Olympic Decathlete Heath Baldwin is on a mission to prove he’s the best athlete in the world. The Michigan State Track and Field Star just won the Olympic Trials and now he’s getting ready for the Paris 2024 Olympics. We talk training for the Decathlon, what makes the Decathlon so difficult and why he brings nearly a dozen pairs of shoes to the track. Then, in honor of our six year anniversary, we countdown the Top 5 Meats of All Time.
Heath Baldwin: 01:17
Pointless: 24:27
Top 5 Meats: 35:44
Interview with Team USA Olympic Decathlete Heath Baldwin
Nick VinZant 0:00
Nick, welcome to profoundly pointless. My name is Nick vinzant, coming up in this episode the world's best athletes and meet you
Heath Baldwin 0:21
have to be good at everything. You can't be bad at anything. I think that's what makes it so special. I don't know what to compare it to. I don't think there's anything you really can it takes, like, a week or two to recover from it, and it's crazy. Like in Paris, it's going to be, I'll be there from like 6am to 12, like midnight the next night, and then we start again at six the next day.
Nick VinZant 0:42
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. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So I want to get right to our first guest, because right now he's busy getting ready for the Paris 2024, Olympics in one of the hardest events in the entire competition. This is Olympic decathlete Heath Baldwin. So did you start out like I want to be in decathlon, or was this something that kind of happened? Yeah,
Heath Baldwin 1:22
it was kind of something that happened. I just started tracking to myself sophomore year of high school, and then I started off by doing the short and long hurdles, and then high jump on jump, and I was pretty good at all those events. So then college coaches kind of started recruiting me, just based off the fact that I was, like, ranked as one of the top people in the state, like multiple events, and I played a lot of different sports and stuff in high school as well. So they just saw their athleticism, and then they all thought I'd be a good fit for the decathlon. Is
Nick VinZant 1:51
it more just pure raw like athletic ability, or is it more? No, you have the technique to learn all of these different things. It's
Heath Baldwin 2:00
definitely a combination of everything. You kind of need everything in the decathlon, like, there's events that are, I mean, you're never going to be a good Cafe unless you have, like, pure athleticism. But like, you also need to be, like, very technical with a lot of different things. There's events that are more like athletic based, like hard jump and like long jump, and then, like, straight speed. And then there's other events, like the hurdles, like where you have to be very technical, the pole vault, the discus, like, stuff like that.
Nick VinZant 2:28
Were you when you started out? Were you more kind of the raw athlete that had to learn the technical stuff? Or they were you more on the technical side and had to build up the athleticism? I
Heath Baldwin 2:37
would say I was definitely more athletic. I've always been able to I was, like, always been a really good jumper. Um, it took me a while to to learn how to sprint. I would say I didn't really, like, get great at sprinting until the past two years. Um, so that's something that took a while. But I, like, always had a lot of bounce in my legs, and I was always a great jumper. And that's something you can't really teach a lot of people. If you're ever going to teach somebody to be a seven one high jumper, if they start at like six feet, when we
Nick VinZant 3:03
kind of compare it. So you're doing this in the 100 or the 200 like, how far off are Olympic athlete, Olympic decathletes from World Records, from like, the people who are specifically competing in just that sport?
Heath Baldwin 3:17
Yeah, pretty far off. Like, even my best events are still pretty far off people that only do like, the high jump, or only do the javelin, like, it's pretty significant. But like, What's crazy about the decathlon is, like, we're, like, not world class, but like, really, really good at like, you have to be good at everything. You can't be bad at anything. And I think that's what makes it so special.
Nick VinZant 3:42
Would you say that, like, in each individual event, you could be a really good college athlete in just that event. To put
Heath Baldwin 3:50
it on the perspective, like, to score at the Big 10 championship, you have to be in the top eight. And a lot of schools in the Big 10 go like, if you score at Big 10s, like you get you should be on a scholarship through that one event. I scored six different events. So I guess that kind of puts it in a perspective,
Nick VinZant 4:07
could you have qualified or be up at the kind of the top in the world in just one event, if you focused solely on that?
Heath Baldwin 4:16
I think it's hard to say. I don't think I would ever want to do that. But I mean, if I had been doing it for the past five years, then potentially maybe, but yeah, I feel like that's just something that's kind of hard to determine.
Nick VinZant 4:28
How do you train for 10 events? Like, are you just all day long every single day?
Heath Baldwin 4:36
Yeah, we train like three, four hours a day, but we kind of split everything up throughout the week, like usually throw on Wednesdays, we'll do like speed plyometric lift Monday, and then Tuesday is usually like a jump in that tempo workout. And then Thursday, we'll jump again and do another lift, and then Friday, we'll come back and do like speed endurance block works. Uh, approaches and like, a lift. So it's just, like, spread out. You kind of just hit what you need to hit. But we try to touch, like, at least something in each event. Every single week.
