Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 370: Big Loz Laurence Shahlaei

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

Big Loz Laurance Shahlaei joins us for this one from across the pond. We discuss the rapid rise of Mith Hooper, and changes in strongman over the last 10-20 years. We also find out which words us Americans are mispronouncing. Juggernaut AI: juggernautai.app and use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% The Strength Co: https://store.thestrength.co/ BearFoot Shoes: https://bearfoot.store/ and use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% Swiss Link: https://www.swisslink.com and use code MASS to save 15% Spud Inc: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. I hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think. If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it.

Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! Massanomics! and everything. Massanomics! Welcome back, everyone, for a very special episode, 370 of the Massanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about near Finn,

recorded live on a Wednesday at about noon. Noon crew, represent. Yeah, noon crew, where it all started. We're back to our roots on the noon crew. Not really our podcast roots, though. That's more like lifting roots. Well, actually, our podcast roots kind of do start at about a mid-afternoon on a Sunday. That's true. So not quite noon.

So we're like the right time. We're getting closer. We're the right time. Yeah. Okay. It does sometimes feel weird podcasting in the middle of the day, though. Oh, my alertness and energy levels are crazy high. I haven't had life stresses just beating me down all day long.

Only like a half day. Yeah, I've only got a half day to get my ass kicked. I got a lot to look forward to yet today. Uh-huh. I got a lot to look forward to yet today. Uh-huh. And we're doing this because we have a special international guest, Big Laws. We'll get to him a little bit later.

He's a little bit different time zone than us here in western northeast South Dakota, so we got some special arrangements going on. Hashtag daylight savings time, right? Amen. He said it. And then, of course, we're going to uh you know support our supporting members we're going to play some has he seen it we've got a book update we've got some follow-up from last week's episode and uh also i just want to tell you guys about something that i've well before you get there before you tell us anything you've skipped one part though tanner the weather

no even before that you skip the part where you say your name and i say my oh skipped one part though tanner the weather no even before that you skipped the part where you say your name and i say my oh and my name is tanner and my name is tommy okay now i can podcast i something was feeling off there it was okay yeah um my train of thought of what what i'm thinking about here that we've been doing that i like so much it's of course juggernaut ai it's It's the training that Tommy and I both utilize. It's the smartest program. Juggernaut AI is like having the best powerlifting coach in the world with you during every training session, helping you reach your true potential. And who doesn't want to reach their true potential? Honestly, Juggernaut AI is the leader in strength, having helped thousands of athletes from beginners

to world champions, maximize their results and reach their goal goals through principle based coaching and cutting edge technology in the form of the AI app that we have right on our phones. Uh, other things, it just, uh, when you get in there, you get to tell it all about yourself and your goals and what you're trying to do. Then it provides you individualized programming made specifically for your goals. What I would add to that is when me and other people are in the gym using it and talking about it, I bring up this point very often where it's like, yeah, we're kind of on the same program,

but also our programs are very different from each other because especially over the longer time you do them, they just become more individualized for each of you and they just start to hone in on what you need and what's going to help you make you better. And the best thing that's going to make you better is when you sign up, you use discount code MASSANOMICS. That saves you 10% for the lifetime of your membership. Thank you, Juggernaut AI. Wow, I'm sold.

Yeah. BRB going to sign up, Tanner. Already signed up, can't do it again joke jokes on you already signed up i'm gonna get two accounts yeah i can get doubly strong twice as strong twice as fast today's episode is also brought to you by barefoot shoes most shoes harm your mobility by over restricting your foot's natural movement barefoot shoes are designed with minimal restrictions so your feet can move the way they're supposed to. Move with more strength and confidence in every step.

Barefoot Shoes was founded by Chris Duffin, who attributes proper foot biomechanics as foundational to his success in squatting and deadlifting over 1,000 pounds for reps. He helped create the company to provide a minimalist shoe that can be worn for anything from deadlifts to walking your dog. Go to www.barefoot.shoes to check out the best minimalist shoes available and while you're there make sure to use code massonomics to save 10 on your next order that's

barefoot.shoes code massonomics will save you 10 on tanner and i's favorite training shoes this uh recording time is interesting we've got international crew here right here in the discord that are getting to listen in live uh is that a switzerland flag no i think that's alabama oh that's the alabama state flag you're right uh is it that or is it Norway? It's one of those countries, those Nordic countries. Let's see. Denmark. That We knew it was one of those.

Actually, the Norway flag is basically the same thing as the Denmark flag. I will say that right now. The only difference is the Denmark flag is white. The Norway flag has blue lines in the white. Otherwise, it's the same damn thing from what I can tell. If you really get down to it almost all the flags are the same well they kind of are yeah some there's only there's only so much you do yeah do you see the difference there tanner between those two flags oh it's like uh just okay we all got the

same assignment let me see yours i gotta change the significance of the, the intersecting lines at that upper left corner of the flag. Like it's seems odd that that would be, you know, show up repeatedly like that. That's a good question. Uh, this is actually reminding me of, I saw a video of a, one of the YouTube channels I follow, they do explainer type videos. Oh, yeah. They recently had one. They ranked all the state flags. And the main point of the video was that basically every state flag is shit and terrible. There's only like 10 that are even decent.

And of those 10 that are decent, there's like four that are good, actually. But what they said that was funny about the South Dakota flag, and I've never realized it. I don't even know what it is other than I know the color and the shape of the thing that's there, but I don't really know what it is. I didn't realize this either, is that the majority of the state flags are all just a seal. Like the South Dakota is just a seal. Like a huge chunk of the flags all just fall into.

It's just a seal in the middle with different words on it. So the South Dakota flag on the very, it's kind of a lighter blue with just a seal in the middle with different words on it. So the South Dakota flag on the very, it's all, it's, it's a kind of a lighter blue with a yellow seal in the middle, but around the seal, it says South Dakota, the Mount Rushmore state. And then the C then inside that state seal, it says state of South Dakota, great seal and under God, the people rule. Okay. So it says South Dakota twice on our flag, which is kind of a weird thing that a flag needs to say the name of your state twice on it. Just in case you missed the first one.

We are from South Dakota. The one is so small, you basically can't read it. You could also make the argument that the bigger one is also too small to be read when it's on a flag, actually. You can only read it when you're looking at it on a computer, not actually on a flagpole. Well, yeah yeah i think it

stands to reason that uh when i can't even say what that design like nothing comes to my mind when i think about the flag other than the color and the shape that's in the center there you know like it's just like i don't know it's just like something there i made me realize that i there's a lot of state flags that i don't know uh the one that blew my mind and I this still looks fake to me I didn't think this was real when they brought it up you should google the Utah flag this has to be new and take a look at that and tell me what you think oh the one with the mountains on it and like the beehive in the middle oh the beehive yeah I've never seen that before yeah so it says new yeah this is new how new is this yeah

i it almost looks fake to me it doesn't seem real uh 2020 okay yeah it looks like it is from this year actually so that would be why not a bad little flag they got going on there interesting huh they really they revamped some things didn't they they sure did they made some changes speaking of uh making some changes i don't know if you can uh tell uh there's a different angle of my dangle but uh on the live stream you the camera is a little less optimal right now it's like slightly angled up a little bit more but what i realized if i tilt my computer screen up just a little more which effectively then tilts my live stream camera up a little more then i can tilt my main camera just a little more which effectively then tilts my live stream camera up a little more then i can tilt my main camera down a little more and not catch my computer screen

okay i'm getting a little bit better angle on right the main footage right now that i've ever gotten before not that it's been the wrong angle before but uh i think that this is just a touch better it's more optimal it's more optimal for sure. And that's what we're all about here. Keep tuning in for those incremental improvements every week. Very, very, very incremental. The most minor of improvements that you could almost, in fact, not consider them to be an improvement.

Keep them guessing uh tanner you had some big news in your life this week yeah i was i had a good uh three by eight set of uh deadlifts this week so pretty exciting week for me i that was not the first time i've used almost that identical joke on this podcast so far. I think the first time I used that was probably, well, it would be almost, it would be almost six years ago, I guess I used that joke. And then probably a few years later. Yeah. This is now the third time I've gotten to make that same joke. I'll also say the third and final time I'm going to be making that same joke. So the big news is me and my wife are having a new baby. We're having a baby boy this time. So this is going to be lucky number four on this one.

So maybe for the people that have been wanting to know if you're actually insane or not now they have proof speaking of being tired boy am i gonna be tired uh but people that wanted uh more kid merch maybe this will be maybe we just needed collectively six children to be able to yeah to really know we have the audience figured out now yeah so yeah my my my wife is expecting we're having uh this is the fourth and we're not going to go for one for the thumb we're going to stick at four and not go for five i think is the game plan here so uh yeah it's probably the right move yeah Yeah. And they, um, we're, we're obviously super excited about it. I'm pumped. Uh, all the other times I did not care what gender the baby was

going to be this time. I was hoping for a boy. We've got a boy, two girls, and now fourth one will be a boy again. And I was, uh, this is the first time that I really honestly had any, you know, like I even had a thought in my, yeah. Other than just like, ah, I just want them to be healthy. Um, but now I got what I wanted and we just got the news on the gender here and we did a big gender reveal party where my wife calls me on the phone and she says, Hey, I've got the news. Should we check it out now? And I said, yes, let's not wait a second. Let's look now. I need no additional delayed surprises. I need to know now.

And she opened it up, and we knew, and I thought that was the best gender reveal party I've ever had. We did for our first one, we had a little bit of a gender reveal party. We had some people come over. But then the next one, my wife, wife so impatient did like this test ahead of time where they do yeah they give you something testing yes yes and she was she was leaving for work and her phone beeped she goes oh i got an email oh we can find out what it is i'm gonna open it right now i go okay oh we're having a girl we're like wow really a girl we just kind of figured we'd

have two boys okay gotta go and that was it like out the door i gave one of these when she told me i was like yes punching holes in all the walls i was like yeah um but i had prepared myself that it was going to be a girl and then i was i had thought of all the fun fun things you know all the reasons i would be excited about it being a girl because i just had a feeling that's what it was going to happen, you know. But then my excitement couldn't be contained when it actually was a boy. I'm like, those other things were made up. I know I'm really happy. Yeah, that's good.

Yeah. So we're going to be a six-person family a four-kid family and uh i was even talking about that with my wife i'm like yeah we can't have any more like more than that is nothing nothing is made this day and age you gotta get a sprinter van at that point that's we already we've already got the larger vehicle now to hold this we would have to have a sprinter van to get anything bigger basically Big Jeff from the Discord asked if he's the first to know

the official announcement went out I guess earlier this week so it's pretty fresh in the news if you weren't on the lookout, you may have missed it. yeah. So that's that.

The hard part's done, right? I did all the heavy lifting. Just kidding. Having the baby's probably harder than what I did. Well, we're guys. We could never know for sure. So we just got's true it's like maybe it's all you know like it's not actually

it doesn't it's not difficult like the whole yeah transformation of your body and stuff it's not actually that big of a deal it's all just this elaborate ruse to trick yeah that ever all women are in on it well it's something a little more lighthearted Tanner. I did follow up and get a bag of Takis this weekend. Yeah. I'm very curious about the Takis. I was going to the store to pick up some items and right at the checkout line, the Takis were sitting there.

It was like, it's like they were talking to me. And so I got the, I think it was like sweet chili lime, I believe. And I was pleasantly surprised. They were better than I thought they were going to be. Yeah.

Were they crunchy? They're very crunchy. Told you. The flavor is pretty bold. Even for a mass-produced item in a bag, they actually bring a little bit of heat on the sweet chili lime. I just think most things when they say spicy, there's no spice at all. So they did pretty good there. All in all, I didn't need to eat a whole bag like Doritos. I

could sit and eat a whole bag and not feel too bad about it. I don't know if I need to eat a whole bag of these. That might be a little much, but they were good. I could definitely recommend them and see myself getting them again. Big Takis guy. Big Takis guy. Now, if they just got some type of animal mascot, then they'd really be speaking my language. Like Chester the tiger. Like Taki the turtle.

