Pod Insights The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe 449: Theo Von—A Troubled White About this episode Comedian, podcaster, and self-described "troubled white" Theo Von joins the party for a candid discussion about the bone he found on his way to the studio, what he was manifesting during the Lion's Portal, and why he loves 'Merica. There's a little wrestling, a little recovery, and lot of talk of a new Mike and Theo Antique Road Show-type show featuring American-made entrepreneurs. It's patriotic, hilarious, and it might just be the start of something strange and great. WARNING: THIS EPISODE IS MARKED EXPLICIT FOR LANGUAGE AND CONTENT.
Transcript 18,511 words · 7 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:03 Mike Rowe? Hello friends, Mike Rowe here. Chuck Klausmeyer, sitting across from me at the MicroWorks World Headquarters where we are now recording. It is nice to do this in person, isn't it?
0:14 Speaker 01 I think this is the best way to do it, honestly.
0:17 Mike Rowe? It's the only sensible way to do it, especially when your guest is the one and only Theodore Capitani Von Kernitsowski III.
0:25 Speaker 01 Yes, yes. Other, AKA Theo Von.
0:30 Mike Rowe? A-A-K-A, or A-K, also known as, I guess it's A-A-K, also, also known as
0:39 Speaker 01 Oh.
0:40 Mike Rowe? A Troubled White.
0:41 Speaker 01 Yes, right. Self-described, self-described.
0:45 Mike Rowe? I don't know if you know Theo Von or not, I suspect some of you probably do. He has the fourth or fifth largest podcast in the world.
0:53 Speaker 01 Yeah.
0:54 Mike Rowe? I met him a couple of years ago, no idea who he was, but I was invited to be on his podcast and I happened to be in Nashville where he spends most of his time and we got along great. And then a year or two later, he invited me back and I said, "Sure."
1:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:11 Mike Rowe? And that was here in Los Angeles. And that conversation was a ton of fun, but memorable for me anyway, because I really learned some things about the guy that I didn't know. First and foremost was he cares an awful lot about this country.
1:25 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:26 Mike Rowe? He's determined to do his part to reinvigorate manufacturing.
1:30 Speaker 01 Yes. He cares about the country and the people in it.
1:33 Mike Rowe? And maybe not even in that order.
1:35 Speaker 01 Hmm.
1:36 Mike Rowe? You know, two things. This is what you call a restricted podcast, is that, is that what we're doing?
1:43 Speaker 01 Explicit.
1:44 Mike Rowe? Explicit.
1:45 Speaker 01 It has to be marked explicit because, you know, he uses, he's a little fast and loose with the swear words. And actually, I think we both were, we all three were.
1:54 Mike Rowe? We might have been.
1:55 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:56 Mike Rowe? We might have been. Apologies if you're put off by that sort of thing, but this is an unfiltered, American original. His story, I'm not going to tell you the whole thing, he'll tell you a part of it, but he came from a poor part of the country. For sure, and he has risen to become one of the most popular comedians in America. Like I said, he's got one of the most listened to podcasts anywhere. He does a lot of good work. He's helped a lot of people, too. His own path to recovery has led him on kind of an odyssey. And a big chunk of his audience really calls in and shares some surprisingly personal things. And he's, I just think he's occupying a really unique piece of real estate in this weird industry of ours.
2:41 Speaker 01 Yeah, he is. And like you said before, he really does care about people. And he's the kind of guy who, he's the kind of comedian who it seems to me doesn't tell jokes or doesn't need to tell jokes. He tells a story in a funny way. And he just phrases things in such a funny way that you just can't help but smile. I mean, I think you're gonna hear me just laughing in the background quite a bit because I couldn't keep quiet.
3:06 Mike Rowe? He's funny in a strange way. He doesn't fit. And what makes him interesting is that he doesn't care. He's just who he is. And this kid from a border town between Mississippi and Louisiana has interviewed the President of the United States.
3:24 Speaker 01 Yes.
3:25 Mike Rowe? The Vice President of the United States. Ranking Senators. He's an American original. In fact, it probably would have been more respectful to call him that in the title. But since he invoked a troubled white, we can quote him directly. This is Theo Von. He is, by his own admission, a troubled white. And he'll prove it right after this.
3:57 Mike Rowe? So as some of you may have heard, I went to Congress 16 years ago to testify before a House Subcommittee. And then again, a year later, to testify before a Senate Subcommittee about the need to reinvigorate the skilled trades with some kind of national effort that would make a more persuasive case for a lot of good jobs out there that didn't require a four-year degree. Well, 15 years later.
4:24 Mike Rowe? I finally heard back from the government and I am delighted to tell you about a program called BuildFreedom.us. This is the national PR campaign that MicroWorks has been talking about for a decade and a half now, and it's focused on 300,000 or 400,000 excellent jobs in the defense industrial base. These are the electricians and the plumbers and the steam finners and the pipe fitters and the CNC operators and the shipbuilders and so forth. But in this case, all of those trades are focused on building out our national infrastructure through the defense industrial base. So people who are building our autonomous
5:06 Mike Rowe? weapons, our planes, our ships, it's only a matter of national security and it's a very big deal. And on a personal level, it's really been very gratifying. Build Freedom donated $10 million to MicroWorks. The money's available right now for you if you want to pursue a skill that's in demand and work in the defense industrial base. I think it's an opportunity of a lifetime. Go to BuildFreedom.us, see what's available, and then apply for a scholarship from MicroWorks. The money's there, burning a hole in my pocket. Go get some. BuildFreedom.us.
5:44 Speaker 02 Mike, thanks so much, dude.
5:46 Mike Rowe? Are you kidding?
5:46 Speaker 02 So cool.
5:47 Mike Rowe? It's so crazy, this world that we're in, you more so than me probably, but the business of being a guest on a podcast, if you host a podcast, it's part of the bargain. I didn't really understand that when I sort of forest jumped my way into it. But what is it, quid pro quo?
6:06 Speaker 02 I think it's pretty understood, kind of you want to be supportive of your friends' podcasts. I think there's people sometimes that you want to have conversations with. So yeah, I guess sometimes it's a trade off.
6:17 Mike Rowe? Like, why did you call me? And just so people know, this is over two years ago. I happened to be in Nashville, full disclosure. I had heard your name. I didn't really quite understand.
6:28 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
6:28 Mike Rowe? Who you were or what you were doing.
6:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, I was just another troubled white, you know? And I would think I was having a tough week and I was like, oh, I know who troubled whites reach out to.
6:39 Mike Rowe? I can help.
6:40 Speaker 02 My bro, dude.
6:41 Mike Rowe? I can help.
6:42 Speaker 02 No, I mean, obviously I knew so much about you. You know, I, I worked on a farm growing up, uh, not forever, but I worked there for two summers and in Louisiana, right on the Louisiana and Mississippi line over there. Like outside of like, uh, Farady, Louisiana, which is I think where Jerry Lee Lewis is from, but. So anyway, you know, people then would like talk about, you know, episodes that they'd seen, like, you know, different stuff that they'd witnessed or whatever, so.
7:03 Mike Rowe? Louisiana was very good to dirty jobs.
7:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
7:06 Mike Rowe? You ever been down to Cut Off?
7:08 Speaker 02 No, I knew a girl from there though, and I quit knowing her, thank God.
7:12 Mike Rowe? You cut it off?
7:13 Speaker 02 I mean, I guess I did. I think it's a lot of X wives down there, you know?
7:17 Mike Rowe? It is. It's part Everglades, part Redneck Riviera. It's shot through with the level of consequence. Like I knew an alligator farmer down there named Jerry Savwa. And it's such a kick. I mean, you travel everywhere, but when you get into a town that you've never, A, you've never been to and B, didn't know existed. And then you meet a guy who raises alligators and then you're in like a homemade helicopter and he's flying you around and you're throwing spears with e-perbs and radar guided stuff into alligator nests so you can come back in an airboat and rob the eggs. Like all the, yeah. It all happens very quick and it's very consequential because you can be cut in half and cut off. Easy. You could be bitten right in half.
8:01 Speaker 02 What is an e-perb?
8:03 Mike Rowe? An e-perb is an electronic something beacon.
8:08 Mike Rowe? Check it out for me Chuck, it's an acronym. All boats have them. If you go, say, on Deadliest Catch and you fall overboard and you've got a survival suit on, there's an E-Perb on your suit. So it sends out some sort of signal that lets people at least get close.
8:27 Speaker 02 Yeah, like Ricky's drowning or whatever.
8:29 Mike Rowe? Ricky's drowning and the water's 38 degrees, so we gotta get there in about three minutes.
8:33 Speaker 01 Yeah, "Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon is a device used to alert search and rescue authorities in maritime emergencies. It transmits a distress signal on a designated frequency."
8:45 Speaker 02 There you go. Why would you guys use that from the air, just to, like a locator to come back?
8:49 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I think the Coast Guard first introduced them because, you know, up there, guys are overboard a lot, you really don't have much time. If you're in a suit, you can survive for a while. But it's like the most desperate thing you'll ever see is a Jayhawk being scrambled, right? Filled with coasties who are deployed in the middle of the night because a boat went down somewhere off the Pribeloff Islands. And the E-Perbs are going off and you know you got dudes in the water.
9:17 Speaker 02 Yeah.
9:18 Mike Rowe? And it's just, I mean, it's just, you know, it's intense. Anyway, I'm sorry, "Just another white boy in trouble." There you are on the border of Mississippi and Louisiana.
9:27 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I think your show just always made people feel like I was doing hard work even if I wasn't, you know? It was like, I'd even like clocked out at the end of your show, like, "Oh, shift's over," that type of stuff, you know? Or something, or yell at my fictional wife or something, you know? Or just slam a door and just like scream out the name of a TV dinner, just that kind of shit, you know?
9:46 Mike Rowe? Well, you know, when I first met you, again, just so people understand, I'm in Nashville. I'm meeting, I think, John Rich and shooting something. And my office calls and said, "Yeah, this guy Theo, here's the address." So I get over to your place and I don't know how long you'd been living there, but like you answered the door, like you're in your bathrobe and your boxers, you're like, "Hey, come on in." And I'm like, "Oh, God, what is this?"
10:12 Speaker 02 Oh, Kevin Spacey's here, huh? No, I think I just was running late. I've always run late, you know? Or the clocks, they, a lot of these clocks are fucking, they're fast, huh?
10:22 Mike Rowe? Well, what's going on in the solar system now? What is it, the Lion thing, the Lion's portal or something?
10:27 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah, the portal was just open, there's a cosmic... I'm gonna totally botch this, but I know it's a cosmic time where there's some alignment. I think in Orion's Belt, the Lion's Portal is open. It's like the hottest time of the year to get out there and manifest. To, um, you know, just to kind of shake your chakras for the Lord out there in the moonlight, kinda. And so, somebody sent me a link to it the other day. And so then I'm just out there manifesting and just like.
10:55 Mike Rowe? Explain what that means to you. Like when you manifest a thing, has it happened in your life before?
11:01 Speaker 02 I will say this, I felt good the next day, but that could have been, it could have been from peptides I was on. It could have been different things, you know?
11:09 Mike Rowe? Like, when I say it, like, I try not to exaggerate. As a rule.
11:16 Speaker 02 Really?
11:16 Mike Rowe? As a rule, I never exaggerate. I mean, there are things that I feel confident are gonna happen.
11:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
11:22 Mike Rowe? That haven't happened yet. And sometimes I'll say they've happened. Because I actually believe that saying they're going to happen. And I'm not a big supernaturalist, but will in some way, uh, reframe the world order. Like, my whole foundation was based on, I just started talking about it before I had it.
11:41 Speaker 02 Works, you mean?
11:42 Mike Rowe? Yeah, micro work started and then I started, I mean, and this sounds kinda gross, but I, I was saying we awarded a million dollars in work ethic scholarships before we had. I felt like we were gonna that year and we did. Right?
11:54 Speaker 02 Yeah.
11:55 Mike Rowe? And so, I don't know, there's just occasions where you say a thing out loud and all of a sudden it's made real.
12:00 Speaker 02 Well, I think like there's definitely, when I think back in my life, there's been things that I think it felt that way. But I think it's almost, you feel like if you had said them at the time, we'd feel kind of egotistical, maybe like just little daydreams or something.
12:11 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
12:12 Speaker 02 But it kinda makes sense, like, say if you had like, a piece of metal and you loaded it up with like, whatever like the one half of a magnet is called, like one side of it or something.
12:21 Mike Rowe? A mag.
12:21 Speaker 02 A mag, yeah. So, if you like.
12:24 Mike Rowe? I don't know if that's true, by the way. You got your net. You got your bag and your net. Got heads and tails.
12:29 Speaker 02 But it's like, if you stacked a mag with everything, with all your dreams in there, you'd think, like the way a magnet works, that a net would eventually, if you load a mag up enough, with enough mag. A net would-
12:41 Mike Rowe? The net has got to come.
12:42 Speaker 02 It's got to fly, literally because of the power that would be, the pull that would be in it at that point, something would fly over and meet it, you know?
12:49 Mike Rowe? So you think maybe on it like from a cosmic, universal sense, if you look at it through the lens of magnetism, then the argument is there's always a positive pole and a negative pole. And there are times when those poles can reverse, which is going to usher in a level of chaos that the astronomers freak out when they talk about, like when the, when the earth's poles, they say when? Cause it's going to switch that once our magnetic field, yeah, yeah.
13:15 Speaker 02 Oh my god.
13:16 Mike Rowe? I mean, it's not going to happen today, Theo, I don't think.
13:19 Speaker 02 No, I know that, but I'm just like, fuck, my mom's going to be fucking pissed.
13:23 Mike Rowe? Look, mine's livid too. I narrate a show called How the Universe Works, which ought to be called A Thousand Ways to Die. Cause every single episode talks about either a magnetron, or a quasar, or a pulsar, or a supernova, or, you know.
