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B (2:29)

Hi everybody and welcome to RHAPS coverage of the Amazing Race 38 aka oops all big Brother. My name is Mike Bloom and we are back with another preseason podcast leading up to to the premiere of the Amazing Ways 38, which, in case you are not aware, will feature a cast filled with Big Brother alumni and their significant others. Listen, for very particular, understandable reasons, there might be an off ramp going on right now. When it comes as a concept, and much like the Amazing Race, that perfect off ramp exists in the form of this season. And today we're going to, I think, do a bit of education or re education for people who may be checking out the Amazing Race for the first time. For the first time in a long time, telling you why you should watch this season of the Amazing Race premiering on Thursday, September 25th. And I am joined by quite the duo to do so. First, let me welcome in our chief Amazing Race correspondent who will be here with me every week covering everything going down in the Amazing Race. Jessica Lees. Jess, how are you?

A (3:39)

Well, Mike, I think it's more accurate to say you'll be here with me. But regardless, it's good to see you. Barely recognized you in civilian clothes, but very excited to get started on the season.

B (3:51)

Yeah, you have no idea, you know, what shoes I'm wearing.

A (3:54)

I don't know what pants you're wearing either, and I'd like to keep it that way.

B (3:57)

There we go, Getting off on the right foot. Well, I am thrilled to bring in this particular guest because for a while we have known her as the winner of Big Brother 24. Earlier this summer, she added another moniker to her name as the co host of Big Brother Unlocked. But most pertinently, now she is a cast member on the Amazing Race 38. I'm very excited to get into a little bit of at least her mindset going into this experience that we are about to watch unfold over the next few months. It was. It is the one. It is the only. Taylor Hale. Hi.

C (4:38)

Oh, my God. Just stop. This is so cool. I'm so excited to be on this podcast. Yeah, I'm back in the driver's seat literally talking about the Amazing Race this time. So I'm excited to dive in and talk a little bit about the prep process. And we can't get into the actual legs and experiences, but I'm excited to bring this wacky Big Brother audience over to the Amazing Race fans and show you loyal, devout Amazing Race fans why it will be worthwhile to stick around and watch us crazy Big Brother people gracefully enter your domain.

B (5:11)

Yeah, that's the thing. Let's make one thing clear. There will be no spoilers, no speculation in this podcast. We're keeping it professional here, and I Hope you keep it professional in the comments as well. This is more so an opportunity to look over what to expect from this season. More so than getting into specifics.

A (5:28)

It's vibes only, good vibes only. But I'm excited because this is unprecedented. I think this is the first time that we've ever gotten to podcast with somebody before their season airs. We will obviously will get to do exit interviews and I'm sure like several months down the line. I hope not too soon we will have the chance to speak again. But now we get to, we get to know you before we get to watch you on tv. Especially for those of us that are not in the Big Brother world quite so much.

C (6:02)

Yeah, it feels more peaceful over in the Amazing Race space.

A (6:04)

It is.

B (6:07)

Wow. It's about a big party being held as we invite in everybody from the Big Brother streets into the Amazing Race. Well, we're going to get into again, a lot of information for the audience out there, but we'd be remiss, Taylor, not to start with, you know, your sort of mindset as you stepped foot on the starting line of this season, which again I should mention is premiering on Thursday, September 25th. I actually am going to amend some stuff I've said in previous podcasts about this season. I believe the episode starting at 9:30 because they are airing an hour and a half, a 90 minute episode of Big Brother right before it. So it's going to be running from 9:30 to 11, of course, the Amazing Race running 90 minute episodes each and every week. But Taylor, of course, again very well known for your time and your thoughts on Big Brother. So what was your history with the Amazing Race? Did you have a prior history with the Amazing Race before you end up getting contacted for this and immediately make your way over to Paramount plus and binge as much as you can.

C (7:12)

Oh, I mean it's all of the above. I guess it's a similar history with my Big Brother journey. I knew of the show obviously because it's one of the iconic. I call it like Big Brother, Survivor, Amazing Race and then challenge. I think in real world I would think of those as like the core five starting five. The starting five. Yes, the starting five reality shows. So I always knew about the Amazing Race, but I didn't grow up watching it. I didn't have that deep personal connection to it. But I don't think many people know this. When I was first contacted about going on reality TV by the casting director of all the CBS reality shows, the DM was asking me If I wanted to go on the Amazing Race first. So I was Ms. Michigan, USA. The DM said, Do you want to go on a race around the world for a million dollars, you and a friend? And I said, I don't want to ruin a real friendship that I have for a TV show. So what about Big Brother? And, well, rest is history from there. And then I guess my morals got really loose because a couple years later, I said, I'm fin ruin a few friendships for some money. Sounds good to me. But no, it was. The casting process for this was obviously different. They knew it'd be a theme from the second they started up casting. I got a phone call when they started up for the season, and I said, awesome. I really want to do this with Joseph. I always assumed we'd do it together. Jailer's back, baby. As a friendship duo. And they said, oh, my microphone said no, too. They said, no, absolutely not. You cannot bring another Big Brother person. And they also didn't tell me that it was going to be an all Big Brother plus one season. And I was like, well, then I only also want to do it with Kylan. Then they were like, no, no, no, Big Brother people. You cannot do it with Joseph or Kylan. So I said, okay, well, thanks for considering me, but no, thank you. Like, my. My real.

B (9:02)

Your morals were not that loose, and you still were like, I don't want to break up.

C (9:07)

I had some code. Everyone has a code, you know.

B (9:09)

Exactly.

C (9:10)

Robbers have codes up code.

A (9:13)

There's honor among thieves.

C (9:14)

Yes, exactly. But so, you know, I walked away. I was exploring other options. And then maybe a month and a half later, I got a phone call from the casting team, and they said, so what's going on with you and Kyland? I think. I think we can convince them to say yes, the two of you. And when I tell you it was not like silver platter. Here you go.

B (9:41)

You're on the show.

C (9:42)

It was very much like, you two need to show up on your A game. Because, like, a double Big Brother pair is not exactly like, we don't want a double Big Brother pair. So if you two are going to be on this in every single casting round, like, got to really give it to us. Like, be on your A game. Like, we had to. I sound like a Nepo baby talking about this a little bit, but walking through the door, we really had to talk about how much we love the race and why it was important for us in our dynamic, which you'll see more of. But I just. It's funny seeing the Internet chirping now, being like, it was handed to Taylor or like it was handed to Kyla. It's like, no, like, we really, really had to convince them, like, we really want to do this.

B (10:25)

I promise. So that's how it happened. So then once you end up getting this news about how much time were you given to prep and what did that prep involve? I mean, listen, Kyland, as we know from the challenge, is known for his intensive prep process. What was yours?

C (10:43)

See, here's. I'm reclaiming my time here, okay? Because Kylan's got this reputation. Kylan's got a reputation for training hard and studying hard for the challenge.

B (10:52)

I don't know where we got lost.

