E9 - Greg Franklin - Amazing Race S35 Winner

To kick off 2024 we have Greg on the show to talk about his experience participating in season 35 of the Amazing Race. We talk about the challenges, what it was like off camera, how life has changed since the show, and his future work with Wired, and his life in general. 

It's a fun chat with a great guy who is Chicago through and through. Always great to see Chicago's own making big moves all over the world. 

Chapters:

1:09 - Introducing Greg

14:47 - Interacting with the other racers

19:00 - Talking about the physically laborious challenges

23:00 - Skydiving for the first time ever on the show

28:00 - John's quotes from the show

33:04 - Get the express pass?

38:00 - Life after the race

44:00 - Interacting with other CBS reality show contestants 

49:00 - Talking about good food in Chicago

54:00 - Why yellow?

Transcript

Unknown: Hello and welcome to. Next up, Chicago. Today, we have a special guest. As you know, they're all special, but this one's a little bit more special. Kind of. Right. He won The Amazing Race season 35, Greg Franklin, one half of the Franklin brother duo that won The Amazing Race most recently. And I know Greg from high school, we used to play football together. He was way better at football than I was, but we had a good time and I haven't seen him in a long time. But I figured, you know, he's in Chicago. It'd be interesting to pick his brain about The Amazing Race and let you guys kind of get to know Greg, because Greg is a wonderful person. And without further ado, hi, Greg. Welcome to next up, Chicago. How are you? Again, nice to have. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Again, like, we haven't seen it for a while, but so good to see you. And it's good to see the person you become. Frank was like such a character in high school and you're still a character kind of see. And you'd been like a data scientist and having, like, a nice apartment in Chicago. That's that's that's really awesome. It's fun to see. Yeah. I mean, you know, I was watching the show and one thing that struck me was like, just how, Greg, you were, you know, I haven't seen you. I hadn't seen you in a really long time up to that point. But when I was watching on TV, I'm like, that's exactly how I remember Greg. Like in the halls, like in practice, I'm like, that's just Greg, you know? Yeah. And, and it's wild because I feel like a lot of times we think reality TV and at least part of me expected to come in and kind of like either stir up drama or like ask specific questions like targeted questions to make it more like reality TV. But throughout the entire thing, I just felt like I could just be myself, you know? Like, I kind of forgot that we were on camera a lot of the time. And, you know, like, you kind of just get so focused into the race that it's like you're just raw self. And so it's kind of fun to look back and be like, okay, like I kind of like myself, you know, like sometimes, you know, you might look back and, and, you know, like, I might be a little embarrassed or something, but I was proud of the way that we kind of, like, acted throughout the race. Yeah. I don't think you had any, like, cringeworthy moments. Like on some cringeworthy moment. What would you say was, like, a big cringe worthy moment that you did all things that like, you know, they they just made, you know, like there's at some point where I tried to, like, fist bump a lady and oh, I remember that she curves, you see curves. And I was like thinking giving them like this rural woman in Thailand a fist are like, you know, like I fell into the water at some point, which is just like it's just like such a a little faux pas. Um, yeah. Just the little things that you said. Like, you look back and you're like, Oh, like, why did I say that? But, you know, some people look back and, you know, they might be mean to their sibling or like, you know, like to get to in the army and get to frustrated. I feel like we didn't have any of those moments where I was like, Oh, I like I wish I didn't do that. Yeah. I feel like overall, your rapport with Jon was very smooth. Like, neither of you guys overreacted at any point, which was the most shocking thing. So like halfway through the season, I knew you were going to win. I was like, I'm like, this is, you know, and anyone that hasn't seen the newest season of Amazing Grace go see it, it's a great season. But, you know, halfway through the season, you see who's winning, who's coming out on top. You see the behind the scenes of like how partners are working together. And so it's very clear John and Greg, like had a knack for this. Like, they could probably go really far. And I think that like when I noticed that was in the beginning because you kind of struggled in the beginning. I think you finished third two times in a row and then eighth twice, right? Yeah. Yeah. And you really struggled in that? Yeah, there was like a few. So this was in Vietnam. Okay, before we get ahead of ourselves for the listeners, let me just tell you what happened, what the Amazing Race is, right? So we're all on the same page. It is eight countries, eight countries and eight countries, 19 cities over 23,000 miles traveled. Is that correct? Yeah, that's exactly dead on. Yeah, I got that. In the end. I had to write that down. And you did this in, what, like 30 days? Yeah, yeah. But they're like all of June and a little bit of July was like 33 days or something like that. And so in the show, it seemed like this was like back to back to back to back. Did it was it kind of like that in real life? It does seem like that. And I kind of expected it to be like that as well. It's like when I when I watch the show, which, funnily enough, I didn't want I didn't start watching the show until we found out we were going to be on it Oh, God, I just binged it. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You went to the casting of Amazing Race, not watching The Amazing Race. I'd seen two episodes. I'd seen two episodes with my brother and his girlfriend. And then we were like, Oh, this seems like a show that we could do. And we applied on a whim. We, you know, we just kind of sent in a video that was just like, Hey, look, I think we'd be good for this. I can't be like, He's good at this. I'm good at this. I was like a two minute video. And then they called us and they were like, Hey, we're interested. And I was like, okay, this is like, oh, you know, one in I still am one in a million chance. I didn't really like take it too seriously. And then once we found out we were going to be on it, that's what I like. I've watched like 15 seasons in, like a span of a month. Oh, my God. Anyway, so it definitely was not back to back we had. Like maybe 24 to 48 hours between each leg. Okay. And those those legs were very those that time was very much needed because, you know, like you spend maybe like 24 to 48 hours racing and then you get 24 to 48 hours. Like just in your hotel room, like no phone cable channels that aren't in English. Like all you have is a Sudoku book. And so all you can do is just like rest and eat. So it was very much needed and kind of fun. You know, it's kind of fun just hanging out with John in the hotel room. Yeah. So we had for the the listeners, you were in America, obviously, right? Start in L.A., started in L.A. then you went to Thailand. Thailand. Then you went to Vietnam? Yeah. Vietnam. And then you went to India. Nice. Yeah. And then from India. You went to Frankfurt? Yeah. Yeah. Right. And then you went to Cologne somewhere? Yeah. Yeah. Cologne. You actually have to drive all the way there. Yeah, yeah, we do drive. We just like there's no way they're going to make you drive to another city. So that's what we said. Like, when we first looked it up, we were like, cuz we were like, okay, we're going to Cologne. And we looked it up and they said it was like 4 hours away. We're like, there's has to be a difference. This is around Cologne from Cologne. But no, we actually drove that far in that that episode was actually huge for us because like if people were watching but like we were really behind by the time we had gotten the directions to Cologne, like we were maybe in last place and then we just killed the direction down is really good at directions and like I know stick