Nick VinZant 5:11
Are all of the events kind of complementary to each other? And like, Okay, if you're training the 100, you're kind of training the 200 or to some of them directly contradictory, where if you try to get too good at this, it's going to hurt your performance in the other event,
Heath Baldwin 5:25
yeah, a little bit. Um, so all the events, like, if you get stronger, faster, more explosive, then you're going to get better every single event. So that's like the main theme of our training. I would say we're just always trying to get faster and stronger, more explosive, because that's going to help with all 10 events. There's some events where it's like, there's really no point in, like, trying to get way better at like, for example, the 1500 like, if you just train distance, it's just gonna fuck up or mess up all your speed endurance stuff. And it's like the benefit is way lower than the cost on your training schedule. But the way that we train, we try to kind of do things in the order of events sometimes. So I'll do like a fertile session, then throw discus after, which is like the same order as in the decaf on. Or sometimes we'll do like a discus session, then throw full world after, like, stuff like that.
Nick VinZant 6:16
Do you train the 1500 like, will you actively train the 1500 or is that just when that comes, like, I'm just going to go for this and see what happens, I'll
Heath Baldwin 6:25
do like a tempo workout every, like two weeks. So like we do, like endurance stuff, but like, I'm not training for the 1500 more than, like once a week, or once every two weeks. Yeah,
Nick VinZant 6:36
it seems like that's the more the most mental aspect of it. Like, just keep going,
Heath Baldwin 6:41
yeah, by the time you get to the 1500s kind of just, you know what you need to run, you know you need to beat. So it's kind of just a mental thing at that point,
Nick VinZant 6:50
when you do 10 events like that, 10 events over two days, like are you physically exhausted by the end of it?
Heath Baldwin 6:56
Yeah, you're dead. It's, I don't know what to compare it to. Compare it to. I don't think there's anything you really can it takes like a week or two to recover from it. But yeah, it's it takes a lot out of your body. Usually don't do more than like three a year, just because it really it fucks up your body pretty badly. And you kind of just have to you you take like a week off training before to, like, get your body fresh. Then you do the decathlon, and you have to take, like, another week or two off. So it's like a three week thing every time you do one. Basically, how
Nick VinZant 7:27
come it has such a big effect on you? Is it just because you're going that hard that many times? Or is it the changing nature of the events that, like all of this is too much? I
Heath Baldwin 7:39
mean, it's because you're like, you go to the to the track for perspective. I mean, you'll get there at eight o'clock, and then you'll leave at maybe like eight or 10 the same day. So you're there for 13 hours. You go to bed, and then you get probably, like six, five hours of sleep, and you come back and you're there for at the track for like 14 more hours. So it's just like a lot mentally draining and physically as well. I mean, doing 10 different events, and you got some really hard ones in there, 400 1500 hurdles, 100, um, it's just a lot. And having to warm up 10 times, having to compete 10 times, um, it takes a lot of energy out, out of you.
Nick VinZant 8:19
Is there a strategy to it? Like, will you ever say, Listen, I know we got 10 events, but I'm going to take this one off to save some energy and then get the next one.
Heath Baldwin 8:28
No, there's no strategy like that. You have to go hard in every event now. So I bring you good there's, like, no point in saving the energy.
Nick VinZant 8:36
How is it scored? Are you competing again? You're trying to beat the other people. You're trying to beat a point system.
Heath Baldwin 8:42
Oh, well, you're trying to, it's a little bit of both. Everything is off of a scoring table. So no matter like, however fast you run, or however far you jump, however far you throw, it goes into a scoring cable of like the mark, and then you get a certain amount of points. And then as you go, you they keep adding up your points, and whoever has the most points once in competition, that
Nick VinZant 9:05
makes sense, right? You're competing against other people at the individual meet, but competing for records against the scoring table. Yeah, exactly. Does everybody do the same events at the same time? Like, it's not like, Oh, my order's bad. And I got this one, this one, this one, it's the
Heath Baldwin 9:20
exact same order every single time. And you you all you do every single event together, you
Nick VinZant 9:25
seem much younger than some of the other decathletes. Yep. Is that unusual to be this good, this young?
Heath Baldwin 9:33
Yeah, I think maybe a little bit, um, I feel like the prime age for decathletes is like 27 to 29 I think, um, just because there's so many events to learn that you're just like, constantly improving as you go, as you get older and the more experience you have. I think experience is a really big thing in decathlon, just because there's, like, an endless amount of things to keep improving on with all the disciplines. But yeah, I think so. I think I'm only a second collegiate person. In the decathlon to qualify for the Olympic team. And, yeah, like one of the youngest people score above 86 so I think I have a lot of room to improve still. But yeah, definitely lucky to have this opportunity and get some experience going into this meet.
Nick VinZant 10:18
Does that create any, for lack of a better word, like issues with some of the other decathletes that you know you're might be five, six years younger than than they are.
Heath Baldwin 10:29
Yeah, I don't know. Um, if it does, I don't really care, because they lost to me, so That's their fault. But, yeah, if they have a problem with that, then they need to be me next time. So that's all.
Nick VinZant 10:42
Did you think that you were going to win the US trials, like, were you favored coming in? Or was it a little bit of a surprise?