13:37 Speaker 02 Or just a batch of gay dudes coming and scooping you up. That's one of my biggest fears, I feel like if you're in a park or something. Cause a lot of gay men are way tougher than they used to be.
13:46 Mike Rowe? What happened, you think? When did that shift? Cause I remember watching a, what was the? He and I used to work in a theater years ago.
13:54 Speaker 02 Oh, you guys, yeah, tell us more, huh?
13:56 Mike Rowe? No, it was called Cruisin'.
13:58 Speaker 01 Oh my gosh, Hips or Lips?
14:01 Mike Rowe? Hips or Lips.
14:02 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:02 Mike Rowe? Yeah, and I remember watching that movie thinking, you know, this is, this is not at all consistent with the image I had of that particular lifestyle. Which I don't in no way care to judge or way on, but it was just, I mean, that was a, it was a risky business.
14:19 Speaker 01 It was a rough movie.
14:20 Mike Rowe? Yes, it was.
14:21 Speaker 02 Is Cruisin', it's called?
14:22 Mike Rowe? It's called Cruisin'. Stars Al Pacino.
14:24 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
14:25 Speaker 02 Something a lot of you guys can watch on your lunch break out there, is it that kind of thing?
14:28 Mike Rowe? No, I wouldn't recommend it. No, I don't think it's going to help with your digestion.
14:31 Speaker 02 What sandwich does it go with, you think?
14:33 Mike Rowe? Uh, I'd say a hoagie.
14:34 Speaker 01 A foot long.
14:35 Mike Rowe? Foot long?
14:35 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:36 Speaker 02 Oh yeah, well, I got a four inch round, you know? That's the best I can do, dude. Something a bun over here. Um, but yeah, I think that's when I, you know, like, that's when America really, you know, yeah, there was something about your world that was just fun. It was kind of fascinating to follow and look and see in all these spaces and stuff like that.
14:54 Mike Rowe? Well, see, this is how, like, the Wheel of Fortuna spins, man. I'm fascinated by your world. I'm fascinated how this, would you call yourself troubled white boy?
15:05 Speaker 02 Yeah, troubled white.
15:06 Mike Rowe? Yeah, a TW.
15:07 Speaker 02 Yeah, TW.
15:08 Mike Rowe? Right. I mean, I know kind of the story. I know it was Road Rules and MTV and stuff. And then really, I think, like, what I'd love to get into with you, and I want to talk too, about the big idea that you and I have been kicking around later.
15:22 Speaker 02 Yeah, sure, man.
15:22 Mike Rowe? Let's just say that for a second. I just want people to like you first. I mean, not that they don't already like you.
15:27 Speaker 02 Well, thanks, dude.
15:28 Mike Rowe? Because your, your charm is palpable on TV, but, you know.
15:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
15:33 Mike Rowe? People just might not be watching. They might just be listening.
15:36 Speaker 02 Yeah, I don't know. I think, I just feel lucky that this job kind of came along where you can work for yourself with podcasting.
15:43 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
15:44 Speaker 02 You know, I had a tough time, like, I didn't want to count on anybody else for myself. I think that's something that's always just been a part of me as a human, you know? And I think that's kind of what led me, like, into comedy, because it's just you. It's you up there. Your dad can't get you that job. You're fucking rich, whoever. Some guy can't get you that job. Some guy with a mustache or whatever can't get you that job.
16:08 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
16:08 Speaker 02 You gotta get up there, you know? I think that's something why I liked comedy, and then I was fortunate that podcasting came along and, you know, it's been kind of a neat, uh, I feel fortunate that this is when I'm alive so that I can, you know, just to have this job, and it's been fun.
16:22 Mike Rowe? Theo, you've got the, it's like the fourth biggest podcast in the world now. I mean, that's a crooked line from the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. You know what I mean? That's a crooked line. And I didn't realize it either when you answered the door in your underwear and let me into your house in Nashville for a chat two years ago.
16:39 Speaker 02 Now, they were thick underwear. I don't want people to think I was wearing something, you know?
16:41 Mike Rowe? I mean, whatever. I didn't linger. I just was like, all right, well, this is, this is what we're doing.
16:46 Speaker 02 Well, they were wool. That's all I'm saying.
16:48 Mike Rowe? Hey, man, you know what? Wool is an underrated fabric, you know? It's almost always associated with the winter, but it's one of the most breathable, sensible things. It'll keep you warm when it's wet.
16:59 Speaker 02 Hmm.
16:59 Mike Rowe? Which, if you think about it.
17:00 Speaker 02 It's thoughtful.
17:01 Mike Rowe? I mean, from a utilitarian underwear standpoint, it's a, it's an interesting selling point.
17:06 Speaker 02 Yeah, you can be wet and warm. Ooh, yeah. I would, I would stop by that. I'd stop by that. Yeah, that's great. You can be wet and warm. All right. I'll take a little, you know? I think that's how I feel about that, I guess. But, anyway, I feel like we're talking about nine things at once, and I've had some coffee, too.
17:25 Mike Rowe? We are.
17:25 Speaker 02 And that's okay, man. That's what this job is, dude.
17:29 Mike Rowe? You know what, though? I was listening to you interview Donald Trump when you walked in twenty minutes ago. Which, really, that was an awkward meet. You know, we sort of hugged, and you knocked my glasses off my shirt, and then you bent down to get those. I'm trying to introduce you to Chuck, and meanwhile, I got you in my ear, and Donald Trump is talking to you about how to reform the Trial Lawyers Association.
17:51 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. He said that the lawyer lobby is a really big lobby. I didn't even know that existed.
17:54 Mike Rowe? Massive lobby.
17:55 Speaker 02 That's crazy. And it's gotta be the worst one, because they have all the lawyers.
18:00 Mike Rowe? They're very hard to sue.
18:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, you're like, oh.
18:02 Mike Rowe? Yeah, you can't sue yourself.
18:03 Speaker 02 That's crazy, huh?
18:09 Mike Rowe? What if, say, five years ago, some big oil company offered a promotion that gave you a chance to lock in the price of gasoline at $2.50 a gallon for the rest of your life? Would you have taken that deal? Or what if a nationwide grocery store had given you an opportunity to lock in the price of ground beef at, say, $2 a pound for as long as you live? Would you have taken that deal? Yeah, me too. Unfortunately, those deals were never on the table, but this one is. Today, as in right now, for a very, very limited time, Pure Talk is offering every American the opportunity to purchase unlimited talk, text, and data, along with a 30 gig hotspot, for just $29.95 a month for life.
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19:37 Mike Rowe? I want to know.
19:39 Speaker 02 We okay on this? You good, brother? Okay, cool.
19:40 Mike Rowe? Oh, he's always good, yeah. That's Taylor. Taylor's the guy on the poster there, right behind you. He worked on Dirty Jobs with me and Somebody's Gotta Do It and all these other shows, yeah.
19:49 Speaker 02 Handsome.
19:50 Mike Rowe? He is handsome.
19:50 Speaker 02 Whatever, dude. I like chicks, you know what I'm saying? Stay away. You know?
19:58 Speaker 02 God, huh?
20:01 Mike Rowe? So, you're a comedian, you're funny, but now you're an interviewer. And now it's J.D. Vance and it's Bernie Sanders and it's Donald Trump. And of course, it's also all the comedians in the world. And then there's your listening audience, who I know you love a lot.
20:18 Speaker 02 Yeah, a lot of great people out there, probably folks that are similar to you. That's one thing that's about podcasting, I think, because a lot of times you'll meet the person, you'll be like, I would talk to this person for a long time, you know?
20:27 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
20:27 Speaker 02 Because they're similar, they're probably, you have to be, probably have some similarities to people, I think, to, you know, consume them in like a longer format, maybe.
20:34 Mike Rowe? I'd just like to know, though, when, when's the last time you were nervous?
20:40 Speaker 02 That's a good question, actually.
20:43 Mike Rowe? Not counting today, of course.
20:44 Speaker 02 Oh, I'll tell you, actually, dude, I freaking just forgot about this. I found this freaking bone. On the sidewalk.
20:53 Mike Rowe? You found a bone on the sidewalk and you picked it up?
20:56 Speaker 02 Yeah, you think I'm fucking leaving it out there, dude?
21:00 Mike Rowe? In some circles, we'd call this, uh, evidence.
21:02 Speaker 02 Yeah, I have no idea. It was the only one. I looked at it like in a forty foot radius. That was the only one they had.
21:08 Mike Rowe? What do you reckon it is?
21:09 Speaker 02 I don't know. It looks like part of the spine.
21:12 Mike Rowe? Like a vertebrae?
21:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's what I would go with.
21:15 Mike Rowe? You might have found a vertebrae. Where were you?
21:17 Speaker 02 Uh, just right across the street where I was parking. But anyway, yeah, I didn't mean to bring that up. I just felt it in my pocket.
21:23 Mike Rowe? I think that's worth ruminating on a minute, you know?
21:26 Speaker 02 Dude, we found some bones when I was a kid in these wishing wells in our town. They had like this youth group. It was like.
21:32 Mike Rowe? Through church?
21:33 Speaker 02 It was kind of through the church. It was after school, like on Wednesday night, people would meet up and they'd have like a religious guy who was like, and he'd play fun games with everybody, but everybody was just trying to sneak off in the dark and kiss or whatever. Or just fucking even just rub their fucking front of their body against the damn tree or whatever.
21:48 Mike Rowe? Yeah, it's Mississippi Louisiana border, you know?
21:51 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. And if they border, I want to, you know? That's my, was my motto. Oh, our states are bordering. We should, you know?
22:00 Speaker 02 But.
22:00 Speaker 01 It's a good pickup line.
22:01 Mike Rowe? It looks great on a t-shirt, man. It's pretty amazing.
22:05 Speaker 02 Yeah, but anyway, oh yeah. And then, so anyway, they had this thing where they, they had like six or seven wishing wells in our town and a group of kids, you'd go clean them out in the summertime because people would put all kinds of stuff down there and and some of it was hopeful stuff. It was wishes. And then some of it was just people would put recyclables or used plates and dinnerware, stuff like that. Stuff they didn't want. Uh, luggage, stuff like that. We found a sword out, out there and they had some finger bones one time that somebody found.
22:36 Mike Rowe? Phalanges?
22:36 Speaker 02 Yeah, phalanges.
22:37 Mike Rowe? In a wishing well?
22:38 Speaker 02 Yeah.
22:40 Mike Rowe? That's amazing.
22:41 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's the only time I've ever found human bones. Um, I have always wanted to find a body. People want, I feel like everybody wants to. Do you feel like that?
22:50 Mike Rowe? Uh, I did once.
22:51 Speaker 02 Nuh-uh.
22:52 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
22:53 Speaker 02 Mike.
22:54 Mike Rowe? Yeah. Oh, thanks. It was a big day. It was a big day.
22:58 Speaker 02 Good work, dude.
23:00 Mike Rowe? And the crazy thing is, a couple of weeks after that, I found a mannequin. And I thought, I can't believe I found another body.
23:09 Speaker 02 And you thought it was another body?
23:10 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
23:10 Speaker 02 And it was a mannequin hiding?
23:11 Mike Rowe? Yeah, it was, it was actually down where we took our trash every night. And somebody, not one of our neighbors, we only, we lived on a, like a country lane and there weren't a lot of people around. So that, like, we all knew each other's trash. And it didn't seem like any of the few neighbors we had would throw a body out. You know, but it sure, it was a body, you know? But of course, it turned out to be a mannequin. As a sidebar, my, my mother took this thing home. And she put it in my bed. And I was about seventeen. I came home, I think you and I were probably hanging out back.
23:46 Speaker 02 As a prank?
23:47 Mike Rowe? Yeah, as a prank, yeah, my mom did this stuff.
23:49 Speaker 02 She had a sense of humor, yeah. Still does, still does, yeah.
23:51 Mike Rowe? Yeah, terrible woman, though. I mean, she, I mean, put this thing, put a bandana on its head and tucked it into my bed. I was living in the basement at the time.
24:00 Speaker 02 Oh, you have a Hell's Angel sleeping over or something?
24:02 Mike Rowe? No, I just, you know, I, I would come in late and I'd like to, I didn't want to wake him up. There were times I would come in through the window well, on the backside of it.
24:10 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
24:11 Mike Rowe? You know, yeah, she had this mannequin in the bed and, uh, had it tucked in. And I came in, got halfway undressed and turned around and the body was in the bed. I'd jump so high I hit my head on the ceiling.
24:21 Speaker 02 Ooh.
24:22 Mike Rowe? It was exciting.
24:23 Speaker 02 Yeah.
24:24 Mike Rowe? Anyway, look, I hope you do find a body one day. It'd be good for you.
24:27 Speaker 02 That's the only body you found, or you found a real one also?
24:29 Mike Rowe? I found a real one, but I, I saw it at about thirty feet away. And the cops were there not long afterwards in a stream bed not far from the creek.
24:40 Speaker 02 Wow.
24:40 Mike Rowe? I don't know what happened to it, but the best body stories are our friend Chad Pigracki. Chad runs barge up and down the Mississippi and Ohio. He's like self-appointed garbage man there. And the stuff he finds.
24:52 Speaker 02 Uh-uh.
24:53 Mike Rowe? Oh my God, it's just cash registers with money, bodies.
24:58 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:00 Mike Rowe? Like cannonballs from Vicksburg.
25:02 Speaker 02 Oh, of course.
25:04 Mike Rowe? Yeah, like the rivers are amazing.
25:05 Speaker 02 That's their big thing up there. They're like, come look at this cannon. You know, in like a lot of those Civil War towns or whatever.
25:11 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
25:12 Speaker 02 Don't you want to sit the kiddos on this hot cannon or whatever? You're like, this is fucking, this is just a gay bar or whatever. But yeah, there's a lot of uh, Civil War type stuff. We used to go to Civil War reenactments when I was a kid. My father would take me over there sometimes.
