Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode, A couple of nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and I have two announcements for you here. The first is that I have spent all morning moving apartments. I have been lifting furniture all day, and with that I discovered a lot of dust. So my nose has been running all day.
I've been sneezing nonstop. And so I'm gonna try my best to not sniffle on the mic and, and not sneeze, but no guarantees. So I just want to give everyone a little audio warning there, you know, I know that's, that's the worst. At least I'm a perfectionist when it comes to, to audio. I know I'm my own worst critic, and anytime I hear a sniffle nose that I can't get rid of it, it torments me.
But that aside, I am here with, you know, we've had a lot of amazing guests on this show, great people, and you know, no disrespected them at all. They're all amazing. But our first celebrity, he was on naked and Afraid six times. He has countless blogs and news posts, the number one ranked survival list you can find on his website.
All of this information as well as a ton of live training opportunities, online training books, merch, and more. It's Mr. EJ Snyder. I'm gonna pass the mic to him now so he can go ahead and give himself a little introduction. Mr. Schneider. Well, what's going on everyone? Thanks for having me on your podcast.
I'm honored. Apparently, I'm your first celebrity guest. I don't consider myself a celebrity most of the time, just really well known. And if it's, uh, putting your naked butt on TV outside of pornography, having the most famous naked butt across the globe, uh, that's me. And so if you don't know, if no one's familiar with me, I'm EJ Skull Crusher Snyder.
I'm a 25 year Army retired combat vet. Been to the Gulf War of 91 and Operation Iraqi Freedom, did the last tour, did about 15 months there. And, uh. When I retired from the military, you know, I spent all my time, uh, in there. Uh, I've been an outdoorsman since I was five years old. I learned formerly survival in the military, although it was always a hobby of mine.
Uh, I went to the Sears school back in 96. Uh, also went to tracking school, and then I started teaching it, uh, to, it was stationed down in Florida as an Army Ranger instructor for about three years. And I loved it. It became in my blood, my passion. I started teaching it, uh, to the outside, to whoever wanted to come to my, my training.
And, uh, after I retired from the Army, you know, I'm like, what do I want to do? You know, I, I always had a dream of being on TV as a kid, so I chased that dream. And at 58 years old, I'm here to tell you folks, never give up on your dream. Don't let anybody tell you it's stupid. And if you have a goal in the dream, you know what?
Don't tell 'em about it anyway. Show 'em. Go out there and get after it. And so I chased after that. Dream And, uh, I did some acting stunt work and next thing, I knew the reality world. I was a big Survivor fan, uh, was a finalist for that show and got replaced last minute. But my name floated around the reality casting world.
Wound up doing a bunch of different little shows and then Discovery recruited me to film the pilot episode of Naked. Afraid I was the first one ever. Film it. And then, uh, shortly after that, I was the first man to ever do it three times. Had three challenges, 2 21 days. Uh, the first one was in Tanzi Africa.
Then I went to the Amazon Jungle in Peru, uh, with another lady, Laura Zara, who's the best female survivalist on the planet. Uh, probably best survivalist all around, uh, for that matter. And, uh, we went out there and were the first two to do it twice. Kicked that place in the butt after three people quit, went both of us to a 40 day challenge in Columbia, and both made it.
Then it was several years after that I wound up doing a show called Dual Survival Film, season nine with my partner Jeff from Naked Afraid. And then in 2019 I did a, or 2018 I did a show called First Man Out with Ed Stafford, where we kind of raced each other doing Survival on the Fly. And I helped actually film the pilot for that show as well.
And then I came back in, uh, 2019 to do a season, uh, uh, I think it was 11 episode six of Naked Afraid Alone version. So I went out there by myself 21 days in the Bulgarian, uh, Balkan Mountains. And, uh, then I wound up doing the 60 Day Legends Challenge, uh, with other Naked, afraid All Star legends. And it was super cold.
It was wintertime. I had an unfortunate accident out there on day 27, but still stayed in there for 33 more days to do the 60. And that was the first time a large group of folks were attempting 60 at once. Two other folks had did it prior to that. And then lastly, uh, there were some people having some struggles in the Amazon again, in Peru where I told 'em Never go back to.
And they did. And they were trying to have some people do 60 and 40 days together out there. And, uh, they lost half the cast of the first week. They called me and two other legends up to see if we could come down and help. And three days later I found myself for a second time in the Amazon and did 43 more days for a total of 206 days.
So that's how I'm known on TV folks from Discovery Channel, but I'm a lot more than that. If you go to my website, EJ Snyder, uh, I'm a survival instructor consultant for TV shows. I do off grid consulting for people that are trying to live off grid and develop their homesteads. Uh, I'm a motivational speaker, published writer, author, uh, life coach.
I. So much more. You can, if there's something that you need help with, I can probably figure it out. And, uh, over at my website, there's all kinds of things going on. We're having to relaunch in February. So the website's a little conky right now. And you know, here I am. I've got a lot of things coming up in the future.
And if you wanna find me on social media, you can go to X, which was formerly Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Clapper at EJ Snyder. 3 3 3 over at YouTube, it's EJ Snyder, as well as Facebook. Come on, on, follow us. And, uh, I am king of the one minute survival tips, hacks, and tricks. Back in April, I decided to throw a glass bottle I found in the trash and show you how you could save your life with it.
And boiled water, palm water in a fire with a glass bottle. For some reason on Thursday night, people thought that was the coolest thing since sliced bread and wound up hitting oh, well over 11 million views on that over every social media platform I had. And uh, that inspired me to, to do more of that.
And so we've uh, really been cranking out some videos, uh, just survived a hack that we just got my Facebook page back finally, like a week ago, so we're getting ready to ramp it back up. So don't miss it. And that's the shortest version of me I can give you. So Google me, EJ Snyder and see all the, see all of me or as much of me as you don't wanna see.
Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, I can confirm he's not naked right now on the show, just in case any of y'all were wondering. He's not naked. You know, it's funny, Mrs. Matter, I was maybe, maybe, you know, I was hyping up to a couple of shit mates of mine and some family members because, you know, you're probably one of the most accomplished people we've had on the show.
And I said, I'm kind of nervous. It sounds more like he's naked and unafraid more than anything. You know, I said the show sounds like it's with him on it. It sounds like it's not naked and afraid. It's naked and unafraid because it sounds like, wow, I gotta write that down. Hold on. Where's my freaking pen?
You just gave me a thought process. Maybe I need to, what'd you say that Mr. Whisk? I'm about to give you frigging credit on this naked and unafraid. Yeah. If you wanna name your new podcast, think you name my new podcast. Yeah. Wow. I'll take a small row tee. I, I, I think you have more money than I have. Uh, well, a hundred percent of nothing is, is still nothing.
So you're gonna be good to go. 'cause I don't have a lot. Yeah, appreciate that. I love how people think sometimes. 'cause you're on TV that, oh, you must be an Alister. Oh, you must have all kinds of money. And the amount of people hit me up for money. I'm going You don't know Discovery Channel, do you? Yeah, we're, we're lucky.
We're lucky we get, you know, a a a a, you know, a month or two salary going out there risking our lives. It's, it's crazy. Really. It's not pay by day. It is a pay by day. Um, and the, and that's, I say the total of it. That's how I compare it to. 'cause at the time I first did my first one, the first one I did for 21 days, I got paid roughly about what I was making two months as a contractor at the Sears school.
So and so that number stays where it is. We're not really supposed to put it out there, although I think you could find it out there. I think I've actually mentioned what it was. It's, it, it, it's not a bad day for going out and doing what you love. And for some people it's, it's a great payday. Um, but it's not a list actor money.
It's not like, oh, you, you're on a TV show you, you're getting royalties. Yeah. I wish I, I'm all over the world replaying my show. We don't get that. Uh, yeah, sadly, you know, we don't get royalties. Yeah. I, I, I didn't even think about the shows. Honestly, Mrs. Snyder, just because you're, you have all this merch and all these training courses and have been on so many shows.
I figured word of mouth travels and. You get a little bit every now and then from somewhere around the world. Oh yeah. Well, you know what? I've got you down Mr. Whiskey, and we are gonna take care of you if this thing goes. I appreciate that. Uh, we're, we're gonna definitely take care of you. We're gonna push out this, uh, podcast challenge because we were chatting before the, we got live here, and I really like, you know, the gib of your gab.
And so I appreciate that and, uh, you know, I'm a spirit reader, uh, which is a little unknown fact. And, you know, I read your spirit right off just us being on the phone. I, you know, I could see your picture here, like, we're on this podcast. We're just audio, but, you know, I, I read people very well. It. I don't use it for anything but good.
