just easier to have a calculator right here and do this. Yeah, yeah. Um, absolutely. Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yep, sure. What is your favorite firework? What is your least favorite firework?

Steve Yoss 19:46

Great question. For me firework is about art, you know, and really what I look for in a great firework and I mean it. There's so many different types of effects that are out there that you can consider off For me, what I really want to look for is is just the quality of the shell itself. So I look for symmetry you know, is it balanced is the left look like the right is top look like the bottom, you know is it laid out correctly in the shell, I look for color, vibrance, you know, I really like beautiful, vibrant colors, I look for effects stuff I've never seen before like chase sequences where a firework for example, they can call it we call it ghosting, where we'll roll the shells in one color, let it dry and then we'll roll them in another color and as a firework burns, it can change colors for example, from blue to red, you know those and sometimes it will actually chase around the firework itself, you know, where it'll kind of vibrant, brights flashing, which is kind of cool. I look for you know, kind of unusual shapes, you know, we've got these jellyfish shells that kind of like be exactly the jellyfish, you know, things of this nature or, you know, certain, certain odd shapes, you know, certainly the stars, the boxes, the hearts, those are always kind of fun to see and do. And from a manufacturing perspective, they're very challenging to create, and make. So that's the kind of stuff I really look for. I've been again around Pyro my whole life and just your standard just burst in the air, you know, those are obviously fun, and they're, they're great. But I'm to the point now, where it's really about the art and about creating stuff that that hasn't been seen before, or stuff that's very unusual, or very unique. The stuff I don't like. What I don't like I would say is probably just unnecessarily loud things you know, and often in our community, how big can you make it how big of a boom, you can make it? Sometimes you'll hear the term and the community thump junkies, you know that people that just want to hear a big boom, it'd be a big flash. That's cool. You know, it's cool once or twice, but frankly, you know, it's kind of a waste of pyrotechnic composition, when you can make something a little bit more flashy and a little bit more

Nick VinZant 21:56

brilliant, hardest color to make easiest color to make.

Steve Yoss 22:00

I'm not gonna probably be able to answer this as succinctly as probably people who are more apt for manufacturing that could. With respect to colors, though, I've often heard that getting a really good blue is difficult. And I think one of the easier colors to make is red, because there's several different ways I think you can get to red,

Nick VinZant 22:19

who is the Michael Jordan of pyrotechnicians. And if it's you, say it's you, but who is like, oh,

Steve Yoss 22:25

there's several people. But if I had to just pick one out of it, and I've had the pleasure of knowing this person my whole life both personally, as a family friend, and then also professionally working with him. I have to go with our company's president CEO Jim Souza, James Sousa, he's the full package. He's an absolute, brilliant businessman and a creative genius in so many respects. He designs a lot of the shows, you know, and he just has such really good taste and what makes a great firework show. If you've ever seen the Fourth of July at Macy's on NBC, that's his work

Nick VinZant 23:00

what show to pyrotechnicians like yourself like what did they consider to be like, This is the show like oh, that's, that's where it's at man.

Steve Yoss 23:11

From a production perspective. What I really enjoy is bringing that happiness and joy to the crowd. You know, you can't watch a firework show not smile, you can't watch a firework show and not not pointing Ooh, and ah, and that for me, I've told people you know, when we shoot that firework show for that 10 minutes, you know, I'm Mick Jagger, I'm Paul McCartney. I'm the guy who actually gets to bring that happiness to people and then I get to fade and go back into my normal life which is wonderful. Now beyond that, though, to answer the other part of your question is a pyro what I really get excited for again, are going to be these these membership driven organizations, the WPA and PGI because often at those events, and at winter blasts for the WPA, or the PGI conference, that sense of being able to see that kind of one off like it's so very, very awesome. Because you know, that firework I mean, it's not like a piece of art that's going to Hagen museum that will be there forever. It's every time they make it, it'll be a little bit different. I'll never be the same effect twice and you get to witness this one little thing. And then if you're not there, it's gone. What I really love about pyrotechnics is immediacy of it you know, if you're not there, you missed it. And a firework will never do justice on a video recording or picture you might look okay but like the what you'll see when you're actually there at these membership events, where your buddy made that effect I think, to me is ruin one of the things I really enjoy.

Nick VinZant 24:40

Have you ever been injured?

Steve Yoss 24:43

Thankfully, no. But I will point out I've also got years of experience and safety and training. And I'm very very conscious of the safety side of this. I'll tell you again growing up in this and shooting Pyro with my dad most of my life. I remember something he told me Very, very, very young and I've never forgot it. There are no second chances,

Nick VinZant 25:04

biggest firework you've ever sat off. Most fireworks you've ever set off.

Steve Yoss 25:11

In terms of size of fireworks, I routinely shoot large diameter shells, my fourth of July show which is for the city of Lake Elsinore here in Southern California, our show features three inch to 10 inch. So a 10 inch firework is largest routinely I work with in one of a handful of those shells on our show. And I've been part of shows that have had larger shells, 16 inch shells, 20 inch shells, 20 twos 20 fours, but those aren't ones that I've myself physically worked with, but I've been there and then when they go off, man, they are something to be seen. And it's important to know, with respect to shells were working in cubic space, and the difference between like a tenon and 12 inches almost 50%, you know, in terms of cubic volume, it's bigger. So as these kind of go up in diameter, they don't just it's not a linear thing we get like, exponentially bigger in terms of in all possible ways in terms of burst in terms of effects in terms of everything cost, you know, for that matter as well. Now, in terms of most number of fireworks, my fourth of July show on the for the city of Lake Elsinore, that'll end up having about 400 queues. So a queue is like you hit it and something happens. And so we'll end up having 400 queues and one queue can end up having multiple shots associated with doubles, or triples or things of this nature. And I've worked on bigger shows than that. The Macy sports show, for example, in New York, each barge has 1000s and 1000s of fireworks on each one. And there's like six barges for that show for you

Nick VinZant 26:43

what show that you've worked on because you've worked on some big ones that you look back and be like, yeah, that was it. Like that was that was that was cool.

Steve Yoss 26:52

For me. There's like certain memories, you know, that are very like, like stuck in my head that I can remember they were like, Oh my God, you know, like that was like for that time in place, like the coolest thing ever. And I've had the pleasure of working with my dad for all of these years. He's been a member of my crew since I've had my license. And you know Sosa in particular, that kind of stick out in my mind for one reason. The other first show I ever worked on was the Macy's Fourth of July show. I was 18. I was just graduated high school. In May, my dad took me to New York, we worked on that that show, and I remember standing on the barge, and I've been to firework shows forever. But it was the first time I'd ever worked to show and I remember standing on that barge and it's raining down the firework debris, you know, because you're shooting within the fallout zone, we whenever we shoot a show, we know the perimeter in terms of like when the Pyro is going to come down and you're wearing a hard hat and everything. Just seeing these these borders go off. And in such volume and, and frequency. I just remember, I was hooked for life. You know, it was like, oh, and the smell of the sulfur. You know the gunpowder that's going off, I was just like, this is this, I'm going to do this rest of my life. There's no question in my mind about it, I'm gonna get my license, I'm going to do this forever. I'm also part of the group that does pyrotechnics at Burning Man every year, which is takes place. It's a large, temporary city that's constructed outside of Reno, Nevada. And I've worked on that event for almost a decade now. And I remember the first time going and actually doing fire art with pyrotechnics at the same time. Same thing, it was like, you know, just like this is an outstanding, this is something I want to do forever.

Nick VinZant 28:25

Is it different when you're kind of in that Fallout zone when you're close?

Steve Yoss 28:30

Yeah, absolutely. For a couple of technical reasons. And I'll tell you the technical reason here and then I'll tell you what it's like for me now when I'm working on a firework show. So when you're part of a crew, and I would encourage your listeners, if anybody's interested here, I mean, this is something normal people do you know, I'm a normal person, I have a normal nine to five job as do almost everybody in the profession, this is not something call up your local display company, give me a ring, you know, and you can come out work on a show anybody can anybody can do this. In fact, there's a shortage of operators a desperate shortage, pretty much nationwide. If you look at most of the people in here, there's a lot of gray hair. And this is a very physically demanding job. And there is a huge need for a younger generation to step up and get their license that comes due to show we don't have enough operators to shoot the shows that we could possibly shoot. And the first thing you're going to notice is that fireworks are in 3d. Most of the time when you're watching a firework show, you've got the audience and you're standing in front of the actual Pyro itself. But you're you're looking at it the same way that somebody looks at a canvas in a museum, you know, and when you're at a firework site, you're seeing these things go off in that third dimension, which is vertical space. And it's kind of fun to actually see the vertical separation between some of these different fireworks that you just don't get when you're watching it, you know, 1000 feet away, you're just seeing it happen all in front of you. But when you're standing underneath it or next to it, you're seeing happening in another dimension that you just can't physically see unless you're actually standing there. And you're also getting the impact of the actual firework going off itself. to thump you know, there's a visible and auditory and a kinetic thing when you're standing near this in that fireworks Fallout zone operating that show you got your heart hat on, you got your firework turnout, you got your earplugs in, you're physically feeling these things go off, you know, they're going 1000s of feet per second in some instances

Nick VinZant 30:20

of after every single Fourth of July or fireworks saying we're always going to hear about something when something does go wrong, like where is it usually.

Steve Yoss 30:28

And there are certainly accidents that can occur. But a big instances where I see this is that culture, it's that safety, lack of safety, mindset and lack of professionalism with respect to producing these shows and allowing for that culture to, you know, come in and create an environment where like a safety event can occur. Everything kind of kind of comes from there.

Nick VinZant 30:48

What do you think about drones? Seems to be the new the new thing now, right? Where they're lighting up these patterns in drones? Is that Is that a threat to the it's not like pyrotechnicians aren't like they're gonna take they're gonna take our stuff?

Steve Yoss 31:03

No great question. And in fact, our company, we partner with many different drone companies. And we've done joint projects where we've had drones flying in the sky and fireworks going along with them. I think it could be a great complement to, to a firework show, and they offer a different type of experience. You know, and they're different tool, you know, why do I have five different types of screwdrivers in my workshop, you know, because I've reached for the tool I need for the job that I want to do. Now saying that, as somebody who likes drones, and has shot shows that you've included drones, personally, I really like fireworks. And although as a technologist, I enjoy the technology behind this. And I think they're really cool with respect to what they do. I don't think it's a matter of replacement. It's really a compliment. It's not an ad, it's, it's an order you can do both

Nick VinZant 31:49

Do you think that there's going to be is something new coming down the line or like, whoa, never seen that before.

Steve Yoss 31:58

There's innovations all the time in so many different things from the chemistry of the actual compositions that make the fireworks themselves. Our profession is an industry that's constantly striving to, for example, make pyrotechnic devices that are cleaner, safer, more green, more environmentally responsible and sustainable. There's innovations in safety. You know, in the last 50 years, for example, the Advent and introduction of electronic firing, and now digital firing, that has opened up opportunities for doing Pyro musicals, and beautifully choreographed shows, and at the same time improving the safety of the crew that operates those shows. That's a huge innovation, we're seeing lots of innovation in that space as well. It turns to the actual effects themselves. I mean, think of it as an artist with a blank canvas, every show you work is a little bit different. And that artist is going to paint a different picture. And I think there's all different types of effects that can be used. And it's about the order of sequence music and the circumstances that you put around there. But, you know, I'm very, I have a very positive outlook for the industry and in the different types of things that we can do. And I believe this, there's going to be new innovations coming. And I'm excited to see what they are.

Nick VinZant 33:10

That's pretty much all the questions I got, man, what's kind of coming up next, are you how can people get a hold of you? I know you got a lot going on.

Steve Yoss 33:17

Sure, absolutely. And I would encourage our audience to go find their local display. You know, the Fourth of July is about community. It's about family. It's about friendship. It's about celebrating America. And one of the best ways of doing that is find your local community show and supporting your local community, whether you are Massachusetts or you're in Alabama, or Texas or California or Washington and just going out and enjoying it and experiencing it. If you're interested in trying this out and seeing if it's a show you want, just look up and find your local display company. If you're here on the West Coast, check out Pyro spectaculars by Sousa Pyro spec.com. And you can learn a little bit about us we have a full training program. And we are absolutely always looking for new operators. It's a it's something that we're always trying to recruit. And it is, as I've said a few times here, it's a tradition handed down person to person and we very much want to get you involved to go out there and do this for your community and shoot a show for your, your town, your city, your church, your whatever. And it's a great way of kind of exploring for myself, really, by mid next week I start getting into show mode. As I mentioned, I'm shooting the city of Lake Elsinore here in beautiful Southern California. I've shot the show for many years, I have a great relationship with the city and our fire authority there. I've been in contact with them. We're starting to do all the planning and my crew will start showing up we're actually shooting three shows second, third and fourth. And over the three days I mean, it's just going to be a wonderful gathering of old friends and new friends to come together to put on something truly spectacular for that city and come at o'clock on on July 4. They could mean I'll be standing there with my, my city manager and the parks department there and my Fire Authority and we're gonna light up the sky and bring the the city of Lake Elsinore and its citizens of beautiful display to celebrate America now,

Nick VinZant 35:14

but you've got a podcast too, but it's not now you're not just doing Pyro technician full time, right? You got stuff going on?

Steve Yoss 35:22

Yeah, I do. And you know, as I mentioned, pyrotechnics, brings together people all walks and all lives. My background. I'm primarily a software developer and I work also in in finance, I'm a CPA, I'm although I don't practice any publicly any longer, but do continuing education for accountants, and teaching all different types of technology, audit, accounting, ethics, fraud, everything you could think of. And so if you have any financial professionals in the audience, and they want to check us out, our company is CPE today, and you can check us out at CPE. Today and find our podcast where we talk about the latest and greatest technology, providing reviews, Insight training, I do a lot of in depth analysis and training on Excel, Power BI other types of stuff like that, and love for your listeners to check us out. Again, it's CPE today,

Jenna Starr: Actress

Jenna Starr is one of the most sought after and popular performers in her industry. But two years ago her life was very different. Follow her journey from business owner to OnlyFans Content Creator to viral video star to mainstream movies. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Most Annoying Things.

Jenna Starr: 02:03ish

Pointless: 26:32ish

Top 5: 45:06ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

https://www.instagram.com/jennathestarr (Jenna Starr Instagram)

https://twitter.com/jenna__starr  (Jenna Starr Twitter)

https://www.tiktok.com/@jenna__starr  (Jenna Starr TikTok)

https://linktr.ee/jennafyd  (Jenna Starr Linktr.ee)

Jenna Starr Interview

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode and only fans journey, and the most annoying animals,

Jenna Starr 0:21

you know, when I decided to put my vagina out online, I was like, this is all or nothing, this is go bigger go home. That whole year was like, Should I do this? Should I not? Should I do the show? Not? People are gonna call me this people are gonna call me that what if my family does this? Or what have that would I mean, everything went through my head, and I hadn't processed it for the whole year. I think that a lot of people didn't realize the work, it was going to take the consistency. More than anything else.

Nick VinZant 0:52

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review. It's been really cool to hear from so many of you have so many of you over the last couple of weeks. i We love getting the feedback. And I really think it helps helps us improve the show. So anytime you've got something to say, we would love to hear it. So our first guest has had a very interesting story. Over the last couple of years, she has gone from a business owner, to only fans, to adult movies, to acting. And all of that has happened just in the last couple of years. So it's really interesting to hear what it's like for somebody who went in to the adult entertainment industry, and how quickly things can change on so many levels. This is actress Jenna star. Is this a career that you ever thought that you would be in?

Jenna Starr 2:05

Absolutely not?

Nick VinZant 2:08

How did you kind of find yourself in it then?

Jenna Starr 2:11

Um, I think one thing led to another. I felt like it was like a calling who was something that I was supposed to do. Just really weird things would just happen to me and it was almost like people kind of aligned me to it would be on the beach. Some random group of guys think I was some porn star. Like maybe over 10 years ago, my ex his best friend just call me Jenna star. And you Hey, Jenna star Hi, you look like a porn star. And I was like, okay, whatever, you know, I just felt like, it just I was like, I'm supposed to be doing this,

Nick VinZant 2:51

you kind of started with an only fans, and then you shifted into more mainstream,

Jenna Starr 2:55

I was already doing the only fans as much as I could and knew of like full force. And I got a bit an inquiry from Brazzers. And they just said, Hey, you know, we'd like to know, it was on my Twitter, they were like, hey, we'd like to know if you would like to shoot for. And if it works out or whatever, we can talk about more scenes from there. And I was like, you know, when I decided to put my vagina out online, I was like, this is all or nothing, this is go bigger go home. If people are going to talk about me just know that I made it somewhere far as far as I could and made my dreams come true. And gave my family what they needed. So I was like, yes.

Nick VinZant 3:43

Now when you were doing the only fans was that the whole thing? And by the whole thing. I mean, like were you showing everything? Or did you kind of like Alright, I'm gonna start out with this and then go to this and or how did that work?

Jenna Starr 3:55

You know, I was doing the you know, the show on my vagina and making customs. Just people would ask me for things and I would just make a like, Okay, I think I could do price and just kind of, you know, trailblaze in that saying,

Nick VinZant 4:11

so you were one of the people that really like started kind of the only got started in only fans and then went into mainstream.

Jenna Starr 4:19

Yeah, I actually started had opened today, even a year prior to the when I when I started putting stuff out and that whole year was like, Should I do this? Should I not? Should I do the show? Not? People are going to call me those people are going to call me that. What if my family does this? Or what if that would I mean everything went through my head and I hadn't processed it for the whole year. And then finally one day I woke up and I was like, These people aren't paying my bills. These people don't really care about me, like people are gonna talk about you, no matter what you do. People talked about me when I ran a wholesome, nice business, you know, and I ran that business for five years until COVID came in and you know, and so it's like I'm going in, and I'm going all the way out.

Nick VinZant 5:03

What has been, like the difference between kind of being out there on only fans versus being out there, in more mainstream applications,

Jenna Starr 5:13

most of the differences, the experience between the two that you go through as a job, they are different. Um, it was better than I thought it was going to be. I wasn't honestly, I wasn't really sure what to expect. And I had like months to like, I'm one of those people where it's like, think about somebody and like, Oh, my goodness, it's like, built up and I was so nervous at lunch, because he contacted me in October, we didn't schedule my scenes until February. So I was really nervous. I was scared, I didn't know what it was gonna be like, I didn't know what the guy was going to be like, I had three scenes, like consecutively. I didn't know how people were gonna treat me I was just kind of more like, you know, what, if people are rude or mean to me, or, or pushy, or, you know, I had all these like fears, you know, then I also had like, the positives of the unknown. You know, we're just gonna go figure it out. I didn't really tell a lot of people at all that I was doing it because I wanted to go in, in a very positive energy, you know, and bring that forward. And my, you know, like, willpower forward, like, Okay, this is something that I want to do.

Nick VinZant 6:30

Like, was that the first time that you had ever had sex on camera? Or had you filmed that before? Either on the only fans or in your personal life? It was like, was it a completely new experience?

Jenna Starr 6:41

Yeah, I think the things that were made personally, but not many, because I wasn't really I was very shy of showing my vagina. I thought it looked ugly and weird. And so I felt really like self conscious about the way I look. But there are some videos out there that were not my consent that people maybe I was hooking up with. I didn't even know that they were recording me until what are you doing? You know,

Nick VinZant 7:09

like that transition going from kind of only fans into the more mainstream stuff? How has that kind of changed your life?

Jenna Starr 7:18

Which part of my

Nick VinZant 7:23

I guess just having what to me, I would assume would be more exposure. Right? I would think that it's more money, more notoriety, more everything.

Jenna Starr 7:33

Definitely. For the better. Absolutely. I feel like this year is going to be really huge for the starting of things, because I'm still pretty new. So I feel like a lot is going to happen this year, maybe double triple the success that I had last year.

Nick VinZant 8:01

And where she like the most viewed

Jenna Starr 8:04

last year for 2021. I featured in goose like the celebrities Brunchy lookalikes. It's a tongue twister, with Kaylee gunner and Kyle Mason, great performers and we got our video. It was the most viral scene of the whole year on Brazzers website.

Nick VinZant 8:30

Now what what looking back at it like why do you think that was? I haven't seen it. I can imagine. I can imagine what was happening. But like,

Jenna Starr 8:41

first three scenes that I did with them. We did them the first one was Bridgette be like something about hot wives or I can't remember the name of it. The second one was boy girl with Brazzers cordovan. And third one was that one with Kyle Mason and Kaylee gunner and these were all this was like the same week. So it's like my it's basically like one of my first videos, you know, I had no idea that that was going to happen. So I couldn't tell you. I don't know. I feel like we all just really tried and just had fun with it. And who knows, you know, just blew up?

Nick VinZant 9:26

Do you get paid more based on how much how many times it's viewed?

Jenna Starr 9:30

Yeah. So it's how many people viewed the scene.

Nick VinZant 9:36

You get paid? Do you get paid the same whether like 100 people see it or a million people see it like as your pay structure. So

Jenna Starr 9:45

we get paid to do scene. And what comes along with that? Are the fans, the followers, the subscribers, the views on our own stuff. So a lot comes with it's like marketing.

Nick VinZant 10:03

After you went into the mainstream role, when was the first time that that you felt like oh, wow, this this is different.

Jenna Starr 10:11

So people were already recognizing me before all that because of my own work of building my own fan base and my Instagram account and my my only fans I'm and so people from the cities I would post in after so many posts and people just start to know who you are. So I already like had that, like people were knowing who I was. Now doing the proceeds just kind of gave it like a like, it's like giving it like a big huge kick. And I think right now I'm starting to realize that I probably need security. I've always had a lot of strange things happen to me, like with men following me around, you know, bugging me like trying to do a lot of weird things and stuff. But you know, I just this last week, I had a god, I was staying in a motel, and I'm gonna see where. And I get up in the morning to go make coffee. And I opened my door and there is a note under the door, and I pick up the note and it's like I saw you checking in. I just want to let you know, and it sounded like a manager, which was funny, because I was like, okay, this person has to work here, because how would they know what room I was in? And why does it sound like, if there's anything you need, let me know. And I'm just, I was just starstruck when I saw you, I really wanted a picture. But I left my phone in like the Uber, I just like all this. And then they were like, I'm in room blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, okay, so I go down to go get my coffee. And the whole time. I'm like, Who in the world? Is this person? And then the guy comes up to me, and was like, um, I hope I you know, didn't bother you buy my note. And I was like, who you left the note? And he was like, Yeah, you know, and I was like, Yeah, that was really weird. And I, you know, and I asked him, I said, you know, because he am like, you know, if I was an athlete, or you know, a music artists, would you have just approached me and said, Hi. And he said, Yeah, and I said, Well, why don't you treat me the way that you would treat other people. And I always tell people, like, you know, when I get on my live with, you see me just say hi, because I can see all the weird shiftiness going on

Nick VinZant 12:41

when you went into the mainstream industry. Did you have to, like did you talk to other people that were in the industry do you like,

Jenna Starr 12:49

so I didn't tell anyone. I told my brother, my sister and one of my best friends. I didn't really want a lot of negative like I said before, I didn't want a lot of negative energy and and stuff. Now, I did reach out to a couple of girls, let's say hula. But I reached out to some, you know, girls, and I wanted some advice and had some questions, and I never got responses. So I walked into everything, just very green. And I don't say that it is in a sense, like, oh my god, I found out all these crazy things. It's just like, I'm learning as I go. I do have, you know, some people now that I can talk to and get advice about like, personal things in the industry, which is great. I'm super thankful for as we all know, a lot of us don't have a lot of people to talk. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 13:36

when you're just like, I would imagine there's not a lot of people that are in that situation, right? Like, who are you getting advice from in that circumstance?

Jenna Starr 13:42

Your family can only listen to you like you're like, very supportive, but like, all they can do is just be like, huh, wow, yeah.

Nick VinZant 13:54

The people in your life when you told them, Were they supportive of it that they discouraged? Did they not know what to say?

Jenna Starr 14:00

So I've never really had my dad in my life. And I already know pretty much what he would say. I mean, I just know how he is. And then my mom, my mom's one of those people where you can just drop a load on her and you gotta like, work it on her.

Nick VinZant 14:20

Yeah, you gotta like prep the groundwork. Yeah, so I did

Jenna Starr 14:23

groundwork on my mom. You know, it was a lot of things that I do. Where I prepared her you know, slowly but surely I didn't over you know, do a sensory overload on her. I just were like, Oh, my goodness, mom. I'm so excited. I'm like, Ah, like, I just this huge company. I'm gonna get to do you know, like, they're just so huge and you know, and I used to do these, you know, like, I'm gonna be an actor. Just like chi Great, great. And it took so many times and then I slowly but surely every time I talked to her about it was like little bit more information a little bit more of information. You know, and then I add some jokes in and I joke around and stuff. So I kind of know how to, like, introduce things in my mom to where, you know whether she agrees with it or not, you know, I just kind of go in and you know, give her the information and it kind of calms her down and then like, Alright, okay, you're doing all right.

Nick VinZant 15:23

How would you say like, society? I know, this is a broad question, but like, how would you say that society has generally responded to it? Like, do you feel? Do you? Are people judgmental? Do they not care? Like, what do you I would

Jenna Starr 15:37

say, there are a lot like a lot of judgmental people. But there's also a lot of just I think people were really curious. Like, a lot of curiosity about the lifestyle. And I think this like, I would say what I thought a lot of people had it figured out and then now I know they don't which I also don't either, if that makes sense.

Nick VinZant 16:00

It does. Like what what was things? Would you say? Like, oh, I don't really have that part of it figured out.

Jenna Starr 16:05

You know, I would just say the personal aspect of it. You're just kind of like, I don't know how they coincide. You know, I haven't figured it out. I'm new. I'm very observant. And so I'm observing a lot of things right now. And just how things go and what works for other people. And you know, just really keeping my mind open.

Nick VinZant 16:26

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Sure. What other names Did you consider? Besides Jenna star? Um,

Jenna Starr 16:37

I didn't really consider much of any other worms. That one just kept sticking in my head. I had to stick with it. I know, some people were like, I shouldn't have done that. But my mother named me Jenna, that was my birth rate name. And she named me after celebrities. So I feel like it was meant to be

Nick VinZant 17:01

how does it get determined who you're going to work with? Like, do you make requests? Did they make requests

Jenna Starr 17:07

Brazzers have signs the situation? Um, I've sent some requests, and I'm sure they just probably like, Okay, this is what you would like to do. I heard that they'll do that. But I think it's really just like, match. Like, they try to match you up with an idea. Unless the unless you do in like a villain scene, like you get a call and someone canceled their scene, and they need to do the scene. It just wasn't planned.

Nick VinZant 17:37

What are the men generally like? And I think what they mean by that is like, are the men usually like, all right? I get to have sex, or they kind of like, this is a job. And this is what I do for my job.

Jenna Starr 17:51

I would say it's probably a little bold, like, they're excited. And it's their job. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 17:59

But it's not like, overly like, oh, my gosh, I'm having sex with this beautiful woman kind of stuff. It's more like that. It's Tuesday, and this is what I'm doing on Tuesday.

Jenna Starr 18:11

I mean, they do express it.

Nick VinZant 18:15

I guess that is true. There's an easy way to tell isn't there? There's kind of a dead giveaway on if the men are excited or not. Um,

Jenna Starr 18:24

yeah, I'm nervous.

Nick VinZant 18:27

Some are nervous. This is a little bit of a deeper question. I guess. You made the transition from only fans into mainstream. During the pandemic, there was a lot of people who started only fans. Do you think that most of those people knew what they were doing? Or knew what they were getting into in the sense that like, once you go down this road, there's kind of no coming back from it.

Jenna Starr 18:53

I think that a lot of people didn't realize the work. It was going to take the consistency more than anything else. There are probably a few people who open that can of worms and realize that they weren't I know one girl had told me that she tried to start it but then her kids father brought it up in court and then you know, and whatever, and then it makes them feel bad. And then so they they quit scenarios like that. I'm sure that probably happened to people. I haven't really heard a lot of that I've just heard more than a million people. Just not understanding what it takes to be successful at it and just quitting and getting tired of it and wore out.

Nick VinZant 19:40

How often will you generally like for only fans or things like that? Like How often will you usually post

Jenna Starr 19:47

daily all day? Oh, it's

Nick VinZant 19:49

all day. Like just do you have to post content or is it just responding?

Jenna Starr 19:57

Like everything making content posting the content responding to your fans. Now, not only do you do that, but you hit your marketing on Twitter, I do most of this stuff myself, like your marketing, Twitter, Instagram, to Instagrams, Twitter, tick tock, you have to have content for all these platforms. And it is a lot of work and it's so much more work than people realize, and definitely work more than the nine to five.

Nick VinZant 20:33

Do you in that regard? Like in the amount of work that you have to do? Do you have to do that to be a certain level of success? Or do you have to do that? To make any money period? It's all you got to be like all access all the time.

Jenna Starr 20:51

You've got to build yourself up marketing, it's about being relevant consistency and connecting with people.

Nick VinZant 20:59

What is your most interesting request?

Jenna Starr 21:03

Recently, somebody asked to eat my shit.

Nick VinZant 21:07

I don't know how to react to that. Maybe. Did you respond?

Jenna Starr 21:12

I said, No.

Nick VinZant 21:13

First of all, it doesn't seem healthy more than anything else. That's the first thing that I think of is like, that's not good for your digestive tract.

Jenna Starr 21:20

No, there's bacteria in there.

Nick VinZant 21:23

I don't think I would really want anyone number one eating my shit, but even just owning my shit. Like, even if they weren't going to eat us, like no, I'm not. I don't know. What should I do with it?

Jenna Starr 21:36

Yeah, I don't know girl in another meal.

Nick VinZant 21:41

Um, oh, you don't have to give their name. But on a scale of one to 10 like one being somebody you've never heard of. 10 we're talking like Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington level famous. What is the most what like what rank would you give the most famous person who tried to slide into your DMS

Jenna Starr 22:04

you know what recently I just got a really big one. I might even go lie Loki. Oh, well excited. I usually don't really get excited because I feel like you're just slightly like everyone else. And not really a cloud chaser So, but, um, I got a flat hall with somebody right? Really, really, really cool. slid into my DMs, like, a week or so ago. You're busy, they're busy. I also don't get overly excited or chase them, chase them down. Or always agree to like, I'll fly you out kind of thing because it's just kind of like, wow, I got to work. I have a life and you know, yeah, let me just go hop on the plane for some, you know, dig, like, Okay, I gotta I gotta get myself ahead in life too.

Nick VinZant 22:54

Are we talking acting? sports, music, politician. Music, can you give us the genre of music?

Jenna Starr 23:05

I want to say rap that this person is more is like flexible with their music. And they have some other stuff out there. Like, like, you're gonna you will hear their music at like, all parties. You know what I'm saying?

Nick VinZant 23:19

This person Oh, yeah,

Jenna Starr 23:21

person has held longevity and been relative for years.

Nick VinZant 23:26

That's pretty much all the questions that we got, most of them are kind of along those lines. Like, I guess where do you? You know, where do you think the future? What do you think the future goes for you? Is this is this the the immediate plan, the short term plan the long term plan.

Jenna Starr 23:43

So this is immediate and medium. Like short term. Like I said, I'm doing this, there's a reason I'm doing this, I'm following an intuition. This is going to get me to the next longer stage in my life, which is like investing. I want to be an investor. So that's what I'm working towards. So I will transition out of this with with the success that comes with it. And the finances, I will use that to be an investor. And then, you know, take care of my old lady. So

Nick VinZant 24:31

it's a good point. There's like the most actresses who are in the industry, like do they have a kind of a shelf life like, Oh, I got I got five years I got 10 years. Do they know that kind of going in?

Jenna Starr 24:46

I mean, if they thought they knew you never know what it really couldn't be when it happens. I would say it probably has to do like you start finding out with your body what your body can actually handle because it's, I would, I'd say, we're athletes, we're sexual athletes, it's a lot of work to do the professional films. And I would say it's all going to be based on your body. And you know, maybe you have your own personal goal and you don't want to do it past a certain point or whatever, and you want to get out or maybe people get tired of it, or they realize it's not really for them, or they stay and they just keep going and they got that milk to give to, you know,

Nick VinZant 25:35

at some point, we got to draw the line, like if we're getting into 100 year old like

Jenna Starr 25:41

she was a very mature woman very, very mature.

Nick VinZant 25:45

Okay. You can answer this question you cannot, right? So like when it comes to the money making part of it? Are we talking like five figures? Six, seven, like how well compensated are actresses like yourself?

Jenna Starr 26:02

So I have zero like several avenues of income. And together? You know, it's a, it's, you know, I do okay.



Rainbolt: Professional Google Maps Player

Professional Google Maps Player Rainbolt knows the world at a glace. Show him any picture and he can tell you exactly where it was taken. We talk competitive Google Maps, Geoguessr, Geography, Travel secrets and figuring out where movies, TV Shows and music videos were really shot. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Condiments and unveil a new Candle of the Month.

Rainbolt: 02:12ish

Pointless: 30:16ish

Top 5: 54:56ish

Email the show: nickvinzant@gmail.com

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Twitch (Rainbolt Twitch)

Interview with Rainbolt: Professional Google Maps Player

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, Google Maps and condiments.

Rainbolt 0:19

There's a very lost skepticism around the videos I make, rightfully so I mean is pretty mesmerizing thing. And I guess it's like magic to some people, right? Like, you watch like a magic trick you don't know how it's done, but to the magician, it's easier, I would say soil color is really, really helpful. So if you have like red soil, it's like Cambodia, Brazil, why soil to be like Nigeria, like the car commercials. I love watching car commercials because it's like, what roads in the US early on,

Nick VinZant 0:45

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or a review, I think what we're going to end up doing is adding voicemail to the show. Because it's been fascinating over the last couple of weeks to hear from you guys about what you like about the show what you don't. And we want to continue to make it more interactive. So if you have any feedback, go ahead and send it to us, we really want to try to involve more of the audience more of the listeners in the show. So our first guest is a professional Google Maps player. And whatever reaction you might have immediately to that this is so interesting. It's so interesting, because it's amazing how he's able to look at a flash picture of anywhere in the world and identify where that is. But also, it's, it's really interesting to hear about all of these little differences between states and between countries that you might otherwise not know about, like how a guardrail and by noticing something about a guardrail, will tell you exactly what country you're in. It's all of these things that you didn't notice, that then makes traveling and experiencing the world just that much more interesting. This is professional Google Maps player Rainbolt. So how do you play google maps? professionally?

Rainbolt 2:15

Yeah, so basically, the game is called GeoGuessr. The point of the game is basically find where you are on the world. So it uses Google Streetview. And it basically just pulls random images from Google Streetview. And then you get put in these random spots, and you have to guess where you are.

Nick VinZant 2:31

So essentially, like, part of the game is they just take a picture of Yakima, Washington, some random, random place, and you have to go find this location, is it is it a certain area or can be anywhere in the world,

Rainbolt 2:43

you can play different maps, I like playing the world map, there is like you could play like very local specific maps like Fincher county only, by like playing the world map to where you get, you could put you could be put in Indonesia, or you could be put in Seattle, or a small town population, 300 and Montana,

Nick VinZant 3:01

I have no idea how you can even do this. Like you just get some random picture anywhere in the world. But how do you even figure this out?

Rainbolt 3:10

Yeah, it's a lot of studying and playing a lot. So basically, anything from using bollards on the side of the street, learning different telephone poles in different countries language, what side the road, people drive on what road lines countries use, every country has different road lines, some use double white, some use double yellow, some use white dashed, some don't use white dashed, some have triple yellow, it's like a whole thing of like learning straight lines, road conditions, what type of road types, vegetation, all that everything.

Nick VinZant 3:41

But I would imagine that most countries look generally kind of the same throughout the country. So then how do you narrow it down within a country

Rainbolt 3:49

so like, the USA is one of the toughest countries really in the world to learn. It's like notoriously, like one of the hardest countries because it's so big, and a lot of it looks the same, right? Like New York Catholic site anywhere in the northeast, really, like World New York. So there's, you know, you can learn license plates, some different regions, like every license plate is blurred in the US, but you could still make out like different colors. So you can you can learn like Oklahoma's what Oklahoma looks like blurred license plate looks like so then, you know, you're in Oklahoma, or there's different things in states specifically, or different regions where, like on the back of Oklahoma stop signs, they have like, they use their county number on the back of their stop sign where no other state does. So there's like a bunch of really nice things you learn about different states that help you pinpoint where you are.

Nick VinZant 4:35

But I would imagine that most countries look generally kind of the same throughout the country. So then how do you narrow it down within a country

Rainbolt 4:42

so there's, it's like a mixture that when you're when I'm playing the round, like 0.1 Second, or like 0.001 Second, it's, it's very hard to pick up on very things like that. So that just comes down to vibes, as I like to say is just kind of like you pick up on the journal fill and like, what country looks like and what it feels like in different regions of the world is very, very quickly.

Nick VinZant 5:00

So if you get shown 10 pictures, or whatever, like out of every 10 pictures, how many of them? Would you be able to solve?

Rainbolt 5:08

Consistently in 0.1? Second, I would say like 80 90% success rate.

Nick VinZant 5:14

So 0.1 Second, what does that what does that mean?

Rainbolt 5:17

So 0.1 seconds means I can only see the photo for 0.1 seconds. It's like a game. A challenge I challenge myself to do, where it flashes for 0.1 second, and it turns black, then you have to like, try to remember where it is

Nick VinZant 5:30

you from anywhere in the world. And you can figure this out, for the most part, yeah. And you can figure this out for the most part. So you just get a flash of an image. And then you can go, oh, Karachi, Pakistan.

Rainbolt 5:42

But you could do literally, there's also a lot of metal to it as well to where it helps you to where you have to learn what this is where it gets really like into like the nitty gritty, but you get you have to learn like what car Google drove in what country so like some some countries like Google Streetview car is white, where some like so like, in Jordan, they use a black people's review car, where in Israel, the Street View car has a long antenna on the back of it. So you also it's less, there's also some of that where it's less of like country specific, like actual geographic knowledge and more of like learning Google Street views and what car they use on Google Streetview.

Nick VinZant 6:21

How did you get into this?

Rainbolt 6:23

So I started playing the game, like very casually, and like 2016, like in the back of high school, I had no idea what I was doing at the time. I was probably guessing like Malaysia on Mexico, and then around 2020 when COVID hit, I was like, I would kind of Swan see more of the world. And it's learning more about the world. i There's a couple of go on YouTube, those watching that we're playing the game I really like okay. Yeah, I think I could actually I want to learn experiences for cultures and see the world. So I started studying, and then I've only been playing for almost a year now. It's been 11 months,

Nick VinZant 6:56

what do you like about it?

Rainbolt 6:57

I think it gives me like an appreciation for like different countries that I don't think I necessarily would have had without, or like just seeing different regions of the world that I never would have known about. And like, knowing that this place exists, is cool. And like knowing that, like there's people here, I really enjoyed that process of just like learning the game and experiencing different places and seeing the world in a different light.

Nick VinZant 7:17

That is really interesting, right? In the sense that because of the way that the game is formulated, you see all of the minutia, and the little ways in the country are different is that kind of what keeps what gets people into it,

Rainbolt 7:29

the more I like, study, and the more like once I unlock something like that. It's like the best feeling ever. Like there's a whole community of us, there's probably like, we have a discord like probably 50 people where we just are sharing different tips and like, Oh, my God, I found a, you know, this specific tree in South Africa. That's only in North Cape. And we're like, Yeah, let's go. And so like really finding like unlocking things like that in the pro community is really big. I think more for like the, the newer audience or like the more casual players, it's just like, just a challenge with their friends of seeing who's smarter.

Nick VinZant 8:01

Is it only fun though, if you're really good? Like, I would think that starting out, you just have no idea. Like if you showed me a picture of some random country, unless he's got the Statue of Liberty in it, or the Great Wall of China? I'm not figuring that out.

Rainbolt 8:15

I don't think so at all, I think it's, it's honestly probably arguably more fun when you don't know what you're doing. I think that the joy is that there's always something more to learn. It's not it's not like you can you can ever stop. There's like an end goal here, you'll always find something new Google will always continue to update their coverage. You always have to adapt to different things in different countries changing

Nick VinZant 8:36

in the professional ranks, like where do you rank,

Rainbolt 8:39

I'm definitely not the best. Which is crazy to think about in my videos, you probably tell these people a lot better. I also think it's like it comes down. There's different ways to play the game. And there's different I would rank people differently based off of like, so like, I am more of like a fast speed guesser where I like doing country streaks. So basically, it's how many countries in the row can you get where other people maybe their specialty is guessing exact speed running exactly where you are to the exact road as quickly as you can to exact meter. I would say when it comes in terms of like fast guessing country streaks, I will I don't want to give myself an exact range. But I would say within top, generously top 2530

Nick VinZant 9:26

what makes somebody better than somebody else? Is it simply your experience level? Or how do you get better at

Rainbolt 9:33

it? It gets to a point where it's like very marginal and you start learning like people that have studied Russia, right, like unlocking learning different Russian, like towns and learning Cyrillic like that's like the next step and different vegetation in Russia and like unlocking big countries. And once you come back after like three days you forget a lot and it's really discouraging because like it's like, I always say it's like a language. It's like if you want to I continue to be good at the game you have to, you have to continue to play it. And the less you play, the more you forget. And the more you play, the more you learn. So if I take like a week off, I'll come back and I'll be like, a 2x horse player than I was before, honestly, like your visual identity and like your the vibes you pick up on us lose, like kind of a journal fill of like, guessing very quickly and to intuitive pretty quickly,

Nick VinZant 10:26

you've developed a good amount of online popularity through this, are you surprised that people are as interested in it as they are?