Heath Baldwin 10:48
No, I wasn't favored coming in. I was I had the fourth best PR, but we all had pretty close scores. I think we're all within like 100 points of each other, so I knew I was in really good shape going in, and some of those guys haven't had it done the decathlon yet this year, just because they're older, so they're opening up at the trials. So I think, yeah, I had a lot of experience competing throughout the whole collegiate season, like I've been competing since indoor season in January for the NCAA. So I kind of like, know where I'm at, and I have a good idea of where I was going to be in the competition, and I felt pretty confident I would have a chance to win.
Nick VinZant 11:28
What was that like winning?
Heath Baldwin 11:31
I don't know. It's stuff sinking in. It's kind of crazy. Yeah, I think every every meet I've gone into this year, my goal has been to win, I feel like I'm just a really competitive person, so I think I had a pretty good sense of self belief going into it, like, I thought I had a pretty good shot, but then, like, actually went in was like, pretty crazy. Whole different, different thing. Like, when you actually do it, I think I'm still, like, kind of coming down from it, but, yeah, it's kind of a unreal experience.
Nick VinZant 12:00
When did you realize you had it wrapped up like, Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna win this.
Heath Baldwin 12:04
I knew I had a really good chance to win after pole vault, because I pole vaulted pretty well, and I was down about 100 100 points going into the javelin, which is, like, my best event. So I knew I was gonna make up all those points in the Javelin on the guy ahead of me, and then going into the 1500 I was like, 10 points up on them, and I knew that was a better 1500 runner than him. So I just kind of knew that I was in complete control, like I got to determine things. I just couldn't let him beat me. So
Unknown Speaker 12:32
is it pretty
Nick VinZant 12:33
consistent? And the only thing that I could compare it to, right? Would be like, All right, the 100 meters. You kind of know who the fastest person is, versus golf where, like, man, it could be anybody. Is it a pretty consistent or can, like, you're, I might be this this week and I might be 12th next week.
Heath Baldwin 12:49
Yeah, it depends on the person. I feel like. I've been consistent all year long with my marks. But yeah, a lot of people are really inconsistent, and it is hard to be consistent when you have to be. I mean, like, when you're scoring 86 points, like you have to be good at you have to do well in every every event 10 times in a row. So like, you fuck one thing up and your scores just you're not going to recover from
Nick VinZant 13:11
it. So like, on an average event, how many points do you usually score?
Heath Baldwin 13:16
Oh, yeah. So I guess I average 860 points since I scored 8600
Nick VinZant 13:21
points. And what's the most you can score in an
Heath Baldwin 13:26
event? I don't even know. It's kind of like unlimited I think, I think I don't. I've never seen anybody score above 1100 points in an event. I score 1000 I scored 1000 points in the hurdles. That's my best event.
Nick VinZant 13:39
Hurdles is your best event. That kind of leads us into some in terms of points, yeah. Listener submitted questions, are you ready for some harder slash? Listener submitted questions, let's do it. Hardest event, easiest event. Um, the
Heath Baldwin 13:53
hardest event for me has been the pole vault, definitely, just because it's, I mean, you get to the seventh event, and you're exhausted, and you have to jump on these, like, 16 foot stiff poles at full speed. So just doing that, like, when you're super tired and super technical, it's it's a lot, and you have to, like, really lock back in and find some energy for that event.
Nick VinZant 14:19
By which event Do you usually start feeling tired?
Heath Baldwin 14:25
Oh, that's a good question. Probably like the high jump. I would say, which is the fourth event?
Nick VinZant 14:30
Oh, that quick, huh? Yeah, it
Heath Baldwin 14:33
hits you pretty quick, because it's more just like, by the time you hit the get to high jump, you've been, like, on your feet, standing around for like, six hours.
Nick VinZant 14:41
Oh, there's that. Why is there so much waiting? You just gotta Well, when you
Heath Baldwin 14:45
get to the big meets, you'll do like, the first three events, and it'll take like, two and a half hours, three hours, and then they'll have, like, they have breaks between, like, the morning session and the evening session. Like, it's not just continuous, so you have to go fucking, like, sit. Under the track for three hours and wait for the next event, then you have to warm up again, and it's crazy. Like in Paris, it's going to be, I'll be there from like 6am to 12, like midnight the next night, and then we start again at six the next day. This seems
Nick VinZant 15:16
like there should be a better way to do that, or is that one of those things, like, no that really, that's just kind of how it has to be
Heath Baldwin 15:21
done. So like at smaller meets, like Big 10 championship like, they'll, they'll run it really well, and you'll only be there for like six or seven hours. But like at the bigger world championship meets, like with the TV schedules and everything, like, they have to line everything up perfectly, and then they it's just like part of the competition too at that point. Like, who can manage that the best
Nick VinZant 15:40
what event requires the most training? What event requires the least training? For you,
Heath Baldwin 15:47
most training, I would probably say the 400 you gotta do a lot of speed endurance training, like, if you want to be good at the 400 so you have to do a lot of, like, really hard running workouts when you're spreading at full speed and, like, hitting lactic acid. And then least amount of training for me, it's the javelin, just, just because it kind of comes naturally to me. I grew up as a baseball pitcher, so I've always had, like, a really good arm. So really, the only thing I have to work on for that is my approach. I don't really throw full speed with the javelin and practice often. So yeah, I would say that's what this can
Nick VinZant 16:18
mean. Is there, like, an ideal body type for a decathlete, like, you need to be this tall, you need to be this big in terms of weight.