25:26 Mike Rowe? What side were you on?
25:27 Speaker 02 Hmm.
25:32 Speaker 02 Let's go to a commercial break. I mean, you gotta cheer for the home team.
25:42 Mike Rowe? Look, man.
25:42 Speaker 02 I mean, Louisiana is, you know?
25:49 Mike Rowe? Gosh Chuck, I don't know if you can find it. I did an episode on Somebody's Gotta Do It on Civil War reenactors.
25:55 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:56 Mike Rowe? And Taylor shot it. Where were we? We're outside of Orlando. Yeah, we were in the south.
26:02 Speaker 02 Really? Is it big down there? Cause it's, there's some spillover between CWR guys, wrestlers, Ren Fair. There's some people that work all of that.
26:10 Mike Rowe? What CWR?
26:11 Speaker 02 Civil War reenactments.
26:12 Mike Rowe? Oh, there you go.
26:13 Speaker 02 Sorry. And then, yeah, Ren Fair, those guys, and then.
26:16 Mike Rowe? Dude, you're talking in acronyms. That means you're fully committed to this, this world.
26:20 Speaker 02 Oh dude, we spent some time over there.
26:22 Mike Rowe? We went from Eperbs to you know, CWRs.
26:25 Speaker 02 CWRs dude, yeah. Oh, I'd see them sitting out there eating fucking dirty MREs and sharing spoons and whatever.
26:31 Mike Rowe? MREs again. That's a meal ready to eat.
26:34 Speaker 02 Tickling each other and shit.
26:36 Mike Rowe? Well, this is a terrific segment and it really gets into the heads of reenactors on both sides and you really get a, a look into the world. But right after we edited, then we got the whole thing ready and what happened was it George Floyd or was, it was before that. But for whatever reason, everybody got cold feet about. About area.
26:56 Speaker 02 Why? Because when you mean like when the cops killed George Floyd or whatever?
27:00 Mike Rowe? Well, there was just.
27:01 Speaker 02 Who am I thinking of? George Foreman? That's who I'm thinking of. How he died?
27:04 Mike Rowe? Well, I guarantee you, he didn't die like George Floyd did. No. George Foreman, I think, passed in a bizarre grilling accident.
27:12 Mike Rowe? No, he died recently, I think, didn't he?
27:15 Speaker 02 He did, man. I shouldn't have brought it up. I got confused for a second. I hope he's all right.
27:18 Speaker 01 No, but Mike, the reason that the thing never aired was, I don't think, it was on CNN. But you're talking about when we put it on TBN.
27:27 Speaker 02 Yeah.
27:28 Speaker 01 And the reason they didn't want it was because you were rooting for the home team.
27:33 Speaker 02 Oh, you were over the South?
27:34 Mike Rowe? I was.
27:34 Speaker 01 You were dressed as a Confederate.
27:35 Mike Rowe? I was dressed as a Confederate. I brought Maryland. It's a border state. We never really could decide.
27:40 Speaker 02 Yeah, and it's also like which conference is better. I don't know. I could see them creating a league out of it eventually. Once it kind of loses some of the racial stigma and maybe like two more generations. I could totally see that.
27:51 Mike Rowe? Yeah. A league, like, how would it work? What would the rules be?
27:53 Speaker 02 I don't know, and I don't know what the game would be exactly, but I could just see that. Everything, even historic, eventually over time, it turns in, and I feel like, you know, it makes it where it can become something marketable, even if it's something bad, maybe. Do you think over like enough time?
28:06 Mike Rowe? I think you and I talked about this. We were talking about sports in general.
28:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
28:11 Mike Rowe? And I think I said, oh, I made a game out of catching horse crap in the air. Because my chores involve picking up horse crap every day. And it was super exciting to follow them around and try and catch it before it hit the ground.
28:26 Speaker 02 Oh, so bad, so bad.
28:27 Mike Rowe? Right. Now, that's a ridiculous way to pass the time, and it's probably never going to be an organized, you know, sport. But cornhole is, darts are, I think lawn darts are too, and horseshoes and bocce ball. So like, you know, when does an activity go from being a thing you do at a barbecue in your backyard to something that maybe is in the X Games, but not the Olympics, eventually to the Olympics and then organized? I have no idea how to make sense of any of that, but those things come and go. All I know is I was riveted to cornhole.
29:00 Speaker 02 Yeah. Oh, yeah, there's something about it. There's something kind of nasty about it, and there's something fun about it. I'm trying to think of what games I like.
29:11 Mike Rowe? What do you do for fun?
29:13 Speaker 02 I've been saunting.
29:16 Speaker 02 Sauna, sauna Inc.
29:17 Mike Rowe? Sauna Inc.
29:18 Speaker 02 Going to the sauna in the morning.
29:20 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
29:20 Speaker 02 I've been getting out of bed early. That's been making me feel pretty good. I'm trying to think of what else I've really been doing.
29:26 Mike Rowe? Manifesting.
29:27 Speaker 02 I have been manifesting, yeah. I did sit out there, man. And I did, yeah, I'll tell you about that. So don't forget to tell you. So I sit out there and I just said like, you know, I accept abundance. I accept possibility. I accept, um, talking to my sister. I accept everything that God wants me to accept, right? And I, I don't accept, um, bad thoughts about myself, just things like that.
29:57 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
29:58 Speaker 02 You know, and I'd just never done it before. You know, I thought about it and you hear about it all the time, manifesting. But I thought it was kind of interesting and then I wanted to do it again yesterday, you know, I just kind of like, had a moment in the day where I was like, I want to do that again. So I think something inside of me, it made me feel good, you know?
30:12 Mike Rowe? What did you think of Tony Robbins?
30:14 Speaker 02 Hmm, I think he would have, I think Hogan would have beat him, I think. That was my first thought when I saw him, that Hulk Hogan would have beat him. Would have wiped the fucking floor with him.
30:28 Speaker 02 To be honest, dude.
30:29 Mike Rowe? That was honestly your first thought when you met Tony Robbins?
30:31 Speaker 02 Yeah.
30:32 Mike Rowe? Cause he's big.
30:33 Speaker 02 Yeah, but he ain't bigger than the fucking Hulkster.
30:35 Mike Rowe? No, the Hulk, Hulk's big Terry.
30:37 Speaker 02 That's what I thought, dude. I was like, oh yeah, you got all your magic and shit. I'd like to see you take that shit on the fucking ring, boy. So I thought, that was my first thought. After that, I thought, man, this guy is, uh, he's very engaging. I felt like he makes the most out of life. I do feel like he makes the most out of his time. He drew stus to his wife and kid. They were really nice. I thought he was, yeah, he's compelling, you know? And he's kind of larger than life. So there's a lot of like, things that are right there, you know? And yeah, I just felt, I felt like he was a neat guy.
31:12 Mike Rowe? I'm interested.
31:13 Speaker 02 You know him?
31:14 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I went to one of his things back in, uh, ninety-three.
31:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, that sounds right.
31:21 Mike Rowe? A date with destiny. Hot coals and so forth. I was there as a guest, actually. I got a buddy who's like,
31:31 Mike Rowe? you know, Powder, remember that movie, Guy Hit by Lightning?
31:33 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
31:34 Mike Rowe? And then suddenly he can do all these. My friend's a human calculator.
31:36 Speaker 02 That weather honky or whatever?
31:37 Mike Rowe? Yeah, kinda like that, except he's got all the Guinness World Records for math calculations. Right? So Tony hired him to come and like warm the crowd up in the mornings. I went along as his guest. And that was the first time I heard somebody talk about manifesting. And everybody in the crowd was nodding their head like you are right now. Cause like, yeah, man, I can really see the power in that. And then all these years later, I saw you interview him. But what you did, man, and this is what I was trying to get at with the nervous thing and with the Trump thing and with all the, all these different roles, you know, you became like a lab rat with him.
32:15 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
32:16 Mike Rowe? You know what I mean? Like you were so willing to unpack and answer candidly the questions he was asking. And that little clip was, you know, viewed millions and millions of times.
32:29 Speaker 02 Yeah, I love that kinda stuff.
32:30 Mike Rowe? I know you do, but that's why you're so hard to nail down, man. I just, it's like comedian, interviewer, podcaster, or troubled white.
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34:11 Speaker 02 Yeah, I like, I mean, I guess I'll always be, I'll probably always be a troubled white. I don't, I don't know if I feel like an interviewer. Interviewing never feels fun, kinda. It is nice when your conversations get into a place where you can just talk. I do like, I would sit in therapy all the time and just have it be podcasts. Like, like I have some moments in therapy that I think are like, you know, like I'm kind of a late bloomer in life. So it's like, I'm like learning a lot of stuff that I felt like I probably should have had more of a understanding of when I was young, but late. Like I feel a lot of times like a, not like a kid, but I feel very kind of childish energy sometimes.
34:48 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
34:48 Speaker 02 You know, and I don't mean that in a weird way or anything. But over the past few years, I've kind of noticed that I'm like, yeah, I think some of that's just still passing through me, you know? It just took some years to get out of the, you know, to get out of the, um, magazine.
35:03 Speaker 02 You know?
35:04 Mike Rowe? No, I don't. What do you mean the magazine?
35:06 Speaker 02 Or just like out of the way, you know, it just took a few years to, to, you know, to out of the magazine, the clip.
35:10 Mike Rowe? Oh, the clip, clip, clip.
35:12 Speaker 02 Yeah, sorry, clip.
35:13 Mike Rowe? No, I think, um.
35:15 Speaker 02 But yeah, dude, I love that kind of stuff. I love it when like I go to recovery meetings, I just came for one today. I love when people are feeling something, you know? Like in our house, when I was growing up, we couldn't, like everything was so intense that you couldn't even let your guard down for a second to have like a feeling.
35:31 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
35:32 Speaker 02 Because you were going to be ridiculed or you were going to seem weak or you were going to, um. You knew that it was gonna get you, it was not gonna help you, right? You never had a chance to like, even your feelings to kind of process sometimes because you were like this all the time. And so, when I get in chances where I get to have moments like that, man, I really treasure them. I really, really love them.
36:01 Mike Rowe? You're just, you're living it though, in public, in a way that, I haven't seen anybody do this yet, honestly. I pay attention, but I mean, you're touring, and you're a funny guy on stage.
36:14 Speaker 02 Yeah, we do pretty good.
36:15 Mike Rowe? You do great, and you're interviewing some of the most important people on the planet, and you're being interviewed by some of the more thoughtful people on the planet, and you're talking about things with like such candor, you know? And I remember, you know, another clip, and I know I've said this to you before, but I started paying attention to you about a year after we met, when I saw a caller came through.
36:41 Speaker 02 Oh yeah, I remember you telling me about this.
36:44 Mike Rowe? And this guy was, you know, he was struggling, and he was back on his heels, and he was nervous, because he was talking to you. And you let him talk for maybe 15 minutes.
36:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
36:58 Mike Rowe? And I couldn't believe it, honestly. It defied what you would expect somebody to do in that quasi-live format, but you just let him talk. And what got me were the comments under that video from thousands of people who learned, or felt, or connected so much from watching you listen. And that's, you know, that's an interesting set of muscles you got.
37:28 Speaker 02 Well, thanks for checking that out, dude. I, you know, my brother, like a few years ago, one day I was just having like the worst day. And we're just similar growing up, we just had like, you know, it was just so intense growing up. You didn't even develop, you know, you just didn't even... Develop when you were young, you just didn't. I don't know. Nobody in our family did. None of the kids did really. And so.
37:54 Mike Rowe? You had an older brother.
37:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, I got an older brother. He's two years older than me. And then one day I was having a tough day and I was sitting in my truck. It was in Nashville and I pulled over and I was just bawling, dude. I was just like, I think I was just kind of at my wit end.
38:07 Speaker 02 Everything just felt impossible. Just that kind of moment, you know? And he was just like, hey, man, if you want, I'll just sit here with you for a little while, you know? He's like, we don't have to say anything. You know, I can just sit here with you and just be here with you, you know? And um. Yeah. And when he said that, dude, I just like, I mean, I think tears came out of my fucking. Meta tarsals, you know, are there feet?
38:31 Mike Rowe? Uh, yeah, I believe they are.
38:33 Speaker 02 Yeah. I mean, it was just like, just because in my life, nobody said that, like, hey, I'm, I'm just gonna be here. And that's it, right? Like, there was no other part to it, you know? And it was just a powerful moment for me. So sometimes there are moments like, anyway, all I'm saying is. I learned little things from my brother and sometimes if there's days or moments where I'm even like a tenth of what he's been for me, then um. That's where some of those like kind of little moments come from. That's why I think I care about that kind of stuff. Because when you're in like recovery meetings, you, you hear that kind of stuff, you know, uh, and you have, you hear people like that have. Just stuff that's real, you know? And so I really love that. Anyway, I'm kind of rambling.
39:14 Mike Rowe? No, man. Look, I'm super interested about.
39:19 Mike Rowe? I don't know a lot about AA. But I know a fair amount about celebrity. And I've always been interested. Like, what is it like for you? And what is it like for, like, because you can be in a town you've never been into and you can show up at a meeting. What's the dynamic like when you walk in for people who know you? And like anonymity is such a big part. I mean, it's in the title of the whole organization. You can't be anonymous if you're Theo Vaughn, and yet there you are.
39:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think sometimes it's interesting. I used to think about it. I can tell like if I'm worried about that when I walk in there, then I'm not doing well personally, right? Because I'm more like in the like, what's my needs and my image, that kind of stuff. But if I hadn't gone to meetings in a long time and I go in, or if I'm in a new city, like whenever I moved to Nashville, I was like worried about that at first, like or just like, I guess concerned and also you're going into meetings in a new place. So that feels interesting. But you can kind of map out what's going on, you know? And then also we're all in there because we're something's wrong or like something's awesome about us, but also had drugs and alcohol involved with it. And so, you know, we're all kind of on the same page.
