S: Survivor, Brawn versus Brains in, as they say,

S:Samoa.

D:Samoa.

S: Samoa.

D: Samoa.

S: Samoa.

D: Samoa.

S: So this is the second brains versus brawn. The first one was in Outback Australia and that was four years ago. Survivor Australia of course has not been as successful as the original survivor, but it is still pretty good.

S: Actually, I should also state that I am a big survivor fan, but I’m not a hardcore fan like I would not go on this show and we will discuss the reasons why, and also because, there’s a lot of seasons I have missed, etc. but I do know the history of it, and I do know that a British man actually created it.

S: But of course. The British will do anything to make their lives more exciting. You know, create a show about other people’s reality, starvation and no place to sleep. Oh my God. But anyway, this is all light, you know, light stuff. So I can’t remember what his name is. If I recall correctly, it is Charlie Parsons? Yes.

S: The first ever show was in Europe. It was somewhere in Scandinavia. Then it went over to the States. And also Jeff Probst, who apparently was near, you know, poverty at that time before he got the job, is the host.

S: Well, he is the legendary host of survivor. I really do like, that Jonathan LaPaglia is the host of Australia’s Survivor. It’s important because the first host of the Australian survivor was, I told you, Dicko.

S: Yeah. Wow. He was not good. He is a good judge for Australian Idol, which he became really famous for, even though he was a well-known producer, blah, blah, blah. But, he wasn’t a good host for Survivor because you need someone who is quite cohesive, but who can be a little bit of a shit stirrer themselves.

S: Excuse the language. And JLP can stir the pot, because Dicko is not a shit stirrer.

D: He was the guy that told the truth.

S: Yes. According to the constructs standards and stipulations. But there’s also a way for a host to be able to make everyone feel welcome and he has to make everyone feel like equal players. JLP does it well. So I’m a huge fan of survivor, as I said, not hardcore but huge, and that there are many seasons that I just love. And I do want to get to this because I love that you like it now.

D: Well, I have watched a few. I think I’ve watched one season, I think one of the first seasons, and I think it was a US one, and I think I have watched an Australian survivor. I’ve never understood why I liked it.

S: The reason I love it is because it is this wonderful social experiment.

D: Absolutely. It’s it’s a little tiny world. And you can see the construct playing out as it does in life almost. But the difference is everyone on this island is got some level of intelligence. Because let’s let’s face it, right. In the real world, not everyone has the same level of intelligence and is on the playing field at different levesl. But over here, everyone’s on the same level. They’ve got the same thing.

S: So is that’s equity or is that equality. Because in the real world, what is equal is the construct that says the lie that everyone can have everything they want as long as they all do this.

S: But the different levels of intelligence, does that mean you don’t know how to navigate certain things?

D: And so in that way most people have more advantage just because of that. Right.

D: But over here everyone’s kind of the same. Everyone’s there. Everyone knows what the game’s about. And like in life, some people do get some advantages. You know, like in the game. This is insane.

S: It is. And this is why it’s interesting, Putting them into groups like Brawn versus Brains and what people consider their strengths.

S: And so shall we do the breakdown of, I keep saying characters because it is like a soap opera of life.

D: Well, this is a game. They’re playing a game. They’re, players? But they are characters because they have personalities. And so they think they’re larger than life.

S: And that makes for good television when people think they’re larger than life. Because if you’re larger than life you don’t need to do much better. It doesn’t require a lot.

S: So let’s start with, the OG Brawn. And as we recap, as we go through the episodes, then people understand why we say OG Brawn.

S: First of all, we have Morgan. She is an Olympian and, father is black American Mother is Euro white Australian. Mother is also, I think, her manager. And they are very close. 

So we think immediately, oh my gosh, an Olympian, the focus is there and you know, she doesn’t waver and all of that.

D: Yeah. This is interesting because you can tell how someone is just by what they do.

S: You know what? It is true. Anyway, the choices of what they do and what they, But the things that you think will make you win only make you win in your world.

D: Yeah. So put someone in a different arena/environment. See how the strengths work there, you know, and it’s interesting what unfolds.

S: Morgan in another episode says something when she goes up against, another, tribe member for a challenge and says, well, and says, yeah, I’m just a runner. You know, anyway.

S: So moving on, Noonan. Right. What are your thoughts? That’s her surname, by the way. Yeah. She’s living in the shadow of the male Noonans.

D: So she comes straight off the bat saying she’s in the shadow of her brothers and she’s going to leave here being the only Noonan that’s been remembered.

S: So that’s what she said. And she’s right, because I’d never known a Noonan.

I now she is the only Noonan I know.

D: There is only one Noonan.