shift, I'm like a good driver and everything. So we were able to like jump up ahead of everyone and we were able to come out in first like we were able to jump everyone just because of the directions. But yeah, I can make a very good team, just the driving because he can get lost so easily, so friggin easily. It's ridiculous. And so, you know. Do they take your phone? Yeah, yeah, they take your phone. So you just kind of phone this for a while, which again, can of nice like it's like a phone detox, right? Right. We're so addicted to our phones and not having it. Like, I came back and I was like, as I, I'm not going to get back on Instagram. I'm not going to get back and take back. And yeah, I'm I'm back because I saw you guys like with the maps, I'm like, that's fucked up. Like, a lot of people would be completely screwed out of luck if you took their phone away. Yeah, well, you also, like, prepare for it. John and I, we, like, learn how to use a compass. The cannabis was huge for anyone who doesn't know how to use a compass. Like that thing is magical. You can get anywhere with the compass come to realize, but kind of knowing which way you're going is really helpful. And then just kind of asking people for directions, writing down really good directions. We came up with an amazing system to like write down directions from Google Maps that we don't get lost. So your system we would like so we would look it up on, you know, we'd ask somebody look it up on Google Maps, putting where we need to go. And then we would take like the step by step directions and we would write down like the actual direction, like turn right on whatever and we'd like draw a little picture if it's like an actual sharp right or if it's like a little right. And then the biggest thing is that we would write down how long we were going to be on that for. So we would say like, okay, we're going to be on this step for like a mile and a half. So we look at the odometer and we'd be like, okay, so in a mile and a half we should see this next step. And if we don't see it, then we got to pull over and ask for directions. Otherwise we're going to just end up going someplace that we don't know where we're going to go. Okay, so that was a huge one. Yeah. That was like the main the main system. And you said because I saw like something earlier, I think on your social media, like you practice stick shift before. Yeah. Well, luckily enough, I had a stick shift car in college. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, in college I was hellbent on, for whatever reason, maybe this was a divine intervention, but hellbent on getting a stick shift car. Like I didn't look at any other car but stick shift wheel car was it? It was a Ford Focus and stick shift in stick shift. Do you do you ever have a Subaru? Oh, like a Subaru outback crosstrek. Yeah. They have a stick shift manual. They do, yes. Because it's like a button system and there's no clutch. It's really weird. That's how it is nowadays, too. It's just like. It's it's not like the actual moving of the stick. Oh, really? Just buttons. Yeah. Same with when you're driving. No, mine was mine. But it's hard. But it was hard to find because there's a lot of them were like the buttons type of it. Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. Do you like your car? My crosstrek. I love it. Yeah, yeah. Shout out. Subaru is awesome, especially in Chicago winters. True. Because that's why I was driving my dad's minivan and then I got caught in the snow. We had a huge snowstorm, and my dad was like, we got to get a better car than this. We got the all wheel drive and it's pretty nice. Nice. No complaints. Yeah, that's huge. Yes. Again, that's the nice thing about your car. You have a car to I guess to have a parking spot completely. Right. Oh, so you look at that. This is this is the beauty of having people from New York come to Chicago. They're like, things are affordable. It's nice to live here. Like things aren't on fire. It's amazing. Yeah. So freight is so that's the problem in New York is like so exciting and glitzy, but it's like super gilded and it's like. But the problem is, right? Like, New York is hard to live in. Chicago is like, nicer to live in, but we still have a shit ton of problems. Yeah. Like, my parents don't want me to move back, and I go, It's too dangerous, it's too violent. It's like there are parts that are dangerous environment, but like, you know, you can it's like any other city. You kind of like find your pockets, kind of like learn the city, like learn what you know, where you can't go, where you can't go, what you should do, what you shouldn't do. Yeah. And it's like, you know, you can't live your life in fear. It's like, okay, like you're not living in like the worst neighborhood, then you're probably okay. Like, maybe something crazy happens here and there, but yeah, nothing like, too nuts. Yeah, but. Oh, so he was in Germany, then he went to Austria and then you went to Dublin, then you went back to Seattle. Yeah. And then there was a Slovenian. Oh and there was Liana. They went to Slovenia, which also. Okay. Another gripe I have with the American educational system, please. They were like, when did they gain independence? I'm like, You had to fly over a fucking lake to figure that one out like this. It's not that hard. Like all of the block fell at the same time. 91. All of them. Yeah. What they all went to on Friday off. I know the crazy as far as like okay I think I forgot what the people said it was because what was it. I don't know what some people said. Oh, people said 1919. That one I was like, oh, okay. Like I'll maybe let that one slide four guys. Hopefully someone did 11. So yeah, like this looks like an old country and then we're like 11 something else. Yeah. Oh fuck. Like now the dude, they, they also like use numbers that weren't even like available, you know, like they had four numbers of five. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. So there were some teams that maybe were not necessarily equipped for the challenge. Obviously, you were well equipped. You were first. And then I think Rob and Corey came second. Yeah. And then Garrett and Joe was the name. Joe came third, but in the beginning there were some pretty weak teams, I would say, like the mother daughter team. The beginning was not very good. Yeah. And then the Asian couple start out really strong and I was like, This is fucked up. Like, how the hell? Because they were like, Oh, we work in a grocery store, we know this, we know that. And I'm like, This is fucked up. Like, how are all the games and challenges like somehow nicely fit into your regular life? So now you like spoke the languages of the places that we went to. You got lucky in the end. So you guys won four in a row and then the Nobel Laureate thing happened and everything was in French. And then there was like a lot of like physical challenges. I felt like, yeah, in the kind of the last leg of the race where I think, like, you guys really pulled away. Yeah. And I'm always curious about these shows, too. I mean, of course, like The Amazing Race, they've been doing it for 35 years. I'm sure they have some sort of system, but I do wonder if they tailor the challenges to the specific people, like if they're like, okay, we have three male teams left, so we're going to do these challenges or like, you know, like maybe even like we want this team to win or we want this team to succeed. So we're going to like give challenges that are like more suitable to like their strengths or, you know, like not suitable to their weaknesses or something like that. So I wonder how much do they actually have a say so like say like a female, all female team was in the final three, right? Yeah. Final three teams. Do you think they would have changed the challenges and that's I mean I guess we'll never know. Right, like that. That's like I'm curious if they would. Because I mean, it takes a lot to set up those challenges. Like the reason why we have 24 hours in between is because while we're resting, they're setting up the challenge in next country. So like as we're resting, yeah, like they kind of fly ahead of time and start setting up the challenges. So they have a lot of foresight for these things. They can they have to, you know, get like the permits and they