C (10:53)

In translation, but I was recruited for Big Brother. I didn't have a history of Big Brother. I studied my ass off to get prepped for the show.

B (11:01)

Like, I trained.

C (11:02)

I prepped. This is what I do to go on competition shows. So I know the Kylan Young training plan is very famous. Famous for his preparation elsewhere. But, like, I put my back into it, too, okay? And I would have if he was my partner, if anybody else was my partner, because I just care about these things. So we got the call. I think we had maybe like a month and a half, two months maybe to get ready. I think it was two months. And then we. I'm going to give all my. My secrets away. Oh, my God. We had this Excel spreadsheet where we were doing all different skills. We were training our strengths, our weaknesses. I will give him credit for this one. That had me in the gym, okay? I was already training for fitness competitions. Like High rocks was something I got into Big and Pilates. But I'm not a runner. This man had me taking insane pre workout. Like, my pre workout was pretty Princess Pink workout. He had me on this thing called, like, C4 or something. Just crazy stuff.

B (11:58)

Like the dynamite.

C (11:59)

Yeah, exactly. You explode on the treadmill, you know?

A (12:02)

Yeah, right.

C (12:05)

Yes, yes. So I'm doing athletic things I've never done before. We went kayaking. We would fly to different cities across California for a weekend, and we would do mock amazing races against our friends, different places. We had Chat GPT. I know, I know, I know. We had Chat GPT do mock races for us in different cities. And so we would, like, open up our phones and the clue would be there, and then we'd race against our friends to go from places. So I took a cartography class. We learned how to. My God, we both learned how to drive six shifts. So Every skill that you could see happening in the Amazing Race is something we would do. And then of course, beyond that, we did the whole crash course of watching the seasons and I've fallen in love with, like, Chip and Kim, Colin and Chrissy, I hated. And then watching them do their second season in my hometown, Detroit, I was crying watching them lock in, like, Charlie and Myrna. Like, there's so, so many iconic personalities and racers that I just completely fell in love with. I miss that old school era of CBS reality tv. And being introduced to the Amazing Race in that era was so cool. Boston Rob on the race, too. I just met him a couple weeks ago and, you know, I'm not a Survivor head, but being an Amazing Race alum and talking to him was just a really cool experience.

B (13:26)

And does he want to talk about the Amazing Race? He had a couple of controversial endings during his.

C (13:32)

Yeah, yeah. But even, like, watching how he impacted not just Survivor, but also the Amazing Race. Literally getting the handbook and seeing the Boston Rob rule. You cannot pay a tourist or a local to come and guide you around. Like, these rules that have shaped the game of the Amazing Race of the modern day. It's. It's been really, really cool to be in the space now. So we were prepping our little asses off. We were, we were getting ready and we knew that we would be targets going into it. That's regardless of who was going to be there.

A (14:05)

So without, without giving anything away, obviously, when we, when we talk to a lot of people in the reality world and beyond, you ask them, what show do you most want to go on? Everybody says the Amazing Race. So what actually is more fun in the end? Amazing Race or Big Brother?

C (14:24)

More fun. Oh, my God. Amazing Race.

B (14:26)

Well, I heard the Amazing Race is supposed to be fun and good.

A (14:29)

It's fun and it's.

C (14:31)

Yeah, it is both fun and good.

A (14:32)

No.

C (14:33)

Big Brother is the ultimate complex game of strategy and manipulation and like, the name of the game is Exhaustion. And for someone that has made it all the way through the end of that game, it's not just who do you connect with and what did you do? Who'd you manipulate? Is do you have the stamina to make it through 90 days, sometimes 100 days of this complex game, the Amazing Race, Also, Big Brother has very strict rules, right? Like, you cannot go into a door without opening or pressing a button, and someone has to open it for you. On the Amazing Race, you're literally looking around like, will someone please tell me what to do? I can go anywhere. I could drive anywhere. Like I could do anything. You're just asking. You're waiting for someone to tell you what to do. It's so, so, so different from any experience. You have locked up Big Brother house and it's, it's like you, you are left to your own devices and you're so used to being deprived of that. So it's like, oh, I'm wasting time by asking permission for this. Okay, okay, let's just go then. It's very, very different. It's fine. Ford Bluecruise Hands Free highway driving takes the work out of being behind the wheel, allowing you to relax and reconnect while also staying in contact control enjoy the drive in blue cruise enabled vehicles like the F150 Explorer and Mustang Mach E available feature on equipped vehicles terms apply. Does not replace safe driving.

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B (17:57)

What was what was your reaction, Taylor, when you found out about the theme of this season? Because look, I touched on it briefly with Tara And Jess, I think you could speak a lot more to the history of Big Brother alumni on the Amazing Racer. All the way back alongside Chip and Kim and Colin and Christie, with Alison Irwin, we've seen many, you know, group of Big Brother houseguests make their way onto the season. Previously, we've had two teams outright win. Rachel Riley, who we are sadly, devastatingly mourning right now, was a three time Amazing Racer before she was a three time Big Brother player. But this is, as you said, Taylor, a rarefied air. What was your reaction to this theme?

C (18:40)

What was my reaction to this? The, the, the initial reaction is just sheer enthusiasm, right? Like, I'm excited I, I get to do this because of course, as more people start talking on Twitter, like I was contacted, I was contacted. That's when you know, okay, this is going to be Aubrey Brother people. Knowing that Kyland and I were likely the only double Big Brother team was terrifying. You have a Big Brother winner and you have someone who is a famed competitor across reality TV shows. I just knew, I was like, these people are not going to want to work with us, they're going to want to jump us. Everybody else is showing up with a plus one. Like someone who's never been on reality TV before. How do we even navigate this and beyond, how do we navigate this? Kyland and I have very, very close relationships with so many people on this cast. And so I'm, before we got into this, I was like, what if I know somebody that I'm really close with and you know somebody that really close with and we're in a position where we have to u turn somebody, how do we make that decision?

B (19:42)

Right?

C (19:42)

So there was a lot of conversations that he and I had to have before going in the race of do we run our own race or by default? Because these are Big Brother players, do we have to align with people? Like, what does that look like when we get there? And I'm really not into this, you know, all this pregame that people want to do and even let's say if people do pre game, pregaming in Big Brother never made sense to me because when you actually get into the house and you play a game, things change so drastically you can't predict or make pre formed alliances. So for Kylan and I, and I know he's not sitting beside me, we'll probably do plenty of interviews together. But for the two of us, we were like, we really want to run our own race and if we're put in a situation where that's not afforded to Us, we'll figure it out when we get there. But we cannot afford to, you know, we just can't afford to make promises too early on we can't keep. So that was kind of where we were. It's just figured out when we get there, rest on each other, rely on each other and do the Amazing Race because we just, we learned to really love and grow and appreciate it.

A (20:47)

Well, I mean, based on my, I'm not obviously a die hard Big Brother person, but based on my knowledge of your game, I feel like you might have been the most strategically prepared of anybody because you're used to being the underdog. You're used to having that target and you're used to having to play a dynamic game that reacts to other people, which I think you can't really go into the amazing race playing 4D chess. You have to just kind of roll with it. So I, I feel like I really like your chances here.

