Chapter 1: What is Will's relationship with the Survivor fandom?
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Welcome to Pod Meets World, a podcast that once chronicled two guys who had never seen Dancing with the Stars, but watched a season and somehow walked away experts. From there, we ventured into Traitors, a show I'd never seen, but one Will swore he could win. And now we turn to Survivor Season 50, the big one. And this time the roles are reversed. Will has seen exactly one season, the first one.
Meanwhile, I've watched for years. We are Will Friedle, who prefers his wilderness with room service, and Rider Strong, who will hike any mountain, but hates the beach. Two best friends, one devoted to the comforts of civilization, one who would never leave the woods if he could, both reality competition scholars. Yep.
Join us as we dive into Alliance's blindsides, fire-making, sand-related misery, and 25 years of television history culminating in a single massive season. This is Pod Meets Twirled, Seeking Immunity. All right, in your journey through Survivor, how did this episode, did it make you feel better? Are you still not into it?
I'm still not into it. My God. I don't like this show. I'm sorry. It's literally just people sitting around lying to each other and having awful conversations about who to...
What do you think Traders is? Traders is literally that with salmon locks being taken.
That's all it is. There's three people lying on Traders, everyone else telling the truth. The point is to go and find the liars in this wonderful pageantry. It's so overwhelming.
the top and crazy this takes itself so seriously and it's just it's five minutes of let's walk on the beach and swim in the ocean to untie knots and then 90 minutes of them going who should we kick off I think we should kick this person off I think we should kick this and then people sitting there like staring at the camera the people are annoying I like nobody I don't like this show.
I don't like this show.
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Chapter 2: How do Will and Rider critique the Survivor challenges?
I'm just supposed to have seen all of the episodes before. And that's how I'm supposed to have known what's going on. So they're going to take out the survivor of Survivor and just make it for the people that are already fans.
That's bullshit. But see, I think what's funny is that what you're actually seeing on screen Is identical. They're just... In Traitors, they're just in nice outfits, in a nice castle, eating well. Oh, see, I disagree. It's like literally... And they're like... It's not. They're like walking around like a beautiful grounds and like everyone's in crazy outfits.
So it has this... Like I said, this level of like distance and irony to it that for you makes it more fun because it's like... Like the stakes are never supposed to be high. Whereas this, you're mad that the stakes are implied to be higher, but you don't get to experience those high stakes.
It's got to be one. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
If it's a high stakes thing, show me the high stakes. But what's actually happening is identical. Like the complaint that you have for Survivor, you could apply to Traitors.
No, but it's not a group of liars. But Traitors is not 20 liars. They purposely pick three liars.
Okay, but you're watching people decide whether they can trust each other or not.
Right, right. But it's the same. But again, when they're all at trial, and I know I'm jumping ahead, but when they're all at tribal council later, one of the things, the tribal councils, by the way, if I have to hear the music in the background of these f***ing tribal councils one more time, I'm going to start swinging on whoever's sitting next to me. So I feel bad whoever's next to me.
It's awful. It's like, oh my God, shut the f*** up. So they're sitting there. Angry Will. We got Angry Will this morning. Oh, God. They're sitting there because I'm like, this is a show made for people that are already fans of this show. It's like that's all this is. So they even say like they're sitting there and they're going, oh, yeah, I know that I'm being put this.
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Chapter 3: What are the differing perspectives on Survivor between Will and Rider?
OK, well, then cut back to what happened in the last season to show me why she wanted to hand somebody her jacket. It's like he might as well. Somebody might turn around and go to boop, but you poop and everybody goes, oh, my God, he didn't. And I'm going, what what's what's going on? So they're literally just making this show for people who already watch this show.
And that's a dumb ass way to do it.
No, I totally get your criticism. I totally get your complaints. But I think like the blanket thing, you could see what was going on. Like I that didn't need to be established that she just was doing a nice thing.
No, no, it wasn't. She said it was important for me to hand over my jacket. And they're like, that was a great way to end a great wraparound. They're clearly stating that this had happened in the past. And somebody had handed her a jacket or some, it was a callback to her season.