Rainbolt 10:33

I think so. I think part of me understands why like the the appeal behind it, because it is so mesmerizing, and it is such a wide net to really any culture, language and person that can relate back to back to this. And so like, I understand that, I guess the growth and how quickly it happened is pretty astonishing. Like I literally start posting in January, like that's like almost 500,000 in five months, which is pretty absurd. Because I literally, as this is a hobby, I still have a job, I still I this is all something in my in my free time I just pick up on just do when I can. I didn't, I never did expected I'd start posting because I wanted to, I really just want other people to like play the game. Because it's such like a privilege to play this game, and to have like this access to the world on your fingertips, that I kinda just wanted to share that.

Nick VinZant 11:24

Is there any kind of monetary value to say? Like, I mean, are there competitions where you can make some money? Or is this simply just a hobby, and that's probably all it's ever going to be?

Rainbolt 11:35

There's no real, like prize pool money behind anything here. It's, I think the most I've ever seen is like $20. So it's a Yeah, it's actually really hard game to play competitively, too, because it's a very Honor Code game. Because it's very easy to cheat in this game. Because you have Google and UC signs you can google there's different ways to cheat to where it's very much an honor code game, which makes it very hard to play competitively. There's been a lot of drama and security around different players. But

Nick VinZant 12:05

now it's it really anywhere in the world is going to show you just anywhere randomly. I play

Rainbolt 12:10

map called a diverse world, which is like kind of the it's the flagship map, I would say for like professional players of like if you want to get better the map you play on competitively. And it has 62,000 locations that are handpicked by a that are handpicked by a map maker. I haven't seen since 2000 locations. So that is random. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 12:31

I kind of understand what you mean. But like, what is the car, Google Street View car? Like? How does that play into it?

Rainbolt 12:38

So different countries all use different cars, like Google sends a different car to different countries. And you can see some of the car on the coverage. So if you're like if you if you look around, if you look down to the actual car that the cool cars driving, you can make out like what color the car is. And if you learn what color the cars driving, and what country that also helps you pinpoint what country you're in.

Nick VinZant 13:01

Oh, so like, we know that Google uses a black Jeep Cherokee in France. So if you see a black Jeep Cherokee, you automatically know you're in France, kind of like that. Yeah.

Rainbolt 13:11

Or like yeah, like the US doesn't have nowhere in the no car in the US has an antenna on their, on their car where Europe does. So if you're confused before like New York and Belgium, you can see if there's an attack on the current there's not probably going to be in the US or things like that, that you pick up on. Not that specific scenario, but bedroom census.

Nick VinZant 13:29

Are you ready for some harsher listener submitted questions? Let's do it. What is the easiest and hardest country to identify?

Rainbolt 13:37

I think there's two different ways I can answer this to identify as one. I think a very hard country for me identify is I personally struggle with urban Eastern Europe, which is very specific. But so like, let's say, like North Macedonia versus Serbia, sometimes it's hard for me. So both the countries kind of same language have a syndrome feel really the only thing? Yeah, very, your episode is so small that a lot of the countries look the same. So I would say as far as like identifying, I would say urban Europe as a whole. I need to get better at because it just looks so similar. A lot of places if you're don't have language. And then I would say the easiest Russia.

Nick VinZant 14:25

Oh, I see that. Because all that's kind of the same general area.

Rainbolt 14:31

Yeah, there's, I mean, there's also like really countries that are a lot like I'm trying to avoid, like Kenya is really easy because the cargo is in Kenya is only in Kenya. So if you see like a snorkel on the car, you're no you're gonna be in Kenya because it's, you can't be anywhere else because it's the only time that cars used in any country. That's kind of cheating. Right? Yeah. So there's answers like that, like obviously, like Kenya, Ghana, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, like countries like that are gonna be pretty easy because they're There's like metal car coverage, that you can just distinguish where you are within half a second because you can see the Google Street View car. And it's only if you see that, you know, you're gonna be in that country. But without that, I would say like maybe Russia,

Nick VinZant 15:13

I think I could probably get pretty close on some states. Like, I know that Arizona looks different than Utah, which looks different than Colorado, which looks different than Kansas. But if you showed me like a picture of Rhode Island, I don't have any I have no idea what that looks like.

Rainbolt 15:26

What's like the easiest to identify within like half a second. And then there's like, where you are in that country is another question. So like Indonesia, and Russia, are like the two hardest countries to identify where you are within that country. Because we'll want Indonesia has like 4000 islands or so many islands that it all looks? It's so big and all looks very similar, and in Russia is kind of same to where like identifying Russia. If you can pinpoint Russia and Indonesia fairly accurately, you're gonna be one of the top 1% players very quickly.

Nick VinZant 15:57

What geographic feature would help you the most like, do you want to river and ocean mountains,

Rainbolt 16:03

trees are helpful, because there are trees are different, distinct, distinct shul, like there's different trees in different regions that are only like, there's a tree called Parana pine, where it's like only in one specific region of Brazil in the south, we're gonna see that you're like, Oh, this is Amelie, I know, we are, I would say soil color is really, really helpful. So if you have like red soil, it's like Cambodia, Brazil, white soil to be in like Nigeria, things like that. So I would say the top three from you will be soil color trees, and just having an ocean is obviously pretty helpful. Because you can you see, you get you have a compass to where you can see, having an ocean is helpful on identifying where you are in the country, less of like, what country you're in. So if you haven't, if you have, if you know, your Indonesian, you have country, your West, that might be more helpful than if you're in the middle of nowhere. And like mainland, or inland,

Nick VinZant 16:50

has there ever been one that you were just like, nobody can figure this out? Like, nobody knows what this is?

Rainbolt 16:56

Yeah, a lot. So there's like different maps to play there harder difficulty where it's like very rural, and you can play no car as well to where you can't see there's a game out where you can play no car where you can't see the Google car, which makes it a lot harder as well. And when you when you put that to that difficulty, there'll be a lot of pro players that, you know, getting past 20 countries in a row is gonna be I think that's like the world record on that map. Whereas, you know, other maps is your difficulty. And the records are like 600,

Nick VinZant 17:27

this, this question is either brilliant or slightly offensive. I'm not entirely sure. If you're, they're gonna laugh or be annoyed. But do you ever feel like, Man, this is a little nerdy? Or are you just like, This is what I like.

Rainbolt 17:42

I think I embrace it. Definitely. I do think it's like, it is pretty nerdy. I do. I do kind of take that. Yeah, like, it definitely has nerd. I think I embrace it. I don't think I care though. Like, it's just a, there's just a whole community of us that are kind of also nerds. Maybe others won't admit it. But it is it's a fun passion. That's Rare, unique. And I think I understand that. And I accept the name.

Nick VinZant 18:07

Have you ever introduced yourself as a professional Google Maps player, trying to maybe get a good foot in the door? You know, like, you know what I'm talking?

Rainbolt 18:16

Yeah, I feel that, you know, typically, that's not my lead in. I don't think I've ever it's come up in conversation before and like, you know, then it's like, they whip out like a Google Maps like, Oh, can you can you was this country? That's happened quite a few times.

Nick VinZant 18:31

I do feel like it's a thing that people want to test you all the time.

Rainbolt 18:35

Yeah, there'll be I'll get recognized in public sometimes. And there'll be people with like, you know, versus and like, here we go to Singapore, Lithuania. Because a lot of people don't like, there's a very last skepticism around the videos I made, rightfully so I mean, is pretty mesmerizing thing. And it's very easy to cheat. So there is skepticism in people I don't, I don't fault people for wanting to test me a lot because it is quite, quite incredible, honestly. And without knowing. I guess it's like magic to some people. Right? Like, you're watched like a magic trick. You don't know how it's done. But to the magician. It's easier. You know,

Nick VinZant 19:11

do you have a hard time watching TV commercials, because you're just constantly trying to figure out where things are all the

Rainbolt 19:17

time, I'll be I can't consume any content anymore without like, like, I was watching. It was boring. I was watching it the other day. And it was like So it'd be like what I think Kurdistan or something like that, or Kazakhstan somewhere in the stands. And there was a Romanian poll in the background. And I was like, like, I remember Romanian telephone pole. Like this is supposed to be not in Romania. For like, there's different reasons, like things like that, or I'm like, come on, you know. And then if, like, if I'm just like scrolling through Tik Tok or Instagram or something, I'll be like, Okay, that's Greece. You know? It's very, I also get like all my DMs on Instagram or like, where's this? Where's this? Where's this? So I'm constantly challenging myself or it's always like, like the car commercials I love watching car commercials because it's like, what roads in the US? Are they on?

Nick VinZant 20:07

Where do they usually shoot most of those because they seem to use some of the same roads.

Rainbolt 20:12

I think a common trend is actually Norway. I see a lot in Norway. I think it's just because of how beautiful mountains are. Or Switzerland. There is a line like the Western US, I feel like as well, like Colorado, kind of the Rockies, what country

Nick VinZant 20:29

has just made you want to visit the most? Like when you see all of these places, and you're like, Oh,

Rainbolt 20:35

I've three, I've taught my top three. The number three is Singapore, I really want to go to Singapore just looks like a beautiful. And then two is Iceland. I think that's for obvious reasons. It's beautiful. And I think my sleeper number one is northern Thailand or like Laos. There's a city in Laos I really want to go to Vang Vieng. It's like a beautiful, it's beautiful, scenic. As rivers going through it. It's a beautiful city I really want to visit. It's like a mind's eye on my bucket list.

Nick VinZant 21:07

Is there a country that's ugly? Like, this does not seem like every time you see it, this does not seem like a tourist destination.

Rainbolt 21:15

It's funny because there's what's also beautiful about the game is that you'll get countries like that. Where it's like this is a dump or like I this is really tragic type thing. And then you'll also be in the same country and like this is beautiful, right? So there's there's two ends of it really,

Nick VinZant 21:34

most interesting way somebody has called you out for cheating. Or like what's the most ridiculous theory where somebody's like, Oh, he's faking it. And he's doing this.

Rainbolt 21:42

Man, there was one oh my god. So when I was doing one video, this is this is a pretty common, it's a pretty funny one. I would do this to like, try to memorize the photo, like just look down. And like, just like really try to visualize the image. Yeah, picture it in your mind picture in my mind, because I only saw it for 0.1 second, and people were like, Oh, he's looking at tablet on his lap. He has a phone to reading off what country he's in. Dude, I'm just trying to visualize the image like, and so like the next one, I made sure I looked up and like close my eyes rather than looking down because like, so many people were like, he's looking at his phone on his tablet. I think I think what's really funny one, too, is people assume I memorized every single image, which I think is 10,000 times more impressive. No, I'm actually doing

Nick VinZant 22:31

how has this skill benefited you in real life?

Rainbolt 22:34

I think it bleeds into a lot of like, my like, it's, it's really just it keeps me kind of committed to something, which I think helps. And then there'll be times where I honestly think, you know, it's helped my memory. It's helped my, like, visual identification, which is like helpful, I think in times of like, the work I do. So I don't think generally it's like, it's been anything in life changing. But it's definitely, there might be more things that I'm just not aware of, to,

Nick VinZant 23:02

for people who are listening. Basically, I've picked a random google image and showing you this, like looking at this picture, how would you go about figuring out where it is.

Rainbolt 23:14

So the two immediate things are, my eye immediately goes to license plates. So license plates is big, or is a huge portion of the game, where you have to learn what license plates are. So like this one in particular, you can see we're looking at a garage here with a car parked. And you can see there's a short license plate with somewhat of a colorful license plate. And you're gonna get those mainly in the US or Mexico, sometimes Australia, the Europe, European Union all uses like one blue strip left aligned on their license plate. So we know we're not going in Europe here. Now obviously, with this architecture, and material feel we have palm trees, we know we're going to be somewhat, you know, coastal ish, desert ish. So those are two major things. And then if we, if we were to pan we'll probably see like a sign on the right side of the road, or should hint when we're driving right rather than left. So that would like, eliminate it from Australia versus us. Amelia though, is kind of like you're gonna feel like, Oh, this feels like the US but I feel really like nitty gritty into it. You could also we could use a compass and we could see that the sun is in the south here, which means we're in the northern hemisphere. So that also eliminates something like Australia here. So there's a couple different those were the the the couple different techniques I would use to define this location.

Nick VinZant 24:28

Holy fuck, dude. Like I don't notice any of that. How about this one?

Rainbolt 24:34

Okay, so we're definitely in the US again. So this is this is a different one because it's just it looks pretty this looks pretty distinct. These pine trees in the background here though, are very common like Oregon, Washington. Above this house are here so like, and maybe Vancouver BC area is where you're gonna find mostly those trees. I would have gone maybe northeast here if it wasn't for those trees. Honestly. Just to explain, I guess maybe thought RSS is that the US is one of the only countries that uses transformers on our telephone poles. So you'll see like on the top of the telephone pole and distance here, and our North like East, there's a transformer at the top of it. And that's really just the US Canada that really uses those couple other countries too. But that's another like very small things like that. You have to you have to pick up on them like wooden poles, but I probably would have gone to Oregon, Washington here at maybe. BC. But probably more Oregon, Washington just based off this this pine tree in the background. It's tall pine tree.

Nick VinZant 25:31

So in the game, are you just trying to identify the city, the country? Are you even trying to narrow it down to like a street location?

Rainbolt 25:39

Yeah, so there's two types of ways to play I am a country guesser. So I like going for speed. I like going for the right country. So I will just plonked we like to call Congress gets in middle of nowhere. And like Kansas there just because I'm speaker and in countries where I don't have the time to like figure out what state, I'm just guessing and go into the next round. And seeing how fast I can get many countries in a row. Rather than getting the exact location. There's people that will try and speed run getting that exact street in Washington, but I am honestly very bad at that portion of the game. There's people I wouldn't even put myself in top 100 there. So top 200. Really, okay, so well. So this is what we like to call unofficial coverage. So it's just a footnote, rather than like Street View. Oh, so doesn't count this, it doesn't necessarily count. But a couple of interesting things here, I recognize we can we can use this. I actually didn't see where it's in Warsaw there. But we did see that the publisher had a Cyrillic name. So I almost had Russia, but then looked above it, and I can see the name of the park was was dinky Park. And that L in the first letter there, that is a Polish L. And that's actually only found in Poland, in Polish. So if you see an Elvis slash through it, that character is only distinct to polish. It's not found in other languages.

Nick VinZant 26:57

Going back into some of the questions, where do you think that this goes moving forward for you?

Rainbolt 27:03

Yeah, I'm, I'm kind of just you know, I want to keep playing the game get better. Like, there's so much I have to learn, I want to continue seeing the countries and learning more about the world. There's so much I can learn. I'm so excited about what I have to learn. Like I'm learning Australia right now. It's like super fun. And then I think beyond just learning. And I think there's an I want to actually see them in real life. You know, that amount of times I've seen Malaysia's telephone poles, I would love to see them, you know, in real life as well. So

Nick VinZant 27:33

are a lot of people who play are they extensive travelers? Or is this kind of how they travel?

Rainbolt 27:38

It's actually their I don't think so this is our way of traveling. I think there is maybe some people that do travel more than others. And that's maybe that's where they get their specialty. Generally, the best players in this game are like 15, or 16. Like the world's best players are all like, sophomore juniors in high school, which is really interesting.

Nick VinZant 27:58

What's coming up. That's all the questions I got, man what's coming up next for you?

Rainbolt 28:03

Definitely. Yeah, so I'm continuing you know, if you want to learn more, I post tips videos on my Tiktok at geo Rainbolt at on Instagram, as well as your Rainbolt he wants to be speaker and countries also there. But yeah, I'm really excited. There's a certain 5k It's called 5k rank. It's a when you find the exact pinpoint location, because that's the max score you can you guess you're on. So, big thing I'm doing more recently is finding music video locations. So that's my biggest next fee is I have like a list of music videos and going through so if you follow my Tik Tok, you'll, you'll be seeing a lot more of those here soon.

Nick VinZant 28:37

Oh, so you can like look at it and like Okay, where was that actually shot

Rainbolt 28:41

finding where the music videos or films? Yeah.

Nick VinZant 28:44

Do they seem to do most of them in the same place? It's not just music videos, but like, yeah, it's the location again,

Rainbolt 28:50

the amount of times I've seen, I've had to avoid music videos because they're just outside Los Angeles is a million times. It's like always in like a desert or like somewhere near Los Angeles. So I go more for like, if it looks more European or Asian, but yeah,

Nick VinZant 29:08

switch it out. Try some 80s music.

Rainbolt 29:11

I found who was it? There's one band that filmed all their music videos in Sri Lanka. And I was spending it was from like the 80s. I spent like hours I'll have to it was it was some popular band but I was I spent like hours trying to find a music video in Sri Lanka but couldn't because

Nick VinZant 29:28

journey or anything, is it? Who was it? I have to find this

Rainbolt 29:31

real quick. Because it was someone really popular. And it was I was like, I need to find this. Duran Duran.

Bartending Champion Kaitlyn Stewart

Kaitlyn Stewart has been called the World’s Best Bartender. And from her craft cocktails and signature drinks to her hospitality and knowledge of spirits, it’s easy to see why. We talk professional bartending, the secret to good craft cocktails, the best new spirits, the next big thing in the bar industry and her favorite bar stories. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Water Activities.

Kaitlyn Stewart: 01:55ish

Pointless: 33:01ish

Top 5: 50:07ish

Show email: nickvinzant@gmail.com

https://www.tiktok.com/@likeablecocktails (Kaitlyn Stewart Tiktok)

https://linktr.ee/likeablecocktails (Kaitlyn Stewart - Likeable Cocktails Linktr.ee)

Interview with Kaitlyn Stewart: Global Bartending Champion

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode cocktails and water activities

Kaitlyn Stewart 0:19

I got into bartending to help pay for university. So when I found the world of like craft cocktail making, I was like, oh, okay, this is like an art form. This is like a chef working in a high end restaurant, I won the title of the World's Best Bartender. And it's one of those things that it was really, really, really hard to get there. I'm into people knowing what they want. That's why like, I find it so fascinating when somebody's like, Okay, I need a gin Martini. With just like a whisper of Vermouth. I want three olives, and a twist, anything that involves fire, I am down for the cars.

Nick VinZant 0:56

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review. If you weren't with us last week. Right now we're in the process of trying to make the show a lot more interactive. So if there's something that you'd like about the show, or don't like about the show guests that you want to hear from top fives, whatever, we really do want to hear from you. And we really appreciate everybody who took time out of their day to send us a message. It's awesome to hear from people it really is. So our first guest has been named the best bartender in the world. And not only does she have some great tips and drink recipes, and some really funny and interesting bar stories, but she also has this fascinating perspective on what makes a good bar, a good bartender, and where the future of the industry is going. This is global bartending champion, Kaitlyn Stewart, did you always want to be a bartender? Or did you did you just kind of like naturally fall into this?

Kaitlyn Stewart 2:00

You know, I grew up in a family full of hospitality, people. So like my parents worked in owned and ran restaurants for pretty much my entire life. So when I got into the business, my parents ever pressured me to, like, move on and be like, now do what you went to school for? Or, you know, you know, all those conversations were people like, Matt, what's your real job. So I was very lucky to be super supported. And I was I got into bartending, to help pay for university, as most people do. And I found that there was this way to actually create a massive kind of career and network and it was more than just liquid in the glass at that point. Because there's many different styles of bartending, right, you've got like your, say, run of the mill, chain restaurant, you've got your nightclub, you've got your craft cocktail bar, you've got, I don't like hotel, like, there's many different levels to it. So when I found the world of like craft cocktail making, I was like, oh, okay, this is like an art form. This is like a chef working in a high end restaurant, to dry comparison. So I kind of fell in love with playing around with flavors, and just like the whole experience, and then

Nick VinZant 3:12

so when I was growing up, like bartending was something that alright, you phase out of that 25 Maybe you got to keep that job to like 30. Has it always been a professional kind of career? Or is this a transition that was really made in the last couple of whatever years?

Kaitlyn Stewart 3:28

No, I mean, I think this was it's truly a career. And it has been for a lot of people for a long time, you go back to the Savoy cocktail book, which, you know, was produced in like the late 1800s, early 1900s. And there's bartenders that, you know, have cocktails in that, that are well known. And they were like in their 50s. So clearly, it was a profession that, you know, people kind of stuck in. But even now, like some of the people that I look up to that I consider mentors, and I got lucky enough to then consider them friends and be almost like MK would say, on an equal but in the same kind of group as them. And I saw what they could do and what they were doing with their life. And I was like, damn, I want to get to that level. So I can also do that. The people like Dale DeGroff, who famously ran the Rainbow Room in New York City, and like, basically brought the Cosmo to life and to popularity. And he, you know, writes cocktail books, he does seminars all over the world, and he's just so well known as like, King cocktail. And same with somebody like Julie Reiner, who owns a couple of different bars in Brooklyn, like the Clover Club and Les ENDA. So when I saw people like that, I was like, Ah, damn, okay, that's what I want to aspire to do and to be not just not that there's anything wrong with just being a bartender, but going beyond like you said that like liquid in the glass and being a mentor for the next generation of people that come into it. So there's always something to look forward to. And it's always changing. So no one day is ever the same. And I think now, especially with social media and the rise have like, you know, kind of stepping into somebody else's world as an outside. Like spectator. I think looking at the world, especially of like a craft cocktail, bartending people can kind of like immerse themselves. And like I said, kind of watch somebody's social media and be like, Oh, holy shit, okay. Like, there's some really cool things going on. Like, I just got back two days ago from Scotland and I was doing an immersive trip in Edinburgh to, you know, go to a bunch of whiskey distilleries, and, you know, get myself better acquainted with the process of certain whiskies and how they're made and whatnot. But like, I that's part of my job, that was a, that was a trip that was considered work.

Nick VinZant 5:41

So what makes you good at it? Right? Are you? Do you have a fantastic sense of smell that can detect the smallest of changes? There you the most precise pour of liquid? Like, why are you essentially good at it,

Kaitlyn Stewart 5:54

who there are many different types of bartenders, there's like the showman. You know, there's the, the somebody who has like the best style of hospitality. But I just break it down to like, what the word actually is like bartending, you know, you're tending to the bar. And that's encompasses so many different things. So I think, to become a good party bartender, or at least to be somebody who's recognized as a good bartender, you need to, of course, make balanced, delicious cocktails, interesting cocktails, keep up with the trends somewhat. But also continue to educate yourself. Keep yourself out there, like in the public eye, whether that's again, doing tastings, you know, teaching classes, going to seminars, all those kinds of fun things. But then at the same time, like you have to be likable, you have to be somebody who is known for their hospitality, you want to be able to, you know, look at somebody and be like, Yeah, I want to go back to their bar and sit down, and have a conversation with them. And I don't care what they serve me, I just want to hang out with them and be in their presence, because they seem like a really cool person. And they know what they're talking about. I mean, for myself, like, I won the title of the World's Best Bartender in 2017. And it's one of those things that it was really, really, really hard to get there. But it gave me that like notoriety within my, my, like, small niche circle of this craft cocktail world that, yeah, I can like walk into a bar and be like, somebody be like, Hey, I know you, I have respect for you. And especially as a woman in this industry, industry doesn't always happen. So having that little push, definitely helps with that with like, you know, staying in this business and getting opportunities.

Nick VinZant 7:30

So how did you win the the award? Did you get submitted or was there like a competition or what happened?

Kaitlyn Stewart 7:36

There's a, there's a really prestigious competition in the craft cocktail world called world class. And it's put on by Diageo spirits, and it's held every year. And first if the when your country. So I competed and I won for Canada. And then you go and compete in the global finals, and there's about 60 countries so everybody's best winner from 60 countries comes together. In 2017. When I did it was hosted in Mexico City. So we all came together in Mexico City and it was like a week long competition of many different challenges. So there was like tasting challenges where we you know, you had to like nose and taste whiskies and be able to explain if it's from Highlands, lowland, Speyside Isla, or a blend of whiskey and kind of like pick out different notes and characteristics, you know, blackbox competitions, where you're just given like a basket and you're like, Okay, make a cocktail out of this, you have 20 minutes, different ones, you could prepare for speed challenges, all that kind of stuff. So you're competing against the top bartender from 60 other countries, and you go seven rounds, basically. And there's, like you said, a bunch of judges, they're keeping score of all the challenges and the judges are, you know, in my world like industry heavyweights that I look up to and then and yeah, so I ended up winning in in in Mexico City. So that year I was named the World's Best Bartender so it's it's one of the most prestigious competitions in like in the in in the industry. So it's definitely pushed me and basically put my career on a trajectory like, like that. And I got to travel so the last like five years, not so much in COVID but traveled around the world and from Thailand to Taiwan to Brazil to Ireland everywhere in between and get to judge cocktail competitions, put on seminars do guest shifts behind some really awesome bars and yeah, meet other bartenders from around the world.

Nick VinZant 9:34

When you like, as big as the champ right? Yeah, the bell, so to speak. But like if somebody went in and like, alright, this is the champs, and this is somebody who's pretty good. Am I going to be like, Whoa,

Kaitlyn Stewart 9:49

it's it depends on the style of cocktail, different techniques used, but like, ultimately to like, taste is such a spectrum, everybody You know, likes what they like and doesn't like what they don't like. So you know, if I'm serving you something that's like, you know, heavily peated and really smoky to you, you may be like, hell yeah, I love this flavor profile. But the person next to you could be like, hey, this, this is awful. I can't drink this. I want like a strawberry daiquiri, which are two completely different cocktails, right? So again, it's not so much just about the liquid in the glass, but it's about the whole experience around it. You know, whether that's the hospitality and how you actually serve that cocktail.

Nick VinZant 10:30

We don't usually do this necessarily this early, but a lot of our listeners submitted questions kind of fit around things I think we would naturally talk about. So are you ready for some listeners submitted

Kaitlyn Stewart 10:39

questions, fire away, fire them at me, please.

Nick VinZant 10:42

I'll start off with the starting off with some of the easier ones. What do you feel like is overall the best mix, drink not just in taste, but like overall, the taste, the history, the whatever?

Kaitlyn Stewart 10:55

It's so hard to say. Because so many cocktails are steeped in so much tradition. That like every cocktail has a story, especially going back to like the classics. So if you think about something like the Sazerac or like the Ramos Gin Fizz, which are like steeped in like tradition from New Orleans, and they've just got these really, they still make these authentic cocktails in New Orleans, this, like from the 1870 Whatever way, but I would say one of my favorites, is probably ooh, oh, um, I mean, I really love the simplicity of like a sidecar. You've got brandy, you've got orange look, you're and you have lemon juice, three basic ingredients, your basic sour style cocktail. And you can do a little sugared rim on the outside of it if you need a little extra sweetness. But it's cool because it kind of brings that tradition tradition in of using brandy as the base and just bringing in one small modifier from the orange liqueur and another small modifier from the lemon juice. And it's really balanced. It's nice and dry on your palate. And it's yeah, it's just a great classic cocktail that is so simple. It's only three ingredients. But with the right balance, it just works.

Nick VinZant 12:12

Is there a certain point like where you say, like, Alright, these ingredients are great. Like, what number of ingredients? Would you say like, alright, people are again, right? Like, we need the sweat from a Brazilian accent and put that in the drink and mix it with tears from a duck. Right?

Kaitlyn Stewart 12:30

Listen, hey, Stranger Things. But I mean, if you think and you think about like most Tiki cocktails, right? Tiki cocktails, like the zombie or the Singapore Sling, you've got like, 578 ingredients in there. And you're like, alright, like, but traditionally, those were made back in the day when, like, the quality of rum that they were using was pretty crap. So they had to kind of mask it with a bunch of other things. So it was like, Oh, just throw in some of this and throw in some of that. And you know, now we've got this cocktail, which you could probably make it in a lot easier way now, but that's part of the fun of it. It's part of like the history of like, alright, let's let's mess with bartender and order zombie when they're busy as all hell behind a bar and see how long it takes them or the dreaded like Ramos Gin Fizz, because technically, it should take 12 minutes to shake. Yes, yeah, it's it's a long one. There's there's ways to go about it now with modern techniques, that you could make it in two minutes. But traditionally, you put ice in it and you're supposed to shake it until the ice completely dissolves, which takes about 12 minutes. Like

Nick VinZant 13:32

why would ya 12 minute that Oh, yeah. That's that makes sense. Why would take that long?

Kaitlyn Stewart 13:40

Yeah, that's the way they still do it in New Orleans. So they stick with the stick with tradition. The 12 minute round was, as you get have like seven or eight bartenders, and you pass it off between all of you when you're shaking it.

Nick VinZant 13:51

I was gonna say like, what are the arms of that person look like? Oh,

Kaitlyn Stewart 13:55

it's not fun. I've done I mean, I like I've got my own techniques to make it nice and quick. But if you're doing it the traditional way, it's it can be a bit of a definitely a shoulder workout, that's for sure. Like jello

Nick VinZant 14:08

drink you like but always forget how to make

Kaitlyn Stewart 14:13

so many to be honest, sheesh. There's so many cocktails out there that like I always have to like check back on my notes and be like, alright, was it half an ounce or three quarters of an ounce or what? I really enjoy a cocktail called the journalist which again is like a really old kind of early 1900s drink. It's gin base. It's got sweet and dry vermouth in it. And I believe some lemon juice and chartreuse. But I always forget the the levels what the measurables how

Nick VinZant 14:42

it goes and how Yeah, how precise on that stuff. Do you have to be right? Like if it calls out it's an ounce. You put 1.1 ounces in the drink is screwed. Right like

Kaitlyn Stewart 14:53

that's is it usually one ounces. Okay.

Nick VinZant 14:56

Are you like how much wiggle room do you generally have before like Oh, You screw this up.

Kaitlyn Stewart 15:01

It depends on the spirit. So like, vodka is very, very different to something like a green Chartreuse or like a Maraschino liqueur. Green. Chartreuse is super herbal, and you know, it's, you only have to use it in very small doses or it's going to completely overpower the drink and it's not gonna taste very good. Say with Maraschino liqueur. It's like a, you know, a cherry liqueur that tastes like perfume, your Nana's perfume. And if you added in massive amounts, it's not so good. But in small amounts, it's really nice. But I'm a firm believer in measuring all of my cocktails because mostly because of consistency. So if you come in one day, and you come in the next day, or the next week, and you order the same drink, I want it to taste the same every single time.

Nick VinZant 15:41

Most overrated, we're like, oh, honestly, it's not that it's not good. It's just not what people really like. It's okay. Yeah, I

Kaitlyn Stewart 15:53

mean, I'll probably get a lot of flack for this, but I'm not a coffee drinker. So for me, the Espresso Martini is overrated. But I just don't drink coffee. So I don't know. Maybe like a bee's knees. I might get a hate for that one, too. It's like gin, honey and, and lemon juice. Again, I'm not a huge fan of like, have a strong honey flavor. So

Nick VinZant 16:17

drink you are sick of making.

Kaitlyn Stewart 16:20

Drink I'm sick of making is probably. i Everything goes through phases, you know? Like, like the Negroni made a really big like resurgence and then it was like Aperol Spritz was like everybody was drinking spritzes. So I don't think there's one drink in particular. But I think it's like just like the trends and fads that will kind of like, come and go where you're like, you get to the end of one you're like, okay, one is everybody going to stop, you know, wanting to make and drink milk punches. Because it takes two days to like, prepare, and you're like, Alright, gotta go through that process. But yeah, I mean, I like them all. They're kind of fun. For fun for me. vodka soda. I hate making vodka sodas. There you go.

Nick VinZant 17:04

Are you disappointed if somebody's just like whiskey need? No, not at all. I was gonna make something.

Kaitlyn Stewart 17:10

No, I mean, listen, I I'm, I'm a big proprietor in drink what you like, and don't want anybody to, you know, tell you otherwise. I used to get people that would come and sit at my bar and be like, I'm so so sorry. But can I just have a beer? And just like, it's not just a beer like, yeah, of course, you can like don't apologize to me, like, Oh, I know that you You're known for your cocktails and you make really great drinks. But like, I just want a Pinot Grigio and like, Great, perfect, because that's going to take me three seconds, I'm going to serve it to you. And no sweat off my back. Right? So I don't I don't mind it at all. If somebody you know, has a preference. I like it. When I can start to gain trust from somebody who's maybe very narrow minded. It's like, I only drink old fashions, they only drink that's my drink of choice. And then once you kind of get to know them and break them down a bit, you're like, Listen, if you like an old fashion, and you're at all curious, like, let me let me make this for you. And you know, and if you don't like it, don't have to drink it. But I just you know, I just want to show you what else what else kind of is out there. And you know, somebody be like, oh, cool, I would have never thought to order this or now it's my new favorite drink. So. So it's about building that trust.

Nick VinZant 18:16

That is true, right? Like I just I think people are always willing to try something they just don't know what to do. It's a

Kaitlyn Stewart 18:23

big it's a big world right? It's a the spirits category is massive. And the drinks category is massive. So again, I think people go to like their, you know, their trustees, and they're like, gin and tonic. That's all I'm drinking. I don't want to read the menu. I don't understand what half of these words are. But I think with now more and more people kind of talking about it again, like on social media through podcasts and different articles. It's cool because people are really starting to pick up much as they would in like the food world for like I don't know what goes through Jiang is like, Oh, cool. Like now I know what this like delicious fermented chili paste is and I want to eat it. It's the same in the cocktail world. It's like, Oh, I'd never knew what Angostura bitters were, I didn't know you could drink them in a cocktail, but also just drink them and soda water to help with a stomachache. It's like, oh, cool. I learned something new. So, you know, it's again, it's always opening up people's minds to like new things is always really fun for me.

Nick VinZant 19:19

What is the difference between shaken and stirred?

Kaitlyn Stewart 19:22

Right? I mean, they're both different techniques. So when you when you shake a cocktail, you're kind of bruising the spirit and everything that's inside the shaker tin, you're bringing an instant chill and you're getting your dilution. And also, it's just marrying everything together. When you're stirring a cocktail, you have way more control over the dilution. So bringing introducing water into the cocktail, but also you're not bruising the spirit. So you're really just opening up all the aromatics in the Spirit. Now normally you would only stir well normally you would stir cocktails that are only spirit. So like a martini LaGrone a Manhattan an old fashioned And because they don't have any juices or purees added into them, whereas you would shake anything that has like a juice of puree, maybe like muddled fruit or mint or basil or something like that, because you want to extract all those flavors and really bring them to life. So shaking is for that more delicate, balanced, kind of rounded feel and taste. were shaken. You're getting that really bright, refreshing, super cold cocktail.

Nick VinZant 20:29

Okay, this is where my personal bias will come in. Yeah, I've mentioned this before on this podcast that I don't have a sense of smell. And so to me the idea that somebody because my sense of taste is like way, way reduced by Oh, totally. Nobody really tell the difference. Like, could you like, take a sip of one say that's shaken that stirred? Could you can you tell?

Kaitlyn Stewart 20:51

Yes, yes, but I've been doing it for so long. So but also to it changes, it changes the way it feels on your palate. I I use the word mouthfeel. But it has a big it has a it's a big part of it. It's a big component of of a cocktail is the way that how it how it feels on your palate. So yeah, if you shake something, again, you're kind of you're shocking the ingredients. So you're not getting those like lovely flavors. Say if you're having like a gin Martini. All of those flavors in the vermouth and the botanicals in your gin are seized up because they've just been shocked with a bunch of ice. So you're not going to get that same beautiful aromatic finish as if it was stirred. Now some people prefer you know, I mean, I think Ian Fleming kind of screwed us all when he wrote in his James Bond books like shaken not stirred, because everybody thinks the Vesper Martini is meant to be shaken, but it's ultimately meant to be stirred. But thanks to James Bond, you know, everybody wants to order it shaken not stirred

Nick VinZant 21:52

wine in a box or wine cooler.

Kaitlyn Stewart 21:55

Oh, I can't remember the last time I had either or, but I mean, why don't box is quite convenient. It does last a lot longer. I will say that. Why not? Wine? Not?

Nick VinZant 22:07

Well, no wonder you're the champ. Seal the

Kaitlyn Stewart 22:12

seal. Right there?

Nick VinZant 22:14

How good are you at spotting a fake ID?

Kaitlyn Stewart 22:17

Oh, there's a lot of really good ones out there these days, man, I get being in Canada, the legal drinking age is obviously younger than in the States. So I would get a ton of people that would come up from Seattle, because they had just turned 19. And you know, I'd get there like Washington license. And I'm like, I need to like go and check like Google to see exactly what this what a Washington license is supposed to look like. Because like, you know, people come from all over the place. Vancouver's a pretty like international hub. But, but there's some good ones out there these days that are dangerous, but a lot of places if you're going to like a nightclub or whatnot, they will swipe them or scan them or these backlight on them. So

Nick VinZant 23:01

drink that says the most about somebody who I

Kaitlyn Stewart 23:05

think it's a personal preference. So I love it when somebody orders a martini, and they're very, very specific and how they order it. Like it's I think it's the most personal drink and it's probably the drink that gets sent back the most because people are like not that wasn't dirty enough or that wasn't like that's way too much vermouth. So I like it when somebody orders like, like a like martini, like very specific. But then at the same time, too. You're like, oh, yeah, you're, you're this particular with your martini. I wonder what else you're very particular about. But

Nick VinZant 23:37

I can imagine somebody who's probably like, got some money and is stuck up. Like sometimes or maybe just knows what they want. Like exactly what they want.

Kaitlyn Stewart 23:48

Oh, like I'm I'm into people knowing what they want. That's why like, I find it so fascinating when somebody's like, Okay, I need a gin Martini. With just like a whisper of Vermouth. I want three olives and a twist. I want you know, and it's like, did the just run down the gambit? And then you're like, Shit, I better make this right for them. Because, you know, God forbid I put more than a whisper vermouth like they're gonna be able to tell. Yeah, it's always pretty funny to me.

Nick VinZant 24:14

Just saying make it strong work.

Kaitlyn Stewart 24:18

I mean, maybe in the States, but in Canada, we have like such harsh laws on like measurements of spirits. So like, if you order a double, it's going to be two ounces or like 50 mils or 60 mils. So like, it's it's we're very precise. But like when you order a cocktail, you're like, Oh, can I get a margarita but like make it strong? Again, like I can't put any more alcohol and then when I'm specified to like put in and also like in Canada, alcohol is like super expensive. So like when you're doing your inventory at the end of the night or what have you and you're like out a bunch of, you know, ounces of spirit. You're like, I'm out a lot of money. But no, I mean Especially I like it when people ask for like, easy ice or like less ice because they think they're gonna get more drink. You're not I mean, a game the system. Yeah, I mean and also like, for me cocktails are all about balance. So if I start like, I don't know, putting way too much of something in it, then it becomes off balance and it's just not doesn't taste right doesn't taste the way it's supposed to taste. But like if you want something strong order a cocktail and then order like a shot on the side, I guess. And then do it yourself or take your shot and then trigger your cocktail, but I don't know,

Nick VinZant 25:31

oh, weirdest conversation you've ever overheard. Oh,

Kaitlyn Stewart 25:35

I used to work in like the financial district. So I used to get some like really interesting conversations between like people who were like investments and like all that kind of stuff. And you're like, I don't know if this this sounds kind of shady to me. But I don't know, like the weirdest. I've heard some pretty random conversations in my life. I've had some like good ones, where people you know, are talking about like, the like, what happened to them, like, they met a girl or you know, whatever the night before. And they're like talking to their buddy about it. And then they're buddies. Like, that's my ex girlfriend or like, you know, they start like going at it. And you're like, this is this is drama over here. Like, I don't know about this, or like so you can totally tell when somebody's like elaborating their story to their pal. When you watch the whole encounter happen, like maybe 20 minutes before, like, Oh, I just met this girl at the bar, she was totally into me or bla bla bla, and you're like, No, she wasn't buddy. Like she tried to cheat she ran away from you know? So, if you don't, if you don't think the bartender is listening, trust me, we're always listening. It's our job.

Nick VinZant 26:38

Best way to they use the word hit on if you're into somebody, like how do you how do you approach

Kaitlyn Stewart 26:44

like at a bar or to the bartender to the bartender?