C (21:18)

I did too.

B (21:20)

Well, Jess, I'd be remiss to not ask your thoughts about it now that you know. The theme was officially announced. The cast has been revealed. When you first heard wind about this, especially again, given the background of Big Brother players on the Amazing Race in your own history with Big Brother, what are your thoughts on it?

A (21:36)

I mean, my thoughts are it's Amazing Race. It's always going to be at least a little bit fun and good. It was even fun when they brought teams of four and a bunch of kids. It was fun when everybody was from a reality show and there's always something to love about it. Like, even season 24 was kind of fun.

B (21:56)

Rachel Riley, she was again anchoring a lot of the entertainment there.

A (21:59)

Season 24 had Rachel. I mean, you have to love it at least that much. But I have had a lot of exposure to like, I can watch it in a vacuum. I don't need to have the years and years of context of everything. And I have enough familiarity with Big Brother that I can kind of guess at what some of these dynamics will be like and how some of these people will do, do. But I also, I want to give a shout out to the nation of Australia for really prepping me for this because the last two seasons, well, this, the last year's season and this year's season of Australian Amazing Race have been quote, unquote, celebrities.

B (22:38)

Oh, yeah.

A (22:39)

I am not Australian. I had heard of about one and a half of the 36 or so people running these between these two races. And you can still watch the show. You can still enjoy all the Things that you enjoyed about Amazing Race without having to know who everybody is and how they did on other shows. And sometimes it informs how you think they'll do, but other times it's like, here's somebody you don't know at all and they surprised you. I'm always prepared. And honestly, one of my favorite winning teams of all time is Derek and Claire, and they came from Big Brother. I had seen their season. I'm familiar with them, but I really loved them for them as racers. So I'm able to separate it, and I think I'm going to be that person throughout the season who separates it. I'm going to be talking just about Amazing Race. I'm excited to hear about the Big Brother context, but I'm your race expert. I'm not a Big Brother expert and I'm never claiming to be. Please do not come for me on social media for not knowing Big Brother. I know I don't know Big Brother.

C (23:43)

But, Jess, I think that's what's the most exciting for even us as racers now. Like, we're not just Big Brother players. We get to be racers. And that's so exciting and fun. And I'm excited to hear people's perspective on the entire cast is racers. I'm excited for everyone to meet the plus ones, which I'm so ready to stop referring to all these incredible, dynamic, amazing people as plus ones. This cast is incredible. There's so many incredible people on this cast. Not just the ones that you know, but their siblings, parents, best friends. Like, I'm so excited for the whole world to not just know them through social media, through proximity, through someone you've seen on a reality show, but as an individual or a part of a pair. And the race is. Honestly, I kept saying this, like, on that first leg. I was like, this should be. Honestly, I was like, if you guys just put cameras, like, put everybody in a hotel after a leg, every. Every single person after, put cameras up, record a day off in the hotel, add an extra episode every week and add that in addition.

B (24:49)

That's just Big Brother.

C (24:51)

No, no, no. That's every other reality show, not Big Brother. I said, you give us pool time at a hotel, put some. Some cameras in the hotel rooms, and also record the legs of the race. This would be the number one reality show in the entire world because it is. It's just that amazing. Like, it is an incredible, incredible game. And I say all this to say, actually, I'm gonna. I'm gonna end the sentence right there because I don't know where I was going with that, but I listen.

A (25:18)

I think.

B (25:19)

No, listen. You. You are a hustler through and through, promoting the Amazing Race unlocked. Let's make it happen.

C (25:24)

Oh, my God.

A (25:25)

Would watch. Would watch.

C (25:27)

Oh, no.

B (25:27)

I know what.

C (25:28)

I know what I was going to say. I know that there are so many Amazing Race here's. Okay. The second it hit me this was a Big Brother themed Amazing Race season, I immediately said, race fans are not gonna like this. Like, we are gonna have an uphill battle to climb with the Amazing Race fans. And I understand. I know. I can imagine what it feels like to have these people with these big egos infiltrate something that you love, that feels at this point, a little niche and not dramatic and not crazy. Like, this is a travel show about relationships and we are these crazy psychopaths that lived in a house for 90 days stirring up drama and lies against each other. Right? So why would you want to watch those idiots do the Amazing Race? And I say all of this because in the context of the Amazing Race, we are not Big Brother people. We are just racers. And it's really, really cool to see everyone's interpersonal relationships and how it comes out on the legs. Like, I'm even just talking to the cast about their experience. It's been really, really cool to hear the Amazing Race in not Big Brother.

A (26:34)

And I think that something that you are about to discover, you probably already know this, Taylor, but something you're about to discover is that Amazing Race fans are the coolest fans on the planet. Like, they are so much fun and they're just smart, interesting, welcoming, warm people that can forgive coming from another ecosystem and they can wipe the slate clean and watch you guys for you guys. And they'll be thrilled. If it's a good season, I think everybody's just going to be. And everything I hear about it says it's going to be a good season. We've had a lot of time to sit with this. I think this is another thing we knew before the cast was final what was happening. And we had some time to process through the cycles of, you know, grief. I'm not going to say grief. I'm not going to say grief, but.

C (27:25)

We know you can say grief because I love.

B (27:28)

It's not called the five steps of.

A (27:30)

Celebration, Jeff, but it ends with acceptance. I think everybody here is at a place of acceptance and they're ready to. They're ready to see what it is. Everybody's going to give it a shot. The other thing about Amazing Race fans, is we give everything a try because we don't know what's going to work. And I, I think especially having some civilians in the mix is going to be helpful. And how many times, Mike, how many times have we had a team where one person coming in is extremely well known and then it's their partner who ends up being the surprise? Like for every Ryan, you have a dusty. Right. And that's a reality.

B (28:06)

Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. I think that's something that definitely helps here is because, look, as cool as the Amazing Race fandom is, I certainly have seen a lot of grousing's leverage towards the show in latter day seasons of where are all the normal people being cast? Why is everyone who's being cast on the show have to have some sort of story where they've appeared on a TV show before, are known for something? And again, I think something that does help this season is the fact that with one exception, every duo does have somebody that is completely new to reality tv. My hope and anticipation is that it's going to humanize their partners, right. That we are used to them in a setting of interacting with strangers in a very over the top setting like the Big Brother house. But we talk about it all the time, right? Like we might know these reality TV stars in the context of which we watch them 24 hours a day, but we don't know what their home life is like. We don't know how they interact with their friends and their family. Now we get the chance to do so. And so I am excited at the prospect of sort of getting to see a bit of the inner lives that some of these people have, albeit in a very pressurized situation like the Amazing Race.

A (29:12)

It is a show about relationships. And you know, we've seen Taylor, we've seen Kylan separately. Yeah, I've never seen that. I don't know what the two of you are gonna be like. Yeah, even the two of you, it's gonna be a completely different thing from seeing you separately in a house with strangers. And for everybody else, you know, they are relating to the person in a different way from how they related to the people on Big Brother. So in that regard, it's exactly like every, you know, these idiots are like every idiot that's ever been on Amazing Rinse.

