Masculinity FACE OFF： Michael Knowles vs. Nick Freitas on Wild Facts
Episode Stats
Words per minute
181.27934
Harmful content
Misogyny
28
sentences flagged
Toxicity
38
sentences flagged
Hate speech
59
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode of Face Off Masculinity, host Ben Bateman is joined by Michael Knowles and Nick Fritas to discuss the topic of masculinity and the role of men in society. They discuss the pros and cons of masculinity, what it means to be a man, and what it takes to be one.
Transcript
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Wait, you're saying, you said when you tighten the nuts.
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and now you're talking about tightening the nuts.
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They built empire, split the atom, and got so good at going to the moon,
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Unfortunately, today there's a lot of misinformation on masculinity.
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So to learn more on the subject, we brought in two men qualified to speak for men everywhere.
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In one corner, representing the Roman Empire, low vitamin D,
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and the belief that both men and civilization peaked in the 1220s, Michael Knowles.
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And in the other, representing tactical competence, facial hair, and TikTok, Nick Fritas.
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As I should note, you have an actual book on paper with words printed on it that is,
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depending on when you're watching this either just about to come out or out already you need
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to either pre-order or order it right away it is called the man book the man book a point-by-point
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guide to sucking it up and getting the job done great great title i wish i could steal the man
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book i'm a sucker for a good pun and i'm excited to read the book oh well thank you very much it
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was it was a lot of fun to write there was a lot of uh it was a walk down memory lane um yeah i
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I tell people a lot of stuff I learned, most of it the hard way, over my time as a husband, father, soldier, elected official, all that good stuff.
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I like how what you're bringing to this is the masculine pursuits of shooting, killing the enemy, protecting the country, lifting weights.
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And I'm bringing the other masculine attributes of playing ukulele, doing a little pas de bourree, sometimes a little soft shoe.
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And anyway, so together, we're completing masculinity is what I'm saying.
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You guys ready to suck it up and get started?
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Each host has 30 seconds to scribble down their answer.
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And the loser, they must deliver a glowing 30-second pitch for the winner.
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Shoot, I was going to say blue, but I said green.
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As soon as you went into, like, auto mechanics, it's like, I'm screwed.
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Number two, what percentage of workplace deaths in the USA are men closest without going over?
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I usually strategize to go lower, but I feel confident enough.
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Like if we did a game about nothing, I might win, you know?
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Well, I mean, in all fairness, I did used to occupy a job
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that was far more likely to get you killed on the job.
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for a man suffering from epididymal hypertension?
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The word for a man or a word for the condition?
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It's like unbelievable what I have to put up with that he doesn't, he asks, he asked
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Then I have to try to figure out what he's thinking.
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What is the colloquial term for a man suffering from epididymal hypertension?
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For the man or for the thing he's suffering from?
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This is why we can't have nice things right here, Michael.
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You're giving me hyperditymol, hyperepidemic tension is what you're giving me.
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If you're suffering from epiditymol hypertension, what are you suffering from?
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How many current physical performance world records
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this would be like strength, endurance, swimming,
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Like I said, it could be those kind of performances.
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Some sort of physical activity held by women.
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The questions require end notes and paragraphs and disputations.
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Just give me a closest without going over, Michael.
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Give me a number of events are held absolutely by women.
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So this is tricky because for years I was told, you know,
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long distance swimming, certain distances, that kind of thing,
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women perform better in occasionally for absolute world records.
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They'll just find some like random new distance or some new canal
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But there is one currently, Nick is right.
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And it is consecutive days of running longer than 50 kilometers.
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and the previous mail record was 80 days straight.
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So until some guy gets bored and wants to do it,
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You know, the one where they like mop the floor.
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Okay, so it's the most days you run some arbitrary distance.
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I was thinking there was going to be some category
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having to do with like child birthing pain thresholds
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Nick Freitas says, way to go, Candice, on the Michael Knowles show.
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the new filet mignon the wagyu burgers and the bone-in ribeyes are out of this world and the
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bone-in ribeye i'm not even a huge ribeye guy i'm more of a new york strip guy sweet little elisa
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So you can't be in a relationship already. If you're not in a relationship,
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What percentage of a heterosexual, because you know the gays, they're all doing whatever.
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give me like okay the range stop stop stop what is the temperature when it's complete
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just give me what's the temperature that you cook it at give me a temp in that range
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okay so when it's complete when you're talking about ben the question is what temperature is
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the meat or what temperature do you cook it on at the meat the meat when it's all done you put a
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That's true. I don't even do the grilling.
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Like a New York strip, you're going to do medium rare.
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And I'll give you what that range is after we answer.
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I'm just throwing off that Michael uses a thermometer and doesn't eyeball it like a real man.
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It does come out much, much better when you cook to temperature.