Heath Baldwin 16:26
I mean, there's exceptions. But like, if you look at the three guys that made the team from the US, and like a lot of the other guys that I know, everybody's like, around six, four to six, eight, like above 200 pounds. So I got them six four, xymex, six, six, Harrison, six, six. Like, everybody's pretty big. That's
Nick VinZant 16:47
taller than I thought you were gonna say. I thought you were gonna say like six two to six four, because six to 668, like, that's tall. Well,
Heath Baldwin 16:54
yeah, the biggest guys are like six eight, but I would say like 6465
Nick VinZant 16:59
is like what most people are, what? Why is that beneficial?
Heath Baldwin 17:03
I mean, just height helps us with everything. Like, I think a lot of us are, like, 200 pounds, so, like, we're pretty lean, but we're also really strong. I mean, if you're taller, it's going to help with high jump, long jump, all the throws, being longer in the biscuits, having a longer wingspan helps with that. And also the javelin and the shot put, so and then, yeah, all the running. I mean, having a longer stride helps with that as well. So I think that's what it correlates to.
Nick VinZant 17:30
You gotta have, like, some leverage, slash whip kind of characteristics to your body. Yeah, you
Heath Baldwin 17:36
gotta have long levers if you wanna throw the disc as far. And same with the javelin.
Nick VinZant 17:39
How popular is this?
Heath Baldwin 17:43
No, probably not, not like the most popular, but I think it's definitely on the come up right now. Like, I feel like I've gotten a lot more attention over the past couple of years. And I think in Olympic years, people start to care about it a lot too, just because, yeah, there's, there's some pretty good history, I feel like, in the US Food decathlon, but yeah, in terms of track events, I mean, like, though there's a lot of people that follow it, like track fans. But other than that, we don't get as much coverage as we could, I think,
Nick VinZant 18:12
significantly older enough than you that I remember, like, the Dan and the Dave Days, yep. Do you think it could reach that level again? Because I remember those were, like, that was the biggest event at that Olympics, was the decathlon.
Heath Baldwin 18:26
I think it still is one of the bigger events. Like, I think a lot of people throughout the world follow the decathlon, especially in Europe. Track is a lot bigger there. I compete out of me in Germany last year. And, like, it was insane, the amount of fans there. But even at USA championships this past weekend, it was completely sold out, and there's, like, a lot a lot of people there flew the decathlon. So I think people are caring about it a lot more because it's an Olympic year, and I think they want to see the Americans do. Well, got
Nick VinZant 18:56
a lighter one for you. How many different pairs of shoes do you have to bring to the track?
Heath Baldwin 19:01
Yeah, that's a good question. So I have eight different pairs of spikes that I bring. I wear a different pair of shoes for every single event other than the spring events. I wear the same sprint spikes for those. And then I have trainers flip flops. So yeah, it's probably like upwards of 10. I
Nick VinZant 19:19
would imagine that you can spot like, the decathletes. Like, Oh, those are the decathletes, because they're carrying them out stuff. Yeah,
Heath Baldwin 19:25
we have suitcases full of shoes, and you gotta bring, like, snacks, extra shirts, like things to change into throughout the day.
Nick VinZant 19:32
How do other athletes feel about the decathletes? Like, do they look at you guys as the best athletes? Or, oh, yeah, but that guy can't even run a sub 10 100 meter. No,
Heath Baldwin 19:43
I think any track athlete that I mean most track athletes, once you get to this level, and you might College, like, when they like, look at your marks, they like, they have a lot of respect for you, because anybody that knows anything about track, like, if you look at like the top people's top decaf. Leads to marks. It's like, I think it's pretty crazy. If you know anything about track, like to think that one person is doing that well in 10 different events? Yeah,
Nick VinZant 20:07
I was looking at some of the results just online, right? And for the 100 meter, I think what Usain Bolt's like 958, and the decathlon record is like 10, three. But 10 three is still really fast. Yeah, it's
Heath Baldwin 20:20
really, really fast.
Nick VinZant 20:21
So like, looking at the Paris 2024, what do you kind of do you have, like, what's your plan going into it, that kind of stuff?
Heath Baldwin 20:32
Um, yeah, so I think my plan is kind of just to do the same thing I've been doing all year. I just treat it like any other meat. Um, try to go in there metal. Because I think I definitely can. I think it'll take about 8700 to get a medal, but I just want to have the best competition out of anybody in the field that's been like, one of the big things I've been thinking about all year, just trying to, like, out compete people, and just have the best energy out there. And I think it'll play to play to my advantage. Having a full stadium out there and a bunch of fans going crazy, I feel like I'm a big adrenaline guy, so like when I get adrenaline, that's mine, competing at my best. And I'm just going to try to find ways to use that to my advantage. Is
Nick VinZant 21:12
there a favorite in it, or is it anybody's thing?
