I'm David Faria, a New Zealander accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick. Something I've come to appreciate about America is that many Americans like to drive around in really big vehicles. This year, 2 million new pickup trucks will be sold here in America. Giant, towering vehicles that seem to tap into the American psyche of being big, loud, and confident. In some cases, they're practical. Builders, ranchers, farmers, they'd all tell you that certain jobs need big trucks. But where I am in Los Angeles, I wonder what it's all about. The other day, I saw a man buying a salad, returning to a giant pickup that was so big he'd had to park it up on the curb. I'd argue you don't need a pickup truck to buy a salad, thus adding yet another mystery to America. Why does America need big trucks? To try and answer this question, I'd need to encounter some big trucks, the biggest of trucks. And I was very excited to see that the Monster Jam World Finals were coming to LA, billed as the most action-packed motor sports event on four wheels. An encounter with a 12,000-pound truck might help me understand what was going on.

So get ready to jump in a giant truck and tower over your fellow motorists, because this is the Monster Trucks episode.

I'm a flightless bird, touch down in America.

I'm a flightless bird, touch down in America. How do you feel about the big trucks of America? In New Zealand, they don't build vehicles that are as big as the ones here. Really? So it's genuinely just amazing to me, the scale of things. They just don't have them. Sometimes I'll park and I'll get out of my little car. It's not a little car, I'm in a SUV.

Regular car.

And then I get out.

In fact, medium to big car.

Exactly. Next to me, I'm still... This thing is towering over me and I'm in awe of them.

Well, for me, they represent the south. Trucks and big and masculine.

Yeah, you can traverse the miles in them.

Yes. You put your hunting gear in them.

Yeah, your guns in there, your dead elk in the back. Exactly. Yeah, take it home, just skin it, feed the family.

That is what it represents. But like many things in my life. I've been swayed a tiny bit by Dax.

Yeah, because of course, we come to record here and often be a giant truck.

He has multiple trucks. He loves trucks. He has a huge truck. I do think before I knew him, if I saw that truck on the street, I would make a lot of assumptions about who is in that car. Now I am better because I think, well, just could be It could be a Dax.

Yeah, it could be a Dax. Yeah, just a lovely enthusiastic car man. Are there certain cars that you would judge? The Cybertruck is something I'm always fascinated by seeing Cybertrucks.

Is that the Tesla one?

The big Tesla looks like a lowly-rendered video game, jumped out into real life. Because all the drivers generally look the same. It's usually like a be-headed man with a wrap around Dirty Dog, Sonny's. Really? It's a certain vibe. Are there any cars that you see that you're like, In a good or a bad way? Or is it all about the behavior of the car and what it's doing?

It's more to me about the behavior of the car. I'm not a very observant person. I've also had such a wide range of cars in my life that I don't think personality necessarily adds up to a car.

To what the car is. So you're not judging people because you know you've driven a bunch of different things. Correct. Would you ever drive a massive truck?

No. In fact, when I first started working for Kristen and Dax, and I was just the babysitter, they lived in a different house, and the car situation was always very tricky, and you had to move stuff around.

Because there were so many cars.

So many cars. I was working there, and Dax's sister was like, There was multiple cars and people. You were instructed to leave your keys in the car so that at any point someone else could move your car.

Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.

One time, I remember, I think it was the truck, and I was supposed to move it five feet forward. I said, I really don't feel comfortable. I was really, really scared to say that because they needed it. Yeah.

And you were like, I don't think I should do this. Yeah. I'm not capable. Yeah. I'm going to run something over in this truck. It reminds me of Sidebar. I went to an art show last night, a very fancy art show downtown. And there was a very funny, the most LA thing I've ever been to. All it was is a very wealthy man has parked his four favorite cars in a big space in the gallery. And the art show is that he just moves the cars like a couple of meters either way every couple of weeks.

Wait, stop. So this is like an art installation?

It was art. And everyone was in there, had a little wine. No. And everyone's looking at these cars Are you there for the moving? No. You just know throughout the year, it changes. So if I go back in a couple of weeks, it sounds a little bit like you're involved in an art installation at Dax and Kristen's old place. But it was wild.

Did you pay for this?

No, I It was an opening of another thing. And then I wandered into this other room and I was looking around, trying to figure out what it was. And the other thing I think I quite like about it is I don't think the guy even lives in America. I think he calls out from Europe. He flies? No, he calls out an assistant. A little... And he's like, Can you move that car a bit that way? Oh my God. And he's got a year. Is he Shia La Buff? I need to know more about him now. I want to find out more. But I do like that idea when you reach a certain level of, I don't know what the word is.

You leave Earth.

You leave Earth.

This person has left Earth.

But what a great gig.

I can't necessarily always blame the person who's doing it because they're on a other planet. Something's going on. But people who go and who support- They're enabling this whole world.

Yes. They're going along and going, wow, what does this say about us? That car, that BMW has moved a meter to the left.

