Can zero shoes help you survive the zombie apocalypse or the upcoming nuclear meltdown? I don't know what that is or something else that you might need to survive We're gonna talk to an expert about that in a weird way on today's episode of the movement the podcast for people who like to know the truth about What it takes to have a happy healthy strong body starting feet versus things beyond your legs And we break down the propaganda mythology and the sometimes that right lies you've been told about what it takes to walk a run or play Or to yoga or cross it or whatever it is you like to do and to do those things enjoy it and effectively and efficiently and I say enjoy it I know I did it's a trick question for anyone who's watching this podcast is look if you're not having a good time You're not gonna keep it up So make sure you're having a good time simple as that. I'm seeing a session co-founder of zero shoes I'm wearing the t-shirt to prove it and we call this the movement movement because we and then includes you I'll tell you how in a second it's really easy doesn't cost anything We are creating a movement about natural movement having your body doing what is made to do not getting in the way and interfering and the way You can participate is really easy to spread the word So give us a thumbs up and like us hit the bell icon on YouTube review us and give us five stars of course or head to our website www.jointhemovementmovement.com There's nothing you need to do to join although you can subscribe to hear about new episodes You can find out where to interface with us on social media and you can find if you're not happy with where you're getting this podcast Other places you might be able to get it. So that's just a short look if you want to be part of the tribe Just subscribe.
All right, let us get started Austin Do me a favor tell people who you are what you're doing here and what they may recognize you from hello Yeah, I'm Austin I so you might know me from survivor season 45 It just came out finale aired in December. I also have a shirt to prove it 45 on it But yeah, honestly zero shoes is a huge reason why not only I was able to do really well in the show I end up getting second place of spoilers if you haven't seen anything, but Sorry, I should have said spoilers first off But you know, I'm assuming anyone who's listening to this who knows who I am has already finished this season and that's on You if you listen to this without seeing the ending, but I got second place and I honestly truly owe a lot of it to zero Shoes, I didn't even think I could compete a few years ago the challenges they freak me out I'd always be like literally I watch these challenges. I'd be like I would twist my ankle there I would break my ankle there and it wasn't until wearing zero shoes about four years where I was like, okay? I've got this like my ankles.
I feel perfectly fine was never really worried about going in happy to talk about that going forward But yeah, that's a little bit about who I am well talk about all that stuff But I don't really I would say if they're talking about you know me till last but since you brought up on it I got to ask this question wait I had a question what they had where did it go something out? So talk about the things that you were seeing that you thought oh, this isn't gonna work I'm just dying to know here. Let's do this way. I'm dying to know about that process from watching the show to I think I can do it to The audition I would definitely want to hear about that and then as we can talk about the show I'm I can't keep a secret in other words I have to ask all the questions at once or they fall out of my head as a fellow reality TV show person Yeah, and of course we can talk about what it's like to keep a secret for ever But also just like what how what are the ways that it was completely different than what you imagine?
So take any or all of those where everyone can let's start because I also I'm a pretty bad memory So there's no way I'll remember all those questions. I'll start again. You're getting it all. That's perfect.
Perfect. Okay. We'll work through it We've got the whole podcast. We'll get through them all but let's start back with the I guess process of watching the show falling in love with it And then applying and believing that I can you actually compete on it So I'm actually pretty late to watching survivors.
So those of you who you know been fans survivor It's been a show that's gone on for 45 seasons I'm season 45. There's two seasons a year. There's a little gap during COVID it started in 2000 and my mom She's who got me into survivors so she started watching survivor day one episode one season one or you know from there watch every single episode So you super fan but you know as a kid because I'm 27 now so when that came out I was four years old so I wasn't really big on survivor and growing up as a kid I was like I would rather play video games. I'd rather watch hockey games I didn't really care too much about reality TV had no interest but then 2019 came around and finally I remember coming back home for Winner break I see my mom sitting on the couch because she would always watch all these reality shows by herself survivor Big brother amazing race everything and she'd always watch alone because no one wanted to get two boys and a hug with none of us We're interested in watching reality TV.