C (29:44)

I'll accept that, thank you.

B (29:46)

Well, the fact of the matter is that there are again, probably going to be some people who are coming into this season who either have not watched Big Brother in a long time, maybe since they were like kids watching it with their parents in the early 2000s or people who maybe have never watched the Amazing Race before. So I think it makes sense that we try to do a little bit of education so people are at least somewhat aware of what they're getting into before the 25th. Jess I feel like the Amazing Race 101 clip is incredibly outdated at this point, but it still applies here. Let's do some Amazing Race 101. We're going to teach you the basics, people, so you have your own handbook, if you will, about what to know in terms of the lingo and general flow of the Amazing Race. Let's start with maybe one of the core tenets of it. Jess what is the Amazing Race? What's the typical structure of an episode?

A (30:38)

Typical structure of an Amazing Race episode is you will have teams in a city somewhere in the world and typically like I would say 75% of the time it starts with them being told to go to a different place to convey themselves there either by getting on a plane, like booking plane tickets, you know, on a train. Usually it's fly to a new city and then we get to the city. They're given some tasks, they're given some challenges to complete. You'll have your detours and your roadblocks are the two big ones. There's some other smaller ones. Usually, you know, you can have another task that's just kind of out there. They call those root info. But the detour, you have two things. You got to pick one of the things and you got to complete the thing. Roadblock, one of you has to do the task while the other one sits and watches and can't do anything. And then at the end of the leg you'll be directed to go to a different, you know, a different fourth location. And Phil will be there along with a helpful local and the local will come you to the city and Phil will tell you what order you're in. And the last place team is no longer in the race. That's the very basic without any twists or extra things.

B (31:53)

Yep. So essentially we are eliminating one team at the end of every episode. Now on the rarity, especially nowadays there are things called non elimination episodes where or non elimination nation I should say where they say, okay, last place team, you're no longer eliminated. Then they usually are given something called a speed bump or they have to complete an extra task next episode as a bit of a handicap. We're not sure if there are any non elimination legs. They have very much skewed towards not doing that and instead increasing the size of the cast. That is the case here. We have 13 teams. So again, TBD, that might be. We're past the season of surprises, but that might be a surprise that gets brought along. And then basically just what happens when we get down to three teams at the very end?

A (32:36)

Okay, when we get down to three teams at the very end, you usually, you go back to the United States and you'll be in a major American city. And then in every, in every leg except the final one, the goal is just to stay in it, to not come in last. And then final one, you got to race for first place. The first place team, first team to reach Phil at whatever the final location is and all the other teams that have been eliminated before you will be waiting for you on that mat. First team to get there wins a million dollars. And then it's one of the weakest things about the race in my opinion because first place team shows up, gets their million dollars and then you got to stick around for another 10 minutes while you're waiting for the second and third place teams to come show up and be told they didn't win. It's bit like the falling action doesn't really fit the narrative. But in any case, the first team to reach the mat on the final leg wins million dollars. And I should say at the end of every leg before that, you'll win something. And it's usually a trip or might be a cash prize or it might be something else. Typically it's a trip because they have a sponsor, they have a travel sponsor, but you really, you're going for that million dollars is what you really want.

B (33:53)

You mentioned a name before that we should bring up again for newbies to the Amazing Race. Phil Kogan is the host of the Amazing Race. Has been since the very beginning in 2001, believe it or not. We are encroaching upon The Amazing Races 25 year anniversary, of course. Friend of the podcast, Taylor, without getting into too much, what was your reaction to getting to see and interact with Bill?

C (34:17)

So this was my second time meeting Phil outside of the casting process because he does sit in on all the. He doesn't sit in. He's. He's an active interviewer in all the rounds of the interviews. But I actually met him at a, like a Paramount event for the super bowl last year and we did a little, you know, Paramount had me walk up and be like, hey, I want big brother. How do you think I do on the Amazing Race? And this man talked for like two and a half minutes about all the things that I would or would not be at. And then he finally said, I think he'd be pretty good. It's like, thank you. And so it was very funny going from, you know, having this little quirky, like, for social media interaction to standing there at the start line. And he actually walked up to me and he said, well, let's see how you do.

A (35:08)

I was like, let's see.

C (35:11)

So it's cool. You know, Phil's very, very involved. He cares so much about the face. And it was. It was just really cool being, you know, like, we all have this relationship with Julie. We love Julie over in the big brother world. And it was cool to like, to have that sort of admiration for Phil. And Phil even told us the story of how he was originally in the running for Survivor hosting and how it kicked an Amazing Race. So it's just. It's cool being with someone who cares so much about their product and cares about the people that run the race. And, you know, he would talk at the start line about how the race is, like, at the core. It is. To his. In his head, it's best when you get two people that, like, never left the country. It's their first time getting a passport doing the race. And I think you could see some of the skepticism of, like, all right, here come these big brother people with their big egos. But it was nice and it's been cool seeing him do these other interviews, being like, they're cool people. Like, these big brother people are really cool. And that's kind of like. It's like a proud dad. You just want to make your dad proud. Like, oh, like, you liked us. You really liked us. Good. And I think if Phil can sign off on us doing the race and having a good time, then I think the audience will as well.

B (36:24)

That's true. If you get past Phil Kogan, he's the. The dad in the relationship. Right. Like, once you get on his good side, hopefully the rest will follow. Getting back into what to expect from the Amazing Race, just obviously the teams experience a wide variety of tasks due to the various locations that they are in. What are some, like, typical buckets of tasks that Amazing Race teams typically do on a season.

A (36:51)

All right, well, this is a. You have a lot of tasks on the Amazing Race that are go to a location, get a thing and take it to another place or take. Get several things and take them to different places. That's a very classic Amazing Race task, and it could be half of a detour. It could be a roadblock, but that's navigation. That's usually some strength involved, sometimes a little strategy. And you also have tasks that are learn a local sport or learn a local dance, which are coordination and choreography and following instructions. And I would say there's also a typical detour will frequently be something that you could complete very quickly if you have some skill or something that's going to be physical but will take you about the same amount of time as everybody else. And there's a lot of different variations on that, I would say. But do you think that's. Those are the broad ones, Mike, what else would you say?

B (37:53)

I would say that one that is pretty key. And I don't know if we'll see any of them this season. Look, all of these reality shows have at least some element of luck involved in them, but sometimes we have and in very specific cases, quite literal tasks known as needle and haystack tasks, where it is, you know, okay, you have to search for this one small thing in this one big thing or series of big things. Again, on this most recent season, we experience it with an actual needle in a haystack. Those tend to be some of the biggest equalizers that we've ever experienced on the race. Has led to two of the wildest outcomes we've ever seen in Amazing Race history. You mentioned the dancing. I should say that certainly they love to do song performances on the Amazing Race sometimes like spoken word poetry. Again, this is where Big Brother skill set really comes in handy because it's like there is a lot of schadenfreude involved that like, oh, watch this person attempt to sing a local song that is sort of like the Big Brother mo, you know, like. And the other great thing about Amazing Race is like, sometimes you get given like cultural costumes to wear. Again, Taylor, that just feels like coded into the DNA. Once you sign the contract with CBS to be on Big Brother, any CBS show.