S: But she’s very much got a point to make. But she’s not strategic. Where that she just, she plays the child games that her brothers forced her to play when they were all, you know, saying, come on, you want to keep up?

S: All right, moving on to ZENilla Ice. I’m very curious. Oh, my. Sorry, Zen.

S: So he’s he’s a hip hop artist. It looks like he’s doing well in life. And I like his attitude. I like his optimism. But I have to cringe a little because I do know so many guys like that. He thinks he’s got all the answers because he’s on the brawn team. But he could have been on the brains because, you know, he’s a businessman and he learns two words a day.

S: And yes, people can laugh at that, but I think, good for you because that’s what it takes. You have to learn. because it’s all so clinical in some ways and so textbook. And this is the what the pros do.

S: Anyway moving on. So we’ve got Kate. Right. And she’s the DJ and the dancer and really skinny and I had said something during the show when we were watching and you didn’t comment on it because you didn’t notice it or it doesn’t matter to you. But as a woman and a Gen Xer in my mid-fifties, someone also as an ex-model who used to wear, you know, dental floss on on runways, I looked at what Morgan and Kate are wearing and I think, why are you so underdressed?

D: Well, I don’t say anything because I’m used to it. Right. Okay, so I mean, that’s what I used to see on beaches. You go to the beach, you see ass.

S: But for me, now I see butts everywhere, asses everywhere. And like a part of me is like, what is my problem with that? We’ve all got asses. Why am I sexualising an ass? But then I think, why is ass being sexualised all over the place, and why do we actually have to see them on television all the time? I can no longer stand it on social media. Every time you go on Instagram, there’s a bare ass there.

S: I don’t care. Skinny, large, rounded, flat. I don’t care. I’m tired of seeing ass. And I don’t know why. Because a part of me also admires the young woman, especially these young women who don’t care. They all wear g-strings on the beach and it’s just natural for them. Even my ex, de facto stepdaughter in front of her father and, you know, all on the beach with him.

S: I’m like, well, you’re a white chick. They’ve always done those things. But as a liberated woman I used to be topless on beaches back in the 80s, 90s to.

Doesn’t that sound crazy? Thank you for pointing out the absurdity of that. You know, because, this is in Fiji and we were a bit more liberated but we were private. Also on beaches in Australia back then you did see women topless.

S: But now it’s like, oh my God, there’s a woman topless. And I think it is the multiculturalism which I think is a good thing but I also think that the modernity of a “no cultural life” should also teach people of too much tradition and too much culturalism that it is okay to not make things taboo.

S: Countries like Australia should be leading the way in levelling the field and teaching the no culture people why it is sometimes very, very lovely and important and significant for growth to have some privacy in reserve.

D: Yeah sure.

S; And also courtesy and respect and not go and just steal everybody else’s things. That’s another thing. But also multicultural and people of culture that is bound by tradition and customs could learn a lot from modern ways. And, come on, we can all do this with common unity, with respect.

Not everyone’s got it wrong.

S: So let’s go back to survivor. All right, so Kate is a dancer and a DJ. Yeah. She’s tiny, they’re all half naked. And now as I’m watching it, it’s like I’m almost getting immune to it. It’s like, oh, okay. They’re always naked. It’s on a beach. But now for me, I’m going to tell you the practical reasons.

S: As a as a bikini wearing woman, I know on a beach, if you’re running around playing games and whatever, sand goes up everywhere. Oh yeah. And so they’re finding out that sliding down things and whatever bare ass is not fun. But I think women, a certain kind of woman who has got the body can use your nudity, your nakedness as a shield. So people concentrate on the surface and they forget to look at who you are.

D: So that’s what Kate’s doing?

S: Yeah, because I read something interesting about Kate and which made me watch her from the start. She has OCD, right? But she is a DJ who plays to large crowds and a dancer.

The OCD part helps the dancer because dancers are very rigid because they’ve got to learn choreography while being fluid. So there’s a lot of things that go in all these people’s minds that I love.

S: Moving on to PD. Your thoughts.

D: Football coach. Right. Looks like a strong player. Strategic. I assumed off the bat, but then, like. But, I had no idea what I was watching until about the third or fourth episode.

S: Because I threw you in the deep end.

D: So not until about the fourth episode did I started picking some things out.

S: You have been able to pick who gets voted out at each in each episode. And you understand the machinations and, and the things that people are doing, what they think they’re doing.

S: So PD, that’s your first impression?

D: Yeah. I wasn’t impressed. But now I’m like… hmmm… strategy?

S: Now. Ursula. She’s a mother. She’s just a stay at home mom. When she introduces herself in the first episode. Except the muscles have muscles on them.

D: That’s right. Yeah.