And so, you know, I, I like to keep in touch with people that I, I like, I want to help people that I can. And especially if we connect like we did. So I, I, I can see us doing way more podcasts together. 'cause I, like I said, I really like you and uh, and I want to, I want to get one of them t-shirts on and blow it up, you know?
I like that. I appreciate that. Couple of nukes. Yeah. Yeah, that's, 'cause you know, me and my buddies were, were a couple of nukes. We were sitting around and that's how I got the show name. I was actually gonna say, it's funny because I've had some people come on the show and rant for a long time and I'm like, I can't listen to this guy talk.
But you know, like you said, we talked before the show and coming on air, you said a lot of the same stuff and I was still just as mind blown and captivated by all of it. Hearing it the second time, you know, I'm sure if anyone's heard it more than anyone, it's yourself. And I can tell you, you know, you're not.
You still have that passion for it, so that's great. That absolutely. You know, you can say it over and over again and it's, it's just who I am. You know, it's not me brag, you know, it's not me being conceited or arrogant. And my grandfather always said, if, if, if you can't back it up, you know, if you can back it up, it, you're, you're not bragging.
And yeah, it's just who I am. It's, it's a long resume of almost six decades of what's defines me. People say, well, what defines you? I'm like, I can't just sum that up in one word. I mean, I was just born this way. I was put on this planet, I'm, I'm cut from a different cloth. I mean, I guess if you could say a real life Wolverine type guy from, from the X-Men, that would be me.
I mean, it's just, yeah, it, it, it is just the way I was born. And I tell people this all the time. So here's some, here's some less, here's some, um, motivational stuff for you guys. You know, people ask me, where does your mindset come from? How do you develop mindset? And you have to have a positive mindset in this world.
And for me, if I saw an obstacle in my way, my folks divorced when I was very young. I had no, no man to look up to in my life. You know, my dad did come around on weekends and, and all that, but every day I had nobody to go to to show me how to get through this life except myself. I had to count on myself from getting bullied, you know, getting picked last for sports.
All those things suck and I didn't like it, right? So I had to figure out a way. There's a wall in front of me. If I can't go around it over it or under it, I'm going right through it. And that was my mentality in life. And so your mindset. What you can take in your grit and your iron will is developed through the things you go through in life.
Every challenge, whether it's bullying, addiction, relationship issue, having struggles at school, the job, you know, you come across a situation in life that affects you in some way and you figured it out and you got through it, that is another experience in your kit bag to make you stronger that you can go back to and say, well, when this happened, I, this, this is why, how I handled it.
And you develop that so that you could keep moving forward and you develop yourself a very good action plan for life. And you just keep getting these situations hit you. It's basically how do you handle those situations? You know, it's, it's, do you just roll over in a ball and cry about it, or do you get up and you be you, you be the alpha, be the lion.
You know, I, I'd rather have, I'd rather follow one lion in charge of a, an army of a hundred sheep than to follow. A sheep leading an army of a hundred lions, because that's not gonna work. You know? And, uh, yeah. So, so you got to be, you know, with things in your life, you know, you gotta develop a, a set mindset and, and, and you can't take note for an answer.
You know, people are gonna poo on your dreams. And that was my mom, you know, she asked me, what do you wanna be when you grow up? I said, I don't wanna be an actor and a stuntman. Well, that's crazy. You'll never make it. You, you, you'll starve. Like, I can't allow that. I'm like, what? You're my mom. You gotta support me.
Oh no, that won't. And I was like, oh, really? And she went away for the weekend. And the next day I went down to the Army recruiter's office and said, Hey, I want to be, I know Johnny Ramble's not a real guy, but I'm, I'm gonna make him a real guy. And that's me, and that's who I want to be. And, and I could have been where you are.
I could have been one of those couple of new guys at the time, in 1984 that Pershing missiles were going on and stuff. And I had a very high intellect and I. Did really well on the Asfab and I was just like, nah, why would I come in the army to be that I wanna be a warrior, I wanna be a soldier. It's in my blood and my voice started getting deeper and I wanna be that Rambo guy.
So show me those Ranger photos videos again, those green grays. And I signed the dotted line, 1984. The rest was history. Yeah. Nowadays a lot of, they say when the movie Top Gun came out, military recruiting for the Air Force and Navy went up by like a significant percentage and everyone was like, I wanna be like that guy in Top Gun.
Uh, what, what is his name? Tom Maverick or something. Everyone wanted to be just like him to cruise. Yeah. He wanted to be Maverick. Yeah, they wanna be Maverick. And it's funny, my, my sister, she's an aviation gal and I know she got like the sunglasses and she was doing the High five and I wanted to bring her up.
We've brought her up on the show before. Uh, her nickname was the, the. The sister I don't like as much as my other sisters. And it, it's just funny because her and I butted heads growing up the whole time. We were one year apart in age. It was a small household. Mm. Now you mentioned Sears, and I don't know if I'm supposed to say this or not, but she was actually the first female in the past five years to get picked up and go over there from her particular base, the first female in five years to meet the physical fitness requirements.
So as much as I don't like her, I wanna say I am proud of her. Yeah. I'm, I just wanna put that back out there. I'm true that I don't, uh, yeah. 'cause for seer, at least in the Army, sea, uh, sea C know, I don't, I don't think we ever made anybody go through that kind of a requirement, but it's been some years now.
Um, right. Un unfortunately for the individuals that got to meet me in Sr. It was at camp number three and, uh, things were dark and, uh. I was another individual named Kraken off. And I will tell you, I not like the Americans that I used to visit and I used to be very enough on them, but now they are better flats.
So congratulations to her though. 'cause uh, we've had many students I spent about I four years since year teaching and, um, loved meeting all the different, for me it was more soldiers. Occasionally we'd get a marine, sometimes a sailor in their, in some air force. And, uh, men and women, uh, of all walks of life, all backgrounds.
And uh, you know, I think that's the greatest school in the military because it teaches you a lot about yourself. Um, a lot about hard, hard life, hard days. And if you put your mindset. Where it should be. Like, think back to Vietnam, when guys like John McCain, uh, and God bless him, Nick Rowe, who created the very first, uh, program for the Sears School, uh, and what they went through.
Uh, it, it just, you know, it's a very humbling, uh, school, very humbling experience and, uh, I'm just glad to have been part of it. And, uh, it did, you know, again, it's one of those little experiences I had both as a student and as an instructor that have shaped me another little piece of my life. Yeah. That's awesome.
And hopefully, I think she might try to go down the route, the, the route, if you wanna say it that way, of becoming a Navy SEAL, or at least trying, and of course, I support her a hundred percent. She could probably pick me up by my ankle and throw me across the room. I have, I've had a lot of people unfortunately ask me if she's a transvestite because she's so muscular.
Oh gosh. You know, people think she was, she's my brother and, and that, yeah. You know, there, there's been some females in the world and there's not a lot, but, you know, I don't even know what the percentage would would be, but, uh, we've seen that where people get that way and they ask those questions. You know, they thought, so take pro wrestling for instance.
There was a Nicole Bass, China, there was a few female wrestlers and bodybuilders that, you know, the, when you're lifting that kind of weight, testosterone starts getting in there and they ask them those same questions, which they found kind of insulting, uh, to the female. But, you know, there are some women that are physically gifted and they can compete, uh, at a certain level with a certain level of, of men.
I mean, you know, at one point in my life I was 285 pound, you know, 20 inch bicep, knuckle, dragging, bodybuilding guy and fighter. So. Quite much to handle for anybody. But, uh, you know, the, the, it it's about the physical cal at your level as an individual and, and what do you bring to the plate? Now I'm, I'm on the camp as an infantry guy in the army that I felt, and I've seen female infantry units across the globe in Israel, uh, over the Pega and, uh, with the Kurds, so I know how effective they are.
I found that some of those units that had a crossover, and it's nothing against female or male, it's not what this is about, and I'm not beating that subject up about integrating co-ed, but they seem more effective for the reason that, you know, you have an average with females across the board that are gonna be able to do certain things physically, and if the rest of their counterparts alongside them are in the same general weight class and physical fitness level, that they would perform at a, at a very effective level, sometimes way better than an all male unit.
I just find when you start mixing a little bit. Some of that can be some problematic. And I'm sure in these days with the way we have gear and stuff, there's a great equalizer. You know, you everybody, you know, shooting, I always said I love training females and the reason I love training females over men, 'cause men we're knuckleheads, we're, we're thick skulled.
