Independence Day in America, some in thoughts of rebellion, freedom, of commemoration. The sum, it also sum in thoughts of hot dogs, consumed by the dozens in a short time in the new day sun of Coney Island New York. The annual July 4th hot dog eating contest has just been memorialized in a new ESPN film documentary called Good Bad Bumble. It's most compelling character, it's not came to call by Ashie, the Japanese man who revolutionized competitive eating.
So we thought it was time to dust off this 2014 episode in which Cobi tells us how he did it, and explains how eating as much as you can in short time is in fact the opposite of what me. It's called Bearway to Eat Hope You Know Me. Cobi can you just like count to 10 in your microphone? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Maggie, the same or say anything about eating a single level. One, two, three, four, five. If I could be Taki Ru Kobi Ashie, known as Kobi and his translator Maggie James, I can Kobi about his favorite foods. No, no, no, no, no.
You're in your room. What kind of tofu? Yeah, I'm there. What's your favorite kind of steak?
Ah, or give me a flag. You like the flag? No, you like the flag. You like lean.
lean. What's your favorite fish? Fish. What's your favorite fruit?
What's your favorite? Strawberry. How do you feel about patauts? I'm going to eat this time.
During this time, it's actually the time I don't want to think about patauts. I'm rich. From Stitcher and Dumbo Productions, this is for comics radio. The podcast explores the hidden side of everything.
Here's your host, Stephen Dumbo. Kobi Ru Kobi Ashie doesn't like to think about patauts much right now, because he's preparing to eat a very large pile of them. Not for pleasure. This is what he does really.
In the world of competitive eating, as it's worth known, Kobi is the biggest star that's ever been. Maybe. Again, back in Japan, it was a college student at the time studying economics. A friend signed him up for a televised eating contest.
He could stay with us. He could be with us. I was shocked because I had to think about it. He could eat that much more than a normal person.
He could eat a try, largely because it was a prize money. Five thousand dollars for his place. It was a four stage eating contest starting with oil potatoes and then a seafood bowl, Mongolian Mountain barbecue, finishing up with noodles. Your competitors were also amateurs, right?
They weren't professionals. Yeah. So did you think you had a chance? Yes.
Because why? What did you think you could do better than the other amateurs? Was it mental or physical or strategic? Total.
Total. Total. I thought I couldn't. It's more in between me.
I didn't think that it could be a physical thing. They had to be total mental and physical. Kobe studied earlier contests like this one, the qualifying stages. He saw that most people were so hard in the early rounds that even if they did advance, they didn't have the energy where they started capacity to finish wrong.
So he decided to eat just enough at each stage, qualify for the next. And when it came time to the final round, he blasted past the others anyone. Having tasted victory as an amateur competitive eater, Kobe immediately thought about training pro. Now, the World Cup of competitive eating, as you probably know, is how every summer the university.
And only one location at the corner of a surface, you'll well have to do that. They just made us, and why do they come? At home in Japan, Kobe began to train pro-nailing. American style hot dogs were not available where he lived, so he used sausages made of missed fish.
No hot dogs on either, so he cut red down the size. He took his training seriously, very seriously. He began a long series of experiments. For instance, we were doing the hot dog in front in half before eating it, a move that would come to be known as the Solomon method after the biblical story of King Solomon who threatened to settle an attorney dispute by slicing a baby into pieces.
The Solomon had been done before or no. No, no, no, he found another way to speed things up. He thought he had been stuck on a separate eating contest too at a time. I don't mean too succinctly saying, I mean, breaking one and half an eating two halves.
The sausages self being slick and dense. He went down pretty easy, but eating a hot dog on its own without the meat, it's harder than you think. How hard? You may have heard of the saltine challenge.
Next time you want to win the bar of it, try the hot dog bun challenge, see if you can get somebody to try to eat two hot dogs in one minute with no beverage. Here, listen to our free-comprater production team, try it. This is David Herman doing eating with red a cone, Susie Lettenberg, and Greg Rosalski providing commentary. Okay, I'm ready.
And go. Oh, yeah, just right. So he's got half of a half of a bun in his mouth. Three, five seconds to go.
So I'll let it. Ah! I'm so comfortable. Three, two, one.
Put down the bun. Not even one. I feel like you're not even one. So to fight the dry bun problem, Kobe came up with a novel solution.
Thank you, Tony. Okay. As he fed himself the bunless broken hot dogs with one hand, he was the other hand to dunk the bun in water. Then he squeezed out the excess water and smoosh a bun into his mouth.
I'm like a bun ball. Not only did this make eating faster, but now he didn't have to take time out between dogs, drink water. So breaking, separating, dunking. What about the shake?
Shake away. Shake away. Take them all. No, no, no, no, no, no.
I never seen that before. I never seen that. This became known as the co-op shake. This became known as the co-op shake.
We actually know that. I was like, I'm the same guy. He's going to get there for co-op. He's going to move it around.
So put it on his feet down your back. Put it back. So we got to get it. It's going to be a great party.
