Reflecting on Career Longevity

This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. I'm going to be honest with you. I am online way more than I probably should be. And between me and everyone else at my house, we've got a zillion screens going on at any given moment. So when my internet slows down, it is a full crisis. That's why having fast, reliable internet that can keep up really matters and why you need optimum famously Fast fiber Internet Optimum fiber blows flaky five G out of the water and keeps it cool with the fastest and most reliable speeds that don't slow when things heat up. And right now, they have the deal of the summer, just thirty dollars a month for five years. So don't wait, callall eight eight eight for optimum. Visit optimum dot com or stop by your local optimum store today Famously Fast fiber for thirty dollars a month for five years. You can't beat it Terms apply see optimum d. com for details Hey everyone, it's Kell Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book Club you've ever heard with my podcast, Earsay, the Audible and I Heart Audiobook Club. Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible. It's the book Cub for your ears Listen to EarsSay, the Audible and I Heart Audio book Cub. On the Artartt Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Sonatics Fest NYC returns to the Jabbs Center july sixteenth through the nineteenth for the biggest sports event weekend of the summer. S stars like LeBron James, Tom Brady,raron Judge, John Cena,haylen Brunson, Serena Williams and hundreds more, featuring more than five hundred athletes and celebrities, live shows. Eclusive merch, rare collectibles, Sonatics games with two million dollars in prizes, a full tailgate zone, and New York City's largest indoor FivA World Cup final watchatch party. Sonatics Fest is the world's number one sports fan festival. Get your tickets now and Beticspest d. com. That's beticspest dot com Aging is real, And so are the benefits of adding vital proteins, collagen peptides to your daily routine. New Vital proteins collollagen sparkling water Your daily glow up now in three fresh flavors, strawberry blossom, lemon lime, and blood orange. impmproved skin health in as little as thirty days thanks to collollagen peepptides? Cheers to that, or go with our class at Collaggen peeptides, so you can stay vital, stay you. Visit vitalproteins. com to learn more and where to buy. These statements have not evaluated by the Foodrug addministation this product is not intend to diagnose treat prevent disease It's the summer Olympics in Paris, twenty twenty four There's a swimmer competing that year, Hunter Armstrong. And Hunter does well So well, actually, one gold, one silver That his swim sponsor comes to him with news. They told me while I was in Paris they were going to extend my contract and even give me a raise It's Hunter secondcond Olympics and his second gold medal He competed in Tokyo too And so after finding out about his extended contract and pay raise, He figures He's been a pro swimmer for long enough now And with this new raise, I made the decision to move back to Ohio and build my life as an adult. And so I bought dogs, I bought a house a month or two after I got back from Paris, I get a call from my agents saying that the company that I was working with decided that they're going to start doing more cross fit, more Pickle ball and that this partner is not going to work with me anymore So I went from a figure that was good enough to buy a house to Zero in a minute Whatever's going on with Hunter sponsor, with sports in general, it's not personal. But the reality is he needs the money And something he's noticed ever since going pro People can get a bit presumptuous about his job The money isn't the point You're doing it for your country. you're doing it because you really want that gold And I do love this sport But it's my job If my job is not paying, then A'm going get a different job I guess people u Don't really think about professional athletes being You know, prorofessional And so Hunter started looking for other ways to make money And that's when he found out about enhanced. By the time he found out his sponsor dropped him Hunter had already bought that house in Ohio In fact The school he was going to for his daily training was at Ohio State, where he'd gone to college. When I told them that I was even considering the enhanced games. I was told by a coach, I won't say which one. He does not want to see me there uil I make a decision. And if that decision is enhanced, then he wants nothing to do with me How'd that make you feel? That's my co producer Lina, by the way. She's also on this call Horrible I mean This was this is my alma mater. Here's the thing about Hunter Aside from being a pro athlete, he's nothing like any of the other enhanced games athletes you've met so far on this show That's because even though Hunter was considering signing with the Enhanced games The thing he wasn't considering doing at all. was doping I'd had several sit downs and I'm like According to this, I'm not in violation of anything. We We're good from his side. If I were to have a violation, if I were to get banned, It is against the rules as a coach to train a band athlete Last summer, about a month after Enhanced officially announced their plan to host the games in Vegas World Aquatics. they're the folks in charge of clean swimming and diving at the international level They added an amendment to their rulebook about athlete eligibility Obviously, if you're a swimmer caught doping, you