We get frustrated, we're ready to give up. We're a female will stay in the fight until she has no breath left. That's that lioness attitude I love about 'em. And even I found that in teaching survival the same way. So, uh, females have a lot of, a lot more grit, uh, in, in some cases than men. I give them a.
Great credit for it. I mean, heck, look what they go through every month and they give birth and they do miraculous things and, and never underestimate when a mama bear has to defend her cubs or whatever. You don't wanna be on the other side of that at all. And that's in the female's instinct. So, I mean, the jury's still out on how co-ed units would work.
I kind of stopped putting any interest in how that was fairing 'cause I'm really a data numbers guy. Percentages. 'cause numbers don't lie. Data percentages don't lie there. It's based on scientific facts and and data. So, right. But, but I have, I was on some panels before I retired and there was, these were big questions and I'm like, you know, you willing to try it?
You know, and I'm not saying there was a lot of, uh, early on when we first started looking at about females going to the Rangers and all that, it was about chivalry. 'cause men, you know, some men. In those days, maybe we're still old fashioned. I don't know if it stopped with Gen X or whatever. She's, I'm part of at the beginning of it, that we would be chivalrous.
And I can just say for myself, that's still in my blood. It's how I was raised. My mother, you know, ingrained that in me to be a gentleman always, and, and to be, to be chivalrous. And I think that still lives and don't get mad at me for it. I don't, you know, I don't want feminist or anybody else beat me up about it because it's just how I'm wired.
And I'm not saying you can't be your own person. 'cause I've, I've had, I love it because I have a daughter and she needs, you know, good role models as well. You can have a, a female or a male role model no matter what. If you're a man or a woman, you, you still look up to, I, I have a lot of men in my life and a lot of women in my life that I look up to.
My mother's my greatest hero. So I just think that every, every individual needs a chance to prove themself and in any way, and that's the great thing about being a human is you gonna make mistakes, but it's what you do after that mistake. And how do you, you know, make another battle plan? We, we have tons of people out there in the military that are in the military and, and that are retired or have gotten out and are going through terrible time in life trying to deal with PTSD, trying to figure things out.
They get into addiction problems. Some are homeless. I see 'em out in the street and I'm always out there trying to help folks. Um, when I retire from this second career of mine now, the Doing Survival and TV stuff, uh, I hope to go out with a big bang and hike the Appalachian Trail to bring awareness and go out with just a pack that a normal homeless person or a veteran would have with them and maybe a cardboard box, uh, big enough to make the shape of a tent.
With, you know, some words and some websites and some donation, uh, information on it and, and walk that trail to bring awareness to the homeless veteran suicide veteran problem that we have out there and just sleep like they would in the street just on cardboard. Uh, of course have a blanket or whatever.
I mean, in the fair weather. But everyone's seen me on tv, so I'm pretty sure I'll be okay having some cardboard. Uh, 'cause most times I'm just out there buck naked with a, with a knife, so. Right. Yeah. You know, this show started out, it was supposed to be, it, it was supposed to be internet entertainment.
That's who I thought I was. But I've always found a great joy from helping people, and I've even been counseled on stretching myself too thin, trying to help people. I had a chief tell me, Mr. Whiskey, not even Superman could save everyone. And it was a bit of a wake up call, but I've still spent a lot of time trying to help other people.
Yeah. And of course the people were coming on the show for comedy, right? I had first responders, soldiers, marines. But it's hard to talk to a military member and not to get into those topics about suicide, depression, anxiety. And just a reminder for anyone who who doesn't know and hasn't heard this before, you know, and you can check it out in the episode I had with Douglas Brinker, you know, he's one of those representatives that you can talk to if you're a veteran in, in a crisis or feeling suicidal.
He's actually one of the people who answers the phone and helps you. And if you haven't heard the number 22 a day, that's around the average. And he said it's way more than that on on a lot of days. Yeah. In fact, I think he be, I believe he said, and you'll have to go back to the episode and, and to get the exact number, but I'm pretty sure he said 44%.
That's the number of increase in. Women veterans suicides by firearms this past year, 44% increase. Wow. That's, that's astounding because normally men are the ones that will grab the firearm to off themselves. Uh, sadly. Right? Because that's is a, uh, a deliberate act. It's a very definitive, where, where women will a lot of times, um, use pills or something to that they'll, they'll cut their wrists, uh, something a little bit more, I don't wanna say dramatic, but it's a little more passive, more, a little more passive, I guess.
Um, and to hear that, that's, that's, that just shows you where the military, where the females have actually moved over again, uh, into a more alpha, you know, way. I. That's what that percentage tells you. But it, that percentage also saddens me. Uh, right. 'cause I think the number's more like 26 a day on average.
Uh, I, I, I think that that 22 is very, uh, reserved number and uh, right one's too many. One's too many. Right. And I've talked a lot of folks off the ledge, so to speak, and on, on, uh, and here's the thing I'll tell you, Mr. Mr. Whiskey, your podcast is helping others. And it's helping others because I've learned this because you wanna get a message out.
So, if God put me on this planet to be a role model, to be a leader, to show people how to take care of themselves during bad days, whether it's in the wilderness or in real life. Battling substance abuse or whatever. I didn't know. I thought going out on naked, afraid the first time I'm going out to tour Africa and Safari and naked with a knife, I'm gonna do something cool.
I'm gonna test myself in challenge. The thing I never saw coming was the millions of people across the globe. Now that by me just doing that simple act and watching me go through my, you know, struggles, successes out there, how I dealt with situations, were influenced by that to make a change in our life.
One guy, I'm getting up off the couch and exercising. Uh, I've been doing it for six weeks. I've just lost 25 pounds. Thank you. Another guy dealing with a gambling issue and, and it went and got help and adjusted that, uh, folks going through. A substance abuse problem. And then more so how many people have messaged me that they said, thank you, and you saved my life literally because I was going to, uh, commit suicide.
And I was watching The Naked Afraid, and I saw you and, and I, and I, it changed me in some way that I can't explain. And so this medium, tv, radio, podcasting, even podcasting, more so now than radio is a medium that you can stretch out with tentacles and reach so many. And I tell people this every day, folks, if you can't re remember anything about this podcast, remember this.
When you meet an individual in life, humans, we're communal species. We're supposed to interact with each other. So smiles go a long way. A how you do goes a long way. Uh, a bless you goes a long way no matter what your religion is. Um, I always say this to my kids, everyone, the the words you speak and the actions you take to a person you come in contact with.
May change their life and someday, may even save their life. And you just don't know. You just, you just have to interact with people and do what yours on your heart, but you don't know what that's gonna affect that person. 'cause we don't know what, we don't walk in everyone's shoes, so we don't know what's really going on inside of them Half the time.
People are really good about closing up and living in a box these days. Um, there was a story I, I, I, someone shared with me, there was a veteran and he was pulling up to A-U-S-A-A. ATM machine and he parked his car and he seen a young man standing by the ATM and he was waiting for him to get done and the guy was there for a little bit and all that.
And he's like, ah, alright, I'll just get out. He's gotta be done soon. So he got outta the truck and he walked up, stayed a few, you know, 10 feet or so back. And, uh, finally the kid got, you know, he got his money and he, the man could see he had, you know, withdrew quite a bit of money. And so he realized he was drawing out a lot of money.
That's why it was taking so long. So the kid turns around and the veteran, he had one of them, you know, veteran baseball caps on, and he was a Vietnam guy and he was starting to walk over, take his spot and the ATM and he's walking by the kid. He looked at the kid, he put his hand on him. He's like, son, thank you for your service.
'cause he could tell he was in the military and God bless you and you're amazing. Have a nice day. And just grinned at him, give him a smile, and continued on to go to the ATM. And the kid went over and got in his car. He parked next to the man's truck. The guy was, you know, getting his money. He heard the guy kid's door close and the veteran made his withdrawal and he turned around and the kid got outta his car and walked up to him and he's like, sir, I wanna thank you.
He's like, well, why is that son? He's like, well, what you said to me really touched me, and I don't understand what it was, but it really touched me in a way. Uh, I was getting ready to take this money over the pawn shop and buy a gun to end my life today. But you showed me concern and care and you, and you just, you said, I matter.
And I realized that I really do matter and I've got people in the, in this world that maybe are counting on me, but for today, I'm thank you. And handed, he said, here I take this money and please donate it to whoever you think you could use it. And it thank you. And the, and the gentleman was just, you know, he's like, son, I, I'm, uh, and didn't know what to say, and the kid just walked off and.