Maybe that would be it. The turtle slinging Takis everywhere. The spicy turtle. Yeah. So Takis are underrated then, or what do you think probably underrated i i wasn't really in the loop on those things so as far as my perspective goes they are underrated yeah uh i've got a special we've got a special has he seen it segment here but first actually i'm thirsty oh and convenient for me yeah i need more metal things next to my desk uh being made out of a wooden top i guess the legs are metal but it's not super convenient to have a drink spotter light

yeah but my i think people have been wondering uh the they can finally rest and relax know that my package finally showed up i got my drink spotter light way back here on the on the shelf behind the original drink spotter holding a strength coat plate so what did the post office ever say about that i just where it had been you know i had to file a thing online and i thought for sure when i filed the thing online that i was going to hear back from them in four weeks and to their credit i filed just the general usps website i filed my issue online and i had a phone call within like two hours, which shocked me. And they said, oh yeah, I'm sure it'll be there tonight. And of course it

wasn't there tonight. And they called me the next day and asked me if it was there. I said, no, it's still not here. They called me the next day again, asked me if I got my package. I said, no, I do not have it yet. And they said, okay, I'll make sure you get it tonight. And then they called me a few hours later and said, all the package has been delivered and i thought where has it been this whole time yeah where was it we will make sure you get it and now we called and you got it that feels like someone knew where it was at the whole time that is so odd so i don't know how that worked but uh they weren't lying they said they'll make sure i get it and i got it good some boy was i happy with

those items the yeah windbreaker i've already worn it lots of times i like it even more than i thought i would the patch hat really impressed with the quality on that thing that's great the drink spotter light i've seen them you've taken all the fun just never took one out of inventory but right very happy to have one in my possession and the patch teas love them so all in all great drop if uh you you're listening to this and you haven't got in on that yet to make sure you patch teas take advantage of that uh the one thing about the patch tea being 100 cotton you can't just do your laundry and wad it up in a ball and throw it on the floor because they do wrinkle yeah so just make sure you like hang or fold that thing shortly after you do laundry

the pocket tea is like a built-in drink spotter though it is i also have a can in my pocket tea that's what i was diving into here what do you got then i got the black cherry polar cherry of some sort i got the uh lime lacroix over here i saw that looks good oh yeah oh that's the good stuff do you think i'm bold enough to put it back in my pocket tea after that's been open really bold especially being near a computer and we're like expensive electronics yeah and leaving it mostly full yeah would you say it just hits different when you're recording a podcast at noon on a wednesday it does you know speaking of lost

packages and stuff and drink spotters drink spotter lights remember that time we were in ohio when we got to the hotel and we had a special uh package of drinks by the lights did we tell that story did we tell us we story? I don't think we ever did. I don't think we ever did. That's really funny, actually. Maybe we'll tease that and we'll review that story at the end of this episode to make sure you stay for the end of the episode. The Drink Spotter prototypes missing in the mail in Ohio.

Our prototype Drink Spotters are getting our our our and it was like very close to the final uh final proto yeah it was the final product it was it just wasn't the mass it just wasn't mass produced like these are yeah just they made a couple of them for us quick so we can show them at the arnold rather than yeah here's your giant order of them so we can show them at the Arnold rather than here's your giant order of them. So we'll get back to that story. But first, has he seen it? We have a special edition of Has He Seen It? Of course, Has He Seen It is where we find out if Tommy has seen it. Usually we ask him about five, six, seven movies from a given year.

This week we are doing the High Bar Lifting Club version of Has He Seen It? It is not a year. These will be from various years, but all revolving around our High Bar Lifting Club t-shirt. Okay, okay. I'm already thinking. How many are we doing? Seven. Seven.

There's seven High Bar Lifting Club movies. I think I'm going to go four here. Okay. Four. I think that's a pretty good guess. You could also call this the 420 version of Has He Seen It that I forgot for us to actually do when we recorded back around 420. Now that we're recording almost a month late. So now it is the High Bar Lifting Club version.

Okay. So have you seen it? Dazed and Confused. I have seen. I've seen Dazed and Confused many times. All-time classic. That's great. I knew that was a yes, but couldn't.

I just. And the thing with Dazed and Confused now is I believe now we are farther away from. Okay. The movie was released in what? Like 90. What was the movie released? 93 or four or something. Maybe even 98.

Either way. I think the movie was set in like 77. So the movie was like 20 years out, you know, as about a time, 20 years prior. Well now, even if it was released in the late nineties were 28 years on or whatever,

which is farther than that. So, which is very, that so which is very a very funny thought 19 big david said 1993 we already had it on the list we've done this one before we've literally done this one before okay so we probably had that exact same conversation that we just had i think we did i think we did i think we've had that exact conversation a few different times on the podcast probably. I think so. I think we have.

That was just warm-up, though. We needed a softball, right? That's right. Has he seen it? Smiley face. Smiley face? I don't even think I've heard of this. I knew very little about smiley face, but it was showing up on very a lot of lists when um i have not seen smiley face myself

it's a 2007 movie i'm i'm looking right now anna ferris john krasinski i yeah i don't even remember seeing the cover usually a lot of these if i haven't seen it i can look up the cover or the the poster and i remember seeing that before. I don't even remember seeing this ever. Yeah. A young actress unknowingly eats her roommate's marijuana cupcakes. You can only assume the kind of crazy, zany antics that follow that situation.

Hilarity ensues. Yeah. Interesting. No, I could see how this would be a funny one though so i have not seen that either um i kind of figured you hadn't but i'm like maybe this is one of those movies that i just don't know shit about and you know it's uh yeah even 2007 you know that's like when we're going to college it seems like that would be one that would just people i love college yeah you know you'd be listening to your asher roth and someone goes

to get the dvd out of the cheap bargain bin at walmart for five bucks and it feels like smiley face would be sitting right there but yep don't remember has he seen it half baked oh yeah yeah half baked uh actually have we had this one on here before we've maybe done half baked i'm trying to remember i've yeah i can't say if i've ever seen if i've ever actually seen half baked all the way through i don't know i've seen so many parts of it so many times i don't know because it was always on comedy central back in the day like non-stop. You're thinking of the Dave Chappelle show. I'm not sure if I've ever just sat down with the movie Half-Baked and just watched it,

but I've probably seen all of it on Comedy Central in various portions many, many times over the years. Okay. Has he seen it? We're the Millers. This is maybe the newest one on the list. What's his name?

Jason Steggis. Yes, this was just on TV not that long ago. This one's funny. This is the No Regrets guy, right? I've never seen this. Oh, you haven't? Nope. Oh, yeah, this one's funny.

Not really, well, let's say not really much of a stoner movie. I kind of get the tie in here. I do know what you're talking about now, but it is funny. It's a funny movie. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it. I think you'd like it. The cover just looks like every Jennifer Aniston movie that she's made to me in the last 10 years, where I'm like, these are all the same movie, I think.

But it probably is still good. But that's just my first thought when I saw the cover. Yeah, this one was entertaining. I think you'd like it. Okay, has he seen it, Ted? Yes, yes, I have seen Ted. Ted, that's... With the bear, right?

Teddy Bear one, right? Yes. And what's his family guy? Yeah, the guy that makes, uh, family guy. Um, uh, the guy that makes any McFarlane, Seth McFarlane, right? Yeah.

Todd McFarlane, but that's the, uh, spawn guy, isn't it? Yeah. Seth McFarlane. Yeah.

Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis. That one's good. Well, this is going to be a pretty good, uh, run for you on the high bar lifting club version. I think the thing is most of these movies are relatively new.

You know, you picked a bunch of stoner movies from the 70s and 80s that might not do as hot. But right. For the most part, these are all relatively new movies. So that's usually where I do better. Has he seen it? Pineapple Express. Oh, yeah. Pineapple Express. That's that's an all-time classic that's so

good that uh i remember pineapple express for several reasons one because the trailer had well one because i've watched it a ton but the trailer had um m.i.a what the hell is that song why can't i think of it now paper planes or paper planes there you go. And I remember thinking at the time, this is the coolest sounding song ever. Like, what's going on here? And then find out the song's by Diplo, and then years go by, and Diplo turns into one of my favorite guys to listen to.

But yeah, Pineapple Express, it's so funny. There's so many classic one-liners in there. It's just so dumb. And that was when 2008, right around there, is when you really start getting all those really stupid Seth Rogen. What's the hell's his name? The guy with the long hair in the movie. Why can't I think of his name?

Franco. Yes. Seth Rogen, James Franco, like all of them. You get that whole, they had that run for a while where they released a lot of really funny movies so yeah Pineapple Express all time classic good one then last

not least you're sitting at 5 for 6 only one you haven't seen so far is Smiley Face last but not least How High is that with Method Man and Red Man yes yes I have seen but not least how high is that with method man and red man? Ah, yes. Yes.

Yes. I have seen this one. That is correct. That is the right movie. Yeah. I remember my buddy had this, I remember going in high school after, after school and day to his house and watching this one.

Yeah. I don't remember a ton about this cause it was so long ago, but I do remember watching it then six six for seven yeah you had the one curveball you threw me um i would guess maybe you hadn't seen where the millers because it's pretty new yeah i know i got i got that one and then i thought Ted could have been 50-50, and the other ones I thought you'd probably seen them all. I thought you were going to throw in some Cheech and Chong's on me.

I thought about it, but those are pretty old. We've never really gone that far back on stuff. Yeah, and I have seen, and then could anyone actually tell, because there's multiple movies, right? No one would know. The other ones I could have put in there is like, you know what are the jay and silent bob or like prior to those movies like yeah like mall rats or right right those and i have seen most of those um looking what else is on this list here i just typed in probably you probably saw the same thing like

big lebowski yes seen that fast time to ridgemont high oh i thought you're gonna say harold and kumar too go to one yeah that would have been a good one that one is I've seen that. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Oh, I thought you were going to say Harold and Kumar, too. Go to White Castle. Yeah, that would have been a good one, too. That one is, I've seen both of those. Is there just two of them? White Castle and Guantanamo Bay. That's all that I'm aware of.

Those are both very funny. Those are both very funny. Seen those a lot. Tenacious D, seen that. All the scary movies. Those are really good. Fear and Loneliness in Las Vegas. I've never really seen that movie. I've parts of it but never the whole thing uh super troopers classic

deuter's my car oh i love deuter's my car that movie's so funny and grandma's boy did you watch grandma's boy that's with uh the skinny guy right like they're really? They're making the video game and Nick Swanson is in it. I got to look at the cast of who I'm thinking. Yeah, Alan Covert. That's one of the guys I was thinking of. Because they're sitting on the couch. Who's Joel David Moore? What does he look like?

He's the guy that wants the robot legs. Yes, yes, yes. He's the bad guy. He's their boss yeah i think is what he was yeah yeah alan covert i did not know that actor's name but he's very recognizable to me i can't oh yeah he was in he's in a lot of those right uh billy matt art adam sandler movies yeah yeah but did you know that guy's name like have you heard that before alan covert no i would have never guessed who that was yeah and then same thing that peter dante is in a lot of those movies too he's usually just the same guy in every movie he is uh in the water boy he's the guy that yells the thing is in the crowd right like is he i can't remember if that's who that actually was or not

i believe it because that's the type of character he usually is. Or am I thinking, well, I guess I'm also getting confused with Rob Schneider because isn't Rob Schneider in Waterboy? Yeah, yes, yes. Oh, no. Peter Dante is one of the players. He's the quarterback. He's the quarterback.

Yeah, it's been so long since I've seen the Waterboy that I couldn't tell you. Yeah, that's right. I think that's right. Yeah, it's been so long since I've seen the water boy that I couldn't tell you. Yeah, that's right. I think that's right. Yeah. But Grandma's Boy is a really funny one. That one's good. So has he seen it today? The answer is yes, he's seen it.