Nick VinZant 26:47

Like, if you're into the bartender? What's the best way to kind of like, Hey,

Kaitlyn Stewart 26:53

I mean, I would say don't. But it's, I would say, Okay, if you want to be a maybe like a good customer and leave like a good impression. go that route. I would say it's always really nice. And maybe not everybody can afford to do it. But it's always nice to say like, Hey, can you add a round of beers or whatever to my tab for like, for the bar staff at the end of your shift? You know, sometimes I'll do that if I go into a restaurant and like I really enjoyed the meal. I'll be like, Hey, can you throw like a couple of beers on my bill for like the kitchen staff like just as a thank you. I always think that's like super kind and grabs you know, grabs your bartenders attention and be like, hey, thanks. That's that was very, very kind of your that's very sweet of you might open up the conversation a little bit.

Nick VinZant 27:42

Is there an overall like funnest drink to make like, We love making this one? My favorite?

Kaitlyn Stewart 27:47

Yeah, I mean, I like anything that's like fun and tropical. And like, there's like a bunch of Tiki cocktails that you can kind of set on fire that I'm like, hell yeah, I want to set something on fire. And I want to like, you know, throw some cinnamon on it. And the cinnamon makes it spark and kind of go all over the place. And it's a bit of a show. So I mean, yeah, anything that involves fire, I am down for the cause. Or if it's blue, I love a blue drink. I'm like, hey, it's got an umbrella on it. It's blue. And it's got fire. All three sold?

Nick VinZant 28:18

Do you put water in whiskey? Are you supposed to?

Kaitlyn Stewart 28:20

I'm not. I mean, again, it's a personal preference. You I'm sipping whiskey, I'll sip it as it is versus like the straight spirit. But sometimes just like a tiny little drop of water will just help open up all the flavors even more.

Nick VinZant 28:34

Where do you what do you think is the future? Future who are attending this future of the industry that kind of like where do you think it's going?

Kaitlyn Stewart 28:41

It's It's honestly, it's been really cool to kind of see in these last couple of years that it's not so much about getting like messed up. I think people are actually drinking for like the experience and like the enjoyment of like, the true authentic, like flavors and craftsmanship of a cocktail, that it's not so much about like, what can I drink to get me fluffed up, like I just want to slam sometimes I want to be wasted. I'm sure there's still that out there. But I think the craft is being a little bit more appreciated these days. And people are really, you know, respecting that but also think like non alcoholic cocktails have been very big. And I don't like I've kind of seen it ever since. I mean in Canada, like weed is legal here. So I find that some of my friends especially have kind of like diverted and they're like I want to go the cannabis route more so have a cocktail at night. So there's also kind of that like ebb and flow too. But yeah, I think non alcoholic cocktails have been really big. Even like CBD and like THC. Beverages have become like super popular as well. But yeah, I mean, I think I think people are eager to get back out there and socialize which is really awesome as well. Last two years people were like stuck at home so people are really appreciating going out sitting down enjoying a well crafted cocktail and maybe something to eat and enjoying time with friends. And I mean, I love I love to see it. I think it's fantastic.

Nick VinZant 30:08

Do you think that there's there any indications? Right. And um, you know, ultimately I think it's like a political and elected official thing. But is there any indications that you think that okay, we might be having the mix of like in bars where we're mixing marijuana and alcohol at the same places? Yeah. The industry preparing for that?

Kaitlyn Stewart 30:27

I would say yes, there's a ton of I even have friends that have come up with spirits, spirits, you'll never see alcohol and cannabis mixed in the same cocktail. I don't think not for a long time anyways, just like the adverse effects of the two of them are kind of completely opposite of one another. But there is a ton of like, like non alcoholic mixers now that are either cannabis infused or you know, CBD infused, and people are using those in economical Holic cocktails. So I think once that kind of, you know, becomes a little bit more regulatory, you'll definitely see that hop into the bar scene for sure. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's an interesting, budding market. Again, no pun intended.

Nick VinZant 31:16

But I got two of them. That's two of them.

Kaitlyn Stewart 31:18

It's only 10am. And I'm only 32 Puns deep.

Nick VinZant 31:22

Oh, um, that's pretty much all the questions that we got. Is there anything else that you think that we missed? Or what's kind of coming up next for you? Oh,

Kaitlyn Stewart 31:30

I mean, I like I've been super busy doing lots of really fun, like consulting projects, and like, even doing like some really great doing some really fun content online. Whether it's through like, tick tock, which I never thought I would be on in my entire life. Be my age, I was like, I'm too old for this app. But then I found like, a really cool audience that have been really enjoying the content of just learning about cocktails, and learning about the history and just like the art of making beverages, and it's been really fun doing that. I'm in the process of opening a new bar in Vancouver. So a lot of work. So hopefully, by the end of July, we'll be open. So just hitting the ground running with that, trying to get inspired.

Nick VinZant 32:16

Do you have the name yet?

Kaitlyn Stewart 32:17

Yeah, it's called the Herrick and it's at it'll be at the like historic hotel Georgia down in like the basement. And it's yeah, it's gonna be a really awesome kind of like cocktail lounge and cocktail club. And, yeah, it's gonna be pretty wild.

Survivalist Melissa Miller (Naked and Afraid, Survival Expert)

Do you know what to do if everything goes wrong? From the African desert to the Amazon rainforest, survival expert Melissa Miller has been dropped into some of the most dangerous environments on Earth. We talk wilderness survival, urban survival and what really happens on the hit TV show Naked and Afraid. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Pieces of Summer Clothing.

Show email:

Melissa Miller: 02:24ish

Pointless: 31:50ish

Top 5: 52:37ish

https://www.instagram.com/melissabackwoods (Melissa Instagram)

facebook.com/melissabackwoods (Melissa Facebook)

For more information on BLADE Show, The World’s Largest Knife Show: www.bladeshow.com

Melissa Miller (Naked and Afraid, Survival Expert) Interview

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode survival tips, and summer clothes,

Melissa Miller 0:19

foraging was probably my first little dive into the world of wilderness survival. I mean, I've went two plus weeks without eating before, I've made it up to two and a half days without water before when it comes to survival things can get very ugly. Very fast, Naked and Afraid I was on it three different times. I survived in South Africa for 40 days, I've eaten turtles, monitor lizards, IV in Antelope testicles. I've eaten warthog brain,

Nick VinZant 0:51

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review. Our goal over the next couple of weeks and months, is to try to make this show a lot more interactive. So if there's anything that you think if there's anything that you like, or that you don't like, guests that you want to hear from topics we we want to talk about, we really do want to hear from you. So our email address is right there. We're on social media Profoundly Pointless tick tock, Twitter and Instagram, and even in your podcast app. Leave us a comment, let us know what you like or don't like, because we've been doing this show for almost four years now. And it just feels like it feels like something is missing. And honestly, I think that something is you. Like, we want to know more about what you think. So our first guest teaches people how to survive extreme situations. And she has been in some very extreme situations, everywhere from Africa, to the rainforest, she has survived for weeks on end with basically nothing. And you might recognize her from the TV show Naked and Afraid. The inside look at how that show comes together. And what the situations that they're in are really like, is fascinating. This is survivalist Melissa Miller, when it comes to kind of survival skills. Like how prepared Do you think that most people are?

Melissa Miller 2:30

Oh, goodness. And in terms of for a catastrophic event? Unfortunately, not not much. The whole prepper type thing seems to kind of be something that is actually coming a lot more commonplace nowadays. But you know, people, a lot of people look at it and just think that people who you know, go out of their way to be prepared or know that survival skills, they kind of think that they might think those people are a little crazy. But it's a great skill to have that because when the time comes that you need it, you're really it's really a time when you really need

Nick VinZant 3:02

it. And it's definitely one of those things like if you don't know it already, it's kind of too late.

Melissa Miller 3:07

Yeah, it's good to have some a few basic skills, especially in terms of just emergency preparedness. Absolutely. You know, you just never know when you're going to be in a situation where having that basic knowledge and that basic foundation is going to save your life.

Nick VinZant 3:24

So some of those basic things like what are some things that you think that like, Look, you should you should probably know this?

Melissa Miller 3:31

Well, when it comes to outdoor survival, just knowing what to do if you get lost and knowing just some basic ways to keep yourself alive for at least a couple of days until search and rescue team can come find you what I

Nick VinZant 3:45

guess what do you do if you get lost, the only thing I've ever heard is like well follow water.

Melissa Miller 3:50

If you get lost hiking, honestly, the most important thing you can do is stay where you are. And I know that sounds contradictory, but people will come find you if you are absolutely totally and utterly lost. If you're at that point where you're off grid and you're on a hiking trail, and you have no idea where you are, stay put and figure out how you can how you can survive the night because people are going to come find you within you know, you're gonna get reported missing or whatnot, people are going to know what's up. But before that, before any of that make sure to always let people know you're going out for a hike, let them know, Hey, I'm going to be here. And that way, if you do get lost, they will know exactly where to go.

Nick VinZant 4:29

So in your kind of experience to help, at least me put things in perspective, say 10 is I could go out into the wilds of the wildest places right now and be completely fine. And one if I'm five feet away from my kitchen, I'm probably not going to survive. Like where on that scale of one to 10 Do you think that most people probably are? I want to

Melissa Miller 4:52

give people the benefit of the doubt so also for three I don't know most people I know cannot do a set can't even deal without like the basic of without their phone.

Nick VinZant 5:04

I think that honestly though, that's like a fair assessment, like I grew up camping hunting fishing in Kansas in Colorado. And I don't know if I would last 48 hours. I really don't.

Melissa Miller 5:17

It's it's hard, especially being outside wilderness survival, it is a whole different territory. When you don't have the right equipment, you can you can die really quickly. It's scary. There's a lot of things that happen really quickly, like being too cold, hypothermia and dehydration. And yeah, most people aren't prepared. And honestly, to be prepared, it takes a lot of practice, it takes a lot of research, and it takes a lot of time, it's an investment to be prepared in a scenario like that, you know, just knowing how to survive in the wilderness.

Nick VinZant 5:51

So how did you kind of like how did you get into this? I grew up

Melissa Miller 5:55

a big nature lover my whole life. And it really stemmed. I started to work at nature preservation several years ago, and I started to teach wilderness survival classes, I just got really heavy into it. And I would say that just all stem from a general love of nature, you know, I grew up fishing, hiking all that. And yeah, I think for Gene was probably my first little dive into the world of wilderness survival, and learning about edible plants and fungi, berries, all that stuff. So edible plant species that you can find outside.

Nick VinZant 6:30

That's always really worried me because I thought like, Oh, if I get lost, I have no, like, should I eat that? Can I eat this? Like, is there a way that you can tell like, you can eat this, you shouldn't eat this, because it seems like the consequences are like, if you pick the wrong one, it's really bad.

Melissa Miller 6:48

I highly, highly recommend, don't just go out there and do it. It's definitely something that takes a lot of time and practice and you want to make sure you're eating the right thing. There are poisonous species in your backyard, there are deadly speed she is out there in the woods, in the local park, you just always got to be on top of your game. So yeah, do tread with caution, I would say I have an entire you know, I have a lifetime of experience with being outdoors. It's something I've always been very in tune with. I've always it takes a long time to learn that skill. And it doesn't just come from reading a book, it really comes from being out there and knowing how to properly identify plants and fungi, especially fungi, that's when you really can get dangerous because the fungi are, as we all know, are things that can make you very, very sick.

Nick VinZant 7:35

Now, did you have somebody kind of show you how to do a lot of those things? Because like, I've looked at different species and stuff like that, and in the book and things like that? Well, to me, it's like reading IKEA instructions in the sense of like, well, this could be this way. But it also could be that way. Like it's it's meaningless to me in a way.

Melissa Miller 7:55

Yeah, you know, it's just it's one of those things that the more you get out there, and the more you look at plant species and learn how to properly identify it, the better you will get if you just walk out there with a book and expect to not identify things, it doesn't work like that. It's something that comes with time. You know, I taught classes on foraging, and I did a lot of research and even I, Nick even I'm still not 100% Sure I don't I am always very cautious. And even when it comes to things like mushrooms especially I am not fully comfortable, especially when I'm not in my like local area. I won't mess with things when I'm in a different state or especially to different country.

Nick VinZant 8:34

We had a guy on here who was a fungi researcher and he said the same thing is like, Look, I've been studying these and have a doctorate in it. And there's still some stuff like I I don't know exactly what that is. Right? Um, so like, when you when it comes to survival, I guess what would you say are kind of like the most important skills for people to be able to have,

Melissa Miller 8:59

there are your necessities so food, water and shelter, the most important thing that you're going to want to learn is how to how to get good shelter and how to make sure that you are warm enough to make it through the night I would say shelter and fire because that is the number one killer when it comes to a survival situation is hypothermia and weather conditions. Especially let's say you're walking and you know 70 degree day and it rains you get wet. That goes to 50 degrees at night, your body temperatures what your body temperature is gonna go down to like 40. So making sure that you're staying dry that you have shelter to cover your head from rain, and fire and then water and then food but number one is always having a plan to know how you can get some form of shelter to where you're not going to go into a form of like hyperthermia. It's the number one killer in these wilderness survival cases. You know people they get to cold shelters even

Nick VinZant 9:57

before water, me knowing nothing I'd be like well I'd better find water because

Melissa Miller 10:02

yeah, so Nick, this is really common, there's this really popular rule, it's like the rule of three, it's a survival thing. So in in extreme conditions, your body can survive three hours without proper shelter. Three days without proper water, and three weeks without food, I mean, I've went two plus weeks without eating before, I've made it up to two and a half days without water before, but I, I've always established shelter first, because in a very cold, or in a very extreme weather situation, you can you can perish without proper shelter. So shelter is always the number one priority. And then knowing how to do fire or trying to know, like, always carry a backup fire making method and being aware of ways to make fire in nature is very important to keep warm.

Nick VinZant 10:52

Are we talking, I got to build myself like a three bedroom condo out here, or die, just put some leaves on myself, like how good is the shelter does it need to be to be like, Alright, that's good enough,

Melissa Miller 11:04

I would say the most important thing when it comes to shelter is familiarizing yourself with different types of insulation that you can put on the ground to sleep on. Because the ground will sap your energy at night when you're sleeping on it. So being aware of where there might be dead leaves or moss. So you can put that on the ground and lay on that if you have to overnight it and then just knowing how to create a very simple shelter. Probably the most simple shelter I can think that a super easy to learn is a lean to pretty much you can make one by taking a bunch of sticks and kind of I'm sorry, my I can't raise my arm. But I'm trying to show you

Nick VinZant 11:42

your okay door. For people who may be listening to this at home, Melissa hurt her collarbone. So she can't raise her arm very well, it's

Melissa Miller 11:50

what a common way is people will take like two sticks like this. And then they'll take another one like that. And then you would put more sticks on it. And it kind of creates like a little tent shape. That's another that's pretty much a very basic lean to

Nick VinZant 12:04

know, you mentioned like wilderness survival. Are there other kinds of

Melissa Miller 12:08

survival, there are all different types of survival. So I actually I currently work for a magazine called recoil off grid, and their focus is urban survival, in the case of a catastrophic event where we lose the power on the grid. And it focuses on different types of urban awareness, urban survival situations,

Nick VinZant 12:30

I guess, in urban survival, like what's kind of what are the big things there that people should be aware of?

Melissa Miller 12:38

Well, civil unrest, and basically, total shutdown of the government, I think, is the biggest fear that people have when it comes to that. So basically, imagine a situation where all forms of law enforcement and government go away completely. And you basically need to figure out how to survive in a every man for himself situation in a urban environment. And we would like to believe that we would like to believe that humans would come together and work together. But when it comes to survival, things can get very ugly, very fast, especially if people are in a situation where they're fighting for resources, like food and water. So yeah, urban survival, it's a very scary situation. And that is why you kind of have these people that like, you know, they'll stock up on ammo, or they'll stock up on food, you know, people look and go, Oh, you're crazy. But gosh, if, if God forbid, or really crazy situation happened, where we lost, you know, a form of have we the government lost control, or people, you know, we got into this kind of,

Nick VinZant 13:47

yeah, no, I know what you mean. Ya know what I mean? And that's, that's the kind of thing I mean, look at the beginning of the pandemic, when we had like food shortage, not even a food shortage, but the idea of a food shortage and liquid kind of people did. I'm not one of those, like, Doomsday people necessarily. And if that's your thing, that's your thing, whatever, whatever people want to do. That's your thing. But I do kind of have that feeling like, oh, maybe we should kind of be ready for something. Like my wife and I, we've got earthquake kits in the house.

Melissa Miller 14:20

I think, you know, I'm not a huge prepper myself, like, I don't have this crazy bunker, but I do have some essentials. I do have some emergency food stashed away. And I think that people, most importantly, in terms of preparedness should be familiar with basic medical and emergency response situations, and that you should always have a good medical kit on hand. I know it sounds crazy, but like I in my car, I have a full med kit. I have a full trauma kit, you know, just make sure you have these, you know, medical things on hand. I think those are, in my opinion, a very important thing to have in terms of emergency preparedness

Nick VinZant 14:58

for people like yourself have and this is a generalization. So keep that in mind. Right? Like, are people afraid that these things are going to happen? Are they more just like, prepared? Because from, for my example, like we have earthquake kits, but I'm not really worried about an earthquake. Do you think that for a lot of survivalists like are they more prepared? Are they really worried that these things are going to happen?

Melissa Miller 15:27

I'm definitely just more prepared. I think there's this big misconception on like, every, like, there's a prepper that's just sitting there looking out his window blinds, thinking that something crazy is going to happen. No, the community is not like that. They're there. They're focused on being prepared. And just in case something happens, I don't think. And it's kind of like if you're prepared, you don't have to be worried.

Nick VinZant 15:51

There's definitely something along the lines to have like, You're crazy. Until you're not that you're basically crazy until you're a genius is how I feel a lot of that stuff works. Now, like for some of your experiences, you mentioned like two and a half days without water, how many weeks without food? Like, how did you end up in these situations,

Melissa Miller 16:10

there's a Discovery Channel show it is called Make it unafraid. It's this, it's this crazy concept of a show that is focused just on primitive survival. They throw two people out in the middle of the wilderness, and you have to survive, they give you like, you get like two to three items, and you have to survive completely enough to survive without and that's all. And it's a very intense situation. I don't think honestly, I don't think there's any other situation that could possibly be more intense than being thrown out in the middle of the woods with literally nothing, you don't even have clothes. And it's not meant to be like a provocative, sexy thing. Because trust me, it is not sexy at all. It is like a disgustingly gross situation. It's meant to be all about survival. So you have to make like your own clothes or figure out ways to fight off the bugs. So that's my, that's my extreme experience in that realm is being on the show, Naked and Afraid I was on it three different times. I survived in South Africa for 40 days, with nothing but I had a knife I had my bow and arrow. And then I did it in the Amazon jungle. I had a knife and I had a fishing line. And then I did it in the Florida Everglades and we had a fire starter and a knife and like a pot, so very limited equipment every time and it was very extreme situations.

Nick VinZant 17:36

The thing that I've always wondered about those shows is like well who's filming that? Are they they have camera people out there.

Melissa Miller 17:42

Very limited camera crew, it is a sound guy, it is a producer and it is a camera guy so you literally have a crew of three people and they get there around 10am and then they leave at 5pm and then it's just you and a video camera and your partner for the entirety of the night so it is very real it's very raw and yeah, you're out there alone. I've had situations where you know it's me and two of my one situation was me and two other partners and we had a fire in our knives and we could hear lions outside of our shelter and there was nobody else in sight so it just like a very real situation. And it is very scary at times

Nick VinZant 18:23

are they just eaten in front of you that's what I would like Bob the camera guys just got his granola bar sitting here and I'm like digging in the mud for

Melissa Miller 18:32

know that so the crew is not allowed to eat me they're not they're not allowed to eat in front of you they're not allowed to like smoke in front of you know that would be that would be torture because yeah all you're thinking about authors to read so I'm only signed up for it so i guess but yeah, that would be pretty lame but they were like eating stuff in front of us but now they're not even allowed to like drink water from us.

Nick VinZant 18:56

Like I can just see like cute and Melissa 10 days in starving hungry tired cold and like here's Bob with his McDonald's and three coats showing kindness. Um,

Melissa Miller 19:10

no feel bad for us. If anything, they actually always tell us like oh we feel bad for you. So I don't think they would want to do that to us.

Nick VinZant 19:18

Be pretty tough when it comes to like things that people need. Like what kind of stuff would you recommend like alright, you should have this you should have this you should have this.

Melissa Miller 19:30

If you told me like hey, you're going to need to survive in this area for like a few days before emergency crew finds you I personally with my skill set would prefer like a waterproof fire starter, a good outdoor knife and like a pot for boiling water. Like if I was you know narrowed down to three solid items that could get me through a couple of days. I would want those three items because I can use that knife to build my shelter I can use that Firestarter to create fire. To create heat for myself, and I can use that pot to collect water and to collect into cook food and to cook water to sanitize it.

Nick VinZant 20:09

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions?

Melissa Miller 20:12

Oh, okay. Yes.

Nick VinZant 20:14

What skill took you the longest to learn?

Melissa Miller 20:17

Oh, I'm probably be able to create, to build and create a friction fire outside. It involves knowing how to procure the right materials and use the right woods. And it also involves really a specific way, a specific technique to create a bow drill friction fire. That took me quite a while to learn how to do that,

Nick VinZant 20:42

or a lot of those skills. are they hard things to do? Or do people just need to? You just need to know how to do it.

Melissa Miller 20:50

I would say it's about 90% experience. It's not necessarily hard. It's just tedious, very time consuming, and a lot of trial and error, especially when it comes to things like primitive trapping and friction fire.

Nick VinZant 21:05

And primitive trapping is basically kind of like building like rabbits snares or something like that, right?

Melissa Miller 21:11

Yes, yeah. And doing it out of things like map natural materials. So when I say like primitive trapping, I mean, building like an animal trap with like, you have a knife. And that's all you can use in your building everything from natural materials, it's very hard and very time consuming. You know, you see people make like something like these primitive fish baskets. And you'll see him do it on TV. And that something like that takes it takes a whole day just to collect and find the right materials to make it you know, not let alone another day to like weave it and make it properly. So everything it takes time. It's not hard, but it just takes a ton of patience, time, trial and error.

Nick VinZant 21:52

Brains are brawn.

Melissa Miller 21:55

It's definitely brains. I would say we have brains 100% knowledge. Patience is a mental thing. You have to have the right mentality. And but endurance I will say endurance and Fitness is important as well, though I don't want to dismiss, you know,

Nick VinZant 22:10

this one might hit on the nose. Why do you keep getting injured?

Melissa Miller 22:16

Because I like to live a dangerous lifestyle. Yeah, it's a comment. I mean, my hobbies are wilderness survival and like extreme mountain biking. So I guess when those two things combined, you know, downhill mountain biking and wilderness survival. It tends to be kind of a recipe for getting injured.

Nick VinZant 22:40

Of the three places that you were on Naked and Afraid or other places that you've been to, like, what would you say is like, Oh, this is the hardest place to survive.

Melissa Miller 22:48

Hands down a hands down the Amazon rainforest. Rain is super hard to survive. And because it's really hard to keep fire and you need fire to boil water. And you need yet you need fire to cook food. I always tell people I would rather do 60 days in South Africa than 20 days in the Amazon jungle it is it is so much harder to survive in a wet rain. four

Nick VinZant 23:15

most common mistake people will make

Melissa Miller 23:17

not learning how to properly do fire. I think fire like I said fire is my favorite part of primitive survival. And not not knowing how to do fire because you need you just need fire for food. You need fire for water. I would say another big one is not getting shelter up in time. Because if it rains, then you're screwed. If you don't have if you don't have a proper roof over your head, you're just screwed. If you get what overnight you're going to freeze even if it's like 70 degrees during the day, you can be so cold at night if you do not get a shelter over your head as soon as possible.

Nick VinZant 23:58

Have you ever been in a situation where you're like, Oh, this is it?

Melissa Miller 24:02

Oh, yeah. So when I first did Naked and Afraid I got lost in the Amazon forest. I was looking for some food and I got I got totally lost. And I started like doing circles. And it was it was so scary. I started thinking my parents. And then I'm like Melissa, what? And I had to stop and like tell myself what what do you do you stay in place stay in place. This is what you've been teaching people for like years stay in place when you get lost. So I stayed in place. I found a log I sat on it. And like two hours later, I hurt my producers were able to find me by calling my name. It was Yeah. That was one of that was the scariest I've ever been in like a survival situation. And another time was in South Africa. When like I said it was me and my two partners and we could hear we could hear in lines chuffing. I mean there were probably a ways away. We did have a fighter But we could hear them and I was like, it was really scary. Like, you know, when you're we found we later found out that they were actually lines that had previously killed a ranger and in a poacher, so we were pretty upset that they put us in an area with to mandating

Nick VinZant 25:19

small oversight. Small right most dangerous animals, plants or insects.

Melissa Miller 25:30

It's actually believe it or not, it's the smallest things that will drive you the crazies out there. So I'm not particularly afraid of like larger animals, but it's always the little ones that would freak me out the most like when we were in the Amazon, we were in an area where the bullet out was present and they have like the most painful bite on Earth. I would say, though, in terms of larger animals, probably god this is so bad because I was like literally go swimming in the water all the time. The producers hated me because they thought I was gonna die. But the alligators I was like a very alligator infested area. And I would say that they're pretty, pretty dangerous. But I think people when the more you learn about animal behavior, the more you realize that animals they don't want like anything to do with you. They just want you to leave them alone.

Nick VinZant 26:23

What is something that you see other survivalist or survival myth that is out there? That you think like, oh, that's you can't that that's not the right thing.

Melissa Miller 26:34

That you can just create fire by rubbing two sticks together, but there's a ton of weird survival myths out there on yes sucking sucking you can't suck Venom you know out of when a snake bites you. Yeah, that's a that's a really big one.

Nick VinZant 26:48

Here's the one that's either a brilliant question offensive or just weird, since this show is Naked and Afraid. What person man or woman is greater risk of getting something snagged.

Melissa Miller 27:02

So definitely the man in fact there is like, I know that a lot of the Amazon tribes they have actually like it's a it's a contraption where they'll like tie a rope and they'll secure their penis and their sometimes their balls on the in the Amazon tribes they'll secured against their stomach because of fish potentially coming to nibble. Yeah, yeah.

Nick VinZant 27:27

Yeah. Fish.

Melissa Miller 27:31

One of my partners, when we were in the Amazon, he had his balls bitten Several times he I would just go off fuck like your idea of like swearing, he'd be like, I fire it just false. And I just, I felt so bad. So men definitely have much more exposed and especially in a Naked and Afraid situation. Would you say

Nick VinZant 27:52

like in the survival communities like, oh, who would probably like our men more equipped? Are women more equipped? Or is it pretty much just equal?

Melissa Miller 28:03

And I'm not. So I'm not just saying this, because I'm a girl. But I do think that women have an easier time with the survival situation. And I think it's just because genetically our bodies are built to, we have naturally we also have more fat stores than men. And we, from my experiences on the show, women tend to deal better with caloric restriction than men. And I think a lot of that that is just set up in our biology. We also are, and I don't want to confirm this, but I've heard many times that women just have a higher pain tolerance, because, you know, the fact that we have to give childbirth to so I personally think that, at least on the show, it would seem that women had the ones that I came across handled a bit more of a easier time, actually. And I will say that we also have just I think throughout life, I know I personally had experience with like diet and more dieting and more calorie restriction. So I was like, prepared, you know, compared to like, my, one of my partners, and one of the challenges who was used to eating like 4000 calories a day. I was like, Oh, this is just like an extreme diet. Well, I've never done that extreme of a diet, but you know what I mean? Yeah, I think I think biologically women's bodies are set up a little bit better, to tolerate pain and to tolerate a starvation.

Nick VinZant 29:31

Strangest thing you've ever eaten. While out there.

Melissa Miller 29:35

There's been so many weird things that I've eaten. Well, let's name a few. I've eaten turtles, monitor lizards, IV in Antelope testicles. I've eaten warthog brain, warthog, eyeballs. I've eaten all sorts of snakes, lizards. And that's just to name a

Nick VinZant 29:55

few which one tasted the best?

Melissa Miller 29:59

The most Omniture egg, it was like so monitor lizards are these type of eggs found in Africa. And it could have just been because I was really hungry but man, it was delicious yolk. I also had liver like antelope. It was like the liver and that was really good. And surprisingly, the Warthog brain to me, it tasted quite delicious. It was like this fatty tissue. It was it was kind of like it's like weird because normally in my day to day life, I would not want to eat any of that stuff. But when you're hungry, it tastes everything kind of tastes like a delicacy.

Nick VinZant 30:36

That's pretty much all the questions that we got is what's kind of coming up next for you.

Melissa Miller 30:41

Well, Nick, I have a whole summer of mountain biking planning. And as of most recently, I'm getting ready for blade show. I work for this company called blade show and we are the world's largest knife show. And it comes to Atlanta, Georgia, June 3 through fifth. And it's like 1000 Knife companies, you know 10s of 1000s of people there you got swords kitchen knives, there's like after parties demos invalid like a lot of blacksmith all the forged people all the people from the show fortune fire there and all the there's a lot of Naked and Afraid people there a lot of outdoor knife like a lot of outdoor celebrities come there. So if you like knives, you should come to Atlanta, Georgia, June 3 through fourth. And I'll be at blade show as well too. So people can Yeah, come see me there. That's that's the big project in the work right now is our is our life show. So


Swordsmith Matt Stagmer

As a swordsmith Matt Stagmer is unique. He’s one of only a handful of people who can still make a sword from scratch. It’s a skill he’s used to make everything from historical replicas and high-end customs to fictional blades right out of The Witcher and The Legend of Zelda. We talk swordmaking, blacksmithing and the funnest things to cut. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Sharp Things.

Matt Stagmer: 01:28ish

Pointless: 40:20ish

Top 5: 58:08ish

https://www.youtube.com/c/ThatWorks (Matt Stagmer - That Works YouTube Channel)

https://www.instagram.com/mattstagmer (Matt Stagmer Instagram)

https://twitter.com/anvilslave (Matt Stagmer Twitter)





Matt Stagmer Interview

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode swords and the best sharp things,

Matt Stagmer 0:19

I'm focusing on the higher end pieces so I only make half a dozen maybe a dozen if I'm making a lot swords a year, you got to be part artists and part athlete you really do you have to condition yourself this business as a business is is is grueling, but you got to continue to develop everything I would say so far The Witcher sword that we made was very, very difficult. We made it out of meteorite.

Nick VinZant 0:45

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 really helps us out. So our first guest has been making swords for 20 plus years. And he can do something that very few other people can do make steel from scratch. And when he makes swords, he's not just making really high end detailed swords. He's making historical swords, and even ones from fiction, like the Zelda sword or the Witcher sword or an 11 foot long sword used by Optimus Prime. This is Sword Maker, Matt Stagner. How hard is it to make a sore

Matt Stagmer 1:30

I would say for the general person, it's almost impossible. Having 25 years of experience almost 24 and a half. I can make a generic sword pretty quickly. And it's not terribly difficult. However, just like any other art form, swords can be simple or they can be very elaborate and the elaborate ones to take can take a year. So there's a lot of work and a lot of skill to develop to get there.

Nick VinZant 1:57

Now was it always swords for you? Or did you kind of start out making something else and then go into for

Matt Stagmer 2:03

me, I never thought about being a Sword Maker. However, my brother's 19 years older than me. So when I needed a job, he was already making swords and armor on a very elementary level. They weren't nice at all. But he had a business established and I was already doing architecture and engineering and high school and like just about every artistic thing you could do. So I was already like developing those kind of skills you would need and I just kind of wanted a generic job when I was 15. And I started working with him. I always thought that would be just kind of a side gig. But for me, it just stuck. I tried a bunch of different things I tried a plus net plus, I tried the whole network engineering thing and just always kind of came back that nothing can hold my interest like making swords because it's it really has all kinds of different artistic avenues in it. So it really was the right route for me than I ended up sticking with it kind of fought it until maybe my mid 20s Till I really kind of embrace that that was what my life was going to be. But yeah, that's how I got started.

Nick VinZant 3:12

Why is it so difficult to make them? Is it difficult because like, alright, this is advanced physics, or is it difficult? Like you've it's just step after step after step?

Matt Stagmer 3:23

Well, I mean, there's like I said, There's levels so like when I first started we were basically taking a bar of steel and just on grinders grinding the shape, there wasn't really any forging done no hot work per se until you heat treat the blade. But now where I'm at now I forge every single blade I even tried to make my own steel from time to time I certainly develop patterns in Damascus. There's all kinds of if you imagine mosaic tiles, you can literally mosaic steels different Steel's together and make elaborate patterns within the blade itself before you even get to grinding. So there's a it really is one of those crafts, especially if you break it down into regional cultures, like if you just study Japanese katanas or if you just study European swords, like every single one of those disciplines is a lifelong journey to learn those disciplines. So you never really finished learning how to make a sword I know how to make some swords very well, pretty fast and efficient. And other ones. You know, I'm just learning and you're a constant student of the craft if you're doing it right. Basically until you stop

Nick VinZant 4:31

when you say like I can make that pretty fast like how long does it take you to make one quickly on average the longest it's taken you

Matt Stagmer 4:39

the reason I say that is because like I'm kind of considered to be one of the guys that goes the fastest. I've just I've made probably well over 100,000 swords in my time. Now a lot of those are very simple stage combat stuff you might see at a Renaissance Festival the jousters using they are not sharp there. are just kind of made to look sharp, and be tough in a stage presence so they can climb together not break, you have to make them tough. So those are a lot quicker than say, if I was making a high end, medieval reproduction where it was sharp and the edge had to be perfectly aligned, and all of that kind of stuff. So for me, back when I was doing those production swords, I could make about 10 a day. Now, that's what the team around me as well. So I'm not doing everything. So if I did do it myself, still, you know, multiple a day. Now I'm slow down, which has been a hard thing. So like I said, I've been making sores for almost 25 years. In my later part of my career now where I'm basically working on my own. I'm focusing on the higher end pieces, so I only make half a dozen, maybe a dozen if I'm making a lot swords a year, you can make them fast, you can make them slow, definitely somewhere in the middle is probably where the affordable pieces come from. But right now trying to focus on the nicer pieces.

Nick VinZant 6:05

Is making a sword inherently more difficult than making a knife or is it just the sword is harder? Because it's bigger?

Matt Stagmer 6:11

That's a good question. And if you asked, most people go from making knives to then making larger and larger pieces. So they're knife makers, and then they'd like might try a sword or two in their career. Or maybe they just embrace the sword thing. And they would say swords are much harder, I would say, the knives at the level of standard that I'm trying to make them now which is like perfection is much much harder than making a sword. So with a sword you're working from, let's just say medieval swords, you're working from a medieval sword standard. And if you look at the fit and finish that was made back then they're all made by hand, there was no electrical computer controlled milling machines or, or routers or anything like that making them they're all made by hand. And there's imperfections which actually, to me are very pleasant to the eye. Because it shows the Craftsman it shows the fingerprints of the craftsmen in the whole piece. So they'll fit in finish of the swords is not as high as a modern knife where everything is expected to be perfect and look like a robot made it. So to me, I think modern modern knife making not reproduction knife making but modern knife making to me at this point is much harder than making swords. Really, but most people would say just the sheer size of a sword is what makes it difficult for me. I'm just bred and just raised in that. So like the size doesn't scare me. It's more of the minut details that are what I'm trying to learn.

Nick VinZant 7:48

Is it harder to do kind of like the big things? Or the little tiny things in the sense that like, is it to make the whole blade or like man, it's really hard to just make this little cut at the

Matt Stagmer 7:59

top. So yeah, so we get so I run a YouTube channel, where we make everything from giant like video game swords, to making very historical smaller reproductions of something because people always think of like conium or swords are big and heavy. But the realistic sword is actually quite like under 300 under three pounds total. So a sword, a medieval sword is very light. But we get asked all the time, what was the hardest build you've ever done on YouTube channel. And sure, like something like Optimus Prime's giant sword that we made huge, it's like, you know, 11 feet tall, would be considered something that was very difficult just because of its sheer size and having to maneuver around and grind shape. But for me, the historical, small, highly detailed, sometimes the Japanese pieces, those are truly where you, you're not just physically overwhelmed, you actually have to have develop the skill and the eye for those minut details. So I would say the minut details are much more difficult to achieve in sword making than say, just grand scale.

Nick VinZant 9:06

So, you know, in kind of the 10,000 foot view to use corporate language, which I which I just cringed a little bit at hearing me say that, but like, people can see this on your YouTube channel, but in general, like how do you make a sword? What's kind of the process?

Matt Stagmer 9:23

So the way I go about making swords these days? First I'm going to decide whether or not this is going to be a Damascus sword. Let's just take that. As an example. Damascus sword is a layered sword, often referred to as pattern welded. So we're talking. No, not at all the viewers can see me but you have one layer of steel, another layer of steel and we're like literally piling it up. And you forge build those into one. And by the time you get a blade out, depending on how you manipulate those levels, those layers, you get a beautiful pattern. I start by selecting what Steel's I'm going to use. Now you want to use something that's going to to different kinds of steel, so they show different colorization in the end, forge weld those together. So if I start with say 20 layers in that initial stack, I got to decide how many layers you want in a sword. Now you hear like, in books and novels, a million layer blade or the blade had been folded a million times what they mean is increasing that layer by literally drawing it out, folding in on itself. So now 40 layers, draw it out folding it ourselves, now I have 80, draw it out. Now I want the 60

Nick VinZant 10:30

multiplying it, it's not like you got to

Matt Stagmer 10:33

decide three, right. So back in the day, when they were making their own Steel's from literally iron ore, they had to fold just to get the impurities out. So they wouldn't say I'm going to make a 300 layer blade, they would keep folding that material until all the all the impurities were gone, and they had a nice solid chunk of steel, and then they would make their blade. For me as a modern maker, I'd have to decide on the look that I want. Because modern Steel's are obviously much better than what you can make from dirt. So for me, I decide to layer count, forge forge that initial billet folded as many times as I want, then I'm forging the sword, then you rough grind the sword, then you heat treat, this is all just the blade, then you heat treat, which means I'm just gonna give a very generic definition. But you would heat the blade up till basically a red hot color and quench it in either water or oil and that fast cooling of the steel, the Superfast cooling makes your blade very, very tough very hard. You then actually have to heat it up very slowly to a lower level like 400 degrees. Like that's what your average kitchen oven reaches to give you context to then take it from that super brittle hard back to a toughness then you have a hardened blade and then from there all the finishing work all the garniture forging or grinding all your you know your guard your pommel, which is the counterbalance, making your handle out of wood. Deciding how you're going to finish the handle whether you're going to cover in leather, cover and Cord Cover and wire, there's so many options. And that's just kind of working from a medieval, you know, like if you picture a medieval knight in your head. That's how you'd make that style of swords. That's just a very brief overview of how you would do it. But there's many, many steps.

Nick VinZant 12:25

What determines if something is a good sword? Is it just the steel itself and how many times it's been folded is the edge like?

Matt Stagmer 12:32

Well, that would be what its intended uses what the intended buyer or person that it's made for. A lot of modern sword makers these days are selling to Hema practitioners, which are historical, European Martial artists who take manuscripts of how the knights and people back in the medieval time actually fought. And they do their very best to learn that craft as if they were in the shoes of someone back then. So if you're making something for them, they need it light. They need it sharp, they needed as close historically accurate as possible. And they needed to not break. So all of those things are very, very important. If I'm selling to, say Elon Musk, or somebody like that, who wants the most elaborate, beautiful sword to literally hang in a lobby and say, wow, look what I got, or any art collector, perhaps the most important to them is how visually impressive it is. So really, there's so many different things that literally when somebody contacts me and says Hey, will you make me a sword I don't take that many commissions anymore. Kind of make what I want and and sell it but it's a long conversation to figure out exactly what their intended use is so I can get the piece in their hand. That will make them the happiest Yeah, so that's a long answer to a short question. But yeah, there's

Nick VinZant 14:03

when you're when you talk about folding the sword we're talking about one same piece of steel, not like an Oreo cookie where I got like this piece Yeah, and actually on it,

Matt Stagmer 14:14

it is kind of like an Oreo cookie. So the reason that you would make Damascus in the modern world Damascus or pattern world steel, however you want to refer to it in the modern world is literally for beauty. So hot nickel is nickel is a very shiny metal, right. So if you have one of your metals has high nickel in it, that's going to be very bright in the end. And if you take something with very low nickel, it's going to etch very dark color. So by the time you make this pattern like Oreo cookie, many many many Oreo cookies on top and then you smash it to a blade and you lay it out you have almost like a topographical map. When you etch it, etching meaning you put it into an asset of some sort, and then it etches both of those materials differently. So you have like a black and white look to your blade. With all kinds of however you manipulate the pattern, there's a million ways to do it. It's hard to explain non technical but yeah, so yes, you are using two different metals to start with in modern making.

Nick VinZant 15:20

Oh, and then So you combine the two metals, and then you start the folding process. Sure. Okay. Are we? Are we better at this now than we used to be?