can't compete in clean sport For example, the Olympics Doping equals no Olympics. We know this. What worldld Aquatics added to the equation are caveats about people benefiting financially from doping But the new language in the rule book is written with some ambiguity Enough so that Hunter and his lawyer think he's got a good case to make for competing in enhanced and remaining in the Olympics pipeline Having this cake and eating it too, basically Hunter's point is As long as he's been a pro swimmer He's always made himself available for drug testing. And he's never failed a drug test So even if he participates in enhanced, So long as he remains available to World Aquatics for drug tests, he should be able to do both I mean, I have to tell them where I am every hour every day And I've been doing that since twenty twenty And so since I never left there their site That's why we feel that'm I'm able to do both For the record, nobody has officially told Hunter, he's right on this one whichich isn't to say he hasn't asked He's asked multiple organizations multiple times. They're all like give you an answer to that I feel like nobody wants to be the guy to say it Hunter is making a calculation. ' gamble the way he sees it, he's basically out of options At least this way, he's getting paid. If he wins his events at the Enhanced Games He'll make one of the biggest paychecks of his life If you're gonna to ban me, then This is what I have to do to survive. So If I'm known for the rest of my life as a doer Fine I wasn't Still' not There are indications that his argument' going to hold. For instance, I assS Hunter How soon after officially announcing he was going to swim for enhanceced? Did drug testers show up at his front door? kid you not next morning Wow Say more about that I hate him so much They they show up at the most inconvenient times on purpose Um I didn't get back to my house until probably three AM They showed up likeike five or six After his coach at Ohio State drew the line at ennhanced Hunter ended up at a local YMCA He says the pool there is not great Plus I do feel horrible when I'm racing next to a sixty year old doing water aerobics Wh? Oh, I'm splashing them It's very much like The kid who peaked in high school showing that He's better But these guys are just going for fun and to stay healthy and I feel like their perspective is that I'm putting on a show Like hey guys, look how fast I can swim Thing is, the guy can swim pretty fast He's a backstroke specialist and he kind of is putting on a show Or he's preparing to, anyway This phone call you're hearing is from a couple months ago the beginning of April Now fast forward to the third week in May to a giant and temporary sporting arena on the Las Vegas Strimp And for Hunter Armstrong and every other athlete competing at the Enhanced Games It's showt From Kaleidoscope and IHart Podcast, this is Super Human. I'm your host, Chris Kimmoi. and I'm Sam Egan Fanatics Fest NYC returns to the Jabbit Center july sixteenth through the nineteenth for the biggest sports event weekend of the summer. S stars like LeBron James, Tomrady,raron Judge, Sehn Cina,aylen Brunson, Serena Williams, and hundreds more. feeaturing more than five hundred athletes and celebrities, live shows. Eclusive merch, rare collectibles, Sonatics games with two million dollars in prizes. A full tailgate zone. in New York City's largest indoor Fiva World Cup fininal watchatch party. Fanaticsfest is the world's number one sports fan festival. Get your tickets now at fanaticsfest dot com dot That's fanaticsfest dot com d Aging doesn't stop, and neither should you. With vital proteins collagen and protein shakes, because around the age of thirty, your body needs more support for movement and recovery. On workout and rest days, reach for a thirty gram total protein shake, or go with our classic collllagen peptides Help support healthy hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints. so you can stay vital, stay you. Visit vitalproteins. com to learn more and where to buy. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease Hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm the host of EarsSaay. Audible and IHart Audiobbook Cub. This week on the podcast. I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project Hail Mary Massive sci fi adventure about survival and science. And what happens when you wake up alone very far from Earth I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections. and it's like, okay, yo, yeo, yo is this indulgent? And I really thought about it and I was like, No, at this point it would kind of be betraying the trust, the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't G through it. There's places in this book deeply emotionally affected me And I left it on the mic. That's great becausecause it served the story peopleople will say like, Ohh my Godd, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah, dude me too. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and I heart audioobook club On the Arhart Radio app or wherever youre getting a podcast. Summer is a gift It's a gift of days that last a little longer, a brighter state of mind So giveift yourself a new Kia at the Kia Summer Sticker Sales event, pecially tacked vehicles including the Sornto, Sportage, Carnival, as well as the Nuro Hybrid All backed by a ten year one hundred thousand mile limited powertrain warranty. So the gift of summer can keep on giving for summers to come. Kia, Movement that inspires. Call eight hundred three three three four K for Details host just aree event and seven six twenty six to deala for warranty details We are in beautiful Las Vegas. It's almost eleven AM and already pot as shit It's the morning of may twenty fourth. Sam Lina and I are in Uber headed to the games In anticipation of the day ahead, Lina and Sam are exchanging sunblock For some reason, all three of us are wearing black pants, even though it's ninety five degrees out. The truth is, none of us know how to dress for the doping Olympics Here we are. it's Yeaho, what are you saying? It's I mean, I' be honest, it looks not done Why are you We're gonna try and cool it on the weather commentary, but it's extremely important to keep in mind that for the entire day At least the one of us is always complaining about the heat I really don't understand why Enhance settled on outside in the desert as the best place to break multiple world records for sports. Can it be makeshift and state of the art at the same time N Not a bad way to describe, I think what we're looking at, right The layout of the actual competition area is pretty interesting. In the center of it is a four lane pool. There's a hundred meter track. And then there's like a little elevated platform area where the weightlifters presumably are gonna be lifting heavy stuff A reminder, there aren't any normal fans at the games. You can't just like buy a ticket and fly here to see it. The entire event is invite only, and the venue is packed with influencers, family members of the athletes Businessmen cozying up to enhanced When we three are standing in line waiting to be brought into the actual venue, along with other members of the press A guy walks up to us with two of his buddies He says, Hey, I sell peptides You want to interview me Finally, we're let in The site of the venue we're set up on is like if a cruise ship had just stcked there. And there are dozens of small exposed state roooms overlooking the field and pool Except no walls Press is put in one of those rooms, which is nice in some ways It's stocked with bottles of water and Pellegrino. There's shade, electrical outlets, and a ton of food Fancy food Ppperertif cheeses, served with cured meats and bean dips Although because of the heat The cheeses keep collapsing and melting into each other. In the two or so minutes it takes the caterers to bring it to us which makes it pretty hard to actually eat The rest of the food is coursed out L aaspacho with watermelon mini lobster rolls Jumbo shrim cocktail Wagu sliders, vegan bratwurst and Polish sausages. Carnita is in Al pastor There's stillim some ch my dumplings, pork buns, and spicy wontons But we lack an access. access to the athletes So the other attendees at the games Ehanced makes upp for it and catered food which is to say a lot. At one point, Lina and I leave the press area to walk around a Before the game starts, just to see who else is there And we see a guy Lena thinks she knows, so we walk up.'s. Immediately, one of Enhanced press team walks over to showoe us a wedd I think I to shut this down. because I're not gonna be talking. sorry. I'm sorry you're good. I'm We stand around awkwardly for another ten or so minutes. The press teams still watching us. Some of the guesss, the off limit ones, I recognize them. is people who work out professionally on TikTok or YouTube But we're told we're not supposed to talk to them. I feel like I'm a cooachella. Huh? Finally, we just decide to go back to the press area, where we're actually allowed to be. I thought that was Kate McKennon. I don't know who Kate McKennon is. Yes, you do. She was on S mL for like ten years I'm not an SNL guy I'm sorry. I'm not an SNL girl. I'm just aware of the Zit guys. As I putter around waiting for the games to start, I happen on an influencer that I recognize. And for whatever reason, he's gam to talk to Sam Egan. Sam Eaggan. Jud the An.. Jesse James West is a fitness content creator with a few million followers on Instagram He's standing in the corner of the arena next to the blue carpet You get it Like red carpet, but blue becausecause that's enhanced color Jesse's got a camera guy following him, and he's holding a love mic So you're obviously not comeing from like I guess a journism background, a fitness infuencer side. I think many journalistic things, like this is Jesse explains, he's here for a story he's working on about the Enhanced games Specifically about what a good idea it is. When I look for content, when I look for making viral videos, if someone was to say, hey, we have this idea, we can make you an awesome video. If we got a bunch of people that are on gear or pepttides or steroids to come in and compete, I'd be like that is the best idea I've ever heard of. Like When it comes to putting your health first, it seems to be the trend And it's a positive trend. Jesse stops for a second to pull out his phone He says he's going to call enhanceced co founder Christian Ingermma See where he is. You got Christ's personal number,. know lot of I think a lot of mebers of press don't. I'm curious you know why do you think The new wave of the press, like the influcer journalism, whyy do you think that that is Taking over I think we were and I't mean this in no. disrespect at all. I think we were quicker It's so much more it's so immediate what we can do Like I'm going to be posting multiple TikToks in the next few hours of this event that will get a lot of views. And then my long form video will take maximally Jesse says, compared to him, pressed like us move like snaales whichich okay, fine I'm not somebody who ever tries to