C (39:02)

I was in like hot pants and chains and a bad blonde wig on Big Brother. So any costume they could give me on the Amazing Race was eons better than I would have had.

B (39:13)

One big thing, Jessa, we should have mentioned, and we don't know how much this is going to occur on this particular season, but we have seen especially as of late and in the beginning of the race as well, sometimes you have to. You are instructed to get to a location by a certain means of travel, take a train, take a taxi, and sometimes you have to drive yourself. And it has coined the term self driving leg, which Also tends to be some of the most climactic and oftentimes most confrontational stuff we have seen in the Amazing Race.

A (39:45)

Yeah, that is true. Mike. Especially I think that we. We keep beating this drum. We've been beating this drum for 13 years now. But if you're going on the Amazing Race, at least one of you's got to drive stick shift. So make sure.

B (39:58)

Taylor.

A (39:59)

Taylor. Okay.

C (40:01)

Both learned you were ready. You're not going to make a fool out of us. Okay.

A (40:04)

I mean, you did that much prep. That's going to be the first thing you learned, I would assume.

C (40:07)

Absolutely. Yes.

A (40:10)

Yeah. And self driving legs. We saw fewer of them for a while, and then Covid happened, and when the race came back after that, they did a lot of reconfiguring and restrategizing how we're going to do things. And it was a lot less public transportation just for, like, public health issues. And it turns out that it was better. It's better TV when people have to find how to get places themselves because it's a skill that nobody knows anymore. Orienteering is kind of. That's the second thing you got to learn after you can drive a stick shift. You got to learn how to read a map so you can drive the stick shift to the place.

B (40:45)

Yeah. That's the other thing as well, is that especially in these longer European trips, because I know that we're going to have a Eurocentric route this time, or you're sort of wetting your way through the hills. You kind of have to rely on those paper maps on occasion. If you're in a city center, you might be able to have someone look things up on their phone. But especially with the cast getting younger and younger. Jess. We get a lot of, like, I've never touched a map before. How does this work?

C (41:07)

I know. And you know what's even funnier? Just in training for the race, I'm looking. Hold on.

B (41:13)

Oh, I think we got props coming in. Some visual aid.

C (41:17)

So many props.

B (41:18)

We.

C (41:19)

So we actually went to a map store because we had no idea where we were going. So I have, like a map of Seattle because that's one of the places we went to race our friends. Here's a map of la. That's a bill.

B (41:35)

China.

C (41:38)

What is this? These are all. So I have all of these paper maps. And I remember when we first picked all these up, I was like, the last time I touched a map, a physical map was a MapQuest printout, like 2011. And now we're all doing iPhone maps, Google Maps. And yeah, orienteering is. It's just different these days. And not only is it technologically different, but of course, in different regions, it's vastly different. Highways are different, roads are different, road names are different. So it's international. Orienteering is a skill to learn and it's not even a skill that's taught anymore. So getting reacquainted with something that you used to be familiar with and then doing it in a totally different context, I'm interested to see how it plays out for all the teams now.

B (42:29)

Big Brother is a show that is known for better and for worse about its twists. Expect the unexpected being its, you know, subtitle, essentially. And just the Amazing Race itself has seen some twists. Now, we don't know if there's going to be anything new brought in, but what are some recent advents we've seen be added to the race, especially in recent years?

A (42:52)

I think we need to talk about. We need to talk about the U turn. I mean, the U turn at this point is classic. We've had it for more seasons than we haven't had it. But. But the U turn is basically when there is a detour. You are able to choose a team that has to go and do both halves of the detour, thus slowing them down by at least half an hour, probably. And especially if there's a half of a task that they are really not going to be good at, that's a good chance to maybe knock out some of your stronger competition. And you don't want to get me started. We will be here all afternoon if we talk about, like, where the U turn goes. But typically I would assume that since the U turn involves turning around, you should put at the end of the Detour. So you finish your detour and then you get to tell somebody to turn around and go do the other half. But they don't do that anymore because they don't know what letters look like. So they put it at the beginning of the Detour. And so you go. When you're going to the Detour, you already know you got to do them both. So. So U turn is basically, you got to do both halves of the Detour. If somebody decrees it, whether it's your competition who got to the board before you, or whether everybody has to vote, which is another new thing that has been happening in recent years where people have to. They have to say out loud who they would most like to receive the U turn, which, you know, that really engenders goodwill in everybody. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void. But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers. A network of 130 million of them. In fact, you can even target buyers by job title, industry, company seniority, skills and did I say job title. See how you can avoid the void.

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B (46:46)

Yeah. So to that point again, Taylor, I don't want you to explicitly say whether the U turn is or not, but I want to talk about a larger topic involved in this, which is the fact fact that I think for the longest time and I think this is another ax to grind that maybe the Amazing Race Pacific fandom has is that this is not necessarily known as a strategically forward show. Right. This is more about the wanderlust. This is more about, as you mentioned, the people that have never stepped foot outside of the country getting to explore all these cultures that they've never seen before. For us to become immersed perhaps in those cultures, it hasn't necessarily always been about alliances or how to utilize advantages or disadvantages. There have been entire seasons of the Amazing Race where that became the forefront and they were not well received whatsoever. But, I mean, I imagine it has to be at least a bit inherent, given that at least half the cast comes from that strategic background. That strategy would be involved in some major way in the race.

C (47:39)

No, I think you would assume that going in and I think everybody on the start line is looking around not only just of competition, but thinking, okay, who can I work with? But, you know, not to. To spoil too much or get the. The sledgehammer coming down from CVS on me after this goes live. But I. Something that you quickly learn, like within minutes of that first leg, is that it's not about who you are working with or who you want to work with. It's literally just where you are in a certain situation. And will I decide to help someone who is right in front of me.

B (48:17)

Or right behind me?

C (48:18)

Because that could change so much if you're to go on to the next leg. So, you know, you could have somebody that you're like, wow, I really want to work with them, but if they're so far ahead of you or so far behind you, there's nothing you can do. It's really about running your own race or doing the things that you can do to put your team in the.

B (48:36)

Best position moving forward.

C (48:37)

And I think that's what's so different about Big Brother. Big Brother is a long team game. Until it's not. The Amazing Race is just you and your partner figuring things out that that most benefit you.

A (48:50)

Yeah. It is a very situational thing, I feel like. And even if you have a team that you love, that you work very closely with, if you are at the back of a pack and it's going to be one of you getting eliminated, don't help them. Like, they will understand.