So I remember one winner break. I came home I just fell a little bad as I got right I'll sit and I'll watch survivor with you So I sat and watch survivor and immediately got hooked So I was like this is the greatest show the greatest game in the world I started from beginning and I watched every single season and it took one season after I watched my first season I was like I need to play this game like this is the ultimate adventure I feel like it's my life calling almost to play this game But one thing that kind of held me back and that's where zero shoes came in is I played a lot of volleyball growing up And I would always mess up my ankle not all it's it happened my junior year of high school I got a really bad tear right to her three of the ligaments of my ankle the other one is already partially torn to it took Several months to fully recover but even still like I had just instability my ankle and I'm like I would pick a basketball And then just the slightest tweak like I'd step on someone's foot and immediately bam I go down and it mess it up and I just never was able to fully heal my ankle for the longest time And I always wanted to obviously get healed up But then now watching survivor there's an extra reason I was like I need to improve my ankle if I were ever to play this life dream of mine of a game So then I looked into ways to strengthen your ankle passively just by walking around just doing everything that you normally do We're also just working to strengthen the muscles around I got introduced a barefoot shoes to zero shoes put those on and then War it for about almost three years until I applied for the second time in 2022 So I applied for the first time 2020 at this point. I'd watch like ten seasons didn't get a callback I've spent the next two years working on myself training. Obviously also strengthening my ankles fly again 2022 And yeah, the rest is history actually let's talk about history for a second So you and thank you for all the name dropping for us or the name check for us What my gaeler was wearing his ear shoes in his yeah, yeah I love it and if why the way that I got introduced to Mike is the same way that I got introduced to you by someone like freeze framing on their VCR VCR who has it to be CR and their DVR and then taking a picture and sending you go Those ear shoes.
So that's how began for me and gaeler and you and me man I can't talk this morning It's funny because the the shoes I wore were it's like an older style that I don't think it's being sold anymore This is what I'm like. It was like the Denver. It's a bit top. It was green as hemp.
Oh, yeah Yeah, so yeah, we're bringing that back in a new and improved version. Yes I've been dying to get some more of those We've wanted a high-top sneaker for a while We had that one here's the thing everything that we this is just about me me for a second every shoe that we've had to discontinue because typically because We ran a warehouse space has been somebody's favorite not infrequently Mike And so we're at a point now where we're revisiting some of those especially in the casual side But blah blah blah so when you say you auditioned twice, what's the audition process for people who can say here's a thing a good reality show does exactly what you describe People a some people just watch it because they like it But when it's really good people watching on either imagining They just imagine doing it and they often imagine doing better than whoever's on the show So thank you for charting saying thank for survivor So the audition for me was pretty straightforward We there's two ways you could do a live audition at an event or you could just send in an email and I send an email I then made a video that I sent in nobody saw that one then we had a two-hour interview And they said fill out this big ridiculous form that's a big application board in fact after that There was like a dance doesn't make a different video I'm shortening the story dramatically and then they sent us the contract and in the contract one of the lines is that we are Indimidifying we're holding the production company harmless if we die on set the other lanes like how would we die on set? And they said you know mark Burnett. It's the same company as a survivor.
So a lot of stuff in the contract is from survivor That's so you sign the you're not gonna. Yeah, and for survivors almost expected It's okay, of course they're gonna have a death clause because it's a driver. We're starving we're throwing ourselves over these massive obstacles We could die but likely they've got to get track record. So we all thought yeah I don't want to actually make this a suggestion but boy if they want to increase a viewership someone's got to kick the bucket I don't know I don't know about that that good Trouble human beings are not kind I came up with an idea I worked at an amusement park performing for a couple years and I thought one of the ways they can really increase like ridership and Attendance is that at the beginning of the season they get a sniper like a million bullets But only one of us alive round and every time that they come down that people are coming down in the rollercoaster He's already randomly selected one seat that he's gonna shoot at the bottom of the hill You're saying that would make you want to ride rollercoasters more?
No, it's gonna make people want to go to the park because he because the odds of you actually getting hit are Infantestably small. Yeah, the odds of you seeing someone feels like it's much greater So they're saying you'll go to stand in front of the rollercoaster to watch it. Yeah Yeah, and then of course they're already in the park and so that's my completely insane thought that now is gonna get me canceled from something I feel like that could work for a specific type of small like a Halloween special Oh, there you go park opens up has this thing maybe no one dies because maybe not a million shots We fired over this weekend, but no it'll be one time every time the rollercoaster goes to basically I don't know what it's call it 20 a day something bad. It's again.
They aren't seem really low. Yeah, okay, okay So what's the audition process like for survivor? What do you have to do so a lot of what you said? There's a lot of overlap so it starts out we send a three minute video I actually set mine those five minutes and it was okay They watched it through but then they ended up editing it down you start with the video you send in and you wait for a call back If you get a call back they're like hey like we like you we need more information about you They give you an initial like 20 page packet that you answer with all these questions that range from like who's your favorite past player?
What do you think you play most like all the way to your friends describe you as like how do you describe yourself? What are you gonna miss most on the island? Who would you bring on a loved ones visit and guys and do so they understand who you are how you want to play the last Obviously like why do you want to play survivors stuff like that? And then also just basic bio things about yourself You submit that in and if they like you they continue calling you you have like hours of phone calls with different casting producers Afterwards they pitch you to the whole team and they create a list of semi-finalist applicants I don't know how many of those but once you get through that then it's okay now We're gonna have the cycle test the IQ test you have to do some blood work You got to have zoom call interviews with the producers like the Jeff probes and the like of the up there And you make it through all those yes a few more hour long zoom calls And then they've been narrowed down to their final list or like the the final round you make it the final round You then fly to LA you go through a few more interviews We did a little swim test is really basic and then afterwards you wait and in between it's like you have it goes Like you have a spur of a bunch of interviews Then you don't hear anything for three weeks and then during that time the entire time like okay Are they ghost me cuz I'm out of the process or that ghost me cuz they're still it considering because they don't really tell you anything That could be a pretty annoying for them having a hundred people like in their messages non-stop in what is the update what's the update what's the other So they just don't say anything until they have something to say you're just waiting on the edge of your seat for the process for me From August all the way to March so oh my god.