S: And she’s tiny. She’s absolutely tiny. But, she’s, you know, you can tell that she’s there. She’s focused and she’s very strong minded, strong, strong. She’s very strong.

S: So she’s on the Brawn team. Of course. And speaking of strong, you have Ben, who is a stone mason, classic Aussie guy.

D: I mean, he looks like a stonemason.

S: He does, doesn’t he? And he’s just, you know, and you think, okay, he’s just going to be the quiet one. But, you know, if he’s a stonemason, he’s hauling things. So of course he’s strong. But then he’s a landscaper. They’ve got to lay things so they know how to plan ahead.

S: Then you’ve got Jessie the skateboarder. He’s.

D: Yeah, he’s Jessie. Jessie the skateboarder.

S: He’s Jessie the skateboarder. Yeah. Cool. He’s good there. He’s the have fun guy in the group. Got a bun in the oven.

D: Does have skateboarder skills. Good on his feet. All right. These are the assumptions you make just by knowing what they do.

S: So, moving on. Paulie, who’s a paramedic. And look. Oh, my gosh, the style is dripping off Paulie because he is from Sydney. He is a paramedic. And is also very wonderfully and I mean this in the loveliest way, a gay guy. He’s wonderfully gay and it’s lovely. Look, I like Paulie. I guess we can ascertain that from the start. Yeah, he’s one of my favorites right now, so I just, I just like his, the way he’s playing the game.

D: Yeah. It’s fun. He’s having fun, and it’s not sinister.

S: No. And he said something at the start like, gosh, you know, this is a game. So I’m just going to have to play.

D: That’s right. Because you have to.

S: And this is why I don’t want to go in this game.

S: Because I know in order to win you’ve got to be willing to make someone else lose, and I don’t like that.

D: That’s the thing. If you play the game just remember somebody is going to lose.

S: Oh I hate that. Both of us do. Anyway.

D: So we like Paulie.

S: Yeah. He’s a favorite of mine.

S: Okay. Moving on. Kristin, who is an aviation firefighter, looks like just a very unassuming woman. Blondie, you know, from Sydney, and she’s an aviation firefighter. You have to really think of that. Aviation fire fighter. Oh, my God. And she looks tough.

D: Yes, but she looks lovely.

S: You know what she looks like?

The classic Aussie outback or country woman, right? Solid stock.

D: Yeah, man.

S: I love the Euro White Women of the Outback. You can depend on them. If you go Outback, they’re the ones who really worked in conjunction with indigenous people because they recognise indigenous people, knew what they were doing.

S: Anyway. So that’s what Kristin reminds me of.

S: And then we have Candy.

S: She’s a model because you’ve got to put someone in there that everyone’s just going to go, “nah. Not her”. She’s a model, but she does say something interesting up in the opening episode. She’s a country girl from Western Australia, which means she’s probably used to getting up at the crack of dawn and chasing the cattle.

S: I’m assuming, because every time you hear Country Girl from whatever, and I do know country girls and I know what they have to do. But they’re different in every state. Anyway. So Candy may be a model because she’s cute, but don’t discount her.

D: That’s right.

S: Then you have Nash.

D: Yeah. He came to play straight away.

S: Which I can respect. He’s in sales. You have to have some level of intelligence to be there.

D: These aren’t normal people.

S: But the people are chosen for the compatibility or, their non compatibility as well.

D: Sure. How does a team of people who are not compatible work well together?

S: That’s right.

S: But they don’t just pick whoever they’ve got to go through. They’ve got to audition.

S: These are people who represent human beings and society, human beings. And so everyone has something else to them. Or the people who in society are supposedly successful in this microcosm.

S: So things require distance and quantity of people surrounding them, and the environment to be a successful system. For me, survivor is a very interesting look at how society works, how people work.

D: And this is what this is the question I always ask.Take everything away. Who are you in this world without anything? This is the game that that shows who a person is.

S: But, darling, they still think that what they have and are on the outside helps them.

D: Absolutely.

S: I like Nash being a sales person who can sell anything to anyone.

S: And you and I both went, sorry, Nash. We wouldn’t buy from you. But there are people who get absolutely blown away by Nash’s glib manner and easy ways.

S: And for me, because I’m just that kind of person. And because we’ve been discussing them I can go back and psycho-evaluate them according to what happened to them in their childhoods and how they were brought up.

S: I say that having been someone who has really examined my own brain, having to restructure after breaking from trauma, blah, blah, blah, but this is why I feel I have some stance in being able to say certain things like, I can psycho-evaluate all of these people without needing a Euro institution degree to say that I can do that.

S: But let’s for the sake of this recap, we’re just going to keep it light. So that’s the Brawn.