B (49:05)

Yeah. That's the thing is, and I think again, that's probably the biggest sticking point a lot of Amazing Race fans have is, like, when teams are actively detrimental to their own race, to be like, I'm going to stay behind and help this person, you know, then it feels like a little less in the spirit of the race, but I think, again, that comes with the upside of this cast almost is that y' all are so competitive then. Look, there are certainly preexisting relationships that come into this season.

C (49:29)

You don't say.

B (49:30)

In many, many ways, I would imagine for the most part, the 99% of the time, perhaps it's going to be a case with these people as to, like, okay, listen, I'd love for you to stay, but, like, I'm not hanging behind right now to help you finish this Roadblock, right?

C (49:47)

I would imagine so, yeah.

B (49:49)

Some other things, Jess, you know, we had a whole slew of these random twists that were sort of thrown away last season. I don't know if we'll see them return, but maybe if we cover our bases by briefly running them down. Do you want to talk about things like the fast forward, the yield, the head to head, the driver's seat? We just got introduced to that one last season.

A (50:08)

I don't think they're gonna do the driver's seat again, Mike. I mean, granted, we weren't totally done with the season when everybody went out to film this one, so they didn't know what a stinker it was, but we could start with that, I guess.

C (50:25)

Well, if. If you want to know, if you don't mind me interrupting.

A (50:28)

No, go for it.

C (50:29)

So something different about Big Brother sequester versus Amazing Race sequester is that you can have the TVs on in your hotel room, so the phone's disconnected, but the TVs you can watch TV show. And when you're doing. When you're in Sequester for the Amazing Race, they do, like, they take you down to a ballroom and they kind of do amazing 101. Like, what we're doing here. This is what a roadblock is. It's what a detour is. They teach you the basis of the game.

A (50:53)

They make you run like a fake leg, too, right?

B (50:55)

Yeah.

C (50:56)

And they'll put you how to rip the glue.

A (50:57)

And.

C (50:58)

Yeah, they teach you how to rip the clue. They'll put the camera equipment and the sound equipment on you. So you know what your sound and equipment people. Camera equipment people are running with. So you're like, oh, okay, all right. Everybody's working really hard here. But when we were doing Amazing Race 101, they said that we would be able. What did we see? It was the episode that aired while we were in sequester was the oh, my God. When two teams work together intersection.

B (51:28)

Yes.

C (51:29)

The intersection where they had to do the drums. Oh, my God, it was so, so cool. So we got to watch that episode live on TV while we were in sequester. And I remember being Kyle, we look at each other like, this is crazy. We're watching tv. Oh, my God. It was just unique. You're just so used to being this weird person that has no contact with any culture at all. And we're watching the thing we're about to go do. Days away, hours away, happening right in front of us. So sorry to interrupt you, but no, that's fascinating. We did not get to see the driver's seat, but we knew it would be in upcoming episodes because they previewed it at the end for that episode.

A (52:06)

And basically the driver's seat is screwing one team extra hard, just like, putting them in charge of everything that happens to everybody else in a particular task. And in this case it was you had to collect a certain amount of rice and the team that was put into the picture driver's seat, had to decide who was going to have to collect, like, 10 pounds of rice and who was going to have to collect 15 or 25. And of course, that just makes everybody mad at you. And so especially when the team that won it ended up assigning themselves the lighter amount and then using the Express Pass anyway.

B (52:46)

And let's stop down here because let's bring up Express Pass.

A (52:50)

Yes, we got to bring up the Express Pass.

B (52:52)

Yeah. Because again, unlike Survivor advantages, powers don't really exist that much in the Amazing Race. This is the one exception. This is something that's been around pretty much as long as the U turn has been. Event round. Yeah.

A (53:03)

The Express Pass is basically a get out of jail free card. You get to the task, you hand over your Express Pass and you're done. You don't have to do the task. You can just keep keep on going. And it's handed out in a variety of ways. I like it best when you have to complete another challenge to get the Express Pass, but in other. Other times it's been like the prize for coming in first on a leg, you get an Express Pass. Or one time it was just randomly shoved into somebody's clue. They opened it up, it's like, oh, here's an Express Pass. Like, somebody just collated it wrong. And sometimes the team is given two and told to give one away, which is always fun drama. But essentially you use that when you feel like you're going to be held up by task or you can't physically cannot complete it. Like, you just Hand it in, you're done. And that one. Yeah, we don't mind that as much. That's a pretty good strategic thing.

B (53:57)

It's a little bit like the hinted immunity island survivor. Right. Where it helps you be at least a little bit safer, but you have to choose how to strategically use it. There was, of course, one big incident in a certain season back in the day where a team had an express pass and insisted on not using it and was eliminated with it. So, yeah, it can be both a blessing and a curse.

A (54:17)

Yeah, it's definitely. It's a reliable source of entertainment when it comes to amazing grace. Mike, do we need to talk about the scramble or.

B (54:28)

Oh, yeah. Because that's been a thing. Yeah. Fork in the Road is a new one that I don't know if they do this one with 13 teams, but it was something where essentially this past season, they split the teams into two separate races of seven for the opening leg and then eliminated two teams right at the start, essentially. So it's sort of like mini races. The scramble is something that maybe has a chance of popping up considering that it's been used a bunch since The Amazing Race 34, the Derek and Claire season, where again, usually to Jess's point, it is a linear path from beginning to end. The exception is the scramble where it's here's three tasks. Do them in any order. And usually once you sort of finish all three tasks, you have sort of three pieces of the puzzle or of the clue that will tell you where to go next. But it is your call essentially as to pick which one you want to do in any order. Just a couple of other ones. The head to head. We sometimes see this where, you know, a team will face off against another team in some sort of task. Sometimes it's solving a puzzle, sometimes it's a wheelbarrow race dressed up as french fries. Everything in between. If you win the challenge, you move on. The team that loses has to wait for the next team to catch up to them and then challenge them. The team that finishes in last place gets a time penalty, which also ties into the yield, which is sort of like the U turn. It's a power that you can use on another team, but instead of doing another task, you just wait there until.

A (55:51)

You just do nothing.

B (55:52)

Yeah. And, you know, perhaps the biggest one, that again, was a big deal in the very beginning of the show, Jess and then disappeared for a while and then popped up last season. So again, still has a chance of showing up up the fast forward. You talk about the Express Pass being get out of your car. This is payday, essentially.

A (56:07)

Yeah. Fast Forward was basically back in the day, they had one on every leg and you could decide when you wanted to use it. But Fast Forward would basically enable you. You do a small task and then that just punts you to the very front of the line and says that you don't have to do any more of the tasks. You just go straight to the Pit Stop. And when it was one every. Every leg, it was kind of like, when do you want to use it? What's advantageous? Am I in trouble? Should I just run the space? And now it's like, if there's one, it's basically just a reward for getting to it first. And so we had a Fast Forward this past season and sometimes it's fun. Like if you have several teams going forward at once and the other ones are going to be in real trouble, I think that's entertaining. But usually it's just like one. It's kind of anticlimactic. One team is like, oh, I'm going to use it, and they go get it and they win. And everybody else is like, oh, somebody else already went for it. Great, great. Cool. So that's. That's the Fast Forward. I'm trying to think. See, the problem is, Mike, I'm still in Amazing Race Canada territory and they have some twists that we haven't seen yet. Yeah, the pass, hopefully we will never see that. It's basically a yield, but you just have to stay there until another team shows up. It's. It's so dumb. And they don't.