Also, Tommy, have you ever seen Supporting Our Supporting Members? I think I have. But why don't you refresh me refresh me yeah it's a segment we do every week where uh we have these members that choose to support the massomics podcast you could also do it too if you're not already go on their website it's what what's the url for that tommy uh massonomics.com join yep that's. You can go right there and you'll see our different membership options. You can get signed up, become a supporting member. We'd love to have you join the supporting member team. And so would the other of hundreds of happy crew members. Absolutely. And, uh, why would you want to join? You might be asking well, because it's basically perk city. I would actually answer your question with another question why would you ask such a stupid question now that's a good question that is the good question well if for someone i it's

not me asking i'm just asking on behalf of you know some of the idiots out there that might be right hypothetical here yeah the hypothetical idiots that don't know why they would join um you could uh get a bunch of perks like There's a discount code out there for the new supporting members. You get access to our very active online Discord community. You can listen along live each week to the Massonomics podcast like only supporting members can. You get early info on new drops. You get early access to new drops. And sometimes we just send surprise gifts that only supporting members get. And every week we choose send surprise gifts that only supporting members get and every week we choose to give back to the supporting members via our supporting our supporting

segment this very segment so this week we had big jeff who i think might even be listening along live today if he didn't get drug out to a important financial planning meeting i think he said what's at the Fed's announcement today? Big Jeff, are they raising rates again today, or what's going on? I feel like that was who he's hinting at. Okay. But anyways, more importantly than the Federal Reserve and interest rates or anything like that, Big Jeff did a powerlifting meet this last week,

and he totaled, well, first of all, he went 9 for 9, and he totaled 1202. He did that via a 397-pound squat, PR, 314-pound bench, PR, 491-pound deadlift, PR. So it ended up being a total PR form of 83 pounds, and this was after running his juggernaut AI program for 24 weeks. So it sounds like big Jeff kind of crushed it, right? It's almost too easy when you're big Jeff. Yeah. The federal reserve is probably also going to be announcing Jeff's powerlifting. I see they've raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage. Boy, I'd hate to be in the market for a house right now. percentage boy i'd hate to be in the market for a house right now that's me i'd hate to have a job where every time the fed raises rates i have to go do like an extra bit of work each day out

every time they do it and then like they do this like five times a year now and they used to never do it and now i feel sorry for that sorry sucker. Like, stop doing that. Stop it. Stop changing things. No more changes. Why can't everything just stay the same forever? Forever. Just never, ever change anything.

I would like it best if the Fed Reserve did announce Jeff's number. That'd be good. I remember a teacher in high school, and he was one of the older guys that was kind of like the, uh, not like the real, uh, lovey, like the real, like give it to you straight kind of teacher. And I remember him saying one time he goes, you know, I'm going to tell you guys something and this will be, I can't remember how he prefaced it, but basically saying like, this

will be one of the hardest concepts for all of you to understand. It's like, Oh, a drill challenge here. What do we got? And he said, people hate change. He said, there's nothing that adults hate more than change. So if you can handle change, life's going to be a lot easier. And I remember thinking like, it seems a little dramatic, man. Okay. What are you talking about? Yeah. What? Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. People hate change. And boy, the older you get, you realize, God, people will do anything they can to fight change.

To fight change from happening. Yeah. Yeah, ain't that the truth? I've had to do several change management courses over the years of either MBA or or just like straight up through work. Change management. Is that like how to make change at a cash register? Yes. It's like someone hands you $2.45. They purchase two items that are 90 cents each. And there's a train leaving Western Northeast South Dakota at nine.

And all you have is Sacagawea dollars. What do you do? Were Sacagawea dollars the gold ones? I think so. Is Sacagawea the correct pronunciation? It is not, right? I mean, that's what everyone says. Yeah, I believe if you go more into how that language... It's like Sacagawea.

Yes, that sounds much more correct. It's like Milwaukee. No, Milwaukee Yes, that sounds much more correct. It's like Milwaukee. No, Milwaukee. I'm talking for the good land. Yeah. Then, supporting our supporting members, the old man, Big Scantz. He competed this last week in a strongman competition. scantz he competed this last week in a strongman competition it was at uh brunswick's strongest in central central southern new brunswick and he finished second place in his category

i assume that category was men of the ages uh all men born in the 20th century. All high-performing males. Yeah. And other old jokes to go along with Scantz. Insert old person masters jokes here. So congrats to Big Scantz. Yeah, congrats, guys. Our special guest has entered the waiting room, Tanner.

Oh, okay. Oh, perfect. Should we get this show on the road? Yeah, do you want to do a couple ads then, or should I do an ad? You can do one because I've got to remove some people here. I'll do an ad while we're working on that then. Perfect timing because I did just want to talk about Spud Ink Straps. You can head over to spud-ink-straps.com. Spud Ink started because the lifting straps available at the time

were not tough enough to handle the daily punishment that comes with training as a power lifter or that could easily fit in your gym bag. Spud Ink created their straps to withstand whatever your training puts them through. Finally, they've got training gear that just works as hard as you do, whether you're looking for belts, harnesses, deadlift straps, sleeves, bow ties, anything just yellow, you like the color yellow, check out spud-ink-straps.com. They've got free shipping on all domestic orders

that are $75 or more. That excludes Alaska or Hawaii. check out Sputnik Straps. Let them know that Mass Anomics sent you. All right. Should we get our guest on the horn? I think we might as well, right? Yeah, I'm going to let him in then. Are you ready? Let's do it.

Here we go. Can you hear me, guys? Yes. We can hear you now. Do you got us, Big Laws? We can hear you. Yeah, no worries. Excellent. We're excited to get you on the Massanomics podcast.

You're here with Tanner and Tommy. What's up? How are you doing? You both good? Yeah, we're good. We'll roll right into it if you're ready. I'm ready. Yeah, let's go. We won't save any of our really good commentary for not recording. We'll just be recording right away. No problem at all.

We are very excited to get you on, and we're getting you from all the way across the pond, so a special international guest this week for us. Yeah, just had a few problems getting on with my wife. My wife was having some family over I didn't realize, so thank you for delaying an hour, but we got us on. That's the main thing. Hey, we've both got wives and kids too, so we understand how they're always trying to make it.

You've got to keep them happy. Yeah, we know how important it is. It's just the expectation. Easy enough, but when it comes to the kids and birthdays, you've got to keep the wife happy. Yeah, that's always your safest bet. We always prepare a list of things that we want to talk to people about, and we've got a really long list of stuff with you.

You've got a lot of exciting stuff going on, and we want to talk to people about, and we've got a really long list of stuff with you. There's a lot, you know, you've got a lot of exciting stuff going on and we probably won't get to everything, but we'll just get started. And you know, the most relevant thing right now is obviously world's strongest man just wrapped up. Uh,

you're wearing the T right. The SBD world's strongest man t-shirt right now. And, you're coaching several athletes there, a couple, uh, highlighted ones big bobby thompson of course and then uh some guy from canada that happened to do all right this year too so what's this guy all about yeah so it's really interesting to me you coaching all of them

do you feel conflicted at all like what what do you what what do you feel when you're coaching multiple athletes that are competing against each other, especially at the level of World's Strongest Man? It's quite interesting because when I coach anyone, whether it's the World's Strongest Man or a complete beginner, my focus is always for them to concentrate on themselves and get better. So whether you're the World's Strongest Man, you're a complete beginner, the focus should be you progressing as an athlete.

And that's what I try and kind of enlist into all my athletes. And I try and kind of put into people's mindsets because so many people jump into sport or whatever it might be, lifting, football, you know, swimming, athletics, whatever it could be. And they're like, I want to be the best. And the reality is a very, very small percentage of people are going to be the best. And if you kind of jump in with I want to be the best as your only goal, 99.9% of people are going to be very disappointed. So what I try and focus on is you making sure your goal is to make you better. And, you know, that's one of the great things I love about Mitch is that that he enjoys that process of bettering himself he is a freak of nature he's an incredible athlete you know just unbelievably godly you're gifted you know genetics very smart very you know talented but he understands that him getting better is all he can focus on and that's that's always the goal and i've got

beginners that won't focus on just getting better they're like oh I can't compete until I'm winning this competition or until I can do this many reps on something and I don't believe that's the attitude to have I think if you can go to competition hit a load of pbs and come away and learn from it then you are progressing and then you go away and you try and aim to get better so with everyone I coach whether you know it's beginner or not, we focus on the same goal. Now, when you've got multiple athletes in a competition,

you're going to have athletes of differing ability. I had Mitch, who was a legitimate contender. Bobby is also a legitimate contender, but we knew for Bobby, the heats would be a problem with the stones because that's an event we're trying to really bring up. And just the way World's Strongest Man is, I mean, if it was just a flat-out competition between the 30 athletes,

he would have been fifth after five events. So he's an incredible strongman with one slight weakness, which happens to be the most important event at World's Strongest Man. So it's a really frustrating competition for Bobby. You know, I think realistically we've got more chance of winning World's Strongest Man with Bobby than the world's, winning the Arnold, sorry. And that's something he's kind of got his eye on. And then I had two other athletes that it was their first time at World's Strongest Man. And obviously, I've got 11 years of experience at

World's Strongest Man. So I kind of know what it's like being the new guy for the first time. And they were excited to be there and probably had bigger expectations than most people do for themselves. But it's always tough. And that first experience of Worlds is very much a learning curve. So for them, it was about getting stuck in, trying their hardest, proving they deserve to be there. And then we'll go away and work hard moving forward. But it's always tough when you've got, you know, like arnold's where i had bobby and mitch on the podium that's a tough one because you've got two athletes fighting you know for for the for the top spots but like i said it is literally i'll try and help you get as good as i can help you be then it's up to you on the day to fight to win and beat everyone else so i don't

find it too conflicting i wouldn't want 10 guys in the final but um you know having having twos nice yeah yeah and I suppose you don't get to pick favorites then it'd be like picking your favorite kids as we like to say then too so absolutely there's no favorite you know it's um you're trying to to get the best out of everyone whether it is a Mitch Hooper or you know a new guy that's just got into the sport and wants to progress. I get as much out of that. Or like I've got, I've got some athletes that they, they were, they're truckers and they, they kind of, they couldn't even do a half squat when they started with me. Now their movement's really good. They're fitter, better quality of life,

never going to be the world's strongest man, but seeing someone progress in other areas is just as rewarding sometimes as winning the major shows as well. Talking about Mitch, how would you describe what he's doing right now? And would that, you know, a year ago, if you would have said someone's going to come into the sport and in the course of 12 months win the Arnold World's Strongest Man, you know, be a contender, a viable contender to win every future competition at this point,

would you have even thought that in 2023 with the evolution of what Strongman's gone through, that someone would be able to do that? No, that's the honest answer. What he's done is incredible. Absolutely incredible. He's actually caused coaches a lot of problems because now people are going oh mitch hooper did it like really quick so i can and you know the one

thing i will say is i think we would have seen mitch earlier um but obviously with covid it meant he was stuck in australia couldn't compete in other shows because he was doing some impressive things while he was down there he um i think he won Static Monsters and he did some big deadlifts and stuff like that so he probably would have had some opportunities earlier and um I think we would have noticed him maybe one or two years before we actually did but it's just the way it went and then by the time he was at World's Strongest Man last year which he only got to World's Strongest Man last year because Rauno Heinle pulled out. You know, if he didn't pull out, we wouldn't have even seen Mitch.

So it was, you know, thanks to Rauno pulling out and giving someone else an opportunity, knowing he wasn't in great shape that year. We got to see Mitch. Mitch came in and was incredible, ended up eighth in the final. And then we started working together. And, you know, I think just having my 20 years of experience in the sport and 11 world's strongest man competitions and probably over a hundred you know competitions that I've done over the years has been able to fast track him a little bit understanding firstly tactics for for competition but secondly understanding backstage how to sort

of conduct yourself and you know try and make your life as easy as possible. Because some athletes make it hard for themselves. Mitch has done a good job of trying to work with the right people, understanding which shows to do to get seen and, you know, being smart about which shows we're going to really focus on and which shows we will use as training. He's a bit like Zydrunas was where he can now turn up at 80, 90% and still be a

legitimate threat at most comps and then with the big comps we want to try and peak for so for him this year the Arnold's wasn't the peak world's strongest man was the peak but it's like a mini peak and they were very close together and now we're going to look at the short classic and the rogue invitational um so still four comps four times trying to peak in a year is extremely hard but he's very young he his recovery is unlike anyone i've ever met i mean you know for most athletes i'd be holding them back more than i do with mitch he just has an incredible ability to recover quickly and um that's partly due to his past athletic ability but it's partly due to great genetics as well yeah so what what is what does he weigh because i've got a follow-up question to that is he 330 or 40 or i don't know

i think probably close yeah 330 i guess okay because tommy and i were talking about this too and we've talked about it with other other strongmen before too but uh you know for a point in time it just seemed like a race to the top in body weight where you have to be 400 pounds all of a sudden to be able to win some of the top shows. Now, over really the last five years, that doesn't seem to be the case. What's your take on the body weight? If you're coaching someone and they say, do you think I need to gain weight?