And then he feels validated. He lives thinking that he's doing something good and providing thought. Absolutely.

Yeah. And look, to some people, maybe he is. Anyway, Monster Trucks. This is an episode about Monster Trucks. And Dax gave me this idea. He said, look, if there's one thing you've got to do in America, you need to go to Monster Jam. He said, The Monster Jam World Finals are coming up. Do you have any thoughts on Monster Trucks? I bought the booklet from Monster Jam for you to look at. This is the vibe. Big trucks, big wheels. I've got a stat here, though, that I thought would maybe win you over.

Okay, let's hear it.

One of the organizers of Monster Jam, he was quoted in a Times article saying, We sell four million plus tickets a year. That's more than Taylor Swift. I got some more stats here. I should actually say, if you like this episode, there's an amazing article called When Trucks Fly by Zack Helfand. He's a journalist, and he wrote this really amazing piece. Just reading from the article, he said, Monster Jam run events in about 130 stadiums and arenas annually on six different continents. I always had this idea that each truck is just one of them, but there's multiple grave diggers. That's one of the best trucks. We're going to learn about that. When you add up all the Monster Jams, much bigger than Taylor Swift.

I hate that for us. Wait a minute. What makes it a monster truck versus a truck? Just its size.

Just the size. I think I'm going to show myself, I'm like, Where's Dax? No, big wheels are a big part of it. They got to have these big, bouncy wheels. It's all about the wheels because that gives them, depending on how much they're inflated, that shows how much they'll be jumping and when they're racing. It's all different tire pressures. Big wheels and obviously very powerful engine. Very loud.

And they can roll around?

They can roll around. That's like watching big toys. The one thing I will say, it transformed me. I loved Monster Jam. You did. I love the event. It was at Sofi Stadium. It was exciting.

Wait. I loved it. Okay, then this leads me to my second and most important question. Psychologically, what's happening? Why is it drawing all these people? Why do you like it?

Okay, this is a really good question. I think it's just the scale. Everything is just over the top. If you're looking at these trucks and they're so comically outsized. It looks like you're watching God is blowing up a tiny toy truck, and they're just out there doing things that toys do, rolling over and jumping off these big mounds and doing flips. It doesn't feel real. The physics feel otherworldly. Okay. Which I really appreciate it. And there's actually another quote, I'm I'm going to read, and it was from that same article I was quoting from earlier. It's a guy who organizes some of these events, Ed Beckley. So this is a journalist writing, Safety standards at Monster Truck shows are much higher now, but Beckley's theory is that people want to witness forces so vast and strange that they awe or even terrify. The shows can be a forum for contemplating oblivion.

Okay. Interesting.

It's an intense quote.

That's giving everyone a lot of credit, but I appreciate it.

It's the scale. You're in this giant stadium, giant noises. I've never heard a vehicle be so loud.

Did you wear headphones?

I didn't. Whatever. But I should have. They hand out headphones to kids because it's so, so loud. Look, I'm just going to crack into the dock because I feel like this might hopefully start selling it to you. I was talking to Dax. Dax was there. He's like, Monica has to go.

Oh, how much will you pay me?

How much? Honestly, it was the best time.

Okay, let's hear it.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at Sofi Stadium was the noise. Monster trucks are so, so loud. And I was here with tens of thousands of fans to take it all in. And how's it been? Monster truck lovers. We're having the best time. Now, spoiler alert, I don't drive a monster truck in this episode. If you want that thing, there's a video of Dax and Kristen doing just that at last year's Monster Jam. Hi.

Hi.

How are you doing? So I'm going to have you here. I'm excited to teach you how to drive. Kristen. Kristen. Kristen. Kristen.

Thank you.

I'm just here to take it all in, to bear witness to America's love of the big truck. Sally has been helping run Monster Jam for years and says, I've come on the right night.

Monster Jam World Finals is our biggest event of the year and my favorite, though it's exhausting, it's so rewarding. It's double the amount of trucks on our normal stadium events. It's It's going to triple the amount of fans it feels like. The super fans come out, the ones that support us all year. People travel from all over the world, from Australia, from Europe. It doesn't matter. They come for this one.

As I walk in, the finals are just starting, and Dax magically appears on the big screen announcing that it's about to start. I didn't realize you'd rope Dex into kicking the whole thing off.

Dex was our grand marshal. He's done it before and is a fan favorite. He gives so much energy in that interview and really gets the crowd excited. We love that energy here. Monster Jam feeds on it.

While we wait for Dax to join us, I spot Charlie, who's brought his kids along.

It's so much to take it. And honestly, Dax invited me to the first one, and it was in Anaheim. I was like, This is not my scene. And I I'm out here and I'm like, No, this is where I belong. This is absolutely where I belong. Everything is big. It's a light show. It is so loud. You're inside of these monster trucks. I also love that they look like toys out there. They're humongous and they look like little toys.

Who are you backing? Is there a particular truck or driver?

