Travis Pastrana

[0] We're hot.

[1] We're live.

[2] Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert.

[3] I'm Dan Shepard.

[4] I'm joined by Monica Pastrana.

[5] I got to tell you guys, this is one of the most exciting folks I could talk to, period.

[6] And Monica, God bless you, you did your best to hang in there.

[7] And luckily Travis is cute.

[8] I think that got you through a lot of it.

[9] No, it's very, very interesting.

[10] He lives a life that I would fear greatly.

[11] Never live.

[12] And it's fascinating to jump into those people's worlds.

[13] Yeah.

[14] You know, Travis Pistrana is one of these guys who I just idolize.

[15] He has done every single thing a human being can do on a motorcycle and a rally car and a NASCAR.

[16] And I think he back flipped a monster truck one time.

[17] He is an extreme motorsports daredevil.

[18] But I will say there are themes in this that transcend that, that are very interesting.

[19] So if motorsports isn't your bag, don't worry.

[20] I think that we get into life.

[21] themes pretty profoundly.

[22] And I think it's really illuminating to hear how someone like Travis thinks, how he approaches his work, his job, the risk, how he ended up doing it.

[23] It's all very, very fascinating to me. And he's just a gem of a human being.

[24] Yeah, sweet boy.

[25] He's a 17 -time X -Games medalist, and he's a five -time North American rally champion.

[26] He is the co -founder of Nitro Circus, Nitro World Games, and Nitro Rallycross.

[27] Travis's new venture is called Circus.

[28] circuit one nine nine a future state -of -the -art racing facility motorsports park and entertainment venue where everyone from beginners to tier one athletes can pursue their passions and progress as safely as possible can i ask a question yeah yeah what is rally rally is a type of racing that doesn't happen on like a paved track it happens in the woods most often or in sweden it happens in the snowy woods or it happens along mountain trails and its cars racing over jumps turns always with a very death -defying element because you're racing within the trees.

[29] There's no runoff.

[30] So if you crash, you're crashing into a tree at speed.

[31] Is it still made?

[32] Like, is it still a made track?

[33] It's just outdoors in the elements?

[34] Yes, there's like a path cleared through the forest that they race on.

[35] It's incredible.

[36] All right.

[37] Well, that's helpful.

[38] Yeah, let's get into it.

[39] Travis Pastrana is a motorsports god on earth.

[40] Please enjoy this cute boy from Maryland.

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[44] Okay, okay now.

[45] Here we go.

[46] Hi.

[47] How's it going?

[48] Going good.

[49] Sorry, I actually lost my voice yesterday at an event.

[50] Perfect.

[51] Perfect, perfect for a 90 -minute podcast.

[52] An audio podcast.

[53] Yes.

[54] Well, you sign and then I'll translate for the listeners.

[55] Thumbs up.

[56] You know, it's kind of nice for me to see you in some way on my turf.

[57] Because usually, well, I think I've only been around you two or three times, but it's always like in the sand dunes where you're God.

[58] I am a PA.

[59] Oh, you're a peasant.

[60] Yeah.

[61] So how's your, was your wrist your hand?

[62] How's that healing up?

[63] Oh, well, it has healed.

[64] Now I have like a fifth knuckle on just the top of my hand.

[65] Do you have a few of those?

[66] What is the, what seems to be the fragile points of your body?

[67] Shoulders, knees, for sure.

[68] Ancles now, see, when you start racing, most guys are like gum, but you end up on your feet and then you start breaking your ankles.

[69] And then when they break, then you start blowing out your knees.

[70] And then you start breaking your back.

[71] It just kind of works its way up.

[72] You're so right.

[73] And by the way, you're explaining something that my wife witnessed on Saturday, which was I was on roller skates and I went to sit down.

[74] and I realized, well, both my wrists are shot.

[75] So I can't put my hands behind me to sit down.

[76] And then I thought, well, I'm going to have to make fists because that's generally like if I have to do a push -up, that's what I got to do it fist -wise, right?

[77] My left wrist is puised.

[78] So when I fall over, like you trip up the steps and just take it to the shoulder because you can't grab yourself.

[79] Well, look, I haven't even had your life, but that is where I met where my wife was watching me try to sit down on roller skates.

[80] And I just had to commit and just drop onto my tailbone because I can't break my fall with anything.

[81] And I was thinking, yeah, these injuries are starting to roll downhill and fuck up other things.

[82] Without a doubt.

[83] So I actually, when I had a gross spurt at 12 years old, I broke both wrists.

[84] And I came back, like, literally my mom had to wipe me because I, like, I had two full arm cast.

[85] And I came back and I broke my left wrist and my left collarbone on like the first ride back.

[86] And then I blew out my knee.

[87] And I was like, okay, whatever you do, I just got back on the bike.

[88] I'm like, just don't land on your wrist.

[89] Don't land on your wrist.

[90] And I sat back on it.

[91] And I broke my back.

[92] Oh, my God.

[93] Man, I'll take the wrist.

[94] You know?

[95] Oh, man. Yeah, it's kind of, kind of, kind of, I used to fistfight a lot and got, thank God, I haven't in a long time.

[96] It does cross my mind.

[97] If it goes down at this point, I don't know how deep into the fight before everything's just broke.

[98] Like, even if I was winning, I'm sorry, I can't hit you anymore because everything's broke now.

[99] That was a gross sidebar.

[100] Sorry, Monica.

[101] I'm sorry, but it does cross my mind.

[102] So, okay, so you're an interesting guest for us because our listeners, armcheries are predominantly female, and so I'm going to gender stereotype now.

[103] I doubt many of them love nitro circus or motocross or the many things you and I love.

[104] We're like 85 % younger males, probably the exact opposite viewership, but yes.

[105] Yeah, sounds about right.

[106] Yeah, if you and I could team up, if we could like converge the nitro circus and arm cherry army, it would be really amazing.

[107] And they pair up perfectly and could find mates because there's, you know what I'm saying?

[108] The numbers are there.

[109] Okay.

[110] So what I want to say is there'll be a bunch of sports talk, but much bigger themes in your life that I think are very interesting themes that people will really enjoy.

[111] So I have theories about you and I'm going to test them.

[112] But let's start at the beginning.

[113] Travis, where were you born?

[114] Annapolis, Maryland.

[115] And was it pretty rural where you got brought home from the hospital?

[116] So Annapolis is actually the capital of Maryland, but it's definitely a smaller city.

[117] So you have the Naval Academy.

[118] A lot of armed forces there for sure.

[119] Definitely.

[120] My dad was military, pretty much everyone in that area.

[121] When my best friend growing up became a Navy SEAL.

[122] So when you grew up with your dad being a drill sergeant in the Marine Corps, it's a pretty strict regiment.

[123] So even though that Bam wasn't too far away, we grew up completely different.

[124] Like could not be more, you know, the skate culture.

[125] I married a skater.

[126] My wife, Lindsay, she's a skater.

[127] But like they were, you know, get up at the crack of noon.

[128] And if I slept till seven on a weekend, I was a lazy, you know, pile of crap.

[129] So get up at the crack of noon.

[130] Well, that's all going to tie into these different themes because you've avoided some pretty well -worn traps that a lot of folks fall into, both in what you do and what I do.

[131] I fell into them.

[132] You appeared of not falling into them.

[133] But I was wondering, were you in a suburb?

[134] Like, were you somewhere where you could ride a dirt bike as a child?

[135] Yep.

[136] So my dad, he has five brothers, and they had a construction company.

[137] So a really small construction company.

[138] But basically, my grandma lived right next to us.

[139] My dad's uncle lived right next to him and his brother lived right next to him.

[140] and then they rented the next house out that ended up being my cousin.

[141] So we all lived on basically as Elliott Road, which is my grandma's maiden name.

[142] And in the back was basically the shop where we had bobcats and sandpiles.

[143] And I got in trouble all the time for moving all the different types of dirt on top of each other because they made for good jumps.

[144] You know, it makes the clay with the sand kind of deal.

[145] But, you know, it was good childhood.

[146] What age did you get set on a dirt bike?

[147] So I was four years old when I started riding dirt bikes.

[148] But we rode go carts from the age of two.

[149] and it was a pretty redneck upbringing considering this kind of city, if you will.

[150] So you're the kid, I would have befriended in Michigan to have access to all your sweet shit.

[151] I wanted all that shit, but we were too broke.

[152] In fact, one of my good buddies, his dad was a mason, and so they had some shit.

[153] You know, they had some property and they had some dirt bikes, and I lived there because of that.

[154] All of my uncles, basically, they all loved hot rods.

[155] They loved everything.

[156] And we just found it from the ages of like 10, 11, 12, as soon as we could reach the pedals and the steering wheel, we'd go, you know, round up, do whatever we, paper routes, whatever we had to do to get like a $200 car from the junkyard and then just make it run, go into it flips or hits a tree, get it running again, and then save up your money again and make it happen.

[157] So we had a little different childhood than most people, but, uh, my uncles, you know, was a really close -knit family.

[158] We didn't have a lot of money for sure.

[159] Like everything was hammy downs and, you know, 10 years old and broken and everything.

[160] But it was kind of a really cool way to grow up with a lot of cousins and a lot of uncles doing crazy stuff all the time.

[161] Do you have siblings?

[162] No, only child.

[163] We could have never afforded racing with more.

[164] I was just going to say that helps big time.

[165] So when you got on the dirt bike, would you say, and we will not interpret this as bragging, but was it just a very natural fit from you from the get?

[166] I was basically the runt of my family.

[167] My uncle was quarterback for Denver Broncos, All -American lacrosse wrestling.

[168] My grandfather was Goldenbell Boxer in the Navy, and I didn't get any of that.

[169] I couldn't throw, catch, hit punch.

[170] I got beat up all the time for Thanksgiving.

[171] football games.

[172] It was basically like, yeah, yeah, your five -year -old female cousin was going to be your defendants.

[173] Yeah, exactly.

[174] So I found the only way to really fit in with my family was to have a motor because I couldn't do it with my own physical power.

[175] Yeah.

[176] So it was basically how high can I jump off a bridge?

[177] How many flips could I do?

[178] And how fast did I twist my right wrist?

[179] Oh, my God.

[180] So this is fantastic.

[181] Yeah, I was never good at soccer.

[182] I wasn't good at any of these things, but like BMX bike came around and I would hit the double and then I'd hit the triple.

[183] I thought, oh, this does.

[184] This does.

[185] I was fantastic.

[186] I was never good.

[187] I was.

[188] I was device can make me the athlete I want.

[189] Like, this thing can deliver on what I wish I was.

[190] My greatest strength is the willingness and kind of that understanding, like calculating risk.

[191] Like, okay, can I make it?

[192] And what are the odds this is going to work?

[193] Now, I crash more than most people.

[194] I've had more injuries than pretty much anyone else out there.

[195] But that's how I've made a career.

[196] Now, we've gone this quarantine and all this stuff is sim racing.

[197] They're like, man, you're really bad on the simulator.

[198] I'm like, no, they took away all of my edge.

[199] no one's afraid to crash the simulator.

[200] How am I supposed to be anybody?

[201] Right, right, right.

[202] Okay, but, and this will be, again, a theme that reoccurs, which is certainly you had a really high tolerance for fear.

[203] There's probably something wrong in your head.

[204] I remember reading in, like, psychology that people who are risk takers, like they don't have MAO in their brain.

[205] Like, people have a ton of MAO, they're satisfied watching the grass grow, but people with none, their brains are dead unless there's a threat of death.

[206] But you had, on top of that, a crazy gift on a motorcycle.

[207] What age do you start racing?

[208] I started racing at four years old.

[209] So, yep.

[210] Oh, you were racing at that age?

[211] Yep, got my bike.

[212] Everyone in the family lived in motorcycles.

[213] My mom even started racing when I started racing.

[214] So it was pretty fun.

[215] Oh, wow.

[216] And then when do you win your first championships?

[217] So first amateur national championship was 10 years old.

[218] So then I won five amateur national championships.

[219] And then won my first X games.

[220] Well, won the World Freestyle Championship because it was a new sport.

[221] You know, when you start out with something that they haven't done for a long time, you're still kind of everyone's learning together.

[222] So it's a lot easier for someone that's younger or hasn't been on a bike as much to really get in to do well.