40:33 Speaker 02 But there's been moments where people like, yeah, I guess we want to take photos of them at meetings. And so I usually just kind of say, you know, I don't do that at meetings or something like that to kind of keep it cool. But then I'll try to check in with that person too. So I don't want them feeling, you know, like a bummed out or something, you know, because alcoholics get their feelings hurt easy sometimes. So it's like, you know, I think it's probably unique for them and unique for me in some type of way. And not everybody, but sometimes sometimes you go to meetings and nobody knows, dude, there's some guy in there. There's a guy and I think there was a meeting I walked in in once and I don't even know, I didn't go back in, but it was just one dude in there and he could have been dead. It was an old guy. I was like, I'm not fucking checking if that, you know, I was like, I'm not a EMT or whatever, you know?
41:17 Mike Rowe? Well, there's the body you were looking for.
41:18 Speaker 02 I know I should have stayed. I still think if he had his shoes off.
41:24 Mike Rowe? How important is it like?
41:27 Speaker 02 Dying with your shoes on has to suck, right?
41:29 Mike Rowe? I mean, it would depend what you're doing.
41:31 Speaker 02 What? Who wants to have their shoes on forever?
41:34 Mike Rowe? Oh, well, I mean, yeah.
41:36 Speaker 02 Imagine you have your shoes on in heaven and somebody has their fucking shoes off.
41:42 Mike Rowe? Yeah, somebody didn't get the memo. There's an old song died. He died with his boots on. Famous.
41:47 Speaker 02 Unlucky dude, walking around in boots forever. That would piss me off.
41:51 Mike Rowe? I'm not sure that's how the afterlife works for sure. I mean, you might be right, but I think you're basically transformed, you know, it's not your whole. I don't think your wardrobe goes with you.
42:01 Speaker 02 But I think you still know how it feels to have shoes on your feet and you die with that feeling. And I think that that stays with you.
42:07 Mike Rowe? You do you?
42:07 Speaker 02 I do.
42:09 Mike Rowe? Well.
42:10 Speaker 02 And I would hate that.
42:12 Mike Rowe? Yeah, unless it's cold.
42:15 Mike Rowe? You know, you want to be barefoot? And what if the terrain is rocky? I mean, I'm sure heaven is not typically imagined as a rough-terrained chilly place.
42:26 Speaker 02 Yeah, I wonder what kind of land they have up there?
42:31 Speaker 01 Milk and honey is what I've heard.
42:33 Speaker 02 Really?
42:34 Mike Rowe? Well, the land of milk and honey.
42:35 Speaker 01 Exactly.
42:36 Mike Rowe? Is the thing.
42:37 Speaker 02 So you fellows have been in France for a long time, huh?
42:39 Mike Rowe? I've never seen this guy before.
42:40 Speaker 01 First time.
42:41 Speaker 02 How long?
42:43 Speaker 01 Forty-four years, maybe.
42:45 Speaker 02 Oh, my God, you perverts, dude.
42:47 Mike Rowe? No, we were in high school.
42:48 Speaker 02 You do not know somebody for that long, dude. Meet somebody else, dude.
42:51 Mike Rowe? I know, I'm trying. Believe me, I'm trying. I know. It's like.
42:56 Speaker 02 Get out of the house.
42:58 Mike Rowe? It's like stepping in gum, man. I can't shake it.
43:01 Speaker 02 Have you guys ever been on a double date before?
43:03 Mike Rowe? Oh, yeah.
43:04 Speaker 02 No way.
43:05 Mike Rowe? Yeah, we went on a double date.
43:06 Speaker 02 With twins or regulars?
43:08 Speaker 01 Uh, regulars.
43:09 Mike Rowe? We went on a date. Was it, uh, was?
43:12 Speaker 01 Oh, dear.
43:13 Mike Rowe? Can I say it?
43:14 Speaker 01 Oh, my God. Yeah, go on.
43:15 Mike Rowe? Yeah, it was Danielle and Terry.
43:16 Speaker 01 That's right. It was Danielle and Terry.
43:18 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
43:19 Speaker 01 And until it wasn't.
43:20 Mike Rowe? That's right.
43:21 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:21 Speaker 02 Is that your ex-wife?
43:23 Speaker 01 Uh, no, no, no. God rest her soul.
43:25 Speaker 02 Oh, this... Someone passed away?
43:28 Speaker 01 Oh, no, she's just dead to me.
43:29 Speaker 02 Oh.
43:30 Speaker 01 Thank you. I'll be here all podcast.
43:32 Mike Rowe? She died with her boots on.
43:35 Mike Rowe? And the Spurs.
43:36 Speaker 01 I kid. I kid. I kid. I kid.
43:39 Speaker 02 We're just kidding, Danielle and Terry. Terry's your wife.
43:42 Mike Rowe? Uh, no, no, that's not true. I haven't seen Terry in years.
43:45 Speaker 02 Really?
43:45 Mike Rowe? But she, yeah. But that was a, I'll never forget that night.
43:49 Speaker 02 Where did y'all go?
43:49 Mike Rowe? Never forget that night.
43:50 Speaker 01 No one will. Uh, we went to Danielle's house.
43:53 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
43:54 Speaker 02 No way. In the basement? You fucking creep, son. What were y'all doing?
44:00 Mike Rowe? All right.
44:00 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:01 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
44:01 Speaker 01 Just, you know, talking.
44:03 Mike Rowe? Yeah. Yeah, we were just talking. We were having a chat.
44:05 Speaker 02 But were y'all boozing on there or playing a game? Like, what was like the setup? Was there a reason? Like, was it movie night? Was it just kind of like?
44:12 Mike Rowe? Was it movie night?
44:13 Speaker 01 I don't recall any photographs being taken, but.
44:16 Speaker 02 Y'all are creeping me out now, all right?
44:19 Speaker 02 Just tell us what happened. Are these women OK? That's what I want to know.
44:22 Mike Rowe? I sure hope so. Yeah. Because I haven't talked to Terry in decades.
44:27 Speaker 02 Let's bring her in right now. We got.
44:31 Speaker 02 She has a tattoo of Mike Rowe on her back? I'm just joking, Terry, and that's, and that's insane.
44:36 Mike Rowe? Terry was good. You know what's funny?
44:38 Speaker 02 I hope she's doing good.
44:39 Mike Rowe? This is another night, but I, I brought Terry back to my parents' house. I'm still living in the basement, the very place where the fucking mannequin was waiting for me when I crawled through the window sill.
44:49 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah, sounds like a John Irving novel or something.
44:51 Mike Rowe? Are you a fan of Irving, by the way?
44:53 Speaker 02 Yeah.
44:53 Mike Rowe? Prayer for Owen Meany?
44:54 Speaker 02 Oh.
44:55 Mike Rowe? Hotel New Hampshire?
44:56 Speaker 02 Yeah.
44:56 Mike Rowe? Oh.
44:56 Speaker 02 Set in Free the Bears, dude?
44:58 Mike Rowe? So good. Oh, good.
45:00 Speaker 02 My favorite author. First book I ever read, like, as an adult book?
45:03 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
45:03 Speaker 02 Was, um, The World According to Garp.
45:06 Mike Rowe? Yeah, Garp, me too.
45:07 Speaker 02 That got everybody in.
45:08 Mike Rowe? Garp was early from, well, that was done in like eighty, eighty-one or eighty-two, I think.
45:11 Speaker 02 That was so good.
45:12 Mike Rowe? Yeah, always wrestling. He's like, Irving was a big wrestler.
45:16 Speaker 02 With Exeter and stuff like that?
45:17 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
45:18 Speaker 02 And the Bears and the neighbor's dog and just the way he like, put life together and stuff. For some reason, it just, I absorbed that really good. He just put out a book about a year and a half ago that I got. It was kind of hard to read. It was just a lot of words. And I don't like that. I used to date a real chatty girl and I fucking, I do not like a lot of that.
45:36 Mike Rowe? Hey Chuck, see if you can find the last paragraph to A Prayer for Owen Meany. It haunted me. Yeah, the book is called A Prayer for Owen Meany. It's by John Irving. And I wonder if the last paragraph exists. I wonder if you could read that if it does.
45:50 Speaker 02 And they made a movie called Simon Birch, if anybody ever got to watch that movie. That is a neat movie, too.
45:55 Mike Rowe? It's, that's the Owen Meany take.
45:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
45:57 Mike Rowe? Essentially.
45:59 Speaker 02 That's cool, man.
46:00 Mike Rowe? So I bring Terry back to the house.
46:01 Speaker 02 Yeah.
46:03 Mike Rowe? And, um, Terry was, wow, voluptuous.
46:09 Speaker 02 Yeah.
46:09 Mike Rowe? She's a beautiful, beautiful woman, but she looked like a, a movie star and she looked, she looked like a, like a mature thirty-five year old.
46:20 Speaker 02 Like Kate Thirtzen or something?
46:21 Mike Rowe? Movie star.
46:22 Speaker 02 Who's Kate Thirtzen?
46:23 Speaker 01 I have no idea.
46:25 Speaker 02 Me neither.
46:26 Mike Rowe? Uh.
46:27 Speaker 02 Oh, God, please, oh.
46:29 Speaker 01 I can't work this thing.
46:30 Mike Rowe? Oh, yeah, yeah. You gotta get the whole last paragraph, not the last line. And this is a spoiler alert, by the way, if you haven't read A Prayer for Owen Meany.
46:38 Speaker 02 Do you use perplexity?
46:39 Speaker 01 No, what is that?
46:39 Speaker 02 Perplexity is a cool AI.
46:41 Speaker 01 Oh.
46:42 Mike Rowe? We just live in a constant state of it.
46:48 Mike Rowe? Here's a crazy idea. What if there was an academy out there that paid students to learn instead of the other way around? Specifically, men and women who want to work in the skilled trades. And what if this academy not only paid for your training, but also covered all the expenses associated with your training, like travel and food and lodging? And finally, what if this academy guaranteed you a job at the end of the training period? Well, that's exactly what's happening at America's Workforce Academy by Meta. This is a five-week, highly immersive, pre-apprenticeship program that gets you all the necessary certifications you'll need to start a career in the skilled trades immediately.
47:30 Mike Rowe? I'm talking about AI-proof, six-figure jobs, helping to build out the new infrastructure that our economy is depending on. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, welders, fiber optic technicians, these jobs, they are all in demand like never before. And again, every graduate of America's Workforce Academy is guaranteed a job on a Meta website. I first announced this program a few months ago, and I have been watching the response ever since. It's extraordinary. This is a nationwide, unprecedented fast track to a long-term career in a skilled trade. If you, or your spouse, or your kid, or your grandkid are looking for a straight path
48:13 Mike Rowe? into a career with no cost at all, check out the opportunities for yourself at meta.com/america'sworkforceacademy. That's meta.com/america'sworkforceacademy. Anyway, my mom and dad are in bed, and the light's on in the room. In their room? In their room. And have they met Terry before? No, no, they haven't. And she wanted to use the restroom, and I wanted to, you know, send her home with a bottle of water and stuff. She had left her car at my parents' house. These kids. Anyway, I knocked on the door and opened it up, and my dad's lying in bed. He's reading, he's got the glasses down on his nose. My mom's reading, too. And I said, "Oh, I just want to introduce you to Terry real quick."
48:55 Mike Rowe? Terry steps in the room, and like, the light's coming down from above, and she's illumined. It's like Glenn Close in, what is it? Family Man or something? No, no, just rating and beautiful and voluptuous.
49:09 Mike Rowe? My dad still laughs about it. He's just like, you walked her in there and she just stood there by the bed and smiled. I looked at you and your mother looked at me and we looked at her and then we all just kind of looked at you and said, how in the world? What's going to happen next? And then you just excused yourselves and closed the door. And we've really never spoken of it since.
49:33 Mike Rowe? It's really none of their business.
49:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, I don't think so, but I think it's nice that they were willing to let you guys stand in the room for a minute, you know? I think that's weird. Were they in bed?
49:42 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
49:42 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's bizarre.
49:43 Mike Rowe? Yeah, it was. It was like.
49:44 Speaker 02 It's odd.
49:45 Mike Rowe? It was like 12:30. I was sure, but I saw the light on, which means I knew they could hear me and the whole business of sneaking in.
49:51 Speaker 02 Right, you don't want to be sneaky.
49:52 Mike Rowe? Don't want to be sneaky.
49:53 Speaker 02 Yeah. Sneaky's the worst, dude. I fricking met this lady at a car wash one time. Anyway, it was Tucson. So everything there is a fucking car wash, but I met a woman there and then in the morning, she ended up staying over at my fricking house when I was at my mom's house. And, and in the morning, I went in the kitchen. I was like, guess what, mom? She's like, what? And I was like, remember that lady from the car wash? And she's like, yeah. I was like, she's here.
50:20 Speaker 02 And she's like, you are fucking kidding me. Does Charlie know? Charlie was her husband. He was in the war. And I was like, I don't know if Charlie, I don't, she's like, Charlie cannot find out. So we had to sneak this lady out of the house. It was so hilarious.
50:33 Mike Rowe? How old were you?
50:36 Speaker 02 Probably 34.
50:40 Mike Rowe? Really?
50:41 Speaker 02 Yeah.
50:42 Mike Rowe? You were, uh, what's the word? You were emancipated at like, what, 14 or something?
50:47 Speaker 02 Yeah, got out there pretty early. Kind of a DIY guy, you know?
50:51 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
50:52 Speaker 02 I think I was kind of a DIY guy.
50:54 Mike Rowe? Your dad had you, uh, late in life?
50:56 Speaker 02 Yeah, my dad was 70 when I was born and, um, and they were, my dad was an older man and pretty cool though. But he had like another family of like kids that were well, he had some earlier children and they were pretty well off and they didn't want anything to do with us and we were just this kind of. You know, it was tough for him to be a dad as he got older.