The gentleman, you know, he donated the money somewhere, but that's a sample of what I was talking about. Right. And you've got me thinking, Mr. Schneider, just thinking here, like what's so crazy about this too is, you know, as long as there's no like huge digital overhaul or the end of the world or something long after you and I pass away, our conversation today could help someone and, and we're long dead.
Yeah. Right. You know, isn't that, that's something crazy to think about. What kinda legacy you, you're gonna leave behind. Right, right. No, that was a very touching story. You know, I've had days with shipmates too where it's like, just the, the smallest kind of sack can, can really mean something, especially to someone in the military.
You know, I have a lot of respect for the military, but I will say the, what I envisioned in my head. Based on movies and media and propaganda was so much different than what I experienced. And Mr. Snyder, I'm sure you can confirm. I mean, you went through the military in a, basically a whole different time period than me, so I'm not sure how much worse or better it was.
I think we've improved in a lot of ways, but I think we've also gotten worse in a lot of ways. Yeah. Now to confirm, you said you did 25 years, correct? 25 years for sure. Yep. So retirement's at, at 20 years, so I'm sure you've been asked this a lot, but why the extra five years? Um, and I always said that too.
I was like, after 20 years you're working for half a check and Right. I, I never ha envisioned myself serving past that. But at the time I was, at 20 years I had just been promoted Sergeant Major. I had to give them I think two years or three years or something like that, uh, at like 18 years. Uh, and. I think it was, it might have been 17, I can't remember, but I hit the 20 mark.
I was still having fun, to be honest with you. And I had just, uh, did my second tour in Iraq and things really weren't going right for me in the army at that time in terms of me getting a command spot, even though I served in the command slot for a year and a half. And, um, and then I was trying to do a few other things there.
And I was, you know, I was stationed in Hawaii, so my backdrop really was kind of nice. And so it wasn't, wasn't like I was rushing to get out of there 'cause I was living on base and, uh, surfing. I was still MMA fighting, so I was still having a kind of a good time. And, uh, I got to 23 years and, and we had decided we were gonna switch to a STR or, uh, after we came back from Iraq, 2005, got into 2006, and then they decided they were gonna switch us to a striker unit and they asked, Hey, who wants to stick around, switch over us to a Stryker.
I was like, oh, I can do another tour in Hawaii. And my kids were young at the time and I wanted them to kind of finish schooling and whatever, and I was like, oh, there's worse places on earth to retire out of. And we had some visions of staying there in Hawaii actually. And then so decided, you know, I'm gonna sign up for another tour, I'm gonna extend.
And then, uh, at 23 years, uh, I was going through getting medically cleared. We were getting ready to deploy for another time back to Iraq. And uh, they said my back had a lot of issues and they said, it looks our major, unless you want to get through the re your retirement, come across the stage on a wheelchair, you are just one pothole away from being a cripple.
We've got some issues at the lower end of your spine. We've gotta look at what's going on here. Uh, we can't in good faith sign off on you deploying. And so all of a sudden I'm like, red flagged. I'm like, I've never been red flagged. I gotta go to war. Come on now. Yeah. And uh, that was, you know, that timeframe.
And so, you know, it was a Berg colonel that signed that doc and I couldn't get out of it as much as to the chagrin of my sergeant. Majors above me were like, oh, we'll just, we'll just put you on a plane anyway. I'm like, well, I got my own health here. I, you know, I probably need to just retire. And then they got mad at me.
'cause all I wanna do is retire. And they're like, well, you're on deployment orders. And I'm like, there's gotta be a way around this. And they, people get so regimented into, oh, you're on a number and, and we can't, you can't retire, and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I just wanna retire. I've done my time. I've been honorable.
I've, you know, I've, and they, they decided a way around this. They had to leave somebody back for rear detachment. SAE nine and, and it's like, well, we'll just leave EJ back 'cause he's the kind of guy that if we don't take him forward, it's hurting us. And he's been in command and he'll know, he'll be able to take, we know things will be okay back here.
And so that was their rationale. And so I had to give him two more years to make it to 25. A lot of times when you're in the rear of the gear, people are like, you're like, oh, you're just a, you know, you're shamming, you're not trying to do the, but that's an important job, taking care of families and the soldiers that are left behind and the ones coming in and getting them ready to go forward.
And so, um, that's why I wound up doing 25. Uh, and while I was there, I was depressed about that. And that's when I found acting and taking acting classes to kind of act out some of that depression, uh, really helped me. And I started going to find myself what I could do when I got outta the army. So that became my hobby.
I was doing a lot of student films and independent films, just trying to work on my acting chops. And I would do that on the weekends when I had time off. And I really found it, uh, it really saved me, uh, honestly, 'cause I was starting to get really depressed about not being deployed forward. Uh, and that affected me.
And, and that's how I kind of coped with it. I found a way to deal with what I was experiencing and, um, it, it, it acting kind of saved my life actually. 'cause I was really not a pleasant person to be around. Yeah. I gotta say from on this episode and when we spoke before we started recording, I know you're pretty good at, uh, voice changing and doing, doing different voices and everything.
Do you have like a, a favorite character you like to, to play as, and you know, what are some of your aspirations in the future for like movies or shows or anything like that? Get to the top of, now I have a lot of, when I was a kid. I was really, uh, mesmerized by ventriloquist who would do puppets and I would work on that.
And then I was really fun with accents. I loved the different accents across the country, across the, across the globe. And then I started mimicking certain actors and I got very good at it. And so the problem that created for me was anytime I traveled in the military to a different location, I was very bad about picking up the local accent and mastering it.
And so I, I became very good with accents. I love character acting. I love character comedy. I love comedy more than anything else. And uh, and it's kind of interesting when you see a guy at 6 3, 250 pounds with this comedic chops and having that kind of aside, uh, I used to like to put on weird teeth and funny glasses and I always did talent shows and different skits and stuff through the army just 'cause I loved doing that stuff and would bring joy to people and make them laugh.
I found laughters really good medicine and so. I just like different characters. I love going into the work of mastering an accent. And like now, um, let me see. My last character I did was in the movie playing in 1930s, Irish, imminent minor Seamus Laity of the Laity Clown. So I got to the welcome, my accent, and with all my lads, we'd go into the mines every day.
And so it, it, it's, uh, takes some work to study that a little bit and get it down perfect so that when you're on screen, I, I want believability, so I don't want some Irish person thinking I'm insulting them. And so I really worked hard on cracking that accent, making sure it's straight. So, and, and then I realized that I was a lot better on TV being myself and that's a lot easier.
And then doing something I love, like survival or adventure stuff. And, and, and that really fed the beast of, of being on tv. And now I'm starting to do scripted stuff again. But I would really love to just do commercials. And commercials are great 'cause you get in there, you film for a short time, but your commercial could be forever.
And then you get all kinds of royalty based on the commercials. So I could do a lot more commercial work in a shorter period of time and get paid again and again and again than working so hard to maybe land one movie role, get one royalty and make one good payday. Uh, unless, you know, I, I, I'm realistic.
Am I gonna be an a-list actor? Maybe someday, but probably not. And, you know, and not every, it's 1% of the acting world that, that's on our sag after roster. And I am a sag after actor stuntman that makes that big a-list money in the millions. And the working actor that's grinding, doing background, doing stand-in, getting day player parts and bit parts, they love the craft.
They're making a living, but they're not getting, you know. They're not at that level. You know, you're not at Brad Pitt or any of these guys, you know? You know what, Mr. Snyder, I don't think you need any of that. I think it would be great to see you as a cheesy sci-fi lead protagonist, like you versus Shark to pus for something like that.
That'd be awesome. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Honestly, you know, because I like, I'm a big fan of some of these shows. Like, uh, I tried out for the Walking Dead for a couple different roles and I was trying to, I was trying to get the role of Negan, uh, actually initially Sergeant Abraham Ford. 'cause other than the red hair, that character was me.
And then, uh, and then I was trying to get in there, uh, for Negan. And then of course, you know, you get, you know, you got a big show like that, you're gonna bring in somebody. I'm not, nothing against the actors they brought in for those roles, but, you know, that was the kind of stuff I wanted to do is, you know, walking Dead stuff.
I want it to be in some of those type type shows because I, I think I could have a fit for that. So, yeah, who knows? We'll see what happens, where goes on with my life and where God sends me. So. Yeah. You know, I might, you know, I don't think I have the nicest voice ever, but there is a voice acting voiceover conference slash audition thing going on in Atlanta, Georgia, in March that I just found out about via some contact when I was getting ready for Pod Fest coming up here.