like fuck people over, you know, Because it's just gonna hurt the next relationship. What he means is he's not trying to fuck over in hand by reporting anything negative about becausecause that'll make it harder for him to report on other people and Hance is at all connected to him And look, in my regular life where I'm just a guy out on a Saturday, grabbing drinks with friends also don't try to be overly probing Not because it'll make my friends dislike me ' M more like, I just think things go better in the world when none of us are intentionally being dicked But that's not what journalism. have algorithms. Anyway, at this moment, Jesse pulls away from Christian Engermmeerers just arrived at Jesse's Summit I just got bumped out of the way for this influencer interview Christ Eangermmeyer They talk for maybe twenty minutes. When I ask Christians handlers for my turn with them They tell me I can have five He's the same old Christian Basically saying to me the same things he's told me before. What do you think is necessary to like define today as a success? What do you think needs to happen out there? We have to break world records. And I think we will. My guess is like two to five, two to four world records. There's another metric by which Christian measures success. It's how many sort of fs we have in socialists or whatever, and it's going in the billions. And that's what I would have told you two weeks ago. I maybe have even because we spoke before, that I think I would be very happy if all in all we have like a billion fs And I think we have it already before the game. So that's gonna that's why I'm happy. If even half of the guests invited have a following close to Jesie's, The influencer I was just talking to. Then I guess yeah, Christian might get his billion views It's a bit of a challenge to fact check, of course billion views, they underline something you really wouldn't know unless you're there at the games which is that for the rest of the day The stands are kind of empty Maybe it's the heat or the free drinks and food But until we leave it around midnight, one thing remains true. There's more people mingling behind the stadium than actually watching the games stillill inevitably Games begin across three different categories Weightlifting, track, and swimming For the first stretch, it's weightlifting. Women's Snatch. One by one, athletes walk up onto a very sunny stage. Squat down and grip a loaded Barbo. Wow. She's got it. She's got to fight, She's got to fight, She's up. Oh G attempt Nobody comes close to breaking a world record Weightlifter after weightlifter comes on stage Oh Oh wow. Surprising, very surprising. What went wrong? Actually only a few even try to break world records. There are some personal bests and plenty of prize money won because remember, athletes get paid up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars for coming in first. and fifty thousand dollars replacing fourth So plenty of happy weightlifters and swimmers and track stars But world records, W records, there are not. B Paul,'s He's so close. Oh, the defeat is so painfuless On the jumbo screen above the stage, each athlete's performance is presented the same way their name their personal best and the world record. I will say my opinion is that because they keep projecting what the world record is, seeing someone that you know is on drugs. N Not coming close to it. kind of makes me feel like, oh, that's extra unimpressive As the day beats on, something that, to be honest, we're really not expecting starts to happen Hunter Armstrong, the enhanced swimmer who isn't enhanced. He's on the edge the pool ready to dive in for the fifty meter backstroke. Competing against swimmers, who are enhanced number one The athletes who haven't doed keep eating the athletes who have. And it keeps happening. Like at the women's one hundred meter sprint. What it means for her a non enhanced athlete, second non enhanced athlete we've seen win in these events and at the men's one hundred meter sprint Unenhanced athletes keep taking the top prize. This is it, ladies and gentlemen, this is a moment quite literally. We have all been waiting for. One of them, Fred Curly Folks actually are expecting him to win Maybe even beat the world Wckord In lane four, Fred Curly But when it's time for his race s Yeahlease sener Boss starts keep forcing him and the other runners to start over again. It's a false start Second time. Another false start. Frustration is building. In total, it took three tries to actually complete the sprint And it's a clean start. Curly Matadi in two and four coming down the stretch. Curly is going to take it and Curly iss going to come in with a time of nine point nine eight. And Curly did win Not the results that he was looking for in terms of the time, but the outcome in terms of his placement is still the same Which means he walked away two hundred fifty thousand dollars richer. Well, you look disappointed You saw that, A lot of fal stars, a lot of jumping. They gotta do better than that. Do you think if it would have gone off first time, you could have had a shot? I'm ready to run fast. But no world record And Meghganan Romana Who came out of retirement to compete in the games? God Meghgan looks fucking shredded She wins one of her races The hundred meter free Meghgan, congratulations, the winner of that race. two hundred fifty thousand dollars. You are raised. I mean, look at the shape she's in. It was a personal best for Meghgan, and after ten years of retirement, really impressive. But it certainly wasn't a