[223] Timing was definitely on my side.

[224] So won the World Championship of support team.

[225] But it really wasn't a sport at that time.

[226] It was kind of like the guys that weren't good enough to race motocross played around, you know.

[227] In general, guys seem to be either crazy great racers or they were really good at freestyle.

[228] And certainly maybe there was overlap.

[229] But you actually won the AMA 125s when you were, that's when you were 17, yeah?

[230] Yeah, 16, so you're the fastest man in the world on a 125 at 16.

[231] I peaked Charlie.

[232] Yeah.

[233] You go to the X games, the very first X games, is that 99?

[234] 99, yep, 15 years old.

[235] And you win the freestyle competition, which is where you're doing stunts.

[236] You're jumping off enormous jumps and you're doing tricks.

[237] And you get, at that time, which still stands, you get a 90.

[238] right you just you decimate the competition and you're a phenom and you're like 16 and so here's where i start noticing you i'm i guess if you were 16 i was probably like 24 or something and it was very exciting that you were both that and you were the current champion on 125 i thought oh this doesn't really happen this kid's really a phenom i'm really excited about this person as was everybody in the motorsports world and were you doing all your tricks on a 125 and everyone else is on a 250 yeah for sure so it definitely sounded louder didn't go as fast uh made the lot of noise, had a lot of aggression.

[239] No, I mean, that's basically my whole life.

[240] My dad said, look, your uncle was the greatest athlete might have ever come out of Maryland.

[241] And he's still working construction in the summer and teaching annual community college health to seniors.

[242] And they call him Coach P for lacrosse and football.

[243] And he said, look, any day that you can do what you love to do, ride that train so the wheels fall off.

[244] But you're always going to end up working instruction with us.

[245] So whenever something came up like X games, I was like, Dad, I want to do that.

[246] Like, mom, I want to do that.

[247] And they're like, well, you know, yeah, just have fun.

[248] As long as you're having fun.

[249] You're getting good grades.

[250] Like, go ahead.

[251] And it never stopped.

[252] So it sounds like you were born into the very perfect family to pursue what you pursued.

[253] But did they wrestle?

[254] When you started doing freestyle, did they start getting scared?

[255] And were they expressing that at all to you?

[256] Because people are not yet, but people shortly thereafter start getting very, very hurt doing this.

[257] Like, don't walk again and stuff like that.

[258] Yeah.

[259] I mean, it was definitely tougher.

[260] I went, you know, at 18, I'm back flipping into the Grand Canyon with parachute and just, you know, all this stuff kind of, I took a lot of hard lefts throughout throughout my career.

[261] But at the end of the day, my mom, I think that when she realized that it meant that much, I dislocated my, basically, my pelvis shattered and my spine just pretty much went in your asshole, if you will.

[262] Yeah, out of it.

[263] Yeah, it was bad.

[264] Oh my God.

[265] I bled like two thirds of my blood volume.

[266] Oh.

[267] Oh.

[268] So I just kept passing out.

[269] I pass out.

[270] Every time they flying to L .A., woke up two weeks later, almost died, basically.

[271] What stunt was that in Havis?

[272] Oh, I was just, I just didn't go fast enough.

[273] I was trying to make a jump on a freestyle course, and I tried to jump two jumps, and I went 115 feet when I needed to go 120, so.

[274] Oh, five feet, five feet.

[275] Yeah, this is going to be really hard for Monica.

[276] We should have given you like a Xanax or something before this one.

[277] Okay, so did mom at all say to you, like, hon, I'm so glad you're on fire for this and passionate, but she still has to say, like, be careful.

[278] She's still your mom.

[279] You don't even have the be careful switch on the back of your head.

[280] Well, I mean, at this point, so my parents had sold the boat.

[281] That's what they did on the weekends.

[282] And now motorcycles was what they did.

[283] All my uncles that were construction had basically taken pay cuts to cover our fuel to get to the races.

[284] We had awesome, like, sponsors that even though you can't pay amateurs, they were basically helping us in any way they could as friends to be like, okay, you need a new bike for the national championships.

[285] like you have to have this and just the really the community the family everybody came around to support me doing this and but my mom's like you know the chance of you making anything as far as financial in in the sport she's like we want to give you the opportunity to go as far as you want but when i hurt myself there and i woke up literally two weeks later and coming out of the medically abused coma and she said are you sure this is what you want to do i said mom when can i ride again i want to do that job it's like well that was two weeks ago and uh no that sounds like a horrible idea and i just i was like they're like you're like you're be lucky to walk again.

[286] You're going to be in a wheelchair for the next, you know, five months.

[287] Let's think about your education.

[288] Let's get away from dirt bikes.

[289] And even that moment in all that pain, all I want to do was get back on the dirt bike.

[290] And she's like, well, if you love it this much, she goes, I can't take your life away from you as much as it was hard for.

[291] Yeah, I think it's very hard for a lot of people to understand who don't have hobbies that are really dangerous.

[292] But maybe this isn't true for you.

[293] But for some people, they'd rather not be here.

[294] I mean, for some people, if they can't surf big waves, they'd rather just call it.

[295] You know, that's what they want to do, and that might shorten their time here, but that's how they want to spend that time here.

[296] It's hard to comprehend if that's not your jam, I think.

[297] If you don't have anything that you truly love, that is, it sounds silly to say something's worth dying for like, nobody wants to die.

[298] But a lot of people never live.

[299] And that's kind of the thing is like, what are you willing to sacrifice to have the best life that you possibly can?

[300] And one of my heroes, Matt Hoffman, so live to die happy.

[301] So whatever happens, every single day, you live so that if the, World ended the next day, you died, not feeling like you wondered if you could have been better, could have done more, could have done something.

[302] Man, it's like great risk, great reward.

[303] Yeah, it is.

[304] It's everything.

[305] Matt Hoffman, so people know, he's basically the U of BMX bikes.

[306] He was the pioneer.

[307] He was the guy that started everything.

[308] First X games, he won the VERT.

[309] So this is a guy that was going 40 foot up.

[310] He was pronounced dead, you know, like completely out for like, you know, two minutes and they brought him back.

[311] This is a guy that came out.

[312] He couldn't get surgery to fix.

[313] what do you need to do in the U .S. So two weeks before X games, he wanted to do a trick, no hand in 900.

[314] No one else had ever done it.

[315] He knew he could do it.

[316] He was dialed in, heard himself.

[317] So he goes to Canada, and they said, look, we can't put you under because that would technically be a surgery, but we can do this procedure as long as it's not, you know, surgery.

[318] Yeah.

[319] So they drilled through.

[320] They're like, you numbed it, but you can't numb like femur and tibia and everything.

[321] And they played it everything and put some synthetic ligaments in there.

[322] And he went and landed the first ever, no hand of 900.

[323] So that's something to say, like, that's how much he wanted to do this.

[324] And it's something that not many people can grasp.

[325] Yeah.

[326] Okay.

[327] First of all, Travis is married.

[328] I just want to warn you.

[329] Well, that's actually what I'm getting at.

[330] This is part of it.

[331] So when you have this thing you love so much that you'll sacrifice essentially your life for, do you have close relationships with other people along this time?

[332] Because I feel like as soon as somebody else close comes in, You feel like you owe them a little bit of you, of your life.

[333] So then when you put yourself at risk, isn't that scarier?

[334] Or does that make it harder to do?

[335] Yeah, I mean, risk to reward always changes.

[336] If you're 15 years old, you've got, and not to say nothing to lose, but you've got a lot more to game.

[337] You know, I haven't won X games.

[338] I haven't done this.

[339] I need to prove.

[340] And even if you don't, that's how you feel is you're young and, you know, fired up.

[341] You're like, I need to do this.

[342] I have to land this trick.

[343] I have to set myself on the stage.

[344] You don't have a wife or a girlfriend or a kid.

[345] but everyone says, how can you keep doing this stuff when you have kids?

[346] And so, well, I've crashed a lot and it's that calculated risk to say, what is worth it?

[347] What is going to show my kids that you got to go out, you got to work hard, you got to chase your dreams, you got to live your life to the absolute fullest, but you got to keep living.

[348] You know, you can't take these excessive risks.

[349] So it is Josh Sheehan, triple backflip.

[350] This guy, he's actually almost my age, but no wife, no kids.

[351] And I'm working for a triple backflip pretty much since the double backflip in 2000.

[352] six really quick i just got to say Travis was the first person in the event to backflip a motorcycle twice wow wow wow yeah so so that was about 40 feet above the ground or 50 feet now they're going a hundred feet above the ground oh my god the the takeoff that we had we worked with thomas paget and all the red bull and nitro and we had gone through so much money and so much time and so many injuries trying to figure out how to get the motorcycle that's 250 pounds to spin three times not slow down, wading the rear wheels, trying all different things.

[353] And can I pause you for one second?

[354] I have to imagine because the Red Bull Bank is the fucking best in motorsports.

[355] Yes, it is.

[356] I am assuming there's like physicists and engineers working on this at this point, right?

[357] I mean, there's a real think tank.

[358] It's not you and your fucking yokel buddies going like, how do we get a third rotation out of this?

[359] The problem is most of the think tanks don't work.

[360] It's, I'm not saying that smart people aren't smart, But in our stuff, like, it comes down to it's a feel that, you know, people that if you don't feel something, you don't really understand it.

[361] So we finally figured out how to get three around.

[362] But now I'm at about 110 feet in the air.

[363] My landing's about, so I'm going to an airbag, which is still 60 feet below me. And I mean, so Josh Sheehan, he was peeing blood.

[364] I've got a couple broken ribs.

[365] And that's to an airbag.

[366] That's the safest thing you can possibly do.

[367] I was scared going to the air back.

[368] And I had to stop and thinking, if I'm scared going to an airbag, What makes me think that when this is a landing, wooden landing 60 foot tall and I'm going, you know, 60 feet above that, like, what makes me think that I'm going to have the mental capacity to commit to this?

[369] And like you said, you're thinking, well, what if I get hurt?

[370] What if I die?

[371] My wife, what about my kids?

[372] And as soon as you start thinking about that, you realize that you're in over your head.

[373] Whether you are or you're not, if you're thinking of anything but that trick in that moment, you're going to get hurt.

[374] and that was my first time that I thought my job is no longer to be the guy that's pushing the limit.

[375] My job is to help these guys that are pushing the limit, do it, and get back to their families.

[376] Dude, okay, so you're bringing up a great point.

[377] Okay, so I ride motorcycles in L .A. everywhere I go.

[378] I go to the track every time I can to race motorcycles.

[379] And increasingly, I'm having the debate while it's going on.

[380] Do you have the debate?

[381] Like, I'll be doing something and I'm loving it.

[382] You know, with the two kids and everything else, I'm just kind of like, fuck, I love this so much, but then it crosses my mind what my kids will be like without a dad, a dad they knew for seven years.

[383] And I'm like, God, how much do I love it?

[384] It trickles in a lot more for me in the last couple years.

[385] No, without a doubt.

[386] I was riding my Harley the other day.

[387] I'm just backwards, like just cruising.

[388] And I saw a deer on the side of the road.

[389] Just we live in Maryland, there's a lot of deer.

[390] And I was scared all the way back.

[391] I'm like, how stupid would this be?

[392] I'm riding the speed limit, cruising, I, yes, like, can I do this?

[393] Can I keep riding?

[394] Is that still safe?

[395] And then I was going to pick up my daughter and I'm like, can I have her on the back of this?

[396] Like, I'm, I'm a good rider, but like, if a deer jumps out and runs us over, like, what?

[397] I don't know.

[398] Okay.

[399] So great.

[400] So now we're somewhere where we really need to be, which is I have this ethical thing and I really want to know, because so you have a daughter, Addy, that's the exact same age as Lincoln.

[401] And I kind of been tracking you a little bit because I put Lincoln on an electric dirt bike at like just before her fourth birthday, and she got good at that.

[402] And then I got her a little razor, and she's fucking baller in the razor.

[403] You got the little 170?

[404] Yes.

[405] And I can see the calmness when shit comes up.

[406] And I'm like, oh, she's got it.

[407] She's got the thing.

[408] Like, everything can be upside down and she's still thinking calmly.

[409] She's got it.

[410] And it fills me with such delight.