I got to go with Gravedigger. He's the classic. I wasn't into it as much as a kid, and he's the only one I remember, really.

Okay, so me too. Let me explain. This isn't the first time I've been to a monster truck thing. When I was a kid, my dad took me to a monster truck event in New Zealand. I must have been about 9 or 10, and my memory of the event is that it was absolutely huge. The reality? It was tiny. Just two had been sent over from America, and it was in a relatively small outdoor space, compared with this event, which is about 30 trucks inside one of America's biggest stadiums. But back then in '90s New Zealand, one of the trucks I saw was Gravedigger. It was cool because it looked so scary. It was a big black truck covered with green flames, skulls, and tombstones. That truck is still set into my memory three decades later. It's crazy to think that Charlie and I both had the same a minimum experience with Gravedigger. And earlier that day, I'd gotten to meet Gravedigger's driver backstage at the stadium. Call me sexist, I was expecting a male driver. Times have, fortunately, changed.

My name is Kristen Anderson. I drive Gravedigger, and I am the only female driver of Gravedigger. We're big trucks. We're big motors. We're American muscle. We're big everything. We're lots of horsepower. That's what we're into over here. And so I think that the Monster Truck embodies exactly what American motorsports is all about. We have those big, big American Chevies in there. They're a larger than life truck. I mean, that tire on it is 5'6. It weighs almost 700 pounds, just one tire. The whole truck itself can weigh almost 13,000 pounds. So, yeah, it's just crazy. I love it.

I'm quite excited about this because I grew up in a town in New Zealand called Whangarei. And when I was about maybe nine, my dad took me to a monster truck session in New And I think there were two trucks. There was Bigfoot and there was Gravedigger. And it blew my mind as an eight-year-old. And now here we are.

The Gravedigger that you probably watched way back in the day was my dad, Dennis Anderson. He's the original Gravedigger driver. He's the one that created Gravedigger in 1982, and he drove it for 35 years. So when you were a kid watching Gravedigger, it was my dad.

And I was here with my dad. That's so nice. And I never expected that all these years on, I've been talking to his daughter who's now driving this thing he created related, which is like a phenomenon.

Yeah, it really is. It makes me really proud of my dad. You know what I mean? That's crazy. I mean, Gravedigger is older than I am, and now here I am, and I get to represent it. My dad is retired, and me and my brothers are representing it, and it's amazing.

Gravedigger is now a crowd favorite, one of the most famous monster trucks of all time. There are multiple grave diggers, allowing it to appear at various events at the same time. I found myself wondering how it all started back in the '80s. How did grave digger come to be?

We're from the outer banks of North Carolina, and we're from a small town in North Carolina. That's where my dad was born and raised and grew up, and he's always been a motorhead guy. He was always tuning up lawn mowers or tuning up something, tuning up the family car. I love to race. We had very humble beginnings. I mean, my grandfather worked on a farm and stuff, so it didn't come from a lot of money. It was probably like middle class, lower middle class. My dad had this passion for racing, loved it, and so he wanted to create his own racing truck. And back in the day, it was just mud bogging, where we would take big trucks through mud, basically. And that was how my dad got his start. And so with the money that he had, the money that he saved, he pieced together this junk truck. And so the guys at work were giving him a hard time because they were all going to go race in the mud that weekend. And they were like, Dennis, you don't even need to bring that truck out here. That truck isn't going to do anything.

It ain't going to do you any good. So my dad said, Well, I'll take this truck and I'll dig you a grave. And they all said, Dennis is the grave digger. So he took spray paint and he spray-painted a grave digger on the side of this junk truck. And he went out there and he beat every one of those guys that day. And from that day on, they called him the Gravedigger.

Is that a legit story? Because that seems like the plot to a film. That can't be real.

It's too perfect. No, it really is. That is the real story. They were joking. They were writing Gravedigger on his time card and stuff when he was young. This is like him in his early 20s working on a farm. And so it was hilarious.

Her dad is 64 now. He had been racing monster trucks for 35 years when he retired. He actually invented Gravedigger the year I was born, 1982. Back then, it weighed about 13,000 pounds. It had this big, heavy steel body. Kristen tells me the truck was basically a steamroller. Today, it's a little more agile. Is it pretty much destiny that you are always going to drive or were there some other things that you were going to do at some point?

I just turned 27 years old yesterday.

Happy birthday for yesterday.

Thank you. Yeah, I just turned 27. So my dad has been Gravedigger my entire life. When you grow up in this, you don't really realize what you have or you get numb to it. You know what I mean? I'm like, Yeah, he's just dad to me. He's just a gravedigger. It's like the sky is blue. Yeah, it's just like the sky is blue. Yeah. And so I said that I wanted to be his only intelligent child. Out of myself and my three brothers. I was going to go to college, and my brothers, they were going to do the monster truck thing. But I turned 18, and at the time, we were celebrating Gravedigger's 35th anniversary and my dad's 35th anniversary. We wanted to add another racing series to the Monster Jam circuit because we have multiple that run throughout the United States and the world at one time. They had never had a female drive Gravedigger, and I am my dad's only female. I grew up around racing and everything, so I had a love and a passion for it, but I was just like, teenage girl, I'm not going to do that. When I turned 18, I got in the truck, I tried it out for the first time, and I fell in love with it.