They say, I'm 330. Do I need to be bigger to be competitive in that? What's your take on the body weight? Body weight is athlete dependent. So you'll see some people see the likes of Zydrunas and Eddie and Thor, and they'll be like, I need to be 400 plus pounds. But that person saying they need to be 400 plus pounds might be five foot five. You know, so for them to get 400 plus pounds is just going to be ridiculous and it's going to hinder so many areas the most

important thing i try and focus on as a coach is making people as well-rounded a strong man as possible i don't give a damn about records if i'm you know brutally honest with you i find the whole chasing records almost boring at this point because there's so many factors, the bars that people use, the equipment they use, conditions, etc. For me, it's become boring just seeing different records attempted almost on a weekly basis right now. It's not to say I don't like seeing records broken, but I like to see it happen organically as part of a competition. And I like to see it have some kind of continuation in terms of the equipment that's been used but my focus is to try and get people to be as good all around as possible so like Bobby's a good example of this because when Bobby started with me he's around 360 maybe even 370 incredible

bench or sorry incredible log lifter incredible deadlifter but there was weaknesses in his game and the first thing I said to him is that we don't need you to be stronger. We need you to be better. So you have to treat strong man as a sport. It's not about being the strongest man on the planet. It's about being the best strength athlete. So it's always trying to look at the way the sport is at the current time or the competitions that you have coming up and being as well-rounded as possible for those now that might mean you know we look at some of the competitions in the past maybe they were a little bit heavier um you might want a bit more body weight for something like the arnold's a few years back where they were doing the ridiculously heavy yoke the heavy deadlift the you know austrian oak they're all pretty heavy events whereas now

there's a few more athletic type events in there. They've got the frame in there. They've got the throw. The sport's changed a little bit. It's still ridiculously heavy, but being a well-rounded athlete as well as being strong is better than just being a brutally strong person. We see in the women's class, we had Tamara in there, who's an amazingly strong woman

yeah but not experienced as a strong woman you know ridiculous power lifting background and pedigree but completely new to the strong woman sport and um you have to understand that it is a sport and i think once you can kind of get your head around that aspect you can become a really good athlete when you are just focused on i want a big deadlift and i want a big log and it's all about just getting bigger nine times out of ten you make yourself worse at so many of those other elements of the sport so i think you've just got to look at the the trend the sport's in you know for a while yes adrenas was 400 pounds eddie hall was 400 pounds half thor but half thor and brian are an exception because they're nearly seven foot

tall right yeah in their prime even being that weight they were still quick and athletic so it's finding out the right weight for you i think for me i got too big at one point i think my heaviest i got to was 370 and my squat was really good and my overhead pressing was good but i started to lose those elements that i was probably the best at in terms of super yoke farmers walks those kind of speed events so for me personally more sort of 340 weight was a better weight where I had good amount of power and I was really good all around as an athlete if I went sort of down to 300 pounds I'd lose that power as well so it's finding that balance for you individually so for some some people, it might be 300 pounds. For some people, it might be 400 pounds.

Like I have thought I could come back now at 400 pounds and be unbelievable. But it's the right weight for you where you can be as good as possible in every type of strongman event. Yeah. So 10 to 15 years ago when you talk about you competed at 11 World's Strongest Man, made several finals, you know, finished as high as fourth. And I think that year the podium you were behind, we were looking at it, was Brian Z and Terry Hollins, another excellent UK strongman also. So a pretty incredible talent pool at that point in time that we're looking at.

I'm wondering your take as uh being a very high strong strongman competitor then 10 to 15 years ago now coaching the highest level strongman now what uh where's the talent pool better at in 2011 or in 2023 i think right now we have the most in-depth in terms of talent pool is just so much bigger than it used to be. I think back then we had like 20 really good athletes with two or three exceptional athletes. Now you've got, you know, five exceptional athletes and hundreds of good athletes. You know, there's guys that aren't at World's Strongest Man that are at that level.

They just haven't had the opportunity yet. You know, the competitions that go on on a weekly basis, you're seeing unbelievable performances week in, week out now in Strongman from so many different regions. You know, the sport's becoming so much more popular and the talent pool has just got a lot bigger. I don't actually believe that the top guy is any better than the top guys from then when you look at if you compare what they they did

you know even if you compare what i did in my prime or terry holland's did in his prime we'd still be competitive now but there's just so much more opposition so if you have a slightly bad day you can look terrible at world's strongest man i mean we saw it with kieliszkowski kieliszkowski had a bad week at world's strongest man and he looked terrible but he could come back anyway he was second at the arnold's a few months ago he could come back in a few months time and win the rogue invitational or something like that so that's the the kind of position that the sport's in you cannot you know you've got to stay at that level if you just drop a little bit you look very very average and um it's it's harder because of that because there's

less opportunities to show how good you are when there's so many good athletes who uh who do you think is the best uk strongman of all time oh that's an interesting question i guess it depends how you look at the best um i mean some people might say jeff capes because of kind of when he was involved he um he's a pioneer of it yeah yeah pioneer kind of you know none of us would would be doing it if it wasn't for people like jeff and kaz and John Paul Sigmason, they really made the sport popular. He's also won more international shows than any other British athlete. I've won the second most of international shows out of any other athlete, but I never won world's strongest man.

I won a European title. I won a world title, just not world's strongest man. Obviously, Eddie Hall, what he did, breaking the deadlift record, and I guess how he's helped the growth of the sport and brought more people into the sport has been huge but guys like Jamie Reeves was unbelievable Gary Taylor you know we've had so many great strongmen and now we've got Tom Stoltman who's been top two at world's strongest man the last four years in a row he puts his name into that kind of category I think Terryry hollands is an incredible british strong man you think how many times he made the final he's someone that i looked

up to when i can when i came into it there's there's a lot mark felix again you know maybe mark's a bit different because he hasn't won as much and he's not going to have been on as many podiums but to do what he's done at his age we've got to remember he started at 37 years old. It's inspired so many people to get into the sport. So there's lots of ways of looking at it. It depends on what you consider to be the greatest or the best. But there's a lot of great athletes from the UK. And I think the more of them that come along, it allows more people, young kids, to look up to them and think, OK, I want to do that.

And then we see more and more down the line. So there's a whole host of incredible British strongmen and hopefully a lot more coming through. Yeah, British strongman, it always seems like kind of a cooler culture than the American strongman culture. I don't know how to put my thumb on that, but part of it is you have a fraction of the population that we draw from but still have just as many competitive athletes in the top pool.

And then also the way the arena shows, the history of the arena shows that you have there. And I think that that's something that we're chasing here and maybe building towards a little bit. Brian with his and what Rogue is doing, it's getting closer to that. But it seems like among the population of people that aren't actually competing in Strongman, it has to be more of a fan sport than it is here because

our our fans here are people like us that have you know recreationally it's like oh yes i like to go to the gym and compete and so that's why i like this sport not that i'm looking for something to watch and oh this is cool you know yeah i think i think one of the big advantages we have in the uk is we're a much smaller population, but we're quite densely populated. So in terms of the distance that a fan would have to drive or travel is much less than you guys. So we have maybe six Giants live shows a year and really from anywhere you can get there within six hours.

Whereas you guys, it could be, you know, if you're driving days and you know, we can barely get across our state in six hours. Yeah. Yeah. Ohio, Ohio for the, for the Arnold, you know, that's a what our state in six hours yeah yeah yeah well ohio ohio

for the for the arnold you know that's uh what 20 ish hours for us tanner and then we were talking about going to the shaw classic because it's close and that'll be about 11 or 12 hours yeah it's it's so much further in distance for you guys so it is harder we also have the likes of you know the giants live team are based in the uk so that been huge, just having them be able to put these big arena shows on. And because we are a smaller nation, you know, people can get to the competitions much, much easier. And I think having a few athletes do well has helped as well. And the sport has boomed a lot recently. I mean, I noticed it in the States, the UK, all over, the sport is definitely more popular than it used to be because no one had a clue who guys like me were 10 years ago like more

people know me now since i've stopped competing yeah but it's um you know some people don't even know that i used to do strong you're the guy that does the commentating for the strong man which is always funny but yeah it's it's definitely growing and the giants live team have done a huge you know they're they're a huge part of that i think social media is a huge part of that so guys like thor doing well eddie hall doing well brian shaw etc they've all really helped and now i think crossfit's helped as well a lot because crossfit allows people to try strength training and suddenly think, OK, I don't like all the fitness side of stuff, but I like the strength stuff. Oh, look, there's heavy CrossFit. I'll go do strongman.

So that's definitely helped. It's got more people having a barbell in their hand and realizing that they like lifting. And then you kind of transition from CrossFit over to strongman. So that's helped. And then you kind of transition from CrossFit over to Strongman. So that's helped. I mean, when I started, you had maybe two women that competed in the UK, Britain's Strongest Woman. Now you've got competitions every weekend that have women's classes and they're full. And, you know, it's great to see that growth across the board in terms of weight classes, gender, you know, age groups, etc.

There's a lot more people lifting, doing strongman on a weekly basis. And that's helping the sport grow as well. Yeah. We've talked about all your, uh, you know, that you've done a lot of international competitions over your career and no doubt, uh, I don't know which world's strongest man brought you aware, but no doubt you came to the United States quite a bit, uh, for competition over the years. What, uh, What would you say was your least favorite part when you have to travel over here, coming to the United States? Anything that sticks out to you that you really dislike or that makes it a pain when you were coming here? I love coming to the States, but I hate coming to JFK because it takes hours to get through

the airport. That's always a pain. But I genuinely love being in the States. I guess the worst Worlds for me was actually 2011 in, I think it was North Carolina, because we were in a university. And just between events, we were just led on the floor in the cafeteria and stuff like that. So in terms of World's Strongest Man experiences, that wasn't the best. But I genuinely love coming to the States. in the cafeteria and stuff like that so in terms of you know world's strongest man experiences that wasn't the best but i genuinely love coming to the states i was in texas last year for the road

well last two years for the rogue invitational love coming to texas um always love going to the arnolds uh been to florida um nevada california um or plenty more places as well. Where was I just? West Virginia, South Carolina, all over. And I want to come and travel more in the States. But yeah, if I can avoid JFK Airport, that would be good. You can come visit us in South Dakota and check that one off of your list. Yeah.

We always like to ask people food questions. When you come to the states is there any like go-to food that you know oh i'm in america i gotta make sure i get this like you guys probably saw i was trying to lose 100 pounds over the last few years and i successfully did that but every trip to america set me back because the food in the states is amazing uh i always have fun when i'm out there you know going to texas you've got to go and get barbecue um southern food when we're in kind of um south carolina and places like that is amazing uh i i love food and it's probably why i turned to strong

man in the first place it's like oh i can eat more doing this than the average person and people will still call me an athlete of some sort anyway um but yeah you know i i i swear if i lived in the states i'd be 400 pounds uh bobby we talked to bobby about thompson about when we were going to have you on the podcast this week and i asked him just anything that he he thought of that we need to make sure to ask and he actually brought up that that you're eating when you're in the States. And he said, to quote him, he said, he tends to eat like a fat kid in a cake shop when he's here. It's an accurate description.

That's good. Okay. How about us Americans? Any words that you pick out that we either spell wrong or pronounce wrong for the King's English? Mirror. Mirror. Mirror. Mirror. Yeah, it's like M-E-E-R. Mirror. Mirror. Mirror. Mirror. Yeah, it's like M-E-E-R.

Mirror. My wife's coming here. You can also. I don't know. Squirrel. Squirrel. Do they say squirrel? Yes.

Okay. What word? Squirrel. Like the animal? Yeah. Oh, squirrel. Squirrel. Like S-Q-I-R-L.

No, he says harbro. Yeah, he's like Harbro But it's Harry I noticed you had typed, it was an Instagram caption and it must have been wait and you said tons and I thought why has he got all those extra letters in the word tons

Yeah They remove letters, they always remove the U. You just like to simplify. Yeah, U's are out of everything. I love it because you guys actually speak English. You don't speak American. You speak English, but you tell us we're doing it wrong. Yeah.