51:16 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
51:17 Speaker 02 You know, it was, it's kind of weird to watch that, I think, as a kid and how, I wonder, sometimes I still don't even know how that formed how I thought about stuff.
51:24 Mike Rowe? And you think that's why your brother was so influential, being a couple of years older than you?
51:29 Speaker 02 I think there's moments in the past couple of years where I felt like my brother in certain regards
51:36 Speaker 02 embodied some of the dad I didn't have, you know?
51:39 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
51:39 Speaker 02 But he also, I think he was also conscious to make sure that he stayed my brother, like it didn't get in like a uncomfortable space or something, you know?
51:46 Mike Rowe? They're good guinea pigs, older brothers.
51:48 Speaker 02 They are. Oh dude, shout out to older brothers, man.
51:51 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
51:51 Speaker 02 They take all of the shrapnel, they take all of the bullshit.
51:55 Mike Rowe? Yep.
51:55 Speaker 02 They take your parents' best shots usually.
51:57 Mike Rowe? Yep.
51:58 Speaker 02 And they, some of them are drug addicts or whatever, felons. Some of them are good. But all of them are out there on the front lines of a family's existence.
52:10 Mike Rowe? That's right.
52:11 Speaker 02 And that is a fucking, that is a real thing in the world that does not get shouted out enough.
52:16 Mike Rowe? I don't think so either, but you're the thing your parents are practicing on, you're, they're figuring it out with you.
52:22 Speaker 02 Yeah.
52:23 Speaker 01 Theo, uh, Mike is the oldest brother.
52:26 Speaker 02 Oh, he is?
52:27 Speaker 01 Yes, he is. He doesn't have an older brother.
52:29 Mike Rowe? I, I, I would have loved to have an older brother. That would have been amazing.
52:33 Speaker 02 I don't know.
52:34 Mike Rowe? But I didn't.
52:35 Speaker 02 Oh yeah, you get to see the things your brother did and do well or did well or something like that, you know?
52:40 Mike Rowe? Oh God, yeah.
52:41 Speaker 02 But then what if your brother's absolute, like, my brother was certainly, I looked up to him for sure, but like, um, but yeah, I just wonder like, what if your brother was like, Michael Jordan or something? Would that be tough, I wonder?
52:55 Mike Rowe? I think maybe it would.
52:57 Speaker 02 I don't know. Unless you hate playing basketball and you're like, ah, fuck it.
53:02 Mike Rowe? I don't know. I mean, my brothers and I are all very different, but I do have one, I think, that is kind of adjacent in, like to this career, this industry. And I think I was probably, you know, like what happened with Dirty Jobs and everything was probably fascinating to watch.
53:22 Mike Rowe? I mean, think about the guys you grew up with, you know, I mean, the fact that you got out of that town. And I think it seems mystical to some people. You know, you must be a source of great mystery to a lot of the people you grew up with. They're on the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. To see you out there now.
53:43 Speaker 02 I mean, well, that's where I spent the summers. I grew up down in Covington, Louisiana, which is a little bit north of New Orleans. It's a nice place and tallest statue of Ronald Reagan, if you want to look that up.
53:53 Mike Rowe? Oh, in Covington?
53:54 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
53:54 Mike Rowe? Oh, that's something. You gave up on the Owen Meany last paragraph thing?
53:58 Speaker 01 You can't get it. It's got a, you gotta buy the book.
54:00 Mike Rowe? You got a copyright? Buy the book real quick.
54:02 Speaker 01 Okay.
54:02 Speaker 02 I don't know if that, and I don't want to call him out. I just.
54:04 Speaker 01 No, you call me out. Go ahead. That's fine.
54:06 Speaker 02 I don't know if that's true.
54:07 Speaker 01 Yeah? Okay.
54:08 Speaker 02 Do you find that hard to believe or not? And I'm not judging anybody.
54:10 Mike Rowe? I don't, I think it's highly unlikely that anything ever written can't be found on the internet with the proper search. I just think it's highly unlikely.
54:22 Speaker 01 Okay.
54:22 Speaker 02 God, I wish we were down there with Danielle and Terry.
54:25 Mike Rowe? Man, that'd be something. Boy, it was a it was a simpler time, Theo. It was before you were born, man. It was probably nineteen eighty one.
54:36 Speaker 02 Fuck, yeah.
54:37 Mike Rowe? Two.
54:38 Speaker 02 Did y'all have deodorant then?
54:39 Mike Rowe? No.
54:40 Speaker 02 Fuck, yeah, dude.
54:41 Speaker 01 Deodorant's for pussies.
54:42 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah, dude. It should have been back then, I bet. That's crazy time, dude. I bet the friggin', the, uh,
54:51 Speaker 02 what's it called when you take care of yourself or something?
54:53 Mike Rowe? Responsibility?
54:54 Speaker 01 Personal hygiene?
54:55 Speaker 02 I bet.
54:55 Mike Rowe? Hygiene.
54:56 Speaker 02 Personal hygiene was crazy back then, so that would be great.
54:59 Mike Rowe? It was loose. There was a lot of patchouli in the air. There's Reagan down there in, uh, in Covington?
55:04 Speaker 02 He did not co- oh, they sent Dole down there.
55:07 Mike Rowe? Oh, yeah. Reagan was huge. He was enormous. Look at the size of that guy.
55:11 Speaker 02 That's not even in Covington, I don't think, is it?
55:13 Mike Rowe? I don't know.
55:13 Speaker 02 Nah, that's somewhere else. Somebody mu- they might have.
55:15 Speaker 01 Is it the wrong one?
55:17 Mike Rowe? Did you just Google Reagan statue?
55:20 Speaker 01 Tallest statue of Ronald Reagan is what I googled.
55:22 Mike Rowe? In Covington. Yeah.
55:24 Speaker 02 Somebody could have beat us.
55:25 Mike Rowe? No, it's exactly the kind of thing that's fleeting, man. One minute you're, you know, on Rushmore and then you're off.
55:31 Speaker 02 Yeah.
55:32 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
55:33 Speaker 01 All right.
55:33 Mike Rowe? Not that he was ever on Rushmore, to be clear.
55:35 Speaker 01 Stand by. I'll get this out of here.
55:37 Speaker 02 Um, you know, one thing that I saw that was interesting recently was they had, um, we went to Mount Rushmore not long ago. We had a show in, uh, up in the Dakotas, a couple of shows up there. And we went on over to Mount Rushmore and, um, There's another face, a native face, that's on the other side of that.
55:53 Mike Rowe? Crazy Horse, just down the road.
55:56 Speaker 02 And they've never finished building it.
55:58 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
55:58 Speaker 02 They were supposed to finish building it.
55:59 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
56:00 Speaker 02 The fact that they didn't even, they took all the land from those people.
56:04 Mike Rowe? They're still building it. Gorchak, what's his last name, Taylor?
56:07 Speaker 02 He passed away. I think his son is handling it, maybe? But the fact that they, it's like.
56:12 Mike Rowe? He had 13 kids.
56:14 Speaker 02 They should have done it then.
56:15 Mike Rowe? He had 13, that's partly why he had so many kids.
56:18 Speaker 02 Wow.
56:19 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
56:19 Speaker 02 Oh my god.
56:20 Mike Rowe? We tried. I wanted to shoot an episode at Mount Rushmore. I wanted to do like a dirty job. I wanted to sandblast Jefferson's nose.
56:31 Speaker 02 Oh my god, yeah.
56:32 Mike Rowe? Right? I thought it'd be a really fun way to look at history and get people, you know, maybe interested who otherwise wouldn't be. And, you know, that's a federal park, it's a federal property, and the feds are like, absolutely not. We would never, ever consider letting somebody film. I mean, I think I offended them and I didn't mean to. But we reached out to Crazy Horse, like, a week later. They rolled out the red carpet, they gave us a whole tour of, I met the surviving kids, rappelled down the face of, I mean, that thing's gonna, it's gonna take another 50 years to finish that thing. Yeah. The work has never stopped. They've never taken a penny of federal money.
57:15 Speaker 02 Oh, the work has never stopped?
57:16 Mike Rowe? No, no, they're still doing it. They're still doing it.
57:19 Speaker 02 But what, how long have they been doing it for?
57:22 Mike Rowe? I think they started in the, yeah, it's close to 70 years.
57:26 Speaker 02 But how long did it take to finish Rushmore?
57:28 Mike Rowe? Two weeks. No, no, it took much longer than that.
57:32 Speaker 02 But not like 100 years, huh?
57:34 Mike Rowe? No, no, no, no.
57:35 Speaker 02 So what's the holdup there?
57:36 Mike Rowe? We've moved on from Reagan. You got Crazy Horse in there somewhere?
57:39 Speaker 01 God bless America. All right.
57:41 Speaker 02 Yeah.
57:41 Speaker 01 You know what, man? Who's your Jamie? You gotta have it, you gotta Jamie.
57:45 Speaker 02 Yeah, we got a guy named Zach and Nick. We have two guys.
57:47 Speaker 01 Zach and Nick, yeah.
57:48 Mike Rowe? You met Zach? He went over to your place. Did you know that?
57:50 Speaker 02 Oh, to see what it was like?
57:52 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. They were great, man. They were really great. Showed me everything.
57:55 Speaker 02 Yeah, they're good guys, man. They're hard workers. I feel lucky to be able to work with them.
58:01 Mike Rowe? 14 years for Rushmore and it's gonna take probably 100 for Crazy Horse.
58:05 Speaker 02 Then I don't understand why. Is there just not, are we, are they?
58:08 Mike Rowe? There's no federal money. There's no mandate to do it.
58:10 Speaker 02 So that's the difference, it's the finances.
58:11 Mike Rowe? It's all financing, but the guy, Gershag, who started it, he was alone. Like, there's an old video. You guys, if you haven't seen this, it's on YouTube, but it's like, it's all like color saturated the way it looks in the 50s, you know?
58:27 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
58:27 Mike Rowe? And this guy is dynamiting himself. He built the stairs up to the front himself. There it is. Look at that thing.
58:36 Speaker 02 That makes me nervous.
58:37 Mike Rowe? Look at that thing.
58:38 Speaker 02 Oh, my God.
58:39 Mike Rowe? So they got the face done. I worked on the arm, but when this thing is done, like the arm is gonna go all the way out there to the end.
58:46 Speaker 02 They're doing all that then?
58:47 Mike Rowe? Not all of it, but all the way to the tip, there's gonna be, and I think he's, I think he's on a horse. I mean.
58:55 Speaker 01 Well, I'll get you a picture of what it's gonna look like.
58:57 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I mean, that's his last name, Horse, right? So you gotta have the.
59:01 Speaker 02 Oh, they're doing all that, dude. It already looks better than the one of that Miami Heat guy that they did a few years ago. Remember that one? I think it was Dwyane Wade, maybe?
59:09 Mike Rowe? Oh.
59:09 Speaker 02 It already looks better than that Dwyane Wade.
59:11 Mike Rowe? Where was that one? In Miami?
59:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think so, or somewhere.
59:15 Mike Rowe? Yeah, that's what it's gonna look like when it's done.
59:17 Speaker 02 Oh, my God. So they're basically gonna turn this place into a straight up gay Mecca, dude.
59:23 Speaker 02 Do not put the horse, dude. That horse looks like fucking it got its hair done with Michael Landon, dude. You cannot, what are they doing, dude? Actually, you know what? Fuck it. Put it up there, turn it into a damn, I want a damn gay, high altitude gay rave, dude. I want people fucking doing poppers up there at 2,000 feet, homie. That's the kind of shit I want. I want people fucking losing their minds and hiding inside of each other's, hiding their hands inside of each other's pockets.
59:57 Mike Rowe? You know, you know what you can fit on Crazy Horse's forehead?
1:00:04 Speaker 02 Let me guess for one second. Let me think this for like 13, maybe eight seconds.
1:00:08 Mike Rowe? I'll give you eight seconds, like a rodeo.
1:00:11 Speaker 02 Um, what can you fit on his forehead?
1:00:14 Mike Rowe? Yeah. I'll give you a hint.
1:00:16 Speaker 02 Oh, a Fiat, a car.
1:00:19 Mike Rowe? Fiat's barely a car, dude.
1:00:21 Speaker 02 I agree.
1:00:23 Mike Rowe? The answer is Mount Rushmore.
1:00:25 Speaker 02 No.
1:00:26 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:00:27 Speaker 02 So that's the size difference?
1:00:28 Mike Rowe? You can put Mount Rushmore on the head of Crazy Horse. You can put four faces.
1:00:34 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:00:34 Mike Rowe? So that's, I mean, this is, it's the ultimate, uh, Sisyphean, uh, quick sonic.
1:00:41 Speaker 02 I love that.
1:00:42 Mike Rowe? Yeah. I mean, it's just, I mean, and the guy's.
1:00:45 Speaker 02 I don't know what it means.
1:00:48 Mike Rowe? One is a Greek reference, the other is, um, you know, uh, Cervantes, um, Donkey. Tilting at windmills. But this guy, I mean, he worked on it. His, it was his life's work and he, he knew with certainty. He would never see it finished.
1:01:05 Speaker 02 Oh.
1:01:06 Mike Rowe? And his kids probably won't either.
1:01:08 Speaker 02 If you have 13 kids, they should do it, I think.
1:01:10 Mike Rowe? You would think.
1:01:11 Speaker 02 But that's easy for me to say. Do we have any update on the children or any of them in recovery or anything?
1:01:16 Speaker 01 Oh, no, I'll, I'll look.
1:01:18 Mike Rowe? Yeah, good. Don't quit your breath.
1:01:19 Speaker 01 What are their names?
1:01:21 Speaker 02 We don't know them.
1:01:23 Mike Rowe? No, we don't, we don't know them.
1:01:24 Speaker 01 I met one.
1:01:25 Mike Rowe? You worked with them. I did.