have to pay the people, like the pay the actors to play the parts and the different challenges. So there's a good amount of work that goes into it. I'm assuming that they just have a set course and they don't change it. Like that's what I would think. Yeah, that's what I would think. But I don't know. There are conspiracies that, you know, they have favorites in that, you know, they might configure little things here and there to, you know, favorite one person or the other. But now it's all it's all hearsay. It is all hearsay. So we've now told you where Greg has traveled to. Let's highlight some of the crazier challenges so that we're all on the same page, because I know some of you may not have seen this and there will be in the show notes or Wikipedia where you could find out everything. It's very well document whoever does The Amazing Race. Wikipedia deserves a medal. It's very well done. Very well. I had everything I needed to know. Everything I forgot was right. There was this guy. There's also like a fan page or something and there's like a fan pages also pretty well documented. Yeah, I was on the read it today. I was like, What did they think about this season? Your season was well received. It was very well received. So nice. Like everybody in the cast was so incredible. Just as as far as like the kind of people that they are, there's nobody that you're, like, actively rooting against. I guess even it like Stephen and Lee, they had their little issues of everyone. Like you're like, you know, yeah, I don't think there was anyone. I was like, I don't want them to win. Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah. How was that like getting along with the staff or the cast outside of. Yeah, it was. You don't have that much time to talk to them like you have time maybe on like the airplane or the airport, but in between legs, like you're not allowed to talk because if the cameras are rolling, like they don't want any interactions between the people and obviously during the actual race, like no one's, no one's chatting. Like the only time you can maybe chat is, you know, like if, if your partner's doing a roadblock and someone else's partner is doing a roadblock, then like, you know, you're just kind of waiting there. So you're channel, right? But it was fun. I mean, it was it was we didn't have our phones. So anytime we were together, we would like kind of have to chat with each other, which is pretty nice. But towards the end, you know, like my social battery was pretty loud. I could tell you guys were just trying to get done. Yeah, everybody was just I, you know, I hear, like, I don't have the reason why you want to finish. You just like, I just wanna go home, like, sleep in my own bed and I see. See everyone that I love and everything. But, yeah, it seemed like everybody was, like, pretty nice. Like, I'm like, I'm about like, these people are normal off camera. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's and I feel like sometimes with reality TV shows, they're like these like characters that. Oh, yeah, I'm like, Oh, okay. They seemed like they might be, like arrogant or, you know, like a lot or something. But all these people were very normal. They're just like moms and dads. They're like brothers or like friends that just were in the military. And yeah, the other the two brothers, there's another the other brothers that were both in the Marines, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that they would have stuck out a little longer. Me too. They have left a little. Let me check when they left. Actually, I have this pulled up. They did. They were in India, Joe and Ian, right. Oh, Joe. Joe. And they were a couple. Oh, Joanie. And we're the couple. Yeah, we. I didn't expect them to go far. Ian or Joe, one of them was way too controlling and the other. Yeah. And I see that one going. Okay. So Liam and Jeremy, they were ninth. Yeah. That's who those were. The other brothers. Oh wow. Yeah. They really do have. Yeah, they got, they got the whole system here. I'm Alexandra and Sheridan. Who the fuck? They remember them. They were. They were the siblings. Mhm. Yeah. They were in the first episode. They were the siblings. They were kind of like. Oh I remember now. Yeah. They were not good. Yeah. Which we the two, the two teams I was most scared about were Alexander and Sheridan because one, I thought they were married before I met them. And the second one was. Whereas Liam. Liam near me, I could see why you were a little. I bet. I think Robin Cary was a sleeper pick. I don't think many. And Steven anally. Yeah. Like, you know, Annaleigh obviously was like the big the loud mouth of the group, but Steve really carried his weight. Yeah, you did a great job. Like, even when he was, he failed a lot, especially in that dancing. But, yeah, the in Ireland, he failed a lot, but he stuck with it. Yeah. Yeah, he did really good. Like, you know, like a really good mindset. Morgan and Lena were my favorite to watch. Oh, my God. They were so funny. Their bickering, sisters bickering all. And they vicar in real life, too. Like, that's just that's genuinely their relationship. I remember. So Andrea and Milena, I remember the funniest thing was when you guys were doing that little coin thing to go to the castle or whatever and get on a ferry. So Andrea and Marlena got on very. And in the episode, they like, Oh, my God, we're the first team. Yeah. And I could not help but die as die. And then they're like, what are these gherkins or cautions or coins? And she's like, I have €5. She's like, Those are those, aren't you? Yeah. Because in the episode they said you need to get on the ferry and then exchange euros for like egg gherkin or Yeah. Coins or whatever. And so they went on and I don't know who that guy was, but there was some random guy and they just asked to exchange for portions and he wasn't even part of production. He just kind of played along. That is so funny. I never I didn't understand the conversion on that because John did that one. Yeah, yeah. Well, I didn't get it. I said in there there was like 15 was the number. Yeah. 15 coins. But I guess like each coin was worth a certain amount and you needed to add up to like 100 gorseinon or something and you just needed to see how many coins there were total. Not 100%. There is one there is one team in this challenge where she just like, you know, she maybe had 20 coins. Oh, there was some denomination of 20. So she would just she's kept going back. I think that was Chelsea. Robin and Chelsea. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She would just be okay. One note. I got to know that she went over 15, which it would have been so much quicker if she did the math. She just started 15. Honestly, that's how she was going to do it. Yeah, it worked out and then. But then down. Yeah. So yeah. I mean 13 teams. A lot of teams. Real quick, have you seen the show before, Amazing Race? I have seen a few episodes, yeah. Here and there for the season. Before the season, yeah. I've seen a few episodes. So I knew like what it was roughly about, but I was like, okay, Greg is on The Amazing Race. I was like, What the fuck? And then I saw, okay, another thing I have to say is it seemed like they just got away with making y'all do manual labor. Oh, like the barnacle scrubbing, the lemon catching the rays make. I was like, this is just hard, man. The, the you didn't do it, I don't think. But the mattress one. Yeah, I was like, this is manual labor. This is fucked up thing. That's funny. That's funny. Yeah. I guess that's what they're trying to simulate, right, where it's like, Oh, people do this for their day to day lives. The one that like it was manual labor, but I didn't even really understand what the point was because a lot of times, like, you know, if you're collecting Pamela's, it's you can eat Pamela is and if you move a mattresses so you can use the mattress. There was one where we needed to, like, put hay on. Oh, that was insane. And you were allergic as hell to her. So allergic to it, I think. Like I thought my throat was by the clothes I it was a mess, but we had to put hay on top of. I don't even know what it was. It was just like bars, just wooden bars. Mm. What is that used for? I'm like, what do horses eat from this. They started like drew draw dried out the