That's a pretty American way of approaching that. I have a really bad habit though of trying to sort of just blend in wherever I go and it drives my wife nuts. If I'm in Eastern Europe talking to people I start talking in broken English.

With an accent. Yeah, with a slight accent as well. I just adapt to the environment that I'm in. My favorite is when I hear British, something like Pa O'Dwyer, funny character, he can do a pretty good Kaz impersonation. I love hearing a British person doing an American accent,

and I'm like, oh, it sounds so funny. It's like their accent went away. It's just a funny thought to me. He can do a pretty good Bill Kazmaier though. He's got some good impressions. He's not very good at me and Liz though. He's tried to do it. He's not so good.

He is good at some people. So he's got some work to do still. When you, when you were competing, who did you like competing against the best? Oh, well, I was lucky to compete against so many great athletes. I don't know if I liked competing against them or not. I was in the area as a Drunas and Brian Shaw.

Those guys caught me in a lot of first places. Maybe it would have been a little nicer if they wouldn't have been there every year. Yeah, that would be good. I always loved competing against. It didn't matter who I was competing against because it was always competing against myself. I know that sounds like I'm just saying the right thing, but it was honestly my approach

because I remember my first World's Strongest Man had Mariusz Pudzianowski next to me. He was like dominant champion at the time. And you've got two options. You kind of look across and you've got two options you can look across and you think oh my god that's Mariusz Pudzianowski and then suddenly your head's fucked or you focus on your lane and do what you're there to do and the first event was loading and we ended up on a photo finish and I was like I literally just turned my back to him focused on the implements that I

had to do and I almost beat the world's strongest man on my first ever event at Worlds. I went on and beat him at the squat, which was a couple of events in. Whereas if I just looked over and thought, that's Mariusz Pudzianowski, let that thought process get into my head, I'd probably underperform and just be like a tourist. And you see it sometimes. You do see guys, they're just happy to get

to world's strongest man or be in an international competition. And that's their goal. That was never my goal. I wanted to be the best. So it was, was okay focus on you being better than last time and I was very good at never letting kind of like mind games get to me it was always trying to focus on what you can do because this is good advice for anyone coming through because we all do we'll all sit there and go that guy's in my group or that guy's in this comp he's really good at this or she's really

good at that. But we all have, we're all humans and we all have days where we just don't perform as well as we can. You have an argument with the missus the night before, your child's sick, you've got things going on in your personal life, whatever it might be. Everyone has these issues that go on. And you as an athlete don't know that about your opposition. You just think in terms of yourself. So you think if you've had a bad day, but they've had a perfect day, you don't know that about your opposition you just think in terms of yourself so you think if you've had a bad day but they've had a perfect day you don't know that so I try and just focus on preparing myself as well as I can get into the competition and then it's focused on one event at

a time once that event's done move on to the next one and then after the competition I'll evaluate everything and look at things that I can do better and improve for next time and I use that same philosophy now with coaching as well but it helped me a lot because I don't think I was the most talented athlete in the world, but I was technically quite good. I knew how to get the most out of myself and peak for competitions. And I probably overachieved in terms of what I won. And I think that's why it helps me now coaching because I'm not just some six foot ten freak of nature with incredible genetics I had to kind of really work hard to get the the wins that I did and you know I ended up having eight international wins in my career won multiple British titles European titles world titles broke

world records um and I don't think I'm the most talented guy in the world I'm not you know I've got good genetics a strong man don't get me wrong But there's guys I see that are like way more gifted than I am, but maybe not as prepared to push themselves as hard or not as kind of smart in terms of competition or mentally weak as well. Cause being mentally strong is hugely important to win contests, no matter what sport it is. Yeah. It's interesting. You know, the, the longevity of your strong man career when you, it's interesting, you know, the longevity of your strongman career when you're competing and also, you know, the success you had winning, you know, talked about the eight international titles,

winning Europe's Strongest Man, all of that, having a lot of success. But it's funny, now would you think you're kind of maybe having more success as a strongman coach and as a commentator because you even talked about how someone might even not know that you competed and you kind of have become you know the foremost uh producer of of strongman you know commentary content that's the voice of the sport right right so you're kind of more successful now than the sport you know paid in the ass that they couldn't get rid of uh yeah no it's true like uh like i said at the start i get recognized more now for what i do

than i did ever as an athlete which is nice because it's allowed me a different area to go into I think often as athletes when it comes to that end of your career it is quite a sad kind of time and you know if you can't find something else to do a lot of athletes end up turning their back on the sport or kind of you know going down quite a bad path mentally especially things that we've we've invested so much of our time and life into, if you feel like it hasn't rewarded you or you don't enjoy it, it can be like a bitter pill to swallow. And it's, you know, it's been so nice that I don't need to compete anymore and I can still stay heavily involved in a sport I absolutely love. And, you know, I'm very lucky to do what we do.

Liz and myself really enjoy doing the YouTube stuff. I've been so lucky to work with so many great promotions now, doing the commentating and analyst stuff. And obviously with the coaching as well, I feel like I'm so heavily involved in the sport. I've got a bigger following now than I ever did as an athlete. So it's nice to have that and think, okay, there is life after competition. And now I'm thinking of doing like a master's comp this year,

but it's just for fun now. I don't have to put that pressure on myself and think, oh, I've got to win or, you know, I've got to do it as a pro, I guess is the right word to use. I can just pick and choose shows. I can do it for fun. I don't need to kind of go down the route that I would if I was trying to do it to make money and stuff like that so it's nice I can I can train with my athletes I can push them a couple of guys

that my regular training partners one of them have been training since he was 15 and I believe he will get to world's strongest man one day and for me that will be a huge achievement to train someone from complete start to get to world's strongest man that will be huge and i i genuinely believe he will get there in the next few years so me training at the moment just gives him that kick up the butt that he needs because he's very talented very strong um but when i was kind of trying to just lose weight and not doing any strongman he was getting a bit lazy because he was the the big dog in the gym whereas now i can push him and it makes him work that little bit harder so that's that's always fun just staying strong to push some of my athletes is nice.

Yeah, that's cool. Big Laws, we've got this game we play with each guest we have on the podcast. It's called Underrated, Overrated. And all it is, is we got a little handpicks set of Big Laws topics for you. And you just have to decide if each one is either underrated or overrated. topics for you and you just have to decide if each one is either underrated or overrated. The important thing you have to remember is you can't ride the line. You have to, you have to have the definitive answer on each. We have to, we have to pin you down on each one. You're going to kill me on these. You might find you get a kick out of them as a matter of fact. So overrated or underrated table tennis?

The sport or me at table tennis? The sport, I guess, maybe we'll go with. It's underrated. And then what about you? How good are you at table tennis? These days, probably overrated. But am I right that you have a coaching like a coaching history or in table tennis? Yeah. I used to coach for the national junior squad and I was an okay, like county level player,

like a regional level. Okay. Okay. Never anything special, but I was like most things, a better coach. Was that something you picked up at a young age or how did you get into table tennis?

I got into it about 15 at school secondary school um just they there was a club in the school and i i signed up and then i got into that and then i i worked for one of the biggest table tennis clubs in the the country at the time coaching all over the country so if you're pretty into table tennis is the term is the name ping pong frowned upon. Yeah. Table tennis players don't like ping pong, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I think now since I've,

I've trained, you know, it's probably been 20 years since I've played. And now I think with the muscle mass that I have, I'd struggle to keep up with endurance. So do you keep up with the sport to this day? Like if you see it on, like in the Olympics,

are you like, Oh, I got to make sure I watch that. Occasionally, if it's like on at the olympics and stuff like that i might watch a little bit and i'm still friends with a few guys that were involved in the sport on like facebook and stuff so i see little snippets of things that come up um some of the top british players i know reasonably well because my younger brother was a top national level player as a junior so i used to coach him and we kind of traveled around the country with some of those players so i know some

of them but um i don't follow it like i used to or like i follow some other sports these days okay all right next one overrated or underrated and if your wife's still in the room with you she might have an opinion on this also but underrated or overrated working with your wife? Yeah, underrated. We work well together because we have different strengths. You can put your headphones on and tell us your real answer if you need to. I might have to.

I might get her headphones on. I feel like I have to say that right now, but even if she wasn't here i would say yeah well it seems like it works really well what you guys do that you've got uh you've got that down really well yeah she gets a bit annoyed with some of my ideas at times but um all the best ideas are mine i've got to say so yeah she's the one that implements the idea see that's the problem if it was left to me, it would be terrible. The videos would be crap and there'd be no quality to them.

But she's good at that side of things. That's cool. Overrated or underrated King Charles? Overrated. You won't get kicked out if you say that or anything i'm sort of in that neutral area where i don't really care but you know it's nice when you see positive things like the country coming together this weekend and stuff like that but i think some people waste their life kind of following the royals and stuff like that and you know for me i just rather get on with my own stuff

the thing that always blows my mind is the American culture wanting to follow the royal family. I don't get that part at all. I can get it if it's your country following it, but Americans that love it, that one always blows my mind. There are people that are so passionate about it as well, including family members of mine. When it comes to me, I'm just so focused on what i enjoy and what i like i live in a bubble and i try and remove everything else away from my bubble i'm happy in my bubble once i kind of go beyond that there's too many things that try and bring you down or just waste your energy so i'm happy in my bubble and you know i keep everything else out of it i think that's a

pretty good philosophy and some people could be better off to approach it that way. Yeah, yes. It definitely is. It keeps me happier. Sometimes knowing too much is not a good thing. Yeah. Last topic on overrated, underrated, and the last one's usually worth all the marbles. So overrated or underrated, deal or no deal?

Oh, deal or no deal is definitely underrated that that was um that was a great show so for anyone that doesn't know you were on deal or no deal correct that is correct yeah so what is was it uh how long ago was this that you were on the show? How long have we been together? 11 years? About 13 years ago. Okay. About 12 years ago, I guess. Yeah. It's a while ago.

So did you win? Like, how did the show go? I won £20,000. Okay. Which is cool. I got the most I could out of my game. And then I bought a house with my ex and now she has their house and i said bye bye to my deposit but just no such thing as a free lunch at least you have the fun memories of the show still nobody can take that from you i think

someone actually put it up on the on youtube, so it can be seen on YouTube. Because I haven't seen it for years, but I think if you search for it, you can find it. Because you picked the host up after you went, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's fun. How did you get on? What was that process? I applied as a normal person back then.

It wasn't like, yeah, we're doing the Strongman week and we're getting all the... No, it was literally, I'm trying to push Strongman and become as good as I can be at Strongman. What can I do to avoid putting off the job for as long as possible? I can probably do this game. It seems pretty simple. You just have to stand there and say yes or no to an offer. I went and applied to get on the show and they liked me and i got the call up it took about six months i guess from the process of originally applying to get on and then being on the show but um yeah it was cool it was worth it it got me

another year of training for strongman yeah okay that that wraps up the overrated underrated game good news you passed you did uh you did very well and as we're just i thought they might be yeah no we we everyone thinks we're gonna try to get them like a gotcha thing like yeah and we never do that but that as we were talking there just reminded me of something else that i saw talking about the TV show Deal No Deal reminded me of it. But what is that thing that I know you and Z both did it before? And I just saw a meme of it this week. And you probably know what I'm talking about already. There was a Strongman Champions League competition in China.

And China like to do things a little bit differently. competition in China and China like to do things a little bit different so there's actually a picture of there's me Z Thor Krzysztof Radzikowski a couple of other guys dressed as these I don't know what the hell we were supposed to be face warriors or something I think they're ridiculous costumes yeah absolutely crazy and that's the picture of me and z we were at some kind of it wasn't even at the competition it was like a pre-show i don't know kind of like opening or something like that and they said oh you just have to put these on for five minutes we need to do some photos just for the sponsors blah blah blah the way they do me and zedronis were stood in those things for about two hours just doing nothing and then there's that picture you can just see on our faces how happy we are you know I've been to China four times for

competitions it is the worst place to go for competitions they just do things differently out there um and back then you know there was nothing else to compare to there was no giants life putting on great shows in arenas and stuff like that where athletes were being looked after nicely. You just kind of took the opportunities that you got. Right. Yeah, me and Zee and some of the other guys have got some interesting stories to tell you about China.