1:01:26 Speaker 02 We don't know kids' names. We're adults, dude, you freaking crazy guy.
1:01:30 Mike Rowe? You're a number, number nine. Get in here. It's your turn.
1:01:34 Speaker 02 Get your pickaxe, buddy.
1:01:37 Speaker 02 Wow, dude, that's pretty neat.
1:01:38 Speaker 01 I'm looking into the mental health of the, uh, the Crazy Horse guys, uh, crazy kids.
1:01:44 Speaker 02 Children? Well, I just want to know if any of them had the ability to get out there and work. I mean, it's just like.
1:01:49 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:01:49 Speaker 02 I wonder who's still doing it and what their process is. Do they fundraise? I didn't know. I thought when I saw the photo, it was just the same size. I'm like, if you wouldn't think it would take 50, 70 years to get that done.
1:02:01 Mike Rowe? No, it's massive. Look, this is, I don't want to talk out of school, uh, because she's a lovely woman, but one of the most alarming things that ever happened to me on a set. And this isn't really a set. This is just us in the Dakotas filming. The woman.
1:02:16 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:02:17 Mike Rowe? Who's in charge of it is like the fifth daughter. And she's very protective of her dad and the family. And, and we're there, our whole crew is there and we're ready to shoot. And I hadn't been weighed and measured yet. Like she hadn't, she wanted to personally vet me.
1:02:36 Speaker 02 To be up there?
1:02:37 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:02:37 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:02:38 Mike Rowe? So we had rigged her Jeep with some cameras because we knew we were gonna go for a drive. And so we're ready to start the scene and she gets me in the Jeep. And she takes off without the crew. Like borderline kidnapping. She just runs off with me. And she drives me down and around in the middle of nowhere and she takes me to her father's grave.
1:02:59 Speaker 02 Hmm.
1:03:00 Mike Rowe? And we, we sit there, there he is. Korchak.
1:03:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, how do you say that?
1:03:06 Mike Rowe? Kowizki. Yeah.
1:03:08 Speaker 02 Zolkowski.
1:03:09 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:03:11 Speaker 02 Wow, what a great name.
1:03:12 Speaker 01 Was her name Monique by any chance?
1:03:13 Mike Rowe? Oh, it might be. That might be. That, that sounds right. It might be Monique. Yeah.
1:03:18 Speaker 02 He died in Sturgis. Probably listening to Kid Rock, I bet.
1:03:21 Mike Rowe? Probably.
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1:03:53 Mike Rowe? What's his name? Bob?
1:03:55 Speaker 02 Bob Ritchie.
1:03:56 Mike Rowe? You're friends?
1:03:58 Speaker 02 Yep, we, oh, yeah, we are friends. Bob's a, he's a very nice guy. We actually just went to Hulk Hogan's funeral the other day.
1:04:04 Mike Rowe? No kidding?
1:04:05 Speaker 02 Yeah. Speaking of Terry.
1:04:06 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:04:08 Mike Rowe? What was that like?
1:04:09 Speaker 02 You know, it was a lot of things, man. We didn't stay very long. I wanted to stay longer after, I think.
1:04:16 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:04:16 Speaker 02 You know, uh.
1:04:18 Mike Rowe? Did you know Terry?
1:04:20 Speaker 02 I knew him. He had come to podcast once. And then I just knew, you know, and I'd seen him two times after that at different events. Um, and maybe we texted a little bit.
1:04:32 Speaker 02 Uh.
1:04:33 Mike Rowe? Did anyone get hit with a folding chair by any chance?
1:04:35 Speaker 02 Oh, that would have been interesting.
1:04:37 Mike Rowe? At the funeral? Yeah.
1:04:38 Speaker 02 Dennis Rodman had a strong moment. I know. He was really, uh, he was pretty heartbroken.
1:04:43 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:04:43 Speaker 02 At the, by the funeral moment, but at, you know, at the actual service and, um, his son Nick got up and made a nice, like a really cool speech. What you gonna do when Hulk Hogan watches over you, you know, or something like that, like this kind of watching over idea? I thought that was pretty cool. Um, but there was like all my heroes from childhood, like not all of them, but a lot of them.
1:05:07 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:05:07 Speaker 02 You know, in wheelchairs and on opioids or whatever.
1:05:10 Mike Rowe? Did you watch a lot of wrestling?
1:05:12 Speaker 02 Oh dude.
1:05:13 Mike Rowe? Pro wrestling?
1:05:14 Speaker 02 Yeah. Yeah. Cause wrestling dude, wrestling NWA, WWF, it felt like, it felt like kinda, I almost feel like it felt like poor kids, like it belonged to them.
1:05:24 Mike Rowe? Hmm.
1:05:25 Speaker 02 And I don't know if that's a true feeling. It could have just been because in our neighborhood, we didn't have a lot of money and that everybody on our street watched it. Like we would all like be out in the street hanging out and we would all go home to watch it, right? And we loved those guys. Like, I mean, it just felt like even as a kid, it gave you somebody to look up to, you know, it's like, even if your life fucking sucked or whatever, if some, you know, if people were just, you know, just shooting up and just hiding from each other in the area or whatever, that you could watch that and you just felt excited about everything.
1:05:53 Mike Rowe? Who else was in the, the world at that time? Like when, when Hulk was at his apex?
1:05:59 Speaker 02 Okay.
1:05:59 Mike Rowe? Was, uh, was Andre the Giant still playing?
1:06:01 Speaker 02 Yep. Andre the Giant was there for sure. And then you had like Iron Sheik, you had Hacksaw Jim Duggan, you had the Big Boss Man. Yeah. You still had a little bit of, uh, Dusty Rhodes. You had the Steiner Brothers. You had the Bushwhackers. You had Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. He was down there. Um, you had, oh, Mouth of the South Jimmy Hart, Bobby the Brain Heenan. Um, his daughter was there and that was pretty cool. So you had Jake the Snake, you had Ravish and Rick Root, who was kind of like a,
1:06:29 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I remember him.
1:06:29 Speaker 02 He was like trans or what? I don't know who, what he was, but he was, he was using something. He was using Harris Brand steroids, I think.
1:06:36 Mike Rowe? What about The Undertaker?
1:06:37 Speaker 02 That was later.
1:06:38 Mike Rowe? That was later.
1:06:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, that wasn't us. Like, uh, I got out of it before that, but you also had NWA. You had like, um, Sting, you had Ric Flair. Um, you had, oh man, there's so many guys.
1:06:52 Mike Rowe? See, when I was a kid, there was Chief Jay Strongbow.
1:06:55 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:06:57 Speaker 02 The Von Ericks dude?
1:06:58 Mike Rowe? Yes, yeah.
1:06:59 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:07:00 Mike Rowe? Chuck, see if you can find-
1:07:02 Speaker 02 Fucking pull it up, fuck Chuck!
1:07:05 Mike Rowe? Um, me with WWE, it was called a Halloween Havoc. He'll laugh at this.
1:07:12 Speaker 02 Sorry to be yelling at you Chuck.
1:07:14 Speaker 01 No, it's quite all right.
1:07:14 Mike Rowe? He's used to it, man.
1:07:15 Speaker 02 Well, we've asked him for some information that he refuses to give us.
1:07:18 Mike Rowe? He just won't give it up because it simply doesn't exist on the internet. It's just not there.
1:07:22 Speaker 02 Old Epstein Chuck over here, huh? Give us the files, huh? I can't believe pedophiling is becoming a big thing in America now.
1:07:30 Mike Rowe? What do you mean?
1:07:31 Speaker 02 The government supported or whatever.
1:07:33 Mike Rowe? What do you th- ugh, really?
1:07:35 Speaker 02 I mean, I don't know what happened with all that, but it does seem bizarre. Do you think all that stuff is a ruse and there was never anything? Because, I mean, Epstein had charges against him. I mean, it's just, I think the American people have fucking had it with-
1:07:47 Mike Rowe? I think, um-
1:07:48 Speaker 02 Politicians.
1:07:49 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:07:49 Speaker 02 Both sides.
1:07:50 Mike Rowe? There's a, a great phrase in Latin, and I can't remember it. I wish I could, it'd make me sound smart, but translated, it means, "Though the heavens fall." And I say, "Let's see it, no matter what."
1:08:04 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:08:04 Mike Rowe? I wanna see it. I really do. I think you're right. I think that, um, maybe had we not been fed such a line of nonsense for so long on so many different topics, we might be able to shrug at this and go, "Whatever." But it's the straw that broke the camel's back. It's like, we've been teased with it. And by the way, you're talking about, I mean, that's a real topic and some real harm has happened to a lot of kids.
1:08:32 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:08:33 Mike Rowe? You know, not just on that island, but in general.
1:08:36 Speaker 02 Right, so you're telling, it's almost you saying, "Oh, we don't support this or care about this" in a way, that that doesn't mean enough to us.
1:08:42 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:08:42 Speaker 02 And that's fucking crazy, kind of.
1:08:45 Mike Rowe? Bananas, sorry, but that's me, 25 years ago, hosting a wrestling event.
1:08:49 Speaker 01 Do you remember what year it was?
1:08:50 Speaker 02 My god!
1:08:51 Mike Rowe? No, Halloween, Halloween Havoc. Yeah, Vince McMahon was there, uh-
1:08:58 Speaker 02 I remember Halloween Havoc. When did Halloween Havoc start? Would you mind looking that up for us, man?
1:09:02 Speaker 01 Oh, it would be my pleasure.
1:09:03 Mike Rowe? October 30th.
1:09:06 Speaker 01 On Halloween, dude.
1:09:08 Mike Rowe? That's your first hit. Start with October, Chuck, and if it's not there, check the, uh, the Portal of Leo, or whatever it is. It's gonna be up there somewhere.
1:09:17 Speaker 02 The Lion's Portal. It's closed. It actually closed yesterday.
1:09:20 Mike Rowe? No. Damn.
1:09:22 Speaker 02 So...
1:09:23 Speaker 01 Give me two more hours, I'll be right there.
1:09:24 Mike Rowe? All right, and if you can't find that...
1:09:27 Speaker 02 He's over there looking at his baby book or something. It's like, what are you fucking doing? Dude, um, do you have a baby book that your mom made?
1:09:33 Mike Rowe? Oh, yeah. I do.
1:09:35 Speaker 02 What was that thing? Cause my mom made those for us. Is that a big thing that parents still do?
1:09:39 Mike Rowe? No, I don't have kids. I don't know.
1:09:42 Speaker 02 You don't have any children?
1:09:43 Mike Rowe? I don't have kids, no.
1:09:44 Speaker 02 What?
1:09:44 Mike Rowe? No.
1:09:45 Speaker 01 October 28, 1989.
1:09:48 Speaker 02 Yup.
1:09:48 Mike Rowe? That's about right.
1:09:50 Speaker 02 And who fought at the first one? Can you check for me?
1:09:52 Speaker 01 Uh, let's see. Location, Philadelphia. Main event, the Thunderdome Cage Match. Ric Flair and Sting versus Terry Funk and the Great Muta.
1:10:05 Speaker 02 Ooh, yeah.
1:10:06 Speaker 01 You know who that is?
1:10:07 Speaker 02 Nah, sounds Asian. I'm gonna go off Asian, you know?
1:10:12 Speaker 01 What is on Asian?
1:10:14 Speaker 02 I mean, you know it when you see it. I'll say that. This is off Asian, brother.
1:10:22 Speaker 02 I don't even know what we're talking about. Oh, but dude, there was nothing like that, dude. Terry Funk, man. What a legend he was. He was also brutal but charming. There was something special about him. I got to end up going to talk to Kevin Von Eric one time, and that was pretty amazing.
1:10:35 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:10:36 Speaker 02 The last Von Eric.
1:10:37 Mike Rowe? I'm just realizing, talking to you, man, it's like, I've been adjacent to a lot of things, but not really in them. I narrated the, uh, The Ultimate Fighter. I did all the seasons for Ultimate Fighter. Yeah.
1:10:52 Speaker 02 For Dana White Show?
1:10:53 Mike Rowe? Yeah. Previously, on The Ultimate Fighter.
1:10:55 Speaker 02 Oh, that's you?
1:10:56 Mike Rowe? Yeah. Yeah, the one that was on Spike TV. And like, watching that thing grow as I was doing it, but not in it, was one of the strangest things. It was, wrestling was like that for me, too. I was always around it, but never really in it, you know?
1:11:11 Speaker 02 Right. The Contender, do you ever remember that show?
1:11:15 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I remember The Contender.
1:11:16 Speaker 02 That was good.
1:11:17 Mike Rowe? Yup.
1:11:18 Speaker 02 Sylvester Stallone and Ra- and Ra- um, Sugar Ray Leonard?
1:11:22 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:11:23 Speaker 02 God, that was fun. What show did you like when you were growing up?
1:11:29 Speaker 02 Do you remember something that came on that got you just so animated?
1:11:32 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I do. And I kinda closed the loop on it. It was The Rockford Files.
1:11:37 Speaker 02 From the park, the murders in the park?
1:11:40 Mike Rowe? Uh, no, no. Jim Garner played James Rockford. He lived in a, a trailer not far from here in Malibu. And he solved crimes. His dad was Rocky. Um, his name was Rocky in the, in the thing.
1:11:56 Speaker 02 Rocky Rockford?
1:11:57 Mike Rowe? Well, his last name was Rockford, so they called him Rocky.
1:12:00 Speaker 02 Oh, got it.
1:12:00 Mike Rowe? Yeah. Anyway, no, James Garner in The Rockford Files, it was very big in the seventies. That's Jim Garner right there. Yeah, he's great. He drove a 1977 Firebird. And Jay Leno called me one day and said, hey, come on my show. I'll get you any car you want. And I, I didn't know if I wanted to. I said, I want the original car that, you know.
1:12:23 Speaker 02 He's gonna get you a car for going on there?
