We Debate Trivia Strategy And Life Advice On The Drive Home

We start where a lot of real friendships live: crammed into a car after trivia night, replaying the wins, the misses, and the one question that should have been easy. Our pub trivia recap turns into a mini deep-dive on the new format, smart wagering, and why some categories always expose you. Geography gets us again, literature humbles us, and the periodic table stays undefeated, but the point is the same: show up, take your swing, and laugh when you’re wrong.

Then we jump straight into an NFL mindset with a Dallas Cowboys season outlook, Dak Prescott expectations, and the unavoidable question of how much Jerry Jones chaos a team can survive. From there, we pivot to pop culture the way friends actually do it, with quick-hit reactions to Survivor Season 50, the moments that worked, the players who drove us crazy, and why we’re already looking ahead to the next season.

We wrap with the kind of advice we wish we heard earlier: know your audience, drop the entitlement, respect the learning curve, and learn basic DIY skills that save money and build confidence. If you like a fast, funny Gen X podcast that mixes trivia night strategy, NFL talk, reality TV recaps, dad jokes, and real-life tips, you’ll feel right at home. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who loves trivia or the Cowboys, and leave a review. What’s the one trivia question you’ll never forgive yourself for missing?

Transcript

Cold Open And The Podcast Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Alright. Boom. Here we go. Welcome to the real guys podcast. We call the real guys podcast because we are real Gen X guys. And the name of the podcast of the group is the real family. So we want the word real to be somewhere in it. Something like that. But we'll say, welcome to the real guys podcast with Matt and Joe, the professors. So I'm Matt, and this is Joe. I'm Joe. Alright. Man of many words. So we just got done with trivia. So the whole idea of this podcast is the amount of time it takes us to drive home from trivia is the amount of time we record the podcast. So let me flip to our agenda.

Grocery List Apps And Quick Banter

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Thanks to the grocery app any list. Maybe that's a sponsor of our podcast this week. It's a cool grocery app. Joe, have you ever used a grocery app list?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yes, I have. Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Which one?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Um list E's. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Now is that a grocery list app or is it just a list app?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

No, it's a grocery list app. It's got this little guy and he's got a little paper with a paper clip on it and stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Okay. Alright. Can you have recipes in that?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Um, I don't know. I'm not that technologically advanced.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Even though you do have a I can I can put check marks in a box.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

And yet, when it comes to fantasy football, you are a super tech guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Yeah, I am. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

But we'll get into that in a little bit.

Trivia Night Recap And New Format

SPEAKER_01 1:45

So first thing on the list, trivia update. So Wednesday nights, which is when we record this, that is our trivia night uh at the village inn in Holland. So we also do trivia, well m I do trivia at least on Monday nights at a different place. We did not go this week, so no update from there. Joe, how did we do at trivia tonight though?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Uh we finished in fourth place with a whopping impressive 21 points.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah, thanks to this new format. What do you think of the new format?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Well, I like the new format. Uh if you mess screw up early on, you can recover and still win the game, but we do not know the shape of the United States, so we failed on that one. Yeah, that one bit. We we we didn't know Rhode Island was Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

So we were out to a really good lead. Of course, we were tied with four, well, eight points after the first round. I guess for listeners, the key thing to remember is there's four rounds, four questions per round. At the end of every round, there's a chance to double your points. You can just wager as many as you want or as many as you have. And of course, we tend to go big or go home. So we doubled at the end of the first round. What did we do at the end of the second round? We had 23.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

We did not wager anything because we did not know the answer.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah, because that was they showed us a picture of a book cover without the title, of course, and asked what book is this from.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Well, everybody knows, Matt, it's the catcher in the ride. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

I mean, we know that now.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

But it was a hor it was like a carousel horse, and we did not we didn't put two and two together, apparently. So that was I'm guessing our Monday night group probably would have had a shot at that one. Yeah. But us two, no. Not gonna do well. Not at all. Because we yeah, we are not literature guys, we are not geography guys. And the other one that seems to bite us all the time is the periodic table of elements. Yes. That kicks our butt every time.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

We did know KO for Coke on the stock exchange. That was a stock button. That's like a periodic table. Kind of. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

I don't I wonder if there's an element that has KO as its whatever. But yeah, so trivia. So going into what we had, yeah, 38 points at the end of the third round going into the double question. And we were at what were we in second?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