Kobe videotaped his training sessions. He started all his data and lies it. He wanted to find out what worked. Just as important, it didn't work.
At one point he thought he should chew each dog very vigorously. But he realized it's not only took too long, but he was also a bad for his jaw. He was tireless in experimentation. Why do you think others before you hadn't experimented so much?
Maybe because they're not as serious as I am. Maybe that's the only one that's the answer. How did you get so serious? I didn't do it.
I thought it was the only one that I thought it was the only one that I thought it felt like. This is a sport. And I simply wanted to be number one in the world of this. No offense, but you sound crazy.
Sounds nuts. What do I do with the greatest nuts that they won't come in? I say that with all the respect. I love you.
Respect what you've done. But what I mean by this is you were bringing a level of scientific inquiry to an activity that nobody bothered before. That's what I mean by nuts. So did you think it was nuts or did it make perfect sense to you?
I guess I'm a little older and more mature now. Because now I can hear that and actually say, oh, I laugh with you. But at that time, there was definitely not even a speck of me that would have thought that that was nonsense. Just makes sense.
Coming up on Freakin' I'm a Trail. How would this Kobe do at the Konya and Taw-Kon-Tas? He was like a conveyor. He was just winning it two at a time.
And assuming that you are not interested in following Kobe's footsteps, specifically, is there something more general than can you learn from his mastery of identity? I think the thing about human beings is that they make a limit in their mind about their potential is and they decide that, well, I've been told this is what society tells me this is what I've been doing. But they've just been made to believe something. There are many rules.
The competitors can have as much of whatever beverage they want. They can put condiments on the dogs, but no self-respecting ears on a waste time. Or stomach capacity on ketchup. All the dogs and buns that enter your body must have the state in your body.
Not, this is known in this word as a reversal of fortune. You can be disqualified. Okay, so it is July 4th, 2001. Kobe, 23 years old.
It's only five foot eight, under three times. So when you showed up that first time to compete, did you feel that you belonged on the stage with the other competitors? Did you feel you could? You were justified to be there?
Then we could go, go, go, go. I actually didn't think even about that. I mean, even though they didn't know when they made it to be calculated. I wasn't thinking about that at all, but I was full of the feeling of, I've come here to win.
So the bell rings. And you start to eat. If your problems do eat, and you break and you separate and you slurp and you dunk and you smush and you swallow and you shake and you do all that. And then the bell rings, and then you see your number?
Yes, is that, did you repay attention to your number before that? Or did you only see your number at the very end? Because of the limited fight when you got it. Only solid then.
I wasn't thinking about that. And what was the number? 50. The Americans just dropped their dogs in awe.
The clear cop meter, Kobayashi, who inhaled 50-hot dogs in 12 minutes, shattering the world record. He was like, you can say it, though. He was just putting it into a tie. I saw he was around 30 when I was around 8.
So I should also wait until I play. I can't do anything. I could go into the record. 50.
And the previous record was 25 and 18, right? Yes, you doubled the world record. So nobody doubles any world record ever. And what did you think then?
What did you think when you saw that number? 50. No, it was only not that I was already done. I was actually shocked.
I was not imagining at all that we doubled. So it was surprising to me. Everyone was surprised. And some people were skeptical.
They wondered if Kobay was playing by the rules. They said that they took me to outer space, and that they, some aliens, I'd, you know, even the man too to stomachs. Oh, he's taking muscle relaxers. You were doping.
Yeah. Did you take muscle relaxers? No. Do you have two stomachs?
No. One corny island, six, eight years. A lot of the eating on the stage. 100.
100. And 6. 100. 47.
We know how to bring both of those ones. They're going to the one in the third car. Put those down in the third car. 12 in one minute.
I think the noise. 21 in the next. Kobay was not, however, unbeatable. Tell me about the bear.
And now introducing to my right is a moment. The beast. He is handsome. Kobay, I went Alaska.
Kobay tried to beat the bear in a contest that was taped for Fox TV. This beast sounds over eight feet tall and weighs in tonight. And 1,000 and 89 pounds. You can digest over 60 pounds of food in a 24 hour period.
Keep it up to the ultimate appetite for destruction. Meet the beast. The Alaska. Clear, I'm sure.
Even against the bear. Kobay thought he went. Now again, the contest begins as soon as the bear eats the first octopus. And it is on your way.
There we go. Kobay, this is the greatest. And in this case, the dogs had no bones, right? Why was that?
Was it for the bones, bear? They had a happy, like, the beauty bite up. They are just 90 pounds. Oh, tough for the bear.
I mean, okay, so your total. So the bear had a better lawyer than you had apparently. Okay, so was there rehearsal? Yes, it was a rehearsal.
What happened at the rehearsal? I mean, I want the rehearsal. When the bear came out, I saw a flash of fear for a second. Kobay actually dies.
And then in the contest itself, what happened? Kobay was the only one who was in the field. He was the only one who was in the field. When the real time came for it, the bear was really quick, like very fast.
So the whole thing was so shocked. I don't know. I was suddenly kind of almost like a little bit. I don't see how he could beat his bear.