[411] So I imagine Addie, your daughter, she must be doing all this stuff too?

[412] What's she doing?

[413] Same thing that 170, you know, now she's on dirt bikes.

[414] But it's funny because I have two daughters.

[415] and my oldest, it was Addy, I don't know how different your kids are, but my oldest, Addy, comes out and she was crying unless you had her in the air.

[416] She had to be in the air.

[417] She had to be moving.

[418] She started walking.

[419] She needed to be going somewhere, doing something.

[420] Travis, my kids knew sign language before she could talk, right?

[421] And I hooked this rope up to this little car she sat in all day long, and I started swinging it around in the driveway.

[422] And the video is so scary.

[423] Like, I watch it now.

[424] In the moment, it felt right.

[425] But the video is scary.

[426] She's in this little car.

[427] And she's going to, she has.

[428] to be hitting 30, right?

[429] Spinning her, spinning her, and then stop, and it's on video.

[430] And the first thing she does put her fingers together, which is more.

[431] More, more, more, more, more, more, more.

[432] Yeah.

[433] Same thing.

[434] But with Addy, the second, no matter what's going wrong, she smiles, as it goes more sideways, as the steps out, as she over jumps, our youngest, she was the happiest baby.

[435] But if you threw her in the air, she would start crying.

[436] She's always saying, slow down.

[437] Our oldest is more, more, more, faster, faster, faster, our youngest since day one, like, they raised them the same, I think, like slower, don't like heights, don't want to go fast, let's, I want to drive with mom, you know, dude, exact same story.

[438] Just last night, driving the minivan home on the 101, and I got fucking Lincoln saying go faster and Delta saying slow down.

[439] So interestingly enough, our oldest, the crazy one, never gets hurt.

[440] She's always flying through the air and she tumbles and she just rolls with the punches.

[441] Our youngest one doesn't do hardly.

[442] anything.

[443] And when she was sliding down the steps and she got scared.

[444] But then she put all her feet out and everything and the thing ended up flipping.

[445] And she's like, that's why I don't do this stuff.

[446] And I'm like, you know what?

[447] You panic.

[448] That's not you.

[449] You're right.

[450] If you panic, your worst fears will come true.

[451] First of all, I can't stand formula one.

[452] I've never had an interest in it.

[453] But I watched this Netflix Formula One show.

[454] Have you seen it?

[455] Well, dude, I have always been like such a big F1 fan.

[456] All of a sudden, the Netflix came out.

[457] And everyone's talking, And oh, yeah, did you see this?

[458] And I'm like, it's about freaking time, America.

[459] Yeah, yeah.

[460] I'm that guy.

[461] I'm the poser for sure.

[462] I was like, I don't know.

[463] They never passed, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

[464] Phenomenal.

[465] And then I said to my wife, I'm like, I got to get Lincoln in a cart like yesterday.

[466] Or she can never be en route to being a formula driver.

[467] And then I played the whole thing out.

[468] And I was like, God, I'd be so proud.

[469] And then I thought, what if my fucking daughter died in some fucking ridiculous hobby?

[470] I kind of forced, not even forced, she just would act interested because she loves me, probably.

[471] I can't tell when she's doing something for me or she loves it.

[472] How can I know?

[473] And I just thought, fuck, is that the path I want to put her on?

[474] So you have a daughter.

[475] She would definitely be the heir apparent.

[476] She could probably be the best female motorcycle rider of all time.

[477] What are your thoughts about that?

[478] Could you see her go through all the injuries you've gone through?

[479] As a father, people say, what do you want your kids to do?

[480] I said, whatever makes them happy.

[481] There's no amount of money in the world worth going through the injuries that I've done, but I would have paid every single dime, every dollar, giving up everything to have had the opportunity to live the life that I have because I love it.

[482] So whatever they're passionate about, and I hope it's not motocross, I hope it is cars.

[483] Cars are getting safer and safer.

[484] Both of my daughters, I want them to be competent on a motorcycle, but I hope they don't love it as much as I did.

[485] Yeah, something just crossed my mind because you're so immersed in X games and all the different branding stuff.

[486] Do they tell you, like, stay away from that shit and aim everyone back over here?

[487] I mean, at the end of the day, like, kind of now my job is, you know, and going through boot campaign and stuff and trying to figure out with the head injury when everyone's thing to come out in football.

[488] I said, okay, like, let's figure out how, you know, there's guys that knock themselves out almost every night.

[489] They just thing their head.

[490] I'm like, okay, so is this serious?

[491] Is it not?

[492] Like, you know, as someone that's giving them the opportunity to do it to themselves and to travel around the world living a dream like when do we have to say you know because doctors be like oh yeah they look okay but no this i know him like he's not he's not all right or she's not right or whatever so trying to figure out what is good or bad i guess yeah well it's very weird right to transition oh shit someone here's got to be the parent and and that's now me which is such a weird role i'm so i'm not used to that but i got to take that on because that is the role now Yeah.

[493] So the more brothers, they were quad racers.

[494] And they went and they started winning X games.

[495] Both of them are now gold medals.

[496] But Caleb ended up passing away.

[497] Like he got up and walked out with just the internal just because it's so heavy.

[498] Yeah.

[499] And there's been a couple in freestyle motocross.

[500] My thing right now is trying to get where, you know, kind of like NASCAR put in safer barriers after Earnhardt.

[501] Like you're never going to get away from the potential.

[502] But let's make it so that you get away with 90 % more.

[503] Yeah, the jumps are going to be bigger.

[504] You're going to go faster.

[505] You're going to be stronger.

[506] You're going to do more stuff.

[507] But let's make the landing so you can roll out of it a little bit, you know.

[508] Well, so you've, I think, and I don't know the history of it so well, but you've pioneered a couple things, right?

[509] So the foam pit, at least I had never seen the foam pit.

[510] So he started practicing where he practiced these amazing backflips and shit and lands in this enormous container full of foam squares.

[511] Did you make that up?

[512] Carry Hart, actually.

[513] Him and the guys at Woodward.

[514] Woodward does a camp.

[515] Start on the East Coast.

[516] Now it's all over the world.

[517] They even haven't at Hard Rock hotels and stuff now.

[518] But basically, they have all the best athletes and the most progressive training facility.

[519] So they started out with gymnastics.

[520] They have so many Olympians that go through there.

[521] And then they moved to skateboards and BMX.

[522] And they took all the gymnastics stuff and basically rolled it out over to that stuff.

[523] Really quick, Monica's a state champion cheerleader.

[524] So just I want you.

[525] So I've tumbled into a foam pit many times.

[526] Two -time state champ over here.

[527] So you guys are both champ.

[528] I've never won anything.

[529] Yeah, we're the same.

[530] We're the same place BMX racing.

[531] That's my time.

[532] Okay, well, technically, this is going to be a hard left, but it's here.

[533] So I am now a cheer dad.

[534] Oh.

[535] Dude, I tell you what, though, I've been throwing our girls in the air since day one.

[536] And, you know, they can do backflips.

[537] So my, my oldest daddy, she's a flyer.

[538] Yeah.

[539] She wasn't as flexible as she needed to be right away to get in there, but she's been working hard.

[540] And they're like, well, you're light.

[541] You're like the youngest one on the team, and you can do backflips.

[542] Yeah, that's pretty much all you need.

[543] Yeah.

[544] I thought I was training her to be like an acting sports athlete, but I was really just training her to be a flyer and cheer.

[545] Oh, my gosh.

[546] It's the best.

[547] It's a fun world.

[548] Yeah, did you, I assume you watched cheer on Netflix because I watched it and I was like, this is crazy.

[549] They're not taking any of the precautions that football does.

[550] And these girls are getting concussions like four seasons.

[551] Why doesn't anyone give a shit about these girls?

[552] Like, put a fucking helmet on while you train.

[553] I don't know.

[554] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[555] We've all been there, turning to the internet to self -diagnose our inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers, and strange rashes.

[556] Though our minds tend to spiral to worst -case scenarios, it's usually nothing, but for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying medical mystery.

[557] Like the unexplainable death of a retired firefighter, whose body was found at home by his son, except it looked like he had been cremated, or the time when an entire town started jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their ceilings.

[558] Hey listeners, it's Mr. Ballin here, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast.

[559] It's called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[560] Each terrifying true story will be sure to keep you up at night.

[561] Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts.

[562] Prime members can listen early and add free on Amazon Music.

[563] What's up, guys?

[564] It's your girl Kiki, and my podcast is back with a new season, and let me tell you, Too good, and I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest, okay?

[565] Every episode, I bring on a friend and have a real conversation.

[566] And I don't mean just friends.

[567] I mean the likes of Amy Poehler, Kell Mitchell, Vivica Fox.

[568] The list goes on.

[569] So follow, watch, and listen to Baby.

[570] This is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[571] Okay, so the foam pit, so you started practicing into the foam pit.

[572] Now you have these humongous inflatable airbag landing ramps.

[573] Where do those come from?

[574] So, well, foam is a petroleum product.

[575] motorcycles have a really hot exhaust pipe and the biggest problem is when you land upside down no matter what you turn off, gas pours out and then the static electricity lights it.

[576] Oh my God, so have you witnessed this?

[577] Yes, so the Red Bull foam pit burnt down.

[578] There's been a lot of them that have gone up in flames.

[579] To make it safer, we started going to airbags.

[580] Now, airbags, it's a softer landing.

[581] You don't get stuck upside down with gas pouring on you and potentially lit on fire with dislocated shoulder or whatever.

[582] My mom broke her neck into our phone pit.

[583] No. So she was the first, she was fine.

[584] She was good.

[585] Hold on.

[586] What was my hair line fracture?

[587] Oh, I'm surprised you even mentioned it.

[588] But now even with the triple backflip and stuff, we had to figure out a way to take the bag from a flat bag.

[589] The landing bag helps so you can actually get a feel of where the landing's going to be.

[590] Because when it's flat, you have to overrotate or under rotate, depending on what direction you're spinning or whatnot.

[591] So the more we can make it towards the landing, the better.

[592] And now with BMX going to Olympics and you have all the snowboarding and everything else, every Olympic, the countries were coming to Nitro Circus after we figured that thing out with the triple.

[593] And they were like, okay, how did you make a bag?

[594] That was a landing bag.

[595] Like how does it go?

[596] Yeah.

[597] Structurally, that's got to be quite challenging.

[598] Yeah.

[599] Well, I mean, it wasn't too challenging, but it's just when you haven't seen it before, it hasn't been done.

[600] And just in the last two years, the progression of the safety of like the bag jump bags and all the other companies that are coming out, they're so good.

[601] And we realized we didn't need as deep as we thought we did.

[602] Like, you just need it's like when you're doing a bench or something, and like, you know, someone puts a pinky on there and it gets the rest of the way.

[603] Yeah, yeah.

[604] You don't need a lot to protect you from a really bad injury.

[605] The only problem with the landing bags is the head because your body, if as long as everything's tucked in, you can drop from pretty high if you're, you know, landing fairly flat on your stomach or your back.

[606] You know, if you put a limb out, you're going to break it.

[607] And your head usually gets slapped pretty hard in the bag.

[608] So, like, motocross had a really low kind of CTE probability and that kind of stuff.

[609] because usually if you hit your head hard enough to be knocked out, you had something else that was broken.

[610] So what we found was that the safer that we're making it for your body is actually making it potentially more problems down the road because you'll crash a jump nine, 10, 20 times, and you'll be able to keep getting back up.

[611] And you generally crash the trick the same way.

[612] So it hits the same spot.

[613] Everything that you think you're doing better, you always have a consequence on the other side.

[614] Yeah, your body's an equation and you're like, yeah, you're bolstering one end and then now this is a weak point.

[615] Okay, so you're just an all -time legend.

[616] You've also built this incredible empire.

[617] You're winning X games.

[618] You're fucking jumping and flipping everything you could possibly do.

[619] And then you create a TV show, Nitrous Circus, with a lot of the jackass folks.

[620] And the pilot, if I recall, and I told you about this, Monica one time, you almost threw up.

[621] The pilot, you meet Travis on this show.

[622] He's in an airplane up in the air.

[623] And he says, hey, I'm Travis Pistrana.

[624] And this is Nitro's Circus.

[625] he's in board shorts and no fucking shirt and he jumps out of an airplane.