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If you're cooking in time, you never know what happens.
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I remember when I first saw this thing, I'm like, what the heck is this?
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And then the first time we got and started cooking with them, I'm like, okay, I'm in the cult.
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I don't know what sort of commie came up with that.
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I wouldn't go that high, but that was the end of the threshold.
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School, which is survival, evasion, resistance, and
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there on the side of the road for six days would you like sous vide it or something like it's fine
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you yeah you would tartar boil it yeah you'd boil it yeah right well for this next question michael
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depending on what your day's been like you might actually be partially the way here what is the
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longest reliably documented time that a human has stayed awake closest without going over yeah i
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gotta get my documentation in before before we uh claim this prize you could be halfway there right
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Yeah, there's a few people that have claimed certain Guinness records,
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but it's not been documented the same as, like, the official.
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Yeah, you have to be people watching the whole time, no micro napping.
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Is this another one of those closest without going over?
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Okay, I'm going back to ranger school right now.
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hours i said 96 the correct answer is 11 days and 25 minutes so nick pretest does take the win
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there nobody's been up for 11 days randy gardner volunteered at age 19 just just because and then
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the university of stanford came down monitored him that was in 1964 absolutely insane you know
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there are people i remember a lot this is before energy drinks i'm impressed but it was after coke
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i assume we don't know that he didn't have any help but i remember when i was a kid my father
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told me about some story about a medical condition where people can't fall asleep they develop this
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condition they can't go to sleep and they die basically because you can yeah not resting and
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so i i wonder if one of those guys would actually have the record well that's why i saw that episode
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a house too yeah okay yeah guinness stopped doing this they stopped even keeping track because they
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were so afraid of someone dying because most animals die after three weeks and they thought
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some guy was going to go too far yeah true story in ranger school in ranger school they regulated
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sleep so much that you you had a bunch of guys like i will never forget one dude we're in a
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patrol base at night in mountain phase of ranger school and all you hear is this ranger instructor
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calling out for the student and all you hear is here here's sergeant here's sergeant you hear
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clang clang clang clang here's sergeant here's shark clang clang clang clang and then he gets
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and he shows up the sergeant he's like barely staying on his feet and his sergeant looks at his
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tie down and then picks up his rifle and hands it back to him he literally ran across the entire
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patrol base dragging his weapon the entire way with him you get tired that's bad that's bad
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i've heard for uh was it hell week with the seals there's a certain amount of time they have to stay
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stay awake for that week. Do you know what that actually is? What they get up to? What?
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I don't know. Seals talk so much crap about what they do. Oh my gosh. Hey, you remember when Delta
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Force did the raid on Maduro? All of us were sitting around going, can't wait for a seal to
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write a book about it. Yeah. I heard this from a Green Beret buddy. It was just like, hey,
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how do you know if a guy is a Navy SEAL? You read about it in his book. It's like, oh yeah. Okay,
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Starting, hold on, what do you mean it's currently?
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Hey, Nick, you want to go grab a cigar or something
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while we wait to figure out what Ben wants to ask us?
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We'll cross each other questions which are coherent
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Yeah, this is from like 15, 20 until 2026, Michael.
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how many of these questions were completely made up on the spot
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So what was the fifth version of this question you asked, Ben?
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How long does the average guy date before he proposes?
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How long does he date one girl before proposing to her?
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But again, this includes your grandpa in it, or this doesn't?
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Okay, we're back to the first version of the question.
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All right, I hope it doesn't change while I'm writing my answer down.
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I have no confidence that whatever number is in front of you is correct.
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All right, I take back all that trash talking
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And this is a study from 1220 until 2026, Michael.
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Are you writing a Ben Davies question over there?
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what is the correct pattern for tightening the lug nuts?
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as long as you tighten one fully before moving to the next?
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I legit, I haven't changed a tire in 10 years or something.
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and I had to do it on the side of I-75 heading to Atlanta.
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And I didn't know you were supposed to put the car in park.
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So it rolled off, like, actually on the interstate,
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I remember my dad teaching me the first thing to do
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Well, the first thing you do whenever you change a tire
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I did not do that when I changed it on the side of the interstate.
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Wait, you're saying, you said when you tighten the nuts.
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and now you're talking about tightening the nuts.
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You mean, you're talking about how do you put them back on?
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Yeah, I mean, Nick understood it perfectly fine,
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michael i don't understand what you said how do you tighten your read that question again
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about tightening your nuts i wasn't talking about righty tiny question again i want to hear the
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question after installing a spare tire what is the correct pattern for tightening the lug nut
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the pattern for tightening lug nuts pattern look i understood i understood the assignment
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all right one of us doesn't need excuses oh that's so annoying
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By the way, Michael and I are one and one and game show like when he beat me on the one he rigged and then I beat him on the one that was fairly done.