Heath Baldwin 21:15
Yeah, it's Leo neugenbauer, who actually just graduated from Texas. He went 8950 or something, which is like the best score that's happened in like 20 years. So he's definitely favorited. But anything can happen in the decathlon. So that's kind of the fun thing about it. There's, like, many things that can go wrong and many things that can go right. So
Nick VinZant 21:41
this is last one man event you would take out, event you would add in. Definitely
Heath Baldwin 21:45
would take out the 1500 it's a 1500 just not fun at all. I think I'd add in the 400 hurdles. I've just always wanted to do the 400 meter hurdles. Think they look pretty fun, and I feel like I'd be pretty good
Nick VinZant 21:58
at does anybody like the 1500
Heath Baldwin 22:01
No, nobody likes a 1500 Yeah, it's terrible man. Like, it was just a normal 1500 it would be fine, but like, a 1500 when, like, you can barely stand and like you're exhausted, just like, it's terrible,
Nick VinZant 22:15
but they knew what they were doing. They organized it like that, right? It's not like, oh, well, I
Heath Baldwin 22:20
think that's what's good about it. Like, it's kind of like the final test to, like, see who, like, really deserves to be the winner. Like, who can, who can lock in in that moment, and just because everybody feels the same. So that's why I just kind of turns into, like, who's a dog? Do
Nick VinZant 22:36
you with the results? Do you think the sport would be completely different if they switch the order of events. Like, could it be completely different if no supposed to be the 400 but we're doing discus now,
Heath Baldwin 22:46
yeah, it would be, it would be entirely different, yeah, if they switch to the events, I feel like they're ordered perfectly. Like, if you put the 400 at the beginning of day one, it would be terrible. Like, you know, I mean, like, because after you run 400 you can't do anything. Your body's just fried. That's why they put out the end of the first day. Like the hardest things are at the end of each day, the 1500 and the 400 because nothing can really come after those. Can you make
Nick VinZant 23:13
a career out of being a decathlete? More than easier than you can make a career out of being, you know, 100 meter runner or a discus thrower or,
Heath Baldwin 23:24
um, yeah, it's definitely a hard earn track for the field events to make money. Um, like, obviously the most important. They're not the most important, but the most popular events are like the the 100 200 like the spreading events. Um, but if you're at the top of your event, like your field event, then there's definitely like opportunities for you. So luckily, like this kind of worked out well for me, and hopefully I'll have some opportunities here over the next couple months, which looks good, but, yeah, it's definitely harder in the field events, but I think the decathlon is probably one of the top two events, which is great.
Nick VinZant 24:01
I want to thank Heath so much for joining us. If you want to connect with him, we have linked to him on our social media sites. We're profoundly pointless on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube, and we've also included his information in the episode description. And if you want to see him do some of these events, the YouTube version of this interview. Will be live on july 11, at 12:30pm Pacific. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. Okay, so how many secrets do you have that you would never tell anybody? You will carry these to your deathbed?
John Shull 24:41
Well, there's definitely one, but I'll say I don't know one to five, probably
Nick VinZant 24:46
one to five. I have two. I have two things that I would never tell anyone, not even my wife. Like I will carry those secrets to my grave.
John Shull 24:57
I mean, I have one for sure that I will never tell. Anybody other than the other people who were there. Obviously,
Nick VinZant 25:02
you're not going to say it, but what nature is it? Is it a personal thing? Is it illegal, or is it something that you did, that you really regret,
John Shull 25:13
something I did, that I absolutely regret?
Nick VinZant 25:17
Oh, I have three now that I think about it. Yeah, I have three secrets that I would never tell anybody,
John Shull 25:24
so that the one is that, and then the other two are, you know, crime related that a couple people know, but like, I will never openly share the, you know, those stories with anybody. I
Nick VinZant 25:37
I don't have any crime related I have no crime related secrets. Okay? One, no. Two are something that I did. One isn't bad. One is like a thing that I would just not tell somebody, like I saw something before somebody else saw something, and I couldn't bear to tell them. I wouldn't want to tell them that, that's what happened. So poll the audience, 12% of people said none. 77% of people said one to five. 5% of people said five to 10. 7% of people said more than 10. I feel like, if you've got more than 10 secrets, you're pushing it a little bit like, Oh, you, I mean, you gotta, you gotta make some changes to your life if you've got more than 10 secrets. I mean, especially,
John Shull 26:24
you know, secrets that you do don't want anyone else to know. I mean, that's, that's a if you can count on both digits, you know, fingers and both hands, Yeah, something's wrong. Like, that's not good.
Nick VinZant 26:36
Do you have any secrets involving multiple people? Like, in order for this secret to be held to the grave, everybody has to keep their mouth shut.
John Shull 26:45
Uh, only one, one out of my three.
Nick VinZant 26:49
That's exactly what I have. Is one out one out of my three, three. I need four, maybe five other people to never say a word. It wasn't illegal, it wasn't really even immoral. It was just one of those things. Like, those things like, oh, let's never, ever, ever. And it wasn't that kind of thing either, right? Like it wasn't sexual. It was just one of those things like, Let's never tell anybody about this ever, and we have to make a pact right here and now to never speak of this.