Yeah, that's crazy town So like for us we got had the first interview in the end of May and then we got through all that process I know by middle June maybe and they said it's gonna be like centering we still call you and then two weeks later We need you here in three days. Well, and we don't know that television disorganized or they just want to keep you on your toes And have you a little off-center? Yeah, it could be a combo. I don't know like it is a combo I think they like us to be surprised.
Yeah, I think there's definitely that component and so when did you end up actually taping? So we filmed in April and May so it's a month or so filming They fly us out to Fiji five days before to like transition to get on to the show and to make sure we're not gonna Get pneumonia and stuff to use the climate sleeping outside kind of deal and so the finale was December So you had let's call it five and a half months or so of if you say word to anybody you owe us five million dollars Exactly and you even got the money. Yeah, yeah for us. Yeah, so what was that look people knew you were gone You were gone for a month.
Oh for us. We were gone for a couple of days We couldn't tell anybody we couldn't use our phones. We couldn't tell we were in LA So, you know, but then that was it. We were gone for a couple of days You were gone for a month people must have suspected something.
Yeah, and actually my story for this is a little unique because I was told I was not gonna play I was told I was gonna be the alternate for my season so basically There's nine guys and nine women who are casted onto each season and there's one guy and one woman alternate So like the 10th guy 10th woman and basically we have to do everything that the actual players do We have to send an wardrobe get that all through develop blood work at all our vaccines go to Fiji and go through all the orientation Stuff and then when everyone starts a game us to leave and we just go back home So I thought I was gonna be gone for 10 days or so so I was telling all my buddies I was like hey like I'm going to a wedding in China. I'm not gonna have my phone or reception So I'll just be back in 10 days. I had midterms coming up So I brought like my study materials like when I was preparing like preparing for the game I was just studying for my midterms until I was told three days before the game start I was ready to be jade this dude who was gonna play he's not playing anymore You're in and I had a five-minute phone call with my mom being like hey I need to drop me at a school right now I'm not coming back my roommates knew that I was going to be an alternate survivor because they also signed the NDA But I was able to tell them so I relied on them to keep figure out how to keep it on lockdown till I got back and thankfully Nothing spread nothing up post online nothing too crazy happened So they look you that in we had a thing where we're at a family event and friends of our family who are entrepreneurs We're coming up to us and saying you should be on shark tank Don't be really great now We don't take and we but of course for us after you take shark tank You don't know if you're actually gonna be on because they take more episodes than that or the segments than they actually use So it's you guys should be on shark tank and we're gonna wow that sounds like a great idea I wonder how you apply and that source me my mom who can't keep a secret is just like sitting there going That was pretty entertaining and the first time I encountered that well here We'll talk reality for a while was on top chef So one of the guys who was on one of the early episodes of top chef a lot of seasons is a guy who's got a restaurant here in town And Jose Roseberg and so we weren't really following the show until he was like maybe four shows left till the end of the season We also are watching and then he decided to have a watch party for the finale So we all show up at this bar and he's sitting like right behind me and we're checking him out through the whole thing And he just looks like the most depressed guy you've ever seen in the world. Oh, no Looking happy at all just sat there didn't drink his drink didn't need his food And everyone's happy around him But he's like completely morose and literally like the commercial break before they announced the winner We're thinking we should leave because this is gonna be a nightmare once they announced that he didn't win And they announced that he won and the place goes insane and the people who went the most insane were his roommates who had no idea He had his next level hiding it from people that you leave with 24 seven is yeah He had been keeping that secret for six months and no idea it was brilliant utterly brilliant Well, that's not see I almost had that I didn't tell my family my parents didn't know we watched the finale together And I was getting boats at the end like for people who were watching who've seen the season I was two boats away from getting first place the boats are coming out They're like oh my gosh has also been lying to me this whole time Does he actually win and then I lost but I heard an Olympic silver medalist refer to herself as the world's best loser I felt like that a little bit very close Especially this kind of goes deeper to survivor the past several seasons oftentimes the final vote at final travel council is seven Boats of the winner one boat to second place But as a second place finisher, I got three boats felt like a good one on you There's interesting research on that for Olympians that the happiest person is the is not the gold medalist happiest person bronze medalist I think I've read that because that is like you're so close to not getting any metal It's not like the least happy second place because they're like one but now I was happy with everything So especially because I didn't know I was gonna play until three days before yeah, no, that's awesome Here's another sort of semi reality thing I I don't know how I found this out I talked to someone who'd been on Jeopardy and didn't do well and said the secret is the button because what happens what people don't know is After the question is read there's a little light that goes off And you can only hit the button after the light goes off If you hit it before they lock you out for something like a quarter second Whoa, I told this to a friend of mine who was a he was a writer It's not a fiction writer and he liked to explore really interesting things and he was very smart guy So he got on Jeopardy after I told him about this and he came back afterwards and said it's got a button It was a damn button and people have since reported that but the point of my bringing that up is there's only some unexpected thing That's what makes the thing work that no one knows about till you get there and no one can really relate to because they haven't been there What was that what the analytics version of that for survivor?