I didn't get that. I literally just thought it was like, Nope. Oh, she's just going to be nice and, and give them something to keep them warm, even though they voted her out.
That's why they all looked at her and they're like, Oh man, that's so cool that you did the thing that happened that we're not explaining at all. Awesome.
And I was like, what the hell is going on?
Yeah.
So yeah, I get that man. But I, I still think it's funny to, I think it's like, I think, um, Yeah, like I think this season is not a good one for you to come in on, obviously. I got to start earlier ones, apparently. Yeah, but I'm surprised that you can't like, because like what you're actually watching to me is truly not that different except in tone.
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Chapter 4: Why does Will dislike the current season of Survivor?
I mean, it's like, show me these things. Can they fish? Show me. He's obviously. Yes. Show me this stuff. The idea. This is where it's made for people that already watch Survivor. And so what they're saying is there's two major elements to survivor. It gets two things. You have to survive. You have to survive the harshness of the land and you have to survive the backstabbing of the game.
And now what we're going to do is we're going to take out the harshness of the land and assume you already know that. And now you just have to be okay with that. Yes.
I'm asking you as my fellow co-host to have faith that that happens. Because otherwise, you're just going to be railing against, you know... Yes, but it makes for bad television.
Sure. But that's all I'm asking for in television is not bad television.
No, no, no. But I think it's not bad television for those of us who... Have watched every single season. Exactly. Or just accept that that's the given, you know, you talk about the pageantry of traders, right? And you accept that pageantry. You accept the, you know, the unreality of it. In this case, you're having a hard time accepting the reality of it.
You're saying that the unreality, which makes it look too easy for them, on the surface means that you lose interest. Because the reality, and I'm telling you, actually the reality, as far as by all accounts, is exactly what you're describing. And you're not willing to accept that to enjoy the show because you're upset that the unreality is not mirroring that.
Do you see what I'm saying? That's a double standard. No, what I'm saying is, as a television fan aficionado addict... When you came into Traders, you got it right away. I didn't need to say to you, hey, what you needed to see for the last four seasons to really understand what's going on is you have to understand they blah, blah, blah, and they blah, blah, blah, and they blah, blah, blah.
You and I could just sit down and watch the show. Every week now, you're having to explain to me stuff that I don't understand because I didn't watch the first seasons. That's just a bad television show. That's a show made for people. The show every year. should do a recap episode.
The first half of the episode, here's what you get, you know, show them cooking a little bit, have a, if you've got a 90 minute show and you can't find seven minutes in the show to show that I'm really hungry, there's no, we overcooked this. We didn't catch any fish this week.
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Chapter 5: What are the main differences between Survivor and Traitors?
Maybe you now have a water filtration system you have to build because you no longer have access to the fresh water. Maybe ramp up the survivor part as opposed to ramping up just the cattiness. which is all it is. It's people, it's, I'm seeing a bunch of 10 year olds backstabbing each other going like, oh my God, I can't believe Claire just said this about you on the playground.
And here's what we should do. I have an idol so that we can get Claire kicked off the playground.
That's all traitors is. That's literally all traitors is. But it literally says we're going to take people and put them in a situation where they act like 10 year olds like and play.
But they're playing a game. They're playing a child's game where three people, you know, three people are liars. Not all 26 are liars.
Well, I totally get your criticism. I just don't see how. To me, there's a double standard. I don't think there is. And not this.
I think that is complete and total difference between a bunch of. essentially now reality show actors, which is what they are, which is all traders was again, agreed. No, no, I'm talking about traders. And again, a lot of them are going to be mirrored that coming on to a place where it's the pageantry. Three people are going to be liars. Yes.
It's about who you're going to trust in kind of the fun way. And all the rules are always the same. And another one where it's exactly the same thing on an island.
Not all the rules are always the same. They're changing the rules on Traitors just as much as they're changing the rules on Survivor. No, they're adding occasional things. But that's not changing the rules.
Yes, it is.
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Chapter 6: How do alliances impact gameplay in Survivor?