No, no, no. At least third or fourth, yeah, at that point. Because there was someone with 44, uh 91, or whatever, and yeah, so that was the Rhode Island one.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

So they just showed a picture of the outline of the state and said, What state is this? And we said, New Hampshire. We were debating between New Hampshire and Mississippi.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Oh, we weren't because I was Joe knew it was not Mississippi. Joe knew it wasn't Mississippi.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

I was convinced that it was something with a southern shoreline because of that island sticking off the south side.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah, which was right, because Rhode Island hangs off the right side of the United States, and the bottom of it is exposed to the Atlantic Ocean.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I could not even have told you that it was right next to Massachusetts. I would have put it closer to like Maryland.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

I knew it was like in the 13 colonies area. That's all I knew.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

True, so it's somewhere in New England.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

I don't think of Rhode Island as a New England state.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

And maybe it wasn't. It's just in the vicinity. I have no idea. Again, we're not very good at history either.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

True. Literature, history, elements, all that kind of stuff. And geography.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

We did get an art question right tonight, though. Michelangelo. Oh, well, yeah. That was yeah, that was pretty good. But anyway, so the new format, we tend to like it. I like it because the double you get more chances to double. Of course, that means more chances to go back to zero and start over if you wager all your points like we did. And yeah, so we didn't end up in the last place, which was good. We did not. But we didn't have a chance at the final question. No, we didn't. I don't think anybody got no.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

No, no, nobody got it right. But the teams out front just didn't wager a lot of points. Banana splits and people in dog costumes or something from the 60s, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah, that was kind of kind of weird. So anyway, so that's the trivia update. We did not win, but we had a good time, which is the whole idea anyway. Yeah. So if you don't do trivia, I know it's not for everybody. We think it's a lot of fun though. So you should try it out if you haven't ever before.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

We we think we're on our third year. We're not sure. Yeah, it's it might be two, it might be four. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

It's better for our knees than bowling was. Yes. Alright.

Cowboys Outlook And Jerry Jones Anxiety

SPEAKER_01 6:49

So, next on the agenda, cowboy critique. I know it's not football season yet, but it's not far away. It's 29 days. Is it? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Until like the first kick. First kick on Wednesday night for the first time ever. Is that the Hall of Fame game? No, that was already played um earlier this week. Really? Yes. That must be a preseason. It is. It's preseason. The Hall of Fame game is always preseason in Canton, Ohio. Who played? Uh Arizona and Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Okay, so two powerhouse teams.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah, it turned out to be uh an interesting game. Carolina wins 33 to 30. So that was good.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Alright. So how do you think the Cowboys are gonna do this year? Are we expecting them to make the playoffs?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yes. Really? Barn Barn injury. They have a top three offense in the league, you know, with Dak and CD and Prescott and Okay, but do they really George Pickens?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I mean, I know they have good receivers. To me, it always seems like Dak is the question.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

No, he's gonna be fine. If he stays healthy, they're gonna be fine. They're gonna they're gonna score lots of points. He just doesn't strike me as a clutch guy. Yeah. No, they're uh he'll be fine. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Alright. As long as Jerry Jones doesn't interfere too much and mess everything up.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

But that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Jerry's gonna be Jerry.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Undoubtedly, Jerry Jones is gonna screw things up.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Alright. So the the Cowboys' defense should be a bit better. They they drafted a kid out of Ohio State, I believe, Caleb Downs. Nice. Like number one at his position coming out of college, so we'll see how that goes.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Ohio State does tend to generate some pretty good players.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yes. Yeah. Let me see here. Making sure my information is correct. Joe is Dallas Cowboys. Caleb Downs. No, no, just uh verifying my information. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Looking up Cowboys info.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yeah, so the the the first game of for the Cowboys this year is Monday night or Sunday night, Monday night, whatever, against the Giants. It's in New York, so we'll see how that goes. I forget the Giants suck bad last year. No, they they have some young, impressive talent and a new coach in uh John Harbaugh. Oh, really? From the Ravens? Yeah, he got fired. I like that guy. He got always solid. He got fired on the way home by a phone call. That's a bunch of junk. It is a bunch of junk. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Interesting. Well, I like their coach then. He seems like he's he should turn things around eventually. Yeah. And New York has money, I assume, because they're New York. Yeah. I mean, as much as everybody. Alright.