hay or something. O dried out the hay. Yeah. That's why they had it. Nice. But you guys did that really efficiently. Yeah. Not as efficiently as we probably could have, but yeah, there was a lot that went into that challenge but not it's not as efficient. Yeah. And so out of all the challenges, right like obviously we've highlighted the lemon, the pomelo picking, you didn't do the mattress but other people did the mattress. You did the the saw the fish thing. You the fish smart one right. Yeah. We had to make it perfectly stored and all that which honestly I was like for a million I think I think John said that shit. He was like for $1,000,000, you can grab that eel. Yeah, I said, it's Johnny because Johnny hates slimy things. That was in in our audition tape. You know, we talk about our strengths, we talk about our weaknesses. And one of his weaknesses are like, No, I can't do the slime. He said it was so funny. Yeah, you're like, You going to grab that for $1,000,000? It's like, and then the other girls are, like, tripping out. And I'm like, not like, just grab that. You get $1,000,000. Yeah. The only thing I maybe and I would have done it, but it would have taken some serious convincing was bungee jumping not a season's have bungee jump you wouldn't have I would have done it like I would have. Sucked it up and figured it out. But that's the one thing that I was just praying that didn't happen. Like at the very last episode, we were on top of the. Mm hmm. The. What is it called? The Seattle. Oh, the needle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the needle. And I thought, we're going to have to Scott or bungee jump off of it. And I was like, Oh, God, this is where it ends. But luckily we didn't have to. Were you skydiving? Did skydive was your first time skydiving? It was my first time skydiving. How was it? It was very fun. I actually I had a fear of heights coming into it early and I had a fear of heights coming into it. So I signed up for a skydiving lesson, like right before the race, to say at least I knew how it felt just in case we needed to skydive. But the weather that day. Oh, terrible. So I didn't get to go. So but I'm kind of glad I didn't because skydiving for the first time on the race was so fun. It was like such a special experience and I had done it before. It wouldn't feel the same. And I mean, it's just it's one it's a great metaphor for life because, you know, like you're kind of nervous about it going up to it. Like you're sweating, you're nervous, you're in the plane, you're like, Oh my God, what's going to happen? Then you jump out and it's it's fun. Like, it's so fun. You're just, like, floating through the air. So it's definitely, definitely something I kind of want to do again. Have you been before? No, but my buddy, he works for the TSA. His thing is like he's afraid of heights. He doesn't go to the Sears Tower, but he'll skydive and he's like a certified Scot. He's becoming a certified skydiver. I'm like, How does that make any sense? You're afraid of a tall building. You're going to jump out of a plane. It almost feels like skydiving is so high that it doesn't even feel like heights, like it feels unreal, right? Like you're looking down and it's like. Like it just doesn't feel real. It just doesn't feel real. Like, even when you're falling, it doesn't feel like you're actually falling. It just kind of feels like you're floating. It's. It's weird. It's almost so scary that it's normalized. Did they tell you you're going to go to where you just found out? No, we found out. Yeah, we found out. Wow. Did anyone have, like, an adverse reaction to that? They're like, fuck that. I know. Who were Todd and Ashley? They were like, the couple. Uh huh, yeah. Ashley was asked. It was pretty. She didn't want to do it. I think she ends up doing it. Yeah, yeah. She shouldn't have doing it. That's the thing. But you have 3 minutes. You have 3 minutes to go like perform the act. Wow. And then after that, the next person, like, you have to even the next person has to go so people figure it out, you know? I mean, like within the 3 minutes, like you got 3 minutes to calm yourself down and just take the leap. So most people end up doing it. But I've seen seasons where they just can't take the leap or they can't go down, you know, the slide or just kind of random stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And so out of all the challenges, which one was the most challenging for you personally? I think probably the challenge was the challenge, yeah. Hey, challenge was tough just because, one, the allergic reaction to it was just like, hey, guys, you know, we put hay up like really high. And so every time we put up the hay really high, we would, like, go down our throats and like go down our back and in our hair. It was just like physically on coffee and it was so, so hot. It was just you're sweating, know, sticking to you didn't seem that hot. Like watching it on TV was like, it looks nice. Oh, yeah. I didn't think about that. I probably were burning up. Yeah, well, the hottest was India in the air. Jaipur. Jaipur was. Yeah, scorching there. Scorching. It's so loud. It was so. So was that your first time in Southeast Asia? And I'd been to like Thailand and Singapore, but no first time for something in the area. But yeah, I've been to India a few times. Nice. Oh, wow. What? I used to study Indian smart cities and then the Delhi Mumbai industrial corridor. So I would go to, like, an internship out there. Oh, nice. Oh, that's so sick. You spent like a summer, rather? Yeah. So I went to Jaipur. So when you're in Jaipur, like, oh, I go back to the for the forties. Did you get to actually enjoy the fort at all because it's beautiful now. We didn't get. Oh no, no, not at all. Like what you saw is what we saw. But it's nice down. Oh yeah. There's like this like glass palace inside and it's made entirely white glass and mirror. And it's one of those beautiful sights I've ever seen. Nice. Wow. Yeah. I'm surprised they didn't showcase that. You. They should have. I mean, yeah, Jaipur is like a very historic city. Yeah. Read like the inside of it, because, I mean, they, they, they showed the, the palace. But I would love to see the glass bird. We. So how did you guys eat too? Like when the fuck did you guys find time to eat? Well, in between. You're like, within the leg, you know, like, you rip open your clearly, like you've $100 or ₹100 or how did you whatever the currency is for this leg of the race. And so you can use that money to eat, but you also have to use it for like taxicabs and entrance fees and, you know, like a whole bunch of random stuff. So we, you know, like most people are pretty nervous to spend their money because you don't want to run out, you know, you don't want to be in a taxi having run out of money, right? So if you got really hungry, you know, if the leg was like 48 hours, we would spend some of our leg money. But most of the time we would eat in between legs in the hotel room because we'd get to the hotel room, they'd give us the menu, you know, like they give us the, uh, like the room service menu and then you had carte blanche, like, you can just write down whatever you want. So we would just, like, order. One of everything. It's just pig out, like just filler cells to like just completion. And then, you know, you're kind of full for the next few days, you're going to need that much food. Yeah, you guys are to our system. The Haven was a lot of physical work, a lot of physical labor. Yeah, the Lotus one seemed very challenging, too. Like having to wade through all that water. Yeah. Yeah, it was. And, like, it was just so spiky. It was. They're beautiful flowers, but, like, the bottom of. And I think that's why it's the like the flower of India is that like, it's it's it's pretty gnarly down there. Like in the mud. I mean, there's a catfish. It's muddy as all heck, like a bunch of seaweed. The it's so thorny, like all of the bottom of it is just, like, extremely thorny. So that's why we, like, have to wear shoes. But my shoes fell off. So did you get to change out of those wet clothes, though, or do you have to keep running nice? That's fucking terrible. Yeah, I guess. And everything you think about that. And this is in Vietnam. Crazy, muggy, crazy, humid, crazy, humid, crazy y. But