I can believe that. I try and laugh about it. You know, you can't kind of be too serious. I think Zydrunas probably gets really annoyed when he sees me re-tag. People tag me in it all the time. I'm just like, okay, I'll stop. I can laugh at it. The meme, you know, that I saw this week, it's a picture of Leonidas from 300.

And it's like what you think you're going to look like when you dress up as a warrior and then what you actually look like. warrior than what you actually look like uh yeah at the time you had to put that on and thought i would like to not be wearing this yeah that was one there was another costume they made us wear as well one year slightly better than that one but not a lot okay uh yeah so you did pass overrated underrated that's great and uh i guess i just also ask you you know do you take uh uh athlete clients currently still like if someone wants uh you you they're like i would love big laws to be my coach how do i find out more about that what what do they do what's the process there just um head over to my website laurence chatelay.co.uk and um there's a section on there that goes into coaching i do offer sort of just generic training programs for people if they want like a much

cheaper option um otherwise the one-to-one training is on there and if you get signed up i'll normally have you up and underway within a week um but i'll reply as quick as possible um but yeah always taking on new clients at the moment. Anyway, there might become a point where I have just put my prices up, which, you know, now being a World's Strongest Man coach. It garners a premium. Yeah, yeah. The coach of the World's Strongest Man, the World Disabled's Strongest Man,

one of the strongest women on the planet as well. So America's Strongest Man. There's a good list of – there's a lot of kind of good athletes i'm coaching right now but three athletes have just qualified for the shore classic five that were qualified for osg europe's so it's a it's becoming a good team team laws is a good team to be on and i'm expanding the business as well i've actually just taken on a nutritionist so we're offering nutrition as well as coaching now through the site that's cool and then your ut it'd be weird to me if someone's listening to this they're a big strong man fan and they don't follow you on youtube already but what is uh what is your youtube

channel name you guys head over to big laws official and you'll get weekly bit well almost daily videos at certain points but we normally a minimum of three videos per week sometimes one every day um auntie liz puts a hell of a lot of work into that uh obviously it's a mixture of things that we have on there from reports of competitions that are going on interviews with leading people in the sport um sort of history type videos top tens etc anything that strongman fans are into we put loads of cool content on there and always appreciate any of the support that you guys give us. So if you're not a subscriber, get on over and

press that button. Yeah, my pitch on that is it has become the best Strongman content on YouTube. We talked about it before, but you're doing it better than anyone else is and you've become the voice you both have. So that's pretty cool. Thank you guys appreciate that uh we appreciate uh you taking some time and coming on uh you'll

be probably going to bed not too long and we got to eat lunch so yeah i've got a few hours of work to do get back to coaching but um it's great to chat to you guys and um take care i'll speak to you soon thanks big laws Big Laws. Thanks a lot, Laws. Cheers, guys. All right, Tanner. You gave Big Laws the ass. Gave him, he's British. What do they do? Beans on toast?

Isn't that what? Yeah, you gave him cool beans on toast. Yeah. Guys, customary. You know, we're accommodating hosts over here. Yeah. That was a lot of big losses. As to no surprise, a really good guest. Yes.

You know, we talked about this ahead of time that he's probably going to have really good answers to everything. And he is one of those guests that yeah you give him a couple questions and then all of a sudden the interview's done uh yeah like and you know that someone that creates content like he does and that's going to be the case but boy you can really tell when you're interviewing someone and they're just like yeah i do this for a living basically right talk in front of a camera right yep they're always really well really well he is really interesting though too a lot of cool stuff oh yeah well just as long as he's been around you know to have that much time in the sport there's so many people that yeah i got really into strongman for a little bit

or five years yes or i knew a guy that did it for a little bit but like to be involved as long as he has at the different levels from an athlete and coaching and even if you want to say a media perspective with commentary and all that. It's yeah, he has a lot of perspective on the sport. Yes. What are we at on ads? Do we need to read an ad? We probably should. I'd hate to disappoint any of our advertisers.

And our fans that just love the ads every week. Most importantly, though, we do the ads for the fans. We do the ads every week most importantly though we do the ads for the fans we do the ads for the fans right yes the ads are for you we know for a long time the podcast didn't have ads and then people said give us ads we want i think the no ads is what held us back for years it wasn't until we did the ads the numbers the numbers with the ads are bigger than they were without ads so i don't think there's any coincidence there. That's exactly right. With that being said, today's episode is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Buddy Caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s

and began powerlifting in the mid-70s. At the time, he was working for Image Barbell, building gym equipment. Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them, calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them, calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. In 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a greater mission. Buddy set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with,

and the Texas Power Bar was born. It was strong as a house with the best knurling and was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, and world powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit texaspowerbars.com. Hell yeah. Mirror.

Mirror. I do remember I was really into the TV show Black Mirror. Did you ever watch that, Tanner? I didn't watch it, but I know it's good. Very good. I have not seen it. It is, I think pretty much all of them were shot, mostly like in the UK or England,

but I think the producers that made it and everything, I think they're all out of the UK. And I liked it so much, I even, I was in Target one day and I saw a Black Mirror behind the scenes book. And I think in one of the first few pages, they even comment, the thing they could not get over is how in Americaica they call it

black mirror and everywhere else it's black mirror and uh again the pronunciation thing black mirror just sounds funny it does sound funny to me okay and we know when something sounds funny don't we? It takes one to know one. We are the guys to know. Yes, that's absolutely right. We know because we know. We say enough things funny ourselves that we can pick it out. We live that life. Yeah.

Okay, did we want to talk about Drink Spotter Prototype? We alluded to that story earlier. We could come back to that. Probably should. Probably should. I hate to just give lead people on and never give them an answer you know you don't think there's any chance we already did tell the story though do you i don't well there's definitely a chance we already told

the story for sure at least a 50 50 chance we've told this there's probably actually a 75 chance we've told this story but let's pretend we haven't told this story already. Yeah, part of me thinks if we've told it, we can tell the abridged version, but if we haven't, we can tell the hour-long version right now. We can just strap in. The story that is actually longer than the events that took place. Exactly. So it was when we first arrived at our hotel in Columbus for the Arnold this year.

We had the prototype, kind of the final test run of Drink Spotters being shipped directly to us because that's how tight the timeline was. And it was like overnighted or two days to the hotel. There wasn't enough time to get them shipped to South Dakota and then bring them with us on that two-day trip. They weren't ready yet, so they're shipping directly to the hotel and we'd confirm from where they'd sent from that they're there. You know, they said, yeah, here's tracking. It shows they're there.

It shows that are delivered. It shows they're at the hotel under your name. And then we get there and in true hotel fashion, some of the people are so unhelpful like that. Not all of them. Not even unhelpful. They're almost malicious in the way that they try to not be helpful it's like great another customer it's like you work at the front desk like that's isn't that all you do you're here to check in yeah great another one like yeah let me see if your room's ready you know i'm like oh you're the

hundredth one today yeah i'm like that's what your job is isn't it like or am i missing something here but uh we said yeah we think we have this package here's our name here's our room number and and the first part was before we even did this next to the desk there was probably 50 boxes piled up and it's just like oh yeah it's we're thinking it's definitely got to be in that pile right there right right and like it was of it looked like of people that were doing the exact same thing in my mind went to it's probably also people here vendors at the arnold that's what i assume too it's like oh yeah everyone's doing the same thing as us. Right. Right. And,

um, she like, I can't think of the word I'd use to describe like, but it's like, I couldn't possibly have imagined someone putting in less effort into finding our package than what she was going to do. Like she couldn't have gave a shit less. Cause yeah. And you started,

you said, Hey, yeah. And we also have a package. And she asked, well, what's the name? And yeah,

Tanner Baird and it's for massonomics. And she goes and shipped to this hotel. And we're like, yeah, shipped here. Yeah. And we go, is it one of these right here?

And she goes, no, no, that's not it. That's not those that would be in the back room. It's like, Oh, okay.

Whatever. So she was skeptical at that point too, because I'm like, are you sure it's not one of these? Like, how are you sure these all have like different labels on them it could be one of these yes so she goes to the back room and she was there for maybe a minute or two right maybe a minute maybe maybe a minute a minute it's a long time if you're actually sitting there waiting yeah and she

came back and like at this point we're like oh really it's like she's not finding so she comes out she's like no it's not there and like that was it like it was point, we're like, oh, really? It's like, is she not finding it? So she comes out and she's like, no, it's not there. And like that was it. It was also definitive. And just like, no, sorry, it's not there. Yeah, it was done. Yeah, she's like walking away like, oh, sorry, like you're shit out of luck. And not only, it was just like, yeah, it's not there. And then the next customer was there and she's like, oh, I need to help this guy check in.

So we're just like on our own. And we're kind of standing there like, uh, that doesn't seem right. You know, like. So then we're pulling up the tracking information. We're looking through it. We can see it actually made it the day before. It was signed by a guy. So we wait our turn again for the guy that's checking in to be done.

And we go, oh, here, it says so-and-so signed it. She goes, that guy doesn't work here. Immediately, oh, that person does't work here immediately oh that person like without hesitation yeah just like she knows every the entire directory of employees yeah just like no that guy that guy does not work here so i don't know what that is it's like well it says it was delivered to this location yeah like that's kind of a hard i mean a guy that just lost a package but that's kind of a hard one i think to fake for a hotel to say this was delivered or for fedex to say this was delivered to this location and then actually have it not be there but so then again we're kind of like going back to each other and be like well what the hell what the hell

and then finally i think you go and ask her a third time now right yeah that was when she asked the girl another lady finally like her the other lady almost was like eavesdropping and almost picking up on it. And like she kind of like. Yeah. And I think she heard the name. Out of kindness. Yeah. Yeah. And I think she heard the name. She's like, oh yeah, he works here. So they already were like, okay, this is the story's falling apart. Yeah. And

then she goes, I'll go check in the back room for you guys. And the door opened and the door. And she turned around back out. The door didn't even get a chance to close. It had to have been... It almost was like if you opened a door and there was a package right in front of your face that said her name on it. That's like how long it took.

She came out and she goes, oh, it was the first one that was sitting there. And she said that to us also semi to the other woman. The other woman not so much as an acknowledgement of what she just did. You never even knew that she was a part of this conversation in any way.

Not even like a, Oh, sorry. Like just even not even a half ass. Sorry. No, just like no acknowledgement that, that I wanted to be existed at that point.

Hmm. Like if I was there, I'd have been like, Oh man, I miss that been like, oh man, I missed that. You know, how did I miss it? Like at least make a scene about like,

I looked everywhere. How could it have not been there? So we got our package and sure enough, the drink spotters were inside. And the rest, as they say, is drink spotter history. The world's been a little safer ever since.

Amen to that. Buy yourself a drink spotter at massanomics.com. The Drink Spotter Lite has a 40-pound rare earth magnet on it. It's made from aluminum, aircraft-grade aluminum, so you know it's strong. Aluminium, maybe, if you're in the UK. Actually, when we cut the Drink Spotter or promo video there was a number of people that i'm pretty sure they are competent commenting that i say aluminum funny do i say aluminum funny

that's how i would say aluminum and my only thought was like people that say say it again like how do you yeah and i'm like i don't think people pronounce it that way do they or you'd have to be overseas to say that. I'd otherwise think you're crazy. And maybe it was just international people that were commenting that I was saying it odd. But I'm like, yeah, I say a lot of words funny. I didn't think aluminum was one of them.

So that's why I'm rethinking. Then I'm like, is this something I've been saying wrong my entire life? That one does not pop up on my radar at all as you being incorrect. So if I think you're right, you must be right then. Well, it's got to be two guys that grew up in the almost identical geographic region. If we both confer that it's correct, it must be correct. There's no way we could be wrong at this point. No, we have a pretty wide, diverse background between the two of us.

So there's just nothing we're missing. A couple of Caucasian guys of almost the exact same age that grew up in almost the exact same place. In rural South Dakota, yep. We have a pretty broad perspective on the world. So yeah, we know what's up. Yes, if we agree, then it has to be everyone else that is wrong. They call us the odd couple. How did those two guys start a podcast together?