John Shull 27:18
And has it ever been spoken? Probably not right, other than that time. No,
Nick VinZant 27:22
no, no, we've, I don't think that anybody has talked about it in 10 plus years, and it could be a question if some people even remember
John Shull 27:33
that's fair, that's absolutely but once, but once
Nick VinZant 27:37
it was brought up, people would definitely remember, like, Oh, I do remember that. Like, Oh, yeah. Let's never, let's never talk about that again.
John Shull 27:45
So we're going to start with Dwayne Hayes, Waylon, Jennings. I don't think there's any, any, any relation Tony bones. I like a good bones, you know, like Jimmy bones, Tommy bones,
Nick VinZant 28:00
only if it's a skinny guy. It's gotta be a skinny guy. You can't be like, or ironic that somebody's like 400 plus and they're going to be named bones. But you can't just be an average dude named bones. That's not going to work out for you.
John Shull 28:13
Paul Anderson, let's see here. James Anderson, two Andersons within 10 people of each other. That's that's a little weird. DJ Rex. Gotta love DJ Rex. Big fan, okay.
Nick VinZant 28:28
Tom Brock's that no DJ Rex, no.
John Shull 28:34
Have no idea who that is actually, but I'm sure they're fantastic, hopefully or not. Mike Lindeman, Halston Atwell and Adam Stumpf, all of you get the kudos for the week. So I figured, for those of you who don't know this, this is the, I don't think this is technically our six year anniversary, but this is our sixth year of doing this podcast. Yeah, it's crazy. Because we started in July of 2018
Nick VinZant 29:06
I actually love this. And for some reason, the calendar worked out that we the six year anniversary, will launch on the exact same day that we started. If that makes any sense. Oh, hell, I'm not gonna elaborate, because I don't. I can't explain it without sounding even stupider. Oh, well,
John Shull 29:21
I don't think you sound stupid, but I get what you're saying. Oh, thank you. So anyway, so I did some research here, and I thought it would be a little fun, maybe boring to our audience, but I thought they could get to know us a little better. Okay, and you know, we you and I go back, way back before the podcast even started. I mean back, but years. So I went back, thanks to social media, and I found some photos, and I was able to correlate the month and the dates, and there's some significant moments that maybe we have forgotten about. So let's start October of 2011 that was the first time that you and I. I hung out. Yeah, it was at your Halloween party.
Nick VinZant 30:05
Oh, yeah, that's where that was my wife and I first, was we using my wife then, but that's when we started dating, yeah,
John Shull 30:11
and I broke her or your MacBook with but because you told me I wasn't a pitcher, and I threw it and I knocked it off the counter or something. Yeah, and then if, if I'm not mistaken you, I replaced it, but then you gave me my money back or something, or like you wouldn't let me replace it,
Nick VinZant 30:28
but, oh no, they gave me a refund on something, but that's so you gave me a certain amount of money and it ended up being cheaper, and then I returned it, because that's what you do when, like, You're a good friend, see.
John Shull 30:37
But that's how it started. So october 2011 that's when the magic started. That's when the baby started getting made. And then march 2012 the last time I celebrated St Patrick's Day, was that you know St Patrick's 2012 with you and some guy, I forget his name, and our old roommate, Pete cagiano.
Nick VinZant 31:02
Oh. Pete Caggiano, gianno, who
John Shull 31:03
is now a meteorologist, I think, in Honolulu so doing something June 2012, the only time of my life where I've eaten toiletries. I ate a napkin at the bar. If you remember that,
Nick VinZant 31:17
no, it's my memory is not good about things. I live in the present and the future. I don't generally live in the past.
John Shull 31:23
Well, apparently it's also the same month that I did a dare with malt vinegar from you, where I did a shot of it. It's disgusting, man. Uh, September of 2012 apparently you and I were playing with your sword on your balcony, and we're slicing fruit in half and throwing it onto the street.
Nick VinZant 31:45
Somebody's commented in our live stream chat. I'm completely distracted.
John Shull 31:47
Oh, that's fine. Uh, March 2013 you and I attended the Comic Con together at the Orange County Convention.
Nick VinZant 31:55
You gonna? Are you gonna do every single event of our entire lives? I only
John Shull 31:59
picked eight. There's too many. I only could pick eight,
Nick VinZant 32:01
but what did you pick the highlights? Or did you pick the first eight? Because I feel like you picked the first eight and then just forgot about all of the other ones.
John Shull 32:09
No, I have them. I mean, 2011 through 2014 were our glory years, but there's a couple that aren't in those years. Okay, all right, why aren't you just enjoying this? Why aren't
Nick VinZant 32:21
you just I'm just wondering how long it's gonna take. It's like, Mike, are we going through every single No, year that we've ever known each other? Are we hitting the highlights? I just want to prepare myself. I need, I've noticed this recently, that I need to be more mentally prepared for what is happening in my life. I
John Shull 32:36
mean, I can't wing it like those around you.
Nick VinZant 32:41
Oh, well, yeah, that's a that's a valid criticism. I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily agree disagree with that.
John Shull 32:47
I mean, listen, look at Omar. Omar Tariq, you'll never know when your break will come. So just keep going. You guys are extremely fun to watch. See. Thank you. Omar little positivity, it's always
Nick VinZant 33:02
good to be positive.