[626] Oh my God.

[627] And do I have that right?

[628] I, have I, if I, I mean, it was kind of fast or fail.

[629] Those tests were always the best.

[630] It was actually, it was a Red Bull test.

[631] You know, they said it gives you wings.

[632] I was just checking it out.

[633] Okay, so I'm watching that.

[634] And this is the first time I've now been put in the seat of like a mother where I'm like, no, no and no. I love Travis Mastrana.

[635] He is a motorsports phenom.

[636] I don't need him jumping out of a fucking airplane with no. parachute.

[637] He just dives out of the airplane.

[638] And then he meets another dude in the air.

[639] And he puts on a fucking parachute and then opens it and land safely.

[640] Yeah.

[641] And you can't practice this.

[642] Yeah.

[643] Well, so I'm not a great skydiver.

[644] Like I got my A license, which is like your beginner license.

[645] That's like your learner's permit.

[646] I mean, I get around fine.

[647] It's like one of those things You can fall out with the best of them.

[648] Yeah.

[649] I mean, that's the best part about base jumping and skydiving, the second you step off the bridge or building or plane, you're going as fast as anyone else can go.

[650] So, you know, you're already up to scale.

[651] You just got to figure it out from there.

[652] But so I jumped out and I tried to get away from these guys.

[653] I was doing everything that I could to basically play tag, assuming that they were it and I was trying to run.

[654] And they basically tackled me out of the sky and they just hooked up to the rock climb artist.

[655] Okay.

[656] So the guys or guys or girls, whoever chased after you in the air, I presume hopefully they were some of the best in the world at skydiving.

[657] I found a military guy.

[658] And I figure, you know, military, they never leave a man behind.

[659] So like, I should be all right.

[660] We'll be great.

[661] So I mean, the words you're saying makes sense, but at the same time, they don't.

[662] I'm like, yeah, I can jump out because the military's never left a guy behind.

[663] Well, okay, yeah, that is a true statement, but this isn't, I don't know that it applies here.

[664] So, yeah, I just, I just remember, I remember thinking, okay, you found my threshold.

[665] I now'm mad at you because I want you to stay alive because I love watching you do shit, but I don't want you jumping out of fucking airplanes.

[666] All of them are scary.

[667] But within there, if you love this stuff, and I do, there's all this strata of actual danger, right?

[668] So these wingsuits are so fucking dangerous.

[669] What's that?

[670] So they get in these suits and they have, you know, kind of wings from your wrist down, and they jump off a mountain and they fly.

[671] and they can go really, really, really fast.

[672] Yeah, it's like a flying squirrel, but the problem is, not problem, they proximity fly because you could fly right down the mountains through tunnels through, I mean, it's amazing.

[673] And the precision of these guys have, that's where my wife drew the line.

[674] So I was starting to think about, she goes, look, you always have to do it a little bit more, a little bit further.

[675] She's like, you don't practice enough to be competent enough that this makes sense.

[676] And I fully agree.

[677] But you can do things safely.

[678] The problem is most of the people that are risk takers that are doing that are going to be proximity flying, you're not going to say, hey, I'm not going to go further or closer next time.

[679] I'm not going to go faster next time.

[680] We're not going to push myself harder.

[681] And eventually with that, it's not, you know, you don't break a risk.

[682] When you find the limit.

[683] It's too late.

[684] Yeah.

[685] I mean, one of those guys disintegrated his friend.

[686] They were flying and they were going to fly through these cables of a bridge.

[687] All these people gathered to watch.

[688] One guy caught a cable and literally dematerial.

[689] realized there was nothing left of this guy.

[690] So one of my best friends, Eric Roner, he was always kind of our voice of reason.

[691] Like he was father of two kids, his wife, Onika, like just an amazing family, amazing human being who was a skier, basically was his main thing, but Shane McConkey, who also passed away, who was from the same area, and they started ski base jumping and that kind of stuff.

[692] And out of all this stuff that Eric Roner did and all the stuff that Shane McConkey did, they both died on things that, I'm not saying they're routine, but they were very, very, very, minimal risk.

[693] So that put things in perspective for me to say like, hey, sometimes things just go wrong.

[694] Yeah.

[695] When you're in those sports, it doesn't really matter how good you are if you're pushing yourself.

[696] If something goes wrong that's outside of your control, McConkey's ski didn't, his binding didn't unclip.

[697] Yeah.

[698] Now, here's a question I have for you, because I'm regularly in situations where it's a track day, we're all riding, and that dude crashes, you know?

[699] And I'm like, You know, you go through this whole thing.

[700] It's like, oh, he just crashed.

[701] Okay, that could happen to me. And then you basically have a talk with yourself of why that doesn't pertain to you.

[702] And I wonder what your talk is.

[703] So mine is generally like, oh, that guy's younger.

[704] He's got more to prove than me. He's willing to ride over his talent level.

[705] And I generally think at 45, I know where my talent level is and I stay just under it.

[706] But that's also horseshit, right?

[707] 100%.

[708] So what do you tell yourself when you've had friends or peers who have died, or been, you know, dramatically injured, doing virtually what you do?

[709] What do you tell yourself?

[710] No, I mean, it's kind of what you said.

[711] It's like thinking of your kids riding motorcycles.

[712] You're like, well, they're probably going to break a bone if they continue doing this.

[713] But it's not going to be today.

[714] Right, right, right.

[715] In your head, yeah, yeah, it's not today.

[716] I know I'm going to get hurt eventually on this, but not today.

[717] Yeah, you're right.

[718] You know the numbers.

[719] Like I tell those to people who want to learn to write a motorcycle who live in L .A. I'm like, well, you're going to get hit by cars.

[720] Like that's, that's just, I've been doing it for 20, 25 years here.

[721] I've been hit by two cars and that's coming.

[722] So, you know, do you want to learn if you're not good at it?

[723] Is this where you want to learn where you, you know, even if you're great, you're going to get hit by cars?

[724] It's risk reward.

[725] But every time one of my friends, especially like, is we've all had a bad injury.

[726] And so many of my friends are like, oh, that's it.

[727] I'm done.

[728] I will never do this again.

[729] I'm getting a real job.

[730] And, you know, maybe a year, maybe five years goes by.

[731] And then they come right back.

[732] And right about the time that they're going, this is so.

[733] I'm awesome.

[734] Like, this is the greatest thing ever.

[735] I'm on fire.

[736] Two minutes later, they're getting ambulanced out.

[737] So, you know, every time I'm feeling like I'm having a really great day, that's like we never say one last time.

[738] Now I'm like, you know what?

[739] We're good enough.

[740] So that kind of happened to you, right?

[741] So you left the X Games for a minute.

[742] You didn't compete in freestyle for a few years, right?

[743] You took a few years off?

[744] Yeah, basically racing cars.

[745] So X games started with me. I stopped racing motocross, basically, and went more just strictly to freestyle.

[746] And we had Nitro Circus starting up.

[747] And we were traveling.

[748] around the world with their best friends.

[749] You know, we met up with Giant Knoxville.

[750] They got a show on MTV.

[751] All of a sudden, we got a live tour that's going on.

[752] I'm like, this is great.

[753] Like, you know, I love X games.

[754] But every time I went there, it was like, I'm either going to be carded out of here.

[755] I'm leaving here with a metal or on a stretcher.

[756] Yeah, and it's going to be either gold or it's going to be on the stretcher.

[757] So not the best attitude to have.

[758] But I was able to kind of start where this Nitro Circus, and we traveled around the world and had all my best friends.

[759] And that's where I went my wife.

[760] She was the only skater that could do the gigana ramp, which is the big vert thing.

[761] And she was doing 540s.

[762] And generally, there's not a lot of girls that can go out to a motocross track all the day.

[763] We always forget to bring any food or water or anything.

[764] It's hot.

[765] We're dirty.

[766] And we're loving life.

[767] And most girls are like, yeah, no. This is not where I parked my car.

[768] This is not my scene.

[769] So when I found Lindsay, I was pretty stiff.

[770] And just a really awesome human being.

[771] Yeah, it's pretty special.

[772] you guys found each other.

[773] Okay, so you're an entrepreneur.

[774] Did you think you would be?

[775] Have you always had an interest?

[776] So really quick, for anyone who wouldn't know, like, Tony Hawk took this thing.

[777] He was a skateboarder.

[778] He was with Paul Peralta.

[779] He had a clothing line.

[780] He then had a board.

[781] Then he had a video game.

[782] You know, he was really, really good at building a humongous brand around that sport.

[783] And you've done the exact same thing.

[784] Were you setting out to do that?

[785] No, I mean, I just basically went off with my dad.

[786] said, and said, have as much fun as you possibly can every day.

[787] If it's not what you love to do, then it's not worth doing.

[788] So basically, I took all the wrong business decisions.

[789] Every time that I had money over here and I had what I wanted to do over there, I always went with that.

[790] Every time I had, like for instance, what I'm most known for is probably doing a double back flip at X games.

[791] But you've got to think of this.

[792] So I still have kind of a motocross, supercross career potentially that I can do.

[793] That's where I'll probably make the most money.

[794] I want to go to car racing.

[795] And I've spent almost every dime that I made to that point trying to chase this dream thinking that I can, I can drive cars.

[796] And it ended up working out.

[797] But Colin McCrae, who is one of the greatest rally drivers of all time, comes over.

[798] He's world champion.

[799] Comes over to the United States, which we're known as not very good drivers.

[800] Even though I feel the NASCAR guys are absolutely amazing, in Indy car, they just don't have a lot of respect on the world stage for whatever reason.

[801] So when Colin comes over, it's my third year in rally.

[802] No one even knows I'm driving cars.

[803] I spent every dime I've had trying to do this.

[804] And I get out there, and I'm sitting second, one -tenth of a second behind world champion, legend, Colin McCray.

[805] And with one stage left to go, I have best trick.

[806] So in between the rally stages and the final stage for X -Games is Moto Best Trick.

[807] I'm sitting third place with the trick that I had.

[808] And I'm eight for 10 in the phone pit.

[809] I know if I crash, like I'm probably breaking my neck.

[810] And I have my whole rally team there.

[811] I have my future that I've just spent everything.

[812] thing that I've had trying to get into Rally, knowing that I've already had a medal here.

[813] And what do I do?

[814] I just say, you know what?

[815] I'm going.

[816] I'm not going to regret not trying this.

[817] And I'm glad I did.

[818] It worked out.

[819] It worked out.

[820] You could not write this scenario, right?

[821] Like, that is so wild.

[822] Okay.

[823] Now, building the business.

[824] So you take Nitro Circus and you travel the world.

[825] You do like arenas.

[826] Am I right about that?

[827] Yeah.

[828] I mean, down in South Africa, we're putting on shows with 50 ,000 people, sell out stadiums.

[829] 50 ,000.

[830] Here, I mean, we're mostly like smaller, like MGM Grand Arena, that kind of stuff.

[831] We did the O2 Arena in London.

[832] We sold it out two nights in a row, stuff like that.

[833] We went over to Australia and like Brisbane, Adelaide, we can usually do three to four nights complete sellouts of 15 ,000 a night, which is, you know, but that culture down there, New Zealand, Australia, and Western Canada, too, honestly, is just more, more action sports.

[834] Yeah, I was shooting a movie in New Zealand.

[835] I was like, I think I should have lived here.

[836] It's awesome.

[837] You can drive a jet boat on this little course.

[838] And they just put you in.

[839] Just way too much horsepower.

[840] And then street bike Tommy, another guy who has absolutely no business being in anything, they gave him like, literally, he's doing like 100 on this little jet boat.

[841] You're going 100 miles an hour and the track is ending in nine feet.

[842] And the guy's not lifting.

[843] No, you have to give it more throttle.

[844] That's where Street bike Tommy, he went in at 100.

[845] Let go to the throttle and we got going straight.

[846] And the problem is you flip on to land.

[847] So it's a field and they cut these little water trenches.

[848] But when you start crashing, you flip onto the field.

[849] Yeah, in a boat.

[850] You're a boat barrel rolling.

[851] Yeah.

[852] And then Monica, the guy's going 100 and the track is ending, like I say, in a couple dozen feet.

[853] And he just fucking whips the steering wheel 180, floors it even more.

[854] And you are like that going the other direction.