It came very naturally to me. It was just very organic. I think just growing up watching my dad or Maybe we've got race and fuel in our veins or what the deal is, but I loved it. I was 18 years old, and I was the first female that had ever driven Gravedigger. I was in 2017, was my first year, and I never turned back, never went to college. Here I am Eight years, almost, I can say I've been here for almost a decade competing here at Monster Jam, and it has gone by very quickly. It's insane.

And how competitive does it get? Because I always thought that it was performative, but it's not. You are really competitive with each other.

It's funny that you say that because we are competitive with each other, but basically we're competing for the fans, the attention of the crowd. I want the fans to like me more than they like my brothers. If I'm competing against my brothers this weekend in the freestyle competition, it is very competitive. We do have a lot of good camaraderie here being all in the same business. We all have the same passions. We're all racers. But yeah, when that helmet goes on, that's not my brother anymore. I'm out for blood.

Back inside the stadium with Charlie, his kid's starting to get excited. It's just so crazy. Someone that's never been to an event like this before, can you just describe what it's like? Because it's a lot.

I think it's like race car and circus. You're not overly invested because it seems like just such a shit show. It's just loud noises in a spectacle, really, which is awesome.

I glance across and see Dax has joined us. The event's now in full swing.

Any audio usable at all?

It's all very loud. It's very loud. I tell him I got a big fright when I saw his big face on the stadium's video screens.

You didn't know that was going to happen. When you looked up at the screen, did you first recognize my voice or did you see me? I saw your face. You saw my face, my recognizable face.

It was so big and I was so shocked.

But shockingly, with your facial blindness, you were- No, you cut through.

I cut through. Wow. You cut through. I feel like I've spent enough time with you where your face does now cut through That's the problem that I have.

Oh, wow. That's an honor.

Then the voice just sealed the deal.

Then I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Between you and I, and whoever listens to this, I get very insecure because I have to look directly into the camera lens. This is a really awkward feeling.

You're alone down there just looking at a weird bit of technology.

Yes, and a guy's holding it with a very static look on his face. I could light my hair on fire and he would not have raised his eyebrows. That's also a weird element. How much None of it is scripted. None of it. Because they would just have Gravedigger win all the time. If you saw, there's three Gravediggers here, and none of them made it. Yeah, no, these dudes are really racing and trying to win. It's like a ballet.

It's so loud, Monica. It's so loud. I could barely hear what Dax was saying at the time. I could just hear back and play back.

Wow. Okay, I'm a tiny bit more interested.

You heard those loud, raving noises.

I do think there is something about all of the people. The same thing with Taylor Swift. When you're in that environment and everyone is excited about the exact same thing, it's what concert to do in general. It is so infectious.

Yeah. You feel the power of the crowd, right?

Yeah. Community. It's really cool, even if you don't care about the thing. I mean, that's all the football games I went to in college. I didn't care about the football, sorry.

Yeah, but it's the vibe.

Yeah, it's the vibe and being part of the community.

I think the thing that Monster Jam does so well is you get weirdly invested in the trucks. So it's like wrestling. I don't watch wrestling, but there's a whole backstory behind it all. And the trucks have so much personality in them. The brave digger is scary, and it's this big truck. Then there's one that's a shark, and you're like, Oh, that's a shark. I don't know how that's going to do. It's just such a ridiculous thing because they race around this track. There's a racing side of things. But then the best part of it all is the freestyle that they do. All they do is just go out there and do massive tricks on the dirt and they flip. Every monster truck ends up on its back. This big customized tractor has to come in and flip it over. You're just watching these trucks get completely flipped and mangled. The doors fall off. It's all insane.

Does anyone ever get hurt?

Occasionally, there'll be a scrape, but it's so safe. They're in basically the safest environment they could possibly be in within the truck. They have custom seats built for each driver, so you're really cocooned because these cars are just like, flipping and turning.

It's like F1 cars that just catch on fire, and then the guy just walks out like it's nothing.

I don't understand how people survive those. At least the monster trucks are moving slowly. It's weirdly graceful as they bounce around?

Yeah. So when they're racing, what's the fastest they're going?

That's a really good question. I have no idea. I wonder. I'm going to Google it right now. Because it's also such a weird perspective because they're so large. It's weird to actually understand how fast they're actually The fastest record speed was 101 miles per hour. Oh, my God. So they can go pretty fast. I mean, they weren't going that fast in this little stadium.

70 miles an hour is what? A cravedigger.

Man.