So survivor a lot of people watch the driver and who want to play it and who play it now or like super fans They study the game so they know like okay, I'm gonna get into this and I know I'm gonna have to break some hearts I know I'm gonna have to deal with being starved and like to train I didn't eat for three days just to see what it'd be like It's so people are taking this really seriously and they're trying to get as mentally physically prepared as possible I think there's a couple things that once you go into the game is completely different than when you're watching it and one of them is like With keeping secrets when you're at home on your couch. It's okay. Obviously you want to lie about this You want to lie about that you don't tell anyone if you find an idol It's obvious though when you're there every lie you say it puts another weight on your shoulders because you have to hold it for a month To everyone who's talking to you have to keep track of all these lies that you have in your head You have to figure out who you who and when you can tell the truth to and it just it's so much pressure It makes it so much harder to just be like I'm gonna keep this secret from everybody because it is like Draining to keep a secret from everybody and keeping these different stories straight So that's one thing the mental toll is immense for sure the hunger We all expect it we all practice and try to prepare for it But you don't realize that 10 days in you're still running on a thousand calories total and you are caving in you can't even move You're thinking like I remember we were laying in camp once and we're playing have you ever put 20 questions or you come up with an idea and what? It would we would be like question number 50 and we would have no idea what this word is in the word was like flower We could not get to it because our mental ability was just so depleted.
We couldn't even think of the word flower after 50 questions It was crazy. So just like that level of Degradation and then also holding these lies and stories while being in that mental state is was so much tougher than advertised It makes you feel better I think this is probably not true But it's a good story anyway Someone near the end of Freud's life asked him if he had to sum up everything he knew in one sentence What would it be and the answer was secrets will kill you actually think it was secret? You sick. That's what it was.
Oh, 100% Yeah, yeah, 100% I resonate with that for sure I can't remember because I didn't see so what kind of secrets were you having to keep? Yeah, so pretty early on in the game I found this beware advantage which is this new mechanic in the past five seasons of survivor basically what it says is if you do this Series of tasks you can upgrade this for an idle be safe at any tribal council use it on but until you upgrade it You don't have a boat and if you ever got trouble council you have no say I know who goes home So at first it's okay. I'm gonna keep this to myself I'm not telling anyone so then I can upgrade it do the task I have an idol no one knows about which gives you insane power the day yeah, but the tasks were really brutal and I first had a decode this message is puzzled that was like on our tribe flag with a slip of paper that had the decoding pattern on it The only issue is right in front of camp and like I said, we're not leaving camp much So I had to figure out a way to get everyone away decode it afterwards The next one is like you have to dig at the fallen palm tree X That's what the clue was and I was digging and digging for days And then you can't really get alone time because I'm survivor you eat for a second everyone's oh this person's gone They must be looking for idols So you usually have to go in pairs and in groups and in different groups and like you can maybe get time away for five minutes If you're like I'm gonna go to the bathroom and I'm just gonna go on a walk I need to clear my head you maybe get five minutes before people start getting really anxious about what you're doing So try to balance all that eventually I was like I just need to get some help on this I need someone to serve as a watchman while I dig I need someone to just be able to help me figure out how to get this idol because the days are going by I still didn't have a vote And we're just yeah, so that was that's one of the many lives and one thing that just started weighing on me That one's a bitch because you bring anyone else into the equation They know you're trying to do the tasks that's when they could kick you out and you have no set Yeah, that's the thing about the show and I watch it I'm just not good at lying to people or more accurately they can tell if I'm trying to hold something bad I'm just not good at that and there's some players who are like that and they do well Emily on our season She would always say she's a really bad liar and I don't think she's a terrible liar But people own up to those things and with known as someone who can't lie It's way easier to get friends because they're like okay This person's gonna shoot me straight and I'll know if they're lying to me So you can work most things to your advantage, but I think with this game what makes it so cool is that every advantage is a disadvantage Every disadvantage is a advantage in a way, so no, that's a thing. Yeah for me watching the show It's I can't imagine I can imagine myself doing all that challenges, but all the everything in between it's like my brain just doesn't go there It's like it's like obstacle course races.