[855] Oh, whoa.

[856] It's the most surreal.

[857] Yeah, it doesn't feel possible what happens in those.

[858] things.

[859] And when we were driving, it was not possible.

[860] How many shows a year does Nitro Circus put on live shows?

[861] Well, this year, none.

[862] No. Right, right.

[863] Yeah, yeah.

[864] We were up to about 70 shows a year and just trying to figure out the business plan.

[865] What's interesting, because when you're touring, it depends on if you can do more than one night in the same arena.

[866] Yeah, it gets profitable.

[867] Yeah.

[868] So you have to go through and establish what Nitro Circus is.

[869] So anywhere that we had a TV show, people knew the name, Nitro Circus, like Australia, New Zealand.

[870] Like, we were, we came out with the movie, it got like, I don't know, 2 % on Rotten Tomatoes here in the U .S. and no one even knew it was out.

[871] And in Australia, we were second to the Bourne Altam ultimatum.

[872] You know, so like, there's not that many people over there, but still.

[873] So without trying to count your money for you, which is a hobby of mine, what percentage of your income is Nitro Circus traveling live?

[874] Like, are you nervous about how long it may be before you can do that?

[875] Yeah.

[876] So what's really interesting was, so we had kind of the world championships for the big air of action sports.

[877] If X games and the Olympics are, you know, kind of standardized ramps, let's make it fair across the board.

[878] Nitro Cirxes, how big can we go?

[879] How far can we fly?

[880] And let's make the landings a little bit safer so we hopefully don't have anyone get injured kind of deal.

[881] I was like, it's not legit.

[882] It's to an airbag.

[883] It still hurts.

[884] And yes, they're now doing two more flips than anywhere else in the world.

[885] Yeah, I could give a shit about that.

[886] We just, I was showing her some clips of your stuff before we talked to you.

[887] And I saw a bunch of airbag landings where I was still absolutely mind -blown.

[888] That's horseshit.

[889] Yeah, but I mean, so Teets their own, our goal is to push the limits and to do it as safely as possible.

[890] But Wales this year was going to be the first time we had it outside of Salt Lake City, and that was canceled.

[891] We had 70 shows that are now probably end up doing 20.

[892] It's not a good time to be in live entertainment.

[893] Yeah.

[894] And now with a nitral rally cross.

[895] So I'm kind of leading the nitro rally cross charge, which is actually building my own facility just to prove that we can have huge jobs that we can do it.

[896] but I want to be able to have full control, creative control over the track, and I want to have the best drivers out there building a track that challenges the drivers.

[897] Because we've found a nitro circus not to take a step out, but when the athletes are having fun, the crowd's having fun.

[898] You could do the exact same show.

[899] You could do a better show.

[900] But if the energy of the athletes aren't there, it doesn't come across.

[901] And not seeing the NASCAR and all these sports, they're amazing.

[902] But they're so focused on winning, I want to bring it back where they're actually a little scared of the track.

[903] You've got Talladega rights and less.

[904] We've got huge jumps.

[905] You've got time stuff.

[906] Now you're, instead of just thinking, I want to win, you're thinking, I'm scared.

[907] So just more challenging, hopefully more fun.

[908] That's the goal.

[909] But so I'm kind of spearheading that.

[910] And so Ken Block, who's also trying to build up rally cross and trying to figure out how to make this go beggar.

[911] He doesn't want to, not to say he doesn't want to do anything, but he's like, I've done every huge stunt I've ever dreamt of.

[912] And I feel like if I do anything else, I'm going to die.

[913] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're like, what more can I do?

[914] So he passed the torch to me this year.

[915] So Jim Kana, which, you know, is one of the, and they shut down the Golden Gate Bridge.

[916] They shut down the 10 101 freeway for him to drift around and do this.

[917] No, it's insane.

[918] He destroyed Universal.

[919] The entire studio was fucked up with tire marks.

[920] I was working there and I got to work after like the weekend after they shut it down.

[921] And this is the whole place was rubber.

[922] And I'm like, what happened here?

[923] Oh, Kim, yeah, but really good time.

[924] So my goal is to build rally up.

[925] Can you have all the best rally drivers in the world plus Dax Shepard in this thing?

[926] Yeah.

[927] Sign up, man. Let's make it happen.

[928] So let's advertise.

[929] There's all of the best drivers in the world is an okay driver, Dag Shepard.

[930] That's exciting.

[931] The electric car is coming out, zero to 16 under a second.

[932] No. And they're thinking about doing not minivans, but like small SUVs is what all the companies are asking for.

[933] Like, can you imagine like a minivan doing zero to 60 and under a second?

[934] That's like as fast as a drag car.

[935] Our wheel drive, it's going to be awesome.

[936] Yeah, you're probably pulling like four Gs if you go under a second.

[937] No, that's that's it.

[938] It's amazing.

[939] My goal is to continue progressing the sport, continue having fun.

[940] I feel like if I'm passionate about it, if I love it, then everything that I'm investing is, even if it doesn't succeed, it's still been an amazing life and it's still showing my kids.

[941] Not that I work per se, but you're up early, you're traveling.

[942] You're always working.

[943] You're working hard at hardly working.

[944] Yeah, that's it.

[945] Now, if I'm being too nosy, tell me, but if you had your pie, it's all the money you make in the year, what is from your endorsements?

[946] Is that the bulk of what you make, or is it the nitrousucrose touring show?

[947] Or is it something else I don't even know about?

[948] No, it's probably sponsors and that kind of stuff.

[949] So my wife always has a very difficult time, even though she's in the same thing.

[950] Like, she skates to win or so she's looking at what it's going to gain, you know, and she's a mom now.

[951] And there's a lot.

[952] She won the world championship last year, 2019, at 30 years old.

[953] So it was like a half lifetime since she won at the time before.

[954] So I'm so proud of my wife.

[955] But I was going down and I was filming this video.

[956] And I put in $800 ,000 in my own money, which didn't get pretty much any of it back because the industry is just not big enough to really support that just because I was chasing these jumps and these tricks.

[957] And Lindsay's like, what?

[958] Like, what are you doing?

[959] Like this is our kids college fun.

[960] What a fucking circus being married to you.

[961] It's not just the sports.

[962] It's also like, no, I'm going to become a NASCAR driver and blow X amount of money.

[963] Everyone's like, why did you quit NASCAR?

[964] I'm like, literally, I wasn't good enough and I ran out of money.

[965] I did want to ask you one question about that.

[966] I've had this experience where I'm like, fuck, being craziest isn't good enough.

[967] Yeah, that was NASCAR.

[968] So imagine this.

[969] You race motocross your whole life for freestyle.

[970] You can take that little extra risk.

[971] You can, so for those of you don't know, like in a wolf section, it's like a whole bunch of bumps that you have to touch your front and back tire to every single one or you flip over the handlebars.

[972] But you can shift up, close your eyes, wheelie, and make a whole second.

[973] I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but you can make a second every lap through the whops if you just are willing to roll the dice.

[974] Yeah, pretty much.

[975] Yeah.

[976] So there's always that.

[977] And then like rally, it's snowing.

[978] There's a hundred foot cliff on the right side, trees on the left.

[979] So if you'll take on more risk, you can be faster.

[980] Right.

[981] But if the walls weren't there and it was a cone, everyone would be doing that corner a second faster.

[982] But because there is the potential, a lot of guys slow it down.

[983] That's where I can usually step up and say, look, I know that this is my ability level and I can make up time if I need to push there.

[984] So with NASCAR, with any pavement, really, you can't make up time by being crazier.

[985] You have to be a technician.

[986] You can't get in trouble.

[987] You have to be a computer.

[988] You have to drive.

[989] You have to break at the exact same point every single time.

[990] And you got, you know, it's very technical.

[991] I was like a 10th to 13th place NASCAR nationwide driver.

[992] But I crashed a lot more than I should have because when you're running 10th to 13th place, two hours into the race, you're thinking there's nine guys that are going faster than me. Like obviously, I should be going faster.

[993] So you just kind of run out of patience.

[994] Like you know that's as fast.

[995] Jimmy Johnson once said, he said, if you think you're going slow, you are.

[996] If you think you're going fast, you're not.

[997] and if you think you could have possibly gone a little quicker, you couldn't.

[998] It took me a year to figure out.

[999] It's really ponder that.

[1000] Yeah, I mean, it doesn't even make sense, but I'm sure it does intuitively somehow.

[1001] Okay, Robbie Madison, that guy's special, right?

[1002] I think he did something that no one really did.

[1003] I think he made an art form out of this.

[1004] Like, I showed my wife the one where he wrote a motorcycle in the ocean.

[1005] It's a motherfucker rode a dirt bike out into the ocean and wrote a wave.

[1006] There's some art form of his or some elegance to him that's so special.

[1007] Well, what's awesome about Maddo is Maddo was a top racer.

[1008] He raced with Chad Reed, like he was one of the best amateur motocrossers that really came out of Australia.

[1009] And then he gets into freestyle and he's like, man, I just, I have so much more fun doing this.

[1010] And then he has a couple really bad injuries and he's chasing this.

[1011] And he was at one point the best, but he never won like the X games because he always got hurt or something came up.

[1012] So he started working on, he's like, what am I passionate about?

[1013] And, you know, he has, you know, a wife and a couple of kids now.

[1014] And it's funny because he's actually taking on not more risk per se, but things that seem like more risk.

[1015] He jumped at the, well, Archie Triumph, he did unbelievable, but he takes the time.

[1016] So he'll do one stunt a year.

[1017] And when he dropped into the wave, like he drops into jaws on a dirt bike, riding off the back of a barge, hits this.

[1018] And he's got a full riding gear and everything.

[1019] You're like, oh, gosh, like, you're going to drown if you fall off the mic.

[1020] And he did crash, but he was good.

[1021] But everything that he does now, he's very methodical.

[1022] You usually don't get hurt doing the stuff that's the craziest because you've thought of everything through.

[1023] And he really gives it the time to make sure that he's dotted all of his eyes and crossed all his T's.

[1024] And that's why Mattos is so successful.

[1025] But he is in situations where you can't inch towards your goal.

[1026] So the arc to triumph stunt, what's he going to build 65 Arc to Triumphs on his way up to that level where he finally jumps that high and lands like at some point there's a leap of faith maybe maybe maybe there's a way to inch up what are you promoting currently for me just we're just trying to get a little bit more support for basically i'm starting to track because i want to stay home in maryland more i've been traveling so much and especially now during this quarantine i think man i have so much time with my family that yeah i would have never gotten back and this is this is the first time ever i've gotten a routine with my wife and i mean we're still skating and riding and stuff but we're doing it here at home.

[1027] And, you know, homeschooling was a little difficult with the two kids.

[1028] I was so bad at it, dude.

[1029] Yeah, I was the P .E. T -shirt.

[1030] So Lindsay took mostly most of the stuff.

[1031] So that was okay.

[1032] Just make you do the fun stuff that I always wanted to do anyway.

[1033] But what I really got out of this and what I really want to do is push action sports.

[1034] So many people want to come over and they want to learn backflips.

[1035] They want to do stuff.

[1036] And I believe we can help people do this stuff safer.

[1037] We can help the next generation come up.

[1038] I mean, right now, video games are taking over the world, which is great.

[1039] But kids aren't getting outside as much.

[1040] And for me, like, I grew up outside.

[1041] I love being outside.

[1042] My kids love go -karts.

[1043] They love BMX.

[1044] They're always doing something, you know, trampolines.

[1045] So I want to build this park where my wife, she works with a women's sports foundation and she can help coach kids and my kids can come out there.

[1046] We can go -kart.

[1047] So went down this huge road, spent quite a bit of money trying to figure out the closest spot to my house that we could build this amazing facility that I could just work side by side with my wife, that we weren't going to be touring as much, but that would still help Nitro Circus and really help show what this rally cross track could be and help the Olympic training facility where we're bringing some of the top athletes from all around the world to come train there, which is, I think it would be fun for the community.

[1048] But there's a Queen Anne's Conservative Association, which is Queen Anne's County.

[1049] They're basically a political activist group that is an anti -growth group, and they have a lot of money.

[1050] And they could not get one single person in the town of Southerstville, Maryland to oppose this.

[1051] Everyone in the town wants it.