Matt Stagmer 15:31

Ah, well, that's also a hard question to answer. So if you want to it took more skill to refine raw materials into a sword took way more knowledge and skill than buying my steel like I do from a steel manufacturer. And they give it to me and I have detailed scientific specs of everything, how much carbon? How much Chrome, how much molybdenum? Every kind of element that's in that steel, I have a did I have a readout on a big sheet of paper of everything that's in there, they didn't have that. So they needed just to be able to get to the point to make a bar that's tough enough to make a sword. They had to know how to refine it. Now when I'm saying refining it to get the the flaws out. It's more than that. So we're using modern propane forges that blow oxygen and propane in and ignite in a very calculated way. And we know how we know what's going on in there. Scientifically, there's certain amount of h2o, oxygen, propane, everything we know what's going on. They're using charcoal and coal to forge their stuff. And so they're actually adding carbon as they're working, they have to know what temperatures they have to know a lot more than just that knowledge before we're even talking about the skill to sculpt the steel itself is much more than the average knife or Sword Maker has these days. Now what's really neat what's been going on in say the last, I'd say 10 years in the sword making community not so much the knife making but sword making community is we are getting back to making our own Steel's and seeing historical manuscripts of how they made the smelters, and trying to literally start from dirt and create our own steels. It's something that the Japanese culture never let go of, they've always kept that tradition from, you know, 1000 years ago till now they have sword makers, and you're only allowed to be a Sword Maker. If you do it right. In Japan, there are no bad sword makers, Japan, but in the European context, or, you know, the Western world, if you will, we don't have that continuous culture of making swords for obvious reasons, because they pretty much became extinct. So we're trying to as sword makers, there's a lot of people getting into how to make the steel how to work the steel and how to do it, like they close as close as possible to how maybe they did it. And that's been a fun journey. I kind of dabbled in myself, as well as along with my partner, Ilya, he really is into it. And yeah, it's hard to say like, are they gonna make if you want to stack up a the average medieval Sword Maker versus me or the average Sword Maker today, and put those swords together? And like, test them against each other? I'd say the source of today, we'll destroy them. But if we're talking about pure talent, I mean, it took a lot more work knowledge and skill to do it back then than it does today. For sure.

Nick VinZant 18:27

Can you make it from scratch? Like, I'll give you dirt and rocks? And you could all right.

Matt Stagmer 18:31

I mean, it has to be the certain kind. Right? But yes, yeah, I have. And there's videos of us doing it. I actually just demonstrated up in New York last year, how to do how to do that smelting in front of a big audience at the Maker Camp, it's a really cool, get together of all kinds of different makers. We did a whole demonstration front of a crowd of how to smell your own steel from literally like, black sand that like if you walk along the beach, you ever seen those black lines? Yeah, that's iron. Literally, somebody collected that with a magnet. And we made that into steel, which we haven't made into a sword yet, but we made the steel.

Nick VinZant 19:12

How many people like just in the United States, for example, like how many people know how to do this still? I guess. Are we talking hundreds? 1000s 10s of 1000s?

Matt Stagmer 19:21

No, no, maybe? Maybe 20. And, like, we're talking about making your own steel of making a piece? Yeah, I'd say there's, I mean, 10 years ago, there were like four. And now there's maybe you know, 20? Maybe a few more than that. But not I mean, a lot of people do it wants to say they did it. That doesn't mean they did it. Right. And did it enough right to really, to really learn it. But there's not that many. There really isn't

Nick VinZant 19:51

me how many just even sword makers in general.

Matt Stagmer 19:55

I mean, I guess there's it depends on what level we're talking about. You're talking about they do it for a living or they have made Sword. There's there's a really cool network of teaching and classes now in the blacksmithing, and blade smithing world where you can go and take a week long course. And you can go home with a sword with very little experience at all, where they'll teach you how to do it. And if you're struggling, they'll help you. And that's a really cool thing you can do. So if you're really into and you want to do it, it's kind of like, I encourage you to go into it with a little bit of knowledge and metal, but if you don't have any, there's still places you can learn how to do it. I'd say people making a living, making swords. It's under 100 For sure. Companies that like do it under a dozen,

Nick VinZant 20:44

but the companies they're just mass producing it right? There's not somebody with a hammer by No, no,

Matt Stagmer 20:49

I mean, both of that, that I've seen below, but a lot of them are using modern, you know, equipment to do it. Like there's a company called Albion who makes about $3,000.02 to $3,000 swords and they're all Mater made, but they're doing it right and really getting the the end result is very museum ask now, how

Nick VinZant 21:07

much will you sell one of your swords for?

Matt Stagmer 21:09

Um, you know, I'm kind of still pretty new to this higher end stuff. But I'd say it's a really basic Ford sword for me is still going to be several $1,000.02 to $3,000. The most expensive piece I've ever sold was about 12,000. My partner just sold one for 40,000. Wow, I say partner. I mean, in my business, Ilya, he's a he's from Russia. He's a good friend of mine, we work together a bomber, I can sort a bunch. And now we've made our own business called that works, where we kind of still are two very separate entities where he has his stuff, and I have my stuff. But we get together and make videos, you know, at least one a month of making stuff together where we're doing projects together for the most part, and he makes much higher and stuff he's learned. He's got we just went down two different paths. He's more into the Yeah, the hand engraving stuff. So you see, like all the surfaces carved very elaborate pieces. And those pieces can go from 40,000 they can be you know, sky's the limit with that because the value is kind of in the beholder. So he's gotten into some higher end art exhibitions where it's more of an auction. So you kind of like set your, your minimum just like if you were selling something on eBay, and the buyers get to bid it out. And you know, you might be like to yourself say this is worth 10,000 But maybe a medieval art collector or somebody who has a Van Gogh in their mansion wants a sword hanging next to it, they might pay 150 grand for a sword so I mean, it really is subjective.

Nick VinZant 22:48

You ever wonder though somebody pays like 40,000 for a sword, they're just like swinging it around at home.

Matt Stagmer 22:54

And you know, they're gonna pay them I mean, honestly the piece that he sold that was about seven months often on not like continuous but almost seven months continuous work of high end work that he's spent a lifetime learning how to do. So it's not something I could teach someone to make.

Nick VinZant 23:13

Does it take a pretty good toll on your body? Absolutely. Yeah.

Matt Stagmer 23:17

So I went from doing the production sword stuff where I was literally at a sword grinder for eight hours a day. That's all I did. I just grabbed blades that's pretty much all I did. I didn't forge much back then. That forging was kind of a luxury I would take that would be my easy day off forging, grinding big swords. My elbows, my hands, my shoulders, everything you could imagine just you know, I'm not only 39 years old, but I've had like tendinitis, I've had like, years of pain in my in my joints. Yeah, kids, it's tough. It just is. And you if you do things properly, and you condition yourself, you gotta you gotta be part artists and part athlete you really do you have to condition yourself. A lot of people like say if you watch forging fire, if you see like fantasy movies, you think of the blacksmith being this big fat guy with a big beard. Now I got the big beard and I'm not exactly the skinniest guy. But that snot really the case somebody who's going to do this for a living is going to have to condition itself doesn't mean you're going to have a six pack abs but you are going to have shoulders that have something to them, you're going to have forearms that you know that have some some muscle and you have to treat it that way you and you have to do things kind of insets like you have to take a break. Let your muscles cool down, let the lactic acid get out. And literally just like a workout, like if you do it non stop and don't take a break. You'll deteriorate just like if somebody stay in the gym doing the same workout all day. Like, just can't do it. Now is

Nick VinZant 24:53

that because like you've got to do this thing so many times or because you just gotta like fold max effort swing, wait a minute full like is it you got to hit it that hard or you got to hit it that many times?

Matt Stagmer 25:08

Both. So like, say, like I said, I have experience of being somebody who made tons of pieces and then making Yeah, my time or higher in pieces. So when you're in sword production, yeah, it's just the repetition. It's literally like reps. Like, if you're working out for the higher end stuff, you still want to do it proficient, especially when we're making videos of a lot of this stuff. So we don't want to just put out the general information to people who don't understand there's a lot of people really understand what we're doing, and actually are trying to learn the craft that watch our videos. So we need to show them the proper techniques, and really propel the craft in the proper manner, as much as we possibly can. So, you know, some of the shortcuts you don't take in those videos, you know, we're we have power hammers, big machines that boom, boom, boom, that kind of replicate the swinging of the hammer. And we use a lot of power hammers in our videos, but at the same time, we still want to show you how to do it by hand. So, you know, it's a lot of work just is. It's fun, don't get me wrong, I have a great time. I really do. I enjoy what I'd done. My basically my entire life. And I highly recommend this as a hobby to anybody who wants to grab a hobby blacksmithing bladesmithing is a great hobby. A lot of people would like I've done TV shows, like with Danny Trejo was my co host, or I guess I was his co host, I should say that way. I've been on TV doing this craft, and I still highly recommend people to do this as a hobby and not a job. It's very difficult to do it as a job and defined. You have to be everything. You have to be like a social media genius, because you got to market yourself. This business as a business is is is grueling, but you got to continue to develop everything.

Nick VinZant 26:59

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yes, I am. What sword was the hardest for you to make?

Matt Stagmer 27:05

So kind of to harken back to what we said before, there's two levels of difficulty that I like to answer that question with one. And sometimes it's just the sheer size of something like the Optimus Prime sword, which had like over 700, and some pieces to put together to make a sword. And it was just gigantic. So that's very, very difficult. And then there's other things like the Japanese pieces that have very high level of detail. So for me, I would say so far, The Witcher sword that we made was very, very difficult. We made it out of meteorite forged, it had to grind it put tons of detail, there's gem Senate silver work gold work, I'd say the more detailed stuff is definitely the most difficult.

Nick VinZant 27:47

Is there a culture that like looking back like oh, they probably made the best swords.

Matt Stagmer 27:52

That's gonna be an ongoing, ongoing debate that no matter what answer I give you is going to be difficult. Now, I will straight up tell you that I haven't really dove into the Japanese blades, specifically, because I know when I do, it's going to eat up eight years of my life. But the Japanese culture definitely refined the craft as an art, more so than any other culture. Some people will say their sword blades weren't as good. Some people will say their swords were, like, just way better 10 fold better than a medieval sword, I would say that functionality is just different. They weren't it's like comparing an AR 15 and ak 47 They both seem to do the job pretty well. And they're very, very different. So I would say as a generic answer as an artist, I would say the Japanese culture

Nick VinZant 28:43

but they weren't necessarily the most useful when you look kind of back on it just different

Matt Stagmer 28:48

beasts, you know, they didn't have knights in shining armor, their their, their armor and stuff was usually made out of leather out of bamboo, they weren't really going up against full plated knights if you would. So that weapon evolved differently. That's a that's an island culture. So that's kind of think of it as another planet, that sword sword at that time yet sword was made the way it was, you know, 1000 years ago, and that sort of pretty much, I mean, little minut changes, but pretty much stayed the same piece and didn't evolve then if you take medieval weaponry, we go from one handed swords all the way up to like if you see three musketeers fencing style sorts because the evolution was you know, no armor, then you had to make a sword that went up against armor, then it went back to no armor and firearms. So the sword was kind of more of your secondary thing. You'd have a firearm first, then you'd have a very fancy, elaborate sword that was a status symbol and all of that. So in the Western world, the sword evolved very much differently than saying Japan, which may be some of the reason why katanas In the Japanese culture developed such a high rich art form because it was continuous. And it was the same for, you know, very hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years and continues to be so. So they really got a chance to perfect. That kind of singular item where in Europe every 50 years, they were changing completely the weaponry they were using.

Nick VinZant 30:25

Now looking at it, like what would you say is your favorite historical sword?

Matt Stagmer 30:30

I, I've always said the Gladius, which is the Roman short sword. It's kind of my favorites, a very wide kind of leaf blade sword. But, I mean, it changes all the time. I love the beautiful hand and a half which is like, if you see Lord of the Rings, they have long sword with two handed grips. It's kind of like there's a beauty in that. I think that's kind of the highest level of evolution that that style of sword had also really enjoy the Viking swords Viking swords kinda like just have a feel to them that nothing else has. But I'd say it's my signature, like what people think of me enjoying the most would be the Roman Gladius. I mean, that's the sword that literally conquered the world at that time. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 31:16

So is there one looking back on it like historical swords where you'd say, oh, that's actually a lot harder to make than people would think, Oh, man,

Matt Stagmer 31:24

just about all of them. I would say, like the later re Ray piers, the three musketeers era, if you will swords. If you make one of those today, we have modern welders, to put all the elaborate different basket weaved guards together to weld all the pieces together, but they didn't have them. So they had a whole nother three dimensional puzzle to figure out how to make all those pieces come together and not fall apart. They're forge welding, they had to learn different techniques with torches and how to do how to make it all without modern. So you know, as a modern Sword Maker, you have to decide are you going to make it the way that they did? And try to really dive into that? Or are you just going to make it you know, the easiest way that you can possibly make and neither one's wrong. It's just a different mindset and on what sword makers have, and some sword makers do not care about how they were done. And I'd say the ones that do have more just more importance of the craft in general, you're not just aiming for the end goal. It's about leaving something after you're gone leaving a you know a culture that can continue and learn and really appreciate what I would say like the truth of the craft is and that's important because a lot of things with movies and video games and things like that get kind of corrupted and it's nice to have some guys that that really care about the craft and propelling the modern day blacksmith or bladesmith into the modern world. You know,

Nick VinZant 33:03

what's your favorite fictional sword? Oh,

Matt Stagmer 33:07

my favorite fictional sword. I don't know. I mean, I enjoy this how like the Kill Bill sword remake was really cool. I love to Kill Bill the movies. So like the Hattori Hanzo, which they it's kind of a made up person, but he was like the master Smith in Japan making the best you know, swords, he wouldn't even make them anymore. So making that was really neat. I didn't have a lot to do with it. But I definitely helped. I'll go ahead and give you let's say the master sword from Zelda I grew up playing the Zelda games so so like making the Master Sword, which we did do was was kind of surreal, kind of put me back in the boots of my eight year old self.

Nick VinZant 33:50

This is nothing against this particular genre of fiction. I don't generally like the anime swords very much. They're too big, or they're too much of a character. I guess I like the simple, the simplicity of it more. Yeah.

Matt Stagmer 34:04

And you know, that's something about it. Like with anime and video games, magic is always a factor, you know, whether they call it magic or they call it you know, Power Up skill level or whatever. So like being able to lift something that realistically would be 150 pounds and swinging around. It's pretty silly with there's something to be said about that. I try not to give anybody crap, depending on you know, what they what they like, so if that's interesting to them to see the impossible done and made look easy by their hero, then that's okay, too. But I agree with you. I like to see them more realistic, even if it's a very fantastic design that probably would have never existed. If it's a realistic feel to it. And it looks like the sword would have balanced and be usable, then that's kind of what I liked the most. The

Nick VinZant 34:46

only one that's modern that I've seen that I was like, oh, that's looks impractical, but kind of cool. Was that new Thanos sword? Yeah, like that was was pretty cool.

Matt Stagmer 34:57

We almost made that but I didn't actually know the guys who make it. A lot of those weapons for the for the movie industry and yeah I can't imagine making that and steel would be a lot

Nick VinZant 35:07

add is there like a general wait like we're okay this is not this you can you can use this thing anymore

Matt Stagmer 35:18

yeah I mean it say like a giant two handed sword like a realistic two handed sword like really like it's this is gonna sound light over like six pounds is like heavy. Think about it you're not just one slice and it's over, you're on a battlefield, multiple people if you conquer your first opponent, you're on to the next opponent and the next opponent, you this could be a 12 hour ordeal or it could be a one hour ordeal either way you want something you can swing over and over and let me just tell you all because most of you don't think about this sword broke on the battlefield more often than they didn't. The sword was actually most often the secondary line of defense here you'd have a long spear or you know some sort of pole weapon that actually would be your first line of defense. You want to keep those people at distance as far as ways possible if your spiritual breakout sword if your sword broke, you break out the dagger and so on so so like, like say you take Lord of the Rings, those style swords, something like that over five pounds is too heavy, to

Nick VinZant 36:26

harken back to when I was drunk and bought the ninja sword. I do remember the next day like swinging it around a little bit. I was like, Oh my God, my arm. Like it felt like my tendons were coming off the next day. And that he must live in good shape.

Matt Stagmer 36:41

And that's a culture where their way of sword fighting is much different than what you think of in the movie. So you know like edge to edge pink PPP PPP. That's not Japanese, Japanese is very deliberate. One or two moves is a full fight. Like literally, after that sword comes out of the sheath, they have a plan this and a plan that and that's pretty much the fight.

Nick VinZant 37:02

How long did it take for you to get good?

Matt Stagmer 37:06

I was pretty okay. Pretty quickly now, I would say a lifetime is the correct answer. I mean it six to eight years before I could do anything that was like something I would show other makers and be proud of. But I was lucky I just I had a background of all the right stuff. And when I got into it, it just I like to tackle like, if my brother told the story of me starting off, he would tell you like I always did. The hardest thing is like I would ask, Hey, what's the hardest thing to do? And they would tell me and they would all go off to lunch and I would stay in the shop and I would try it and conquer it and do it. And I just continued my entire career to look at things that way. Like what's the next hardest thing? What's the next hardest thing? And I go about it that way I got very comfortable in a grinder. That's what people know me for. Kind of like, I'm like the grinder guy. Some people say I'm the best of I don't know if I'm the best but I'm definitely the fastest and confident or I'm a grinder. So that allowed me to get through things very fast. But I'd say to get pretty okay at making swords. It's half a dozen years. Wow. Yeah, at least. I mean to mastersmith level you know 10 years minimum. Dang, yeah.

Nick VinZant 38:32

Then what is the the biggest mistake most people starting out make?

Matt Stagmer 38:39

I think they try to jump right into making something super big and super elaborate where like, say you want to make a sword. You want to be a Sword Maker, I would say make a dagger first. So this big are all the equipment smaller. But it teaches you all the same lessons, all the proportions, everything handle guard, construction, heat treat, it's literally like a sword scaled down. So I would suggest start there. Don't start on trying to make a giant two handed sword before you've done any kind of work. But learn small and progress. That's what I would say. And really, if you want to be any kind of blade maker, knife maker, Sword Maker, whatever. Start with blacksmithing which people kind of combine into the same realm, but they're very different.


Everest Filmmaker Elia Saikaly

Adventure Filmmaker Elia Saikaly documents the highs and lows of the world’s tallest mountain. Carrying a camera to areas very few people have even seen. We talk summiting Everest, surviving avalanches and earthquakes, high-altitude cinematography, climbing K2 in winter, mountain photography and forgetting to hit record. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Ways to Say Hello.

Elia Saikaly: 02:06ish

Pointless: 55:27ish

Top 5: 01:17:06ish

https://eliasaikaly.com (Elia Saikaly Website)

https://www.instagram.com/eliasaikaly (Elia Saikaly Instagram)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaXi-ChY984NfjsWFXsjCUw (Elia Saikaly YouTube)

Interview with Elia Saikaly: Adventure Filmmaker

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. This is a really special episode. It's our 200th episode and coming up mountain stories. And the best ways to say hello.

Elia Saikaly 0:24

My entry point to high altitude mountaineering and being a filmmaker really started out with a chance phone call. And I got this question, which was, do you want to go to Everest? I need a camera guy. Right? So most people who are climbing that high end of the death zone, they're not being bothered with taking photographs, right? Like you're taking three or four breaths for every step that you take. There's an incredibly complex obstacle you face at the base of Everest called the Khumbu Icefall. You're playing Russian roulette with your life in there. It's known as the savage mountain. I mean, Ketu in comparison to Everest, I mean, Everest kind of feels like Disneyland, all of a sudden, it's like, I see the Dalai Lama, His Holiness, stepping towards me, and I'm just thinking, holy crap. It's the Dalai Lama. And I didn't record,

Nick VinZant 1:13

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 really helps us out. So our first guest is a climber, cinematographer, filmmaker, journalist, mountaineer and explorer who has survived everything from avalanches to earthquakes, while telling stories about some of the most dangerous places on earth. And what's really amazing is that he has done something that very few people have been able to do. He's gone to these places, all while carrying a camera showing people locations, and experiences that very few people have ever seen. This is documentary filmmaker, Elia Seikaly. How did you get started in this? Was it a love of the mountains? Was it a love of filmmaking? Like, what do you think was the main thing that brought you in?

Elia Saikaly 2:15

My entry point to high altitude mountaineering, and being a filmmaker really started out with a chance phone call? I was 26. At the time, I had already been in the industry for six or seven years, I got into working with cameras, because my dad was an enthusiast. So I grew up around cameras. And I wasn't quite feeling fulfilled in my life. And I just knew that there had to be something more for me. And I got this phone call, it was completely random. And a friend of mine called me up who's a producer? And I get this question, which was, do you want to go to Everest? I need a camera guy. And that was it. And I'm like, I don't even know where Everest is. I've barely traveled the world. I've I've never been to that part of the world specifically didn't know a thing about mountaineering. And I just said, Yes, it was this crazy idea. And I just thought, I mean, how could I possibly say No,

Nick VinZant 3:07

when you got to Everest and realized whatever's was were you like, oh, shit, or were you did you feel ready for it?

Elia Saikaly 3:15

I mean, I was clueless. I'm not gonna lie. I was completely clueless. I was really young, I was naive. I came from a sport background. So when you combine sort of the the Mental Toughness capacity that I had, at that time, with my bodybuilding background and sport in general, and then somebody who could handle the camera, it just seemed like an obvious fit to this person. So did I know what I was getting myself into? Absolutely not. It was it was very overwhelming, right? Everything from the environment, to the culture to the exposure of altitude, every single component of that was overwhelming to me at the time. And it's important to say as well that my assignment was not to climb Everest. My assignment was to film, a friend of mines journey, who was he was trying to be the oldest Canadian to summit Everest. So much. I was going to base camp, and then I trained his climbing partner who's Sherpa. So we trained him to use the camera and then the job was, you know, chumby, the local Nepalese climber He would climb to the summit was Shawn and film. And my job was film all the way to base camp.

Nick VinZant 4:22

When you look at a lot of films, you know about Everest and about climbing, are most of them filming right up to the top? Or are you one of the few people who did do that? Does that whatever the proper English would be in that regard?

Elia Saikaly 4:35

Yeah. I mean, I think it's fair to say that there are a select few of us who do it really well. Right. When you're talking about filming to the top of Everest, you're talking about working in the death zone. And the death zone is this environment above 8000 meters or 26,000 feet above sea level. So it's an area where you're literally deteriorating faster than you can recover. So you're dying, right? So most people Who are climbing that high end of the death zone, they're not being bothered with taking photographs, right? Like you're taking three or four breaths for every step that you take. So as a result of that, you know, you really need a certain kind of individual who can perform in those environments just as a climber, and then stack the complex task of filming, telling stories, worrying about sound and video and chasing talent in this environment that's incredibly hostile. It's a very difficult job to do. And there are not a lot of us that can do it.

Nick VinZant 5:33

Like when you do the filming, or you kind of scouting locations, like I gotta set my camera up here, I gotta be in this place. Hey, wait, right there, let me get this film, or you just gotta like, you take everything as it can go, and you get what you can and make the most out of it later.

Elia Saikaly 5:49

It all depends on where you are, right? So as you're tracking the base camp, that's, let's say, a 10 day journey. So it's very comfortable. It's control. There are beautiful trails and lodges, which are the equivalent of little hotels, so we call them tea houses. And you have a lot of support. And it's it's an environment that you control. So there's a lot that you can do from a storytelling standpoint. The second that you leave Basecamp, then the whole game changes. That's where the climb actually begins. And for the most part, people are not willing to stop for you. Right? So it's very complicated, and you really have to stay on the path because it's incredibly dangerous. There are crevices. There are hidden crevices under snow bridges, you don't see there's an incredibly complex obstacle you face at the base of Everest called the Khumbu Icefall, you're playing Russian roulette with your life in there, right? You're like an ant, navigating this ice fortress, and these giant size pieces of ice known as seracs. These things are collapsing, you've got crevices with ladders, you need to cross like it. It sounds insane, just saying it. But But that's, that's the environment that you work in. So this idea of plotting your shots? Yeah, yeah, definitely you do plot some shots out. But when it when it really comes down to it, you have to stay on the path, because it's incredibly dangerous. And when you get to the final summit day, you're really racing against the clock, nobody wants to stop for you, you race against the clock, because you get this tiny window, where you can sneak up to the summit, touch the top and get down as quick as possible. And so as a storyteller, and filmmaker, you're fighting against all those elements. And you really have to understand that environment, know yourself, well be super competent as an athlete and a creative and just work with all those obstacles stacked on top of you at the same time to make sure you get the shots you do as much as you can with quality. You don't put yourself in harm's way, you don't put anyone else in harm's way. And most importantly, you get yourself and then everyone on your team down safely.

Nick VinZant 7:56

Do you feel like you've captured Everest, in the sense that like, if I stuck at home, can't go there at all your videos and films and stories really shows people what it's like? Or is that just as close as we can get?

Elia Saikaly 8:15

I would like to think that I've done a pretty good job at showing the beauty of Everest in a way that we don't often see. I'm a person who becomes obsessed with the things that I love. And one of the things that I obsessed over was time lapse photography. So when most people are sleeping on Everest, for example, which is what you should be doing, because you have to recover. I'm out every night when the sky is clear. And I'm recording 10s of 1000s of images throughout the season to capture that magic of the night sky. So you don't see a lot of that online. I think I'm one of there are a number of us that do this. But I think that that aspect of my work really translates the beauty of that environment. The other piece, which which I think is incredibly rare. And you know, there's a video that it kind of blew my mind. I mean, it's got like 15 million views on it on YouTube. And I never expected it to go wildly viral like that. But I think it has because it's really showing the upper part of that mountain in a way that is just raw, real brutal, unfiltered, you know, there's no filmmaking, gimmickry. There's no music and voiceover and fast editing. It's just, you're there, you're hanging out on the side of the mountain, you're seeing people suffering, you know, dressed like Spaceman wearing oxygen masks, and my camera just sits there and observes this. So from that standpoint, I think I've done a fairly good job at really putting people there so they can feel what it's like.

Nick VinZant 9:45

I watched that and one of the things that kind of jumped out at me about it was the guy he's dressed in yellow shirt. There's a lot of people dressed now, but he's just he's just sitting there like and then he finds only takes the step is that like every single step there,

Elia Saikaly 10:03

that is the most extreme version of extreme altitude. And that guy is a friend of mine. And what's really crazy about that scene is so I'm standing on what's called the Hillary step in that moment. And for the listeners that don't know the history, the Hillary step is the crux of the climb, and the crux is a technical climbing term for the most difficult part. So imagine in 1953, you have Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, these are the first two men to summit Everest, this was the final frontier, it had never been accomplished before. And so they pioneered this 10 meter high rock face at 28,700 feet above sea level. So I wanted to film from from that iconic spot on Everest. And what's crazy, what you don't see in the video, is there's a 7000 foot drop right behind me. And my friend, Massoud literally leans on me in that moment, and he's exhausted, and I'm feeling him. And we have a great relationship. And he just leans on me and takes a breath and puts his hand down on my knee.

Nick VinZant 11:06

I was wondering whose hand that was.

Elia Saikaly 11:10

And you get what's beautiful about that moment is you can really feel the trust between us. And, you know, he just felt safe enough to just lean on me. And he knew I had his back. And I'm the camera guy, right. So I'm filming all this. And, you know, it's important to let people know as well that, you know, when you watch a video like that, it's not just me doing that, there's there's a highly orchestrated operation happening in order to make that happen. And that's a combination of the guides who are guiding the expedition, my Sherpa film crew. So the Nepalese high altitude climbers that support my efforts, and quite frankly, like, they are the unsung heroes of Mount Everest, they, they make it all happen. They're the guys that, you know, open up the route and fix the lines and transport equipment. And in my case, as a filmmaker, I can't do it without them. And it's this symbiotic relationship where it's just orchestrated, we knew that we wanted to film from that spot. And so everybody was on board with that. And when this guy got to that moment, he knew that I was there, I raced ahead, I sat on that iconic spot for a couple minutes. And I waited for the team to arrive. So what you see may look simple to a degree, but it's there was a lot of thought that went into that and to do it safely, is the most important part. And that's just a lot of people supporting this idea. And the community online gets to enjoy Mount Everest in that way, as a result, follow up

Nick VinZant 12:33

that really good answer with this question like so do you have gloves on? Like, how are you pressing? How are you pressing record?

Elia Saikaly 12:40

It's insane, man. Like, I'm first of all, so my father is Lebanese. I'm born Canadian. Mother's Canadian. And I grew up in Ottawa, Canada. So the cold is not something that's unique to us. Yeah, right. When we're three or four years old, their parents throw us outside of snowsuits. And they're like, Okay, go play and it's minus 20. So we're used to it. And, you know, in that moment, yes, I have gloves on. But you know, as a high altitude cinematographer, my hands are constantly at risk. It's very dangerous. And I never fully appreciated being Canadian and our Canadian winters until I really started to think about it and recognize the advantage that I had working in these extreme environments when it's minus 20. Because I can only shoot with thin thin gloves on. So I often depending how cold it is, if it's really cold, I have to take off the big down mitt, I will have the liner gloves on, I'll usually have hand warmers inside those gloves. And then I pull the camera out. And then I've popped the battery in, get focused, get the shot, roll, then reverse engineer everything, put everything away, stick the camera back on my shoulder and then keep running upwards. So it's it's a very complex, difficult thing to do. But it's kind of my obsession. I love it. And I think the payoff is amazing when you can share that part of the world with people

Nick VinZant 14:00

so you're actually doing it handheld I thought maybe like okay, he's just he's got like a good GoPro rig or something on there. When you get up to the very tip you

Elia Saikaly 14:08

do. damn well with with My professional background, like, I often tell people, I'm a storyteller not a climber. So I started out in the film and television industry long before I got into climbing. So for me when I'm part of these professional productions GoPros have their place for sure. But I've got a I've got the lightest heaviest rig that I can manage up there. So often if you see a photograph of me behind the scenes, I've got a fairly significant you know, mirrorless camera with an onboard microphone with lots of batteries, my climbing partner percent cause he's got the other half of the batteries. We've got a tripod as well. We've got backup cameras, and in this day and age, it's amazing because you've got lightweight drones, lightweight gimbals mirrorless cameras, you know, providing incredibly high quality images. So So we push that tech to It's extreme in that environment. And then your mental focus and physical capacity all combined allow you to actually record and create images. And in my case, I'm also tracking story. So I'm looking for content, I have to be aware of where the talents at and what they're going through and, and how what's unfolding relates to the story that we're telling. And oftentimes, I'm shooting documentaries. So it's just not enough to just record images, you got to record images with great sound with high quality and the content has to fit into the overall story you're telling,

Nick VinZant 15:33

is there a spot on the mountain and mountain in general terms, right? Like, what is there a spot where generally like, all this is going to be the hardest place,

Elia Saikaly 15:42

anything in the death zone is hard, right, you're dying up there, you can't survive, life cannot exist up there. And it is incredibly taxing on the body. And it's, it's important to help people understand as well that, you know, in the death zone once once you reach this area, approximately 7000 meters, 7500 meters, sometimes lower, you begin breathing supplemental oxygen through a mask and a tank that's, you know, on your back and, and the local Nepalese high altitude workers, often referred to as the Sherpa teams. I mean, these guys, there's mass coordination to ensure that you've got extra oxygen as well in the tents and the food so so everything above 1000 meters is difficult, absolutely everything. And it's also important for the listener to understand that there are multiple ways that you can climb Everest, right? Like everything we've talked about so far. This is this is from the south side in Nepal. So Everest straddles the the Chinese Tibetan border and the Nepalese border. So you can climb from the north side, you can climb from the south side, which is everything that we've been talking about. And then you've got much harder routes as well that less than 1% of people attempt. But in this particular case, yeah, everything above the death zone is incredibly difficult. The most dangerous part of the mountain is what's called the Khumbu Icefall and it's this flowing river of ice that begins to fold upon itself.

Nick VinZant 17:06

Is there a spot on the mountain that like, nobody's ever been able to film or photograph or anything like, Nope, we're not screwing around here like, not that you're screwing around, because you know what I mean, right? Like, nobody's ever seen this before.

Elia Saikaly 17:20

Before. I mean, I would say I've got a couple ideas in my mind that I would love to pull off I, I said earlier, I am a bit of a time lapse, obsessed not. So I often have four or five cameras running all night long. I've never seen imagery from the summit. I've never seen time lapse imagery from the summit at night. I've never seen night photography, like really good night photography from the final ridge on Everest. So that that's from the south summit to the summit of Everest. So those are things that we don't see a lot of. The other thing we don't see a lot of are the most difficult routes on Everest. So you know, for example, the West Ridge, or you know, very complex, what we call lines, these are the paths that you choose to climb up to the summit. Most people climb the easiest route, which which makes sense, you want to keep things safe and maximize your odds of success. The purest climbers like though really crazy people who don't often have, you know, the big social media accounts or who are always in the blockbusters. They're doing really crazy stuff where they're going up unclimbed routes, new routes, doing things solo by themselves. And so imagery from those areas and video from those areas is pretty rare to come by

Nick VinZant 18:36

the thing for me, right, like sitting in my Seattle basement, you know, the stuff that I've seen off of Evers is like the huge long lines, is it still like that where it almost seems like a tourist place? In some ways, right? Is it still like that? Is that changing? Is that an old thing? Or?

Elia Saikaly 18:54

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. So in 2019, I was producing, directing and shooting a film called The dream of Everest, and the documentary is going to be released next year, actually. And we were at the center of that crazy unfolding on top of the world where you had hundreds of people that went for the top at the same time. We've all seen that image. And yes, I mean, that's that's reality up there. And every year more and more people are wanting to attempt Everest. And the reason that happened in 2019. You know, it's it's a bit of a complex unfolding here. But essentially, you know, you have a weather window on Everest. So what you do is, you know, throughout this one week, which is, you know, traditionally unfolding that last week of May, so let's say May 20 to 25th. Historically, that's when the good weather exists. And because it takes you six or seven weeks to climb Everest, what you need to do is bactine, your expedition from around May 20. And so right now, you've got people early spring heading to Basecamp. And they know that they're going to shoot for the summit around May 20. That varies, of course, sometimes earlier, sometimes a bit later, sometimes there are multiple windows. In that case, there was a very narrow window of two days or so with an extra day on the end, and some days before, but the majority of people went for it all at the same time. And that's what created that congestion. And the other thing that complicates this a little bit more is that there are also key areas on a mountain, where you're, you're naturally going to see a lot of congestion, and they call these areas have a bottleneck. So they're often very technical areas where you just can't move quickly. And so naturally, if you get somebody in a line, they're going to slow down, that's going to cause this ripple effect for a lot of people who then have to wait for that person. And so you start to see these, these lineups build. The other piece of it is that let's say for every three or 400 permits and climbers that want to climb Everest, you have to imagine to that then that means there are five or 600 potential local Nepalese climbers, Sherpas and other cast members who who are up on the mountain as well. So you talking about eight 900 people climbing Everest at the same time, in addition to all of the support staff that doesn't claim that lives at Basecamp. So you know, there are there are over 1000 people living at Mount Everest base camp throughout any given season,

Nick VinZant 21:26

you know, and again, like like, this is me as a bystander, and I asked this question with no judgment or any kind of word with that, like, is it? Is it a bad thing, that there's that many people lined up? I mean, you look at it, and like your first reaction is like, Oh, the sacred place? And there's just a line of tourists. But is it? Right, like, I guess, what do you think is, is it a bad thing is that's just how it is?

Elia Saikaly 21:50

It's complicated, is probably my best answer. And we'll unpack this in our documentary. But you know, to answer that high level for you, personally, naturally, I don't think it's a good thing. Obviously, you know, Everest, in some ways, has lost its charm. It has lost its magic. And yeah, I mean, it's, it's hardly the purest experience that it once was, it has become highly commercialized, which is not necessarily a good thing. And yet, at the same time, you know, the other lens that you need to look at it through is that it's providing incredible opportunity for local people, right, like the local people that work on that mountain are now the ones that are running businesses, they're earning their income, they're putting their children through school, and feeding their families and creating opportunity for themselves. So from that standpoint, if you think, Well, if we changed all that and took all that away, then what would happen? So I think perhaps the you know, the better way to look at it, and to ask is, well, how can we make this all better?

Nick VinZant 22:51

Now? You, Phil, none other mountains as well, though, right? Are they becoming like that, too?

Elia Saikaly 22:55

Yeah. I mean, it all depends on your style. Right? We we talk about style a lot in in climbing. And it's important to differentiate, right? Like you have classic rock climbing, you have ice climbing, and then you have high altitude mountaineering, you've got hardcore, true climbers who don't go anywhere near Mount Everest, who are doing things without even telling people, they're out in the alpine they're doing it as difficult as possible, and making it as hard as possible on themselves. So, so that exists. And then you've got the other side. So with these other mountains, yes, I mean, we are seeing the commercialization of other mountains as well, right? Like one of the popular challenges is something called the Seven Summits. So this is the highest mountain on every continent. And this This was a challenge that was created by two businessmen actually, Dick bass and Frank Wells. And it was just the ultimate adventure between two friends and they popularized this. And then you have quite a number of people that set out to aspire to, to claim the Seven Summits, it is getting busier. I spent the last year of my life working on a project on K two, and k two is the second highest mountain on the planet. It's known as the savage mountain. I mean, k two in comparison to Everest, I mean, Everest kind of feels like Disneyland in comparison to k two it's it's it's it's the wild east, it's incredibly volatile, very dangerous, unforgiving, it has a death rate of one in four people who summit die on descent, right. So this is how serious you know these mountains can be and and we are beginning to see commercialization even in Pakistan on K two. So yes, it is it is becoming more and more commercialized. But you do have the option right? You can stay clearly away from all of those peaks and just do smaller peaks 5000 6000 7000 meter mountains, there are a whole slew of options. You know, for The person that wants to climb mountains,

Nick VinZant 25:01

so, you know, get into the heavier kind of stuff. I guess you've lost friends, like, what is that? How do you keep doing it when you know, the toll that it has taken on some people?

Elia Saikaly 25:13

Yeah. I asked myself that question all the time. And you begin to look at the statistics. And the longer you continue to expose yourself to these environments, the higher the likelihood is, at some point your luck's going to run out. And I have survived multiple incidents, you know, in 2015, I got hit by an avalanche. On Mount Everest, that base camp and over 18 people died that day. And across Nepal, almost 10,000 people, if not more, died that day, because of the earthquake. And on Everest, it triggered an avalanche. And it completely wiped out central Basecamp. So you had this 1500 foot tidal wave of snow that just came down obliterated central base camp and made its way out to the exterior edges of camp. And it was a warzone man. And, you know, at one point, I, I had bodies piled up in my tent. It was insane. I my my friend died during the aftermath. You know, it was it was just absolutely horrific. And base camp is the area where you're supposed to be protected. And I've got this camera. And, you know, I'm observing all this unfolding trying to decide, okay, like, what is my role here is my role to be a documentarian, a storyteller, or is my role to be on the frontlines helping people. And so it becomes a very complex situation. And I have been exposed to these situations over and over and over again, in the mountains. And I, because of the nature of my job, and the stories I tell, you know, I am a journalist of sorts as well, I gotta chase the stories. And so I find myself very close to tragedy time and time again. And you reach a point where you begin to inherit that trauma as well. Because these are incredibly difficult circumstances. And then you inherit vicarious trauma, you know, the pain that others go through, because you're telling those stories, and oftentimes, I found myself, the person in the middle, who's relaying information to families of the deceased, because, you know, there's crazy stuff happening up here on top of the world, and the families at home don't know what's going on. And I'm one of these people that bridges that gap at times. And, ultimately, I have definitely asked myself, I don't know how long I can't keep doing this. Because at some point, my luck will run out.

Nick VinZant 27:47

It's what I've always wondered, right? In that kind of circumstances, like, obviously, it's dangerous people know, they're not coming back. The people, though, really? Does it seem to really weigh on them, like, oh, I might really not be coming back. Do they seem to know what they're really getting into?

Elia Saikaly 28:05

I would say the people with experience come to terms with the fact that there's a high possibility that they can die. And so those that are self aware, that have spent a lot of time in these environments, who are often either local Nepalese climbers, Sherpas, for example, you know, the best guides in the world, filmmakers like myself who are constantly exposed to these environments, you have to be prepared for the worst. And, and I always say, I plan to fail, right? Naturally, I'm optimistic I want to succeed, of course, I want to survive, but I need to be ready for anything. And I need to train my mind to be in a place where I can respond and react calmly. when shit hits the fan and bad things start to unfold. I would say that it's probably a fair statement that somebody who's fairly new at this pretends that that's not reality. And I think that that's a mistake.

Nick VinZant 29:06

Are you ready for some harder slash listeners submitted questions? Absolutely. is ever a steal Evers? No, what do you think is going to replace it?

Elia Saikaly 29:14

I don't think that the allure of Everest will ever change. And it's, it's like it's just hardwired in us because of its symbolism, right? It has that image of the, the the ultimate achievement because there is no higher place on the planet where we can place our feet. So so for that reason, it will always retain its value. It's it's you know, trauma Luma It's the mother goddess of the earth. It's the highest point on the planet. What will replace it? I don't know. I don't think anything can ever replace Mount Everest.