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The stakes on the last one were the coolest gun that I will ever own in my entire life that I almost don't want to shoot because I just want to mount it on my wall.
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are like a tweet of encouragement or something.
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I really came out ahead, I think, on these games.
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I don't know how difficult this pitch is going to be
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That they have never gotten into a physical fight
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they've never wait wait hold on that's oh my goodness great good night see you guys good
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night and nick enjoy the rest of the show i'll send you it actually just says they never get
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into physical fights so i don't know if they don't remember or whatever it's just not okay
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well they never like i don't get into physical i'm a 36 year old father of three and a half i'm
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not you know i'm not like going out getting into bar fights but they've never been in a fight or
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I'm going to walk over there and get one right now with Michael,
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of men have never gotten into a fight including on the
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count like you getting pushed on the you know the
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I think you need a punch for it to be a fight.
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Yeah, I would say, like, landing an actual punch in someone's face
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Look, it's whatever that girl in fourth grade did to Michael
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Whatever that was, that was a legit fight.
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what percent say they've never been into this fight nine percent i said 24 before the correct
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answer is 77 so no no that must be never been in a fight no chance that must be how many people
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don't regularly get into fights well i mean you were raised on the streets in the bronx in new
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york next to aoc a little north yeah a little slightly north with aoc yeah you know from now
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on as a public service i might just go around and start randomly hitting dudes to be like there you
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go specifically kids at schools i'm gonna go around to the school yard and just say kid get
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over here i remember the first time my daughter when we we homeschooled for every year of her
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education except for one and it was fifth grade and she had a girl that like threatened to beat
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her up and so i said great well i'm just gonna we're gonna teach her how to fight yeah well the
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school won't let me fight i said i'll worry about the school i want you to hit her until she stops
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moving yeah that's what we trained for i remember they in elementary school and my mother was the
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italian one my my father's english irish my mother was italian had that sicilian kind of you know
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attitude and i remember there was this big anti-bullying thing in school and the big message
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was if anyone ever hits you you don't hit them back you go tell the teacher whatever and i
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mentioned that to my mother and she was like excuse me uh-uh the very first thing you do
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that's when they throw down man that's when they just get there it's like it's like yeah you take
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that shelly yeah yeah that could be a boy's name all right next question what is the ideal humidity
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range and percent for storing cigars in a humidor i i know the actual answer to this i don't know if
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that if if it agrees with your answer but it gives me a range we'll see if you fall in it and there's
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oh it was the oh yeah it was the gun day yeah that's true yeah no no it was uh it was reed
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choy that smoked on uh i mean i know we look exactly alive yeah i always and he's you know
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you know nick you really you know what movie star you remind me a lot of davies was telling me this
00:29:15.340
the other day denzel washington you know it's like i can't keep you guys apart we're good yeah you
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know you win michael you win right there because denzel is my favorite revenge flick got man on
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show that we did together where I said, Man on Fire
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And one of us had a slightly better career than
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because i have no idea the correct answer is between 65 and 72 percent so michael gets the
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point and they say most common is 70 but 69 sounds people say 70 71 first of all 69 is funnier but
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also it's better you people over humidify their cigars it's better to go a little low than to go
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a little high i like how excited are you about the proposition of us taking cuba uh dude i i've
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thought about this obviously for decades at this point and the what's going to be so magnificent
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it's not even just that we get their cigars which have been largely destroyed by the chinese
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investment by communism when i get their nice tobacco and then i just start blending in a
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little bit of their tobacco go down there have a nice little mojito hang on the shores of pinar
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del rio i don't know whatever it's gonna be great no it's crazy oh yeah it's crazy it may happen in
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our lifetime. And speaking of lifetimes, what is the current average of life expectancy for men
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in the United States? Close without going over. Is this inclusive of infant death?
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I don't know, Knowles. Why are you laughing at infant death? What's the matter with you? It's
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sick. What is the average life? If you Google this, what is the average life expectancy of
00:31:12.040
men in America? This will come up. What does Google tell you? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Google says,
00:31:17.740
Well, you mean like trans-identifying men?
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just beat down like a guy in the middle school playground.
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I don't know what the question is and I got all my
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it helps with casting when you control the entire
00:32:15.480
cultures what is what it was what was men's number one attribute they look for in a long-term
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relationship is it a physical attractiveness b being kind and understanding c emotional stability
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and maturity or d intelligence this is for long-term relationship i had a great dinner with
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david buss and other people in hollywood like 10 years ago and when you said that name it reminded
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me of that. I hadn't thought about that in a long time.
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Knowles just has to remind us he was in Hollywood.
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is that sort of like looking for ice cubes in the Sahara?
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I've got the three compounds for this question.
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Yes, he's at least a cousin of the Nephilim that we breed.