70. So can you explain a little bit more about how there are multiple grave diggers.

Yeah, I have this image in my mind that grave digger is one truck driven by one person. Exactly. And the grave digger I saw in New Zealand got shipped over to New Zealand, and then it's cast to go back to America. It gets flowing back. But no, there's like They're even grave diggers, and they're dispersed all over the world at the moment competing in events. Different drivers- It's more like a brand? It's a brand. Okay. It's a brand. And that's something that... I mean, it makes sense now. I've heard it, but I was amazed by that because I just assumed it was one truck being shipped all over America. That was the thing. Okay, got it. The other thing that's really amazing about these setups is the amount of dirt, because dirt is this huge other thing, because they have to have these massive mounds of dirt made in these stadiums. And so dirt is the whole thing. So I'm going to read back from the article, again, I was quoting earlier about dirt. There's so much dirt. It's insane.

Dirt is a weird concept.

Well, yeah. I mean, they keep the dirt for each event stored near the stadium, and then they'll bring it into the stadium for the event. And there was like, oh, every dirt is different. The USDA has identified and named about 20,000 types of American soil. And Alan, he's a guy that does a lot of the dirt stuff for Monster Jam. He knows that Atlanta's clay is red and Glendale, Arizona stains concrete.

Oh.

Chicago has dark topsoil, New England's dirt has rocks, and they put some of that dirt through giant sieves so the spinning truck tires don't launch stone missiles into the crowd.

Oh, that's smart. Thank I bet they learned that the hard way.

Oh, I bet they absolutely would have. Another fact here, Marty Gaza, a monster truck historian, discovered that by 1894, some guys in Rochester had built a carriage with nickel-trimmed details and enormous wheels, which they called their Monster Truck. So that was first Monster Truck, 1894. Wow. Two years after that, the pickup truck was invented.

It was pre-pickup truck.

It was pre-pickup. So, yeah, first Monster Truck, two years before pickups went on the manufacturing line.

That is an interesting fact.

The main original monster truck was called Bigfoot. That's the one I saw in New Zealand. Now it's not part of Monster Jam anymore. There's some disagreement. The carriage one? No, the Bigfoot was invented by Bob Chandler in the early '80s. Okay. And that was the first branded monster truck.

Got it. So this actual event and this whole thing is fairly new if it was invented in the '80s.

Monster Jam, that's the entity that runs it all. I guess it's like the NBA comes along and they run basketball. Monster Jam, when was that invented? '92.

Okay.

It's been going for a while.

Wait, how can that be if her dad was driving them for 35 years?

Monster Jam, they still drove. The entity of Monster Jam came later.

Where did they drive before?

It's a really good question. America got into monster trucks, and I guess at some point they came together and just decided we're going to start racing each other. It started more informally. Then they got together into like, Leagues. Then Monster Jam came along in '92 and were like, We are the official outfit. We've got all these tracks. Bigfoot still exists, but is no longer part of Monster Monster Jam. They parted ways at some point. Monster Jam is the big entity that runs it now. Before Monster Jam came along, they'd race each other.

Like on the street?

No, in stadiums and stuff, in fields.

I see. It just wasn't regulated in the same way.

Yeah, it wasn't the big entity. Monster Jam is the big commercial money-making, insane entity. Corporate. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Got it. Oh, wow. What a history.

Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Support for Flightless Bird comes from Helix. I've been sleeping on my Helix mattress for almost three years now. I log how long I've lived in America based on the Helix mattress.

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You're never- Who sleeps on the tum? I do. Do you? I mean, I move around a lot in my sleep, but definitely tummy is happening.

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Yes, it is so fun. I do get very excited about summer travel.

Which is your favorite place to travel to in America that's not going home? Where would you... New York. New York.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I am going to go back in the summer.

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The last time I saw you.

Oh, here we go.

Here we go.

Thankfully, before she can get in any more jabs, a new race begins. No.

Scooby-doo's gone.

I don't understand cars at all. How are they this loud?

Have they done something? Well, there's absolutely zero exhaust, so the headers are just coming straight out of the engine and you're hearing it. I drove one. I drove the ThunderSaurus, and you're sitting in between the two headers, and it's insanity. It's violently loud when you're inside of it.

You've driven a lot of vehicles. How does one of these things compare? Is it just like driving an alien?

Yeah, it's comical. You can't see over anything. It's so loud, you can't think. The rear wheel steer and the front wheel steer. It's only a two-speed, I think, transmission. I think they have CBM 440 big blocks with blowers on them running alcohol. They're like 1,500 horsepower.

Apparently, the track tonight is quite unconventional. It's in an S-shape. The one truck takes the inside and the other one the outside. At the end, they're at top speed and land in virtually the same spot. They have to turn really hard to avoid hitting a It's scary. What's the closest this event has come to disaster? Did you say, Oh, no, we don't have enough gas, or, Oh, no, something awful happened?