[1052] But they found seven people over in their county that we're willing to go and they're filing every single thing they can file and basically trying to prolong this so we can't break ground for two, three years.

[1053] So if you live on the eastern shore, well, at the end of the day, like, I think it's going to be an awesome thing for the community, for the state and and hopefully for the United States in general where you have all these other, you know, athletes coming in from all over the world, all them to come kick our butts.

[1054] But yeah, it's, uh, it's, It's going to be a lot of fun.

[1055] So hopefully the lax up on this and we'll get the message out that it's, you know, not building a motorcross track is going to be all dusty.

[1056] We're working with electric.

[1057] We're trying to keep the noise down.

[1058] I don't want to work within the town.

[1059] But I just want to stay home with my family.

[1060] Let me ask you, because I'm an addict and a recovering one.

[1061] And so I love drugs and I love all this stuff.

[1062] I think there's an HBO sports I watched on it.

[1063] There's a very high rate of dudes in extreme sports that end up being meth addicts or opiate addicts.

[1064] I'd imagine both the needing the thrill.

[1065] at all times would make you a nice candidate for that.

[1066] And then all these surgeries.

[1067] What's been your relationship with like opiates and all that stuff?

[1068] Luckily for me, opiates make me sick.

[1069] Like I hate, like after you come out of anesthesia, like I'd rather tolerate the pain.

[1070] So I guess that's a blessing for the sports that we do for sure.

[1071] Most of the action sports guys that I know that I've gone down that road, it's been their back or they have something, a disc or something that just nags and they can't sleep.

[1072] So they start with the sleeping pills.

[1073] and then when they start taking the sleeping pills, something clicks, something goes off.

[1074] And then it's the opiates and the sleeping pills or it's the alcohol.

[1075] And then the concussions on top of that, it's not a good mix for sure.

[1076] And then plus one of the hard things is like one of my cousins is actually the only smart guy in our family.

[1077] He's a teacher.

[1078] And he goes, I want to see like the 60 minutes on you guys like at the end of like when we're about to die when they do something on like the generation.

[1079] the last of the like the crazy daredevil generation yeah like what happens to you guys when you have kids like my wife for instance when she was 16 she was a snowboarder and a skater and she stayed with a 17 year old that was making million dollars a year and his brother and like a couple other people that are between the ages of 14 and 7 17 was the oldest kid in the house staying at living at mammoth mountain you know but you're making all this money traveling the world best friends you know they find the parties they find the parties they find all this stuff.

[1080] Everything comes to them so easily.

[1081] And then at 25, you're beat up, you're hurt.

[1082] You really, you can't even stand up.

[1083] Your knees are jacked up.

[1084] You couldn't even get a job at McDonald's because, like, standing all that time, you just can't physically do it.

[1085] And then all of a sudden, you're finding what minimum wages and what construction paychecks are.

[1086] And this is your lifestyle is so different.

[1087] And then the only way to get that adrenaline rush, because you're not, all of a sudden, you're not being able to afford the motorcycles and the cars and the fun times.

[1088] And that's kind of where that depression, the no sleeping, and then I need some way to get that feeling back.

[1089] So in my opinion, that's what I've seen.

[1090] Well, that's the thing that leads to the depression.

[1091] You have camaraderie and you're in a community and then you leave that community when you stop doing that sport.

[1092] And that's like these football players, they all get depressed.

[1093] And they don't miss the money and they don't miss fame.

[1094] They miss the camaraderie.

[1095] I agree 100 % with that.

[1096] Do you drink?

[1097] Yes.

[1098] Okay, good.

[1099] Only drink.

[1100] Do you drink a lot?

[1101] You know, when you feel up the little doctor's things?

[1102] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1103] Yeah, it's like, one beer a week, five beers a week, alcoholic.

[1104] You're like, there's got to be something in between this.

[1105] Oh, that's so funny.

[1106] I just had to answer that question recently, and I always lie.

[1107] Oh, you do?

[1108] I do.

[1109] I don't want to, but I'm like, three times a week.

[1110] Yeah, they only drink socially.

[1111] Yeah, socially every day.

[1112] There's a lot of airplane days.

[1113] So, first class, the booze is free.

[1114] You would be a sin to waste that.

[1115] Well, Travis, you rule.

[1116] I want to hang out with you.

[1117] We usually go in a policy that's no new friends, but I think with our kids being the same age and us liking the same stuff, this is going to be great.

[1118] All right.

[1119] Well, I adore you.

[1120] And I'm excited to come to your compound.

[1121] I think about it all the time.

[1122] Every single time I look at your Instagram page, I'm like, when will I get to drive on that wooded, beautiful track?

[1123] It's so gorgeous.

[1124] How many acres are you on?

[1125] Well, the interesting thing is we had a neighbor that had 20, acres.

[1126] And we had a motorcross track on his property when I was like 12.

[1127] And then there was 100 acres that got broken up into 20 acre parcels.

[1128] And there's one military guy and the rest of us are motocross.

[1129] And the military guy is awesome.

[1130] So he flies his helicopter over all the time.

[1131] So it's just for being right outside, we're 16 miles outside of the D .C. Beltway.

[1132] And we are in the middle of Redneck Heaven.

[1133] Yeah.

[1134] Wow.

[1135] But where you go get your groceries, do you get sweated all the time there?

[1136] No, Maryland's probably the place they get recognized at least.

[1137] I feel like action sports is like Fight Club.

[1138] Like, you don't speak about Fight Club.

[1139] During that MGB time was a little different.

[1140] Yeah, yeah.

[1141] But pretty much everyone, like anyone that has a flat -brimmed hat or, you know, any motto thing or Fox or whatever, you just get, you get the little nods.

[1142] You get nods all the way through the airport, everywhere.

[1143] When you go to sit down at a restaurant, a dinner, you always have like a free drink shows up from someone.

[1144] Like, not that's good.

[1145] It doesn't really help the drinking question that you had earlier.

[1146] but, you know, it's like, I'm in that perfect spot.

[1147] Mm -hmm.

[1148] All right, Travis, well, again, I adore you.

[1149] You, I feel emasculated when I watch you do things.

[1150] You're braver than I. You're more talented than I. And I'm so glad we got to talk.

[1151] Hey, thank you so much for having me on.

[1152] Next time we talk, hopefully I'll be able to actually speak.

[1153] Yeah, perfect, perfect.

[1154] Round two where people can hear you.

[1155] Bye.

[1156] Thanks, all right.

[1157] See you, Travis.

[1158] Good to see you.

[1159] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[1160] And now my favorite part of the show, the fact check with my soulmate Monica Padman.

[1161] Monick's just talking the mic's nine feet from her.

[1162] I forgot how to do this.

[1163] You were just talking about watching Oceans 11 without me yesterday.

[1164] Yeah, my young son is in town weekly.

[1165] And shockingly, Weekly had not seen oceans.

[1166] I cannot believe that.

[1167] I couldn't either.

[1168] He's seen every movie.

[1169] That's a big one to leave off.

[1170] He said, yeah, bud, it's one of those famous movies.

[1171] movies I just have not seen.

[1172] Is there any you've not seen like really famous ones?

[1173] And I couldn't think of one.

[1174] Really?

[1175] I don't think so.

[1176] There has to be.

[1177] You haven't seen.

[1178] Oh, this is ripe for an argument over what famous is.

[1179] Have you seen my best friend's wedding?

[1180] No. That's a very famous movie.

[1181] Moderately successful.

[1182] Maybe like $100 million.

[1183] Oh my God.

[1184] It's one of the most famous romantic comedies of all time.

[1185] I believe you.

[1186] What is it?

[1187] Someone's a wedding planner.

[1188] No, That's the wedding planner.

[1189] Oh, I didn't see that either.

[1190] No, my best friend's wedding is Julia Roberts and J. Robb?

[1191] And Dermott.

[1192] Moroni.

[1193] Or Dylan McDermott.

[1194] No, Dermott.

[1195] Dermott.

[1196] And they're best friends, but they have this pack that they'll eventually get married.

[1197] They're kind of in love.

[1198] But they've been best friends forever.

[1199] And then he gets engaged.

[1200] And so she kind of tries to sabotage.

[1201] It's Cameron Diaz.

[1202] And she tries to sabotage, and at the end, she basically surrenders and they get married.

[1203] It was one of the first romantic comedies.

[1204] Were the girl didn't get the boy?

[1205] Yeah, that like flipped the end on its head.

[1206] It is one of my top.

[1207] It's up there with Oceans 11.

[1208] Oh, my gosh, really?

[1209] How many times have you watched it?

[1210] 40 ,000.

[1211] Okay.

[1212] I was guessing at how many times you'd seen Oceans.

[1213] I was telling Aaron, it's like one of your top five.

[1214] And I guessed 40 times.

[1215] 40?

[1216] Yeah.

[1217] Way more than that.

[1218] I used to.

[1219] I used to.

[1220] That's two times a year since it came out.

[1221] I don't think you understand how my life worked.

[1222] I do.

[1223] No, you don't.

[1224] When I was a young gal, I would watch so much TV in movies.

[1225] And like I would just all every night put something on.

[1226] And generally, if I was attached to something at the time, it would be the same.

[1227] same thing for like a month.

[1228] Yeah.

[1229] So I watched Oceans 11 every day for...

[1230] You think like 40 times the first year.

[1231] For sure.

[1232] And then I watched it on commentary, like the same amount.

[1233] Oh, wow.

[1234] You're a true fan.

[1235] It was Brad.

[1236] Yep.

[1237] Matt.

[1238] Yeah.

[1239] Clune doctor.

[1240] That's right.

[1241] Yeah.

[1242] They were all in the commentary.

[1243] I loved the commentary because, like, oh my God, Goodwill Hunting Commentary is Ben and Matt.

[1244] I could probably recite the commentary as much as I could recite the movie.

[1245] Wow.

[1246] What's your favorite part of the commentary?

[1247] Well, they talk about Robin, but this is before Robin died, but they talk a lot about how they wrote it for him.

[1248] And that's just one part.

[1249] There's many good parts.

[1250] Yeah.

[1251] I love the commentary so much of these movies, especially these boy movies, because I felt like they were talking to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1252] Sure.

[1253] I felt like I was in on one of the real conversations.

[1254] Right.

[1255] Gave me so many PQs.

[1256] Of course.

[1257] Of course.

[1258] You were probably all a titter.

[1259] Big time.

[1260] Big time flustered.

[1261] Have you ever watched a commentary?

[1262] Oh yeah.

[1263] My favorite movie, Thief, which I've seen in excess of 200 times.

[1264] I've listened to that commentary several times, but it's disappointing.

[1265] It is.

[1266] And I don't really want to get into why, because I would be publicly shaming one of the persons involved.

[1267] But I just, I held the movie in this insane esteem, you know.

[1268] I'm sorry.

[1269] That happened to you with the commentary.

[1270] Thank you.

[1271] Thank you.

[1272] I like extras too.

[1273] I used to really like extras.

[1274] I think I've talked down here about anyone who wants to be a filmmaker should just watch the extras on Miller's Crossing so that you can hear Barry Sondenfeld, who was the Colin Brothers DP for, I don't know, five movies, the first five movies.

[1275] He gives a tutorial on lenses and what they do as part of this extra.

[1276] And it's like, it was like going to film school.

[1277] I'm like, oh, I understand the lenses completely now.

[1278] Yeah.

[1279] That's nice.

[1280] It is nice.

[1281] It's nice to be so into something that you just want to consume every single element.

[1282] You know what's funny, in the Sarah Marshall commentary.

[1283] Yeah.

[1284] Kristen isn't there, but she, like, calls in for a little portion of it.

[1285] Oh, okay.

[1286] Yeah, and that's before I knew her when I saw that.

[1287] Right, right.

[1288] We were just newly dating at that point.

[1289] She was probably driving to your house.

[1290] Oh, my goodness.

[1291] Oh, my goodness.

[1292] Wow.

[1293] There's a funny story in there, but it's embarrassing to me. Tell it.

[1294] Okay.

[1295] I was in Baby Mama.

[1296] They came out back to back.

[1297] Mm -hmm.

[1298] And Baby Mama had a date.

[1299] And then Kristen said, Judd said he wants that date.

[1300] Same studio.

[1301] Oh.