I like all the obstacles I just want to do the race part. Yeah race involves up to 5k worth of running and I'm a sprinter man I'm gonna do that just give me all the obstacles in fact This is weird memory just pop my head way before your time. There was a TV show is network battle of the stars So, okay, so handful of celebrities doing these contests either one team against the other sometimes individual But it's crazy shit, but the whole time is a kid watching us. I want to be famous Just like a nacho I could crush that event but because it was just the events there was nothing else Yeah, the challenge is so much fun So I understand it that's what originally got me hooked on sir I was like I want to run the three these like adult size obstacle courses when you get that opportunity that one episode said I watch Was after someone said oh my god awesome.
So I'm just saying these were your shoes I don't know what's called but after you came back from a swimming had to do one of those little slidey puzzle things and Whatever's the one where we're on the barrels and we're going through the and I'm looking at everybody I'm thinking that's not hard. Everyone's brain is gone So that was a so slide puzzles is one of the puzzles that you really prep on before going on survival really Because it's one of those it's excessively apps on your phone Just do slight puzzles while you're on the train or something that one they did a little twist words like not a typical slide puzzle You had to fit this thing into the middle like the square so I would say that one is a difficult slide But just because it's something that none of us really practice But but yeah, I think if had we been fed and well slapped it would have been a little faster That one and so here's the other thing on Shark Tank of course when people see our episode and by the way for anyone listening about I've seen it zero shoes calm start charting the one of things is every time somebody went out They cut us along wood which never really happened because we just didn't even care and they have 12 cameras running that you can't see And you can't see any of them so they're always capturing something in fact I'm gonna do an inside shark tank thing that you're gonna kick out of and other people might like to so there's a thing They do you walk out you hit your mark and before you start do your little pitch they go Just wait for a second till you tell you to go because we're just gonna make sure all the cameras are in the right place doing the right thing That's they don't care all the cameras are totally fine They're doing it just to see how much you get twitchy and what kind of weird expressions you make and what kind of crazy shit You do with your face that they're gonna then cut in later now I knew this going in so I said to Laina when we get there hit the mark and just look at everyone and smile Just remember how really cool it is that we're here and that's it just happy and that's what we did and for 10 seconds I'm sorry start I love it. I love it. Yeah, that's one of those things where you don't I mean I didn't know any of those types of things until I was actually playing it afterwards like in watching the episodes back on my TV It's okay Wow, so that's they're clipping in facial expressions from different time periods a little bit just for dramatic effects Okay, you gotta watch your face because they're recording 24 seven so that's the question It's like when you watch the episodes.
Let me start with this one. Have you watched your whole season? I have I haven't watched it back. I need to do like a binge watch from episode ones again I watch it when I come out and I'll usually watch it one more time I haven't rewatched the finale yet.
I'm sorry that I've watched everything Why is your experience watching I would say watching it was almost as intense as playing it You're really like after you play the game everyone comes up in their head of the different storylines Especially their own storyline and what it's gonna be told and the thing is it's like when you're taking three days of content Where they're filming on 15 different cameras and have 24 seven and they're condensing that into 65 minutes of TV time They cut so much out and the first couple episodes I think was a huge shock to everyone just being like wow they didn't show that they didn't show that they didn't show that they Didn't show that and then once we get used to that then it's oh my gosh What are they gonna show this next episode where they gonna show the next episode and you're just at the mercy of the editors for a while So that's been scary my season in particular I think from from my story I had some really high highs really good moments that were appreciate by fans I was getting praise and stuff and I also had moments where I got a lot of hate from fans Not because I did anything mean or anything like that But because I made a move that a lot of people felt was emotional irrational I stand by it But that's a point like dealing with fans commenting on your Instagram saying me things making all these crazy posts about you on Twitter And on Reddit that was like a whole experience trying to get over that being like listen These are just some people I shouldn't let myself get affected by that So there's definitely opposite downs. I think now I'm in an awesome place I'm really happy with everything turned out but it was an intense experience and I would do a lot of big watch parties and usually watching the episode itself I would get so invested in the moment in the experience and I would just be like it'd be so intense that I'd only Register about half the episodes. I'd end up going back home at night watching it again I bet alone away from people to really understand what happened. I'll be curious to see what I don't want to put this I'll do this way somebody was a private Facebook group that someone started for people who've been on Shark Tank I don't know if they'd like that for you guys now They didn't do it if someone who was on the show and they and that person did it because they had made a deal had signed the NDA they weren't allowed to talk about anything and we're not having a good experience and they after the show They were emotionally a little wreck which we've seen a lot even with people who made deals that they were happy with they were So wrecked after the show and so because the NDA just needed someone to talk to and just reach out to other people who've been on the show That was someone who was on season two or season three.