I think with live entertainment, there's always something that happens and you just pivot. There's been drivers who've missed flights. And that's not easy because every seat is custom fit. So you have to work through those logistics or transportation. When there's issues in a canal, we have to figure out how to reroute stuff.

This truck is scary. That's coming out now. Who's that?

This is Max D, short for Maximum Destruction, driven by Blake Granger, who's our international series champion, and that's Dragon, who really blows fire, driven by Cody Saucier, who's one of our fastest racers.

You know your shit.

I mean, it's what I do for a living. So if I didn't, I'd be pretty embarrassed.

The energy in the stadium is big. This finals event lasts for about three hours, and we watch a lot of racing. Gravedigger is taking the lead.

It's a deceptive track, but yeah, I think you're right. Oh, maybe Next up is zombie, which looks unsurprisingly like a zombie.

It has this big pair of giant, outstretched zombie arms attached to the side of the truck, and they jiggle around as it jumps. Dax teaches me what to do whenever zombie appears.

Here's a fun part that happens. Did you notice everyone does zombie arms when zombie goes?

Oh, no.

Oh, watch for it. They're already starting to do it around the arena.

Everyone's doing it.

Super embarrassing. Another fun part. You just do it.

Your favorite one, zombie?

Yeah, it's always my favorite.

Various trucks and their drivers have gotten eliminated over the weekend. Not everyone can be a winner, like Tony Oakes, who drives Thunder I did all my racing yesterday in the last chance qualifier.

We won the first round of racing. Unfortunately, the truck broke, and we could not continue on to the second round. Not the way I wanted to end the night, but it is what it is. That's Monster of the trucks. You see the racing going on out here tonight? None of it is going the way anybody expected to. It's crazy. There's a lot of underdogs on the top right now.

How did your truck break?

I blew a rear steer Hydraulic line, and I also bent a four-link bar. It was too catastrophic of damage. They could not get it fixed in time for me to get back out.

Tony's there with his buddy, MJ, who drives the El Toro Loco Monster Truck. How did you get into this?

I tell everyone There's so many different ways into the monster truck industry. I started off as just a fan, and then I went to a show at my local fairgrounds, and I just volunteered my time. I did that for about a year and a half just working on the trucks. If it broke, I was there fixing it. Then One weekend, the driver couldn't make it. He's like, Hey, you're driving. Ended up driving for them for about two years, and then the opportunity arose for Monster Jam, and I couldn't turn it down.

It was the best gig ever. It is.

It's my dream.

The whole night is just this, me talking to people and then getting cut off by really loud noises. I retreat back to the depths of the stadium to where it's a bit quieter and meet up with Jamie Dulcing, Senior Director of Monster Jam's Global Operations. I wanted to talk to Jamie because I realized I still hadn't really answered my central question, why do Americans like big trucks so much? Something that has fascinated me in America is just the size of your trucks here in general. I'm parking to get some groceries and just the size of some of the trucks here in Los Angeles, where people don't need massive trucks, really. What is it about America that likes these big things?

It's actually quite surprising. Out here in California, and actually Southern California, California. Off-road racing is actually really huge. You only have to drive about an hour to be either in the mountains or in the sand dunes. Everybody else wants to match up with that aspect. They want to be able to take their truck down to Temecula or wherever it might be out in the desert, go over to Nevada. The Baja 1000, which is down in California, Mexico, is an absolute huge thing, too. That mentality stretches up this far, and it's huge in California, not just in California. I grew up in Wisconsin. We all have big trucks. We live down in Florida now, all big trucks.

What are you putting in those big trucks.

What are you hauling around? You have to be able to drive it everywhere, right? If you want to go mud bogging or if you want to take it out in the field or tow a trailer with it. In Florida, you're towing boats. In Wisconsin, you're hauling your trailers on a farm. They're multi-use, but it's a great atmosphere. It's not just to one group or one type of people. It's for everybody. I think that's a big part of American culture is trucks and power and motorsports. We have muscle cars over here. It's a country that's all about power. Monster Jam brings many things together.

Could I go and jump in a Monster right now and have any chance driving it competently?

Yeah, it's way harder than it looks. It's not just a vehicle with big tires on it. It's like a cockpit inside the Monster Jam truck. So number one, your center of house. So you're not actually on the left side or right side. You're actually in the center for protection, I see. But the steering is probably the hardest thing for people to figure out. When you hop in, you look, Oh, there's a steering wheel. I'll just drive with that. But the rear steer is actually handled by a handle and a toggle switch. So the rear steer, so if you press left, you go left. If you press right, you go right. You think about that, right? So you're not only handling a 1,500 horsepower, 12,000-pound truck. You're literally having to figure out, Okay, now I'm going to start the rear steer. Now I'm going to steer with my front steer.

His phone keeps ringing. It's some emergency, and he has to run off. When I return to the event, something major. There's a man crying on the big screen. Some big moment had just happened. Sally explains. Why is that man crying on the on the screen right now?