1:12:25 Mike Rowe? Well, what you do is you drive around town in the car of your dreams and Jay interviews you.
1:12:33 Speaker 02 Oh, got it.
1:12:34 Mike Rowe? As you drive, right? So I said, I want a 1977 Firebird, like the one Jim Rockford drove. He went out and found the original Rockford car, the actual car.
1:12:46 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:12:47 Mike Rowe? That's wired for sound that Jim Garner drove in the show. And he got the guy to come and bring it. And I drove that thing around for a couple hours with Jay. But that was the show that got me fired up as a kid. I can still hear the, uh, the theme, man.
1:13:12 Speaker 02 That's pretty good. That's pretty good. He's got it.
1:13:14 Speaker 01 Yeah?
1:13:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:13:14 Mike Rowe? But then it morphs into Sanford and Son.
1:13:24 Speaker 02 Did you watch something? Did you watch something growing up there, Chuck, or what?
1:13:31 Speaker 01 No, we weren't allowed television.
1:13:34 Mike Rowe? It was all hand puppets and interpretive dance.
1:13:37 Speaker 01 That was it. Just me and Danielle in the basement. Wishing Terry was there.
1:13:42 Mike Rowe? When's Terry coming back?
1:13:44 Speaker 02 A tale of two Terrys, dude. Hulk Hogan and your Terry. Both Terrys.
1:13:48 Mike Rowe? How about that? And acronyms all over the place, from eBurb to, uh, what you call the, uh, CWRs?
1:13:57 Speaker 02 CWRs. MREs, I think we mentioned even at one point, maybe?
1:14:00 Mike Rowe? We did. We did. We did that ASAP.
1:14:03 Speaker 01 TBD.
1:14:04 Mike Rowe? Or PDQ.
1:14:07 Speaker 02 BLM.
1:14:10 Mike Rowe? I'll take mine with cheese.
1:14:11 Speaker 02 Yeah, I like that.
1:14:13 Mike Rowe? Um, why do you, uh, why do you care about the country in a way that surprised me?
1:14:21 Speaker 02 I don't know. I mean, I don't, I can't, I don't know what else I would care about, I guess. I mean, obviously I care about being alive. I care about my family. Um.
1:14:30 Mike Rowe? So people know, last time we talked, you were wearing an American Giant sweatshirt. Coincidentally, um, and we talked about the fact that I'm friends with the guy who runs that company and a lot of other companies too. And I, I had no idea you had a thing for making stuff in this country and to the point where it's like, you know, we've been talking about, what do you, what do you do with your, I don't know, your platform, your influence? What should we be doing? What can we do to elevate that stuff?
1:15:02 Speaker 02 Yeah. Well, I think listening to you and talking and hearing about MicroWorks and putting, you know, recognizing that, you know, the country is gonna, if we start to build a lot of these AI data centers, or if those things start to, if we need more workforce, and especially if they're like, like. Kicking workforce out of the country or labor force, which I don't know all the technicalities of that. So I'm kind of just speaking like wildly, but you're gonna need like people who are trained to be able to do the jobs. And, you know, and you were telling me that you, you guys, this program, MicroWorks, helps, helps do that.
1:15:36 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:15:36 Speaker 02 Right. You got like 500 something people this year?
1:15:38 Mike Rowe? 526, I think, this year. Just with just over $5 million.
1:15:44 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:15:45 Mike Rowe? Which is crazy because I'm not doing anything different, really, than we have in the last 17 years. But this year, we had 10 times the applicants that we did the year before.
1:15:55 Speaker 02 That's amazing.
1:15:56 Mike Rowe? Yes. I mean, something has happened. And I don't know. I'm, I'm super interested. I mean, we were half joking, I thought, about, you know, the old QVC days and the Wayne's World set and the idea of like, like, why does it have to be a big elaborate thing? Why isn't there a dedicated network today where anybody who's tried to make a thing in this country can sit down and have a few laughs and show off their wares? You know?
1:16:27 Speaker 02 No, that to me sounds awesome. I mean, that's kind of what we're talking about. It was like, you know, I think seeing you on QVC and then thinking about like, you know, I just worried that if we get into a space where people don't have jobs, right? Or there aren't as many opportunities. Just say we do, right? Or even if we don't, right? Like, people, I'm so sick of like corporations making everything in all these conglomerates and stuff. So how do I, if I want to spend my money, how do I spend it to support a family that's across the country, even across town, right?
1:16:54 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:16:54 Speaker 02 And so then we were kind of talking about, well, what if we started like kind of a QVC type of show where we did little installments with different people that made a product, right? Families or a person like this guy makes, you know, these, he makes 700 voodoo dolls a year and they're the best, you know, they got the most dark magic in them or whatever, you know, or this person makes like, you know, goat milk soap or something. Or I know you had said that there was somebody who made plant pots out of?
1:17:22 Mike Rowe? Cow crap.
1:17:22 Speaker 02 There you go.
1:17:23 Mike Rowe? Poop pots. Yeah. That's Matt Freund in New Canaan, Connecticut.
1:17:27 Speaker 02 Oh, really? Matt Freund is an amazing musician, too, I think.
1:17:30 Mike Rowe? Is he?
1:17:31 Speaker 02 I don't know.
1:17:31 Speaker 01 Well, let's find out.
1:17:33 Mike Rowe? Chuck will be back in about a half hour with some non-conclusive data. Nothing on the internet about music. Sorry. We've, we've looked high and low.
1:17:41 Speaker 02 Your fucking things on the, your computer's not even on.
1:17:44 Mike Rowe? It's not even a computer.
1:17:45 Speaker 01 How do you spell Freund?
1:17:46 Mike Rowe? F R E U N D.
1:17:49 Speaker 02 Yep, I would go with that.
1:17:50 Mike Rowe? I believe it's German.
1:17:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, that was kind of what we were talking about, like, well, would it be neat if we started to get, like, find people who were making stuff? And interview them almost like maybe it was like Antique Roadshow style?
1:18:00 Mike Rowe? See, that, I mean, why did you love Antique Roadshow? What was it about it that that made it work?
1:18:06 Speaker 02 I mean, there's just something damn beautiful about it. I mean, when you see it, Matt Freund, independent singer.
1:18:12 Mike Rowe? Yeah, it's a musician.
1:18:13 Speaker 02 Yep.
1:18:13 Mike Rowe? Doesn't have anything to do with the Matt Freund I'm talking about.
1:18:15 Speaker 01 Well, he asked if there was a musician named Matt Freund, and there he is. I proved that there, that he is.
1:18:21 Mike Rowe? Good work, Chuck.
1:18:22 Speaker 01 Thank you.
1:18:22 Speaker 02 Yeah, thank you.
1:18:23 Speaker 01 Thank you.
1:18:23 Mike Rowe? Good.
1:18:23 Speaker 02 And then, um, let me see that Antique Roadshow set. God, that set is just damn beautiful. Cause I was up late one night and they had some guy pulled up with a damn rare beanie baby.
1:18:36 Mike Rowe? A very rare beanie baby.
1:18:37 Speaker 02 Oh, I mean, this was just the damn Princess Diana one, and it was missing part of its tail.
1:18:42 Mike Rowe? It's the, um, I'm asking you because I think it's one of the most underrated, underappreciated formats ever.
1:18:51 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:18:52 Mike Rowe? It pays off every 10 minutes. Like, when you think of it, like, what is it? Where'd you get it?
1:18:59 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:19:00 Mike Rowe? What's it worth? Could be nothing.
1:19:03 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:19:03 Mike Rowe? Could be a lot.
1:19:04 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:19:05 Mike Rowe? We don't know. I mean, it's just such, an hour filled with little cliffhangers. And the people are all just so random and real.
1:19:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:19:14 Mike Rowe? Right? It's a lot like, did you ever watch This Old House?
1:19:18 Speaker 02 Yes, with Bob Dylan?
1:19:19 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:19:20 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:19:21 Mike Rowe? Same kind of thing, like, old 70s style production, super simple, nothing flashy. But you got to see, like, a magic trick every week. We're gonna make something that wasn't there. We're gonna use skill and material, and, and it's gonna be great.
1:19:39 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:19:39 Mike Rowe? Which is so satisfying.
1:19:41 Speaker 02 Artie was smashing chicks, too, across the country. My buddy's, my buddy's dad worked with him.
1:19:47 Mike Rowe? Did he?
1:19:47 Speaker 02 Said he was just yam and clam around the world.
1:19:53 Speaker 02 This old cock, you feel me? Sorry, that's an old weiner joke. But I will say this, no, I think there's nothing better than if I could say, if you could be like, well, okay, well, how about this? We'll just showcase your product and then if your company can make enough of it or whatever, you know, I guess the products would have to be vetted or the company, the families that are making them.
1:20:12 Mike Rowe? Yeah, yeah.
1:20:13 Speaker 02 That'd be the tough part.
1:20:14 Mike Rowe? That is the tough part.
1:20:14 Speaker 02 But then it'd be so cool to know that now there's a family that has a business and they don't have to worry about their, they could, you can start to support one another. Oh, my God, I wish.
1:20:24 Mike Rowe? Look at that.
1:20:25 Speaker 02 God, I'm happy. Oh, she definitely is gonna.
1:20:30 Mike Rowe? That's tea for 200.
1:20:31 Speaker 02 She's getting paid. Oh, my God, if you drink out of that, dude, oh, my, oh, my God, if you rub on that three times, I bet Princess Diana will come back.
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1:21:13 Speaker 02 We may be good right there, Mike, but I would love to talk about that idea more, man, and I couldn't think of anybody else that, you know, you're like the pioneer of that sort of spirit, I think. You, Paul Revere, Gary Sinise.
1:21:26 Mike Rowe? Wow, Paul Revere, Gary Sinise and me.
1:21:29 Speaker 02 And maybe Aaron Brockovich are kind of like, you guys are the kind of Americana Mount Rushmore, I think.
1:21:36 Mike Rowe? That's very kind of you. But look, I think that you could actually.
1:21:43 Mike Rowe? Tip the scale in a way that I that I can't, you know? And look, what I mean is like that guy Matt Freund. I don't know what would have happened had I done a segment for the purposes of helping him sell his poo pots. Right? But because we did a segment on a show called Dirty Jobs that was really focused on a dairy farm that was struggling because the bottom fell out of the milk market. And I had read about this guy who was heating his house with with cow shit, right? And it was like that's
1:22:17 Speaker 02 First of all, a guy doing that is a that is not a good guy.
1:22:21 Mike Rowe? Well, this is 20 years ago and he's using the whole biodiesel like
1:22:26 Speaker 02 I don't care.
1:22:27 Mike Rowe? But but
1:22:27 Speaker 02 That's why you're alone, fucking that's fucked up. You're fucking say it again, please? I'm sorry to get upset.
1:22:33 Mike Rowe? He's he's heating his house.
1:22:35 Speaker 02 Yeah, of course this guy is dude. Are you kidding me? Oh yeah, this dude is dude.
1:22:40 Mike Rowe? Basically, he woke up one day, Theo, and realized that the crap his cows were producing was more valuable than the milk.
1:22:49 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:22:50 Mike Rowe? So what he did was he started making these flower pots out of cow crap.
1:22:55 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:22:55 Mike Rowe? And so they would, you know, decompose and it was built in manure. And so your petunias would grow twice as fast.
1:23:03 Speaker 02 Oh.
1:23:03 Mike Rowe? He I mean, he wound up crushing it in part, a big part because Dirty Jobs showed up and, you know, put him in 170 countries. But I took him on Larry King a year later.
1:23:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:23:14 Mike Rowe? To tell that story. And then he got his stuff in Walmart. So
1:23:18 Speaker 02 Fuck yeah.
1:23:19 Mike Rowe? But this is why, like, I think you with your platform, where are we Chuck? Are we in the top 200? This little podcast?
1:23:27 Speaker 01 Ish, yeah.
1:23:28 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I think we're we get our share.
1:23:30 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:23:31 Mike Rowe? He's like number four in the world.
1:23:33 Speaker 01 That's pretty big.
1:23:34 Mike Rowe? I mean, why not just start with your? With your platform, I mean, you probably already have.
1:23:40 Speaker 02 You mean just having people come on there?
1:23:42 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:23:42 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think it would be neat, but I think of doing it as something new.
1:23:48 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:23:48 Speaker 02 And I think that seems exciting to me. I think obviously like, you know, you have met so many people and know, you know, a man who's burning shit to stay warm.
1:24:01 Mike Rowe? Oh, well, sure. And by the way, there are three billion people in the world doing that. Do you know that three billion people, their main source of energy is wood or cow crap?
1:24:12 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:24:13 Mike Rowe? Done.
1:24:13 Speaker 02 Know that.
1:24:13 Mike Rowe? Three billion. Yeah. He was just using science to make it a bunch, you know, a lot more efficient. But my, my point is, I think there needs to be another, there needs to be an entertaining value to it.
1:24:28 Speaker 02 Right. And I think you do a great job of that. I think we, maybe we could find a neat way to do it. I think I just, I, it would be something fun to do.
1:24:36 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:24:36 Speaker 02 I think it would be fun to do with you. I think because our audiences are kind of different, but probably have similar spirit. And, um, yeah, I don't know. I just, I want people to be able to, if they want to, to be able to have some of their own destiny in their hands if they can. And, um, that's what my audience, I think, has kind of afforded me.
1:25:02 Speaker 02 And so that's something that I feel like if I could help create for, or be a part of, just elaborating for other people who want to do that, then then I think that, um, I'll be even with life, maybe. Does that make sense or not?
1:25:14 Mike Rowe? Oh.
1:25:14 Speaker 02 Did that make any sense at did?
1:25:16 Mike Rowe? Yeah, I thought it makes.
1:25:17 Speaker 01 Chuck's not listening.
1:25:18 Speaker 02 It's hard to know. I know.
1:25:19 Mike Rowe? He's still trying to find Gorchuk. That video of him on YouTube is actually worth a look.