I think I can't remember. I was a sophomore Yeah, it's not a whole lot of people who were in it But at one point someone said how many of you are still watching the show and anyone who is more than two seasons out said no And in part because you know how the sausage is made and for some people it was like just traumatic going back But I think for Elena and for me it was mostly it's yeah Yeah, we know what's going on here it we can't imagine being on the show We can't imagine either being at the shark or the bait or the chum and because we know too much So I'll be curious to see what happens for you afterwards Did you have did they offer or make you do any psychological counseling after the show because they did for us? It wasn't necessary we have a therapist that meets with us throughout the airing of the season so we can schedule it We're set in once a month, but if you need to do more you can do more it ends after the season ends But I think once again if you want to do more you can do more nothing was required It was just a resource they had available so that was really helpful I think to some people they obviously use it a little bit more than others other people didn't really need it but didn't use it Someone what you're saying though. I think there is a period after playing the game where I'm survivor Now, I don't want to watch anything I can't and I've noticed now whenever I watch any show any reality show not just survivor my mind immediately goes to editing to production You can tell yeah, it's less so watching it as you know enjoying the game I still do that but it's also every time I see I've noticed my mind Wonder like oh I wonder if this is what actually happened.
I wonder when they film this I wonder what they asked to get this kind of thing So that's I had a weird version of that back in the let's call it late 90s. I can't remember Yeah, it was late 90s. I hosted a television show that was like car talk so answering questions about cars are problems car problems It was about computers. It was called disc doctors and the way we did the show is that the Questions people asking we had a producer who would figure out who they wanted to talk to and have asked their questions Are more accurately people calling those questions?
They would vet who was gonna be on the show and more often than maybe half the time we didn't know the answer the question Off the top of our heads we had to do the research to figure it out No, we know what our answer was gonna be when I watched it It was like it's a little stilted I could tell the difference We won that I knew and one that I didn't know yeah, then I listened to car talk and I went son of a bitch They're the same thing. I thought you guys knew everything I can hear the Tony your voice. You had a idea You're reading that off a card, and it just ruined the show for me. Wow.
Wow, that's interesting Yeah, and you just something you mentioned I realized even think about it So we taped in 2012 we aired in 2013 continue to air and reruns but in 2013 people were not as Willing to express their completely unasked for opinions and ignorant opinions for the sake of being rude as they are now So we didn't have the only thing we had was people going here you guys are idiots because you turned on for $100 or hey That thing's just a rubber string, but it was nothing personal. Yeah now. Holy crap. They come after you.
Yeah, they treat whatever They see some people whatever they see on TV as this is Austin at his core And he is a flawed person in this way in this way and anyone who thinks differently is an idiot It really is wild how everyone thinks they're usually horrible opinion is so important for Everybody to know it really blows my mind. I have a little short film video thing that I want to do and I'll give away One of the jokes that's in it has to do with travel time travel says people go to the future and someone one point says Oh my god I'm gonna put this all over the internet and one of the people from the future says the internet and the other one goes It's that cat video thing that almost ruined everyone's minds. Oh my gosh So any other things that after you were watching or just like any other kind of behind-the-scenes things are legally allowed to talk about that We're there's that were surprising that was surprising Surprising to you were surprising to people like look we had people who thought that charting was live They were stunned that we were they called us and we answered the phone sweet aren't you on TV? No, yeah, that happens also with survivors like some people think that there's you know, it's filmed live almost But luckily I don't know I guess not likely but it because so many of the fans have been following it for so many years I think most people are aware that's not the case But yeah, I guess one of the behind-the-scenes thing that was way tougher than expected It goes hand in hand a little bit with the line is you form really tight bonds with the people You're there for a month people because recently survivors switched the format It used to be 39 days and you get rice every day stuff like that They switched it now 26 days, but they made especially the first half of the game much harder where you don't get any food or assistance You lose your flint whenever you lose a challenge and they try making it really tough at first and people are like Oh, wow 26 days.
This is baby survivor. They're not really they don't have enough time to make real friendships and bonds But that's not true. I obviously have a point 39 days Maybe 26 is baby survivor. It was very difficult and we had some really intense friendships and bonds that we made out there that It made it so much harder to make moves against them Have you been in touch with people from other seasons?
Yeah, so I think similar to we don't have a Facebook group that you all did for Shark Tank But there's a very active alumni community a lot of them will come to our seasons watch events and watch it with us I'm so I'm going to at least a couple for the following season Just meet the new cast hang out with us a few my cast members again I guess you trauma bond in a way and it's always fun to go back share stories and talk about the new seasons coming up and your takes on That's all fun I'm really excited now that the season's done so much relief with it being over now that I can stop keeping secrets But be also I just be a fan again. I can rejoin the community I can hang out with these awesome people who've also played who've also been following survivor So I'm excited for this part a lot. Yeah, it's a similar thing You have lived through something that very few people have that no one else can really understand and it is whether it's trauma bonding or just Without the trauma part just something about that It's just such a weird situation to be in and here's the other one So you haven't had a lot of time to do this, but how often are you recognized when you're just down about? Yeah, so as the season went on definitely more and more I think now it's after the finale is that it's peak and I go out for a couple drinks I'd be recognized like five times in ten minutes essentially and then now I usually I've been I restart grad school So I'm just back in classes.