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Oh, I was watching the episode actually last night
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This checks out with my priors and my view of the world.
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And then he'll just come out with something so out there.
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I say, wait, now I have to rethink everything you've told me
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I think he's the most frequent guest on that show.
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Did you ever come across stories about the Kandahar Giants?
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and he was like the Nephilim or descendant of the Nephilim.
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something randomly on youtube and i was like what are these guys even talking about yeah okay and
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again it was probably some navy seal yeah i brought off like giants like oh yeah that's what he really
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fought i had one arm tied behind my back and i was just yeah okay yeah i was fighting a giant no
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that was gonorrhea that's what you were fighting their navy seal like calm down i'm gonna get
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letters from seals because of this because you're trash talking seals oh like you think they can
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right okay they're gonna have their ghost writer right at full
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ben are you still there do you want to rejoin the show right now yeah you know it was great
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you know what seal stands for right no no sleep eat and lift that's what seals
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no a lot of them are in pretty good shape just like our the next topic here joey chestnut often
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regarded as one of the most dominant athletes of all time holding 55 world records across 55
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And I want you to know that I am restraining myself.
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I am trying to be a good Christian example right now.
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Got to be a good example of how to be a man, you know?
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He actually came out of retirement this past year and won again.
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That's why they regard him as the most dominant athlete of all time.
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You would think Bubba would be dominating on these, but they don't.
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What an absolute just Michael Knowles in elementary school beatdown that was.
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But, hey, it doesn't have to be over because this is a gentleman's game
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Nick, you are the champion right now, but would you like to go for broke,
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double or nothing, one last question to see who wins this?
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no because this is no team putting together these questions you asked a question about
00:40:23.440
cigar humidity from a guy that sells cigars just suck it up and be a man let's go we're not gonna
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i i highly doubt the next question is i would not like to discuss the intricacies of unconventional
00:40:36.960
warfare like that's not gonna be it i love this is really gonna be some question about thomas
00:40:42.480
Aquinas and so no no Michael just loses this is Nick this is the IQ test on this show because he
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does this all the time Ben he'll say okay well now you won but do you want to just lose for no reason
00:40:56.420
at all and half the time people say yes I do yeah they feel obligated I don't feel obligated I have
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a certain degree of disagreeableness about myself yeah I'm very comfortable with this stage in life
00:41:07.820
that was the right thing to do I'm so I'm so impressed Nick you're the very first guest that
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with double-triple hyper-thumatic tension in his gulions.
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Just an absolute towering figure of brains, testosterone, and general virility.
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And I accept my loss as being fair and square, and I'm in awe of his prowess.
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I also encourage people to learn how to be like Nick
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by getting the man book, a point-by-point guide
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to sucking it up and getting the job done.
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I'm getting the job done by endorsing Mr. Freitas.
00:42:16.300
And the only thing that allows me to still feel masculine
00:42:19.820
after this profound loss is the gun that Nick gave me,
00:42:27.060
my gold Deus volt, Catholic Jerusalem cross,
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desert eagle where whereby if anybody makes fun of me for losing this game i'll blow your head off
00:42:39.800
metaphorically well done yeah well and i just want to say that um when michael talked about
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my prowess and virility he meant that in the least gay way possible right i just sorry one last answer
00:42:53.140
gay do you want to do the last one just because just because i already wrote it down just yeah
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00:43:01.200
let's make nick lose just all right currently what is the world record for bench press this
00:43:06.160
is not with the aid of a shirt or a lifting shirt okay this is the actual natural bench
00:43:10.080
press world record follow-up question what is a lifting shirt a lifting shirt allows
00:43:14.800
certain human beings to lift more weight than any other movement in all of it even more than
00:43:19.040
squats or deadlifts at i'm not gonna give you the exact number but it's a lot more it's a special
00:43:23.760
shirt to keep your shoulders from dislocating and you can move like it looks ridiculous it's
00:43:29.460
I'm not doing kilograms because I'm an American and we got bombs.
00:43:40.960
Michael was really curious because the lifting shirt would have changed my number.
00:44:06.580
The shirt world record is 1,400 pounds, which is absolutely insane.
00:44:11.900
Yeah, okay, I must have been thinking about that.
00:44:25.940
I thought it was higher than that for a natural one
00:44:29.500
looking up something the other day on what the highest
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Well, there you have it. If you haven't already, go...
00:44:56.880
Well, if you haven't already, go follow Nick at NickJFreetust.
00:45:00.660
And depending on when you watch this pre-order,
00:45:02.560
get your copy of The Man Book, a point-by-point guide to sucking it up
00:45:09.240
and what topic we should tackle in the next face-off.
00:45:19.980
Imagine yourself in Ottawa, surrounded by thousands of vibrant tulips.