again, it was so hot. So being in that water was actually kind of nice. Nice. I mean, the water was actually. You figured out the Lotus Challenge really quickly. Yeah, I would say the nice part about because we I think we that day we made a big faux pas where we went to the wrong temple like oh yeah, yeah. They said go to this temple. But then we went to that temple, but it was a different temple in different part of town. So anyway, we were a little bit behind by the time we got there. It was it's kind of nice not showing up first because you get to see the mistakes of everybody else. Like you get to show up, you get to see like, okay, they got that wrong because, you know, the flowers weren't in this order. They got this wrong because there's this flowers isn't big enough. And you get to kind of learn what the judges want and what they don't want. And then you can kind of implement that into your own into your own, you know, practice. Yes. You guys are really very tacky about the whole thing. I have some points of time. I'm like, these dudes are fucking nerds. I'm a nerd. So I'm like, I'm not judging, but I'm like, he's like, we just got to debug it. Like, go back to debugging. And it's like we just got to get this data. And I have, like I said, John, John has some gnarly quotes. John you were really cute because you had this like so your angle through the show was like, This is my big bro. And I'm like living up to big bro, right? Like, they painted it as like, you really idolized him. Yeah, yeah. But then it's like with John. John was like, not like this is Greg. Like, it's just like my equal, right. And then he said that point towards the end of the show, it was so funny. In the end, you guys got really cocky right before the episode. I was like, Y'all need to check yourself because I like I like you guys. I was like, You guys are okay. I get why you're cocky. You guys have killed it. They placed first four times in a row. And so for people that don't know how the Amazing Race works, if you place first on any leg, they give you like amazing deals. So let's just showcase something that Greg one on one of these legs hold on people okay cashback rewards for a trip to to to New Zealand awarded to Greg and John then after that for K each not bad then trip to Namibia like what the fuck you get to go to Namibia. Yeah, that was a big one. That's awesome. So sick. And then you won. The last one you got was five K. So the, you know, placing first is really nice, but at the end you guys were so funny because this was about to be as the final three and John was feeling himself. You could tell this was after the noble or whatever you guys are riding high. And he said, we are an unstoppable force. It's like, oh shit. Like John has laid down the gantlet, okay? Like this is happening and unstoppable force. Oh, my God. And then the U-turn. The U-turn. Okay, I like the U-turn. And so apparently you could see who voted for who here on the U-turn. Oh, yeah, the U-turn. So yeah, I mean, U-turn is just, I guess, a part of the show where you can choose another team to do both detours. Mm hmm. Yeah. And so I think this happened in Thailand. No, no, Vietnam. Right. And so what happens is, like they go to the stop to pick up the clue and there's a picture of whoever got voted the U-turn. Right. And the funniest thing was John went, That's not our face. And grabbed the ticket and went, So Stephen and Ollie got U-Turned, which I think was a brilliant decision. Stephen and Ali were hot. They were hot on on Billy. I was like, Steve, what the hell? Yeah, you should not be out here right now, you know, like, really hot. But Robin and Chelsea were the other voted team. Yeah, just interesting. Nobody voted, you guys. I know what we would have voted you guys. Well, we weren't doing that well. And at the time, like at that, at that point we had gotten like a twice. Yeah. You had eighth twice. Yeah. So I don't think anyone was like looking at which we're extremely grateful for. Right. Like it came at a really good time because as soon as the U-turn was done, then we got our four wins in a row. So we picked up steam in a good time. But yeah, Stephen and Lee, they were like an hour ahead of everybody else, I think. I think we were. Yeah, we were in second place at that time. And Stephen and Lee were an hour ahead of us. So, like, for us, like, you know, everyone was friends. Everyone wanted to be friendly. So nobody wanted to, you know, like some people vote out whoever last places, you know, like just to guarantee you that you make it on to the next round. But nobody wanted to intentionally get someone out. Everyone just wanted to kind of like, be friendly sort of roles, like, okay, Stephen and Lee, they're an hour ahead of everyone. They're not going to get eliminated. Like, we'll just kind of throw it to them. Which yeah, I mean, worked out for asking that we were able to kind of. You climbed up with that U-turn. Yeah, we that was that was when things changed for you. Is anyone in or out? Yeah. You know, you turn that you turn. It was a U-turn for them, but a a win for us. Like a dove for what did you get the when you got the express pass early on. What did you use it on. I forgot we so I think I think the first expression was Morgan and Morgan and Lena got because they had the bugs. Yeah. Exclaimed You got one right now. I think we got an express pass. Oh, someone else got an expression? Yeah, there was Robin Corey. They got one in the end. Yeah. Because they climbed that. Yeah. Which was hilarious because you're like, oh, we could take them. And then I'm like, That's a big asshole. It is like we, we. Cause we thought, yeah, we were going for it. We were going for it. And like, there's two parts to the hill, like one part, and then it kind of like steep and out. And then there was the second part. And so we thought that like halfway through was like the top of the mountain. But if we had seen that there was more hills, we were catching out quick. Like we were catching up pretty quickly because Rob's like, I was like 60, you know, like, we will be six. Yeah, Rob's in his forties. Rob's. Yeah. So the final six were three men or six men, right? And I read a review on this and so three were in their twenties and three were in their forties. Oh wow. Because Joel and Gary in their forties and Rob's in his forties. Oh, wow. And you and Corey and John 20, whatever. I was young. Yeah. Like for a day. Like, my dad's like 60 something. Yeah, it was because Corey's our age. Oh, yes. Yeah, of course. 25. He's in New York, too. Oh nine in New York. You. Yeah. Like we were hang out again about. Oh, fuck, yeah. Yeah. So you made a friend from the show? Yeah. Yeah, he's a he's a good guy usually. I don't know if you've like seen the the follow the Corey has a following. He has like loyal fans like the coda the coda. And I also think the girls I think it's a mix. I think he has the deaf community. And I also think, like, he's, like, attractive. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's a hacker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, he is he is a he's a deep following and he's lovely. Do you have a following now? Yeah, but mainly moms and kids. Kids, kids and parents like a lot of parents reach out. They're like, we loved because they'll they'll say like the parents will say, like, we love your relationship with your brother. And then kids will just like want to, you know, be able to win and stuff. But kids our age, they don't they don't care about us. That's fucking hilarious. I cared, bro. I was like, This man won The Amazing Race. That's sick. Yeah, I could see you. I could see you doing really well with the moms going, wow, what a wholesome younger brother. I mean, John, I'm sure. John, John. It could be like a mean like he yeah, he could be a very he was wholesome, but he was cutthroat. Like John was very blunt about why he was there in the most polite way. You know, it's like we are an unstoppable force. Other people might say that like the student athlete John says, You like John. It's fine, John. There was one. There's one part that people didn't like because he was like, I thought it was kind of funny. But yeah, like you said, it was cocky. But also during that time they told us they were like, because, you know, we'd seen a bunch of seasons