So I think I might take a swing by Pod Fest. Yeah, you talked about Pod Fest. You gotta, yeah, you gotta get me those dates again. Um, yeah, I think it's next Wednesday you said. Right? They mentioned if you're interested, um, uh, voice acting voiceover, conference slash gathering of all these in some, some big names in the industry.
Yeah. And they're all gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, in March. Sometime in March. Okay. In March sometime, from what I've heard. I gotta get more information on that. But I'm always down, even if I'm not doing live performance to voice over a cartoon character or an anime character or some kind of animated show.
I think that's still a great step into the world of acting and everything. Yeah. Yeah. It sure is. And, and, you know, I'll tell you, a voice actor is a good way to make a living. And I was, I auditioned for Audible. They wanted me to start reading audible books. Big problem for me is, you know, uh, reading out loud and reading, you know, reading out loud.
I, I can read things, scripts, throw lines very good at ad-libbing. But then you got me sitting here trying to read to, to tell a story and I trip up on my own tongue and a lot of times I'll invent words half the time Yeah. From what I'm seeing. And so they're like, they gave me some stuff I needed to practice on and I would come back and, and of course the, the thing they gave me to read is so tongue twisty and so twisted.
And, and no wonder if, if you could read that thing, you're perfect for 'em right out the gate because it was tough. It was two different things I had to read. There was some tongue twisted, you know, three, four S's words in a row that are complex and they know what they're doing over there. And it would've been interesting to do some audible books, but I, I put it on ice for right now 'cause I just have so much else going on.
But I can, I can see myself re-looking at that in a couple years, but I'm going to look into this, uh, voice thing. Thank you for that tip. Yeah, of course. And well, hopefully I'll see you there. I mean, I don't, I don't know, I, I, maybe I have a voice for radio. I don't know. Uh, this voice, let me tell you a little backstory on this voice.
When I was a young man, again, I was, I was a athlete. I taught myself how to fight, which is another story. Uh, but, um, I had a singing voice. I used to be a singer and I had a great singing voice. My stepdad was a, is a musician. And I was in, you know, singing. I loved doing it, loved singing. And then when I got in the army, uh, in 1992, I became a drill sergeant.
I used to yell really loud, and for whatever reason, I loosened up my vocal chords to get what you're hearing today. A very distinct voice. And it's different and it's recognizable besides being one of the most recognized face on discovery, this voice is, and I had a soldier, and when the show first came out naked, afraid, I didn't really tell a lot of folks about it.
I, you know, I just was gonna let it play out. And the, he was, they were watching Discovery and they were watching, it was a guy walking the tightrope across the Grand Canyon, and they were all watching it, waiting to see what was gonna go on. And he was in there and there, and the show was coming on. So he is digging afraid.
Premier Show was coming on, there was a commercial, and they had watched it. So they, next week they were tuning in. So my old soldier of mine, he gets up, goes in the gets, oh, I gotta get a beer before we start the show. So he's in this kitchen getting ready to get a beer, and he hears my voice and he's like, what the hell is the soldier major doing in my goddamn living room?
And so he walks up and, and he's like. Oh my God. So he messaged me right away. He's like, damn, SAR major. Give a fellow, give a guy a warning before I have to see your naked butt on my TV screen in my living room. What the heck? Yeah. But he recognized my voice and knew that that was me. And I've had people where I would be in a bar, where a restaurant, and I would be speaking and people would know that voice, and they're like, and they'd look and they'd see me and they're like, oh my God, you're EJ Snyder from Making Afraid.
What are you doing here in West Virginia? I'm like, well, yeah. Consulting on an off consulting on an off-grid property here, and we gotta eat. So here I am. It's like, well, yeah, yeah. You know, that being said, Mr. Snyder, that, and, and you might find this comico, I'm not sure if you've gotten this before or not, but speaking of your face and your voice, all, all the pictures of you online, they always show these young, fierce pictures of you.
And so I thought you were half the age you are now. And I read 25 years in the Army and then all your other stuff. I'm like, there's no way he's in his twenties or thirties. And then um, I did some research. I was like, okay, yeah, it makes sense. 'cause you said about six decades. So I was like, he's a little bit older than than 20.
Yeah. You know, but I love one that you have that energy and drive in life still. There's a lot of podcasts, life after 60, life after 50, life after menopause. And I think it's so great to encourage people that there's a lot of life to live. You just gotta want it. Absolutely. You're exactly right. And I've been blessed by Good Genes through my mom.
I like to live a youthful life. Age is just a number. I call 'em, I say I'm in my 50 teens, you know, it's like, you know, I have more energy than most men half my age. It's always, it shows up out there on the survival challenges. People see it. I'm an inspiration for my generation 'cause a lot of people that live precariously through me out there represent our age group.
And it doesn't mean that I'm special. I've got my ailments, I've got my disabilities. Um, a lot of 'em are internal and I just do what I can do within the limits of my. My disabilities, but I don't stop living life. I'm gonna suck the bone marrow out of it every chance I get. And so, yeah. Uh, but I've been blessed by good genes.
I have a youthful spirit and good supplements help. And, uh, a lot of times good maintenance on, uh, hair follicles that wanna be very resistant. You trim 'em closer and, uh, sometimes use, uh, good shampoos. But when you're competing in a career field where men are half your age competing for the same job, you have to do those certain things to keep you in that realm.
But by the time I came outta the swamps of Louisiana, uh, I was full beard, full grade, salt and pepper. I'm like, ah, maybe it's time to embrace my salt and pepper look. 'cause that's how people are gonna remember me from the last minute they see me on this show. And so I ear, uh, of late, I've embraced my salt and pepper as much as I've resisted it for many years.
And, uh. Now I'm just wearing it with Pride as a Silver, silver, Fox. Fox. Yeah. No, that's great. Women, women love that. The Foxy Grandpa look, the the Silver Fox. And what I was trying to get at is what I did love my goatee, dark Jesse, the Body Ventura look, uh, and do miss it at times. But yeah, it's a lot to keep up with for sure.
And what I was trying to get at is, you know, I'm never intimidated to talk to anyone, but I felt like a lot of people, if they didn't know you, they just heard your voice or saw your pictures online, especially Skull Crusher and, and all of that, they would think you're such this like angry, you know, testosterone pent up guy and so aggressive.
And here you are making jokes, doing funny voices, and talking about. Wearing fake teeth and glasses. You know, you've really shocked me, Mr. Schneider, I think you've shocked a lot of people with, with how genuine and friendly you are. A again, six foot three, so that gentle giant that, you know, tall man, but even bigger heart kind of mentality.
Yeah. You don't want to open up that door with the ogre hiding in there because that guy does exist from a youthful guy. I, I I I, I was a very intense, at times could be an angry person, uh, from my bullying days. But you know, it's that guy's in there. He doesn't have to come out all the time. And I realized kind of, uh, through my life and career that I needed to tone that big guy down.
That I was intimidating. People didn't wanna come up and talk to me and I needed people to talk to me so I knew how to handle problems or whatever. So I got very good at, or rating and speaking. I'm a very creative writer and I knew that I needed to, I need to help people. 'cause I have an intense look. I can just look at you and I'll look right through you with my piercing blue eyes and that commanding presence.
Yeah. And I'll, I'll stare you down. Don't, you'll just freeze like ice. And I can do that to somebody when it's needed, but I need to make myself more approachable. So I had to take this intimidating factor, be able to speak, crack a joke, lighten the air for people so that I could get, you know, you get you the old saying, you get more, more flies with honey than you do vinegar.
And so that guy's there, don't kid yourself, don't take my kindness for weakness. But the ogre is there. But I do like to have a good time and enjoy life. And so I'm a man. That's great. I'm a renaissance man where the yeah. Most interesting man in the world holds a dosis. I really am that guy. I like to think.
And, uh, I've lived a life of adventure, uh, and I've got a lot of wisdom to share. And I know it can be an intense guy and I am loud and, and all this, but some of that goes with some of the persona character that is, is really who I am. And I tell Bija, they say, oh my god. You're very approachable. And I, I talk to people at shows.
I go to gun shows, knife shows, trade shows. I see people, I make time for the fans. I tell people, look, if you don't wanna tell stories, if you don't wanna talk to people, sign autographs, take pictures. Don't put your naked butt on tv. Yeah, because you know, you signed up for that. It's part of it. And, and you have a brand now.
And if it's more than yourself, it's about the program and the, and, and the network, right? It's about what you mean to that individual that you're looking at. Because you might be the only quasi celebrity person meets in their life. Do you wanna make a good impression for other people of celebrity status or not?