So I'm in my room right here a lot either grinding on homework or you know Trying to work on some like content stuff or my social medias and stuff and just I've just been staying inside a lot So I don't know it's hard to tell now But whenever I go on a walk anything more than five minutes I'll usually get stopped at least once yeah, I'm trying to join now. I love when fans come up and I'm pretty sick. Yeah, no, it's great because no one's gonna come up They may but it'll be a rare Completely horrible human being who would come up to say something mean to you and if they do it's wow you got some horrible Shake on your life and so it's gonna be compassionate But I guarantee to the extent that you keep a similar look to what you had on the show which you have then you will not be able to Run airport without being stopped last it's look I'm 10 years out. I haven't in those 10 years I have not made it through an airport without being recognized.
Wow. Yeah, you also got zero shoes though There's that too. There is that but also look I've had a thing it's a hair thing I've had times where I'm saying standing with Laina and somebody'll come up and say to her wasn't he on Shark Tank? And she's I was standing right next to him But she was just an engineer beautiful woman and I'm the freak you looking people can do Works out it's a different thing.
Yeah, no, that's interesting I do think that I have a more distinct look with the hair and now that I never had facial hair until survivor and then I didn't Shape for a month and I came out afterwards like this doesn't look too bad I pulled the rest my cat like keep it shit it that keep it like I'm not somebody look Yeah, they want to finish it on it the hair part is very interesting I was in a trade show and there's a guy walking out of the bathrooms I'm walking into the bathroom who had hair just like mine You know about six three and as we pass each other without even making eye contact. He just goes nice locks Your hair is very distinct especially with the different colors and layers in the curls on bed. Yeah, it's uh I would shave my head except Laina said she'd leave me if I cut it Criver casting told me that too. Oh absolutely my dad said to my wife I'll give you a thousand dollars for every inch that he cuts off and keeps off and she went I don't think you get it if you did that it stops sleeping with him.
Wow. All right. There's your answer You never cut it never cut it ever. Yeah, she knew how to stop a ministry.
It was good. So back to grad school What are you grating? So right now I'm a MBSC on the University of Chicago So I graduate in June and figuring out what to do afterwards the last quarter was the time where most people are like really figuring out They're full-time job plans, but I would just so wrapped up in investing this whole survivor experience that I spent no time doing that So now I'm gonna be playing catch up in the next few months and figuring out what to do But that's fine. No, that's great.
Good luck. Good luck at that So anything that I left out just either about survivor things or whatever else you're doing this giving you happy and healthy Right now It's just a transition back to non survivor life the past several months pretty much the entire last year was like survivor I Been sort of the only show I ever watched was survivor because I was studying taking notes trying to figure out how to play better Then playing survivor and then prepping for the premiere and then watching it through and reading everything online and just getting So now I'm excited to finally get a little bit of a breath Okay, I can focus now a little bit on figure out what my career is I can rehang out with like my friends that I've had to stop seeing for a while because I've been like my Fiji I've been doing all these watch events It's just not being able to spend as much time in Chicago and with family to insane I say so I'm really excited just like get back to things and figure out what the move is from here And it's exciting time because I didn't think I would be here after all of that deprivation What was your first meal when you go back? Oh? Okay, the first actual meal that I got when when we got back was in and out we went as a cast We stopped it because we flew into LAX we went to in and out a lot of the cast had never had in and out before so we're like Okay, you want to get to double you know You can't double your animal self rise and then you want to get a milkshake So we did that but the first real food that I had was actually the last day on survivor the final three you get this amazing Breakfast and they bring up this tray and it was like food for eight people and they had like literally 12 bananas They had like over a dozen different pastries.
They had a leader of pancake mix They had bacon they had a whole like over dozen eggs and we ate the entire thing like three people with me this girl They've D who's by two and then Jake who's similar size to me But like we destroyed the entire thing and we were yeah, so that was amazing that breakfast was the best thing We had some champagne and orange juice too. They had a bunch of toast. Oh, I think back that day a lot So which raised the obvious question what was your weight going in what was your weight coming out? Going in so I lost 20 pounds like I went in one at one at one eighty five came out like one one sixty five Getting it back within a month and a half because that was one thing coming back I had this psychological need to eat everything in front of me So I would go to restaurants and I'd be with two other people I'd eat all my food I'd be full I'm happy but then I noticed my friends don't need their french fries or their salad or whatever and I can't stop looking at it I'm trying to focus on the conversations, but my brain is just there's food There's food and I ended beating it too.