Nick VinZant 29:49

Just filming things ruin the experience for you. And I think what they mean by the sense of like, it's kind of like if you're watching through a lens. Are you still watching? Like does it feel about Like I was there,

Elia Saikaly 30:02

I've asked myself that question many times where I've pondered Am I really a part of this experience as an observer. And I've questioned that because particularly, when you're obsessed with detail in the way that I am, with sound, and light, and picture and lenses, and content, and all these technical details, for sure, it takes you out of the present moment. But the beauty of it is that in another way, it really immerses you in the present moment in a way that is incredibly unique. And I have to say, you know, the camera, for me has been the greatest gift I have ever received, and really have my father to thank for being exposed to it very young. And I say that, you know, as a filmmaker, particularly as a director of photography, you're the person who needs to be right there, right in the action observing all of this. And so whether you appreciate it, like it or not, I mean, you're in it, man, you're absolutely in it, you're in rooms, you're in environments, you have access to story and people and knowledge and, and you're, you know, all of a sudden, in a place that you never imagined that you could be. So when I take that, versus Am I really a part of this experience, definitely, I'm going to choose to be in these extraordinary places. The other thing, just to be part to that is that it's really important that you also live the experience consciously outside of that. So they these days, when I go on an expedition, it's like, I'm doing this job, which is the thing that I love to do. But as soon as I hit cut, right, it's like, um, it's all joy. It's joy. It's all it's wonder. It's shared experiences, it's creativity. And often on the front lines, you're having very different experiences in comparison to the person in this case, for example, who's who's who's climbing only. And for me, that's the journey. And the summit really is kind of the cream on top. Right? Where it's that's a bonus if you make it, but really, it's everything else. That is the reason why I'm there.

Nick VinZant 32:03

Have you ever left the lens cap on?

Elia Saikaly 32:07

Haven't we all? You know, I have a funny story for you about that one of the most treasured experiences that I've ever had, was interviewing the Dalai Lama. And I had this incredibly privileged experience where a very good friend of mine, so his wife, they were living in India at the time, just outside His holiness, His temple in Dharamsala. And they asked me if I was game, because I had essentially said to the look, if ever you have a project, and I can support you, just call me. So I get I get this email, which was pretty wild. And she said, Are you interested in in helping us record this interview with the Dalai Lama? And I'm like, okay. Yes. So so it was, it was this amazing experience, where I was in charge of the technical side of the production that he set up five cameras and lit his room in his temple. And, and I don't get starstruck a whole lot. And I've worked with, you know, sports celebrities and athletes making 40 $50 million a year and, you know, musicians and actors, and you know, mountain selection, you name it, right. And it's like, you get you get pretty used to it. You're pretty desensitized to it. And we're all human beings at the end of the day, but I was I was pretty starstruck here, right. And I'm sitting in the, in the doorway. And all of a sudden, it's like, I see the Dalai Lama, His Holiness, stepping towards me, and I'm just thinking, holy crap. It's the Dalai Lama. And I didn't record, right. And I was thinking I was recording. And then I didn't record and then I noticed the red button wasn't flashing and I thought, Oh, shit, you know, hit that red button. But it was just one of these amazing moments where it was like, wow, like, all that sacrifice. You know, every crazy thing I ever did. You know, all these chances. I took on believing in myself creating this career that everybody said, I was wasting my time. It was too risky, I should get a real job, then all of a sudden, it's like, you're filming his holiness, and you're in this room with him and you're having this amazing conversation? And

Nick VinZant 34:09

did the cameras like that environment? Are they like, Hey, man, it's pretty broke blow like, do you run into a lot of technical problems up there?

Elia Saikaly 34:17

Absolutely. Yeah. And I always say, you know, it's, it's not necessarily the cameras fault, right? Oftentimes, it's it's user error, right? Like I when I was on top of Everest, so I've summited Everest four times now. And I'm actually I've got the Canadian record for that apparently. So I'm on the last an expedition that I was on, you know, there was this moment where the batteries were just dropping from 100 to zero in a couple of seconds. And and this is like the most important part of the climb, right? We're just below the Hillary step. And there's, you know, I would say 10 or 12 people right in front of me, and all my batteries are dead. And percent Kasia who's who's my rockstar clock? I mean partner and best buddy. So PK Sherpas his name. So he's at the back of the line. I'm at the Hillary step. I'm running out of batteries. And imagine this comical scene where I'm like, PK didn't have radios, we should add radios. But I'm hollering at him in a good way to bring me the batteries. And he's such a rock star, which all these guys are rock stars, that he climbs up onto what they call the cornice, right. So imagine these ribs, spires of frozen ice at 28,600 feet above sea level. PK climbs over everybody front points his way with his spikes, which which are your crampons climbs over everybody fully exposed, drops down goes into his breast pocket hands, my batteries. Like this is this is the kind of stuff that happens sometimes, you know, everything fails, cameras, fail batteries, fail things, free sensors, shutters, everything goes wrong. And it's really important just to have backup plans. So if you if you're going to my backpack, I've got GoPros there, I've got an extra mirrorless you know, PK, who's my right hand, man, you know, he's got extra backup equipment. Because we can't come back without the images. Do

Nick VinZant 36:15

other climbers get mad at you because they're struggling and you're filming them? And also doing this while holding a camera?

Elia Saikaly 36:24

I have had moments where where people have made jokes. I mean, we have to keep it right. Yeah, right. In the beginning, when I started doing this, it was like, oh, you know, life or death. And it's really dramatic, you know, and you kind of get to the point 17 years later, where if you're not having fun, you really shouldn't be there. So so we keep it pretty light. And, you know, for the most part, the expeditions at least that I film, we tend to have more experience and in some cases vastly more experienced. So we have an easier time because of our experience on the mountain. And oftentimes I've been filming people with PK chasing me and and and again full credit to our Nepalese film crew who tolerate my antics, where when I move there two or three other guys that have to move with me. And so the talent that we're being filmed kind of laugh at the situation and think, Okay, this is ridiculous. You know, they're chugging up the line. And meanwhile, you got three guys that are going up faster, sometimes backwards, you know, filming everything that's unfolding. So it is comical when you look at it from that standpoint, sometimes. And at other times, and this is, this is important to say and it's it's something that I've had to become good at, where everybody's on board Traditionally, when things are going right, right, we want to be part of whatever it is that's unfolding. The harder part is when things start to go wrong. And as a storyteller, there's the saying, and I hang on to it, which is the most important stories are the most difficult to tell. Right. And I've been in countless situations where even the people that I respect and who respect me, became very angry with me at times, because I had the foresight in that moment to know that what's unfolding as difficult as it is, is incredibly important, in some cases, historically important. And the outside world needs to understand what's happening here or whatever other complex factor related to our project. So I've been under a number of situations where Yeah, I mean, things are very difficult. And it's very hard to film when things are going wrong. And I have had to become very good at that. And I think that the nature of some of the projects, I've got my hands in Everest 2019 being one of them. And my last project on K two, there, there are two projects where when it was at its worst when it was all at its most complex. Not only was I rolling, I was climbing, I was managing the situation in some in some circumstances and helping other people at the same time as well.

Nick VinZant 38:57

Let's let's follow let's follow that up with how do you feel about the movie cliffhanger.

Elia Saikaly 39:04

I love I love Sylvester Stallone. Yeah, I mean it's it's kind of fun. It's like you know that film on K to where there are explosions happening Vertical Limit explosions happening. I mean, hilarious, right? I mean that that is clearly not what really happens. That's Hollywood at its finest and at its best. So you know, you got to accept that for what it is. I suppose for me, I find it highly entertaining

Nick VinZant 39:30

there though a Hollywood movie that like oh, that's what it's like.

Elia Saikaly 39:33

Yeah, I mean, I think so. I mean, there's obviously a vast difference between the type of work I do which which is reality, it's high reality and documentary work versus fiction. One of the really interesting parts of my careers that people license my footage, so there isn't a lot of it. So oftentimes, a lot of the productions on Everest, the producers will come to me looking for my footage. So You've seen my footage on everywhere from CNN, Netflix, HBO discovery, the list goes on and on. And it's a real privilege to be able to do that. But specific to your question the the visual effects team from the Everest film that was set in Nepal during the 1996 disaster. So the Hollywood film, it was, it was really interesting because the visual effects team reached out to me and they were looking for reference footage, which I thought was really cool, because the attention to detail was that, and they had heard the story where, I guess, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who I'm a huge fan of. So apparently, there's a story and somebody else will have to confirm this, but this is what I heard. And he criticized the placement of the stars in the film, Titanic. And so the visual effects team decided to use that as a benchmark. And they said, Okay, we want to get everything right. We want to know what it looks like at camp for at nine o'clock pm at that specific time of year, because we want our visual effects to accurately represent the reality of what Mount Everest really looks like. And I thought, Wow, that's amazing. That's an incredible amount of detail. Because what you tend to see in these films, you see some really bad adaptations of mountain films, because clearly, they're not shooting up there with their actors, for the most part. And so I felt that they they got a lot right in that film.

Nick VinZant 41:29

If Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me that'd be like, Come on, man. Making a movie. And Leo could have fit on that door. And you know that this is a little bit heavier one, I guess it's like, Are there really, bodies left on a lot of the mountains?

Elia Saikaly 41:43

Yes. Yes, there are. It is an unfortunate reality of 1000 meter peaks. More and more, what tends to happen is that the people that are left behind due to tragic circumstances, oftentimes, you have to understand the hostile nature of that environment to begin with. And anytime that somebody attempts to recover a person that is deceased or even saved somebody, you have to remember that you can barely save yourself up there, you can barely place one foot in front of the other up there. And so to orchestrate a rescue operation to bring somebody down is just extremely dangerous. It is possible people do it, I have been a part of a number of recoveries because of my exposure as a filmmaker. So I understand what goes into it. And it's often my Nepalese climbing partners who are orchestrating some of those, those recoveries. For the most part, people have either been brought down or out of respect for the families and the deceased, they've been moved aside, so that at least at minimum, they're out of sight. But unfortunately, it is a tragic reality of that environment. And this is actually one of the topics that I get into in my film that is set on Everest from the 2019 climbing season, so that that film will be released next year. And we do unpack that reality because 11 people lost their lives that year.

Nick VinZant 43:13

Now, that is that the was that one of the most that has ever at the same time

Elia Saikaly 43:17

was to the earthquake technically, was the most and there was another avalanche that I was also present for, unfortunately, in 2014, where 16 Sherpas lost their lives. And I was actually trapped above this, because of the wreckage, which had completely destroyed the Khumbu Icefall the route and so we couldn't get down. And it was just it was It was tragic, because 16 Sherpas lost their lives.

Nick VinZant 43:45

How do you feel about drones? And I think this person both means in the sense of like, Are they good for filming? And should they be up there?

Elia Saikaly 43:52

Drones are incredible technology. They're a tool in my toolkit. I'm a huge advocate of flying drones responsibly. So in the adverse region, and actually you you have to be permitted, you want to do it legally, you want to do it safely, you want to be really careful in that you have to plan for things that can potentially go wrong, you know, drones dropped from the sky sometimes and when you're dealing with extreme altitude and the cold, especially, you know, there's all kinds of mechanical failure. That is possible. And, you know, I'll give you a quick example here. I was on K two this past summer. And I was climbing k two in winter making a documentary about a team who were attempting que tu as the last unconquered, 8000 meter mountain in winter. So I was telling the story of citied and Alice apara, as well as an Icelandic climber named John Snorri. And they disappeared near the summit of Ketu. And they never returned. And we were supposed to be with them. And we were just a couple of 100 meters below them percent Kaji and I and and our climbing friend Fazal, And we turn back because there was an oxygen mix up, we can find our oxygen. So I was very conservative per saying agreed we made this collective decision, we turned around the next season, we went back with CG the son who survived. And I flew my drone at 8300 meters above sea level eight can fly that high dam, I launched from 7900 meters, kind of hoping for the best, I had a couple of drones with me and you buy these drones thinking like, Okay, I mean, no one else is around here. So if it drops, it drops, and we lose it. But yeah, I launched it from 7900 meters. And I flew it up to the area known as the bottleneck. And so this is the most dangerous obstacle, arguably, in all of these 8000 meter peaks. And it's, it's just this gigantic piece of ice that's feels like it's on top of a mountain, and you need to climb under this thing. And if anything comes down, you're dead. Yeah. Right. And it's highly exposed. And so I flew the drone from 7900 meters to 8300 meters, looking for our missing friends. And so as a as a tool, I mean, it's invaluable up there. It's incredible where the Tech has gone. And I look at at all tech is valuable, as long as you use it responsibly, particularly with drones, which which can injure people if you're not responsible?

Nick VinZant 46:19

Are you able to find them?

Elia Saikaly 46:20

Yeah, we did. It was this is the, this is the topic of my last film, K to the calling, which, which is in post production at the moment, we did find them. And I mean, it's kind of a crazy story on its own, where, you know, there was a 13, or 14 Day search and rescue operation after they disappeared. And the Pakistan military got involved. And at one point, the pilots who are friends of mine, invited me to come up into the cockpit with them, and to photograph what they thought could have been our missing friends. And so you know, imagine me I'm there with my cameras, I get this request via my satellite device. And, you know, the Icelandic Chilean and Pakistani governments are working together with satellite imagery. And they identified a few objects that matching the color of our friends down suits. And the next thing, you know, I'm up in this helicopter with these Pakistani pilots, photographing what could be our friends, we were unsuccessful on that attempt, we never found them. But when we went back in the summertime, a couple of days, actually, after I flew the drone, our friends were found. And, and I was there with Alice apara. Son, so she'd, and so she had had an opportunity to bury his father, at 8000 meters above sea level, I couldn't live with the idea that there was this possibility that his father could be found, and that he would not be on the mountain as that was unfolding. It's, it's crazy stuff, you know, and that's what I spent the last year working on. And that's one of my documentaries that's coming out in the next year and a half or so,

Nick VinZant 47:59

I have no brilliant statement to follow that story up. That's one of those where I just keep my mouth closed.

Elia Saikaly 48:07

You know, I got into this 17 years ago, not having a clue that I would ever land where I've landed today. And, and I'm so grateful that I have had the privilege of being a part of these stories, and having the support of people who have believed in these stories. And it's as difficult as it's been, it's, it's, it's just been life altering. And, and I really go into these things not, not for, you know, the glory or the physical conquest. It's like, I'm really trying to tell stories that matter. I'm really trying to make a difference with my work. I want people who, you know, are a part of these stories to feel inspired. I want them to learn new things. I want them to, you know, examine themselves after hearing some of these stories and ask themselves, okay, that's, maybe that's a little bit, you know, I don't want to ever do that. But, you know, what can I learn from that? And what can I apply from some of those lessons and apply to my own life? And what dreams Am I capable of achieving? And when I look at it through that lens, it's so incredibly worthwhile. And it's, it's an amazing feeling to know that the thing that you're doing that is the thing that you love, is positively impacting people on the other side. And that really keeps me motivated to continue to do all this.

Nick VinZant 49:24

What advice would you give for somebody kind of looking to be the next you

Elia Saikaly 49:28

do something else?

Nick VinZant 49:31

That's yeah, that's how you know it's a hard career, right?

Elia Saikaly 49:34

Yeah. No, on a serious note, I would say that I always use the analogy that, you know, going on an expedition is like going on an adventure. Right? And how many times in your life do you get to suit up? Right and to embark on an adventure where you know, there are challenges and there are potential consequences. And there's this potential treasure waiting for you on top of the mountain and the treasure is not the conquest of getting to the top, you know, like the, the real treasure is, is what you learn about yourself while going through all of that. And it's these relationships that you form. And it's what you learn along the way. And it's cliche, but it's really truly about the journey. So I would say, you know, to somebody, if you want to get into all this, it'll be really humble about it, it's so easy to look at images online, and to think, oh, you know, if that person can do it, then I can do it. What you don't always see is the 17 years of grinding, and heartache and hardship and sacrifice and dedication and determination, and everything else that comes along with it. So my advice is, you know, be humble in your approach to it, be very responsible about how you do it, you know, graduate to the point of climbing Everest, so you, you know, starts with education, learn as much as you can take courses, go on small expeditions gain experience. And then ultimately, when, when you're ready to get to the big mountains, just make sure that you're responsible in terms of who you decide to hire, to support your expedition, and you want to sync up, you know, your actual abilities, you know, to the environment, and make sure you have the right person that can guide you through that and the right company. As far as filmmaking goes, I mean, I always tell people, like, you just got to shoot, right, you got to you got to create, you got to get out there, you got to do it. And a friend of mine once told me, and I never forgot this, and I was quite offended at the time. Actually, I was quite young. And, and, and, you know, I'm, I sit in a position today, you know, after all this experience, and I think it's important to be critical of of yourself, and to self examine, and to have a level of self awareness where, you know, when somebody says something to you, obviously, you know, if you're being offended by it, or it's triggering something, well, maybe there's something to learn that in there, right, as opposed to shut it down, not hear it. And this friend said to me, Elia, and I had the oldest ambition to want to be this great, you know, filmmaker, I want to climb Everest and make these movies and, and he said, What have you done?

Nick VinZant 52:03

Dang. Yeah. Ah,

Elia Saikaly 52:07

and it was like, oh, you know, I kind of hurt. But he was right. Right. And I remember that at the time. I wasn't horribly offended. I just thought Ouch. Okay. Okay, well, what can I learn from that, because I really respected this person. And this guy had ran, you know, something like 100 expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic, and was an accomplished explorer that worked with some of the best researchers and climate experts on the planet, and very, so it's like, I've really listened to what he said. And I thought, Okay, I'm going to show you what I've done, I'm going to gain experience, I'm going to get out, I'm going to start shooting. And if I want to be this guy that people go to, to film expeditions on Mount Everest, that I'm going to do everything that I have to do to gain that experience. So that I'm, I'm good enough. I'm responsible enough. I'm capable. And it's really about putting in the miles, you got to do the hard work. And so if you're ready for that, if you're ready for that commitment, hey, anything is possible, right? It's really up to just believing that you can and being willing to put in the miles to get yourself to where you want to be.

Nick VinZant 53:11

That's pretty much all the questions we guys anything else you think that we missed? Or what's kind of coming up next for you? Where can people find you?

Elia Saikaly 53:17

Yeah, yeah, thank you. Me find me on Instagram. At LSA CLI at least likely dot coms my my website, on Facebook, tick tock all the channels. What's next for me, I've got a couple exciting expeditions. Nobody really knows this yet. But I'm leaving to Everest in a week and a half for another assignment. The most exciting stuff that I got going on at the moment is I have two really exciting films in the pipeline that I have really poured my heart and soul into, I feel they're really important films. One is called the dream of Everest, the other is called K to the calling. So take a little while to get those through post production, but really encourage people to check those out. And maybe just in closing, I would say that it's just so important to approach these environments with deep respect, deep, deep respect, and to show up responsibly, and to respect the environment to respect the local people, who are the unsung heroes of the Himalaya. And I think you really can't go wrong. If you approach the mountains. That way, you have to respect nature, you have to recognize that there are consequences to your actions, if you show up irresponsibly. And if you line all that up, and you do it, right, I'll tell you like it is life changing. It changed my life going up there. I feel like it is such a gift. And so much of what I do is about giving back and passing that gift on because I know the potential to have someone's life changed by way of experience in these environments. So that would be that would be in closing what I would say to people.

Color Expert Kate Smith

You’re mood, how you sleep, the things you buy, even who you’re attracted to. Color influences nearly every aspect of our lives and Color Expert Kate Smith knows color. We talk Color Psychology and Color Theory, how brands use color to get you to spend, designing NFL uniforms, picking the right color for any situation and why the news of today influences the colors of tomorrow (Color Forecasting). Then, we countdown the Top 5 Colors.

Kate Smith: 01:46ish

Pointless: 42:26ish

Top 5: 01:06:31

https://www.sensationalcolor.com (Kate Smith’s Website - Sensational Color)

Interview with Kate Smith: Color Expert, Sensational Color

Nick VinZant 0:10

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, callers,

Kate Smith 0:18

it does go unnoticed. But it turns out that the effects of color are really both powerful and far reaching. We've long believed that we all saw the same colors. But more recent studies show each develop similar, not yet not exactly the same color vision. And the individual experiences shape our understanding of color. When you look at a new product, or when any consumer looks at a product, they tend to make a decision about that product in 90 seconds or less. And the single most crucial component in that decision is color. Color accounts for roughly, I think about 90% of the initial judgment,

Nick VinZant 0:57

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 really helps us out. So our first guest is an expert in colors, why we like certain colors, the psychological effect they can have on us how brands use colors, to try and get us to buy more stuff. And even how the things that are happening today will determine what colors we like, years from now. It's a fascinating, fascinating in look at just how big of an impact colors have on our lives. This is color expert, Kate Smith. So like How aware are we have the impact of color in our lives? Is this something that we think about? Or do we just kind of just go unnoticed basically, for us? Well,

Kate Smith 1:57

it does go unnoticed. But it turns out that the effects of color are really both powerful and far reaching. And there's many aspects of our lives, you know, the colors that are affected by color that we don't even like you said that we don't notice, or we don't know about

Nick VinZant 2:13

where would you say like, oh, this is always going this is where color has a big impact on you

Kate Smith 2:18

probably for areas that I often will give examples of so let me give you one University of Rochester does a lot of studies. And they've studied the color red pretty extensively in particular. And they have a study that's demonstrated that men are more physically attracted to women wearing the color red, so red, red dress, red lipstick, but they're not aware of it. Most men are not aware of it. But studies have shown that they're more likely to ask the woman on a date spend more money. But the thing is, it's not just men, the same is true for women. So a later study that they did determine that women are just as much influenced by reading are more likely to find men attractive, who wear red, one of the other places where color tremendously affects us is with food and eating. And so we have a very strong relationship between what we see in our perception of how good something is. And we can even use certain types of plates and settings to enhance our perception of what we think of food is going to taste like or what the quality is, whether it's true or not. And it goes into things like they study things like orange juice, the flavored, it could be exactly the same. But if they change the lighting to make the juice look more or less a yellow than bright orange, people don't think it's as good. So it's our signals from our brain about color. Just have a tremendous impact on how we react every single day to things that are just part of our every day. Just aren't like just how we live. The travel lodge in the UK did a fun study on can the color of your bedroom impact the amount of sleep and the quality of sleep? And it turns out yes, it can. That they found that walls blue walls, which so many people have blue in their bedroom are the best promoters of red rest, followed by Green and I think was yellow. And that the worst are rooms that are gray, beige, brown or purple.

Nick VinZant 4:27

So is that because of some way that our brain is fundamentally wired in this way? Or is that just our personal preferences?

Kate Smith 4:36

It's it's both and here's how that here's how that works is there's two people call it kind of color psychology but I divided into three sort of areas that and what is the actual effect that color has on our brain regardless of whether we're aware, it doesn't matter our age, our sex where we're from in the world, nothing. There's just a An impact that color has on us. There's other things that are impacted by where we're from the culture that we grew up in. And what we're used to see, you know, what our associations with colors are. So things like one that most people know, we think of a wedding dress, people would say, white, although even in the US, that's somewhat changing. But if you said that in an Asian country, they would say the most typical is red. So those are kind of associations that we make just based on, where we've grown up, and what we've known throughout our life, but the most impactful, maybe our personal color associations. So we've long believed that we all saw the same colors, but more recent studies show that is a response to our outside world, we each developed similar, not yet not exactly the same color vision, and the individual experience shape our understanding of color. So it's kind of like a chameleon, so it can trick us and change our perception. But it's based on what our brain recognizes as our past experience.

Nick VinZant 6:10

So what I see is red might not be what you see is red.

Kate Smith 6:14

Red is a great example, Nick, because women actually perceive red, more variations in red than men do.

Nick VinZant 6:22

Are we talking about small differences? In the sense that like, I see blue, you see light blue? Or are we talking about I see blue? You see green?

Kate Smith 6:33

Yeah, it's it's a great question. And it's both in fact, we do if you say it's a blue shirt, and I'll say, yeah, it's a blue shirt, we can agree on that. But in general, we would see the same general color. Part of that's based on our language, believe it or not, and how we've spoken about colors and how we've identified colors, because there's studies that show that in some places, there was no differentiation for the word between blue and green. And that's then affects our language affects how, how will we see color, if there's, I teach a lot of people about color, and one of the things is, the more accurately you can verbalize what you say, the better you're going to become at seeing it, and vice versa. So it's sort of a two way thing,

Nick VinZant 7:23

too, just to make sure I kind of understand this, like people with regular eyesight can interpret the same color differently based on their experiences and background.

Kate Smith 7:32

Yes, you want me give a good example that you would probably recognize, remember the dress,

Nick VinZant 7:37

remember the dress?

Kate Smith 7:40

Yeah, it disrupted everyone's understanding of color. And it actually took scientists color scientists, two years to figure out why. And it was something that they hadn't really studied or been aware of before. But it was such a big, like an internet phenomena. But what it showed was that people's perception, it informs how they perceive color, and a big part of that is done lighting. And so that image of the dress, which was taken, I think on a cell phone, there was a lot of ambiguity or uncertainty in terms of what the lighting conditions were. And anytime we see something related to color, and we're faced with uncertainty, uncertainty, our mind confidently fills in the gaps in knowledge by making assumptions all behind the scenes we're not aware of so our mind perceives what it's most frequently encountered in the past. And that's how we judge so in that case, the dress Do you remember which cut what color it was? Was it blue or black or white and gold?

Nick VinZant 8:42

Black and Gold?

Kate Smith 8:45

Your choice is blue lacquer,

Nick VinZant 8:48

blue and black. But thanks for hedging your cover both. That's my background is to allow wiggle room where I'm not technically right. And I'm technically wrong at the same time.

Kate Smith 9:00

Where your that was a perfect answer, then the dresses was actually blue and black. Although most people saw it is white and gold, at least at first. And even how we feel can influence how we see color. And I often say that seeing color is not as much about what you see and more about what you think you see.

Nick VinZant 9:19

So are our colors. I know you work with a lot of brands and places like that our colors standardized in the sense that is red, red, and no matter who makes red, if it's this paint company or this paint company or this manufacturer, whatever that is red, and this is blue.

Kate Smith 9:37

That would make life so easy. I wish it was that simple. There's 1000s of different colors that people would consider red depending on the brand, but there are standardized systems. One that many people might know is Pantone. Pantone has a standardized system of color and it allows you to communicate with say with somebody far away if they Got the Pantone standard, and you had the Pantone standard, you could look at it and both say it's this particular PMS number is what we're going for. Because the only way to at least still today, to accurately make sure that you and I are on exactly the same idea of what that red is, is to look at it and to have a standard. Otherwise, say I say, oh, it's kind of an apple red. Well, my apple, maybe a different red than yours.

Nick VinZant 10:29

So does every color have an impact on us psychologically? Or is it only certain colors?

Kate Smith 10:36

I would say every color does to some degree, certain colors have a stronger impact. And we've already talked about Red Red is the color with the most with really the most impact on our psychology. And part of it is because sort of interesting when you think of red, what do you associate with the color red?

Nick VinZant 10:56

Warning? Probably a little bit warning, I definitely notice it. I always you will notice red faster than you notice any other color. I feel like

Kate Smith 11:07

yeah, maybe that maybe yellow is true. Red is kind of colors. Yeah, so very bright or orange, red, orange, yellow are the ones that you notice most quickly, one sort of why we paint school buses yellow or things in fire engines red, those are colors that are very noticeable. Red has some associations with also speed aggressiveness. So red cars, we talked about sexy red dresses, or lipstick. The idea of seeing red when you're angry. So there's this side of it, which is really the more of kind of an aggressive or out there not getting noticed me type of feeling. But reds also strongly associated with the emotion of love. So red roses, red hearts at Valentine's Day. And so you kind of go, Okay, how could these two, these one color have two such opposite? It can make us feel two such opposite ways. Any ideas?

Nick VinZant 12:09

They're kind of the same in some regard, right? Like, it represents warning, but also passion and excitement and differences. Like they're so they're directly opposite emotions, but also kind of the same. Like, for example, not to get into slavery stuff. Like, I love my wife. But I also like her, because she's new to me. She's vibrant, she's life in the same way. Right? So she's dangerous, but enticing in the same way?

Kate Smith 12:42

Well, you're very, you're very it, you've tuned it, you've kind of honed in on what I was sort of part of the explanation, because here's the thing. So when you think about the idea of red being associated with anger or aggression, it makes your heart beat faster, might make you feel a little bit more kind of revved up energy. So they get tangled up in our brain. So it's hard to say is that is the reason we're feeling that way love or anger? Because there's sort of a similar physical response. So red also has the ability to do that momentarily for us.

Nick VinZant 13:20

Are there any other colors that are kind of even if not at that level? But are there high up on that kind of? Oh, yeah, and scale,

Kate Smith 13:28

blue, blue, is that really a great one too, because blue is known to calm us down. And blue can have a very just the opposite effect of read, it can make us feel, take a breath, breathe a little deeper, take a rest. So there's something very calming about it. And the researchers don't know exactly why but part of it they think could be because back in the times when we were working out in fields and outside most of the time, the times we took a break, we did two things we either sat by water, or we sort of laid in the grass on our back and looked up at the sky. Those are times of rest and that got our brain thinking that when we see blue, that those are the times that we're we're calming ourselves down.

Nick VinZant 14:15

Is there any color though that like nothing? We feel nothing in regards to that color?

Kate Smith 14:22

Um, no, no, not that I'm aware of because I can I can give you examples of everything even white people go well what about white? Like, no, I don't think about white. Well, yeah, you do. White is fresh, it's refreshing. It's it's sort of things that are pure, but most importantly to a lot of people. It's the idea of a clean slate. So it's like the in why people that are sometimes overwhelmed or attracted to very minimalist or even white just surroundings is because it's clearing it seems like you know, open possibilities, nothing confrontational. So you can We also see, often the idea of white is being trusted. Although blue is the most trusted color, even grays and neutrals that you might think, yeah, who cares? It's gray. It's beige. But there's the association of stability, a strong foundation. Often when life is upsetting, or we're feeling unstable, we find ourselves more attracted to those neutrals. Because of that feeling of sturdiness and stability. I think people often think it's because we want to make and, you know, we're concerned about finances, let's say that we're attracted to those colors because they're safe. Well, safe, means more than just the fact that they're gonna go with everything and not go out of style, it means that we feel like there's some security there.

Nick VinZant 15:49

So do brands use this kind of color theory, color psychology to basically get us to do stuff?

Kate Smith 15:57

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. It's so studied in it's so interesting to understand your reaction. Now, this is the fourth thing that when I say is, to me is some of the most interesting things. So as buyers, it really shouldn't surprise any of us that color can influence purchasing decisions. But you might be almost taken aback by just how influential color is. So when you look at a new product, or when any consumer looks at a product, they tend to make a decision about that product in 90 seconds or less. And the single most crucial component in that decision is color. Color accounts for roughly, I think about 90% of the initial judgment. So do you think it's influential? Yes. And I'll give you an example. This is one of my favorites, because I just think this is something people every person can relate to. If you were going to go buy a new car, and you had not only the car in mind, but I'm sure you have a color in mind. So let's say you wanted that red sports car, and you show up money in hand ready to buy it, and the only color they had was black. Would you still buy it? Not if you dreamed of red, most people wouldn't they would go somewhere else they would sometimes in certain instances, depending on what it is, they might even switch brands. So there's a big people want things in the color. And the more personal the purchase, the more important it is to the person to have it in their particular choice of color because it says something about you.

Nick VinZant 17:39

That is absolutely true. There are things that I would honestly say my biggest purchasing decisions in regards to car has been based on the color of the car, of course, totally alone, not alone. But like, Well, did they come? Does it come in silver or blue? And if it didn't, I'm not buying it?

Kate Smith 17:59

Mm hmm. You have your cell phone?

Nick VinZant 18:05

Yeah. That's straight, minimalist, black. Yeah, right. Every cell phone that I've ever owned, straight, minimalist, black. Yeah, got everything?

Kate Smith 18:17

Yes. Even down to things that you wouldn't think are that it that that are kind of funny. Things like washer and dryer is years ago, they became sort of a status symbol, they have certain colors. And now people, companies will actually from a brand, let's say a particular brand. A big retailer may ask for a special color, just because they know that if they can only get it from you, people will be likely to come and buy it because he's the same product, but they want your color. They'll come and purchase that from you. Because that's how important that getting the color is.

Nick VinZant 18:54

They'll specifically design it based on what colors they think people will buy. Oh, sure,

Kate Smith 18:59

sure. Yeah. Yeah, people will companies do that. You can even own a color for certain categories of products. So think of Owens Corning owns pink for insulation. So if you go by someplace, it's building a home and you see pink, everybody knows what that is because they're the only company that can make insulation in that color.

Nick VinZant 19:21

So you work with a lot of companies, I guess, kind of describe to me generally like what you do.

Kate Smith 19:26

Well, I've done a lot of things over the years. I work today, mainly with manufacturers, and I work with them specifically on color, but not always choosing color. I used to do more making color choices, color trends, predictions. Today. My main focus is on one thing and one thing I think I do very well, which is explain color in a way that the average consumer can make an excellent color decision.

Nick VinZant 19:53

How did you get into this?

Kate Smith 19:55

Oh, that's another great question. My background is not in interior design like many people Thanks. I have a studio art drawing and painting background. When I got out of college, I had to go to work and actually make a living. And I went to work in IT manufacturing in menswear apparel to begin with, but, and then team sportswear. So I used to do work with the NFL, and do the team uniforms, and those kinds of things and work with the team that worked at Reebok and we outfitted 10 NFL teams and a lot of college teams. And I also did a men's sportswear line. And that's a big place where I honed my color trend forecasting skills.

Nick VinZant 20:36

And the brands that you work with and the manufacturers you work with, like do they endlessly sweat over this and been like, it's going to? Should we take green one? Or green two? Should we take green one? Or green two? Like do they Antec agonize over this? Does it really make a difference? Or is it like, look, people want green? Just Just make it green?

Kate Smith 20:58

Oh, no, it's it's very specific. And we do agonize about it. And people spend a lot of time considering the color and the specific, exact, specific color. But the thing is, is it's kind of good news. Because when I first got into this, well over 30 years ago, maybe closer to 40. I would be working in a company. And sometimes we've spent all this time putting the color palette together and the CEO or the marketing manager or somebody. Yeah, my wife didn't like that one. So we don't want to make that. Like, are you kidding? Because they didn't you know what they didn't understand at that time. Like most people don't know how influential color is and how much goes into thinking about it and making those decisions. And so, but once I think corporations saw how much it could affect the bottom line, they took a lot more notice. So today, yes, it's very, very well thought out. And a green is not just a green, heaven forbid. But I understand that most people wouldn't care so much about putting the energy into finding the difference in kind of the nuance of the color.

Nick VinZant 22:14

But that kind of sounds like the way that it is like brands and agony and weight, agonize over it. And for consumers. It's a snap decision. And like, I don't like that one.

Kate Smith 22:25

You're absolutely right. But here's the thing, when you put in the time to doing the color trend forecasting and figuring it out, I've long said, the best trend forecasters are the ones that are just tuned in and what you're going to want and don't know it. So they're gonna they're going to figure out what the color is that when you see it, you're gonna make that step decision and go, Oh, I love that. That's it? Gosh, I didn't know I needed that. And that particular green.

Nick VinZant 22:56

So then how do you do color forecasting? Right? Like how to trends change in color?

Kate Smith 23:01

Well, there's a lot that goes into it, but I'll try to simplify it. And just a couple of just a couple of ideas. One, there's a lot about what's going on in the world. So as I always say the issues that keep you awake at night, so whatever it is, are we worried about the economy, a lot of people today are worried about the economy, are we worried about are we gonna have a job, there's all these things that concern us. And based on what's concerning us in our mind, it's going to influence what we want to surround ourselves with. And the things that affect color affect everything in the world. It's no different. So if you think of it this way, we're always trying to get in balance. So if we're feeling like we need, we're concerned about one thing, what color makes us feel a little better, helps bring us back into balance. So if you said, we talked about it earlier, I'm low on energy. What might I like? Well, you might like a bright, exuberant color, like the attracted to red or yellow or something, or you might be so out of energy that you want something like blue just go or white? Just take me away from it all. It really is almost that simple. The other thing that affects color trends are where, what's everyone looking at? So when I say that it's what's going on in the world, that we're all suddenly turning our attention. I think a good example of this would be a Olympics. So when the Olympics are in a particular country for a year or two beforehand, we learn a lot about that country, we see little snippets about their culture, and we see things that we like, and so when the Olympics were in London, let's say everywhere you saw that keeps calm and carry on, keep, you know, whatever. And they made 1000s of variations, that little slogan because it came out of something that came out. It was a very UK kind of thing. When we were looking at China, the colors from China like red and gold became more popular in the palette. We cherry pick what we like about something. And then the last thing is just simply technology. So what's cool, what's new? What can we do now in color that we haven't been able to do before. So that will also also influence. But the what we're looking at can even be the movies. And one of the best examples of that is when that acid green became very popular. It was based on Shrek. So when the movie Shrek came out shortly thereafter, everybody wanted acid green. And we thought it was going to be for kids and sports and rec, but didn't even want it to home. People. Just everybody just seemed to like that color.

Nick VinZant 25:36

That's so interesting. So okay, let's hypothetical situation. It's 2023. And the economy is going down. So like you would look at the news that's happening today, or at that time and say, well, people think of green and money. So we don't want to make green in 2024.

Kate Smith 25:58

People do associate greed with money. In fact, it's, in one study, it was the favorite color of millionaires was green. Now, I don't know that it was just coincidental. But my son's favorite color is green. So I have big hopes for him. But we do associate something when we're feeling that way. And let's take it back to about 2008. Remember, 2008 people weren't feeling great about the economy. Initially, the very first reaction was fun, bright colors. And I used to joke I said, Well, when you can't look at your portfolio to make you feel good, you got to have something surrounding you that makes you feel good. But that becomes short lived for maybe a season or two. And then we start to look for those neutrals, those stabilities those stabilizing colors that can make us feel like okay, it's everything's gonna be okay.

Nick VinZant 26:52

It's so interesting to me. It's fast. So you're

Kate Smith 26:55

gonna think you're gonna totally think about your choices

Nick VinZant 26:57

all the time. I would like every single choice that I make. Right? Like, is it because I like that or because I like that color? And I honestly don't know which one it is. Most people know, right? Yeah. Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Sure. Bring them on. Let's start controversial. Who has more of an eye for color or pays more attention to color men or women?

Kate Smith 27:25

Oh, it's not controversial. It's scientifically proven that women do

Nick VinZant 27:29

buy a lot or buy like a little quite a

Kate Smith 27:31

bit. The women's vote vote and here's why you remember I said earlier about vocabulary the vocabulary for color for women is much broader. We have many many more words that we regularly use for color and there's definitely a connection between the words you use and how interested in while you see it.

Nick VinZant 27:51

I've heard the same thing about women and smells because women are generally more associated and just historically with you know the cooking and the cleaning that they're generally around more scent mouths and that by for my wife she makes the choices of what kind of things that we're getting so she's looking at colors much more than I am

Kate Smith 28:11

that's yeah it is in in fact scent is something that's very closely associated with colors and right now talking about not being aware of colors I don't want to get off track because it's not my exact you know it's not really my total specialty but I'm something I'm very interested in is sent marketing and almost everywhere you go into a hotel, a cruise, certain stores even Starbucks, it's all piped in sent so you probably thought Starbucks always smelled like coffee just on their own but Starbucks has to cover the breakfast sandwiches the food that the mass that smell in pipe in I think some coffee smell.

Nick VinZant 28:49

Does the hue matter? Like how much does the hue matter in something right so example this blue, blue or blue creates this kind of an emotion but is the light blue a different emotion than dark blue? Like does the hue matter? Yes,

Kate Smith 29:07

that's kind of the act like you will say nuance of color. So one particular blue would create this feeling and then if you change it make it lighter, darker, more grain all of those little changes are very specific to how we react to something and green might be an example where green in a springy green that's a little bit yellow could make us think of things that are fresh in growth and oftentimes even financial growth that's why h&r Block used that for their little square for their for their logo there was that that idea but take it a little bit more yellow or murky and pretty soon it's slimy and scent drab. Yeah. So there's there's those changes in how how things make you feel where you can Take it a little bit, slightly bluer and all of a sudden it's very calming and beachy And so yes, definitely the the nuances of the color can change how we think about it and how we react to it.

Nick VinZant 30:11

Favorite, what's your favorite color?

Kate Smith 30:14

Oh, I absolutely have a favorite people think that's like saying I have a favorite child, which I have that too, because I only have one. So I do have a favorite child and I have a favorite color. It's blue, green. any shade of kind of blue green, turquoise teal, is my favorite. But I have a confession. I was born on the cusp of Aquarius the water bearer and Pisces the fish. So how can I not like a watery hue?