What a weird two-pairing. What a zany pair. They should make a TV show about those guys. They're just so wacky. One of them's 36 from South Dakota, white with long hair, and the other one's 34. It's like there's an old one and a young one.

One has lighter colored longer hair and it's curly. That's us, the odd couple. Okay. Oh, the odd couple. Okay. Oh, good stuff there. Is that about, are we bringing this one in for a landing? Do we want to give the book update or do we save that for next week? Well, I'm kind of interested.

I want to know what this book update is. I don't know if I can wait a week. The book update's been hanging over us for quite a while, hasn't it? It has been, actually, to the point where we deleted an old book update out just to add a new book update in. It's actually a different book. I think it was maybe like three weeks ago or something on the podcast. I said I've got some books I want to read, so I'm going to provide book reports when I finish. Well, I haven't finished them all.

Completed one, I'm halfway through the next, and then the third one is still sitting on the shelf yet to be read and you might be asking what books is it that tanner's reading austin powers this sort of thing is my bag baby no it's just the transcripted uh scripts of the three Austin Powers movies. A screenplay. Of all three. That would be funny. And then read the Highlander screenplay afterwards. Mini-me walks into room. Fat bastard. Get in my belly. That part really got me. It was even better

on the screenplay. Better when i read it in my in my head as fat bastard uh no so the books and uh the i guess the the backstory is i've been listening to quite a bit of uh lex friedman you had you had told me that i believe in private i'm not sure that's been brought up on the podcast yeah i, I don't know if I did bring that up. And then because I listen to quite a bit of Lex Friedman, I'm hearing a lot of AI talk, chat, GBT talk, stuff like that. And the amount of times that guy referenced a couple of books that I'm like, I get the references to those books. Everyone's aware of them.

But I'm like, have I actually read them? Maybe in high school they said i had to and i read cliff notes enough to uh in high school this is a great point a sub tangent to this whole thing is they should just quit even trying to make you read some of these books in high school because none of it has any you can't when you have no life experience you can't read books like this and take anything from it i get you can't when you have no life experience you can't read books like this and take anything from it i get what he meant when he wrote that it's like no you're like i have done haven't done shit so of course i memorized what he meant when he wrote that and uh right yeah like oh animal farm yeah i i get uh yeah communism's bad right and you're like

said so you're like i don't care i'm hungry i want to go play a video game uh it's like i did bad at practice yeah it's like i live in a capitalistic society and let's be honest i barely get what that is i just want my freaking xbox okay is that what that means okay so the books i was reading we touched on one uh brave new world by aldous huxley yep uh 1984 yep and then animal farm or the three ahead of my list you know and a couple Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Yep. 1984. Yep. And then Animal Farm are the three I had on my list. A couple of George Orwell in there. Yeah, Orwell is 1984 and Animal Farm.

So the first one I read, because I actually have, I had Brave New World and 1984, because my wife has a whole bunch of books, and so we had both of these on a bookshelf, and I'm like, oh. I actually went to the library in my house the day that I thought like. Just sitting there. And I'm like, oh, we have these books even, you know?

So I read Brave New World first. And now I didn't get asked to read that in high school, nor did we really talk about that in high school. But some people do. We didn't read that one either. Is that the what the the uh catch 22 or no is that actually just catch 22 no there's nothing catch 22 i don't think unless i completely missed up it's it's very can people mention it in the same breath a lot of times as 1984 yeah because it is uh this uh alternate future um uh dystopian society, I guess.

It has a lot of comparison. It was also written at a very similar time to 1984. It was kind of a funny coincidence. It's very different takes on it. Different takes on these future governing bodies that have ultimate control and all this stuff. But that was a really good book. Brave New World was good. I am glad that I read that,

and now I get the references of people talk about Brave New World. Now not do I say, yes, I kind of know generally what Brave New World is about. I get it. I've read it. Now when you talk about the savages, I'm like, yeah, I read it now and you talk about the savages i'm like yeah i get what you're talking about the savages and stuff like that i'm halfway through 1984 right now okay that's the orwell book and i read that like it's funny i probably oh no no no i just bought that book late i was thinking i bought it in high school i don't think i bought it in high school but i just read that one like three years ago it's a

pretty quick read actually you know you can you can fly through that book yes it is good that was one another one as far as the references go once you read it like damn the number of things in here that are just part of cotwell now especially in the last couple years everybody that has a bone to pick with the government just uh bends 1984 to support their side of their argument but the way that the terms of that book get thrown around now are almost hilarious it is kind of funny how those books were written in like the 30s and 40s and how there is still stuff that's like yeah i guess you know whatever there's references here that can be

applied isn't there rage against i read something i think it was in night was it in 1984 brave new world now though that is a rage against the machine lyric that i'm like i never knew that that was uh yes okay i was i'm glad you said that because i was actually thinking it's the future uh you can't protect the past uh yeah whatever those who control those control yeah those control the future control yes yes i remember reading that line 84 i remember reading that line 84 because that's a big part of the book yes i remember reading that line and being like why does my brain like read that line in a rhythm and i had to read it like five times and i could not get it out of my head and then i had

to google it and be like ah yes rage against the machine here we go yeah that's what it is yeah who controls the past controls the future who can yeah yeah yeah so that is rage against the machine from 1984 um then the last one i'm going to read is animal farm and i haven't started that one yet did you guys read that one in high school or not that one we definitely were supposed to read in high school but all these books that we were supposed to read in high school i did not read them i read cliff notes is cliff notes still a thing i assume it's a thing, but I don't know. But also now YouTube exists.

So that's probably even better than Cliff Notes. Probably way better. You just probably watch a 15 minute video and then you know all the high points anyways. Yeah. And then you don't even have to read anything. You don't even have to read an abridged version of. All right. This is because these tests have existed since these books have were written.

Like they want to know what was the point of this part? What was the point of this part? It was. Yeah. But that's my point since these books have were written like they want to know what was the point of this part what was the point of this part it was yeah but that's my point about these books yeah now that I'm in my 30s I enjoy these books and I can take things and be like huh it's crazy I get the comparison or it's like oh that is a lot like this or this you know like I can

see how that is there's still some application to this thought process or stuff like that. And in high school, I'm like, I do not give a shit. And like, who are the people that do?

Well, I actually, okay. So I was, I, I love to read in high school. I would. Yeah.

And if you love to, you would have to have loved to read. And I did. And even then I do remember though, cause isn't animal farm farm isn't it all like an allegory for like isn't like the Bolshevik revolution in Russia or something see I haven't read it so you're quizzing me on the wrong book right now see that's what I brave new world quiz or a first half of 1984 I can I know that's what animal farm is like the pigs are the yes because

the pigs are supposed to represent the proletariat. These guys are the... And at the time, I remember thinking, I don't even know anything. We haven't covered Russian history yet. And understanding this is a huge part of even getting how this whole thing goes. Right, right. Yeah, yeah.

It's all about, yeah. Animal Farm reflects the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, which even now... I shouldn't say even now, when you're in high school, an actual revolution is like a pretty big concept. Like everyone gets the concept of like, oh, yeah, these guys were bad. So we took them out. But actually understanding what leads up to that is a pretty heavy. There's a huge backstory.

And it's like, how far back do you go? Because it doesn't just start one day and people go, we need a revolution. And yeah, there's a lot of just history to know to really get the most out of that book, I think. Yes. Like even now, if I read it, there would be a lot of stuff that I'm like, I probably, I even do this as I read anything now,

like I'll read stuff and at the end of the night, I'm like, I have to Google a couple things just to make sure I fully, like, what is it that I'm talking, you know, like, what does this mean what is this mean and you know like and then i'll google and be like ah i'm glad i googled that because i was not actually fully understanding what uh that is what you got to give the one thing a good teacher in high school if you had them was pretty good and being like okay you need to understand that when they're saying this this is what they're getting at but that was always uh i cared so little i mean and i got like straight a's but i just was great at oh that just shows like how actually like people want to talk about how high school's a joke but maybe this does support the point but also you if you just understood how to take classes

in high school man you didn't have to put and i was i was basically a straight a student too so i didn't have to put much effort in either but but it's because I loved, oh, it's story time. Yeah. You can sit and tell a story. And my fricking, my attention span is like zeroed in. I won't. Yeah. You got history, uh, like books and, um, biology, stuff like that.

You tell me something, tell me to remember it. My brain goes. And I was like, just, I was in the zone in high school. I love that stuff. But my one other note i'm sure i've said this before over the years but i really like reading a i like the paper holding the book yeah i like to have the book have you tried have you ever actually tried an e-reader before my wife actually i have a really crazy piece of trivia my wife related to reading that i actually

i'm surprised i've never have i ever brought anything up about this on the show no i don't even know if like mary like i know going to your house you guys have a lot of books and i don't know if that was because she liked to read a lot or if it was more of a decorative thing no she likes to it's both but she likes to read yeah so my my wife and my mom both have every version of every kind of you know the nooks and all that stuff my wife actually uses her phone a lot and that is crazy to me that's yeah yeah so but i love i just there's something so satisfying to me though when i'm reading like i just like in through the pages yeah that's right like it's just an accomplishment thing for me where then i set read the whole book, put it back on the shelf and be like, point to it and like, yep, I read that one.

I did it. You know, I did that. My thought, my thing on that though, for the, so because my wife does so many of those, you know, she reads them through like, I don't know what the programs are. I don't know what the programs are. It was like Kindle or Kindle or not audible. That's audio books, but yeah, I don't know whatever they are, but it records your reading history. Oh,

you know, at the end of the year, you can see like what you did. Uh-huh. You won't guess correctly. You won't guess enough. I probably, even with me saying that you still aren't going to guess enough, but for the,

for 2022, guess how many books my wife read? Books she read? Yeah. In 2022. See, to me, one a week seems like too many. But you're also saying she read a lot. So one a week is a lot if she's not reading children's picture books.

Okay, I'll say 60. Did she read 60? Over 400. No, how? How? Over a book a day because she's reading all the, she doesn't watch TV. Oh my God. Yeah, she doesn't like TV shows or movies.

I thought for sure when I said 60, you'd be like, well, one a week was actually a better guess. No, over 400. And that doesn't count Audible books, which she also listens to some. She mostly reads, but she does do some. But she also has a really weird reading style that I can't wrap my head around even. She'll be reading like five books at once. See, that's too. Like, could you even imagine doing more than one?

No, I don't even like having two different podcasts that I haven't finished at the same time. That bugs me. She'll be partly through multiple books. And then also a big difference in how she reads and I read. I am capable of reading quickly. I am incapable of reading quickly and comprehending. Like, for me to really soak in what I'm reading, I have to read slowly.

Yeah, I think that read slowly. Yeah. I think that's a trained thing too, though, because you know, we get so nowadays between, I'll just say like social media and the comment section lifestyle where a long, a long post is three paragraphs.

Right. And that's a lot to read. And then, and then if you want to read what people are saying about it, you just read a hundred different one-sentence comments. And like, oh yeah, I read a lot there. And it's like, yeah, you maybe read a little bit. You maybe read a paragraph's worth of words.

Right, because I did. It was, for me, about five years ago, I got really into reading for like six months because that was my thing. I was like, I'm going to read at least a book a month. And that was like when I was reading 1984 and uh you know several other books but um I remember when I first was like making myself get back into it because I loved reading when I was younger how many how often I would find myself having to go

back and reread pages or be like my brain started thinking about other things go back four pages and after like a couple months of that I do think it is a trained skill where I did notice like my reading speed was really picking up. Like there could be things going on around me. And I was, I was way better at like shutting them off. But like when I first started, I needed like absolute silence, zero distractions, the perfect environment. And then as time got, went on, I remember we went on vacation to Florida and it was like, Oh, we're in the airport. There's all this stuff going on. I can read. I read on the plane. I was like reading on the beat i was like kind of feeling like a real reader all of a sudden and like the environment did bug me and that was

probably peak reading for me in my 20s and then after that uh life hit me pretty hard and reading has really slowed down again my biggest problem on my reading is like now i always want like i'm wanting to finish like i'm getting going on the these books and then I want to finish and I'm just like oh it's 10 o'clock at night and I'm haven't had any I haven't watched a television show or anything either like I've literally not had time and now it's time and then I'll like I'll be like okay good I can read a little bit I'll read for 15 minutes I'll be like I am actually falling asleep like with the book in my hand 100% can't even you know I'm like I'm sleep reading even for me right, I'm usually so tired by the end of the day. Like the other day, a daughter had gone to bed. My wife was taking my son up to bed. It was like eight 30.