John Shull 33:03
Gotta be positive anyways,
Nick VinZant 33:05
unless it's like diseases, see, then you don't generally want to be positive. Have you ever had to really wait out, like, Oh my gosh. Am I gonna a really nervous situation? Yes. Like, am I gonna get fired? Am I gonna get a positive on this test, am I gonna this? Am I going to jail?
John Shull 33:23
Yes, actually, you
Nick VinZant 33:28
want to share?
John Shull 33:29
No, I don't about any of those instances. A secret that I will keep from you and our audience. Oh,
Nick VinZant 33:36
oh, I can figure out what that is, right? You knock somebody up. You weren't sure if you did or not. Anyways, I've never had that happen to me. Moving on,
John Shull 33:46
let's see.
Nick VinZant 33:48
Oh, okay, okay, that's a yes. That's April. John is a happily married man. April 13,
John Shull 33:53
we got stuck on a roller coaster together. Oh yeah. March, March of 18 was actually the last time you and I have seen each other in person?
Nick VinZant 34:03
No, not march of 2018 Yeah, so we started this show. No, that's not, that can't be, right?
John Shull 34:11
I mean, I couldn't find any evidence, because I got married in August of 16, which you came up for. You got married. So have before me. So your bachelor party would have been before that. When I came to Vegas, my wife and I came out to Phoenix,
Nick VinZant 34:27
that was in 2018 that was in 2018 so does that make us then online friends? Are we more online friends than we are in person friends?
John Shull 34:37
Maybe I like to think that we wouldn't have been if it wasn't for the pandemic and us living cross country, yeah,
Nick VinZant 34:44
we there's, there's weird things. Is like you run into difficult times in your life, or times in your life that just don't work out, like we had the pandemic, then we both had kids, and then your life is just swamped for 10 years or so. I just spit. All over the place. Attaboy. Attaboy. Yeah, it's actually sitting on the microphone. I'm looking at it. It's kind of disgusting.
John Shull 35:07
And these are things that would have normally been edited out of a recording, but it's live, so effort. Yeah, okay, yeah, that's it. See, that was nice and nice and smooth, man, that that was it. Just 678, things, but you had to shit on it. But I thought it would have been a nice trip down. I
Nick VinZant 35:23
just needed a reference point. I needed a reference point. That's all I was asking. I
John Shull 35:27
thought it would have been a nice thing for people. Our first ever YouTube Live show, and you have to go on and ruin it. Sorry.
Nick VinZant 35:36
That's what I do.
John Shull 35:38
Trust me, anyone who's listened to this longer than a week, knows so. So
Nick VinZant 35:43
this is the very first top five that we ever did. And every once in a while, like every big show milestone, will redo it again. So I think we did it for like 150 or whatever, or something like that. We've done it once before I know that. So this is Top Five meats. What's your number five? So
John Shull 36:06
as usual, I'm gonna, I'm gonna preface this with saying I get a little a little stingy, a little picky with with some of these. So don't hate me all you charcuterie board fans out there, but my number five, it's the only meat I think you have to include on the list, but it's chicken.
Nick VinZant 36:25
How can you have chicken? Is your number five?
John Shull 36:28
This is my personal preference, and though chicken is it's vital, and I it's probably the meat I eat the most of. It's just, it's not a it's not my favorite. Like, it's, it's like the it's on the list because it has to be on the top five list. It has to be, I
Nick VinZant 36:45
don't know how chicken can be at number five, like that is with I'll get into this later, but I don't understand how you can have chicken at number five. My number five is Turkey, but specifically only deli meat, Turkey. I think only deli meat, Turkey is good. Turkey, all the rest of it, forget it. I could care less Thanksgiving. Could care less,
John Shull 37:09
I mean, but I feel like if you're gonna put deli meats on there, okay, deli meat, Turkey, yeah, I don't know if that's not a top five meat solitary by any stretch of the imagination. Oh,
Nick VinZant 37:21
I think it's but it's Turkey, but only like the deli meat version of the turkey.
John Shull 37:27
No, okay, can't do it, man,
Nick VinZant 37:29
okay, okay.
John Shull 37:32
Uh, my number four is, I'm gonna go with pulled pork as my number four.
Nick VinZant 37:38
I can't take people seriously when they talk about pulled pork, the only thing that my I immediately think of, like, the childish comes out, like I just, oh, you buy pulled pork, huh? I bet you do. That's the way that I look at it. My number four is just plain old pork. I think that pork is an extremely underrated meat. It's a fantastic meat, and it deserves more credit than it gets, because it's not that expensive, it's kind of healthy, and you can do a lot with it. I think that pork deserves a lot more credit than we give it.
John Shull 38:13
Yeah, it's okay. It's just, you know, it's pork is just meh. Pork chops, you know, other things, other sections of the pork, not, not, not the best. Give me just a pork shoulder. Let's smoke it for 15 hours. It's delicious.
Nick VinZant 38:29
Okay, are you still smoking a lot of meat?
John Shull 38:31
I I'm smoking meat probably once every other week, really?