Nick VinZant 30:38

Most overused color, like oh, they gotta stop. Everybody's gonna stop paying their house, they gotta stop making

Kate Smith 30:45

people said gray recently because so many people liked it. And I think the thing is any color that lots and lots of people use all at the same time. So back in the day, we had the turquoise and chocolate brown trend that people seem to everyone probably before you baby before your decorating days. But it was so popular that I used to call it choc chocolate. I gave it it's only his own name. He was such a popular trend. And then at some point, people just got tired of it. They're like no, I don't want though I don't want that color. I don't want that combination. Now with gray being so popular, a lot of people are saying okay, get over it enough gray already. And let's move on to more colors.

Nick VinZant 31:26

Color. That is fantastic. But must be used sparingly. Like, Oh, that's great. Like, to me, it's like hot sauce. Like I like it every once in a while.

Kate Smith 31:39

There's there's not that the answer to that isn't specific to a particular color as much as it is to you yourself. So I'd say a lot of times people will see something new and often it is a brighter color. So let's go back to that acity green, great color. But do you want your hole? Do you want every wall in your house painted that color? No. But could you use it in some accessory and it'd be really fun and stand out and be great. I think that's true of everything. And the other thing is, is sometimes what people call those ugly colors are exactly what you need to have a little bit of to break up all the rest. Because we're always by compare, we're always kind of seeing color and comparison. So often sort of those murky, your neutral colors will make other colors stand out. So it just depends on what that is for you. But I would just say if you see something, a color that hasn't been in sort of your world or your something you've been interested in before and all of a sudden you're very attracted to it. Don't go out and buy lots of stuff and and buy one thing. Usually we like similar colors through our life and just add them a little bit. Like we can like something for a moment and then be over it. But then there's those other things that we just like our whole life.

Nick VinZant 32:58

I like this question. It's maybe you can answer it. Maybe you can't. Why do they only make men's shirts in blue and white?

Kate Smith 33:07

Oh, well. That's a good question. But it's absolutely not not true. And here's why I say it's not I don't remember if it was the US or UK where there was a study done and it was a while ago, where pink actually overtook blue is the second most popular shirt to white. And in the sense was then edged out by purple. Lavender.

Nick VinZant 33:31

What is your least favorite color?

Kate Smith 33:34

Oh, I actually don't have a least favorite. But here's what I will say about that is there's no bad colors. There's no colors I don't think are favorites. But there are some unfortunate color combinations.

Nick VinZant 33:46

What's the best NFL uniform color wise?

Kate Smith 33:50

Oh, good question. You know when I got so burned out on sports teams, I haven't been paying as much attention lately. I was around the time when they changed San Francisco 14 hours. In fact, it was my team that worked on that to change it from red and this kind of unattractive khaki tan with some green in it to the current colors which are a better tan and that burgundy uniform. And I still love that combination. I loved it when we did it. I loved it today. There's some other good ones out that is

Nick VinZant 34:20

probably to me the the Seahawks I think it's good to see like I did

Kate Smith 34:24

Seahawks as well. Yeah, I worked on that. I mean, I've been to that stadium many times basically it's all you know, it's just that they're just good colors. I can't take credit for it. It's just the like I say the color Hall of Fame. That would be one of the things that I worked on.

Nick VinZant 34:38

I feel like the best color combinations are always something different. Something traditional but a little different. Like I think like I think of the San Francisco 40 Niners words that solid read that oh everybody's likes read but it's a little different read and then it's the different like they do have cool looking uniform. So you did a good job.

Kate Smith 34:57

Thanks. I'm not sure they're exactly the same ones I worked up They are called uniforms. Hawks, and Seahawks, the green and blue. Always a classic. I mean, it's just, you know, at one time, there used to be saying blue and green should never be seen seen together. But that's the earth. That's everything I happen to love that combination

Nick VinZant 35:19

that kind of leads us into this question who makes colors better nature or us?

Kate Smith 35:24

Oh nature. It's even though we make some awesome colors. But, boy, if I ever want to get inspired, all you have to do is really go out. Look around and look closely at some of the colors and the combinations and nuances of color. It's amazing,

Nick VinZant 35:39

best named color, worst named color, like,

Unknown Speaker 35:43

oh,

Kate Smith 35:45

well, there's one that I think a lot of your listeners may know, I'm not a waitress which was a nail color by OPI, it's because it was a record red nail polish color. But there's so many good, there's so many great names. It's I think it's not so much a bad name as much as the idea that the name can sway your impression of the color, again, to what you even see in it. So if you reach here to see your name, it can almost change because you're looking for what you want to see.

Nick VinZant 36:18

Can you walk into someone's house and tell what kind of person they are by the colors they've chosen?

Kate Smith 36:25

Yes, absolutely. You're making me laugh. Because in I did something for House Beautiful magazine. And they just sent me 10 pictures of people's houses and say what does it say about them? And I thought, Okay, I'll give it a shot. And I sent back what I you know what I thought what it said to me about the person, and the editor in chief sent me back a letter and say, Oh, my gosh, I am blown away by this. Now, I didn't know why. Because I didn't know where those rooms came from who they were what he knew, I didn't know what they were, I just had a picture, and the design and the color choices. And then the magazine comes out and I read all the articles. Well, he already knew what I didn't know, which was people talked about themselves and their houses and everything. The information was so absolutely on target it even frightened me was like, oh my god, this is amazing. Is

Nick VinZant 37:25

what what color choice says the most about somebody?

Kate Smith 37:29

Well, I think it's the your personal items. So I wouldn't even say necessarily Clothes, clothes can say something. But there's a lot of things that can influence what kind of clothes we choose. And some people don't even think that much about it. But the things like if you choose a particular color for your car, for your cell phone for the things that are part of your everyday life that you feel reflect your personality, those say the most if you've taken the time to decorate your home, it says a tremendous amount about you just by your color choices. And the way you've the amount of color the way you've used things, it just says it can say a lot about you.

Nick VinZant 38:07

Hardest color to create.

Kate Smith 38:10

I think the hardest color Well there's a couple of things that people might not think of because they're probably thinking of something really like a cool color. But black and white, it's very hard to you because you can't really get pure white and white, believe it or not even for house paint only came I think it's in the 40s it became popular because before that there was not a good white paint. And then black to get this true, they call now vanta black, a very, very deep dark black because black, just by the nature of pigments will actually have either a little bit of blue or it'll seem a little green. It's it's not so easy to make pure colors. And then the ones that are frustrating for people are things like beiges and grays because they sometimes can look different than what they appear. Once you you might when you're holding something in isolation, even white. You can think oh yeah, it's just white. Put that next to three other whites and you'll realize that some of them are a little yellow, some of them might be a little blue, some of them a little more gray. So only by comparison, can we see colors. And so oftentimes, that's why people get frustrated. Now I just happen to like making cool colors. So I'm with whoever asked because that's probably what they're thinking is like, how could you make like fuchsia or hot pink or something fun? They're actually oftentimes easier to make than the neutrals.

Nick VinZant 39:37

What what do you think is the future of color? Like what's the Where do you think this goes? What do you think the hot new trend is?

Kate Smith 39:45

What you started to talk about trends a little bit before and I will tell you that most trends are forecast out for years. So I think the some of the longer ones are like autos, the color that they're going to make cars are from five to seven years from now is what they're looking at right now. Oh, is what the color will be popular in five to seven years. So I that's generally how three years kind of minimum of what we're looking out at. In fact, when I did nothing but color trend forecasting, I'd be so thinking so far in the future, that when I'd be in a certain I'd see something I'm like, Oh, is that now, it's now finally, I forgot about that color. Because we talked about that two years ago. Because we're working, you know, the manufacturing cycle, and so forth. But I think the future of color in general, trends will always be important, because we just want to try to figure out what people are gonna want to surround themselves with, but it's less about trendy. And it's more about finding what works for you. And just being be more confident and feeling like you can do your own thing. And I see many younger people feeling totally confident about making decisions and not agonizing it, about it in the way that we used to is it going to be liked? Is it on trend? Is it the right color? No, because there is no longer a right or wrong, anything. When it comes to color. It's what you It's you understanding how to take that vision out of your head and have that show up either in your home or whatever, however you're using it. And I think that's going to become more. I think it's going to become more and more true. And we're going to use it to express ourselves in a lot of different ways.

Nick VinZant 41:25

How do you feel that I don't like the color khaki? I've always hated that color.

Kate Smith 41:29

Is it the name or the color?

Nick VinZant 41:31

I think it's actually the name.

Unknown Speaker 41:32

I think about it.

Kate Smith 41:34

It's not a good name. Yeah. Khaki is cookie. Well, it also Kathy, for those callers that have Yeah, can have a lot of a lot of variations, and many of them are unattractive. So I can understand that.

Nick VinZant 41:47

Khaki is the worst, worst name color. I'm gonna go ahead and claim that.

Kate Smith 41:52

Yeah, yeah, I think that's I think that is a pretty a pretty bad one. It probably is not. Maybe it's not a great color on you either, is it?

Nick VinZant 41:59

No. And it reminds me of middle management. Yes, yes.

Linguist Daniel Hieber

Why do we speak the way we do? Is it something we learn or is it part of our DNA? Linguist Daniel Hieber studies the world’s languages. We talk linguistics, the first languages, the great vowel shift, race and language and the only real curse word left. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Letters of the Alphabet.

Daniel Hieber: 02:15ish

Pointless: 49:13ish

Top 5: 01:06:45

https://www.tiktok.com/@linguisticdiscovery (Daniel Hieber TikTok)

https://LinguisticDiscovery.com (Daniel Hieber Website)

https://twitter.com/LingDiscovery (Daniel Hieber Twitter)

Interview with Linguist Daniel Hieber

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, the past, present and future of language and the alphabet, best letters,

Daniel Hieber 0:24

there are patterns that occur in language that you may not even realize most of what, you know, when you know how to speak a language, you don't know that, you know, it's very subconscious, people have been trying to manage language for as long as there's been language. Like if you go back to Latin times, there's people complaining about how the young people speak. And it's because language is constantly changing. And so people are trying to impose their particular ideas about how society should be through language. But then over time, those endings dropped out, and you're left with that vowel change. So what was originally foot became fed, and that became feet. And once the Great Vowel Shift happened,

Nick VinZant 1:05

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 really helps us out. So our first guest is an expert in the world's languages, where they came from, what certain words originally meant, and sounded like, and why it is that we talk the way that we do. Because it turns out that there are so many things that we do, that we don't even realize we're doing. And there's big questions about, is this something that we have learned? Or is this a fundamental part of who we are our DNA? This is linguist, Daniel Heber, quick note, because we talk about some things that, at least for me, that I had never thought of. There were parts of this interview that I had to kind of go back and listen to, again, to really realize what some of the things he talks about, mean, what is linguistics?

Daniel Hieber 2:16

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Scientific means that we approach language like any other natural phenomenon, language is something that you can describe, you can study, there are rules to it. And I'm not just talking like grammatical rules, there are like, there are patterns that occur in language that you may not even realize most of what, you know, when you know how to speak a language. You don't know that, you know, it's very subconscious. So we as linguist try to make that subconscious conscious. We try and figure out like, what are those underlying patterns you're not even aware of?

Nick VinZant 2:50

What are the things that I don't know that I don't know about language?

Daniel Hieber 2:54

Really easy example is how to do plurals in English. If you have saved a little toy, and this toy is called a wog. Just imagine it looks like a blue peep, for example, like, you know, candy, the peeps. Yeah. So you've got one blog, what do you call it when you have two of them? Words? Right, exactly. And if you notice, the way you pronounce that plural, is, it's actually a little bit more of a Z sound than an s sound. So if you put it in a sentence, it becomes really apparent. So you can say, like the lugs are running, you don't say the lugs are running? Right?

Nick VinZant 3:29

Like flow? Like I have multiple floors. And yeah,

Daniel Hieber 3:33

exactly. Perfect. Yeah, precisely. And so there's, there's a rule that there's actually three different forms of the plural. In English, there's the you pronounce that as an s after what we call voiceless consonants where your voice box isn't vibrating. And so that's after like a P, T, or k. So you say cats, but after a voiced consonant, where your vocal folds are vibrating, you pronounce it as Z, say dogs. And then there's a third variation of it, which happens after what we call Sibilance. So after like an S, or a Z, or a schwa sound, and so that will get you I always use fishes as an example. But people get mad at me about that one, because they don't think fishes is a real world word it is it's the plural. It's when you have multiple species of fish, but any other word that ends in like a Z or an S, would do this. So it mazes and so if you notice, we stick a vowel on there. You don't say maize, you say maize is and so that's a rule about how you form plurals in English that every native speaker of English knows without even knowing that they know

Nick VinZant 4:36

it. So where do we get that from then we just learned from watching other people or talking to other people,

Daniel Hieber 4:42

almost everything we learn about language we learn long before we get to school, we just learn it in the home. So by the time you get to school and people start yelling at you for doing grammar wrong, there, it's too late. You already learned how to speak the dialect you're gonna speak for pretty much the rest of your life. Most people's language doesn't really change too much. After early childhood,

Nick VinZant 5:02

you mean we can't even like if, okay, so for example, like I've bashed it into my head to say, it's going well, rather than it's going good, but we totally

Daniel Hieber 5:11

roll that somebody made up and shoved down your throat.

Nick VinZant 5:15

That's what it means when I've looked at most language or most grammar. I'm like, somebody just made this up. It's not like some fundamental law of the universe, like gravity exists, right? Yeah. Like, what, why do we get these things? Is it really just somebody you know, like, Benjamin Newton back in 1700, decided that you know what, that that's a coma, there's

Daniel Hieber 5:34

honestly, sometimes that is exactly what happens. So a really good example of this was Daniel Webster, he was trying to make a kind of more Americanized version of English for Americans. So he instituted a lot of spelling reforms. He instituted a lot of vocabulary, suggestions, and real and people really tried to impose that on children and so on. Sometimes it works. But for the most part, it doesn't, because language isn't something that you can manage from the top down. It's something that is it's a complex adaptive system. It's like the economy or something. It's something that, you know, emerges from all these conversations and interactions people have. But there are there are those rules, though, that you're talking about as though it's like, it's not, you know, like the law of gravity. It's just that those rules are more conventions. And those rules are things like the plurals I was talking about,

Nick VinZant 6:22

is that because that's just the best way to do it, or like, our brain works like this. And the only thing I could think, like put the noun first, like, that's how our brain works. Like, where does it come from?

Daniel Hieber 6:36

Yeah, it's a whole bunch of different competing factors. And in fact, this is one of the very fundamental debates in linguistics, they're kind of two camps in linguistics. One is called the generator vist camp. And they're the ones that think that there is a core part of grammar that is actually genetically inherited. So for example, like the idea that subjects should go first is something that they think is core to all languages and even in languages, that the subject doesn't appear first, the subject of your second or last or something like that. They say that underlying the, it's a subject first language, where and then there's the functionalist, which is a camp that I sit in. And we see that language is something that is shaped by all of the different cognitive skills that we have going on at once. So it's shaped by our ability to read people's intentions, our ability to have, you know, a complex, hierarchical representation of ideas, limitations on cognition, also, the fact that like, when you're talking about something, you you have to talk about something in time, and so you tend to have to put the topic first. So, about 60% of the world's languages follow a subject, object, verb, word order. So you would say like, the the dog, the man, that would be the equivalent of an English of the dog with the man. But English doesn't do that English is subject, verb object. So English is a minority pattern. And so the question is, why 60% of the world's languages, why not all of them, and their other language ends match. So you're wearing a Pacific Northwest shirt, there's a language in the Pacific North northwest called Machame, north, which always puts the verb first. And whatever you're talking about, whether it's like a noun, quote, or a verb that turned it into a verb, and they put that first the verb is always the topic. So

Nick VinZant 8:23

would that be like the difference between I am moving versus moving? I am.

Daniel Hieber 8:28

Yeah. Or it gets even crazier with neutral north. So if you wanted to say like, I am a man, there's literally you take the the net of the stem, that means man, and you turn it into a verb. So it's literally like I am Manning. Does

Nick VinZant 8:41

this matter, though? As long as you're speaking to the same group of people? Right, right, learn

Daniel Hieber 8:48

the conventions of language, right? So and what, unfortunately, a lot of people think, though, is that was that we do all share exactly the same way of speaking. And the fact is, is that language is incredibly diverse, like, this notion of like standard English is really kind of a myth. Nobody actually speaks Standard English. We all speak, everybody speaks a dialect. If you give people a map of the United States, or whatever country and you say draw the dialect areas, they'll draw a bunch of different regions and the label them and there'll always be one region that they label that they wind up calling normal, or average or standard. And sure enough, it'll be the region that they're from.

Nick VinZant 9:29

I guess, I always just thought of languages that like different languages all worked the same way. It's just that instead of saying cat, I said, Gato and Spanish, but they fundamentally work differently.

Daniel Hieber 9:41

Oh, incredibly. So I mean, there's so much diversity in the world's languages. I'll just give you like a tiny hint of some of the differences. So one of my favorites is a Navajo. There are 13 different verbs for any action having to do with handling an object or or an object being put or placed somewhere or giving or taking an object, depending on the shape and size of the object. So if I wanted to say that this pen is sitting there, I would say, Sit T. But if I wanted to say that this piece of piece of paper is sitting here, I would say, so, if I wanted to say that this kind of roundish thing is sitting here, I would say, Ah,

Nick VinZant 10:27

how does something like that come about? Because to me like, well, that's a waste of time, like, why did we figure out, you know what I mean? But like we curated 13 different words for this, but how does something like that evolve? Where people would have so many different ways to basically talk about something that doesn't seem necessary? Like no, get the bigger one?

Daniel Hieber 10:47

Right? So the the fact is, is that language isn't really logical, it really has nothing to do with kind of what's efficient, except that people are always trying to make language more efficient. It's sometimes it's just kind of random, like what occurs in one language versus, versus another.

Nick VinZant 11:04

Do we know what was kind of the first one?

Daniel Hieber 11:07

No, and that is matter of fact, that was such a controversial question, that the French Academy banned all discussion of the origins of language for about 100 years, because people were getting into such bickering fights about it, and academia, we have a better and better idea today, we, we still don't know the timeframe, it could be anywhere from like 100,000 years ago to 40,000 years ago, that it evolved. And, and we can't, we can't reconstruct that far back in history, we can reconstruct older languages based on present ones we can, we can literally look at modern day languages, compare them. And using evidence from those languages, wind the clock back and figure out what the earlier versions of these languages used to look like without having any written record of them. So and we can confirm this, because if you take like Italian and Spanish, and French and compare them, and do this process, use these techniques we have, and you wind the clock back and you reconstruct them, or what earlier language they all seem to come from, you reconstruct Latin. And then of course, we have lots of documents in Latin. And we can confirm that that works. So but we can only do that back to like, the farthest back, we've really been able to do that with certainty is probably in the order of like six, maybe 8000 years. So if language evolved 40 or 100,000 years ago, there's no way we're getting to it.

Nick VinZant 12:28

The farthest back we can get is essentially Latin, in

Daniel Hieber 12:32

fact we can get is what's called proto indo European, so less so proto indo European was this group of languages that evolved probably in the Caucasus around Anatolia, Sumerian, kind of Eastern Europe. But there's some, some debate about that. And they spread and evolved into the Indo Aryan languages in India. And so that includes Hindi, and then it evolved into Sans, and also Sanskrit over in India. And then in Europe, it evolved into the Celtic languages. So that's, you know, that's going to be modern Irish, and some of the, like the gaelic languages in France before the Romans took over. And then it also evolved into Latin and Greek. So English and Hindi are related. They're all part of this huge family of languages called indo European. It's like 200, some languages, at least, that all descend from this one proto language, and it's just branched out and spread out over time.

Nick VinZant 13:25

Is there any holdovers that we can like trace directly to that, like we call a book a book, because

Daniel Hieber 13:31

we call a book of work because it originally, so it's related to the word Beach, there's this common process, a sound change process and the world's languages where a K sound will become like a chest sound, or a schwa sound. It's called dumb palletization. And so originally, it was related to the word beach because books were made from beach trees. And so those two words go all the way back, I believe, all the way to the proto indo European word for beech tree, I believe.

Nick VinZant 14:00

If you have an answer to this, I would be amazed. Do we have any idea like what the first like, what was the first word that we ever figured out? Like, oh, that's though, the first word we found, I would imagine it'd be like fire.

Daniel Hieber 14:14

Well, you know, it's interesting you say that, because there is this notion of core vocabulary vocabulary that is more resistant to change. And for awhile, it was really speculative. But they recently did some great work actually figuring out like looking at a bunch of languages and which words were least likely to change over time. And we now have that list. And sure enough fires on it. And one of them one of those kind of core words is fire out other words, I believe, like, mom and milk and water, like land, earth, I think are other good examples of that. So now there's this idea of like, those are the words you kind of want to look for in a language. I don't know exactly. Which length which words they were able to reconstruct first. I believe it was 1786. That was the first time that William James was able to kind of hypothesize that all these languages were related. And that really sparked Modern Linguistics, people started becoming very interested in how languages change. And because of that, they had to figure out how languages work in order to understand how they can change. So it really was this kind of Modern Renaissance and language study.

Nick VinZant 15:16

Looking back on it, are you surprised at how similar they are? Or that, I guess, do we have more or less than you would think that we would have

Daniel Hieber 15:25

I'm, it's more, because if you think about it, like this one would have started as just like one community, like maybe one nomadic tribe, that and probably the reason they were successful is because they were one of the first communities to get horse technology. And we know, like, we can reconstruct words for like cart and horse all the way back to proto indo European. And also, other things like we know, we can reconstruct the word for be like honeybees in particular. And at the time, honeybees were not spread around the world. And so that helped us pinpoint exactly where we think the Indo Europeans came from. But so yeah, they they would have just been one community that was very successful and sort of spreading over time. And then also, they might like, they might have conquered their way through Europe. But it might have also been the case that their culture, what you know, they were successful trading culture, and they were able to spread a lot of their language through multilingualism. And people learned it. So we're, you know, we're not 100% sure how it spread. But yeah, the fact that you went from one community to hundreds of different languages, like is always kind of amazing. The other thing that amazes me. So if you look at biological species, there are a lot of parallels between biological species and languages. And with biological species, the majority of the species on the planet that have ever lived, are now extinct, they're gone. It's like 90% of all this species on the planet are gone. So throughout history, all the way back to the dinosaurs and whatnot. And language is kind of like that, too. Except that, you know, all of the languages we have today descended from original languages and things. But specifically in terms of the vocabulary. If you you can take like one word from indo European, like, if you took the word for one, there are, I think, in the case of one, there's at least maybe 100 words in English, that originally derived from the word for one. So for example, the word a and an, that used to be one you used to say, like, I saw one man, but you didn't pronounce it one at the time, at the time, prime time, it was pronounced en en, man. And eventually, that n started dropping out before consonant so became our man. Now, that's just one example the word 11. The word 11 literally meant one leftover. So it was originally it was on layover in and the layover and is related to a word for left to like to leave to leave or leave behind. And on in front of it was originally one. So there's, like, I think about 100 words, at least, that come from just this one proto indo European root, and English. And so you're thinking like, why does it seem like everything just goes back to this one word? Well, it's because a lot of the vocabulary that used to exist in these languages has fallen out of use. And so just this tiny percent of like, tiny proportion of proto indo European and now accounts for all of the vocabulary of all of these hundreds of languages, it's like this was the successful vocabulary, in a sense, that kind of made it through history.

Nick VinZant 18:31

Is there any kind of a timeframe? Or you could say, like, alright, well, we know that every 100 years or 500 years or 1000 years, this language will be completely different, even though it is the same language, like I'm thinking of English, right? And I went back to 1700 and be like, That's English. Like yeah,

Daniel Hieber 18:48

it's not if you go back to old English, it's it's unrecognizable. The Lord's Prayer and Old English sounds like follow the UI have to set out and health and I'm, like, you've like no one understands that it's totally different. Old English had all sorts of cool, like suffixes and prefixes that we don't have anymore used to have like 10 Different forms of every now and depending on whether it was the subject of the object, or the indirect object, and we lost all that says, like, totally changed. There was this one linguist, more Swadesh was very famous, and he had that exact same question. And he thought that you could kind of time how long it took languages to evolve and how far back languages separated from each other by comparing their their core vocabulary. And so this is called glottal chronology and it's totally kind of debunked. Now we it just turns out you can't really do that. So like if you look at Icelandic Icelandic grammar hasn't really changed much in the past 1000 years. So pronunciation definitely has. But like a lot of the grammatical constructions are pretty much the same. Whereas English you know, English has been through all sorts of contact with other people and borrowing and things so English is complete. We changed, it looks nothing like it did 1000 years ago. So the pace of change for these two languages is totally different. So we can't really like predict how quickly they change all of the top most frequent words in English or Germanic origin. But the top 1000 most frequent words of English, most of them are actually from French or Latin because we borrowed those words. So it's, it's kind of interesting that the core vocabulary has stayed, like, like true to English origins, you know, true to the Germanic origins of English. And then everything else has been all those borrowing. So 60% of English vocabulary is from French or Latin.

Nick VinZant 20:36

So how does this like process work in the sense that all right, so you'd have this initial language? And then let's just say one guy and his family go over the mountains?

Daniel Hieber 20:48

Yep. And that's called the accurate? That's basically

Nick VinZant 20:51

right. But like, how does it go from like, alright, this guy who went over the mountains, he's now decided that I'm going to call cat Gato. Right? And that, how does that then, trend become a whole new language over time, we're like, nope, they've now changed the names for so many things that it is now a new language entirely.

Daniel Hieber 21:15

So oftentimes, it's not even so much about changing the words for things. So that obviously is a big factor. But the things that people really have a lot of trouble with, over time, wind up being sound changes, so cat, and Gato is a great example. So those two words are related to each other. If you think about a que sound like in, I know, we spell it with a C, but it's a K sound for cat. And you think about a g sound for Gato, both of those sounds are pronounced in the same part of your throat and the back of your throat there and the vieler.

Nick VinZant 21:44

Yeah, I can actually feel it in the same place. Now I think about it.

Daniel Hieber 21:48

And the only difference between those, like we were talking about earlier is the different whether your vocal folds are vibrating. And so what happened is in Spanish speakers just started for some reason or another voicing vibrating the vocal folds to that continent. And it probably just started as like a subtle variation. You know, some people just kind of did it as like a, like slight accent thing. And it just kind of drifted like a lot of language is just kind of random drift in that direction. And then, or it's other, but other times, there'll be like reasons and pressures for it. So in a lot of languages, if you have a voiceless sound like a t between two vowels, it will become voiced. So like the, in Spanish, the ending Oddo, a do so like, you know, I've lado spoken that D I believe was originally a t. And then it became voice because it was sitting between two vowels. So sometimes there are pressures, like if you're voicing your vocal folds on both on either side of a sound, there's more pressure for that sound to also be voiced in the middle to and you can understand, like, why that would happen. But sometimes it's just kind of random. There's this great thing in English, that's called the Great Vowel Shift. It's quite the adventure English went on. And if you if you turn your head, and you imagine, I'm going to keep speaking this way, to the extent that I can't, if you turn your head and you imagine, like a side profile of your face, right? Where you pronounce the vowels depends on where your tongue is in the mouth. So you can kind of picture this kind of like, sort of trapezoidal area in the mouth for your pronounced different sounds right? So English started slowly shifting where we pronounced vowels in the mouth. So the word book, for example, used to be bulk. And that's why we spell it to this day with two O's. But over time, that vowel shifted, and as your tongue started moving up in the mouth, and was book instead, or sorry, no, not one, that one actually centered. So but what and what was interesting is, when these vowels change, they started moving into the space of other vowels. And so those vowels had to move. And so this is what's called the chain shift all of these vowels, like all of the vowels in English, where we pronounced them in the mouth just kind of rotated. And this is called the Great Vowel Shift. And the really, like pretty, I don't know, I think it's kind of hilarious thing about this. Is this happened right after English spelling kind of got standardized. So we the printing press comes in the 1400s. We start printing books, printers start having standard spellings for words, for maybe the first time ever, they start standardizing this stuff, and then the Great Vowel Shift Happens and screws it all up.

Nick VinZant 24:25

Is that why all of our words look alike? But that's not the way that I would think that we say it. So we essentially say words differently than what they actually are read

Daniel Hieber 24:35

and write. Yeah, other languages have a much clearer correspondence between the letter and the sound. But English and it's not arbitrary in English, but there's just a lot more complexity in English to that correspondence.

Nick VinZant 24:48

So the Oh thing use Can you do that? What like what were the main vowels

Daniel Hieber 24:53

so it used to be pronounced like they were spelled. So book was Bo Can, feet was fit. And so actually, here's a good example. So foot and feet. The reason why we have a weird plural for some of those nouns is because English used to have like I was talking about different endings on nouns to indicate what a noun was doing in the sentence. So whether it was the subject of the sentence or the object, whatever. And sometimes that ending on the noun would be like an e sound. And that ending on the noun would start affecting the sounds before it. So the plural of foot used to be foot, but it was 40 with an E at the end of it. And speakers started kind of anticipating that E and it started affecting that vowel before it so became 50. But then over time, those endings dropped out, and you're left with that vowel change. So what was originally for two became fed. And that became fi and once the Great Vowel Shift happened.

Nick VinZant 26:02

But we would we recognize it right? Like if you came from 800. And you've like, fed, what, what are you saying? Right? That's feed now it's feed now dude, like get with that? Give it a Yeah. This is how language is right.

Daniel Hieber 26:17

And so now you have the the reason we consider Old English and Middle English and modern English to be we have separate labels for them, is because they're not mutually intelligible. If you were to jump back to the Great Vowel Shift are right before you wouldn't, you'd have to learn the language like a second language.

Nick VinZant 26:34

Are you ready for some harder slash listeners submitted question? Yeah, absolutely, of course, hardest language to learn, easiest language to learn.

Daniel Hieber 26:43

Yeah, I'll give the disappointing answer. It really depends on the language you already speak. If you speak in Indo European language, and you want to learn another indo European language, it's a lot easier than if you speak in Indo European language, and you want to learn Navajo. tonal languages are hard for some people, other people the very easy they pick up on so tone is just pitch. It's just melody, just like in a song. But there's so there's one important principle that all linguists really abide by, which is that no language is really any more complex or simple than others, like certain parts, certain features of languages can be more complex, but they're usually balanced out by simplicity and other areas.

Nick VinZant 27:22

It's so it's like, what's an example of a tonal language,

Daniel Hieber 27:26

Mandarin is the famous example. So Chinese is, I believe, a five five tone system. So there's this famous example of the word Ma, which I believe you say with like a high tone is horse a mA. And if it's like a rising tone, it means mother. So you want to be careful not to confuse those, and there's like four other ones for it as well. But Navajo is a tonal language. And that one's simple. It just has a high tone, and a low tone. So every every vowel is either a high pitch or a low pitch. So the way you say hello, and Navajo is yacht day, and you can hear my that kind of elevated pitch. It's like yeah, it's like high level. There's a lot of languages in Africa, Bantu languages, like related to Swahili that are tonal. And yeah, it's just a matter of kind of the melody on the words.

Nick VinZant 28:15

Most Efficient language, and I think what they mean by that is like, what language can you say the most? Without saying the most eye? Is that one that you like? Oh, that one's? They got right to it.

Daniel Hieber 28:26

Yeah, well, so it's actually kind of interesting. Some of the stuff that you were suggesting earlier, might not be very efficient in language, actually, is really efficient, because it packages a ton of information. Like if you take a verb and Navajo, there's so much information in there about the position, the location, the direction, the the kind of makeup of the action, whether it was a habitual or a static thing that happened once like all that's packed into this one word, and you just can communicate it very efficiently that way. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 28:56

that's, that's interesting. Okay, I may ask this question or make this point terribly. But I've always feel felt like language is inherently confusing, because what one person thinks something means isn't actually what it might mean, or what the other person thinks that it means. So for example, I always think of the word like decimate, well, it was decimated, right? But that literally means reduced by a power of like, 10%. Exactly. So it's not decimated, if it's destroyed,

Daniel Hieber 29:23

well, so this is, so this is very natural language change, like so the the historical meaning of a word is not necessarily the current meaning of a word, right? So no, very, very few people unless you've got you know, you've had the chance to learn this fun fact, realize that decimate used to mean 1/10 of it's related to decimal and things like that. So what happens is, you start using a word for a kind of metaphorically or figuratively, and over time that use become so common that people start learning the figurative use of the word As the literal use of the word, and that's what happened with decimate, and like literal, exactly, literally, is now becoming figuratively. And here's the cool thing about literally literal, the meaning that everyone says is the literal meaning of literally today used to be it's figurative meaning literally originally meant by the letter or having to do with letters or writing. And over time that became figuratively used to mean like, you know, like exactly as said, and then now we're changing it again, to actually mean figuratively, I mean, the reverse.

Nick VinZant 30:38

So we just keep switching it around a little

Daniel Hieber 30:41

common, that's language change that happens to everything.

Nick VinZant 30:45

What is it? Like? Is there any examples that you can think of, in which a language didn't have a word for something?

Daniel Hieber 30:52

Oh, sure, all the time. Um, the important thing to kind of realize with that, though, is is doesn't really matter. So a lot of languages don't have distinct words for green and blue. Does that mean that those speakers can't understand the difference between green and blue? No, of course they can. And it's a matter of fact, Russian has separate words for light blue, and dark blue. But, you know, or does that mean that Russian speaker like that English speakers can't understand the difference between light blue and dark blue? Of course we can. Russian speakers might be able to understand it a little bit more quickly, and might be able to pick up on those color distinctions a little more efficiently than English speakers, because they've got a lot of practice at it. But it doesn't constrain your ability to think about the things a certain way

Nick VinZant 31:38

without kind of getting into the pole, political aspects of it and things like this, but simply from a linguistic standpoint, when we look at kind of gender and language, right, we're now folks which used to be fol, X, fo, folk s, right? Like Folk is now fol x in some cases. Right. Right. We're we're kind of changing words, based on gender. And I think everybody knows what we're talking about, like, from a linguistic standpoint, does that have any precedents in history? And is what is this kind of mean for us moving forward? I

Daniel Hieber 32:13

guess. Yeah. So boy, all sorts of great stuff to talk about with this. So for starters, that is mostly just a spelling convention that people are trying to adopt in that particular case with folks, it doesn't really affect the pronunciation much. However, there are certainly other cases where people are advocating for, like substantive changes to English grammar. So for the singular day, a lot of people are advocating for a singular day. And or in Spanish is a big issue, talking about lateen x, right? So Spanish nouns all end an O or a depending on if they're masculine or feminine. And so people are suggesting that they change those endings to always be an x. So it's gender neutral. And that requires like changing the grammar of the language. So a couple of things to be said to that. First off, it's really hard to do that. If you remember I mentioned earlier, that language is not something that can be managed from the top down. So people have been trying to manage language for as long as there's been language. Like, if you go back to Latin times, there's people complaining about how the young people speak. And it's because language is constantly changing. And so people are trying to impose their particular ideas about how society shouldn't be through language. When people have ideas about language, it's almost never about language, it's always about something else. It's always about like a group of people or some idea about society. So they've been trying to manage language for centuries and centuries. And it just, it's unfortunately not really possible. And even in cases where it's, you know, people are very well intentioned with something, it can be really cognitively difficult to get someone to use, singular they have for like a definite reference to a person, because that's just it for most speakers of English, that's ungrammatical. Now, there's an important distinction to be made there. We do use singular they all the time in English, as my fact singular A is older than singular you the word you used to be plural, and it became singular over time. And there have been records in English and people using they for singular longer than people have been using you for singular, which is pretty cool. But the the important difference there is that people are using they for the singular when it's an indefinite or unspecified person. But when you use they for a specific person whose identity you know, that's when it's ungrammatical. People are like they it just kind of your your grammar, like breaks for a second you're like, Wait, who Wait, who's the who's the day? Who are we talking about? And takes a second to realize like, oh, it's that singular person. So for most people, some people this isn't true, but for most people, it's still On ungrammatical to use they for definite specific person, but English is heading there. And I wouldn't be surprised if in 100 years that was totally normal, and no one even thought twice about it.

Nick VinZant 35:11

He's right. It's kind of one of those things that like, old man yelling at cloud that kind of ideas like, Look, man, it's changing whether you like it or not. In the long run, it doesn't matter. It's not like civilization is going to collapse. Because we've decided to, we've got we've gone through this kind of changes all the time. Exactly. Um, this is kind of, I don't even know if this might be along the similar lines. And this, so I'll use this example to try to so when I think of like, the word bitch now, for example, is this the best one I could think of? Or the first one they think, like, in my, when I was growing up, bitch was a woman. I don't think of bitches a woman at all, I think of bitches. Like is what I say to one of my straight male friends. What are like, Hey, let's go out. Right, right. And they say, No, I don't want to like, Oh, you've been a bit like, does language change in real time with that? Like, what do you think about when a word doesn't mean? What maybe it meant five years ago, or 10 years ago?

Daniel Hieber 36:11

Oh, yeah. I mean, sometimes this change can happen really quickly. A good example of this is actually the word friend. So friend used to not be a verb until about 2006, seven when Facebook came around. And now and now it's a verb, but it's a verb with a very specific meaning. It means to add someone as a connection on social media. Like you don't you don't say like, oh, I friended someone at the bar. That sounds a little weird, right? Like, like people, maybe it's, I wouldn't be surprised if that was more accepted in 1020 years. But for the most part, it's like it's got this specific meaning. But yeah, that was like overnight, you know, verb, suddenly, we find like, before Facebook came along, people would have said, No, friend isn't a verb, you have to say be friend, but now friend and be friend are two totally different things. They mean different things. And so and now friend is a verb has entered the language overnight, like within a year, and that that is incredibly quick for language change. It takes normally a generation.

Nick VinZant 37:07

Is there any language that you look at and say that is nothing like any other what is what I guess is the most unique language

Daniel Hieber 37:14

I am, I almost every week, I encountered something in language that I did not think was possible, or just as unique and remarkable and diverse about language. So one that kind of recently, really struck me was when I was working on my dissertation on my dissertation talks about new tungnath language in the Pacific Northwest. And this language has an entire set of like hundreds of suffixes. And the suffixes aren't like a plural suffix, or like a present tense suffix or anything like that. These suffixes are what would be like full words in English. So you would add a suffix. Like, there's a suffix for two. So you would say, like, you know, to have the stem man, and then you'd put the suffix for two on the end of it like the number two. And then you would turn it into a verb, you'd have a verb suffix. And so it would literally be a verb meaning to be two men.

Nick VinZant 38:11

Is there an age where we don't learn? Is there really like an age where like, you look, it's too late.

Daniel Hieber 38:17

Okay, so it becomes a lot harder after puberty, it's called the they talk about the critical period. So if you don't learn your first language, whether that's, you know, sign language or spoken language, if you don't learn your first language, what before you hit puberty, while you're in that critical period, you're probably going to never learn language. So and there are cases of this. Unfortunately, there are very unfortunate cases where you might have children who were deaf, and so the parents didn't realize that they weren't getting any language input. And they weren't learning until it was like too late. And so they were very delayed in their language acquisition. There's cases of feral children. So maybe this isn't an example of a feral child. But there's this really unfortunate case of a girl named Jeannie, who was basically locked in a room by her father until she was a teenager. And when she finally got out, she, she was never really able to learn language. She was very, very emotionally expressive. And people can tell like just how tuned in emotionally she was. But she could never pick up language after that. And there's a famous case of the they call them the wild boy of Abba Yone I believe in France, he was found in 1799. And he had been living in the woods by himself up until he was like 13, then he never learned language either. But if you have exposure, when you're young, then you can learn language throughout the rest of your life. And it is a little harder after puberty to learn languages as an adult. But recent research is actually suggesting that it's not as impossible as previously, maybe people have thought so people used to think like, oh, once you're an adult, you'll never learn a language as well as you do when you're a child. And for the most part, that's true, but the reason might not be because we're like cognitively incapable of it. It seems like the reason is really just more a matter of time.

Nick VinZant 40:05

We get other shit. Yeah, right

Daniel Hieber 40:06

and your kid, all you're doing all day is sitting around being a little language sponge like you'll learn and like 50 words a day. Whereas an adult, we actually realize now that adults are also learning a lot of vocabulary very quickly. So lately, we've been kind of re reassessing our existing beliefs about what we thought, like adult language learning was like, but it's still very possible.

Nick VinZant 40:27

What is your favorite curse word? Ah, I,

Daniel Hieber 40:32

you know, I probably go the current myself, just because I feel like it's one of the current curse words, but still has a good bit of oomph behind it.

Nick VinZant 40:41

Oh, that is true.

Daniel Hieber 40:43

Like, you can throw in fuck casually fucks been around since like, forever, like 1400. Like they we have documentation on fuck going way, way, way back. And that's such a fun word because it gets used as nouns and verbs and adjectives, like you can do whatever you fuckin want to do with fact, like, it's a great word. But it's undergone what we call semantic bleaching, it basically no longer has that same kind of pragmatic that it used to. So that one is just like, if you're going to, if you're going to really curse, and you want to curse to actually, like, have a little bit of that shock value, I think constant way to go.