C (57:25)

Yeah, that is a nightmare. Oh, my God.

A (57:28)

Yeah. And then the face. There's the face off, which is what they call the head to head in Canada because they're hockey people. Yeah. I. I think it's also possible we'll see something we've never seen before. But they're running out of road metaphors, so I don't know what they're gonna call it at that point.

B (57:44)

Yeah, I mean, the. The thing that I'm wondering out loud about, Jess and obviously Taylor, you can either confirm or deny this is the fact that last season, again, was branded the season of surprises. We saw literally one of these twists in every single leg. And you would think on paper, okay, that was just sort of like a one time lark. We're going to go back to more regular Degular Amazing Race moving forward. But again, as we've been talking about, this is a very special cast that has a very special set of skills. Do you believe, Jess, that this would encourage the producers to keep some of these more strategically oriented things in the game for the next season?

A (58:18)

I would imagine they double down on it, honestly, because all of these people are trained to expect the unexpected. So they say it. Like, was it just that one season where they said it all the time or do they always say it? Because I feel like everybody says it all the time.

C (58:32)

Keely says it at least once every season.

A (58:35)

Okay, okay. I'm not making that up. Yeah. So you're always doing crazy twists. There's always some new thing in the game. I think they also know that people that watch Big Brother are coming in expecting that to happen on Amazing Race. So I would say we're probably going to see at least one of everything we've just talked about and probably a few other things besides.

B (58:59)

Jess, can you think of anything else right now that people who have not watched the Amazing Race before or in a long time should know about, particularly when it comes to modern day Amazing Race?

A (59:10)

I think I could think about, like some of the questions that people always ask when they're just watching it out of nowhere.

B (59:18)

Yeah, give us the FAQ.

A (59:20)

One of the FAQs is when do you go to the bathroom? That's what people are always like. When do they go to the bathroom?

B (59:28)

That seems to be. With the exception of Big Brother, many CBS reality shows have that be the number one question.

A (59:34)

Yeah, it really is.

B (59:35)

Yeah.

A (59:36)

And it's like you go when the crew goes. Because otherwise you're trying to win a race or you stop and you get eliminated because of it. As happened. One time has happened. Yep. Or you just. Or you just go. Which has also happened.

C (59:52)

I would do it if I were in that situation. I would just do it. Yeah, yeah.

A (59:56)

Just. Just go. You can. You can do laundry later.

C (59:59)

I will say I was willing to shave my head. Pee anywhere. Like what? I was down because.

B (60:05)

Just. Just to clarify, there wasn't. There have been tests in the past to shave your head. That's what Taylor's referring to. So far, there haven't been any tests that require you to pee yourself. But again, we don't know what's coming this season.

A (60:15)

Who knows? Who knows at this point? And also, I believe the rule has always been that you can't be more than 20ft from your partner unless they're doing a roadblock task that requires them to be away from you. So that also, because you have to always be in the same camera frame. And so that also kind of hampers what you can and can't do on the race. You can't just send somebody off on a scouting mission and then have them come back because you have to be together the entire time. Eliminated teams when they are eliminated from the race, in the past they went to a resort. I believe that's still the case. I don't believe that the last few teams eliminated before the finale get to stay with the race like they used to.

B (60:57)

So ordinarily, I think something that a lot of especially old school Amazing Race fans talk about is quote unquote airport drama where back in the day teams just sort of had carte blanche, you know, like a blank check to buy any tickets they wanted to to any destination on any airline. It led to some really interesting strategy. Also sometimes led to teams making devastating errors or, you know, a lot of plane mishaps causing teams to just immediately fall out of the race. And sometimes Phil has to come to the airport and eliminate you. They have streamlined a lot of that nowadays, even outside of the amazing plane now, usually it's like, hey, go to this counter. There's two, three flights available to this country. And so you have to, you know, essentially get there in the order that you arrive.

A (61:38)

And it. They have tried to kind of obscure the fact that it's now. It is now. Even when the amazing plane is not in play there, there are a lot of like we have pre booked tickets on these flights and you first people getting there. There's also sometimes there's a sign up board. Like you get to a task and you have to sign up. And in Canada they do other seasons.

C (62:02)

I'm not talking about my season. I'm thinking about what I would watch other seasons. Like that was fun to watch. Yeah.

A (62:07)

In Canada it's always branded and they have to go like sign up and then take a drink of whatever drink is sponsoring the race. And this year it's been, it's been iced tea. But then sometimes it's also boost and you get to watch people like chugging a boost shake.

B (62:21)

Ah. Shout out. Janine, Alice.

C (62:23)

Oh, boost.

A (62:23)

Like, like the nutritional. Yes, yes.

C (62:28)

Good for the Canadians.

A (62:29)

Yeah, they're like, they're heavily sponsored. You don't have as many Amazing Race us tasks that, that lean into corporate sponsorship quite as much.

C (62:37)

They had a Wendy's in their big brother house.

A (62:40)

Yeah, that's right.

B (62:41)

Sponsorship is king up in the north. One last thing, Taylor, that I'll ask you to slightly tease because it is something that will happen immediately on the season. This is something brand new that we have not seen before in 37 seasons of the Amazing Race. It has been confirmed via press release that for the first time in Amazing Race history, teams faced their first challenge before even lining up on the starting line. The first team to complete the task receives an Express Pass. As we mentioned before, the last thing to complete it faces the consequences of a hazard, which is sort of like in the vein of a speed bump, an extra task to complete without saying too much. Does that set the table in many ways for what to expect this season?

C (63:23)

We Big Brother players, we touched down and were immediately thrown into the Amazing Race. There was no rest. And I can say that that is consistently how that's what we can expect from the rest of the season. It's just nonstop.

B (63:40)

This one makes you a professional, you know, just.

A (63:46)

Such a tease.

B (63:48)

Well, Taylor, is there anything else that you want to say? Just from a general spoiler free perspective to the people out there who might be on the fence about checking out The Amazing Race 38 before it premieres just a couple of weeks from now?

C (64:00)

Sure. If you are a die hard Amazing Race head, you're a race fan, I think you're gonna love the season. There's amazing people, amazing personalities or people who have never even done reality TV before that have amazing backstories and I hope that you tune in and watch your favorite show because every single person that was on that start line has something great to say and I hope you listen to them and you watch your favorite show. And if you're a Big Brother fan, I hope you watch your favorite Big Brother players. Some of your favorite Big Brother players come over and take on a new challenge. It's a wild journey for every single player that steps foot on that mat. I think you'll love seeing everyone's loved one along. Oh, my God, I just broke.

B (64:48)

I think.