That's Jamie Garner, a veteran Monster Jam driver who still drives. His son, Zack, just made it into the World Finals final in racing. He's just pretty much overcome with emotion for his kid who just did so well. There's a chance he could be the champion. We got one more race to find out.

This is it, the big moment. Only one monster truck can win. The woman next to me, a monster truck driver herself, is on the edge of her seat. I look down at her shoes, monster truck themed. Oh, your shoes are amazing.

My dad actually handpainted these shoes. Every truck I drive, every tour I go to, I have shoes.

I've been driving Monster Jam for two years. Imagine how many shoes I have a collection of now.

Two finalists set off. Zack Garner driving Wildside, and his dad is probably still crying somewhere in the stadium. Zack's facing off against JCB Digga-Tron, the defending World Finals champ. It's a loud, tight race with just one winner.

I'm sorry. Zack Garner just won Monster Jam World Finals racing. It's his first World Finals, and his dad is crying, and I'm crying, and it's awesome. I'm so excited for him. He was upset because he didn't get a haircut before the press conference.

Everyone is crying. Zack is a second-generation driver, and now he's a World Finals champ who just beat the defending World Finals champ. What a race. What an ending to my first Monster Jam.

To watch this and watch people like him win, it's awesome.

This was a very special moment just now.

Oh, my God.

I don't know if you saw, I saw screaming on the deck over there.

I think I'm going to lose my voice.

We're all crying.

It's great.

It suddenly got so emotional at the end, Monica.

That's lovely.

When I got up from doing the interview, there was just this giant on the big screen, and he was looking very staunch at his arm around his son, and his chin started going. And that's my favorite type of crying. Me too.

It's the hottest type.

Just when the chin started to go and the whole audience was watching, and then everyone got emotional with that little chin waggle. Of course. And then the tears came, and it was just a beautiful thing. It's good seeing like, growing hard men cry.

I agree.

It was a great time.

That makes this all a lot more endearing.

It ended up being It was incredibly endearing. It was very silly and ridiculous and over the top. And then when that kid won, it was a really special moment.

Oh, how fun. Okay, I might go.

Next year, I think you should do it. Something in that stadium will draw you in and you'll just get it. It's unlike anything else I've ever seen. It's the biggest show I've ever been to.

Wow. Are you going to go back?

No. Oh, okay. No, it's a once-a. It's a once-a. I think you see it, you take it in, you get excited, and you've done it. Okay, that's fair. But a lot of the people that went there, they go as much as they can. I mean, they love it. This is like their pigs and shit. They're loving it so much.

When I was listening, all I could think was, wow, there are so many ways to live this life. Spend your time on Earth. It's fascinating. Them knowing all the stats and the woman with the shoes, it's her everything and a lot of people's. And yet here I am knowing zero about the thing they care the most out and vice versa.

Yeah, it's just this whole world that you wouldn't think about unless you attend a Monster Truck event. We're just all very siloed. And these people live and breathe it.

Yeah.

There's this thing called Monster Jam University. So if you want to get into it, they're partnered with some university in Ohio Okay. And you can go and I guess you pay and they take you through the motions and you can become a monster truck driver. So it's a career. If you get sick of this podcasting thing and you want to do monster truck driving, you can go to university and learn how to do it. Second life. And potentially be out there doing your thing. Wow. What would your monster truck be called? The Padman?

No, it would have to be something with Monster. Monica.

Yeah. Oh, man. There's got to be something there. I mean, I think if I just called it The Monster. Yeah, I like that. The Mon-ster.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's cool.

That was on my senior T-shirt. Oh, really? Yeah. Maybe it is a calling, and I just haven't seen it through.

Really like that. One thing I did really like. So full disclosure, we were in a little suite because Dax hooked us up with the organizers and we had this little spot, and they had areas for the kids to play with monster truck toys. And I did really like that while this massive event was going on outside, a bunch of kids were just playing with monster truck toys on the mat. And that was just a very funny thing.

That's life, right? That's like the kids playing with the box instead of the present.

Yeah, totally. Also just the adults there watching these big versions of these toys, essentially doing their thing while their kids are playing with the toys.

That's poignant. There's something beautiful about that.

It was, yeah. I don't know what it is, but there's something in it, right? There's something in it.

There's something poetic there.

If you want to be more American, I think you should go to a Monster Jam. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

You in this episode are far more American than me. I didn't know Gravedigger. I don't know about sharks.

Oh, my God. I think zombie and Gravedigger, my two faves.

I love that video that you guys posted of you guys doing the zombie arms.

Oh, zombie arms. Deeply embarrassing. But a whole stadium doing it, you can't help but get into it.

Yeah. I said this on armchair. Same for football games in college. There's all these things that everyone does together throughout the game. If you just did it on your own, I won't do that right now for you because it will look so embarrassing. But there is something about mob mentality. You just feel compelled to do it.

I'd love to know the first time that zombie arms thing was done or the first time you sing that specific song at the baseball. Who starts that and how does it become seared into the pop culture?