[1302] And I said, well, I don't think they're going to move a Tina Fey movie off a date.

[1303] Hmm.

[1304] And guess what?

[1305] They did.

[1306] They moved the date.

[1307] Yeah.

[1308] Oh, man. It was funny.

[1309] I was trying to flex on behalf of Tina and I just lost.

[1310] Flex by proxy.

[1311] Flex by proxy.

[1312] It didn't pan out in my favor.

[1313] It was really embarrassing.

[1314] Both movies are fantastic.

[1315] I loved Sarah Marshall.

[1316] Yeah.

[1317] Yeah.

[1318] That's a great movie.

[1319] It is.

[1320] It's a great, great movie.

[1321] I, of course, was in love with Jason Segal.

[1322] Yeah, of course.

[1323] He is funnies into Muppets.

[1324] Mm -hmm.

[1325] Yeah, those are cute characteristics.

[1326] Yeah.

[1327] Speaking of into.

[1328] Oh, I didn't finish.

[1329] Can I say?

[1330] There was one thing I was trying to say.

[1331] Yeah.

[1332] The Jerry Weintraub documentary is really fantastic.

[1333] People should watch it.

[1334] I think it's on HBO or Showtime.

[1335] Very interesting guy.

[1336] He had been the manager, I want to say, of, like, Led Zeppelin.

[1337] He was like the Colonel Sanders of, not Colonel Sanders, that's Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[1338] Colonel Parker, Elvis is kind of a puppeteer.

[1339] Oh.

[1340] I don't want to say he was a puppeteer, but he was very involved in Led Zeppelin's life, in Sinatra's life.

[1341] He made the original oceans with Sinatra and Dean Martin and all these guys.

[1342] And then, you know, late in his career, he puts together Oceans 11 with that cast, which he didn't at the time really have the kind of capital to do that.

[1343] Does that make sense?

[1344] Well, he hadn't had like hit movies for a long, long time.

[1345] But he was a, he's a legend.

[1346] Totally a legend, yeah.

[1347] And weirdly enough, I went very early on Shauna Robertson, Kristen's friend and a good friend of mine invited me to his house in Malibu for a party.

[1348] And I'm like walking around this house and it is on like 10 acres on the ocean.

[1349] The house is enormous.

[1350] And I'm like, what the fuck did this guy do?

[1351] Why is this guy so loaded?

[1352] I go to the shitter and there's like two dozen gold records in the shitter.

[1353] Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppin, all these other ones.

[1354] And I'm like, oh, okay, that's why this guy has a $50 million house.

[1355] Anywho, the way he put together, the new Oceans 11 was he called, Brad Pitt.

[1356] Oh, yes.

[1357] You know this, right?

[1358] Yeah.

[1359] And he said, hey, just got off the phone with George Clooney and Matt Damon.

[1360] They want to make this movie.

[1361] Oceans, we're going to go and they want you in it.

[1362] And Brad's like, wow, well, if they're in it, great.

[1363] And then he called Clooney.

[1364] He said, just got off the phone and he just lied to all of them.

[1365] But it worked out beautifully and everyone had a great time.

[1366] And sometimes I think that's how you got to put.

[1367] They didn't talk about it on the commentary.

[1368] Oh, they didn't.

[1369] No. They talk about it in the Winthrop documentary.

[1370] Yeah, he just lied to everyone.

[1371] But it worked.

[1372] And you got to do that, I guess, as a producer.

[1373] on that scale to get that that can't be done really it takes a unique person to get those three top i mean those three were at the top of their game yeah you can't get all three of them in one movie top of their hotness big time top of their hotness and julia robbers i mean come on back to j robb yeah as is chitel oh my god is it a movie what a movie but speaking of niche speaking of muckett's yeah speaking of niche okay a little clunky on this transition's a little Well, I was going to say, speaking of niche things before when it made sense.

[1374] Okay.

[1375] And now I have to do all this.

[1376] Okay, backtracking back pataling.

[1377] Anywho, Travis.

[1378] Pestrana.

[1379] Incredibly niche.

[1380] Oh, sure, sure.

[1381] Not for dudes, but yes, for you.

[1382] Most dudes in America know who Travis Pestrana is.

[1383] Even if they're not into motorsports.

[1384] You can know who he is and his...

[1385] You're right.

[1386] There's not hundreds of people making a living at his...

[1387] That's right.

[1388] It's very niche.

[1389] It's very niche.

[1390] You're right.

[1391] It is very niche.

[1392] Yeah, you are in heaven.

[1393] I was in heaven.

[1394] And if this episode served no other purpose, then he and I are now communicating.

[1395] We're texting each other.

[1396] And as soon as COVID's over, Lincoln and I are 100 % going to his compound to ride razors.

[1397] I guess he'll be driving Mavericks, but we'll be driving razors.

[1398] Yeah.

[1399] We're a Polaris family.

[1400] He's left.

[1401] Okay.

[1402] Nobody knows that any of these four darts are.

[1403] The five boys that listen to the show know what I'm talking about.

[1404] There's two different manufacturers of, there's three or four.

[1405] manufacturers of side -by -side, U -T -Vs.

[1406] And Polaris is number one.

[1407] They're the best.

[1408] They're the best.

[1409] They're the most reliable, best performance, everything.

[1410] A competing one that's really good is Canaan.

[1411] They make a Maverick.

[1412] And Travis has gone to the dark side.

[1413] Okay.

[1414] Okay.

[1415] Also, if you own a Maverick, I love you and I'll see you in the Dunes, so no shade.

[1416] But I'm a Polaris guy, okay.

[1417] I bleed RZR.

[1418] Okay, continue.

[1419] Oh, my gosh.

[1420] Polaris, Polaris.

[1421] Okay.

[1422] Okay.

[1423] So, speaking of lingo that nobody knows, so a couple times you guys were talking about 125s and you said some other numbers and stuff and you can just tell people now in case they've been waiting on baited breath to find out what that means well I bet they're like you and they just filed it into white noise yeah they have no interest and they don't even want an explanation but I'll tell I'll give you one okay so um an internal combustion engine works on the principle that there is a piston inside of a cylinder okay that piston goes up in the air and it compresses the fuel inside and when it gets compressed it makes it combustible And a spark goes off, an explosion happens, and the piston comes down.

[1424] Now, the volume of that cylinder is measured in CCs in motorcycles.

[1425] So a 125 means there's 125 ccs of volume in the cylinder.

[1426] Got it.

[1427] And then the step up from that would be 250.

[1428] So there's two different classes in motocross.

[1429] Got it.

[1430] Back when they were two -stroke, that's a longer conversation.

[1431] But in general, the original internal combustion engines were two -stroke, meaning the piston went up and compressed.

[1432] that was one stroke, that ignited, exploded, and went down and got rid of the exhaust in one.

[1433] Now the way your car engine works and now the current motorcycles is there's four strokes.

[1434] There is compression, ignition, exhaust, and I'm forgetting one.

[1435] But there's four processes to get the gas in and the gas out, as opposed to two processes to get the gas in and out.

[1436] Wow.

[1437] Two strokes had this crazy power band.

[1438] They were slow and then all of a sudden they were outrageously fast.

[1439] they were hard to predict.

[1440] Now, four strokes are just a very even power band.

[1441] You just learned.

[1442] I'm glad I asked.

[1443] It was a tutorial and engine.

[1444] It was.

[1445] That's interesting.

[1446] You learned something new every day.

[1447] So back to why it was relevant is he was doing all of his stunts on a 125.

[1448] Right.

[1449] Half the displacement of the guys he was competing against.

[1450] They had way more horsepower, yet he was still winning.

[1451] That's the only reason it was worth bringing up.

[1452] Yeah.

[1453] Okay.

[1454] So the one part where my ears perked up.

[1455] No, plenty of times my ears perked up.

[1456] Okay.

[1457] They got really perked when you were talking about the foam pit.

[1458] Oh, uh -huh.

[1459] And I obviously know so much about phone pits.

[1460] From your cheer background.

[1461] Exactly.

[1462] And then he was saying that it started at Woodward Camp.

[1463] Which you knew about.

[1464] I knew that because when I was younger, my best friends, two of my best friends were gymnasts, were high -level gymnasts.

[1465] Okay.

[1466] And they went to Woodward camp every summer.

[1467] I have to imagine they had a little paper, too.

[1468] It's got to be costly to go to Woodward.

[1469] sure it's not cheap.

[1470] Yeah, right, right.

[1471] I'm sure it's not cheap.

[1472] I hope they have a scholarship program.

[1473] Me too.

[1474] Yeah.

[1475] I hope so too.

[1476] I've seen a couple HBO real sports about how costly, like, Little League Baseball's gotten.

[1477] All these different sports where, like, to be competitive, you're expected to spend the summer at one of these camps and then the travel team and the hotel expenses.

[1478] It's like, you know, it could be $50 ,000 a year to have your kid play Little League, which is, if you're a poor kid, I don't know how you compete.

[1479] I know.

[1480] I don't know what the solution is that?

[1481] It's like outlaw all that crap or scholarship.

[1482] I don't know, but it's not fair.

[1483] I think scholarship, yeah.

[1484] Even in high school, like, it's expensive for cheerleading.

[1485] The uniforms, the this, the that, it really does add up.

[1486] And if you don't have the money, you're screwed.

[1487] The only reason I'm not in the NHL currently is we didn't have money for me to do hockey and have ice time.

[1488] I know.

[1489] I would have been in the NHL.

[1490] Oh, my God.

[1491] I've been retired 12 years ago, I'd be depressed and I'd be back on the bottle.

[1492] That's the truth.

[1493] Call on my teammates.

[1494] You guys want to get together?

[1495] You're like, oh, we're busy.

[1496] Yeah, we found management jobs with teams and you didn't.

[1497] Okay, so you said that risk takers don't have as much M .A .O. In their brain, M .A .O. Our family of enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of monoamines, monoamines.

[1498] employing oxygen to clip off their amine group.

[1499] M .A .O. A is a logical enzyme to investigate in depression because it regulates levels of all three major monoamines.

[1500] Serotonin, norapinephrine, and dopamine in the brain.

[1501] That's the one I always forget, noroprephrine.

[1502] Epinephrine.

[1503] Neuroephron.

[1504] You always forget norephyr.

[1505] And then she was wonderful.

[1506] Oh, yeah, she was.

[1507] Okay, because of the vital rule that MAO's play in the, inactivation of neurotransmitters, MAO dysfunction, too much or too little, is thought to be responsible for a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

[1508] For example, unusually high or low levels of MAOs in the body have been associated with schizophrenia, depression, ADD, substance abuse, migraines, and irregular sexual maturation.

[1509] MAOB, research suggests that high sensation -seeking reaches into every aspect of people's lives.

[1510] Affecting engagement in risky sports, relationship satisfaction before and during marriage, taste and music, art and entertainment, driving habits, food preferences, job choices, and satisfaction, humor, creativity, and social attitudes.

[1511] Oh, wow.

[1512] I got none, right?

[1513] You got none of those.

[1514] No, I mean, I don't think I have any MAO.

[1515] No, no, no, that's, I haven't said yet the correlation, but that's just saying those are high sensation seeking people, which clearly you are.

[1516] All right.

[1517] Okay.

[1518] Compared with low sensation seekers, high sensation seekers are more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol and drugs, and are more attracted to high stress careers.

[1519] Holy shit.

[1520] We've been doing all this stupid psychological work and my trauma and my childhood, my background, and clearly it's just M .A .O. Well, we don't know yet.

[1521] I haven't even gotten there.

[1522] This is your lack of MIO talking.

[1523] Okay, you're right.

[1524] I'm trying to be risky and guess the ending.

[1525] The personality trait may have a biochemical basis.

[1526] High sensation seekers have lower levels of monoamine oxidase type B. In enzyme involved in the regulation of neurotransmitters, particularly dopamine.

[1527] According to Zuckerman's book, Behavioral Expressions and Bioscial Basis of Sensation Seeking and a research review chapter he wrote in the book, Biology of Personality and Individual Differences.

[1528] Okay.

[1529] I want to read that book.

[1530] I also want to get my MAO levels tested.

[1531] M -A -O -B levels tested.

[1532] Yeah.