Survivor Season Talk And Cast Gripes

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Next up, Survivor Rocks. I know it's not Survivor time of year. What did you think of season 50?

SPEAKER_00 9:53

It was fun. I liked it. I really like Mr. Beast coming on and just thinking. The $2 million coin flips. Coin flips by Devons was like way to go, Rick. You know. Couldn't have scripted it any better.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Who won?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Aubrey, I mean. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

I thought she did a good job of kind of coasting from group to group. Yeah, she did. Kind of navigated her way through. I thought it was sad, of course, that Cere got booted, but she's such a threat.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Everybody knows she's a threat. Is a bonehead. That's why he blabbed his mouth. Yep. Later on this day. It's Rizgot or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Who I hate so much. I don't know if I who do I hate more? Him or um the landman's son of Landman. Oh, Cooper? Cooper? I hate that guy.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Okay, I don't know why. You gotta it's gotta be Rizgod. You gotta hate Rizgod. He's just annoying. True, he's a real person.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

He's just a character for the other one.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

There's a cop. Let's slow down a little bit. Yeah. Sheriff. Alright. So yeah, Rizgod's a real person. Oh, he's just so annoying.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Looking forward to the new season, which should be coming up in September, I thought. Yeah. September. A big month. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

So yeah, we will get into more survivor recaps in the future.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah.

Dad Joke Of The Week

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Alright, next on the list, Dad joke of the week.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Alright. Well, are you ready for this one, man? Absolutely. Alright. What did the horse say after it tripped?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

I never I could probably sit here for 45 minutes to think of something. Yeah, we're gonna be to your house before then, so you gotta talk quicker. So I what would what did the horse say when it tripped? I don't know. Oh, oh, something about two left feet? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Do they have two left feet? Actually they four feet. They got two on the left and two on the right. So you got two left feet. I got two left feet. Yeah, but no, that's not the answer. Alright, what's the answer? Help! I fall and I can't giddy up. There's a laying dead on the window.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

It's so bad. It's good, but it's it's it's I love how terrible it is. That's what makes it good. Yeah. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

I will try to tell that to the kids.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

See if I can mess it up.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

But okay, your new kids are so young, they're not gonna understand the reference. Maybe. I don't know. We'll try it. And your old kids, I think, just like stare off and then. Oh, they would just roll their eyes.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah, it's like whatever. Yeah. I need to do that more to Josh. He and I used to do that all the time. Just at each other. That was like an inside joke we had.

Movie Thoughts And TV Picks

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Okay, seeing any good movies or we'll just say TV shows lately. I saw the new Spider-Man. I liked it. I know some critics I've listened to did not, but I mean it's a good movie. The Punisher was cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Well, the the last movie I saw was The Odyssey.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Oh yeah, in the 95-degree theater. Yeah. We were doing hot yoga while watching a movie because the AC went out at the sperry.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

That probably uh had an impact on what I thought because it was kind of long and drug out for me. I fell asleep for 10 minutes at some point. Okay. To be honest, it was longer than 10 minutes. Oh, was it? I'm just letting you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

And I didn't miss a thing. Yeah, I didn't miss. Oh my gosh. I mean, great actors in it. You know what I thought was interesting? That whoever Tom Holland's character was tumeculus or whatever, he called his dad dad. I'm like, that just ruined it for me somehow. I'm like, wait, this is like ancient Greece or something? I don't think he would say dad. Would he just call him father? Yeah, something. A little more, you know, I don't know, a little more British sounding. Just using the word dad just ruined the Odysseus. Yeah. He called him dad, though. Dad Odysseus? Oh, whatever. Like that was just really weird.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Yeah, the the part that really probably kicked me in the gut the most was just the dog laying there the whole sh movie waiting for him to come back, just starving to death, and then finally he comes home and pets him and then he dies. The dog dies.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

The dog does not make it through the movie. Oh, spoiler alert, sorry. Yeah, spoiler alert. The Trojan horse part was cool. Yeah. I thought that was good. Yeah, that was that was good. So, okay. So any good movies. Alright, what do you what's like your what's the best TV something you've watched in the last month, would you say?