And I'm like, Oh, cause usually that's when I, once everyone's to bed, I usually take the dog for a walk around the block. And at that point I remember being like, Oh, I'm so tired. I'll decide if I'm gonna do this I'm gonna turn I'll turn on like one YouTube video and I remember it was a 10 minute video and I didn't get to the end of it and I woke up and it was 12 30 at night and I came to bed and the next day I told my wife that she goes no I woke you up you said you were coming and I'm like I don't even remember you talking to me I was just it was like 8 45 I passed out I was just so beat and that would be my that's my problem with reading right now is by the time I get to the

end of the day, I'm just so wrecked and reading is so relaxing. I know my preferred, my preferred position for reading is laying down too. And that would just, I'd be, I'd be knocked out. That's what I'd struggle with. Yeah. But I do, I do want to get more into reading. I wish I read more. And part of me thinks maybe I need to get an e-reader because when you have an e-reader, you can change the font size. You can do different things. It should be way more convenient. It's probably better for your eyes.

It's probably better. And it's, yes, it's way more convenient. Yeah. You can have it like, cause like, oh yeah, at night it's getting, cause I like the page to be nice and bright, you know? Right. I feel like I can read faster when it's brighter. Yeah.

Like my name copy of 1984 that I'm reading right now is probably like 50 years old. And you know, it's like, uh, yeah. Yeah. So that's why I always, I think maybe, and if I had another gadget, maybe just playing a game with my brain, like, Oh, here's another gadget you can hold. Right. Your brain would be like, Oh yeah, we're having fun again. And it's like, I bought this.

I know. Now I, I want to use it. Yeah. I can't, I can't waste to use it yeah i can't i can't waste it yeah i can't waste this money i have to read the damn thing so right haven't done it yet but maybe one of these days i will yeah i've to be fair i've never tried even though like to your original i've never tried because i so have you told what the page have you seen what the pages look like on an e-reader though never really paid attention even they they do look

surprisingly it's not like an ipad or a phone right it's like it's there's not like backlit yeah uh i mean you're like ones that are that i i don't know if it actually is a backlight but you can get ones that are lit yeah so you can see them but like it's i do know that it's weird like my son has one even where i'm like it's weird it's like the screen's like on all the time even like it has like because it uses like no yeah yeah the best ones do look in my opinion very very similar to a piece of paper yeah like if you were giving it a quick glance you'd have a hard time knowing if you were looking at paper or e-ink right um so yeah i don't know so that was the book report segment i i would say if I had to live in a dystopian future society, I would much choose Brave New World over 1984.

I was hoping you were going to say 1984 because I'm thinking, man, that one's pretty bleak. I'd hate to know what Brave New World is like then if that's what you're picking. No, I mean, still also horrific in different ways, if you think about it enough, but also at least I to just uh i'd be brainwashed into not knowing any different and ultimately thinking that it's all right so

yeah that's my thing that scares me more about 1984 it's always been the the you know the the warning for the future and all that yeah and to a lot of it's always been like, yeah, it's still sci-fi. But now with just the sheer amount of cameras and AI processing and all that that exists now. Well, it's the telescreens in your house. You're like, wait a second. Then you're like, oh, it's like Alexa. I mean, it's not Big Brother doing it. It's the giant corporations. It is, but it's all just like constant surveillance.

And it's like oh no every single person thinks i know there's people listening to this podcast and maybe you even have it too like the number of people that think they need ring cameras and not just we don't have one yeah you don't or you do we don't okay see and not even just ring cameras outside their house i'm surprised we don't you know i don't know why we don't but also it's like you live in aberdeen like right okay if someone steals like that's not really a problem with people stealing stuff off pat yeah i guess it can happen but that's one thing i can sort of get that but then you start to look at the number of people that start to have cameras in multiple rooms of of their house yeah and that's just like creepy

to me it's like that's playing into the whole thing of i do not well that is like 1984 in ways i don't like that i can't even do that like i don't know. Well, that is like 1984 in ways. I don't like that. I can't even do that. Like, I don't, I don't like, I love technology. I've literally spent my day in front of a computer all day long. Every day. I love tech stuff. I make websites like that is my job. I make websites. I like the internet.

I like technology, but I don't like cameras in my own house. I don't like voice things that listen to me. Like there's tons of people that have Alexa Siri speakers and Google speakers in every room. And I'm just like, nah, I don't really like that either. And then a lot of people have multiple cameras outside their house. And to me, part of it's like, fuck it. Something bad happens outside my house. I guess everyone else has video. I guess. Yeah. My neighbors have the footage and I don't, I don't need to play into that too. And part of that is, yeah, we live in relatively safe Midwest, but that's, that is the scary part of it. And so then you start to have these things where it's like,

oh yeah. And also like law enforcement can in certain jurisdictions, just go in and scoop up all that footage and look through it. And it's like, oh yeah, there is no right to privacy. Not even, yeah, I got my phone on me and that's tracking everything I do, but also people can just watch what I do everywhere I go through. And then there's like AI that can process like what your phone is doing and run it through these ring cameras. And basically without even doing it, people have created their own surveillance system that constantly keeps an eye on everyone. It's like, yeah, the government, it's like the Batman movie almost too. Yeah. The government didn't need to make a surveillance system because we made one because we're all so afraid of

ourselves and also why is everyone so afraid of everyone god that pisses me off it's like no it's just like people are people like why is everyone so afraid of everything all the time i don't get it that's why it's kind of funny like this book that 1984 written in 1948 and granted that's not the society we live in but how aspects of it it's kind of like oh no that's kind of is what it like we are like someone is hearing everything that you're saying in a lot of cases and you know like yeah you put the you put the telescreen on your wall and then now you have the telescreen in your pocket yes and you have the thing that listens to everything you say and you signed up for every one of them.

You took every one of them because you don't want to take your little thumbs out and type a little thing like, no, I can't. I can't be burdened to type it. I got to say it out loud. So in exchange for that, I let everything listen to everything I do. And. Yeah. And it's funny because some of these things are almost political statements now i mean privacy why is it a partisan issue yeah i don't even actually

nah as far as our politicians are concerned i think they both agree that now the the more we can take from you the better i don't think that's even a partisan issue that's like just a government yeah like oh yeah oh yeah why don't we get t banned? Like, why don't we have privacy laws? Well, because then we'd have to make our own American companies have privacy laws. And they're extracting too much data. That's too good for too many people that aren't the consumers. So, yeah, we can't change that yet. Yeah.

And that's the reason why I'm reading those. The reason listening to Lex Friedman is it's a lot of it circles back to ai where it's just relevant discussion of like the future of what's going to happen with artificial intelligence technology and like the thought of like yeah we're giving this thing access to all of the internet and like the access of to all information of uh available you know that exists and there's just funny parallels there of where you can you start to be like oh am i crazy or then you're like is crazy stuff not crazy anymore to you know like is like stuff that should be crazy you're like wait a second i could draw some lines there of

like uh where that goes to yeah i, a lot of it still is, is like hard to wrap your head around. It is like a thought experiment more than anything. It turns into this philosophical thing where you think about it and you go, is it as profound as it seems? It's like, well, I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about like,

oh, people are shocked when you ask GPT and it gives you an answer. It's like, they're like, that's like asking a ventriloquist dummy a question. that gives you an answer. It's like, yeah, you know what it's going to do. It Googles the question for you and it spits it back. Like there's nothing surprising about, Hey, give me five good things. Give me five tips to get healthy. It's like, uh, you know, behind the scenes, it's basically going Google five tips to get healthy. And it's just compiling a list of that. It arbitrarily picks like it's a lot of times it's not doing anything that

profound and people are like, Whoa, that's great. It's like, it's kind of, for the most part, a lot of it is just Googling for you. I get some of it is it's putting together a poem on the spot and yeah,

it's cool. It did that. Is it actually a well-written poem? Like you could probably have put together the poem if you want, if you just took the time to do it i guess maybe they're the the the party trick is that it did it so fast at at your command but well at this point in time it is kind of a party trick and a lot of it is and there is some image stuff that's really cool i will give it that like it can do some really but there's also like some really weird bad things that that does for image too but it is improving so fast that it is definitely in its primitive stages and three years from now it'll probably be pretty crazy wherever it's at yeah yeah i yeah three years

we're doing this podcast and then people have just fed our voice into it and they i mean we could just make whole podcasts actually probably and people won't even know we could just say here's their back catalog in just all the words that we've ever said. And then you feed it into chat GPT and say, all right, now make a two hour long podcast of Tanner and Tommy talking, include something about a fizzy can of some kind, have them talk about some type of a fitness product and also have them mention something that happened in, in their lives. Yeah.

It's something that happened in a white males, Midwestern life where it has a wife and kids and also have them talk about something that happened in the world of strength sports. And it was Google, all those things compile them all together and it's out a podcast of us. And that's podcasting in the year 2026. Oh, that'll be way easier for us.

It'll be way easier. There's no doubt for us. It'll be way easier, yeah. There's no doubt about that. It'll be easier, whether that's good or bad. I guess that's for society to decide. That's a problem for future us to worry about. Yeah. I got bigger things to worry about between now and then, like sleeping. Yes, and I want to tell you something else.

I want everyone to, I don't know if you should be worrying about, but I'd at least be thinking about it right now. This is The Strength Company. We've set out to build a better barbell plate on American soil. We ended up here at Wisconsin's legendary Wapaka Foundry. With over 60 years of ironworking experience, the foundry had the knowledge, technology, and processes to build our weights to our exact specifications. The Strength

Company plates are slim but rugged, smooth but easy to grip, and electro-coated for durability and to look great in your gym. This is the next generation of American Iron, only available from The Strength Company. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And this episode is also brought to you by Swiss Link. In 1995, Maurice Bigmo Huffman founded Swiss Link with the mission to bring authentic Swiss Army goods to the United States and into the hands of those yearning for quality gear

at uncompromised prices. Now for nearly three decades, Bigmo has been traveling far and wide in search of the best items for military forces around the world. Bigmo doesn't only find authentic military clothing for Swiss Link, he brings in everything you can imagine from Swiss military rangefinders to Italian police tracksuits. Swisslink.com is also home to the Swiss Link Classic Wool Blankets. They're an ideal mix of 80% wool and 20% recycled fibers. It's that special blend that provides a soft, luxurious feel while maintaining all the benefits of wool. The designs are reminiscent of brands that rhyme with Schwendleton and Schwedzen Bay, but are available at only a fraction of the cost. Swiss Link's exceptional collection and dedication to quality customer service distinguishes them

from the competition. Enjoy a 15% discount off your next purchase at swisslink.com by entering the code mass at checkout that's code m-a-s-s to save 15 at swisslink.com thank you swisslink should we send this one on home let's bring it on home you know the johnny holmes band i yeah i know who they are who did at a concert of theirs one time and uh you know friend of ours darren did he tell him to hit him with his best shot over and over well no that was a different concert funny thing that but he was yelling we were like right in the front of the stage and he yelled send him on home johnny probably like 50 times concert. And like they, that times that they definitely like had to have been registering that someone kept saying this too much. And I can't stand help.

But whenever, anytime I hear like, send them on home, it just like takes me to that. Like send them on home, Johnny. Yep. I can send them on home, Johnny. Yeah. Tommy, where do they, Oh, buy our stuff. Yeah. Yep. I can see that.

Send them on home Johnny. Yeah. Tommy, where do they, Oh, buy our stuff. Yeah. We didn't tell you that.

Yeah. Buy our stuff. Buy a drink spotter. Become a supporting member today. Massonomics. Get yourself a pocket tea like this. And even get a windbreaker. Pretty windy this time of year in the Midwest.

And you can break wind. So nice. And one of those windbreakers never breaking wind. Never felt so good. No, it did not. Yeah, where do they find you at, Tomahawk? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird,

but just make sure, for the love of God, follow Massanomics at Massanomics. Thanks for what you do with your podcast. Well, see ya. We'll see you next time.