world record In the fifty meter butterfly, a race that includes Andrew Govorv from Ukraine and Ben Proud from the UK. It was so close. I thought he had it What a bizarre race. Ben Prowd does swim at twenty two point three two zo point zero five seconds shy of the world record which does make him two hundred fifty thousand dollars richer. Still, no world record In the late afternoon, the biohacker Brian Johnson slides into the commentary booth, holding up an umbrella to block the sun Enhanced CEO Max Martin posts a photo to his Instagram stories of him and the DJ Diplo hanging out in one of the suites But front and center On the trreack in the pool by the weights. They can't seem to break a world record Not that the influencers seem to care Throughout the day, they walk around making content Very little of that content features the Enhanced Games. It's more like content of the influencers who happen to be at the Enhanced Games You know those museums of ice cream which pop up all over America, specifically so people can go and take pictures to put on Instagram in a pool of sprinkles or inside an ice cream sandwich The enhanced games are like a museum of ice cream Except instead of a pool of sprinkles, it's a pool of Olympians. My favorite moment When a group of teen boys wanders into the center of the arena by the pool, and film each other laughing and dancing like they're in the video game Ftnite, while a literal swim race is held Th are so cute. They are like they really are so young looking. They have like five DSLRs. These teens, their presence makes for some pretty powerful cognitive dissonance, let's say.. What Enhanced is literally selling is the promise to wash millennials like myself that we too, can feel ten years younger if we buy their products This coterie of Gen Z influencers who haven't yet woken up with lower back pain feels, I don't know. Totally off Or maybe the point is By our shit and you too can hang like these teens At the same time, this whole time, The whole point of this is to break world records Christian told us so this morning and six months ago And last year Edward Jones, we believe rich means opening yourself to new possibilities. That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets you where you are, helping you move forward with confidence. Let's find your rich. Edward Jones, member SIPC. Fonatxpress NYC returns to the Jabbet Center, july sixteenth through the nineteenth for the biggest sports event weekend of the summer. see stars like LeBron James Tom Brady, Aron Judge John Sina Jale Brs, Sra Williams and more featuring more than five hundred athletes and celebrities, live shows. Eclusive merch, rare collectibles, Sonatics games with two million dollars in prizes, A full tailgate zone, and New York City's largest indndoor FIFA World Cup final watchatch party. Fanaticsfest is the world's number one spports fan festival. Get your tickets now at fanaticsfest d. comot That's fanaticsfest dot com Aging doesn't stop, and neither should you. withith vital proteins, collagen and protein shakes, because around the age of thirty, your body needs more support for movement and recovery. On workout and rest days, reach for a thirty gram total protein shake, or go with our classic collllagen peptides Help support healthy hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints. so you can stay vital, stay you. Visit vitalproteins. com to learn more and where to buy. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease Hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm the host of EarsSay Audible and IHart Audiobbook Cub. This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project Hail Mary. Massive sci fi adventure about survival and science. And what happens when you wake up alone very far from Earth I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections. and it's like, okay, yo, yeo, yo is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like, No, at this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have and telling this story if I don't Go through it. There's places in this book deeply emotionally affected me And I left it on the mic. That's great 'cause it served the story. People will say like, oh my Godd, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah, dude, me too. Listen to EarsSay, the Audible and I heart audioobook club On the Arhartt Radio app or wherever you're getting a podcast. The hours tick on Athletes make their entrance. And each event is over in a few TikTok friendly seconds and still no world records When the sun finally starts to fall, I have a thought Did enhanceced bamboozle us into doing them a favor Are we just instruments for drumming up attention No different than those Zoomer influencers dancing poolide Finally, it's time for the last event The big one The men's fifty meter freestyle One lap across the pool It'll be a four horse race between Ben Prroud, Andrgovorov James Magnuson And the guy who already broke this exact record At least according to enhanced one year ago Christian Golamef. The tension in the air is palpable It feels like we're about to find out if this whole thing is a total flop or if there really is something to this whole enhanceced thing No Chrian Gold twenty point eight one seconds He beat the world record by zero point zero seven seconds. They did it After six hours in the desert and many millions of dollars spent, here it is The One World Reord For some reason, a bunch of red lights pulsate throughout the arena Like we've all been playing callall of duty and I've taken too much damage