Yes, that he says. It was Genevieve. Yeah, so he still got his idol. Okay. Yeah, and I, you know, like, I feel this, man. Like, if I got backstabbed, I would have a hard time just being like, oh, fair, our game's a game. You know, like, cool. But you gotta play.
You know, I have to say something. Yeah. And it's to your point from before.
Mm-hmm.
maybe and it's this is quite possible this is oh my god this is i need to talk to a psychiatrist kind of thing what this could be bringing me back to is times in like middle school and high school where you find out there's a party and your friends were there and weren't invited totally man that kind of stuff it bring maybe it's the agita i'm feeling that it brings me back to those and it's real it's not game friends dude and it feels real i know and that's two two
I feel the same way. This is why I think I would be really bad at any of these kinds of things. I take this shit so personally. Yeah. And like... And, you know, like they talk about later on in this episode, I think it was Devon's at Tribal Council, about how important it is to see the show that you were on to see how other people react behind your back. Yes. And I was like...
Yes, that's why I don't want to be on a reality show. Oh, God. Because I like living in the delusional world where I'm the coolest person and people don't talk about me behind my back. No one says anything about me ever. I know that's not true, but I also don't want to see it. I don't want to hear it. This is why being a public figure sucks so bad.
I know, I know.
Being on reality, that's what I like about being an actor is that you're within the context of the movie or the show. You're on Traitor's. But being a famous person? Yeah. Yeah, traitors, I think you're acting the same degree.
Maybe that's why I'm drawn to it because it's like a caricature of yourself as opposed to this. But I felt that feeling of like, and we did it without social media where it's nowadays kids are like, wait, there's a big party. My two best friends were there and I didn't get a call. That shit happens all the time. Oh, wow. And so I got that kind of edge. Well, there you go, man. I appreciate that.
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Chapter 7: What happens during the immunity challenge?
All right, challenge starts. Jonathan and Ozzy take the lead. Joe is struggling a little bit. Yeah. He's gassed, as Charlie says, which I was surprised by.
I was like, dude, yeah. You know, muscles, like lean, a lot of times, especially when you're not getting calories and sustenance, big muscles is not. Not great.
A big problem. Yeah, you see people struggle with this shit all the time, like the big guys, because they've been eating a lot and building muscle. That's, again, starve yourself.
Yeah, starve yourself. Somebody like Rizzo's body type could be way better on the island than somebody like the Giant's body type. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
So, Callow does start to fall behind, but then Tiff does this rope whip move. How badass is that? Killing it. It was the coolest thing. And like, I think that literally wins them the challenge. Yeah. Because she does that, which catches them up almost immediately.
Well, did you notice the other thing she did? She wasn't going one bag at a time. She wasn't opening a bag and dumping it. She undid all the bags and then dumped them.
So she just did one motion, right?
One motion, grabbed the next one. The next motion, instead of stopping to dump the bags, so then she could dump them all.
It was brilliant. So cool. I wonder if she like practiced that or just discovered it in the moment, but it was awesome to see. And I love that even Jeff is like... never seen that in Survivor. Yeah. Yeah.
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Chapter 8: What were the outcomes of the tribal councils in this episode?
Let's search it for gold. Like that kind of like making stuff up. It was so cool. Oh, that's so cool. So yeah, it would be that for survivor.
Too bad we didn't have cameras back then. We would have had footage of that.
Right. Yeah, exactly. It was great.
All right, well, Tribal ends with Charlie getting voted out. I was surprised.
I was surprised and a little bummed. Yeah, me too. A little bummed. Me too. You're feeding into this dude's ego about how he's the greatest of all time. Yeah.
He's not better than the Tidewalker. And I guess this is Charlie's first time because the last season that he played, he made it to the final three. So this is the only time he's ever been voted out. So that's what he says. And he's like, oh, I guess now I know what it's like to have my smoke trapped in, as Indy would say.
Exactly. Trapped or smoking. Trapped or smoking. So the last, it makes it to a final three.
Yeah. There's sometimes, some seasons it's been four, some seasons it's been two. But yeah, I think it's been a final three now.
So then you're obviously not voted out. It's just somebody of that group wins.
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