Nick VinZant 38:36
Okay. Well, it's good. I mean, that's not like a lot of meat smoking. I don't have anything else, man, we've lost the ability to really keep that going.
John Shull 38:43
We have it's, you know, it's hard when you've had so many meats in your mouth to really be able to be creative. My number three, cured I have, like, cured meats, like sausages, beef jerky, okay, just things like that, sausage sticks.
Nick VinZant 39:02
Okay, I have sausages my number three. The other thing that I was going to ask you, do you think that you've become less fun?
John Shull 39:10
Yes,
Nick VinZant 39:12
yeah. Like, how much less fun Do you personally feel than you were a couple of years ago?
Unknown Speaker 39:20
80% I I
Nick VinZant 39:22
don't know, I don't feel like I could go 80% less fun, because I still have fun in different ways, but I'm at least, yeah, I'm definitely 50% less fun.
John Shull 39:35
Yeah, I'm, I think I'm, I don't think I'm fun at all anymore, actually. So
Nick VinZant 39:41
do you think, is it because you're getting older, or do you think like you just become less fun? I know that those kind of sound like the exact same thing, but to me, in my mind, they're somehow different. No,
John Shull 39:53
I think mine is purely just getting older. I don't think it's like I'm less fun. I just, I don't, I don't. Want to go to a party and be the life of the party and get hammered drunk and make bad decisions anymore. Instead, I'd rather, you know, I want to get up at 6am because I have things to do. So I'll have a couple of beers and I'll sit on the sidelines and watch other people be crazy and do wild things.
Nick VinZant 40:18
Man, responsibility really does ruin your life. It's the like, it really sucks the life out of you, doesn't it?
John Shull 40:25
Absolutely, I I'm curious to know if anyone else thinks they're fun or not as they get older. But yeah, responsibility definitely just sucks the fun out of life.
Nick VinZant 40:36
I think people can become more fun, but only once they get into the like, the more, I guess, extreme, older age, where you just don't care anymore, where you've got amount of money, you're okay, and you can just do whatever you want. But right now, we're definitely in the oh, we're not having very much fun time of life. That's how I feel.
John Shull 40:58
It's tough. It's, it's, it's, it's something, right? It's, it's, for those of you out there with children and a job, it's tough. Anyways, my number two, because the thing where my number two is, I'm going with steak.
Nick VinZant 41:12
Okay, that's number two. Oh, yeah, interesting. I can never really keep the cuts of meat straight though, because I have beef, which beef is steak? Right? Yeah, beef can be steak, sure. But I also feel like it's different. But my number two is beef. I don't know how you could possibly put chicken at number five and say that with a straight face and look into the camera, because it's everything is chicken. Chicken is everywhere.
John Shull 41:42
I don't know. I don't necessarily disagree with you, but it's my personal list, and chicken is not on my top five. Well, is it's in my top five, but it is the number five. Okay,
Nick VinZant 41:54
okay, what's your number one? Then I you can put bacon. Did I just ruin it, Brisket. Brisket is not number one. What's your real number? Oh, it
John Shull 42:05
is. Brisket is mine. Have you ever had a deliciously prepared brisket? There's nothing. Never better. I've never
Nick VinZant 42:13
had it, and I've had a lot of people make brisket, and I've tried a lot of kinds of brisket, and I've never been like, wow, you know what? I want brisket. Never in my life have I ever wiped Yeah, brisket give me that I'd rather have turkey than brisket, because it's too hard to get right. And if the thing was, even if you have time and the effort and the knowledge and the know how to make good brisket, you probably could have just made ribs much better.
John Shull 42:39
No, no, brisket is it's amazing.
Nick VinZant 42:42
Like, why? Like, you're classing up a pig instead of classing up something that's not a pig, right? Well,
John Shull 42:49
I guess I like pigs.
Nick VinZant 42:52
Okay, what's in your honorable mention?
John Shull 42:58
Hamburger? I put fish just because there could be tons of fish, like tons of fish is not meat, but none of them fish meat. You're right. Fish is here, not me, no. So hamburger meats or hamburger, oh, my god, hamburger lamb, that's kind of it, okay, I'm
Nick VinZant 43:21
gonna stop it. That's our end of our first live show we had. Hey, man, that's it. That's like, I wish I, I wish I had something witty to say. Do you, can you? Can you come up with something witty on demand?
John Shull 43:37
Probably, I mean, I don't know. I'd probably just say something stupid, like thanks for watching, and go fuck yourselves. I don't know.
Nick VinZant 43:45
Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of profoundly pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a quick review. We really appreciate it. Really helps out the show and let us know what you think are the best meets. We've also started recording these episodes live on YouTube, and right now, in kind of traditional fashion, the timing for that is a little all over the place, but I think we're eventually going to start doing them either Sunday or Monday at around 4pm Pacific, we'll get it figured out. It'll take John three times longer than it should take him to do it, but we'll eventually get a time narrow down and we'll let everybody know. Thanks for your support. I really appreciate it. John really appreciates and we like doing the live stuff because it kind of gives immediate feedback. I think it's really cool. We want to connect more with people. I.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