And so you take on a certain responsibility, and sadly, some people naked afraid, becomes their identity. They were lost in life. They were looking for something, they were kind of outdoor person. Oh, I'm gonna go on naked afraid because I wanna do that challenge to test myself. Don't, if you wanna test yourself, you don't have the skills to be out there.
It's a real challenge. Just go sign up for Survivor or something else. Not saying that Survivor's easy. You know, we talked about that early on. I was a huge Survivor fan, and that's how a lot of the, uh, reality World family for being a finalist for season 21. It got replaced last minute by Jimmy Johnson, the football coach.
But, uh, my point is, some of these people have made the, they can't walk around without the necklace on. They can't, oh, I'm naked afraid. Look, really it afraid. And it's great to be proud of it and excitable about it, but that doesn't define me. Just like the military doesn't define me. My life experiences in total is who defines EJ Snyder.
Not one thing. I think that's really important that you shared that, because what we talk about a lot on this show is there's a lot of veterans. Who have no purpose or no identity because the military is who they were. You know, whether it was Army or Marines or whoever they were, if they were a drill sergeant, a boats ins mate, whoever they were a petty officer became, or, yep.
I have an episode coming out with Ricky Saluter, great guy. He was a detective, police officer for 10 years in Texas, and he told me on the show that episode's coming out soon. He goes, my first name became Detective. That was his first name, so to speak. Right? Mm. Yeah. So it's just something important to keep in mind.
And, and speaking of names and talking about the ogre you have locked away, how did you earn the nickname Skull Crusher? Where does that come from? Well, skull Crusher comes from, so we'll dial it back just a little bit and talk about, when I was a kid, I used to get bullied and it wasn't just one bully, I had to pack a bull.
He used to actually messing with me, and so my stepdad was kind teaching me how to box, man. I was learning wrestling in, in, in school. But it wasn't enough to get my confidence up, but I was a poor kid. So when my friends would go to different martial arts classes, whether it was a keto judo, TaeKwonDo, um, juujitsu, karate, whatever it was, when they would come back, I'd ask them to teach you what they just learned that day.
'cause I couldn't afford those classes, and they would teach me that. And so I, I would have them teach me that so I could develop my, a, a, a self-defense for myself in case these guys got in my face. But also, uh, just to be able to defend myself and build a confidence in myself to stand up to 'em, knowing I had the tools that if things went left and I didn't want them to go left, I'd rather them go right.
Use, you know, talk ourselves through this situation to handle it. And if they went left, I wanted to be able to know that I could handle myself. And so I developed these skills to be, you know, kind of a Bruce Lee type fighter in the street. It also, later on, would apply into the military. I, I liked that style of advanced fighting.
And so I, I, I learned these skills and, you know, I had to stand up to these bullies one day. And so you, I, my mother used to say, if you get hit first, you have the right to defend yourself, but don't you dare throw the first punch, or you're gonna get it. You're gonna get suspended from school, you're gonna get grounded, you all these things.
And I, you know, my mom, you know, I, I looked up to her, I respected her, didn't wanna cause any issues, but man, these guys are messing with me for about six or seven months, you know, so I had to figure out a way to handle this. And so the one day I was in the classroom, and then this. A kid messed with me. He shoved me and he was the biggest of the group of the bully, the bully group.
He was the biggest guy. We were about the same size. He was a little beefier than I, I was actually never a really, a big stick skull crusher. I was actually a stick snapper at one point. So stick, stick snapper. EJ decides, oh, I'm going to, this is it. I draw the line today, I'm gonna make an example of this guy in front of the entire class of the sixth grade.
And he, I went up there to confront him. I spun him around. I said, whoa. I shoved him and I'm like, we're, we're, let's go. And next thing I knew, I get hit in the back of the head or the back and I turn around and it's the, it's the head of the snake, the, the head bully who was the smallest guy of the group.
And I was like, it's on. I'm gonna end this today. And, and so I got in a fight with this kid and. Teacher finally came in and broke it up. But after that day, uh, after I took this kid onward spread through the sixth grade, and then nobody wanted to mess with me after that 'cause I, I handled my business and then I would go around and I'd see kids getting picked on.
I would defend them against the bullies and I would tell the bullies hit me and they would've to hit me first before I could fight because I knew, remember what my mom said. And so that carried that on into the military. I started boxing intramurally. So I very proudly can say outside the ring. Combat.
I've never thrown a first punch in my life, but I've thrown a lot of last punches. And so one day I was in a barracks party and there was this guy that was known to get intoxicated, and he would sucker punch guys just outta the blue. He couldn't handle his liquor. And so I was hanging out with one of my friends and we were chatting, and all of a sudden, this fists flying right by my head and smashes my friend right in the side of the face.
It breaks his eyebrow open and blood's going all over. I could tell he was gonna need stitches, and he goes down and I turn around. It's the same individual who's been doing all this punking, if you want to call it punking, and so I shove him down the ground. I'm like, God dang you. Why'd you do that, dude?
And he just starts yelling at me. He's like, Hey man, you want a piece of me? I'm like, dude, just lay there and bleed and just stay on your back or whatever. Just, just, just stop. And I turned around to help my friend. I got him up and I'm looking at him and I'm like, oh man, we gotta get you down in the infirmary.
You gotta get some stitches, man. He's, he's busted you open. Good. So I got a towel on his head and I'm trying to, you know, help stop the bleeding. All of a sudden, in the back of my head, I feel Glass smash. I don't know if it was a full beer bottle or a beer mug, I still don't know to this day. But all I know is I turned around.
It was that dude again. And my eyes got full of red blood, you know, battle bl bloodlust. My hair stood up in the back of my neck and I just went after this guy and I started hitting him. I hit him so hard the first time he fell back down 'cause he was so intoxicated. And I jumped down on the pop, pop, pop, pop, flurry your fist till everybody pulls me off of him.
And he's like, he's like, Hey man. And I'm like, look man, you should have not messed with me. You're better off sandpaper to grizzly bear's ass than screw me, man. And I was like, look, screw you man. And I walked off, got my friend, got him, you know, took him to get taken care of. So the next day I'm walking through the formations and my formation was on the far end.
So I walked by the, you know, four formations to get to mine. And as I'm walking past the formations, I'm like hearing, Hey, what's up Skull Crusher? Hey, hey, what's up Skull Crusher? Hey, hey, there's Bone Crusher. Hey Skull Crusher, blah, blah, blah. And I get down to formation. I'm like, what in the heck is everybody talking about?
And my buddy pokes me in the back and he's like, and I'm a kid from Jersey, you know, so I, my mouth's loud and said this. And he said, Hey, skull Crusher, nice job. You took care of that dude. I'm like, what are you talking about? Look down the formation. I won't say the guy's name, but he's like, look down there at him.
I'm like, what? And I lean over and I look. Down the four ranks and the, and, and there's a guy, his face is all patched up, black eyes, you know, his nose is swollen, he's all patched up. I'm like, oh my God, what happened? He's like, oh, you, you fractured his cheekbones. You hit him so hard, you know, you crushed his skull.
So that was where that kind of came from. And then you would kind of hear that nickname when I'd get in the boxing ring and guys would say, pretty much, even with gloves, I'd hit 'em so hard. It felt, felt like my fists were a couple of cinder blocks and it was crushing their heads in. So that's where it came from.
Then it came, uh, I was, I was, uh, a huge wrestling fan. So to take on that nickname and that moniker, it kind of became a stigma for me. And so I started looking at it as, you know, Hey, you'll mess with me, or I'll crush your skull kind of a thing. Or I'm gonna crush this challenge that I'm facing in my life.
Uh, and so that's where it came from. And I honestly, at 10 years in the Army, I almost got out to go wrestle with the WCW at one point, but turned the contract down because I was halfway through the Army and I was like, maybe I better had a kid on the way coming. And the wrestling business in the, at that time, which was uh, 1994, uh, was doing well, but they really weren't taking the care of the wrestlers if they got hurt.
So I chose to stay in the Army and get a retirement. Yeah, that's, that's one good side about it. I mean, I think you would've been great for WWE. I know it's, I think had for some people don't consider it. Yeah. Some people don't consider it real wrestling, but it still takes physical strength and, yeah. I was watching a clip personality too, and the girl was speaking and it was Roddy, rod Piper was next to her, and they were in the Bill Maher show and there was, uh, sting and Bobby, Debra Henan were in there and she was saying, look, we are athletes, we are actors, we are stunt people.