And that is it. We have a rare, the bear has won. The last in cruncher is our new champion. Yes.
And the bear beat, the bear won. Did you ever figure out how the bear did so well in the competition versus the practice? Yes, I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I was like, okay. Of course, that was the first question I thought I had to know. So I asked, and I was told the bear keeper had not given anything to eat for, like, a day.
So it's so kind of handy. So they had actually kind of made it very hungry. And when it came in, it was starving. Oh, the whole thing was that he was hungry.
I was like, the coo-nig. My competitor was a wild beast. And when animals, when they're hungry, they are different living things there. I was like, oh, no, no, no, no.
I was like, oh, no, no, no, no. I was wrong here because I'm hungry. Whereas I was competing against a beast that was very hungry. Did you get the bear in?
Sometimes the bear gets you. The bear got cobia. How do you handle the feet? I don't know.
I always change my mentality very quickly. And simply said, sometimes you win because I'm talking about day. Sometimes it might be too because you're having a bad day. Even winning or losing doesn't necessarily even mean really.
But you're the best. So when you look at the long run, you can't think about you and competing against a rival or a rival. That doesn't even really tell you 100% that you're the best. What you can only do is compare yourself to yourself and try to see how far you can actually go.
So what did Kale actually do that was different than everyone before him? Here's one thing. He redefined the problem. He was trying to solve.
Kale, go, go. The key to me was that he was telling me that it was a sport. It wasn't having a meal. It was to me, I had to think this is a sport.
It has nothing to do with how you normally enjoy a meal. It was just a physical action. I mean, that's what Kale told me. My honest opinion was that people were just eating as an extension of regular eating meals.
And it looked like they were all like rushing to try to eat more than they normally could. Just one more half a few, just a little more. And I thought, well, if you just look at it as a way of trying to put something in instead of how much more can I eat the normal, then it really just takes a few questions and a little research on my part and experimentation to see how far I got to go. Here's what the other competitors were asking themselves.
How can I fit more hot dogs in my stomach? Kale be asked a different question. Only slightly different, perhaps, to a little person. But change everything.
His question was, how can I make one hot dog easier to eat? It wasn't just that. If everyone before him was asking the wrong question, he thought, then maybe he shouldn't be much credence to the existing world record. Maybe it was an artificial barrier that he should just bust right through.
This contest has been going on for over 40 years. Why is it that it took until you to change the mental and strategic approach to this work? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think people have to have a reason to rethink what could be wrong.
If a whole 40-something years or more, if people only see someone eating 25 as a limit, then someone can eat 20, might think, wow, I just eat five more, I could actually do that. And no one will ever think that anything else could be done. But if you see someone suddenly come and eat 50, then everyone knows that they must be a different approach to the normal. And until something like that happens, people don't question.
So maybe I was the reason, maybe I gave them a reason for everyone at the same moment to rethink the problem again. So I'm curious if you could look around the world at whether it's something to do with money or government or education, can you point to something where if people could only rethink the problem, redefine the problem like you did, and not accept the limit of the old world record like you did, can you think of an instance where they might not be so hard to do that? Where we'd all be better off if people could do that? I think it should be used for everything.
I think the thing about the changes that they make a limit in their mind about their potential is, and they decide that, well, I've been told this is what this is like. They're just going to make, believe something. So if every human being actually threw away those thoughts, and they actually did use that method of thinking to everything, so potential of human beings I think is really great. I think it's huge compared to what they actually think of themselves.
So that is a factor that should be for everyone to use everything that everything could be much better. There is a good bit of evidence that Kobe is right about how artificial barriers can hold us back. He no longer laps the field in competitive impact. Kobe was beaten for several years at Koni Island by an year named Joey Chestnut, who was still the main champion.
And guys who used to eat just 15 or 20 hot dogs now routinely eat 30 and 40. Some of them use Kobe's methods, all of them benefit from knowing that the old limits weren't real. As for Kobe himself, he lives in New York now and travels the world, making a living by eating and talking about eating. But you won't find him in Koni Island on July 4th and 4th.
But while back, he got into a contract dispute with organizers. For a few years, he held his own hot dog eating contests in parallel with Koni Island one. These days he participated in annual competition in April on West Coast, and his numbers are even higher. How many do you think he'll eat this year?
More than 32. More than 72. How long does it take to recover? Yeah, more.
Come on, I guess I won't get to go to the mall. It depends on how I feel about it. How many to go to the next one? I'd like to rest for at least half a day.
Oh, that's it. I'm happy because most of us, if we even free hot dogs, we need to rest for a whole day. So not only are you better on the front end, you're better on the back end, too. For time to radio is produced by Stitcher.
And down in the productions, this episode is produced by Greg Rhett-Cone, and mixed by David Hermit. Our staff includes Alison Craiglow, Matt Hickey, Harry Huggins, Zach Pinsky, Greg Rippin, and Corin Malus are interned as Daphne Chen. Our theme song is Mr. Fortune, but hitchhikers all the other music was composed by Lee Scarra.
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