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Oh. Um I don't have nothing for you. No? No. I should've I should have looked at the agenda first so I could come up with some ideas. Oh, alright. But uh the the best thing on a TV lately, I mean um well, like I mentioned earlier tonight, for the folks at home there, uh my wife and I finished the closer. We liked it. Um it's got Kira Sedgel in it, uh Kevin Bacon's wife. Oh, there you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Now is that like how when was the latest season actually made? Um like 2018?

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So it's not a new show. No, it's seven seasons long. It's not a new show, no. It definitely finished before COVID. And she's an attorney, I assume. No, she's a detective. Oh, really? Yeah, she's uh cop thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Alright. I'd say if she's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Brenda Lee Johnson. Who's that? That's her character.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

That's her character's name. She's the head of major crimes in Los Angeles. Okay. Oh, and uh, and uh um shoot. Simmons. J.K. Simmons. Oh, I like that guy. Yeah, he's uh he's a big character in it too, chief of police. He was pretty buff as Santa Claus in that movie.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

In Red One? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's uh he's kind of become a pretty big name for someone who was always like uh just one of those guys for quite a while it seems. Yeah, and then uh He's kind of come on in the last five years.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

The the reporter guy in Spider-Man? Yeah, Jonah Jameson.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Yeah, did you not like him in that role? He was turd in that one. Because he didn't like Spider-Man. It's like who doesn't like Spider-Man? Come on, you're a douche.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Yeah, Spider-Man's like Spider-Man was like the first greatest superhero movie ever in like 2000 or 2001 or whatever it was. Yeah, that was pre-Iteman, right? Yeah, Toby Maguire. It was the first one. Okay, say you got Superman and Batman, but then Spider-Man with Toby Maguire and and uh you know Will Default.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

So much better. It was Superman or the Batman ones from the late 80s, early 90s. Those were so hokey compared to Spider-Man. Yeah, it was yeah, that I agree. That was way good. Yeah, I can't believe how good Toby Maguire looked in the newer Spider-Man where all three of the Spider-Man came together, which I know you didn't see that. But he looked amazing for being, I don't even know, 60 or whatever age he is.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Like, holy crap, he's there's no way Toby Maguire is 60 years old.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Well, but if okay, he was like let's look, let's look him up. He's probably 50. Because he was playing Spider-Man. 51. Holy crap! There you go. So yeah, for being 51, he looked amazing in that movie. I don't think he was playing a 51-year-old Spider-Man in that one. So as far as me, I know we're watching the Marvelous Mrs. Mazel, or watching the original Battlestar Galactica. We're happy that the new that Ted Lasso season 4 came back. I'd say that. We were just happy to see Ted Lasso come back.

Tips For Younger People And Closing

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Alright, and then the last item on our list, tips for the young'ins. So what's one tip or piece of advice you would give people? Now we're both in our 50s, mid-50s. So okay, let's say to the 30-year-olds and under out there, what's a piece of advice you'd have. Well it's gonna be hard to limit it to just one.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Yeah. Don't uh two things. Know your audience, and don't feel entitled. You are owed nothing. You gotta work for it. You gotta earn the respect. It's not given, it's earned.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

So I would agree. Don't feel like you get a job and are gonna move up the chain in six months. Just because, right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Just because you show up.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah. No, it is interesting because I would say there are probably some fairly new college grads that are very smart, and from a tech standpoint, they can work circles around me. But still, it's like, okay, I've been doing this almost 30 years, and you've been doing this for three weeks. It's you know, you're not gonna know everything about everything in in three weeks. There's a learning curve that goes with everything, so I like that. Um just know how to do basic stuff, know how to use a hammer and a drill, and a saw, and a paint roller. It's amazing how much you can get done with basic tools. You don't have to I mean we don't fix everything these days. Like appliances or whatever. You can learn what's I know how to do it. I figured out how to like for it. Like, don't be afraid of figure that kind of thing out. You can save yourself. I'd also say don't be afraid of making mistakes. You're gonna mess things up. Don't let it not the end of the world. From it. Yeah, from it. And don't be afraid to do it. And then of course probably not a bad idea to say what can I do now. Twenty three. That would have been terrified. All right. We pulled into the garage a minute ago. So we are gonna sign off. Thank you all for listening. All right. Twenty two minute podcast. So we will do it again next week. Have a good one.