We are fighters. We are precisionist. And what we do is very real. You might not think it's real, but it's real. Do we hit each other's shirt? Do we have to pull things and do certain things and make it believable? Sure. But there are things happen, people get hurt, and there are probably more. Athletic than a lot of others because they do have to do certain moves to make sure nobody gets hurt to pull things so that nobody really gets crushed.
And that's when you're, it's not easy to pull a punch if you're trying to, you know, go halfway or whatever and make it look like you're going full. Yeah, you can hurt a ligament or something like that. I mean, I remember being a kid and getting picked last for sports and I didn't like it. I was really fast as a kid.
I was super, super fast, very speedy. So I'm like, man, I hate getting picked last, this sucks. And I was like, how am I gonna fix this? I was really good with my legs, so I was like, I gotta go with strength of what I have, and I'm uncoordinated, but I can run really fast and I've got a good leg for kicking. So I got into soccer and I just got better at kickball.
And then, so I started, stopped getting picked last for sports, but I was, you know, so kickball soccer, I was, I was always picked first and, and for, you know, for field day, but I was like, man, I wanna play baseball. I wanna do this other stuff. And so I actually taught myself every sport I could, mainly for the fact not to get picked last.
And because I did that, I got really good at 'em. And some, I got, you know, football became one of my main sports and fighting, but, uh, some others did too. And I was, but I was decent enough at least not to get picked last. And that's, that's how I got, that's how I got good at sports. And it, and, and all that stuff was just God knowing what's up.
I learned how to do sports very young and, and got good at all of them. So I was exposed to a lot of stuff that. Fix that uncoordination. And then fighting became a love for me and passionate about, and that caused me to get in really good shape. And so when I went in the Army, it was like made for me.
'cause you're a jack of all trades in the infantry. You're, you're physical, you're doing this, you're doing that. You're finesse. You have to be a professional level athlete in training because being a professional warrior, soldier, sailor, marine, uh, uh, marine, uh, or airman, you, you are at a fitness level of a professional athlete in most cases.
For most people. Not everybody, but for most. People don't realize that. And uh, you know, I had a guy the other one day I was talking to him, he's like, well, you are not a NFL football player. I'm like, okay, maybe I'm not in the NFL, but the level of, oh, you could be, you could be. Yeah, I could be at the level.
I took my profession that serious, and I almost felt like I was being insulted like a professional wrestler at that moment. I'm like, yeah, six three crushes people's skulls. You could played football. I see you at that point, as matter of fact, I made the Columbus Stars, which was a semi-pro football team at the time, playing flag football for the post championship.
And I was on the, I was in the, on the defensive line as a nose guard, and I'd have three of the, they were only supposed to block you with one or two, never three. That was supposed to be a flag pit. They would put three people on me, and I was just so intense and so strong and so fast and quick that they'd have to put three guys on me just to try and stop me from getting in there.
And those guys saw me playing. They're like, Hey, we want you to come out for the team. You're, you're ready to go now. And I'm, I probably could have walked on some NFL team, maybe get made the practice squad, but, you know, hey, I was in the military. It just, it wasn't what I was supposed to do. But yeah, I had made that team.
And then, then, uh, there was a semi-pro team down in Florida when I was a ranger instructor. And Emmett Smith was actually, he owned and coached one of those teams and, and they had me come out and, uh, try out for those guys. But Army Insurance wasn't gonna cover me. So I was like, yeah, right. How am I gonna explain a broken forearm if it happens, uh, to my right.
Worst case, full-time job. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, talking about athletics, two things. One, ladies and gentlemen, we've got JT money. If you go back to quite a while ago, about eight months ago, I sat down with him, vice President of the Marine Sniper Rifle Association. Now the president of it, he's coming back on the show.
At the end of this month. Obviously the episode will be out quite a little while after that, but he went to the, apparently there's a moi Thai tournament. There was one on Veteran's Day for each of the branches of the military competing against each other. So if you're into, you know, military sports, definitely check out that episode, be on the lookout for that, to hear how that went.
And I was actually asked, and unfortunately I left the military before I had a chance to bring this to fruition. But each ship in the Navy and each base, and it might be the same way in the Army, uh, Mr. Schneider, if you can tell me if it's true or not, there's a representative for all, like the physical fitness of the base, kind of like a, a fit coordinator or something like that.
Right. Uh, and we mostly kept that at the unit level, but, um, okay. I think we did have some fitness consultants, uh, maybe one assigned at each company level as an extra duty. I can't remember. Yeah, well if you think of it this way, like there's different divisions on the ship, but you know, you would just have one physical fitness guy represent the whole ship.
And I worked closely with the one on the ship I was on and I had set the ship's record for Plank. It was, it was my off day, so don't knock my score too much. But 13 and a half minutes, you know, I had just gone down there. I found out about it last second and I set the ship's record. Obviously that's not at all where I want to be.
I mean, I think a Marine set the world record not too long ago at like either eight or 16 hours he had a piss bag and everything. Unbelievable. Like wow. Unrealistic almost. But yeah, I mean, my goal is half an hour for now. Work my way up. You know, I'm pretty proud. Most people in the military, if you asked the average military member to do a plank, at least.
Where I was stationed, most of them could hold it right for two or three minutes max five if they were in good shape, so yeah. Right, right. I'm pretty proud of, of my score. Good for you. Yeah. That, that plan's not easy. I have a friend, uh, she was on Naked, afraid Karen Coffee, and she's in her, she's, she's 50 teen too, and she's like a kind of a professional planker.
That was, I'm like, that's the first I ever heard of it. I'm like, what? I had done planks before, but I couldn't remember. That's what they were called. Right. And she had a guy that was competing and she was training under him, and I was like, I was impressed that girl go forever. And I'm like, I just would find it very, I gotta be moving in perpetual motion.
I can't just sit in one spot that long. Yeah. Too much energy. I have too much energy. I'm like, oh, I don't, that's a lot of discipline. It's funny for me, usually it's my thighs or my shoulder will hurt long before my abs, like you and I discussed before. I've got the Hypermetabolism and I, I go to the gym quite a bit.
Right. And so my abs are what I worked on just because they were already visible, you know, from my genetics. So developing them, you know, being able to see them is a very encouraging thing. So it was easy to always wanna work out my abs and anytime they start to fade away, I'll run to the gym. I'm like, I gotta, I gotta do this now.
There's a lot of ab workouts you can do while doing other stuff. I mean, there was a point in my life where no matter where I was sitting, I would sit at a certain angle, so my abs were tense and, and working out the whole time, or holding my body weight in some manner, so. Right. Yeah. Now, Mr. Schneider, you've had the mic for quite a while here, so I want to grab it for just a few minutes here to tell a story.
Yeah, go ahead. And then I need to close out within the next, you know, three to maybe. 10 minutes or so, I've gotta go pick up my truck that's in the shop, my off grid vehicle. So yeah. That's awesome. I'll, I'll definitely have you come back on another time. Yeah, let's do another one for sure. That's be great.
Just easy flow conversation. I know. I apologize Mr. Whiskey, if it seemed I took over anything, I just No, no. Uh, I get to talk and in soapbox and I like, like to call it, I don't like preaching. I, I like to soapbox and, uh, yeah, no, I, I love it. I mean, I'm on, people hear me every episode, so, you know, I like to have the, let the guests have the mic as much as possible because I mean, they can always hear me.
I could record a whole episode by myself for hours if I wanted. So, you know, but I want to get the guest content while I'm here. But just a little confession. So I've never watched porn before and a lot of men do, a lot of women do as well. But, you know, I'm pretty religious and I also went to private school and there was a lot of stuff.
I never knew anything about sex. I never. Knew what vaginas were or anything like that. But when I was in, maybe later middle school or even high school, the show Naked and Afraid was on, had it had been on for a while when I was in high school or late middle school, but it got in the news for a lawsuit.
Apparently in an episode, they hadn't censored the woman who was on the show at the time. And one of them, they hadn't censored her vagina. And so she flashed everyone, and I believe she was suing them, or her family was suing them. And I remember I had never watched porn, but I did try to look up that episode to see what a vagina looked like, because to me it wasn't porn if it was on, I think you say it was on discovery, so it felt like it was scientific research or you know, it was like.
Well, they just happened to not censor it. That's not my fault. Even though honestly I was intentionally looking it up. Yeah. There was a woman on naked afraid and they had failed to censor for a part and I tried finding it just to, to be a little perv, but it was just, just my little relation to Naked and afraid.
Like I said, I've never seen the show, but um, yeah, I think that happened once. You know, you have your blur group, as they call 'em. There's five people that for eight hours a day, five days a week, sit in this edit room and just after it's edited, they just blur stuff. And they may have made a mistake once.
