Unsubscribe Podcast #249: "The TRUTH About The Pepsi Navy"

Release Date: February 1, 2026
Hosts: Eli Doubletap (PewView), Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, The Fat Electrician
Special Guests: Nick from Iowa (PewView)
Produced By: Daylight Media

Overview

This episode of the Unsubscribe Podcast is a lively, joke-filled deep dive into one of internet history’s weirdest rumors: that Pepsi once commanded the world’s 6th largest navy. The hosts also riff on firearm culture, internet fame, collector guns, martial arts, and the oddities of military and gun history. The tone is irreverent, strongly flavored by inside jokes, dark humor, and the kind of banter you only get among friends who shoot together — literally and metaphorically.

Main Topics & Segment Timestamps

1. Community, SHOT Show & Meet-and-Greets [00:00–05:15]

• SHOT Show stories: handling fan interactions, being recognized, and the Fat Electrician’s hilarious experiences at the booth.
• The difficulty of maintaining privacy and the snowball effect of being recognized at large events.
• Joking about evolving personas and running into each other prior to internet fame (Eli and Fat Electrician reminisce about working together without knowing it).

Notable Quote:
"I have this thing, like, I can usually tell if you recognize me, but I’m not going to be the one to approach you...I felt like a humongous douchebag right now." — Fat Electrician [02:41]

2. Gun Industry Banter & Shooting Challenges [05:16–13:00]

• FN's new products: the SCAR and 30mm grenade launcher.
• HK’s legendary “Gray Room” and YouTubers getting hands-on with rare guns.
• Skill flexing: rifles vs. pistols, internet skepticism about marksmanship, unique trick shots.
• The struggle of capturing and sharing "unbelievable" shooting feats.

Notable Quote:
"It gets you a lot further in life than talent, you nerds." — Fat Electrician on internet fame and dick jokes [05:50]

3. Skill, Gaming & Competitive Dynamics [13:01–15:27]

• Competitive streaks: outdoing each other in real life and in video games.
• COD gaming as pain management — and getting bested by Eli’s freakish reaction times.
• Fat Electrician’s early forays into YouTube with VHS-era content and accidental encounters documented on camera.

4. Early Internet & Content Creation Tales [15:28–19:00]

• The nostalgia and minor embarrassment of old videos, from airsoft gun reviews to jiu-jitsu tournaments.
• The evolution from amateur content to full-scale influencer status.

Memorable Moment:
Dressed as a gorilla, Fat Electrician chased a banana-clad friend through Kmart, culminating in store ejections. [16:00]

5. Gun Experiments & Iowan Gun Culture [19:01–23:00]

• Wild gun experiments: 50 BMGs in old shotguns, shooting until things explode on purpose for content.
• Dangers and lessons — and why some videos never get posted.

Notable Quote:
"If God didn’t want you to do it, he wouldn’t have made it fit." — Eli on makeshift gun science [19:47]

6. Legends, Interviews & Stories in the Works [23:01–27:59]

• Upcoming podcast guests: the enigmatic Mike Vining ("the accountant" of JSOC — legendary for his EOD work).
• Possibility of a Chris Kyle tribute video, pending family approval.
• Veteran stories with outrageous, globe-spanning career tales.

Memorable Story:
A WWII marine wins stacks of Japanese occupation money gambling; after the war, exchanges it for ~$500,000 modern equivalent to pay for med school. [24:00–25:34]

7. The Pepsi Navy: Mythbusting a Cold War Urban Legend [30:13–44:12]

Detailed Breakdown:

• Origins (1959):
  • US and USSR organize cultural exchanges; Pepsi steps in after Coke declines.
  • Donald Kendall (Pepsi exec) finesses Khrushchev into drinking Pepsi during the "kitchen debate" with Nixon, cementing Pepsi's presence as a status symbol in the USSR.
• Vodka-for-Pepsi Deal (1972–1980s):
  • Russians pay Pepsi with Stolichnaya vodka; Pepsi becomes the only Western soda in the USSR.
• Naval Vessels (Late 1980s):
  • The USSR, running a soda deficit, offers obsolete warships as barter.
• The Meme Exposed:
  • Pepsi never literally "commanded the world’s 6th largest navy" — instead, they brokered the vessels for scrap profit via Norway.
• Collapse Chaos (1991):
  • Soviet Union collapses, destroying Pepsi’s supply chain, bottling plants, and contractual clarity.
• Wild Barter Continuation:
  • USSR substitutes tankers for ships, Ukraine demands Pizza Huts and Pepsi bottling plants for completing the deal.
• The Punchline:
  • When the USSR opens up, Coca-Cola enters the market and "mops the floor with Pepsi," rendering their decades-long effort moot.