Nick VinZant 41:16

That is true. Like if somebody if I'm in a restaurant or public place, and somebody says, fuck, I'm not paying any attention. But if somebody says can't, like, I'm snapping my head around, like, oh, it's gone down. Something is about something is about to happen. Um, what is your favorite word in any language like this is a great word.

Daniel Hieber 41:41

The words that really interest me are the ones that have like just illustrate the beautiful complexity of the language that they're being spoken on. So the language I work the most with is a language called Chitty macho, and it's the one spoken in Louisiana. It's a Native American language. And I just so there's, I know that seems strange, but it's there's a lot of words that are whole verbs. And but they get used as a noun. So it's the word for bridge. The word for bridge and Chitty Macia is they usually cross it. And so this whole verbal construction has got habitual suffix in there, it's got a plural suffix. It's got an intransitive suffix to tell you that it's like a verb that only has one actor, and it's kind of instrumental on it to say that, you know, it's like you're doing it with the bridge. It's all of these things, like packed into this one word. But it doesn't mean that like nobody uses it to mean cross. They use it to mean bridge. And this is something that happens with a lot of languages like a Navajo the word for chair is literally you sit up there on it. And the or like in Cayuga, the word for horse is it hauls logs. And so recently, these are become some of my kind of favorite examples of words and Native American languages that you know the verbs, they're actually verbs, but people have come to use them as nouns and they no longer you're gonna realize that they started as verbs a lot of times

Nick VinZant 43:09

when we when he looked at right, like language and race, what's kind of the big controversy in that?

Daniel Hieber 43:13

Well, like I said earlier, when people have attitudes and ideas about language, it's never about the language itself. There's never any linguistic basis to these ideas, these attitudes, it's always about some preconceived notion they have about the people that they see as speaking that way. So, and for a lot of people, you will let something slide with groups that you, you know, have no no issue with, and you will raise it as being ungrammatical or non standard for other groups. So a question I can ask on Tiktok all the time, is why the black people say x instead of ask. So this is a really revealing question, because first off, it's not the case that just black people say this. That's a very common feature, a lot of white dialects as well. So they're like, especially in southern English, you'll hear people say x all the time. So the real question is why when you hear that, that way of pronouncing it coming from white person, do you kind of let that slide and not think twice about it? But when you hear a black person saying it, suddenly you're like, oh, that sounds ungrammatical.

Nick VinZant 44:23

That is true, right? Like, you can't say that x is ungrammatical, and then say y'all in the next

Daniel Hieber 44:29

great example. Yeah, well, and the cursor thing is from a linguistic perspective, like y'all and x are both perfectly grammatical constructions. As a matter of fact, the pronunciation X has been around in English for as long as the pronunciation ask has been, they used to be there used to be all sorts of variation in the spelling between those two, up until I think like the 1800s. And at that point, people started standardizing the spelling on ask but the pronunciation never went away. It's just that that spelling got standardized. So those two pronunciations have been our around for ages, y'all is the reason y'all came about is because remember that plural you became singular. And so we need a new ways of talking about plural you. And so English depending on your dialect to develop, like six different ways of saying plural, you you guys, y'all Yen's uns it is it's something that a lot of people don't think about like, like language kind of winds up being one of the last bastions of acceptable discrimination, a lot of people that are out there, you know, really being advocates for social justice and like being anti discrimination will nonetheless like judge people very harshly on the way they speak. Even though linguistically there's there's no basis for that y'all is just as good of a plural pronoun as you guys is, there's it's just that one dialect has more prestige associated with it than another, linguistically, they're the same. Every dialect is as rule governed, and as well structured and irregular as any other.

Nick VinZant 45:56

Like, this isn't some fundamental law of the universe, like you're not doing it wrong, you're doing a difference, actually. Yeah. And if you think somebody is doing it wrong, it's basically just based around your own right upbringing and moral comp. Yep.

Daniel Hieber 46:08

And so like, I love using this example, because it so a lot of people will criticize African American English, certain dialects as being, you know, Lazy, Lazy English or ungrammatical or broken English or something like that. But if you actually go take a scientific approach to studying the rules of African American English dialects, you start seeing this beautiful grammatical complexity and this really well rule governed system. So a really popular example is, in stint in kind of mainstream Standard English, we have two present tenses, we have a present simple of like I Iran, and the present progressive I am running. So we have two different types of present tense, a lot of varieties of African American English have three or four different present tenses. And that will be the difference between a simple a progressive, and habitual. So it's the difference between he run, he be running and he running. And those all mean slightly different things. And if you're trying to speak that dialect, and you use the habitual one to not mean something, a bit like not refer to habitual action, you're speaking that dialect incorrectly, you're speaking on grammatically, you're not following the rules of that dialect. So it's, it's a rule governed system. It's like every bit as structured as any other dialect, it's just that the roles are different.

Nick VinZant 47:29

That is really true. I've always found that fascinating. When you look back in history, and it's never what someone is doing, it's always who is doing now, it's always the way that it is, um, what's kind of coming up next for you? Well, I

Daniel Hieber 47:43

just recently finished a postdoc at the University of Alberta here in Canada. So I was doing research with the plains Cree community, we were making an online dictionary, like an intelligent dictionary that would recognize all the forms of words and Korean. And so I've just finished that position. And now I'm working full time with the chinny moto tribe in Louisiana. And we are making a modern dictionary and grammar of the language so that they can revitalize the language again, which for them, they're super, super excited about this because their last speaker died in 1940. And so we are working from archival materials that a linguist he recorded 120 stories, he made some wax cylinder recordings, he did all this documentation. Back in the 30s. During the Great Depression, he sat, he was sitting in the middle of the bayou of Louisiana, with his notebook. And during the Great Depression as a grad student, it's like documenting this language. And then in the 90s, the tribe like learned about these materials, they didn't know they existed, they thought their language was completely gone, they would never hear it again. And they found these materials. And we started a language revitalization project. And so now they're working to teach the language to the kids in schools and again, and so that's I'm super excited to be working with them full time on that now.

Movie Trailer Composer Brandon Lau

In a world where movie trailers are king, Brandon Lau is the composer behind the music. He’s composed music for everything from blockbuster movies like Terminator, Scream and the Croods, to video games like Destiny 2. We talk movie trailer secrets, music composition and making a beat out of frozen cheese. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Movie Soundtracks.

Brandon Lau: :01:59ish

Pointless: 38:31ish

Top 5: 59:28ish

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Uj0WdHN4qTOjdwJ4QyAK7?si=p3ReTnE8QG2x1U7aOign3g (Brandon Lau Spotify)

https://www.instagram.com/brandonlaumusic/ (Brandon Lau Instagram)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWULTEdpv_5-YADkdFvxAQ (Brandon Lau YouTube)

Interview with Brandon Lau Music Composer

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode movies, and movie music,

Brandon Lau 0:19

it's like when you watch a trailer, it's so rhythmic and so music driven. And the advantages of having that is so you really feel like there's like a tempo and a pace. I had written the track for June now it's just sitting dormant in the library. Half a year later, the track gets picked up for the Croods. Two which is a totally different style of movie. So I really like putting in unorthodox sounds in my music, I had this frozen cheese I bought from Costco in the freezer, and so I smashed it, I guess it against the countertop. And that didn't help at all in terms of really under freezing the cheese. But I was like this is a sick sound.

Nick VinZant 1:07

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 don't know about you. But there's nothing that gets me more excited for a movie than a trailer. I mean, just just listen to this.

Our first guest specializes in making the music that goes along with those trailers. This is composer Brandon Lau. How does composing music for a trailer? Like what how do you what kind of approach do you use that's different?

Brandon Lau 2:05

It's actually a quite like a, I would say an interesting process. So one very unique thing to composing for trailers versus other media is that actually 90% of the time, there's no picture first. So what happens is that the music comes first. And then the editors will take the music, and they'll edit the footage based off of the music better. Right?

Nick VinZant 2:32

Okay, that makes doesn't make sense to me, right? Like, I know nothing about this. But to me, it would be like, Wait, why don't you? Why do you do it that way, as opposed to just make the music compared to what you're seeing.

Brandon Lau 2:43

It's like when you watch a trailer, it's so rhythmic and so music driven. And the advantages of having that is so you really feel like there's like a tempo and a pace. And it feels a little bit like, like a pop song in a way where like, it's repetitive. And it's catchy, which is really good for that kind of like two and a half minute media format that it is it's very effective. And the way it has a formula to kind of capture an audience's attention. So I think that's why it's typically done that way to kind of have the music drive be the driving force instead of like the film, and then the music following that

Nick VinZant 3:24

you talk about like, okay, so you're making it for a couple of minutes. Would that music then not work if you were making it longer, right? Like, oh, this music is great for two minutes, not good for five minutes.

Brandon Lau 3:39

Because the music comes first before the editing process, we want to make our music as editor friendly as possible. If we deviate from the formula, chances are that the piece will be less likely picked for no being edited to. So it's kind of usually a safer bet to really stick to the tried and true

Nick VinZant 4:03

or that. So like you mentioned the formula. And you know, I don't want you to give away your secrets necessarily, but like, What do you mean by the formula? Right? Like you got to build it up for 30 seconds, then you slow it down, then you build it back up? Like what's kind of the general formula that you're mentioning?

Brandon Lau 4:19

Yeah, that's a great question. I don't consider it to be a secret because the answer is out there in the open. You know, everyone has access to all the trailers that's ever been been published. And you will notice that typically, and like the first third of the trailer, or maybe less, you'll have all this dialogue and exposition. No, we want to know what the movie is about. And so typically what we want to do in the music for the third, first third of it roughly, is that you know, keep it sparse, keep it atmospheric. You know what we really want to leave room for the exposition and whatever's going on. And then you know, of course there's that huge cliche of like the single piano note which has been leading the trailers for such a long time. Now it's maybe not as popular. But even so the whole purpose of that single trailer note, it's like a small sound. That is, I don't want to say unique because it's been now done so many times, it's no longer unique, but a small sound that will capture the audience's attention. We call that like, like a hook, basically. So atmospheric. And then there's typically some sort of a hook where it's like a short melody or like a unique, like, weird sound. There are stuff like there's stuff like that. And in the second, third, this is when the action kind of picks up. And typically how that is reflected in the music is that the tempo will be more I guess, a felt, you'll often hear a clock. So that's a very, very common thing to hear in trailers. Now, the sound of ticking in the background, something to establish a sense of rhythm, and pacing. And so you can feel the tension of the trailer is escalating. This is like the second we call the second act of the trailer. And then, in the last act, you know, that's when like, the characters are jumping between mountains, and then there's like a spaceship that crashes into the galaxy. And so there's some crazy shit is going on. And then this is when we're leaving it all out on the table, you want to like your full theme, your full hook is like super wide out in the open, you have these massive drums. And then yeah, maybe at the end, there's a little like, boom, or something to Oh, coming out soon, theaters near whatever. And yeah, stuff that's like a very, very, very basic overview of the formula. I would say

Nick VinZant 6:40

it kind of sounds like you get their attention. You hook them. You show them like, ooh, suns happening here. Then you kind of explain it a little bit like, oh, wait, what's going on? And then it's the end is like, Oh, this could be good.

Brandon Lau 6:55

Exactly. Exactly. All right.

Nick VinZant 6:58

We hook them. We keep them. What's happening is gonna be good,

Brandon Lau 7:04

dear. I'm gonna hire your manager. You got the job? You know? You got, like,

Nick VinZant 7:09

never thought of that. But when I look back on all trailers, I can think of that you hear that like thing? And then like, Oh, right. It's weird how just that one sound by itself kind of snaps you to attention because it is a loan exact. It's almost like if they put some more things together, I tune it out as white noise.

Brandon Lau 7:32

Totally, totally. Exactly.

Nick VinZant 7:34

So okay, how did now how did you find yourself in this specific thing? Where like, did you go to and composing? And somebody said, You know what, Brandon, you are a trailer music composer? Or was this something that like you were always going to do this? Were you steered this way? Or was this the plan?

Brandon Lau 7:54

Yeah, um, there's definitely a lot of different factors that kind of led me down this path. I will list one of them first is definitely I have a huge I guess, passion and love for electronics slash sound designing music. So I really like putting in unorthodox sounds in my music, like having a synth note, do all kind of bendy kind of things and stuff, just playing the notes themselves, like kind of bending between notes, like putting in like, I had this frozen cheese I bought from Costco in the freezer. And there was one day that I was trying to like, get the cheese to unfreeze really quickly. So I could make lunch. And so I smashed it, I guess it against the countertop. And that didn't help at all in terms of really under freezing the cheese. But I was like this is a sick sound. And so I mean, that's like something that really draws me to music. And so although I've always been interested in composing, I find that the the vehicle of trailer music is really like a welcome space for my interests and passion. And because they're always looking for that one sound to capture the audience's attention to always looking for innovation, they're always looking for the craziest sound effects to kind of drive the attention and action of a trailer. So I feel like it was kind of a natural landing space for me to go to because of my my interest in composing and also in the sound design space.

Nick VinZant 9:34

So is it a competitive industry?

Brandon Lau 9:36

It's kind of a I guess, I'm strange balance between and so on one hand like yeah, there's it's very, very, like small and and, you know, being in the industry for a little bit. You see a lot of familiar names come up, you know, because it's just such a small world. But you know, because it's a Not at the same time. It's just like everyone is pitching for the same movie. You know, like, there's so many trailers, but there's only one like Mega blockbuster or handful of mega blockbusters that come out every year. And you think about like, there's still like 1000s and 1000s of applicants, and only like 510 big, really, really, really big blockbuster movies every year.

Nick VinZant 10:18

Maybe there's not a whole lot of people doing it. But there's enough people who are good at it that you got to you got to be on your ship.

Brandon Lau 10:26

Totally, totally. So yeah, and yeah, no, sorry, I was just gonna say that. It's constantly growing. But in the early 2000s, it was really just a few big trailer groups, you could say, um, and then now, you know, there's just so so many more, because people are, I guess, like, you know, like, there's a greater awareness that writing for music for trailers is something that you could do. Like, I didn't know that before I started doing it. So I didn't

Nick VinZant 10:56

know it at all. I just, I guess that's the kind of thing that like, I just, I don't know, I assume they pull it off, like the music equivalent of Canva. You know what I mean? I never thought like, well, somebody had to make that music. Now, is it so okay? For in the process? Do you make the music and then submit it? Or do you kind of apply for the job? And then get it? Or like, how does this kind of work?

Brandon Lau 11:23

Two ways in which it can happen? Both ways use an intermediary, we call them the publisher. So the publisher kind of works with composers, and they collect all our music, and they're the ones with the relationships to the major studios.

Nick VinZant 11:41

Yeah, the publisher then buys it from you. And the publisher sells it to the movie studio, or the publisher just basically is like, Hey, we got Brandon's newest one. What do you think? And if they like it,

Brandon Lau 11:54

to detail process a little bit more to publishers will typically save it. So because I love electronic music and stuff. So they'll be like, Oh, Brandon, you know, try to imagine a sci fi trailers. And then like, I will kind of do eight different tracks. And then we'll group them up and an album, we still we still call an album. And then the Yeah, the publishers will then do the artwork for the album, they'll like kind of do all that. There's a lot of paperwork and other like nitty gritty stuff they have to do for packaging the album, they'll do all that. And then they will then pitch the album to all the major studios. I don't get paid anything. If the music doesn't end up in any trailer.

Nick VinZant 12:46

I mean, if you want to go ahead and put a number on it, feel free to go ahead and put a number directly on it. But like how much would you generally get paid? If it gets picked up? I would imagine that it's depends on the size of the movie.

Brandon Lau 13:01

People, I don't know if people will shoot will frown upon me giving the number away.

Nick VinZant 13:06

Any number that you said would equally surprised me no matter how much it is. Could you give, okay? If you don't feel comfortable giving the number, how many digits are in the number

Brandon Lau 13:19

five? This is especially if you are doing a major blockbuster movie for sure. Five, that's not even a question. And then, yeah, the number can change it can go into the four digits. If it's like a smaller TV show, perhaps or like a video game, maybe. But if it's a major blockbuster movie, for sure, five dishes.

Nick VinZant 13:45

Wow. Now have you ever had a situation when like, hey, you know what, we've got the newest Animal Crossing game that wants this or you can sell it to Batman? Like do you get any say in that? Like, no, no, no, no, no. Let's, let's take the bigger check here.

Brandon Lau 14:03

Um, so you know, that sounds like a suffering from success kind of fine, which but I will say I think I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is how it goes. Because there have been some huge trailer tracks from other like, bigger composers than me that have been used multiple times. So I don't think it's like a just because one once someone buys this track doesn't mean that it's off the market forever. So I actually I that one one of my tracks then in both that was the one in both the the Call of Duty promo. And also the Destiny two promo actually was the same track. So it's happened to me as well. Like when

Nick VinZant 14:43

you make a new a new track. Do you have a pretty good idea or are you just kind of like I have no right like, Oh, this is getting picked up or just kind of like well, maybe,

Brandon Lau 14:55

you know, I always hope that obviously it gets placed. I can never know for sure. But when I'm done with it I I always feel pretty good about it.

Nick VinZant 15:01

Like then do you compose around a certain genre? Like do you specialize in a certain genre? Like, okay, I do action films and horror films and thrillers, or do you just kind of do everything like, well, this might go in the new Pixar movie or it could go in scream five.

Brandon Lau 15:19

Right, right. Um, so I would say I definitely specialize a little bit more the darker side of things like sci fi, Action, Thriller Horror, I've done I've done a few of those. And typically, when I write my music, I will picture a movie or video game from that genre. But I will tell you something funny, I guess. Do you know the movie dune? Yeah. Okay, so I was really

Nick VinZant 15:46

excited before? I do.

Brandon Lau 15:49

I love dune. Yeah. But before dune came out, before the trailers came out, you know, sometimes we will specifically target certain movies. And my publisher was like to do this coming out, I want you to write a kind of like, you know, how dune has very specialized on kind of like the, almost a Middle Eastern percussion. That's like a huge part of sound. And my publisher was like, okay, Brandon, please write something like that. And I was like, okay, you know, Dune is an awesome movie, I'm gonna target this piece towards dune. And I wrote it, and dune didn't pick it up. So I was pretty bummed out about it, because I had written the track for dune. And, and now it's just sitting dormant to the library. And I think, half a year later, the track gets picked up in the end, like an advertisement or smaller trailer for The Croods. To, which is, which is a totally different style of movie. But you know, they've got like, kind of like those like this big drums, like kind of like wooden sounding drums, and it happened to work for the Croods as well. So to answer your question, I do typically target those darker movies and stuff, where you never know where it's gonna end up. You know, you seriously don't

Nick VinZant 17:10

know what's funny, but like, it's weird how music can match things? How much you can max match a mood? Like, why do you think that is that you can hear something and be like,

Brandon Lau 17:22

Dad? Well, I would love to say that there's like some sort of like a deeper meaning behind that connection between music and association. But, I mean, I my answer has to be just through repetition and in history, you know, like, so many, when we watch a sci fi movie, typically the music is that kind of like strange synth score and, and you know, looking at an actual movie, there's going to be epic Trump's and I think just growing up and, and watching so many of these like, to, I guess, separate things, the movie and the music, just show up together all the time. We just kind of grow to learn that association. And then now we just pick up on it. But I mean that I know, that's kind of a boring answer. But I entered answering. Honestly, I just think that's pretty much what it is.

Nick VinZant 18:16

That is interesting, though, you know, how that all kind of now, will you ever are in the industry, I shouldn't say you specifically, but will the industry kind of move in certain trends were like, ooh, this worked for this movie. So let's do that. But a little bit different.

Brandon Lau 18:33

Do? That's a great question. Man. I'm so glad you asked that because trailer music is will some people like to say that trailer music is kind of like the pop music of media scoring in in the way that we are such trend followers. Because we're basically part of advertising, right. And so if something is not in at the moment, it's not going to catch anybody's attention. And so if you, you know, just even within within the 2000s trilling music has changed incredibly, the trailers from earlier in the 2000s to 2010, you will find like these huge orchestral lead kind of trailers. And this is when they're still saying saying like, in a world in a deep voice, you know, that doesn't happen so much anymore, but that that the whole thing kind of was happening at that time. And then later that became kind of cheesy. And so now we have all these different like, you know, you'll notice that there's pop songs now used in trailers, you'll notice that there's like hip hop and trap and an EDM and you know, when dubstep was big that was showing up in a bunch of trailers too. And so it really is such a kind of like a trend following genre. I would say the most recent one that I've been told to do a lot. I remember I forgot what year was but when the Black Widow trailer first came out the first Black Widow trailer, it had this crazy like so same melody that hasn't really been done before. Um, and I remember all the polar search that I've been working with after that shoulder came up, they're like thrown at, you gotta do something like that, you know, and I had no problem with it because I loved I was so inspired by that sound I just wanted to write during that kind of stuff all day. But yeah, that's the kind of like, you know, exactly like what you said, definitely a trend following kind of thing. I would say the best example, sorry, I should have given this example first was after Inception came out the brawl sound. Yeah, that was an every trailer. And it's still in like trailers today, because it's just such a cool sound. So definitely, like a huge trend following industry.

Nick VinZant 20:42

I've always been amazed at how you can do something unique. And everybody's like, nobody's touching it. And then one person does it. Everybody likes it. And suddenly, you're a genius. Like, how you can go from Muse in a second? Is increase just amazing to me. You just gotta get the one person to sign on. And then ever, he's like, Oh, I had that idea, too. Yeah, so like, for example, like, how many tracks would do you have out there right now? Not, I guess in both in terms of like, tracks that have been purchased and are being used either by movies or video games, or TV shows or whatever. And ones that you have done? Like, what's the percentage? I've made? 100? And I got 10 picked up or fill me in? I guess?

Brandon Lau 21:28

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I want to say anywhere between 40 and 70, maybe somewhere between 50 and 60? I don't know, we're somewhere around there in terms of the amount of tracks that I've created. And then the tracks that have been picked up in any sort of way. I want to say anywhere between 10 and 25. Somewhere around there. That's Yeah,

Nick VinZant 22:01

honestly, a lot more than I, that's a better percentage than I would have assumed. Right. Right. Like that. Sounds real. First

Brandon Lau 22:09

of all, first of all, thank you. But I do feel like I should clarify when I say what I just said. So we talked about money a little bit. And to clarify, you know, first of all, not only have not all of my tracks been purchased by big blockbuster movies, but also, you know, there are like other things where tracks sometimes are used on TV. And the way that that pays out is like totally different. And it's you know, sometimes I get used in like small little tiny tank commercials, they might use like two or three seconds of stuff. So like they're, they're pushing like smaller usages to. And I'm including that in a statistic that I just gave you. So just to clarify, but I'm not like some like major hotshot, because that would be a crazy statistic,

Nick VinZant 22:52

that still it's like, alright, so I got a couple of home runs, but I get on base a lot. Like, that still sounds pretty good. I mean, it's not like, nobody has yet picked up my hour long soundtrack of Bo horn. Now, is there any problems with people ripping off the music.

Brandon Lau 23:09

So oftentimes, you know, words are kind of horrible at describing music. And so when a director wants a specific piece of music, they will often employ what's known as a temp track, which basically is like, if they're doing a commercial, for example, they will put in an already existing piece of music, and first, and you know, to kind of get the feel of it all. And then they'll pass it on to the composer, and with that already existing piece of music and be like, oh, I want my commercial track to sound like this. And so it'll be like a reference track. So that composer knows what the director wants. And yeah, I found that one of my tracks, actually, one of my composer buddies was a friend of mine was doing a job for commercial is writing a track for commercial, and the reference track that he received was one of my checks. So in a sense, he was being paid to rip me off, like, you could definitely make an argument for that. But, you know, that's done so often in the industry that, you know, I don't take any offense and, and, if anything, I'm quite flattered, honestly, that the director, you know, wanted something similar to that. I just wished that the director asked me instead,

Nick VinZant 24:29

but why would they use a reference track and not just like, hey, I want something like this, but not this. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, right? That's like, like, I want a ham sandwich. Or like, I want a sandwich and I want it to be a ham sandwich. But I don't want this ham sandwich like make me another Hanson ham sandwich.

Brandon Lau 24:47

Right. I mean, in terms of temp, how temp tracks are used. That kind of differs from director to director to to that that you listed out kind of using it like this, and I want this that happens. That's kind of the spectrum of how temp tracks can work.

Nick VinZant 25:03

Um, okay, are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions?

Brandon Lau 25:09

Let's get to a man

Nick VinZant 25:12

track, or I guess, um, trailer music that you are most proud of?

Brandon Lau 25:18

That's, that's a fun question. I, I will give you two answers, I think. So I will first give you I guess, the trailer that I'm most proud of, which is a guest the piece of music that I've written, but also factoring in how it was used and the medium in which it was attached in. And that would be my track collapsing son used with the destiny to beyond light trailer. And I honestly that placement changed my life because I've noticed something about the difference between doing a video game and movie trailer and I've seen I've done a couple of movie trailers and typically the if you go down to the comments, and I'd be like this trailer sucks, or this trailer is great can't wait to watch this a list actor do whatever whatever whatever. But man video game fans are so the I think video game fans love music, I guess because the the kind of interactive aspect of the music while you're playing the video game is so important to the experience that I've noticed the main video game trailer sometimes, like if you go down to the comments, don't be like, track name. You can thank me later, there'll be like comments like that. And after the Destiny trailer that that I did was was a you know, it was very, very popular for on the date I came out was trending like number four, number three or something like that. And then I just looked down in the comments and you're like, oh, yeah, do you track the track here is collapsing son, Brandon Lau and out like that literally actually changed my life in in a very literal way. Because if you think about like people listening to music on Spotify, and stuff like that, people, there's very few people who will listen to maybe like Tralee, music for fun. Right. So typically, it doesn't get that much traction on Spotify. But because of the people putting those comments on on the YouTube trailer, it it kind of like increased my numbers and viewership by by a ton. So I'm very, very, very thankful for that one. My favorite tracks that I've created just with the track alone, I have a new track called a the needle on my album Hand of God. And I just liked that one because it's kind of inspired by a very clean, edited style, where I'm not using a lot of reverb or like kind of like sustained sounds, and it's very, very clean and very precise. And just from a technical standpoint, I was very proud of the track that I made. So

Nick VinZant 28:01

all right, this is my like you kids today, how are you? moment, but like how are you? Are you playing any instruments? Or is it's all computer based?

Brandon Lau 28:11

Yeah, so the music that I do is definitely, if not 95% 100%, computer based. But um, I would say the part that is most like playing an instrument for me is that those synth songs that are featured in my track. I'm kind of a stickler for designing my own sounds. It's a metric,

Nick VinZant 28:34

it's really an instrument of its own if you think about it, totally. Is there one in the industry? Is there like a trailer music in the industry that like people look at and say, that is the best.

Brandon Lau 28:45

There are a bunch of trailer tracks and composers that I look up to a one being that there's so many I'm just struggling to pick one. But you know, for a sake of time, I'm just going to ask them a couple of that I really like Mark Petrie, I've been listening to this guy before I knew I wanted to do trailer music. And he has a track called redshift, which landed in both Avengers Infinity War trailer if I'm not mistaken, and also the venom trailer. And that track to me is really, really inspiring. I think it's a perfect lesson on how to develop a catchy hook and a catchy melody. I think it's done extremely, extremely well.

Nick VinZant 29:33

trailers that you can think of in which the trailer music is synonymous with the movie. I think of like pineapple express that done in a day. Like where the movie The music is more popular than the movie?

Brandon Lau 29:48

For sure. For sure. Yeah. Oh, I can think of a couple but they're kind of cheating. Um, so I actually have a couple movie posters behind me. The one here It is for a movie called annihilation. And that movie, it came on, I think in 2018. And, um, the trailer had this one sound that was absolutely crazy. And it's kind of like the theme like it's about aliens and, and sci fi stuff. And so like the kind of the alien theme from the movie actually made it to the trailer. This is very rare, by the way that actual music from the movie gets put into the trailer. But that was one of the instances in which they chose to do it. And I can definitely see why. Because that theme for the movie was very hook, like, you know, and so kind of going back to what I was talking about in terms of hooks and stuff. It totally worked for the trailer music medium. So it's a little bit cheating, because you know, the sound was actually in the movie. But I think that trailer music was I thought it was really awesome.

Nick VinZant 30:59

How do you feel when you tell someone that your music was in a trailer or video game? And they say, Never heard of it?

I mean, that was a great question.

Brandon Lau 31:18

I love I wish people would ask these questions more often, man, I mean, I love the unapologetic ness of it. Um, I mean, I don't make too much of it. Man. I I definitely that happened to me a lot when I was first starting out, especially because the things that my music ended up even I was like, What the heck is that? I don't like look it up. Like, I've literally never heard this thing before money still. You know, I really don't take any offense to it at all. You know, like, there's just so much media out flowing in a universe. I don't expect everyone to know everything. So it's totally fine.

Nick VinZant 31:53

Are there parts of trailer music that people should specifically listened to that may give away secret clues within the movie or game? Like if you're really paying attention, the one that I can think about, like in Star Wars, where they play like the Darth Plagueis movie, the music or the at a certain time? Like, are the clues ever hidden in the trailer music itself?

Brandon Lau 32:18

Yeah, so back to kind of what I was saying, unfortunately, the movie and like, okay, the movie slash video game, and the trailer itself are completely unrelated. You mentioned Star Wars. And like I also talked about dune earlier. And those are like these huge IPs that they really want the themes to be involved in trailer. Sometimes they'll do it and that's where you're gonna get your clues for things to listen to and that kind of thing. I would say more so on that question, it's more like a disclaimer are coming from me that they are not related. Because sometimes I'll look at the comments, for example, for the Destiny trigger that I did, and they'll be like, oh, yeah, dude, I hope I can buy this soundtrack from Bungie. Like, dude, I'm so sorry, man. I actually I'm not familiar with Bungie at all. I'm not familiar with this video game. This is just a one time

Nick VinZant 33:11

associated. Just pick it up. Right? Like,

Brandon Lau 33:14

exactly, exactly. But so will you ever

Nick VinZant 33:17

have somebody come to you and like, Hey, man, we love this. We want to use it, but she just changed this one part.

Brandon Lau 33:25

Totally, totally. Totally. Yeah. So I didn't end up getting this trailer. But um, I was I made it to like a really, really because they're eliminating Yeah, yeah. Just through the process itself. Yeah, yeah. So I made it pretty far into the process for the movie The Grudge. And the grudge makes this like, throat noise. Um,

Nick VinZant 33:50

I can't I can't hear the horror movies. Man. The scariest movie I've ever seen is like the old King Kong and that was just like, Nope, it's too scary for

Brandon Lau 33:57

me. Do I totally feel you? I totally feel you. But yeah, and was the girl who makes this like really weird. And then kind of like aggressive throat noise. And they actually sent me the, the direct sample of that throat noise from the movie and they're like, please put this in your track for for the trailer, and I was like, Yeah, dude, this is this is awesome. I would love to use this in my track.

Nick VinZant 34:22

Okay. This is the thing that I want to do. This is when I have arrived and my career is complete or it is like I am established now. Is there something that you're looking at and be like, This is what I want?

Brandon Lau 34:39

So um, yeah, that's a great question. I I know I just spent the last hour talking to you about how much I love trailer music and stuff. So for me, I'm still trying to make the transition into Doing more movies or TV or even video games, for example. And having my my income more based in that realm,

Nick VinZant 35:09

oh, composing a horror thing?

Brandon Lau 35:12

Totally, totally. Yeah. Because that, on the other hand, you know, is actually the narrative. It's actually the story I get to talk with the director about, okay, this character is feeling this, you know, how should your music reflect that and every film, every scene is going to be different. And I know, I'm going to have so much fun, kind of delving into that creatively, and kind of growing as a composer and an artist, in terms of developing my musical ability, I guess. And so I'm definitely looking to move more into that. And to strictly answer that question, I guess I would love to do I guess, a major studio film or TV show? Obviously, you know that that's very, very, very competitive. And I'm still a ways away from that. But I would say that's probably when I would feel okay. I've made it and this is my career, I guess. I mean,

Nick VinZant 36:04

it seems like you're off to a good start. Right? Like, this is how you kind of get into it, right? It's not just like, hey, I filled out this app job application to be next John Williams.

Brandon Lau 36:15

toys. Oh, yeah, no, definitely, you know, if only you know, yeah,

Nick VinZant 36:18

he's good. Like, that's, like, right. But okay,

Brandon Lau 36:23

he's the goat, honestly. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 36:25

When you look at that kind of a style of music, whenever you're talking about trailers, or video games, or doing the whole movie or whatever? Does it? Does it really match in the sense that like, which one of these is happening first? Or is it happening at the same time? In which is the music making the mood? Or does the movie make the mood and then the music supports it? Right, like, which one's making me feel a certain emotion more? Because in some ways, honestly, kind of think it's the music. You know, like, you've seen those things, like Star Wars without John Williams, and you're just like, What the hell is going on?

Brandon Lau 37:05

Yeah, well, first of all, as a composer, I really appreciate you saying that. It makes you feel important. Without

Nick VinZant 37:13

the music, it's like a laugh track and a comment. Like, I don't really use that. Was that funny? You know what I mean? Yeah, no, said it.

Brandon Lau 37:22

Mm hmm. I would say so if you're talking about it, from an audience digesting it kind of way, then I would say, obviously, I'm very, very biased. But the music is really huge part of what you feel. Kind of like that. That's the emotion. It's, it's in the music. But before while, but while we're making the movie, I think as a composer, I'm definitely looking to play a supportive role. I'm not trying to be like, Okay, this is my movie, actually, you know, you're gonna feel how I feel. So I'm definitely gonna, like try to whatever the director once and how that story, how that story is created, and how it's meant to be perceived. In the words of the director. That's always what I'm going to be trying to push forwards.

Pizza Acrobat Nick Diesslin

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin isn’t a regular pizza acrobat. He’s an intergalactic time traveler on a mission to save the world the only way he knows how, with pizza. We talk pizza acrobatics, where to find the best pizza restaurants, his doughjo and embracing who you are. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Pizza Toppings.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin: 02:10ish

Pointless:32:43ish

Top 5: 48:11

https://www.instagram.com/pizzamannickdiesslin/ (Nick Diesslin Instagram)

https://www.tiktok.com/@pizzamannickdiesslin (Nick Diesslin TikTok)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbhbCwfTYmdqGxWt7XnUNA (Nick Diesslin YouTube)

https://www.facebook.com/PizzaManNickDiesslin (Nick Diesslin Facebook)

Interview with Pizza Acrobat Pizza Man Nick Diesslin

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode pizza, specifically pizza toppings and intergalactic pizza acrobatics from the past, maybe might be the future. It's definitely involving time travel, and intergalactic pizza delivery from the future.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 0:36

I call pizza acrobatics and art because I really do think it's it's an art with your body and dough. The actual backstory is like, I was a pizza delivery guy back in the day. And this this crazy guy named pizza man like was like, Dude, you got to help me get back. We got to we got to save the future with pizza. Because that was like a dream since I was a kid. And the older I got that dream kind of faded, because I never thought that was something that would happen, you know. And then when it started coming, like coming to life, I was like, oh, man, this, this might actually happen. I

Nick VinZant 1:11

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 really helps us out. So if you're new to the podcast or a longtime listener, this episode is a little bit different. But give it a chance. Seriously give it a chance. Because however interesting, you might think it is to begin with. It's oddly kind of fascinating. And then look into a different, a different kind of world. Our first guest is a pizza acrobat. And he has honestly this kind of inspiring story about doing what you want to do and what you like to do and being who you are. Even if everybody else is kind of wondering what's going on there. This is pizza man, Nick de Slan. What is a what is a pizza acrobat? Exactly.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 2:14

The best way to describe it is a pretty much a guy that juggles dough. They call it a pizza Acrobat because you can do a lot of like athletic moves with your tricks. So you're moving around the dose flying around your shoulders, through your legs all over the place. So that's kind of why they call it a pizza acrobat.

Nick VinZant 2:33

So how did you get started in this? Right?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 2:36

When I was in middle school, I started learning juggling. To be less shy, I was a really shy kid. So I wanted to do something that I could do on stage and like practice it before I go onstage. So then I could kind of be like a rock star by the time I was ready to be shy in front of people. And then I saw somebody doing tricks with pizza dough. And I was like, I didn't know that was a thing. But I want to do that. So I started teaching myself when I was like, I think 13 or 14 years old. And I've been doing it ever since. And I love it because people love pizza. So that's really the main reason.

Nick VinZant 3:18

But what was it about it that drew you to it? Right? Like, you know a lot of people we interviewed a high altitude mountaineer. There's like, I saw a mountain. And I just loved it. I wanted to be on top of the mountain, like people don't generally associate that with pizza dough. Right? So like, what was it about it that you were like, That's me. That is me.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 3:40

I feel like a lot of people have had this experience, you go to a pizza shop, and you see a guy throwing the dough in the air as he's making the pizza. And it's just like floating so elegantly, and all miss shape. And when it's in the air, or you know, maybe it is shaped and well, but it's at a weird angle. All of that visual stuff is really exciting. And like the setting in a restaurant, it's like you don't necessarily need to throw dough in the air. But that's like such a cool, a cool thing that's always happened for so long in history that it's like it's iconic for the pizza place a guy throwing dough in the air. And then taking that to another level doing tricks with it is is incredible, because a lot of people don't even know that it exists. So that's what excited me about it.

Nick VinZant 4:27

When did you kind of realize like, Oh, I'm pretty good at this. Like I should do something with this.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 4:36

Yeah. So when I first started, I sucked and I, I was I started with a washcloth originally and I was thinking maybe I could get a little better at it. So I kept practicing a little more. And I was not too good. But after a couple of months, I picked it back up. And I could do a few of the tricks that I've seen other people do and I was like, Oh, maybe I could do So then, probably after like three months, I started mixing into my juggling routines. So I do half juggling, half pizza throwing. And then after a probably a year, it was mostly all pizza acrobatics for my performances because people love it so much that I was kind of, you know, destined to do that.

Nick VinZant 5:22

Would I be surprised? Like how many other pizza acrobats are there in the world? Is this a popular thing? Are you like one of four people?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 5:30

There's there's quite a bit you probably would be more surprised at the amount that are pizza acrobats. I would say there's probably at least, I would say at least in somewhere. I'm not very good at guessing or guesstimating. But I would guess there's probably at least 1000s of them doesn't mean that they're necessarily like the greatest or anything like that. But there's quite a few people that do tricks with dough.

Nick VinZant 5:59

Now, when you do the tricks with the Deauville, like, can you eat this pizza? Like you could do the tricks and then somebody could eat it? Or are you kind of manipulating the pizza so that, like, you can't really eat it like it's pizza, but

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 6:13

you could use regular pizza dough. But of course, it stretches out very fast. So you could probably do like two tricks. And you will be done with that dough. So you could still probably eat it. But the dough that most pizza acrobats use when they use real dough is it's they call it a low hydration, so there's a lot less water in it. And there's no yeast. So it's basically not really for eating or cooking. But we always say like it is real dough like it's flour and water and salt. So there's like it's it is dough, but it's just not really like you're gonna be making anything with it that tastes good.

Nick VinZant 6:52

Me and what the two minutes that I have become a pizza Acrobat connoisseur. I have some issues. Yes. Right? Yes. I feel like Do you Do you get any pushback? Is it cheating? Because you're not really using edible dough? Is that a controversy within the pizza Acrobat industry.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 7:10

So I think most people that do tricks with with dough, it's not controversial for them. But for people watching. They're like, Oh, that's easy, because it's not real dough. And I'm like, okay, then you can do it too, then I don't mind if people think it's easy and want to do it. But I think a lot of times people think it's easier than it is. And it is it is controversial. There is also rubber dough that you can get where it's basically like practice Doh, that feels a lot like real dough. And it it simulates dough really well, it just doesn't stretch out. And people also say that's easier, like when they see it. But if they try to do tricks with it, it's not as easy as it seems.

Nick VinZant 7:54

Yeah, I feel like the rubber dome may be crossing competition lines. Like that's performance enhancing substances. In my in my in my outsider opinion.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 8:04

Yeah, one thing I think is good about the the rubber dough is it's uniform. So if everybody uses the same dough, it's everybody's at the same same level, because sometimes there's situations where people might have made dough for themselves for using real dough. That's like really bad. And that can throw them all off. And it's it makes the competition a little funny. I guess.

Nick VinZant 8:30

That is actually a good point. Right? Like so if you have a competition? Does everybody use the same dough? Do you bring your own dough?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 8:37

So yeah, at the competition's, usually they have dough that you can use or you can bring your own dough. So that makes it really up in the air to what what you use. You can't use the rubber dough. But as far as like, you know, it's up to anybody. I feel like you can mix anything in and call a real deal at some point.