Uh, there was a couple Yeah. Times where they had messed up and. Thought there were some things. I had some people send me some stuff. One time sticking out from underneath my bag was my big fat toe, and they were like, what is this sticking out e j's back and Right. Pretty sure that's his Cox doing a full reach around, huh?
Yeah, it's like, and, and so, and then they're, oh, you may have some money here. And then there was another one that, my backside or what, but, but it is weird. People are looking for that stuff. I don't go outta my way. But there was one girl, and I don't know what they settled for. I don't even never heard the end of it.
But, uh, they don't, they really try to protect us best they can, but they, uh, you know, it, it, it's, it does, you know, it does happen I guess. But, uh, you know, there, there is in the clause of, or somewhere in the contract. I think if that happened, then they're entitled to, uh, uh, damages, uh, for whatever reason.
And the obvious that if your privates are shown and, and whatever, so many people ask for, well, where can we find, uh, the. Uh, uh, uh, the uncensored version. The uncensored version. Oh, are you silly people? You Americans, and a lot of Europeans are like, well, where's the uncensored version? And I'm like, it's not porn people.
And then people ask this big question, then we will end it. They ask this question all the time, uh, and it's like, why naked? Why do this show naked? Why can't they have like underwear on or this or that? Well, if you know about survival, one of the pillars of survival is shelter. Your first line of shelter is clothing.
When you take away clothing, your first layer of physical shelter, you expose yourself. And now it's just your skin. And when the skin breaks, that's your, you can get infection in there. And as things are rough. You also take away a psychological layer of shelter when you have your clothes on. You know, you, you, you have a certain confidence or whatever.
When you go naked, you're bare to the world. And so psychologically, you're kind of bare to the world too. And so that's why they, they did it. And so it causes you a dilemma. You have to have shelter, you know, stay warm. Are you gonna make clothes, not clothes? What are your priorities? And sometimes clothes never make it to the list.
Right. And the one time I did have to make clothing was that I found it necessary. Normally I, I'll make shoes, I find them necessary, but in the swamps of Louisiana, and we were in the winter and we were given, you know, some deer hides to help, you know, fight the cold, combat the cold. And I had my, both my partners, after I was, uh, they tapped, I was by myself for two weeks.
I wound up having three sets of pelts. So one I used initially as a cloak when I went out during the day and it was cold. And then at night it would be my blanket. Uh, then I wound up having two so I could lay on one. Blanket for the other, maybe use two for a blanket or a pillow, whatever. Well, uh, during the episode on day 27, I was clearing a pond.
'cause we had these green lilies in my, in my channel of water and I needed to clear it out near my beach, near my camp. So I wasn't necessarily walking so much up and down the bank, although I had fishing drop lines all along my, my shoreline. I had a beach right next to my camp. I was like, it'd be great if I could open this up so the fish would come to the surface and I could drop half my lines right here and check 'em easily throughout the day.
And so I cleared the lilies 50 yards wide and used a corralling system with sticks and fenced it into the right, was working the left side and walked up along this tree that was snaked out over the water. And it was a fell, it was a willow tree that fell over and it had its branches going straight up into the, into the air.
And I got to the end of that tree. And I was using the stick to move the lilies and I stuck it in the water. And I walked out to the end of this tree and I thought that it was strong enough to hold me. Little did I know it was rotted out, and before I knew it, it broke. And here I go, flying into the drink and something speared me.
And next thing I know, I felt the spear. And I was like, oh geez. Something got me. And I was just wearing my necklace. My bag was at the shore. 'cause I, in case I went in the water, I wanted to swim without the bag trying to drown me. And I knew I was stuck. And I cover up my bits and pieces for the camera.
'cause we had the drone up and they had three cameras going on me at the time. And I kind of peaked a, uh, I lifted my hands away from my private parts, said, look, I knew I had did something bad and there was some blood. And so I covered up quickly knowing the cameras were going and knowing how I was, you know, uh, as, as, uh.
More, uh uh, Robert down Jr would say, as un tropical thunder. I don't come outta the character till the DVD's released. And so I'm yelling at the swamp and I'm cursing and you're trying to castrate me. You son of a bitch swamp. You want a war? I'll give you a war. And I walked around my shelter to take a real look at what happened.
I could see all the bits and pieces inside my testicles as I tore my right testicle open in two places. That's, and long story short, I walked out there, I told the producer, look, I'm not going home. You gotta let medic to get up here. You tell Dave's story, the executive producer, I'm not going anywhere and tell her bring her stitch kit.
'cause I just busted myself open here, my manhood's everywhere. And they all started getting white faced and throwing up. And they're all concerned. Yeah. They're like, gosh, it's okay. So they gave me a choice. I could either leave the challenge to go to a hospital, they would treat it antibiotics, sterile environment, the best care, you know, numb it, take care of it.
But I'd be outta the challenge. Or I could stay in a less sterile environment, lay out on top of a A, a a, a dirty tarp and get someone in the field and have the chance of getting an infection, possibly losing my testicles or losing my life. I chose door number two 'cause I'm not a quitter. And so the girl out there and she couldn't handle it, so they brought another nurse in.
40 minutes later, the sun's going down. I'm just thinking about all the firewood. I don't even have chopped yet for the night. And it's gonna get cold. And she gets there and. She sees it and I'm like, look, if you don't start stitching this up, I'll stitch it up. Gimme the needle. She's like, oh my God. If we don't get it cleaned out, I'm like, get up or low pad, start scrubbing baby.
Let's get this thing clean. Let's go or I'll do it. Wow. And so they, they finally, they, she gets everything ready and she pulls a needle out and she starts squirting it. What were you gonna do with that? I'm gonna numb the area. I'm like, look sweetheart, it's a sack. It's loose skin. I'm stoked on adrenaline.
Let's start stitching. 'cause you're gonna hit me 12 times with that. Just start stitching. And so there she was stitched me up, she gets done. I'm like, okay, I'm ready. She's like, wait, you got three things you gotta do for me? All right. I'm like, what one? You gotta keep it trying. I'm looking around laughing.
I'm like, I'm in the middle of a swamp and it rains here. Okay. Yeah. What else? You gotta keep it clean. I'm covered in mud, head to toe. I'm like, right. I'm like, yeah, I'm sitting in mud. Okay. Yeah. What else? You gotta take it easy. You gotta take 10 or 10 to 14 days. You can't do anything. You just gotta sit and let this heal.
'cause if you pop the stitches open, you're good. You're outta here. I'm like, is that it? She's like, yeah, all right. Help me up. She helps me up and then I hobble off and I'm like, good. 'cause I gotta get fucking firewood now. And I went off and, and and started gathering firewood for the night. And I wound up staying another 33 days and made the 60 day challenge.
And they were asking me like, how can you stay in this challenge? And I'm like, well, it's pretty simple. One, I'm EJ fucking Snyder. Two, I'm not some candy ass on the couch watching life passing by. Like everyone watching this TV program right now. I'm out here sucking bone marrow outta life. Three. This is a mission I signed on for a mission in it's 60 days.
And I ain't leaving until I'm done on day 60. And that's why Oh, and did I tell you I'm EJ fucking Snyder. Now I gotta go back. Oh yeah. And I'll see you later. Hell yeah. So yeah. Well. With that said, Mr. Schneider, it's been an honor to have yawn. I'm, I'm more than humble to have someone as big as you on the show.
We'll definitely catch up in the future. I know you gotta run here to Yes sir. Get your truck from the shop. And I know that the bond between a man and his truck is a very strong thing, so Absolutely. Especially if you've seen mine. Yeah. But, um, I'll let you get going here and, you know, we're not gonna say goodbye and everything 'cause I expect to see you on pretty soon here when your schedule is not chaotic.
You got it. You got it. We've got a lot going on for 2024 folks. Go over to ej snyder.com. Uh, link up with me on my social medias at EJ Snyder. 3, 3, 3, Instagram, Twitter, X, uh, TikTok and Clapper. And then EJ Snyder at Facebook. Look for the blue check. 218,000 followers and YouTube. And, uh, you know what, you know, survival's very simple.
Just don't die. And so take that attitude. Get after life. Get outside. Make your life better. Affect somebody else's life by being kind to them, have kind words for them. And I appreciate everyone. I appreciate you Mr. Whiskey. Thanks for having me on here. And folks, a lot of big things coming. So subscribe to ej snyder.com so you don't miss any of the updates, the newsletters, the blogs, and I appreciate you being part of the Skull Crusher Nation.