Notable Quotes:

• “The only thing protecting Pepsi’s deal was the secret recipe...they reverse-engineered nukes, but not soda!” — Fat Electrician [39:42]
• “Americans will use anything but the metric system: Pizza Huts per oil tanker.” — Eli [41:24]

8. Pepsi Points & Extreme Promotions [44:12–47:15]

• Quick recap of the infamous Pepsi Points Harrier Jet marketing campaign.
• Legal wrangling and court's logic: “no reasonable person would take this seriously.”

9. Gear, Collecting & Shooting [47:45–84:55]

• Deep dives into gun collecting, maintenance, and the "use it or keep it pristine" philosophy.
• Discussion on rare and historic firearms: PSG1, WA2000, the “Stinger” improvized Marine machine gun, gyrojet pistols and carbines.
• Pain and pride stories about gun buying, bidding wars, and accidental nuclear bomb replicas.
• Gun durability torture testing ("run it until it breaks"), Honey Badgers, suppressors, overpenetration, and home defense choices.
• Glock evolution and strategic market manipulation.

Memorable Quote:
"If you want to get good at something, just do it for three hours until you can piss that person off with a text message." — Eli [10:28]

10. Martial Arts, Fitness, and Jiu-Jitsu Stories [55:04–68:15]

• Fat Electrician’s martial arts journey: from tournaments to gym management to getting his brown belt.
• The humbling gap between normal fighters and world-class black belts.
• Maintaining stamina, sparring, getting one's ass handed to them, and the dynamics of teaching vs. learning from Jiu-Jitsu legends.

Memorable Quote:
"My trident true strategy is I’m tired, but I’m going to keep pressing forward so maybe he won’t notice." — Fat Electrician [65:41]

11. Fight Analysis & Boxing Culture [69:10–76:51]

• Commentary on recent fights: Jake & Logan Paul, Anthony Joshua, and historical boxing fights.
• Unpacking rumors of boxing "fixes" and "no knockout" clauses.
• Pacquiao’s insane punch volume; Margarito’s brutal loss and the cheating-plaster scandal.

12. Recent SHOT Show Innovations & Gun Reviews [76:57–90:55]

• Hype over new releases: Canik collab with Radian, Glock Gen V, FN's updated SCAR, HK 417 (AR-10), the 30mm grenade launcher ("bolter").
• Observations on prototype 3D-printed gun parts and legality of owning certain weapons/ammo.

13. Gun Nerding, Collector Philosophy, and Rare Firearms [90:56–102:29]

• The tension between shooting and preserving rare collectibles.
• The economics and ethics of firing ultra-rare weapons for historical record.
• Bidding war anecdotes and World War II firearm builds.

14. Closing: Sentimental Guns & Magic Pistols [110:26–End]

• Each host shares their most sentimental and favorite guns, both for practical shooting and personal history.
• The magic of the Nighthawk TRS and Sand Viper — and why most other guns feel subpar after shooting them.
• Endearingly nerdy rants about Kimber and high-end 2011s.

Notable Quote:
"I want to see what this magical gun can do to people that don’t know how to handle a firearm and they just rip with it." — Brandon Herrera [00:00 & 111:59]

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On making "dick jokes" a career:
  "It gets you a lot further in life than talent, you nerds." — Fat Electrician [00:12, 05:50]

• On gun collectors vs. shooters:
  "I don’t believe in safe queens...pretty much everything, I’ll shoot the gyrojet, we shot." — Eli [99:18]

• On the ‘Pepsi Navy’ myth:
  “They reverse-engineered nukes, but not Pepsi?” — Fat Electrician [39:42]

• On rare weapons torture testing:
  "I will run that thing until it breaks so I can tell people it’s a good gun." — Brandon Herrera [81:01]

The Original Language and Tone

The podcast is loaded with profanity, irreverence, and layered in-jokes. The tone bounces between earnest enthusiasm for firearms history, playful one-upmanship, deep cynicism for marketing and internet myths, and self-deprecating banter about fame and skill.

Recap & Takeaways

• Pepsi Navy: The myth of Pepsi commandering a fleet is rooted in a real but convoluted Cold War barter involving vodka, submarines, and, later, oil tankers and Pizza Huts. It’s ultimately a joke about how absurd international business could be during the Cold War and how quickly events spiral out of control when empires collapse.
• Gun World: SHOT Show revealed real innovation for once, according to Brandon — and the crew is hands-on with some of the rarest and wildest guns around.
• Martial Arts & Real Life: The chasm between online bravado/skill and the humbling truth found on the gym mat or at the range.
• Internet Legends: The guys are constantly myth-busting, be it gun urban legends or viral Reddit tales.
• Collecting vs. Shooting: The eternal debate — preserve a relic or run it into the dirt for the sake of knowledge and fun?

For New Listeners

If you've never listened to Unsubscribe Podcast before, this episode captures all the essential elements: hilarious gun nerd deep dives, debunking viral myths, wild military history, and the witty camaraderie of a crew that knows (and roasts) each other inside out. There are lots of inside jokes, but also plenty of engaging stories and trivia for anyone into firearms, history, or the oddities of American pop culture.

End of Summary