[1533] Moreover, Research Suckerman published in 1980, determined that sensation -seeking, which is higher in men than in women, peaks in the late teens and early 20s and gradually declines with age along with levels of testosterone.

[1534] M -A -O, which is low and high sensation seekers, increases with age in the blood and brain.

[1535] Are you going to tell people that you're on testosterone?

[1536] I've said it on here several times.

[1537] Have you?

[1538] Yeah.

[1539] Well, you're on testosterone.

[1540] I'm on testosterone.

[1541] I am now currently at the levels I should have been at in my late 20s, early 30s.

[1542] When I got mine tested, my levels were like in my late 50s.

[1543] Right.

[1544] And I think there's some correlation between physical trauma and reduced testosterone production.

[1545] Oh, boy.

[1546] Another fact to check.

[1547] My father had like zero testosterone at a certain point and was on antidepressants.

[1548] And then he got on testosterone and he no longer needed antidepressants.

[1549] Yeah, it has a big effect on your mood for a male.

[1550] That's the thing I like most about it, more optimistic when I'm on it.

[1551] And I'm more hungry to work.

[1552] And hungry.

[1553] I haven't noticed how it has affected my food intake.

[1554] I guess I'm eating more steak, you know?

[1555] I didn't even like steak.

[1556] Oh, my God, we just figured something out.

[1557] Remember I didn't even like steak?

[1558] I've never liked it my whole life.

[1559] And then two years ago, I'm like, I'm going to try every single steak and see which one I like.

[1560] and then I've become like a steakfile.

[1561] Oh my gosh.

[1562] That's definitely the T. I think I like sports more too.

[1563] Oh my God.

[1564] Yeah.

[1565] Okay.

[1566] So you said, You say.

[1567] Oh, you said you're definitely going to get hit by car if you drive a motorcycle, which I didn't like.

[1568] The most common motorcycle accident happens when a car makes a left turn in front of you.

[1569] Yeah.

[1570] This is the single most dangerous situation of motorcyclists accounting.

[1571] for 42 % of all accidents, including a motorcycle and car.

[1572] Yeah, you got to really be ultra -focused when you're going through intersections.

[1573] I'll add, though, L .A. is a really big U -turn town, and that's where most of the people, I think the PCH is the deadliest road in Los Angeles County, and generally it's knuckleheads making a fucking U -turn.

[1574] They've parked at the beach, and then they make a U -turn across like six lanes.

[1575] And a lot of motorcyclists have just been cruising down the road And all of a sudden some knucklehead bus, oh, you turn out of nowhere.

[1576] Okay, well, this is a scary paragraph I'm about to read, okay?

[1577] The NHTSA reports that 13 cars out of every 100 ,000 are involved in a fatal accident.

[1578] But motorcycles have a fatality rate of 72 per 100 ,000.

[1579] Okay, so that's six?

[1580] That's five times.

[1581] Yeah.

[1582] Five times.

[1583] Motorcyclists are also at a greater risk of a fatal accident per.

[1584] mile traveled.

[1585] For every mile traveled, motorcycles have a risk of a fatal accent that is 35 times higher than a car driver.

[1586] In 2004, there were 37, 2004, who cares?

[1587] Well, motorcycle sales have declined.

[1588] So maybe 2004 was maybe like peak motorcycle ownership.

[1589] Oh, all right.

[1590] The millennials don't give a shit about motorcycles, sadly.

[1591] They don't give a shit about any motorsports, sadly.

[1592] I mean, it's good.

[1593] It's good ultimately for the environment, I suppose.

[1594] Yeah, that's true.

[1595] That's Okay, so he talks about an electric car that's going to go from zero to 60 in a second.

[1596] And then you said that probably hits four Gs.

[1597] Uh -huh.

[1598] It actually hits 2 .735 Gs.

[1599] To go zero to 16 in one second?

[1600] Yeah.

[1601] That's bonkers.

[1602] That's what drag cars did in the day, back in the day.

[1603] It says right now, I don't know if this is, you'll know more than me about this, but it said that.

[1604] The fastest 060 is in a Tesla in ludicrous mode?

[1605] Well, this is the Bugatti.

[1606] Veyron?

[1607] Yeah.

[1608] Or Chiron.

[1609] Veyron.

[1610] Uh -huh.

[1611] And Veyron's Super Sport are capable of a zero to 60 time of 2 .5 seconds.

[1612] They currently have the fastest zero to 60 time of any production car.

[1613] Yeah, that's a $1 .4 million car.

[1614] And it has a W engine instead of a V. And it has four turbochargers on it.

[1615] and it has like three or four radiators and it makes over a thousand horsepower and it's four -wheel drive oh my god it is insanely fast i was at the auto show one year yeah i went solely to see the varon okay because i'm into them yeah and i was looking at it through the ropes they asked if i wanted to come look closer so of course i said yes i'd be more mad at myself for saying no okay so i was now I'm in the car, right?

[1616] And then a guy leans down, and he works through Bugatti.

[1617] And he says, you want to drive this thing?

[1618] And I said, absolutely.

[1619] And he said, okay, meet me at this Beverly Hills dealership in a couple days.

[1620] Oh.

[1621] I think at the time there was only four in the country.

[1622] Wow.

[1623] And we went out on Burton Way, and I just did hole shots from light to light.

[1624] And that thing would go, I could get up to like 125 between lights on Burton Way.

[1625] Were there other cars on the road?

[1626] Very minimal.

[1627] It was very safe.

[1628] Close course.

[1629] Okay.

[1630] Close course.

[1631] You know what that means?

[1632] No. When people fuck around on Instagram and cars and then they get shamed.

[1633] Some people have been arrested.

[1634] Oh my God.

[1635] And they'll say closed course.

[1636] What's that mean?

[1637] Well, on top gear, we'll shut down two miles of Angeles Crest.

[1638] Got it.

[1639] And then we're allowed to do whatever we want.

[1640] There's cops there.

[1641] So some people will post closed course, but it's not really a closed course.

[1642] Oh.

[1643] Okay.

[1644] Yeah.

[1645] And I'll leave it to people to decide.

[1646] All right.

[1647] Well, that's it for Travis.

[1648] It is?

[1649] Yeah.

[1650] Oh, okay.

[1651] What did I want to say about him?

[1652] Just, I don't know.

[1653] I'm excited to go to his house.

[1654] Yeah.

[1655] What an interesting life.

[1656] What an interesting existence.

[1657] One of the most unique American life experiences.

[1658] Yeah.

[1659] And I truly have no judgment, negative judgment, because I think it's amazing.

[1660] I like that philosophy of what's the point of living if you're not living.

[1661] The life you want to live.

[1662] And I also think, oh, my God, could I ever get close to a person like that?

[1663] Yeah, you said it was a pretty selfish lifestyle afterwards, and we had a mini debate about that.

[1664] Yeah, and again, that's fine if that's your choice.

[1665] But I do think, though, it's a little misleading because, like, yes, I get your point that it's selfish because there's a threat of death, right?

[1666] But more often, a huge percentage of America, the person's dedicated their life to their career, whether it's a lawyer or a CEO or all these different occupations that are like 70 to 80 hour a week occupations.

[1667] Yeah.

[1668] And so you've lost that person to that career.

[1669] In general, you're going to see them on the weekends, but they're stressed.

[1670] And Travis, yes, has the threat of death looming.

[1671] but his time is less, and he's at home with his family doing this thing.

[1672] So you've got to be really granular about what you want out of the relationship.

[1673] Because if it's safety, it could have the illusion of safety, but you could actually have much less of that person's life.

[1674] Yeah, that's true.

[1675] Everyone's different, and every person probably has a different answer to this.

[1676] But if I was picking for my dad, would I prefer to have him work a ton and see him maybe not that much, but feel pretty, pretty confident that he's not risking his life every day.

[1677] Yeah.

[1678] I would pick that.

[1679] But, you know, it's funny because this is kind of your parents.

[1680] What do you mean?

[1681] Like, this is kind of the lens that your parents look at life through, which is just like safety.

[1682] But there's so many elements to safety.

[1683] Like, is safety emotional safety?

[1684] Totally.

[1685] Connection and intertwined lives.

[1686] And yeah, it's a physical safety.

[1687] Now, I can tell you one thing I'm judgmental of in the way that you are that I'm not judgmental.

[1688] I'm not judgment.

[1689] I really am not.

[1690] I think whatever works for him works for him and his family.

[1691] I think that's lovely.

[1692] Yes.

[1693] And I don't think you're making a character assessment of him when I say judgmental.

[1694] I'll say I'm judgmental of something I've noticed recently occasionally when I'm traveling.

[1695] Because I would never watch it in the home.

[1696] My wife wouldn't allow it.

[1697] And I want my kids to necessarily see it.

[1698] but I'll watch like three hours of UFC when I'm at a hotel.

[1699] And I've noticed the last couple times I watch it that the fighters bring their kids.

[1700] And I don't like that.

[1701] I don't think a six -year -old should be watching their parent get bloodied to all hell.

[1702] And the fight having to be stopped.

[1703] Yeah, I think that's pretty traumatic.

[1704] Yeah, I can't see how that's not traumatic.

[1705] Now, I imagine the fighter is so confident about the, contest that they're going to win in their mind, they're going to be dominant, and their child's going to be proud of them.

[1706] That has to be what they tell themselves.

[1707] And 50 % of the people in the ring are going to lose, no matter how confident they are.

[1708] That's just going to happen.

[1709] And so half of the kids that go are going to watch their parent get obliterated.

[1710] And it's got to be very scary and not fun to watch.

[1711] So I don't love that.

[1712] But this is that, too.

[1713] Yeah, I wonder if he, if they have a rule.

[1714] let like the family doesn't watch him do those stunts unless they know they've, like, they worked out and then they can see him after the fact, but maybe not on the day watching the big stunt.

[1715] Maybe, yes, and I think seeing it has an added level of trauma, but there's a innate sense of insecurity you grow accustomed to if your parent is putting their life on the line every day.

[1716] That goes for military families too.

[1717] It's the same situation.

[1718] where it's like you go to bed at night and you're just not sure.

[1719] Yes, but I don't think any Navy SEAL would want their child to be watching the rate of Osama bin Laden's compound live.

[1720] Right.

[1721] No, that's what I'm saying.

[1722] I'm saying regardless of whether you see it or not, you are then forced and you're forced as a child.

[1723] You don't get to make this decision.

[1724] You're right.

[1725] That you are now living in a state of some.

[1726] insecurity about the people you care about the most in the world.

[1727] And I think that probably has an effect, whether they even realize it or not.

[1728] They probably think their parents are superheroes in some way.

[1729] Like they probably believe even more than the parent that they can do anything, like that dad's a superhero.

[1730] Well, which is, well, yes, yes.

[1731] So it might not be full of anxiety.

[1732] It might be full of like, oh, he's going to do it again.

[1733] He can do it.

[1734] They might not be nervous at all watching it.

[1735] But what I'm saying is I wouldn't want them to see when it goes bad.

[1736] Right.

[1737] But he also like, you know, he has a lot of people in his life who died.

[1738] Uh -huh.

[1739] And that I didn't grow up with my parents having a bunch of people who died.

[1740] Half the engineers at your dad's job didn't die.

[1741] Exactly.

[1742] That's such a different internal programming of like, yeah, this guy that came over two weeks ago is dead now.

[1743] But you know what?

[1744] I guess, you know, now that I'm thinking about it, I guess one of the elements that I think appeals to me about it is my endless desire for control and in some way me getting killed by cancer pisses me off me getting killed by something I hate didn't want didn't sign up for versus me dying doing something that I chose to do that I love something about that to me that feels better I respect that and to me that's a selfish thing to say right sure I would prefer you die of cancer.

[1745] Well, not next year.

[1746] No, not next year.

[1747] But if I died at 40 of cancer, as people do, and then I hadn't done anything I love because I was afraid of dying.

[1748] And then this fucking stupid thing got me when I could have been doing everything I loved.

[1749] Well, it's a balance, right?

[1750] It's a balance.

[1751] I'm not saying don't do anything you love.

[1752] I think I'm in the safe side of all these things.

[1753] Yeah, me too.

[1754] Yeah, I'm not trying to set any world records or, okay, you just knocked down a wood desk I built.

[1755] Yeah, I did.

[1756] All right.

[1757] I love you.

[1758] I love you.

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