C (64:49)

I think you'll love everyone's loved one racing alongside them. And for the Big Brother fans, I also just ask that you be respectful of the Amazing Race community. You know, like we are strangers entering into a new environment and this is something they love and we want to make sure it's something they continue to love and even bring them over into the thing that we love, Big Brother. So be respectful of the people who are race fans. Be respectful of your fellow Big Brother fans. Do not turn this into a mudsling activity. I have nothing but great things to say about everybody on this cast and I'm just really, really excited for both communities to come together and see this. This incredible, incredible journey. It's like I'm just so, so proud of everybody who is involved. And I cannot wait for this to be on airwaves. That sounds like such a 40 things to say. 40 things to say two days. Two days ago.

B (65:41)

I think CBS's usual demographic demographic would understand that reference. Wonderfully said, as always. And of course, as you're checking out Taylor, Kylan and the rest of the teams on the Amazing Ways, you can check out all the coverage we have going on here on rhap, make sure you don't miss a second of it at we know Amazing Race.com As Jess mentioned, I will be joining her every week doing recaps. And Jess, you know, in a season that's all about familiar faces, I think it's time we maybe bring one in as well. Do you want to make the announcement?

A (66:19)

Yeah. We will be getting the band back together, Mike. We'll be joined on select departures of this podcast. We will be joined by the man himself. Podcast dad Rob Cestrinino is going to be back up here. We'll probably have a few other special guests as well as the season goes on tbd. But we have such a great wealth of Amazing Race knowledge out there in our fan community and with former racers, and we're always happy to get fresh takes. And I will be especially excited to see what Rob thinks of all of this.

B (66:52)

Yeah, I mean, in an alternate universe, perhaps an amazing racer himself, but here, of course, Rob has been so instrumental to Amazing Race coverage from when you and he started to do this, and now I'm really excited to have him back for this fall covering it. So be sure to check that out. Jess, of course, is going to be doing some fantastic exit press with the team teams as they're eliminated. We might have some other stuff here and there along the way. I can tell you what's coming next after this podcast because all the way back in a time that feels eons ago at this point, 2025.

A (67:24)

You have to go back, Mike.

B (67:26)

Oh, my God. In so many ways. We did a podcast that was locked away in a time capsule and now it's finally being on Earth. We're getting the time laser out, Taylor, to take a blast from the past. No, no.

C (67:39)

The time laser led to the hamster wheel of death. No, that's true, that's true.

B (67:44)

That was the first domino. But the next podcast you'll hear from us in this Amazing Race circuit is going to be a draft podcast. Myself, Jessica Lease and Taryn Armstrong got together back when there were some rumblings about this cast and when the season was going to launch to give our thoughts as to what these teams are all about. You can get to know these teams, our thoughts on who might do well, who might not do well, and essentially draft all 13 teams. So that is going to be coming your way. We're opening up the vault for that in anticipation for the premiere happening again September 25th at 9:30pm on CBS. In the meantime, Taylor, people can watch you on their screens even before the Amazing Race comes around. You are all over the place. Thank you so much for coming on and, you know, offering your insight. We are always so delighted to have you in our presence. This time is no different and you've built up a lot of palpable excitement in me personally to watch this season. I hope that reflects upon everybody else. What would you like to plug for the listeners out there?

C (68:47)

Oh, wow. You can follow me on my handles at the taylormac. Maxwell M A C K. Not your.

B (68:53)

Last name, by the way.

C (68:54)

Not my last name. Someone's gotta tell Ashley. It's Taylor Hale. But you know, I'll figure that out. On the back end, you can listen to the podcast that I co host, the Bachelor party podcast over on Spotify. Every Friday we do a weekly recap of Big Brother and all the happenings. Get the casuals up to date on what's going on. And then of course, you can watch me on Big Brother Unlocked every other Friday. We got our last episode coming up. This upcoming Friday. No, not this upcoming Friday. Oh, wait, this is in the future. The time laser knows. No good. But you can see me on Big Brother Unlocked. It's been awesome. And stick around for the Big Brother finale where we see who will be crowned the winner of Big Brother season 27. This should be a doozy. And then of course, the Amazing race comes on September 25 and then every Wednesday following that. So I have no idea what to expect. This is my first time watching a TV show, filming TV show and having it air months and months later. So I have no idea idea what it's going to look like, but I'm just so, so excited.

B (70:00)

It's.

C (70:00)

It's going to be a really, really fun watch.

B (70:02)

Now, Jess, as you mentioned before, you have been keeping, you know, your Amazing Race muscles nice and warm, getting to head to the colder areas of North America in Canada to cover the Amazing Race. Canada. And not to say too much, I think you could talk about this much more than I did. If you're a Big Brother fan and especially a Big Brother Canada fan, you should have vested interest in this season, arguably.

C (70:23)

Yeah.

A (70:23)

And again, this speaks to. I've not seen a minute of Amazing of Big Brother Canada, and we've had some wonderful Big Brother teams join the Amazing Race family up north. And so, yeah, Ikea and Dimitri from Big Brother Canada are running Amazing Race Canada, which is airing now. We have two more episodes left, and Dan Heaton and I talk about that every week once the episode airs. You know, we have to fly to Canada every week and watch the show and fly back to the US and talk about it, and it's been a very fun ride this summer. They call it Canada's favorite summertime adventure, and we like to feel like we're Canada's second favorite summertime adventure. And of course, that's not the only Amazing Race. That's not the only Amazing Race that's currently airing. Last night was the. Well, whatever night this podcast ends up dropping. As of today, we are the day after the premiere of Amazing Race Australia, which features Australian celebrities, none of which I've heard of, but I may be dropping in on some Amazing Race Australia podcasts to give my takes on that in the nearest future as well.

B (71:28)

All right, and of course, the Amazing Race is premiering the day after Survivor. If you haven't checked out at this point, I've got a plethora of Survivor 49 preseason coverage here on RHAP for you, as well as all of our Big Brother coverage. I mean, again, the CBS Big Three are ramping up. There's a brief window of time where all three are going to be on at the same time. So we of course always appreciate your, sometimes in quite literally your patronage. But also everyone who supports everything we've got going on here on rhap, especially early on in the season, any support is rarely encouraged, especially any ratings and reviews. So make sure you subscribe to our Amazing Race podcast feed@weknowamazingrace.com you can check out plenty from us over the course of the fall, starting with our time capsule draft happening in July just a few days. Thank you all so much for listening. Taylor, thank you so much. I cannot wait to see what this season is going to provide. Jess, thank you so much. So happy to get the band back together in so many ways. So excited to be joining you every week this coming fall with a whole tickle trunk, to use a Canadian phrase, full of costumes along the way. I'm dressed up and I've got somewhere to go. And that is The Amazing Race 38 premiering on on September 25th. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. What's your big brother history? An Amazing Race history as well. What are you expecting from this season? What twist do you hope shows up? Let your voices be heard as we start this race together in just a little while. Until then, everybody take care. Bye Bye.