So I very quickly came back the way how long did it take for that to wear off? So I gained my way back within a month and a half I think the food thing lasted a little bit longer than that and I would I had to force myself to be like no I'm already gained my way back. I'm fine I don't need to eat more but I think it lasted for two three months Yeah, that talking your brain out of something is a weird thing just FYI or whatever's worth I had it something like that Lane and I did an anniversary vacation We went to Cuba and so we went to cigar tobacco farm where they then personally cigars I never had a cigar before and so I have one of these Cuban cigars and after doing that we're on the bus heading somewhere And I started arguing with my brain my brain is because I got really pleasantly high from that cigar Yeah, different kind of high that I've ever had and I am not like I do drugs But unlike anything I've ever experienced and and my brain is saying you gotta get some more of those cigars And I'm saying yeah, the taste was horrible and that kind of high that's the kind of thing I really easily get attached to you There's not a good idea. No seriously.
Just get another just get a case of no big deal I'm literally arguing with my brain. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so there's that part But there's other one that just you'll obviously relate to you had a longer version this I did a glucose tolerance test in the hospital where they literally injected 150ccs of sugar into my veins and My blood sugar for spikes like crazy Then they gave me a little bit of insulin half of what they should have given me to see how quickly I came back down And when my blood sugar got down to 40 I tapped out and I ate six whatever they are frozen breakfast kind of things They're the healthy harvest whatever they were and like five things of orange juice and from the next week to your point I get everything I get my hands on my brain is going you almost died from not eating so you have to eat everything Wow, so you had a more a longer term slightly more a different kind of intense version of that thing But it's fascinating you put your brain in that situation and it does not like it exactly you could be as full as like you could possibly be And still want to eat more food, which is such a weird feeling. It's really weird you're sitting there going I am not in control of this thing.
Yeah, watch yourself eat the fries Yeah, but at least we both got over that's a matter. Yeah yesterday. We were brunch and there was some fries going around I mean I couldn't say no, but that's different because fries potato chips. I have no willpower Yeah, I'm very well I'm minus desserts the brownies the cookies if you're ever this way in plus or minus Denver the restaurant We went to is called debar and D stands for a number of things that stands for arguably as dessert and they make the best desserts I've ever had I had a long talk of the owner yesterday because I've been going to this place since the day They opened and they have a chocolate layer cake that is by far the best thing anybody that I know is ever eaten And he was talking about it.
We were both chocolate freaks and he said the icing on the cake cost more than a prime rib What yeah, I need to try this now It's there's different kinds of there's different three different varieties of cacao beans and the rarest and most amazing one is the bean is called Criollo and it's the ones from Madagascar or the killer and so it's criollo I guess for criollo as part of the icing and it is spectacular. Yeah, my treatment you come Just get on a plane today. I was there. Yeah, I'll go tonight.
It's not a problem Yeah, they've got the frontier headquarters of Denver, right? I was actually thinking of doing their little annual past thing So maybe there you go. You know where to find me. Yeah, Austin once again first of all congratulations Just to be on just to endure being on the show at all and walk away as the same human beings quite an accomplishment let alone second place Which is nothing to sneeze at that's it's a big deal and so congrats on that Thanks for sharing the whole story.
It's been a pleasure people do want to track you down should say things are you really nice things? Where will they find you? Oh, yeah, so I guess I have Instagram and Twitter Instagram is just awesomely coon and then Twitter I actually don't remember the handle but I think it's either that or something similar and just people know it's awesomely a USTIN L-I-C-O-N. Yeah, they will hopefully people will find you and say wonderful things and hopefully if you guys haven't seen the show go watch it It's again.
I haven't got to see every episode because it's been crazy because around here But the couple that I watch were again that kind of thing wow this is amazing and I got I'm not doing that Oh, well, I think most people they're gonna watch it like this amazing. I need to do this. I You're one or two of those. They're extremes.
I know my limits is what I'm saying. That's fair. Yeah Because this is the other part if I did it I'd be the oldest guy ever on the show I think I'm pushing six to two What's the oldest? So season one that's owned in their 70s They've had a couple of times but I mean you're a very fit.
Yeah, I think you would do excellent Except for the not eating part man. I don't handle that one Yeah, you know, you know, it's tough days five and six and you numb out until day ten and then it's really bad But then after that then it gets good. Yeah, it gets bad that it gets really bad Then it's only a little bad that it's only medium bad and yeah, it's bad But then like when you get because sometimes you want to reward you get a feast and that's like the best day of your life ever And it's like you're just eating and you're so happy and you're laughing together and it just it's the most amazing thing and it's worth it That's how they get you. Let's talk on syndrome, baby.
So Anyway, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everyone else. Thank you as well Just a reminder head over to www.jointhemovementmovement.com previous episodes places you can find us in social media other places You can find the podcast if you want to find somewhere else and of course you have any comments questions requests recommendations people should be on the show as I always say I'm still gonna have a nice conversation with someone who thinks I have cranial rectal reorientation syndrome You can drop me an email just send it to move move at join the movement movement calm But most importantly just go out have fun and live life feet first