Nick VinZant 9:01

Now why are you good at it? Is it practice? Do you have like my fingers are spaced farther apart than anybody else's fingers? And I've got the surface area to really control the dough like why are you good at it?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 9:16

I would say mostly practice and hand eye coordination juggling helps me a lot because by the time I started doing pizza, acrobatics, the tricks are similar to juggling in that you have to know like what your hands are doing and where it is, according to your body. So juggling helps me a lot. But I think that's probably the the main thing. It's not necessarily my body shape or anything. Some tricks will look better for me than other people and some tricks that I do might look better for people who might not be as tall as me or, or have different body types. So it's kind of working within your body type and what to do with a doe, so I don't know if that's the greatest answer.

Nick VinZant 10:04

No, it kind of makes sense, right? So how tall? How tall are you?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 10:07

I'm six feet tall. So they're not huge.

Nick VinZant 10:12

But that's on the like, would you do different tricks? Like, oh, I know in competition that it my height, this trick is gonna look good. But Sally, who's five, two, she can't do that trick. It's not gonna look the same way.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 10:25

Yeah, one trick, specifically, I do the shoulder roll where I roll it across both both of my arms and my arms are six foot three. So my arms are really incredibly long and lanky. But that trick I think, looks really beautiful. Going across my arms, just because it's so it looks. It looks really elegant. Having this dough rolled that far, across this lanky guy that I can

Nick VinZant 10:48

see that actually. Right. I can picture this perfectly, and I can see somebody smaller doing it and like, oh, that doesn't look the same way. Yes. Like what's the hard part? Is it the catching the throwing like what's what's the hard part of the pizza, acrobatics,

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 11:05

almost the invisible part that people don't understand that you want it to look as beautiful as possible. I I call pizza acrobatics and art because I really do think it's it's an art with your body and dough. So the tricky part is making it look as smooth as possible. And, and beautiful with all of the motions that you do. You don't want to be like spinning the opposite way of the dough, for example, because it will look more rigid. And it's all those little like invisible things that people wouldn't necessarily know that helps you look even better.

Nick VinZant 11:39

How like how much do you practice a week?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 11:43

So I put in probably at least like five hours a week. I do live streams now that go from anywhere from two to three hours straight of just throwing pizza. So it can be from Yeah, five hours or more. It depends if there's a competition. I'm practicing like a couple hours every day.

Nick VinZant 12:06

What's people's kind of response? Because on one hand, I can be see like you're throwing pizza all the time. Like, what are you doing? And then the other hand it's like, is being a pizza Acrobat like Pete being pizza. Acrobat is weird. I spend my time putting ball in a hoop. Right? Like it's it's all kind of a little bit dumb when you break it right down like that. Right? Like, he's Acrobat that stupid. Let's crash into each other with our heads. Try to cross this line. Right? So I yeah, what's what's kind of people's response to it?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 12:42

It's all over the board. I think a lot of people like to see how much fun I have when I do it. Because when you see, like, I genuinely really love doing this. And I think when people see it and understand it, they have a better appreciation for what I do. I get a lot of comments, though, of like, oh, man, I bet your parents are proud of you. And it's like, well, they actually are. So I don't know, I think I think leaning into the goofiness of it is something that I really started embracing over the past two or three years because it's really, it is goofy. But that makes it actually more entertaining.

Nick VinZant 13:20

That's an interesting question that me and John who comes in in the second half of the show, always talk about right like, Would you rather be the best pizza Acrobat in the world? Or the world's like 2000 best basketball player?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 13:35

I don't know. It kind of depends, too. I guess it depends on the person to answer it.

Nick VinZant 13:40

I guess what do your what do your parents think about I know you kind of mentioned it already. But were they were they super supportive? Or friends super supportive? Or they were kind of like, okay, he's doing his pizza thing.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 13:53

Yeah, my parents, they have always been really open but they've never been really pushy. So they're, they're the perfect support that I needed to be able to do this because they've never said that I have to do anything specific. But they've also never said anything bad about me doing pizza acrobatics from from the beginning they've been supportive of it and I think that's really cool.

Nick VinZant 14:17

So now can you make a living off of this?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 14:21

That's a great question so far, I don't think so. But um, yeah, that's that's why I think it's, it's it's a great hobby for me, I call it like, you know, my my passion and my hobby. But at the end of the day, it still is going to be a hobby until I find some way that I could actually make a lot of money with it. But you know, to this day, I would say it's it's very tricky. It's almost like stand up comedy is you can make money but it's pretty hard to get to the level where it actually has a decent job, you know,

Nick VinZant 15:00

I decided to have the possibility of like making money. So for example, we had on a couple episodes episodes ago, the world's best disc golfer. And he was like, my parents thought I was dumb. They stopped talking to me. And fast forward years later, after living in my car, I cash a $4 million check for a sponsorship deal. Right, like, so the possibility was there is that do you think the possibility is here for like, for pizza, acrobatics? Or is this always going to be what it is?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 15:32

I think the possibility is there. I think I think there's creative opportunities for pizza, acrobatics, and the creative opportunities could bring possible financial benefits. But that's that's a really tricky thing. Because it's like, I think there's there's possibilities, but I think it's really tough to, to really cash out on that, if that makes sense. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 16:01

Not a lot of dough. And yeah. Yeah. I've been saving that up for months. I love that. That's, that's, that's the end of the show. That's the greatest thing I've ever gonna say in my entire life. So are you ready for some hardware slash listener submitted questions? Absolutely. So how big generally is the size of the pizza that you're throwing?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 16:30

Yeah, so I start out with, what I like to have is starting out with like a 13 inch dose size that works best for me and my hand size. Some people probably start out with little smaller sizes. So that one does depend a little bit on on how big your hands are, and what you prefer, as well.

Nick VinZant 16:50

How high can you throw the pizza up in the air?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 16:54

I can throw it really, really high in the air. There's a Guinness Book of World Records. Record for how high the dough is thrown. But I do believe I could beat it. I just, I've never really recorded it. So that might be on the list.

Nick VinZant 17:11

On now. I'm fascinated. What's the record? Do you know what the record is? I believe

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 17:15

it's 23. And something feet. But that's not really that high.

Nick VinZant 17:21

That doesn't sound high. But that's pretty high. Only three feet off the ground or 23 feet above the height of the person's outstretched arms.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 17:31

I believe it's off the ground.

Nick VinZant 17:34

I think you could do it, man, I think yeah. Like how heavy is a pizza?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 17:39

So the Yeah, the dose that we use, typically, it's to eight ounce dough balls that we squish together and we use to to like, make it a little stronger. Because if you use one, there's a little bit of like inconsistencies when you pinch the dough on the bottom. So it's a one pound.

Nick VinZant 17:59

So where do people Where do people go wrong in their pizza? acrobatics? Like what's the mistake that people are making?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 18:08

Um, I think one of the biggest mistakes is, well, we drop it, we drop it a lot. I drop it a lot. And that's something that you just, you can't, you can't really expect yourself to catch it every single time. And it's okay to drop it. But that is a problem. Yeah, that's

Nick VinZant 18:29

a problem. Right? So yeah. Now how are they judging the competition? Is it just the difficulty of tricks or how they how do they do it?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 18:39

They judge it on a few different things. One of them is the amount of drops you have. So every time you drop it, they dock off certain points. So that's, that's very tricky. And if you do challenging tricks that can be offsetting. And then they also judge you on the entertainment value. And then the dexterity, which is kind of like the skill level almost. But it's kind of like how well you can make it look in and manipulate the dough

Nick VinZant 19:13

to the toppings make a difference? Like can people do it with toppings.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 19:18

So I've never, I've seen people use like confetti. I've never seen any. Anybody put like toppings on the pizza. In a performance, I guess flour, people sometimes like Sprinkle flour on it. And that looks kind of nice. But you certainly could use toppings if it if it looked well visually, that would actually be a pretty, pretty good addition. If you can make it work.

Nick VinZant 19:43

What would be what do you think would be like the hardest topping to add on there and be able to do

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 19:47

what I think sauce would be a mess. That's a good

Nick VinZant 19:52

point. That's a good point. Yeah, yeah, that wouldn't work out very well actually.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 19:57

But it would be really funny to

Nick VinZant 19:59

you Yeah, what would like pepperoni be harder than sausage?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 20:05

So maybe it depends on the type of sausage you use, because sometimes there's like the pinch sausage or like the little like chunks. I think pepperoni could be kind of cool if you could get it to like fling off. Like those nerf discs.

Nick VinZant 20:16

Oh, yeah, man, you could take this to another level. You could potentially like spin the pizza and spin an individual pepperoni. That's right. We're making magic here today. Yeah, here's, we've got it. We figured it out. Man. This is how pizza acrobatics is launched. That is also I wanted to ask you this. You are the intergalactic

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 20:40

pizza? Galactic? Yeah. intergalactic pizza acrobat?

Nick VinZant 20:44

Have you confirmed this in any way? Or is that like, I can just add this to my title? Because I think it's because I think it's

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 20:49

well, I'm actually a time traveler. And I'm from the year 1990. Boy I got a whole backstory.

Nick VinZant 21:00

I almost don't want to ask any follow up questions and just leave people wondering like, Is he fucking serious? Joking around. Actually. Could you actually be

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 21:12

I am a time traveler. Yeah. Now I

Nick VinZant 21:14

want to know what the backstory is. Give me a little thing,

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 21:17

man. Yeah, so there's like a little bit of a seriousness to the backstory. But like the actual backstory is like, I was a pizza delivery guy back in the day. And this this crazy guy named pizza man like was like, Dude, you gotta help me get back. We gotta we gotta save the future with pizza. He took me in his car. And we like fused together into pizza man, and we're here in the future trying to save the world with pizza.

Nick VinZant 21:41

That's probably honestly the best way to do it. Think about right?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 21:46

I know pizza is the way to say like cure everything. People love it.

Nick VinZant 21:51

You know, we've talked we on the show we've interviewed NASA climatologist people who deal with like space, but honestly, it comes down to Pisa. Really they they had the wrong answer in the in the in the entire time. So then, do you get to do a lot of traveling and taste and go to a lot of like different pizza places.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 22:14

Yeah, so I've I've done a lot of different traveling from some from pizza stuff and some for like, my professional career. But wherever I go, I do like to try out tasting pizza. New York. I love New York pizza. I think that's probably my favorite.

Nick VinZant 22:32

Oh, but people get heated about regional pizza. They do.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 22:35

Yeah. The Chicago style pizza. You know, there's, it's funny because pizza. I see why people get so heated about it because there's so many different options. But I also like letting people have their opinion. And then I keep mine you know,

Nick VinZant 22:52

but who would you say would be the most passionate defender of their style of pizza, right? Like I can think of New York pizza. I can think of Chicago pizza. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. But like who's like, oh, you show up at the wrong pizza place and say the wrong thing.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 23:09

I feel like Chicago. They they love their pizza a lot. Even though like New York I feel like is you know pretty defensive, but I don't know. I've heard a lot of Chicago people talk about Chicago style very aggressively.

Nick VinZant 23:26

What what region of pizza though is regional pizza is sneaky good, though. Like, well, people may know about it, but like, what's coming? It's coming up there.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 23:37

Man. I don't know. I feel like pizza is so so diverse that I am not picky. And I also don't have anything where I'm like, this is the this is the next thing. I don't know if that does not help you at all. But

Nick VinZant 23:55

you just make something up, man. I thought you were a time traveler and you go Bucha No.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 24:00

I love I love culinary fusions with pizza. Like if there whenever I see somebody who does pizza Well, it's not like they're, it's not like they're making you know this. This is the best pepperoni pizza. They're making a pizza where they are figuring out a way to make every ingredient on the pizza special and making it all come together and making that a special pizza. So that's the type of pizzas that I like to look for when when I'm looking for like a very special pizza. Like if they're like I carmelize the onions in a certain like, sauce. That's just for the onions. So like I know the rest of the pizza. They like doing special things for all of

Nick VinZant 24:43

it. Okay, best pizza that you've ever had. So

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 24:46

I would say the best pizza or had who was at the pizza place that I started working at? It was it was called Randy's premier pizza in Minnesota and Randy Randy knows how to do Pizza really well. And it's funny because like, I would always tell people like this is the place to go for for good pizza. And we had we had Chicago styles there. We didn't have woodfire. But every once in awhile we would do woodfire outside, but it's cold in Minnesota, so we can't really do it.

Nick VinZant 25:17

My only issue is like the idea that it's just called Randy's like if it was some other fake name that I would probably might be much more interested in it. But Randy is like, the worst name that I can. Yeah, right. It Jeff. Yeah, yes,

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 25:36

it's a place. That's what I always tell people to like, if you can find a like a random mom and pop shop nearby. Their pizza is probably going to be really good if they specialize in pizza. Because a lot of times those small little shops really know what they're doing. Because they usually only have their one place. So they don't have to worry about their their pizzas being good across their chains. If that makes sense.

Nick VinZant 26:01

That does make sense, man. You really know your pizza.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 26:06

I try to hard life right? Yeah, hard life for the pizza man.

Nick VinZant 26:12

Um, okay, but what about like, frozen pizza? Where are you going? Frozen pizza?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 26:19

Frozen pizza. That's a good question. I I like a lot of frozen pizzas. There's one brand specifically. It's called screamin Sicilian that I do. I do like quite a bit. I know there's a lot of like, other like kind of higher end frozen pizzas, but screaming Sicilian is pretty awesome. They're they're actually from Wisconsin, if I remember correctly, too.

Nick VinZant 26:43

I think I've actually have that in my freezer right now. Yeah, you

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 26:46

got the little mustache and everything like

Nick VinZant 26:48

little mustache and there's like is there but there's like you can see into the pizza but it kind of looks like

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 26:52

yes, they got you ever got like the mouth and everything. You can see the pizza. Dude.

Nick VinZant 26:57

That's that's pretty good pizza actually, honestly, like I get it for my son. And then I just eat it all because like, Oh, that's good pizza.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 27:05

Yeah, and I'm Sicilian part Sicilian as well. So I like that.

Nick VinZant 27:10

Okay, let's get controversial. Yeah. How do you feel about pineapple? How do you feel about white sauce? How do you feel about dessert pizza?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 27:21

Okay, I like that. Any other ones? Now? There's a three. Okay, pineapple. I don't like pineapple on my pizza. But I appreciate people's opinion for it. However, I think it's much too juicy to be an ingredient on on a pizza and my, my argument to the earth. Yeah, my argument to this discussion is always like you put watermelon on your pizza. And they're like, No, and I'm like, it's like almost the same consistency with the juiciness.

Nick VinZant 27:54

That's true, but it's true.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 27:57

But I do think you could use pineapple to make like a good glaze for dessert pizza. And that's where I would go with pineapple on a pizza.

Nick VinZant 28:06

How about the white sauce?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 28:08

white sauce. I don't really like white sauce. But that's just because I don't really I don't really like what I like the like the Alfredo or I never really was a big fan of it. Except like the flavor. So it's like, I can't I don't really enjoy it on pizza.

Nick VinZant 28:26

So you've been on a lot of different, like, America's Got Talent, that kind of stuff. What was that? Like? Which one was yeah,

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 28:33

I really liked. I liked America's Got Talent a lot, because that was like a dream since I was a kid. And the older I got that dream kind of faded, because I never thought that was something that would happen, you know. And then when it started coming, like coming to life, I was like, oh, man, this this might actually happen. And it was really, really exciting. And I was glad I did it when I was older because I would not have been prepared for for the whole experience. When I was younger. There's there's just a lot of, you know, mental strength you need to be able to get through through, you know, anything like that. The show is great. It's just like the nervousness is a lot, right?

Nick VinZant 29:16

Yeah. And you can't have sweaty hands throwing pizza out imagine.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 29:20

Yeah, and you don't want to be you can't be shaky or nothing. You have to pretend like you're you're all cool.

Nick VinZant 29:26

Yeah, play it cool. So yeah. Okay, if you say it's you, who's the Michael Jordan, of pizza acrobatics? Who's the best?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 29:37

Yeah, I would say so. I would say the best of all time there's this pizza Acrobat named Tony Gemignani. And he's kind of like he's kind of like the guy in the pizza acrobatics world. He's He's done it for so many years and he also makes really good pizza. That's the cool thing. So he he's like really influential On the pizza world as far as like creating it, and doing tricks with pizza, that was like one of the people that I really like to watch a lot of videos when I was a kid to try to learn more. So I really appreciate whatever Tony has done. There's so many people nowadays that I think are really good that it's hard for me to pick specific people to

Nick VinZant 30:22

is their trash talk. You try to get in the head that you like your opponent. So I

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 30:27

am the nicest guy. I would never I would never trash talk anybody. I think there's other people that probably would, but I'm just trying to have a fun time and like, do good stuff with pizza. And I want more people doing pizza acrobatics. So that's why I try to be nice because I, I want I want this to be more of a thing than it is. And that's the way to do it.

Nick VinZant 30:51

That's true. What do you think? Like what do you think is the future of pizza acrobatics? Like what's, what's the next level?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 30:58

Yeah, I think it would be cool if it was really, I don't know. It'd be cool. If it was like an Olympic sport. Or, you know, in schools more we got to we got to get it more in schools. You got to be learning pizza acrobatics, needs to be on the curriculum.

Nick VinZant 31:14

Mandatory right?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 31:16

Yes. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 31:17

We're busy banning books. We can at least get pizza. Yeah,

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 31:20

let's get Pete's acrobatics in the system.

Nick VinZant 31:25

Listen, if you go if you go to a city council meeting, or a school board meeting, and you you make that pitch, I will watch it.

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 31:33

I will do that.

Nick VinZant 31:37

Um, that's pretty much all the questions we got, man, what's kind of coming up next for you?

Pizza Man Nick Diesslin 31:42

Yeah, so um, I've been kind of doing a lot of social media work lately just trying to get make more videos. I'm trying to also make educational videos to help people learn more about pizza acrobatics. So those are a few of the things that I've been working on and, and trying to keep everything in order in my life.

Money Laundering Expert Moyara Ruehsen

Money Laundering is transforming. Professor Moyara Ruehsen says the criminal enterprise has become a trillion dollar industry involving everyone from biker gangs and drug carters to terrorist organizations and rogue nations. We talk money laundering red flags, interesting cases, how money launderers are using classified ads and NFTs and what TV shows and movies get right or wrong. Then we countdown the Top 5 Bills.

Professor Moyara Ruehsen: 1:45ish

Pointless: 37:01ish

Top 5: 1:00:10ish

https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/people/moyara-ruehsen (Moyara Ruehsen Bio)

Interview with Money Laundering Expert Professor Moyara Ruehsen

Nick VinZant 0:13

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode money laundering and the best bills,

Moyara Ruehsen 0:21

there are professional money launderers who have clients all over the world when COVID happened and every all the restaurant shut down, that was a big problem. The money launderers couldn't use restaurant receipts anymore as as you know, excuse an excuse for depositing dirty cash and FTS, they are a money launderers dream. And he laundered money for Mexican drug cartels for terrorist organizations, biker gangs in Australia who were you know, selling meth,

Nick VinZant 0:59

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, like, download, subscribe, share, leave a review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. So our first guest is an expert in international money laundering. And that is a trillion dollar criminal enterprise that affects everything from Mexican drug cartels, to biker gangs in Australia, rogue nations and terrorist organizations, it is so pervasive that you may have seen advertisements for money laundering services in the newspaper, and not even realized it. This is Professor Moira roussin. I think I know what money laundering is. But what is money laundering

Moyara Ruehsen 1:48

it is moving money or value. So it could be crypto, for example, with the intention of hiding its origin or its purpose. So for example, you commit a crime like drug trafficking, for example, you don't want anyone to know that this money was derived from drug sales, or else law enforcement could seize it. And so you're going to move it around a lot, and do different things with it. So that it's going to be impossible to trace that cleaned money to the original crime of drug trafficking. But it could also be moving the money around and, you know, hiding its purpose, too. So let's say the money is really going to North Korea, for example, you know, for their nuclear weapons program. And so that would also be money laundering.

Nick VinZant 2:41

When I think of course, like, right, I'm thinking of TV shows like Ozark and those kinds of drug related shows, like that's who I'm thinking of is doing money laundering, right, but primarily, who is doing this,

Moyara Ruehsen 2:53

there are professional money launderers, who have clients all over the world, and they charge commissions of as little as 5% to as much as 20%. And, of course, their clients are all criminals who need to have their money washed, we're seeing more of that we're seeing people who are specializing in money laundering, whereas in the past, a lot of these criminal organizations would try to do it themselves. You know, I wouldn't say you can really generalize about who these people are, or what it is that they're, what type of laundering they're doing. Exactly. You know, there there are, for example, individuals who operate so called mixing services where they're basically laundering cryptocurrency, on your behalf. Yeah. And you know that that's also money laundering.

Nick VinZant 3:51

How much money are we usually talking about on a yearly or kind of whatever basis that you could provide?

Moyara Ruehsen 3:57

Well, for the past decade and a half or so this number has been floated around that one to 2% of global GDP is laundered every year, which would be between one and $2 trillion a year. And that's just a stab in the dark. Somebody pulled that number out of there. You know what, I don't know that we really know how much money is laundered. I think that that's an exaggeration. But what you would need to get a bead on is know how much criminal activity is out there. Okay, whether it's drug trafficking or selling child pornography, or you know, lots of arms trafficking and other types of crimes, how much of that needs to be laundered? Probably 80% Of all the criminal money out there needs to be laundered the remaining 20% Rent is cash that people just use for their everyday expenses. But if I'm a criminal, and I want to buy a house, or luxury yacht, or you know, something substantive, I can't buy it. With the dirty money or the dirty crypto, I need to launder it first, before I can, you know, live the luxurious lifestyle I want to live.

Nick VinZant 5:26

Is it hard to launder money? Or is it hard to launder a lot of money?

Moyara Ruehsen 5:31

It's hard to launder a lot of money. Yeah, it's, it's complicated. And it also depends on what you're starting with. So for example, if you're starting with cash, that is tricky, and it's really hard to launder a lot of cash, because, you know, just putting it into a bank, for example, without it being noticed, is really hard. I think that the TV show you referenced earlier, Ozark is a perfect example of that. One way you can do it is try to commingle the dirty cash with legitimate businesses. So Marty is buying all these legitimate businesses, a strip joint, a funeral parlor and, you know, restaurants that take in a lot of cash are useful for that. If it is if you're laundering cash, if you're laundering crypto, it's it's less important, how little or how much. It's just, it's really hard to launder crypto, you know, the blockchain is immutable. And so, you know, if you ask a money laundering investigator, what's easier to track crypto transactions, or cash transactions, or, or you know, just even wire transfers through banks, they're gonna say, crypto is the easiest thing to track. Because we can see where it's going several steps ahead and behind we, we it's really hard to do that with bank transactions.

Nick VinZant 7:10

So Can people like spot the money launderers? Or do they basically have to find out that these people are criminals? And then they can find it? Does that make sense? Right, like, are you finding the criminals by finding the money laundering or you finding the criminal activity and then you find the money, money laundering,

Moyara Ruehsen 7:31

it happens both ways. Sometimes, you know, we you find the money launder, and then from that you find the criminal, but more often than not, and I tell this to my students, because, you know, when they study financial crime, they learn how the criminals do it. Right. And, you know, my students are already vetted just before they even get into the program. So I'm not concerned that they're gonna go to the dark side, but just in case, they might consider that as a profession, I tell them, you can be the best money launderer in the world in terms of the techniques that you're using. But that's not going to help you, thanks to our plea bargain system. Because all of your clients are criminals. And, you know, are you going to trust them? When they get caught in their different crimes, they can reduce their sentence by, you know, turning other people in? And often the first person they turn in is the money launderer who isn't their cousin or nephew or sister.

Nick VinZant 8:40

So are there types of telltale signs that you say like, oh, that's a sign that's a sign this is off, right? Are there telltale signs, that kind of spot that money laundering is happening?

Moyara Ruehsen 8:52

Oh, yes, yes, fact. But it's going to depend on what type of crime we're talking about. So there are red flag indicators of, you know, financial crime transactions related to human trafficking, for example, for instance, credit card transactions, for example, that are indicative of human trafficking. There are red flag indicators of trade based money laundering, you know, over invoicing or under invoicing or false invoicing of trade transactions. There are red flag indicators of money laundering associated with proliferation, debt WMD proliferation financing, and so it really depends on you know, what type of crime we're considering. The red flag indicators are going to be very different. And so as an investigator, you have to basically study What all those different red flag indicators are? And then you have to develop your, your gut instincts. And be curious if something just doesn't seem right. There's something a little bit odd about it. Well look into it. Be curious. I tell people, if you want to really be a great investigator, the number one quality is curiosity.

Nick VinZant 10:26

For kind of an examples sake, let's say that it's a drug cartel or somebody laundering drug money, like what would those kind of red flags be that jump out?

Moyara Ruehsen 10:36

Yeah, okay. Well, if it is, let's say it's cash sales, which, you know, it's still happening, people are still using cash to pay for drugs, although some of that activity has migrated to the dark web. But, you know, street sales for drugs are still often in cash. And when they try to deposit that cash with a bank, let's say, they're going to have different front company accounts that they might deposit that money into. But they're also going to try to deposit underneath that $10,000 threshold, if you deposit more than $10,000 Cash, then you have to fill out what's called a currency transaction report. And it's a pain in the neck, and it asks you for a lot of information, and you have to provide your identification. And, you know, nobody wants to do that, especially not a criminal. So they make those deposits under $10,000. But let's say that, you know, you don't want to deposit $9,999, right, that's going to be obvious and raise red flag to red flags. So you're going to deposit, you know, on Monday, you're going to deposit, you know, $5,671, and on Tuesday, you're going to deposit $7,823. And on Wednesday, you're going to deposit $6,544, etc. And you're going to go to the bank and saying yeah, these are the cash receipts from my restaurant chain, or you know, whatever your excuses. But it's gonna look suspicious that you are making all these multiple deposits between, you know, two and $10,000. And unless you've been doing that for the past 20 years, and everybody knows about your successful restaurant chain, when COVID happened, and every all the restaurants shut down, that was a big problem. The money launderers couldn't use restaurant receipts anymore as as you know, excuse an excuse for depositing dirty cash. So it you know, there's that and you know, they're also going to a good bank will also look into your restaurant. Know, they'll check and see whether or not this is a thriving business, and you're bringing in that much cash, which is these days very unusual. Most people don't pay in cash that often they'll use a credit card, for example.

Nick VinZant 13:31

Yeah, I would almost think that using cash at all, would be a red flag. Right? Like, I don't think I've carried it in. That's really interesting about like, COVID. And restaurant receipts, like what? Oh, wow. So is it hard to catch people? Because on one hand, I see like, how could you not get caught? And on the second hand, I'm like, Well, how could you get caught? Like I feel both ways at the same time?

Moyara Ruehsen 13:59

Mm hmm. Yeah, a lot of these money launderers get caught because their criminal clients turn them in, in order to negotiate a lighter sentence. But what often happens too, is that the the money mules get caught. So for example, let's say you see an ad online that says you can make money from home which you know, a lot of people are interested in, it's many people lost their jobs during COVID. They thought, oh, I can make $100 a day for just, you know, two hours of work working from home. Sure, what do I need to do? And they might say, well, you know, what we're going to do, we're running a new company, and we need someone to help us process our payments. But basically what they're doing is they're moving their criminal money through your bank account and They're gonna give you maybe a commission 5% commission on all the money they move for your account. Sometimes these are scams and but sometimes really all you're doing is just, you know, moving the money through your account on their behalf, because you are less suspicious. And this has been a huge problem. I think just in the last two, really, since COVID. It's exploded the recruitment of people to act as money, mules, and some, and they'll also hire foreign students, for example, who are here, just temporarily, and then say to them, oh, you know, don't close your account. I will pay you for whatever money is left in your account, and then a little extra. And so we'll use that foreign students account to, you know, move the criminal money through

Nick VinZant 15:54

so people can get like recruited to, yeah, money launderers through classified ads in the paper, basically,

Moyara Ruehsen 16:01

well, and online on websites. Absolutely. And it's happening all the time. So what, what happens to those people? Well, the bank will likely notice this unusual activity, and they'll notify you and saying, we've noticed some unusual activity in your account. And most people, once they get a notification like that, they'll try to stop doing what they're doing. Hopefully, they're not being threatened or pressured by the criminals. But some people keep doing it. Because it may be it's good money. And then you might be contacted by, you know, FBI or some other law enforcement agency until you know, we believe that your money is being used to move I mean, your account is being used to move criminal funds. And then hopefully, they'll stop and say, Oh, I didn't realize that, you know, maybe they suspected but it's like, oh, gosh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And they stop, and that's fine. They're not going to be prosecuted. It's the people who don't stop even after a couple of warnings that, you know, have a letter of law come down on them. But the criminals realize that eventually, this unusual activity is going to be noticed. And either those accounts will be closed, or something, people will look into it. And so they may only use these money mules for a short period of time, and then they have to recruit more, so they're constantly having to recruit new money, mules.

Nick VinZant 17:44

So but once it's laundered, is it clean, clean, clean, like, Okay, we did it, we accomplished it, we didn't get through the money's good to go, or is it always kind of a little bit dirty,

Moyara Ruehsen 17:56

it's always kind of a little bit dirty. It by that time, you're, what you're doing is you're trying to move the money through multiple accounts, maybe in multiple jurisdictions, then use it to buy property, for example, and then sell that property. And then, you know, by the time the property has been sold, and you have, you know, cash in your account, but looks like it's from a legitimate property sale, tracing that back to the original crime, which might be you know, 10 transactions earlier, is going to be really difficult for law enforcement to to follow.

Nick VinZant 18:49

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? I am new tricks, or is it the same old tricks?

Moyara Ruehsen 18:57

Hmm. New Tricks, NF T's. I can't imagine that anybody would invest in an NF T. But they are a money launderers dream. And there's a lot of self dealing, you know, people sell NF T's to themselves or their criminal associates as a way to, you know, disguise these these money laundering transactions.

Nick VinZant 19:30

Hit had never thought of that, right? Because how could you essentially trace it? Mm hmm. Right, like, well, and you could essentially make up whatever it's worth, like this picture of my high school diploma, I have decided is worth $3 million.

Moyara Ruehsen 19:45

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. People do it with any kind of art. But with NF T's in particular, I think I think we're starting to see an uptick in that.

Nick VinZant 19:55

Can they stop it? Or is it like, huh, we got you Yeah,

Moyara Ruehsen 20:00

it's too early to tell, I'm sure that there have been some suspicious NFT transactions that are being investigated. But I don't know that we've seen any prosecutions as yet. But it's only a matter of time.

Nick VinZant 20:17

We kind of talked about this one a little bit, but this one just says, I don't know why our audience is speaking in shorthand code, but hard to find hard to prove. Or we might laundering I guess which one would be harder? Is it harder to find it? Or is it harder to prove it? Kind of the idea of like, Look, I know you stole my candy bar, but I can prove that you stole my candy bar. Which one? Do you think it usually is?

Moyara Ruehsen 20:40

It sounds like the same thing.

Nick VinZant 20:44

It does kind of I guess in this example, well, we will write that person back and tell them to think

Moyara Ruehsen 20:52

of a better, but is it is it all idea is you need to somehow trace that money that's being moved to the original crime? That and that's tricky. It can be done and it is done. But you know, it's it's time consuming. And it's complicated.

Nick VinZant 21:12

Do people ever tried to launder money for completely illegal

Moyara Ruehsen 21:16

activities? You don't need to Why would you do it? It doesn't make any sense.

Nick VinZant 21:21

Like it doesn't get you through taxes? Or some there's not some kind of loophole where somebody might be trying to think of like, well, if I take these restaurant tips, and I do this, then maybe I don't have to report it. Is there any real game so

Moyara Ruehsen 21:33

that is that's tax evasion. And that is a crime. But that is a separate crime from money laundering. In a lot of other parts of the world, if you are moving money for the purposes of tax evasion, they count that as money laundering, and they charge you with, you know, tax evasion and money laundering. But in the US, I think for historical reasons. We have a separate set of legal statutes for tax evasion.

Nick VinZant 22:02

This question is near and dear to my heart, because I used to live in Tucson, Arizona, and I swear, that that has more mattress firms build mattress stores, or this one just asked our mattress stores always money laundering fronts, because I have never seen a single person in a mattress store and there's 40 in my hometown.

Moyara Ruehsen 22:25

Yeah, yeah. Wow. 40 in their hometown. That's a lot.

Nick VinZant 22:29

If you've ever seen Tucson, Arizona, it's basically a college and 300 mattress stores. It's unbelievable. Like nobody knows what's going on. But I mean, are there certain types of businesses that kind of lend itself to like, oh, that might be? That's a little suspicious.

Moyara Ruehsen 22:46

Yeah, well, that many mattress stores? Yes, I would be suspicious. Again, when you think about traditional crimes, like drug trafficking, it you want cash intensive businesses, and I don't know that people are paying for mattresses with cash necessarily. So I would say a restaurant chain would be your best bet, like points or models for breaking bad reference. But, uh, but sure you, again, not everybody's using cash now. So we're using, you know, credit card payments and other kinds of payments. And if it's part of a longer money laundering, change? Sure. You know, it could be mattress stores, it could be anything.

Nick VinZant 23:34

Um, are there certain parts of the country or the world in which are kind of notorious for it? Hmm.

Moyara Ruehsen 23:41

It depends on what stage of the money laundering process we're talking about. So obviously, they're, they're in the early stages, the money laundering process, you're going to see that in places where there's a lot of criminal activity. If if it's using shell companies, for example, in the layering process, which is like the middle stage of money laundering. One of the easiest places to set up a shell company anonymously is in the United States, unfortunately, Nevada and Wyoming, in particular Delaware, as well but Delaware, I've heard that they are starting to collect beneficial ownership information on their the people who are setting up shell companies, London is still a really easy place to set up a shell company and and money launderers. Use those shell companies all the time, the more the better. And sometimes they'll just use it for a short period of time and then set up a new shell company. So I would say, you know, the US and the UK, unfortunately, are places that are at and abetting this type of criminal activity, but you'll also see money laundering take place in jurisdictions where there aren't many regulations. So for example, cryptocurrency exchanges that are, you know, licensed and registered in, you know, Europe and North America are really well regulated. And they have compliance departments that do, you know, criminal investigations all the time. But a cryptocurrency exchange in Moldova, you know, the probably not well regulated. I don't want to pick on Moldova, but I mean, just in other jurisdictions where you don't have a lot of enforcement. And for that matter, maybe even there's nothing to enforce, because there aren't any laws and regulations to stop these, you know, money service businesses from doing what they're doing.

Nick VinZant 26:01

Most famous example that you can think of like, and then most egregious example, and I think what they mean by that, and like, what was the biggest case? And then what was the one was like, gosh, man, you were just trying to get caught?

Moyara Ruehsen 26:18

Oh, there have been plenty of those where, you know, especially criminals that really want to flaunt their wealth. And, you know, they buy the red Maserati and drive around, make a lot of noise and show and, you know, they're attracting attention to themselves. So, yeah, I immediately think, oh, my gosh, you know, you were just trying to get caught when I hear about cases like that, but probably the most famous case, I think is one that your audience has never heard of. There was a Pakistani money launderer called Altaf nanny, who was, by the way, ultimately convicted and did serve time in a US prison and was only recently released within the last year, I think he is he was released early, and His sentence was relatively light. So I'm I suspect that he shared information about some of his criminal clients as part of his plea bargain. But he ran an extensive money laundering operation across the globe. And he laundered money for Mexican drug cartels for terrorist organizations, for biker gangs in Australia who were you know, selling meth, and word got out amongst, you know, criminal organizations that, oh, if you want your money laundered, he's the go to where that organization is the go to place to do it, because they were so cheap, you know, they would do it for less than a 5% commission. And they were able to do that because of economies of scale, since he had this network of money exchangers and Hawala DARS, which are also acting as money exchangers all over the world. And he also had, the hierarchy of the organization was well set up. So for example, let's say you're the Australian biker gang, in the meth business, you don't really know you know, who is in that organization, you're just handing off your dirty money to a mule who's going to collect it, or cash Korea, we call them cash for years. That cash courier is then going to hand it off to another middleman who doesn't even know who the criminal client is. And and then that that middleman is going to hand it off to another broker, who's gonna then going to hand it off to the money exchanger. So the money exchanger doesn't know where this money is coming from, either. And, you know, by dividing it up like that, if somebody gets caught, they really don't have enough Intel to share with law enforcement on you know, how this organization is set up. And then eventually, again, through this extensive global network of operators involved in this money laundering operation, eventually, the money would be wired from some offshore shell company, straight into the accounts of Australian biker gang.

Nick VinZant 30:01

How much do you know how much like he they estimate that he did? How much worth he did? Oh,

Moyara Ruehsen 30:07

I'm sure it was in the 10s of billions if not hundreds of billions, but they're not going to necessarily determine that because that's not going to affect his sentence. They just have to look, prove, in at least one case that that his organization was responsible for that. And then the investigators are going to stop there because it's too much time and they don't need that for conviction.

Nick VinZant 30:34

He's not going to make it much longer, though, I would imagine.

Moyara Ruehsen 30:37

Well, nobody knows where he is right now. Some people think that he is, you know, hiding somewhere in Pakistan, but he he was operating out of Dubai, a professional money laundering will use multiple countries, when they're moving the money and trying to, to hide his origin. What interesting development we're seeing is now the emergence of professional Chinese money launderers who are working with Mexican drug trafficking organizations, go figure.

Nick VinZant 31:12

So global economy, I guess,

Moyara Ruehsen 31:14

well, economy,

Nick VinZant 31:15

here's some of the here's some of the lighter ones, I guess, um, best TV show or movie that accurately depicts how it's done.

Moyara Ruehsen 31:24

Hmm. Ozark is a good one. You mentioned that earlier, especially the first couple seasons in the latest season. They're very vague about it. You know, they're working with shell companies and doing keeping track of it on the computer. They're not just, it was just good. You don't want it to be a how to manual for criminals, right. But some of the challenges that Marty faces in the first couple of seasons are very real. So they're very, it's very realistic.

Nick VinZant 32:01

The ones that I can think of that maybe would be like, Breaking Bad. Flash Better Call Saul, the soprano is maybe I can

Moyara Ruehsen 32:09

No, no, not so much the Sopranos. Breaking Bad is pretty good. Yeah, they the chow? Yeah, I would say Ozark and Breaking Bad are probably the best. In terms of illustrating the challenges that a money launderer faces at one point in Breaking Bad. Walter White's wife is the one who is supposed to know how to do this. So she's trying to help him launder the proceeds from this meth business. And she can't do it quickly enough. And so she, she takes him to a rental locker where all this money is piled up. And she said, you know, here it is, I can't I can't move it through the carwash business fast enough without Oh, yeah, red flags popping up.

Nick VinZant 33:04

That does seem like the issue, right. Like, eventually, there's just too much money involved, that there's just how can you do that? So much, you know, and that kind of, is there any TV show or movie that you that that's like, Oh, God, these people got that wrong?

Moyara Ruehsen 33:22

Yeah. I would say, anytime you see a TV show or movie, and it's happening less now, but in the past, you know, a decade ago or, you know, even older than that, where somebody opens up a briefcase, and, you know, says, Here's your $5 million. Mr. Bond, you know that there's no way you can fit $5 million into a briefcase. It's true.

Nick VinZant 33:54

Okay, put your feet to the fire on this one. Question. If you personally were to start laundering money, how long before you think you would get caught? Huh? Could you get away with it? Do you think using your expertise? Could you do it?

Moyara Ruehsen 34:18

Well, I think that I would know how to do it well, okay. But what I couldn't do is trust my criminal clients. You know, that it's no matter how well I do it. In terms of avoiding detection. My criminal clients can always turn me in.

Nick VinZant 34:40

That's pretty much all the questions that we got. Is there anything that you think that we missed or

Moyara Ruehsen 34:44

defi? Oh, let's

Nick VinZant 34:46

define what is

Moyara Ruehsen 34:47

a centralized finance and web 3.0. I think that you're going to see criminals exploring that avenue as as a way to hide and launch Under money because right now it's not very well regulated.

Nick VinZant 35:03

That makes a lot of sense, right? Like, that's the what? I think whatever people don't even know what it really is yet, then you've got the wild west there right

Moyara Ruehsen 35:12

right now and then people talk about privacy coins, as well, which, where you don't have a public blockchain where you can follow the money. And the problem there, though, is that it's really hard to launder those privacy coins. most reputable cryptocurrency exchanges are not going to exchange your privacy coins for Bitcoin or, you know, dollars. And, and so that's a problem. You know, you're not going to be able to buy a house, for example, if you're collecting your criminal revenue in the form of privacy coins.

Nick VinZant 35:51

But have you ever to kind of the existential question, right? Has Has the difficulty of money laundering ever stopped a criminal and the sense of like, well, I was gonna sell these drugs, but I can't launder the money. So I'm not.

Moyara Ruehsen 36:08

Not necessarily but what it does is it makes them jump through a lot of other hoops, it increases their cost of doing business, and it and they're going to start doing things that are suspicious that makes it easier for them to get caught. So maybe we can't catch them selling the drugs and smuggling the drugs. But we might maybe even be easier to catch them trying to launder the money.

Nick VinZant 36:35

It’s exposure.

Moyara Ruehsen

Mm hmm.