It's special. Life is special. I've been learning that from 6 feet Under.

Oh, yeah. You're heavily on to that now. I love that you're loving that show. This is because of you.

So you introduced it on our episode, and I started it, and I love it.

Are you finding it's quite a heavy show? Are you walking around feeling a bit like, oh?

I'm not feeling heavy as far as sad, so much as fear of death everywhere.

It's those cold opens on every episode where someone dies.

Yes. And I did have a huge meltdown because as I was editing that episode, I made a huge mistake, and I decided to go back and watch that final. I don't know why I did that. That's so unlike me.

Yeah, that final sequence.

When you showed it to us, it was very compelling. And part of it, for the people who listened to that episode.

Top 10 TV apps.

Yeah. There's some funny elements of it. I kept it in, but that scene that we play is only visual. There's no sound except the see a song. Yeah, it's just the see a song. For the listeners, all they hear is a see a song. Yeah, the whole time. So, you know, Oops. And then also one of Rob's clips is fully in Spanish. Yeah. And I kept- Amazing.

That too. Amazing. I love it. If you want to understand, learn Spanish.

You might know Spanish. And so for those people, I thought they might get a kick out of that.

I love this. And if you don't know it, it's your fault.

Yeah, that's right. There were a few moments that I thought, oh, boy.

Because we weren't really... We were so captivated watching each other's clips. We didn't even think to talk. I know. So it's just, here's a see a song for three minutes.

See a song It took about three minutes. And so then I went back and I watched it, and then there was a critical spoiler. And when I saw the spoiler, I started crying. And then I had a huge meltdown. I love that you cried. I had a huge meltdown about death.

When, what time of the day or night did this happen?

6:30. Oh, boy.

I love that for you. Man, I can't wait for you to finish that show.

And now I'm at the part of the show where things are getting introduced that I think is going to lead to that spoiler. Heavy.

Yeah, it's a heavy show. But it's really good. Heavy like a monster truck chassis.

Ding, ding, ding.

Good job. Final fact I'm going to end on for this episode. The average height of a monster truck Wheel is the average height of an American male.

Which is? You always have all these questions. I bet it's 5'10.

66 inches.

66 inches.

That's the height of the average American male. That's 5'6. Yeah, that's the average American. That's surprising. Not the average American male, the average American. Yeah.

Oh, average American. Yeah. Okay. It's five, six. It's six inches taller than me. There you go. There we go.

So, yeah, imagine a big old tire towering over you.

That That would kill me so fast.

We might have to cut this out because I feel it possibly gets the organizers in trouble who kindly let us in. But when I left with my friend, we were trying to get to the car park building we were in. We accidentally got stuck in the lift with John Legend and his wife and their child's birthday party. And these kids were so loud and it was so stressful because we weren't meant to be in there. It was taking us to the VIP parking. We didn't have VIP parking. So stuck in this lift that was awkwardly stopping at all these floors. And then we got off in the VIP area where we weren't meant to be. So we then had to get back in our lift, trying to find our way to our parking building we were parked in. You know when you're leaving a stadium and you know you're on the wrong path because you're walking in rocks and stuff you shouldn't be in? Where we emerged was where all the monster trucks were barrelling out of the stadium to get into the loading zone to move on to the next area. So essentially, I almost got flattened by one of those fucking wheels.

And this guy screamed it. He was like, this American, move. And I was like, You know when you hear someone screaming, move. And I was like, I yalped. I was like, Ah, and I looked and I tend to freeze. I'm going to do an episode about possums, by the way. That's what possums do. They freeze. That's what I did. And then my friend who I was with is like, she screamed at me. It's like, David. And I stepped back in this truck, just this wheel. No. Just in front of me. It was purely my fault. It's safe. I did a wrong thing. I can just imagine you clutching your tote bag. I had my little tote. But no, honestly, And those things, it was like a wall and it erupt through this- Like flying? Almost. They were going very fast. Anyway, I haven't felt that chastised in such a long time by this man. But he was just trying to save my life.

He was just trying to save you.

Also, what a comical way to go. Flattened by a big monster truck wheel.

Knocked on wood. This is what I'm saying. This is 6 feet under. You could have lost your life in a very funny way.

Yeah, it was a really exciting end to the night for me. Little bonus, a bit of adrenaline for me.

Quite American. Anyway, so yeah.

Happy Monster Truck Day. That was fun.

I'm going to commit to going at some point in my life. If I can help it.

I love this very open-ended thing. Honestly, next year, Rob, you're in, too. Just come to a Monster Truck jam. Calvin would freak the fuck out.

He'd like it. Yeah. Headphones.

Headphones for the kids. They were very safety-conscious. All the kids were getting handed that little headphones because they're so loud.

Yeah. Cool.

Fine. America. Usa.

Usa. Zombie arms. Zombie arms.

All right.

Bye. Bye.