1:25:24 Speaker 01 The video of, uh,
1:25:25 Mike Rowe? The guy billing, uh, Crazy Horse.
1:25:28 Speaker 02 Oh.
1:25:28 Mike Rowe? It's just amazing. It's, it just looks like an old Wonderful World of Disney video.
1:25:32 Speaker 02 Dude, he's freaking watching Dunkirk.
1:25:36 Speaker 02 What the heck?
1:25:37 Mike Rowe? It's a good movie. It's a great movie.
1:25:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's probably one of the best movies, probably top six or seven movies past decade or five years.
1:25:43 Mike Rowe? I loved it. What were we just talking about?
1:25:45 Speaker 02 We're talking about how soon we're gonna start that project together, I think.
1:25:48 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:25:49 Speaker 02 Or we should think about it at least.
1:25:51 Mike Rowe? Well.
1:25:51 Speaker 02 Do you think you have the ability or time to do it? I need the ability.
1:25:55 Mike Rowe? I think Antiques Roadshow, old QVC, right? I mean, I'm talking about like middle of the night QVC.
1:26:03 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:26:04 Mike Rowe? Back where you had entertainment that was mostly unintentional, right? But people just kind of just love to see the train. Maybe it's gonna go off the tracks, maybe it's not.
1:26:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:26:14 Mike Rowe? And you could buy some stuff along the way, too. I don't think anything that's so overtly focused on a transaction has the same appeal as potentially you and me talking to somebody, either together, or I'm not sure how it would work. But, but what I know for sure from Dirty Jobs is that the country is filled with people who are doing interesting things that are making things.
1:26:43 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:26:44 Mike Rowe? Right? Making things, so.
1:26:46 Speaker 02 I like that.
1:26:46 Mike Rowe? The question is, how do you celebrate that? And look, Shark Tank is an answer to that question.
1:26:52 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:26:52 Mike Rowe? You can do it with venture capitalists and you can do it in that world. But your set reminded me of like Wayne's World, which I love. And it's like, I think there's a super modest, lo-fi way. In fact, the bigger the challenge, like reinvigorating manufacturing, in some ways, the more important it is to come at it modestly. Because you could never have a production big enough to fully.
1:27:19 Speaker 02 Right.
1:27:20 Mike Rowe? Satisfy that, right?
1:27:21 Speaker 02 Right. And if you get it going in the beginning and it's going well small, then you could stay small or you could expand. But I think you'd have a good idea even instinctually then of what the energy is. But yeah, I just, I really like that. I really like, you know, my mother's a hard worker, right? Like, I always say the hardest working man I've ever met is my mother, right?
1:27:40 Mike Rowe? I'm sure she appreciates that.
1:27:41 Speaker 02 I think she honestly does, probably, you know? Because she just, you know, she did it herself. And so I think she kind of does respect that. I know she, I know she was a woman.
1:27:49 Mike Rowe? What?
1:27:50 Speaker 02 But I do want to say that.
1:27:51 Mike Rowe? What's her name?
1:27:52 Speaker 02 Her name is Gina.
1:27:54 Mike Rowe? Gina, you did good. Look at your boy here.
1:27:56 Speaker 02 She's a hard worker and I always, I do, I have always admired that she's a hard worker, you know? So yeah, I just think like, yeah, I don't know if people can. People want to be able to fend for themselves. It's important to them, you know, and I think it's important to the human spirit. And I don't know, I just feel like.
1:28:17 Speaker 02 I don't know. I think it could get scary if people can't do that. And I feel like people want to be able to help one another. And not just keep giving everything to like these conglomerates that they won't break up.
1:28:27 Mike Rowe? You know what else I think people need to see? Proof. That other people. Found a way.
1:28:36 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:28:36 Mike Rowe? Whether they do or not, they need to see like we're products of what we listen to and and look at.
1:28:43 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:28:44 Mike Rowe? Right? For better and worse.
1:28:46 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:28:47 Mike Rowe? What's he doing?
1:28:48 Speaker 02 I don't know what he's looking at, but look how he is. He's a product of it. He's watching silent films. We haven't heard from the guy.
1:28:55 Speaker 01 I am. I actually am watching a silent film. Put it right up here. There you go. There's your crazy horse.
1:29:02 Mike Rowe? Yeah, man. This thing. I encourage you to look at it. His story is so unbelievable. Him, that's 60 years ago with a jackhammer.
1:29:14 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:29:15 Mike Rowe? Starting that thing.
1:29:17 Speaker 02 That's amazing, man.
1:29:18 Mike Rowe? See, I think metaphorically, this is a good place to start to land the plane because this is what we're talking about doing. If you're talking about reshoring. Reinvigorating the trades or like for me, like closing the skills gap. Spoiler alert, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to try. You know?
1:29:37 Speaker 02 Right.
1:29:37 Mike Rowe? But it's very much, it's a crazy horse notion. We're not going to finish it. That's all right.
1:29:44 Speaker 02 Yeah. I think, yeah.
1:29:46 Mike Rowe? It's kind of like Band of Brothers, you know? Just because you put it on doesn't mean you have to finish it, although.
1:29:53 Mike Rowe? It's happened to me before. I literally spent.
1:29:55 Speaker 02 I know.
1:29:56 Mike Rowe? The whole day. The whole day went down the tubes because that that came on.
1:30:01 Speaker 02 I know. And you order DoorDash or whatever and you hope. You hope you pick the right food to accompany that sort of.
1:30:10 Mike Rowe? What does, what does one dine on as we're seeing the liberation of France?
1:30:17 Speaker 02 I don't know. I probably go, I usually go with like fish sticks or whatever, kind of.
1:30:20 Mike Rowe? Not french fries, two on the nose?
1:30:22 Speaker 02 Two on the nose. But Mike, thanks. But it would be an honor to try and even think about it together. I appreciate you even just listening to me even think about that. And I know, and I know we were talking about it together and just like trying to figure out, I think like, but yeah, I think people learn that stuff from you and other people that care, that other people can, you know, yeah, we just have, it's the same thing inside of us. We want to be able to fend for ourselves, right? And so like, yeah, if we can figure something out to help support that, I mean, you're already doing it. But um, I know that I feel like there's a way that I can do it.
1:30:55 Mike Rowe? Well, there is, man.
1:30:56 Speaker 02 And I like to challenge the fucking big guy, you know?
1:30:59 Mike Rowe? Rogan?
1:31:00 Speaker 02 No.
1:31:03 Speaker 02 No, that dude will fucking put me in his cheek like one of those damn zen pouches.
1:31:08 Mike Rowe? Who's the big guy?
1:31:09 Speaker 02 Uh, big business dude.
1:31:12 Mike Rowe? Oh, yeah, yeah. Look, big business will, they'll follow.
1:31:15 Speaker 02 Fuck them, dude.
1:31:16 Mike Rowe? They'll follow the audience. But look, my audience is what it is. Your audience. What if it was a league of concerned podcasters, an LCP?
1:31:29 Mike Rowe? This is how we really land the plane. Back. Theo and Mike form the LCP, the League of Concerned Podcasters. We get Joe. We get a couple of other likely suspects and then we target people who are making things in this country. My friend, uh, Josh, Montana Knife Company would be great.
1:31:49 Speaker 02 Josh Smith.
1:31:50 Mike Rowe? Josh Smith. You know Josh?
1:31:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, I know Josh. I got two of his fricking knives in my truck.
1:31:54 Mike Rowe? Has he been on your show?
1:31:55 Speaker 01 Take it easy, take it easy.
1:31:56 Speaker 02 No, he hasn't.
1:31:56 Mike Rowe? Why hasn't he been on your show?
1:31:58 Speaker 02 Because we don't really talk about knives that much. A lot of our people are in recovery.
1:32:05 Speaker 02 You know what I'm saying? We fucking, one thing at a time.
1:32:08 Mike Rowe? It's a ma-
1:32:09 Speaker 02 I don't know if you get a whole group though. I don't know. I think, cause when you try to get too many people-
1:32:12 Mike Rowe? No, no, they don't come all, no, no, no, not, not all at the same time. But if, like, if out of, of collaboration, you find a guy like Josh, okay? Somebody who's capable of scaling.
1:32:25 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:32:25 Mike Rowe? And you say, "Look, the only thing you don't have is notoriety." The more people have your knives, the more people are gonna love them, the more people hear your story, right? And in the end, what can we really do, you and me? Is we tell stories and we help other people tell their stories. And, uh, you know, getting, it just seems like identifying people who prove that you can still make it here.
1:32:51 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:32:53 Mike Rowe? You know?
1:32:54 Speaker 02 Yeah. I think that's what this country's founded and I think, I think it's important. I don't know if that's what this country's founded on. I don't know what I'm talking about with that. But I think that that's important to people. It makes me feel like, I don't know, I just know, you know, you know, when you think this is something that makes you feel like, it would keep you excited about life? Seeing some family figure, you know, do something and make something and then they have like a thing or whatever?
1:33:16 Mike Rowe? It's conviction, man.
1:33:17 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:33:18 Mike Rowe? You're convicted.
1:33:19 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:33:20 Mike Rowe? I love that.
1:33:21 Speaker 02 So, and you're convicted.
1:33:22 Mike Rowe? Now, look, man, I'm old. I'm old, man. I'm doing the best I can. But people also need to know that you can grow up on the border of Louisiana and Mississippi. And wind up trying to figure out how to use your considerable influence to leave the world better than, than you found it. Good for you, Theo Von.
1:33:46 Speaker 02 Yeah, well, thanks, dude. I feel pretty lucky. I'm just a product of my environment, you know? And a lot of fun people in my life, I'm just, all I am is just little pieces of them. But I do feel lucky to get to talk with you, dude. This has been a lot of fun. Glad you're here. And, uh-
1:34:02 Mike Rowe? Thanks, glad you're still awake. Me too.
1:34:03 Speaker 02 Sorry I interrupted you.
1:34:04 Mike Rowe? It's okay. He was watching silent porn.
1:34:08 Speaker 02 Dude, he's watching fucking Highway to Heaven. I saw him earlier. I knew he was a Victor French fan when I saw that shirt.
1:34:13 Mike Rowe? Um, I know you gotta go, but that's a second oblique Michael Landen reference you've made.
1:34:19 Speaker 02 I know.
1:34:19 Mike Rowe? What's going on?
1:34:20 Speaker 02 I just love him.
1:34:25 Speaker 02 Can I tell you really fast enough to go?
1:34:26 Mike Rowe? Yeah, yeah.
1:34:27 Speaker 02 And I'll come back another time. I've had such a great time. Thank you, Mike.
1:34:30 Mike Rowe? You're welcome.
1:34:30 Speaker 02 I really appreciate it, dude. I really do.
1:34:31 Mike Rowe? Yeah.
1:34:32 Speaker 02 Thank you.
1:34:32 Mike Rowe? You're welcome.
1:34:34 Speaker 02 We had a show in Winnipeg, Canada, and after the show,
1:34:38 Speaker 02 they, this is like one month ago, they're like, some of the cast of Little House on the Prairie is here. Cause they're refilming the show and I was like, I had no idea. And I loved that show growing up, dude. I will fucking beat the shit out of somebody who doesn't like it, dude. Unless something's wrong with them and they're mentally unwell and they don't even know if they like it or not. But I fucking loved it and uh, I got to meet a couple of the actresses. One of them is called Crosby Fitzgerald. She's playing uh, the mom in it. She plays-
1:35:07 Mike Rowe? Laura Ingalls?
1:35:08 Speaker 02 Oh, no, she plays Laura's mother. Ma Ingalls. Caroline. Caroline Ingalls. So anyway, but when I saw her, they introduced me, I fucking, she says, she goes, "You hugged me like I was your fucking mother." And I was like, A, I am very sorry. I do not know you, ma'am. But B, I didn't even know that I was gonna be like that, you know? But yeah, that was our show, man. That was that pioneer spirit.
1:35:30 Mike Rowe? Yeah. There it is.
1:35:32 Speaker 02 There it is.
1:35:32 Mike Rowe? That's all we're trying to reinvigorate.
1:35:33 Speaker 02 That's all we're trying to do. Mike Rowe, thank you so much, dude.
1:35:36 Mike Rowe? Anytime, Theo Von. Anytime. When you leave a review, which we hope that you'll do, tell us who you are.
1:35:46 Mike Rowe? And before you go,
1:35:52 Mike Rowe? won't you leave five stars?
1:36:02 Speaker 05 Five lousy little stars.
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1:36:47 Speaker 05 I have a question.
1:36:47 Speaker 06 Okay, tell me.
1:36:49 Speaker 05 Can you count to one?
1:36:50 Speaker 06 Can I count to one? What are you talking about? Is this a trick?
1:36:54 Speaker 05 No. One is the number of local law enforcement officials who have endorsed Shannon Taylor for Congress.
1:37:01 Speaker 06 One?
1:37:02 Speaker 05 It's one. The sheriffs in our district endorse Rob Whitman instead. They know Shannon Taylor calls herself a progressive prosecutor.
1:37:10 Speaker 06 Progressive prosecutor? What's that even mean?
1:37:13 Speaker 05 She founded a group that backed a bunch of nutty, soft-on-crime-stuff here in Virginia, like ending cash bail.
1:37:20 Speaker 06 Yeah, man, that is nuts.
1:37:22 Speaker 05 Taylor's group also opposed harsher penalties for assaulting cops and backed "defund the police" candidates.
1:37:30 Speaker 06 Mm-hmm. Now it makes sense. Shannon Taylor is with criminals, not cops. That's why the sheriffs in our district are for Rob Whitman.
1:37:38 Speaker 05 Yep, Rob Whitman all the way.
1:37:41 Speaker 02 I'm Rob Whitman, candidate for Congress, and I approve this message.
1:37:44 Speaker 06 Paid for by Rob Whitman for Congress.
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