before and like before going and they do this every season. This is like I forgot what they called it. They called it like your war talk or like your pep talk or something like that. The point of the interview where like you just talked about why you were going to win The Amazing Race and there was a sense where for was like the other three teams, they have a win. Are the other two teams they ever win and that's cute, right? Yeah. I thought that was very funny. And you guys were really cocky and in the end in Seattle, like, you guys were stumped. We were I was genuinely worried about you on that last episode. I'm like, Damn, they're going to look good. They're going to pull this off saying like, especially with the amp you guys got. So I couldn't and that's so funny. But The Amazing Race is the amount of human error that just gets in everybody's way, like going to the wrong place or like ordering the wrong thing or getting on the wrong ferry. Just human error or getting in the way. And it makes sense. You guys are running around crazy busy. But that and you and John both picked that up and looked at it like eight times and nobody could figure out that that was the piece. Oh, great. Yeah. They talk about like this race mind where like your adrenaline is pumping so hard that like, you just make exactly errors, like human errors that you typically wouldn't make in a day to day life. And that was. That was one of them. That was one of them. Yeah. But you guys made it. So in Seattle, you had the band thing and then you had the glassblowing thing, dude. Honestly, like. The amp took a while, probably took like ten, 15 minutes. It's like it's not great, but it wasn't. It was the freaking glassblowing that killed us. We were there for like 2 hours. We were there for so long. And Jolan, you know, we were there with Joel and Garrett to begin with. John Garrett left, and then we were there for like 45 to an hour after Joel and Garrett left. So we just couldn't we just kept getting things wrong over and over again. That was that was the time where we were like, all right, I guess I guess we're not going to win. It was the third thing in Seattle. It was trapeze. Oh, you guys did that pretty well. Yeah, you got that down. I mean, any athletic stuff you guys killed and John killed it with the dancing. He did the dance in India and then he did the dance in Ireland. Yeah, killed it. Absolutely fucking killed it. And then, I mean, honestly, you guys breezed through a lot of the challenges. I think like in Vietnam, you got a little bit it got a little tough for you. And then towards the end, I got a little tough for you, but there was never any point in time where I was like, Oh, they're not gonna they don't look like they're going to go, Yeah. And the only reason why it's kind of nerve racking at the final episode is because you're the first or last. Like, you either beat every single person or think, you know, you're not you didn't win. And so like in other legs, like, you just you're just trying to survive. You still want to be last with like that last season. You have to be perfect. Or that last episode used to be perfect because you have to beat everyone. So we're just we are there are like ten times, 12 times, 15 times more worlds in which we didn't win. And we're living in like the, whatever, 5% of worlds that we did win. And we are we always talk about how freakin grateful we are, the fact that, you know, like things kind of landed the way that they did the last like 2 hours of the race is a mess. It was a mess. And you guys almost didn't make it. But now you've won the race. You know, we talked about we have a following with moms and little kids now and you're friends with Cory, which is wonderful. It's great. You made a friend. How's life now? Like you've won The Amazing Race. Obviously, it took a lot of time off to do The Amazing Race. Now you're back daily, 9 to 5 grind. Greg works with AI. He's a software engineer slash consultant in New York for a background context. Like, what the fuck? Like, how does life what? How's life now? You're like, you just did all this crazy shit for a month. You found out you won whatever you knew you won and you couldn't tell anybody you won while the show was going on which was also crazy. Yeah. And now it's like, okay, how it goes. I won her, had won a bunch of money, and I did this travel. What now? What's what's your life? Well, first of all, that was always fun. Like, as each week, like and like all of our friends, we'd go to like this bar in Brooklyn and we'd watch this show. But obviously people didn't know when I was going to get out, how far is going to go each week. People are like like, I hope you make it to next week. And I always yeah, I hope so too. I really hope for it. It was kind of fun to keep that secret. Um, but now. Yeah, I mean, a good question. That's what Johnny, they're still kind of figuring out. We have, we just shot a wired video like a video with Wired, which is like a YouTube channel, like the tech company. Yeah, that's like tax stuff. Yeah. And we're hopefully going to start doing a series with them where like, we like test tech products. Oh, I like the ones that we did was like this, this wearable, like it's like a wearable was it called airbag that people can wear when they're like motorcycle riding? So when you fly off your motorcycle, like, your whole body, just can you become a balloon? Yeah, you became such a sick balloon. Yeah. So we just to that out and so that's going to come out in like a week or so. So you to test the airbags? Yeah. So did you, like, jump off? Exactly. We did like a stunt person. Everything they like rises up to the ceiling, and then they would just, like, drop us and see, like, if we would actually feel like we'd just, like, fall from a, I don't know, like ten feet or so or like I would just like hit on it with random things. Like that's that's kind of a fun video, but, you know, as a comedian, okay, so you're doing some stuff with Wired. Yeah, dude, it's just an attack and then just kind of see what John and I want to do. I mean, we've definitely learned that like, we love working with each other and like we really like hanging out with each other and like doing projects together. So trying to figure out what kind of like video content we're going to make and and things such as that. But as far as the money goes, we're not understanding. Sure, either. I mean, we've talked about real estate here, and I bought an apartment in like Darren covered like 20, 20 or so. In what city? In New York. The New York. Oh, nice. Yeah. So, yeah, that that went really well. And it's like, you know, it's a fun way to invest it. It's kind of different than know for one K Ira, all that kind of stuff. So we think about maybe doing stuff in Chicago, like some stuff in Chicago. Nice. Yeah. And then just really just saving it all. We're taking our our family to to and maybe we're going to share them to maybe a trip with, like, our parents and sister. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. Which I am pretty excited about. But yeah. Then that, I mean it's again like the people who recognized on the streets are moms and kids. I think those are the those are the people that usually recognize that. So, you know, it's it's kind of fun to be out and, you know, they just someone comes out and they're like, oh, you're like, I can just be Amazing Grace Who like, oh, yeah, yeah. And like, it's so fun to know that, like, people are, like, watching and they support us and they really like us. So, you know, feels it feels nice, nice minute. So, but overall, like, it hasn't been too weird. So just so you know, I'm sure you probably don't know this. Your first three episodes had 4.5 million people like on average, I mean. Oh, wow. Yeah. And that's only for the stats that we know. So probably going to bump it up to at least six or 7 million towards the final like. But that's crazy. I didn't know. I didn't know that. So with that caveat in mind, four and a half million people have seen you wade through water, get load of shit, you know, fuck up all that. Is it weird to you? You're kind of faint. You're kind of like semi-famous now. Or at least you've been seen by a lot of people. Yeah, yeah. We always say we're like the at best eat worse less celebrities thing where it's like people here, there, my, my recognize you. But yeah I mean I one you kind of get desensitized to it after a while. I mean, it was like 12 weeks. It's it started to get a little bit like normal at the end. It's like, Oh yeah, it's Wednesday. It's time to watch that gag on TV, which is really fun. But as far as, like, as far as like the 4.5 million stuff. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's it's a little odd people, you know, like message you on Instagram like a lot of people and again like especially because of John and I's relationships like a lot of people reach out and they're like, we just so respected the way that like, you know, you guys like, ran as brothers and your relationship is. And so and it's these people that have like it like people say like we cried when you guys won like these like heavy emotions. And I'm like I and it's weird to know that like, they know me decently well, like as much as the TV will allow them to now. But like, I just don't know that it's like the first time where someone knows me, but I don't really know them as much, and I can't really control how they see me. Right. Like, it's, it's it's just a little bit different than, like, my usual day to day life. But luckily we've had, like, nothing but positive stuff. So it's all, it's all good messages and everything, which is fun. That's good, man. Yeah. Are you going to do, like, Survivor next or you're going to do have you ever seen Survivor? Yeah. Survivor. So Survivor sick. It says I was sick that I actually wanted to do Survivor first. Like that was my first reality T.V. show, Love. Mhm. But then The Amazing Race just seemed a little more, more doable. But now Survivor, that's like the golden child, the CBS. They don't, they don't they don't mess around with The Amazing Race on Survivor. Mhm. Have you seen the Big Brother and like the on CBS. Yeah, I've seen a few. Yeah that was pretty good but yeah. I mean it's fun too because like there's a good amount of serious. People in New York like. Mm hmm. Like an hour from now, we have, like, a big finale party in Brooklyn, and, like, a bunch of past racers came out, like, a bunch of people from the current season of Survivor came out, and, oh, wow, other people came out. There's like, a, like a reality TV show community. Oh, sure. Like within New York and then just kind of within the general community as well. So it's kind of fun to like, you know, I got to meet like winners from past seasons. I really liked. Oh, there's this one guy I remember this guy Tony. This guy Tony who won? He won Survivor. Twice. Twice. Yeah. And, you know, people you know, I've asked people about Tony within the community and they're like, Yeah, Tony's a cool guy. Like, you know, you just kind of like chills and hangs out and, like, so cool. Like, I'm kind of in that circle with him now, you know? It's, it's, it's a fun feeling because he kind of grew up watching these people and like, I don't know now. Now I'm kind of with him in some way. That is kind of weird. Uh. So you got the thing in Wired. You're, uh, a role model to moms and little kids everywhere. You and Jon want to do more stuff together. You're going to take a family trip to Namibia. You are now in the north real estate community on the reality TV community. Kind of in the real estate community? Yeah. Do you own a apartment? Yeah. Um, since it seems like things are going really well for you then, like. Yeah, thanks, man. And, uh, you know, I think one. Oh, right before. So he wore this thing. He wore cap. Oh, yeah. Be kind. He wore a cap that said Be kind the whole time on The Amazing Race, which I loved. Cause a big theme in this podcast is everyone I interview, right? I'm like, What is something you would say or take away? And usually take away is like, you know, kindness gets you really far and just being humble gets you really far and just seeing, you know, like you've done a lot of crazy things just in the one month and you've had a very successful, very fulfilling life, I imagine, up until now. But you're very humble and you've always been very humble, which is just a beautiful, beautiful feature about you. It's like in cause like so I know Greg from high school, right? Like we're going to take this to the way back. Greg is super, always been super like the way you see him on the show, right? Like, very even keel. Not really like losing his cool. That's just how Greg is. Like, it's. And then we played football together and this dude's like, big dude. Dude is a big dude, right? And so Greg would like, maul through, like, the offensive line, get a sack and then just get up like, oh, yeah, nice. And I'm like, dude, you just, like, destroyed this. I'm like, standing, like, you destroyed the entire fucking team. Like, he's just chilling. That's fun. I remember. I remember one of our coaches, Coach Mallette. He would always get so mad at me for that, you know? He's like, What are you doing? Like, like this on a hanger or Yeah, it was so fucking funny because, like, Greg wouldn't get angry, but he would be destroying people on the floor. Like, everyone was like, easy, easy peasy. You're just happy. It's funny. Oh, yeah. We have a new field with New York. I saw that. It's like turf, right? Super fucking nice. It's so nice. Yeah. Oh, with we playing, we were playing on literal concrete. It was actual not like actual concrete that was terrible. Like it wasn't even the tackle that would hurt. It would just be the effects of falling on that concrete ground, which would be like the biggest one. And it was like hilly all over all of it. Just like bombs in the desert called like a divots in the grass. The grass. Did you play? Oh, yeah. Could you play lacrosse, too? Did you guys play on that field? I had and we never got that field. I think it came when we graduated because it's like Michelle Obama field or some shit like they renamed it. Did she? I don't think she donated money. No. I think it's like part of the Obama stuff, you know, like the government before Obama left, like he got like a lot of federal grants to come to Chicago. So I they were doing the red line and then that's like what? Like the library or whatever. Well, every president gets a library. Oh, nice. Oh, are they redoing the red line or that they're redoing it right now? Oh, no. So if you're in town, you're going to when you go up north, you'll see there's like a huge new, uh, concrete beam, basically the last where the train runs now Cool. Oh, nice. It's aboveground ground. Oh, yeah. I guess the red line is above ground. Yes, and stay above ground. And while you're in Chicago, I mean, you're up north. So we have a lot of good Ethiopian food up north. You're in little Vietnam. So like a lot of good Asian far places, dim sum. Um, and yeah, yeah, yeah. If you have any good rest, restaurant recs, you know, just got these belly it'll all but what's belly belly it's like this like I'm obsessed with right now it's like a restaurant at okay. It's like a social media restaurant out where you can see like a, like an ad for it. But are you going to, like, befriend people on belly and then you try restaurant, you can rent a restaurant like like you said, like, oh, I liked it more in this restaurant, whether or not you like to more in that restaurant and it kind of rates all of your restaurant. So I'd go to a place, I'd answer some questions and then it would put like a 6.4. You know, you can kind of see where your other friends have been and kind of find new restaurants. Great new restaurants that way. So yeah, it's really fun in New York just because there's so many restaurants. But I'm sure like Chicago has just as many restaurants, I feel like it'd be just as fun. Yeah. Man Girl in the Go West Loop. Really good food. Really good food. Good date. Nice spot, too. Nice if that's what you're craving. And then, uh, Barcelona. Good Italian food, you know, nice bar stuff. Uh, then also as a yeah. So West Loop is like the big spot right now. Yeah. Um, but Logan Square is great for going out. Have you gone out? We've been in town. No, because we usually go to our. My my Michigan house on him is Logan Square's. Logan Square is really fun. Nice, really fun. They have an emporium, so you could play like arcade games. Skee ball. I no but you know, I'll look okay. Yeah. So yeah, I hi. I'm, I know for like 20 minutes, 15 minutes by car. Yeah, yeah. It's not too bad. Yeah, there's some spot that's the thing is that like, I feel like I came back to Chicago and I wasn't like an A, you know, I was like in high school last time I was here. So I figure, wow, is it really been that long when you come back for holidays. Yeah. Sorry. It's since I like since I lived here. Right. I came back for holidays. I'm usually like just with family and doing stuff, but yeah, I feel like I don't, I don't like discover the spots as much. I'm, I'm, I'm making it a goal to discover exactly like Logan Square spots and stuff like that. I have a list on my phone. Nice. I'll shoot you a text. My sister, she lives in Brussels, which is hilarious, but she sends me on Instagram places for me to try cause she's like, when I come back, like, I need you to tell me which ones to go to. Oh, that's like I got. She says she missed Chicago. Oh, not really. She's. She's a little European, sis. If you're here in this, she's never going to hear this. She doesn't give a shit once you go to Europe. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You're European. Yeah. She's your fucking uber uber European. And my my nephew was is going to grow up in Brussels choosing to speak French. Well, she's having a baby. She has a niece. Why even isn't a nephew? She has a daughter and a boy. Wow. That's your fun, I believe. I love it. I love it. So I can't wait till my niece's, like, grow up. She's starting to fuck with me now. She didn't fuck with me the first few years of her life. Now she fucks with me later, which is great. And I always joke at them. Like, when you're in high school, you're going to love going to see me in the States or wherever. Oh, the fun uncle. I'll be like, Ah, you can have a drink. I, I don't tell you. Well, for her, like, you know, they start drinking at like 12 or something and they start drinking out the womb and they start early, come out of the room with a glass of wine. That's cool. So she's definitely there for like the next 15 years or so. Yeah. Have you been in Brussels? I have once. And honestly, I think I spent a little too much time there. Oh, really? Like a second in Brussels. What's like the biggest like the biggest thing in Brussels, like the grand place, like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, either way, yeah, I think. I think I spent like four days in Brussels, which I just don't think they needed for days there. And I, you know, we were like in college, so we couldn't, we didn't have all that much money to, to do a whole bunch of stuff. We were like beautiful city. Mhm. Was that the one that has the. Like that clock. Hmm. Frog or something. And they have a clock kind of. This is one. But I don't think. I think you're thinking about. Yeah, I think I'm thinking of a different one. Yeah. Now Brussels. But I just, I mean, I like Europe in general. I spend a lot of time in Paris. Yeah. So you did abroad. You, like, stayed with a family? Yeah, stayed with the family because that really helps. You did in the end. Yeah. That did help a little bit. That one was crazy. Yeah. Because there was one challenge or we needed to I guess like serve French dishes to like French Nobel Prize people. And that one was yeah, I mean having the French definitely helped. We had actually seen an episode like that, like there was an episode where they did that in like 20 whenever 14 but they did it in China. Oh. So it was like sort of wonky, like way harder than French, but they would just use like in, like at least it seemed like the best method was just to use like the first word. Um, and then kind of like not try to memorize the entire dish, just memorize the first words anyway. So we implemented that for us as well. So kind of having seen that episode in the past helped us so much. You know, there's a whole bunch. Yeah, you guys were. Let me make sure I'm not missing anything on The Amazing Race. Oh, yeah? Why yellow? Why the fuck are you guys team yellow? They are. They kind of just give you a color. I was, like, so ugly. I was called no offense. I was like, but everyone got nice colors. You got yellow. I know. And it's it was not we were not happy with yellow. We first got it because I have nothing. Yellow was a yellow shirt. It's like yellow, you know. Yeah. And you're like, I wish we got something like black. Like, if we got black, yeah, I could be, like, decked out in black. But then at the finale party, I was like, okay, I actually sort of enjoy yellow for like, you know, because the whole thing about the finale party is that you came rapping the color of the team that you were supporting. So like all of my friends were yellow and like nobody has yellow stuff, but like all you have to wear is like a yellow tie and you understand that they're for you, that they're for you. So yellow kind of, like, sticks out and and like blackwood, right? Cause everyone's wearing black. Yeah. I don't know. This, this, this is for the cons to it, but they searched long and hard for a yellow shirt. That's a fucking yellow shirt. Yes. And have you ever have you ever been to Rhone? No, no, I've never. Never. But you know, it is in Germany now. Oh no, it's a it's like a a workout brand also workout with Gary. Joanne E it's a workout. It's like a Lululemon. Oh okay. Those are the shirts that we go round. Yeah, it will be in the show notes people. I'm looking at it right now. Mm hmm. It's pretty nice. Yeah, they are. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, there's there's 1,000,010 types of athleisure companies nowadays. I know. That's the whole thing is athleisure. My boss wears athleisure. Oh, yeah. So our office. Big Lululemon go. Oh, but is he wear, like, button down stuff? Sometimes. Sometimes he wears, like, athleisure swag. You know how the corporate people do now? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's honestly how they do it now. But even like these companies, like this guy, he's wearing, like, a shirt and tie. Mm hmm. Like Lululemon, Rhode, alo. They all sell, like, business clothes, except they're just incredibly comfy now. Yeah, I got to get me some. Some of lululemon's, that's. That'll probably be maybe next month or something. I see. At Christmas presents I had to get it away way, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So even I appreciate you coming on this pod and talking about your experience, and I appreciate you like, you know, letting people know more about you. And because you are a great guy, you're very humble. And so I think people should know about you and can learn a thing or two from you and John from the show in this conversation. Before we wrap it up, is there anything you want to tell the audience or anything you want to say? Speak your piece. This is your time. Uh, no, I think. I think. Yeah, I mean, you have some good questions. Good question. I'm also incredibly impressed by your memory of the show. Like. Like you remember things that I will remember because I lived it, but you had a really good memory. I binge. This should do. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think you understand. The past week I've been watching you. Amazing. Appreciate it. Really. That's really awesome. Yeah, it shows. You really knew it, which is awesome. Yeah. I mean, I'm excited about your podcast. This is a great podcast for you because you he's the man in your figures, the man on Thanksgiving, the man. And I'm excited to see where this podcast goes. But now, I mean, I had fun, excited to be back in Chicago, excited to see you again. And yeah, man, anytime, you know, you need me back on, so I'll come back in a heartbeat. Oh, thanks. Look out for Greg and John on Wired for their tech review stuff. You'll be you can see them review a motorcycle or a wearable motorcycle airbag. I'm definitely going to tune in to that. Yeah. I don't know what that's going to listen to when it comes out. It's a fun one. Yeah. Um, but everyone, this is. We're doing this right before the end of 2023. And so, you know, we wish you guys the best and hopefully things are going well for you. And if they're not, hopefully they can pick back up and things will be a little brighter in 2024. With that being said, be kind to everybody and have a great rest of 2023 and a great whatever day that you're on listening to this piece.