Hey, there's micro. This is the way I heard it's the only podcast for the curious mind with a short attention span: hey if you already picked up my book the way I heard it. Please accept my heartfelt thanks. I am grateful and if you liked it I'd, be grateful again. If you took a second time viewed over at Amazon by publisher, says the reviews are really important and I'm trying to impress my publisher if having picked up a copy, you can find one at micro, dot com, slash book. The book itself is a combination of stories. From this podcast interrupted by a series of story

from my own misspent youth and dubious career in the world of nonfiction television, eight brag, but it isn't a York Times best seller and my mom says it's. The feel good hit the holiday season had an about that, but we do have a few autographed copies left at micro, dot, com, slash book and I'm told they would make ideal Christmas presents hashtag just say and pick up a copy. It micro, dotcom, slash book stuff me in somebody stocking I'd, be grateful if the way long before he was awarded the gold medal. The manly man stood in the sand, the Tipp of Balboa Peninsula smoking a cigarette and staring at the biggest waves he'd ever seen, God almighty. He said this is a really big see next to him. The olympic champion smiled.

Nodded monstrous breakers blown to towering heights by an offshore breeze were being forced together at the last possible moment by a series of jet. Is that guarded the Newport Harbour local surfers called it the wedge, sensible people called it. A death trap, Wally O Connor called it a challenge. Your right said Molly. This is a very big. C, is it a fantastic, the manly man who had yet to win a gold medal felt the adrenaline coursing through his body? This was the way he felt every week on the gridiron moments before the bone, jarring impact, the line of scrimmage would determine who remained standing and who got knocked down to the ground. He was addicted to this feeling, which is why he was drawn to a dangerous new fad, called

be I'll. Take the first past said: Wally you watch and learn the manly man who had yet to when a gold medal stepped back into the crowd, lit another camel and watched Wally Oconnor glide through

through the water. It was easy to see why had won the gold in Paris he ducked under one wave, then under another swimming hard against the rip tied with long powerful strokes. A hundred yards out. The water was only four feet deep, but the waves were at least eight treacherous to say the least. While he waited for the way he wanted dove into its base, pushed hard off the shallow bottom and burst out of the crest. Then he began to fly, or at least that's how it looked to every one watching partially embedded in the curl of the surge Wally eased himself into the pipeline, while extending one hand and stop gesture his upturned palm carved into the great rumbling wall of water, while his other arm remained, tucked, tucked behind him, with white foam, shooting off his chest and water breaking over his

While he flew towards the shore like Superman, no one had ever seen anything like it pipeline surfing without the board, then, as the mighty wave began to crash in around him, while he stroked hard staying just in front of the crash that sent him flying toward the beach like a human missile. In a sea of foam skimming across the surface before sliding gracefully onto the sand, where the locals greeted him with wild applause, while he stood, took a modest, bow and turned to the manly man who had yet to win a gold medal, Europe Champ ready the big man nodded. I am I am, and that was that with just two words, the die is cast a simple answer to a simple question that would change the course of his life. The manly man who had yet to win a gold medal. Confronted the big see with manly confidence

Imitating everything he'd seen Wally: do he swam hard against the rip tied for a hundred yards? He waited for a wave as big as Wally's, and when it came, he Dover into its base, pushed off the shallow bottom and burst out of the white water, at which point he began to fly just like Wally. But here's the thing if you're gonna go to tow with a really big see. You'll need more than manly confidence, you'll need perfect timing and when the wall of water began to fall apart, all around The manly man was out of position. Thus his manly

Lee body was propelled with great velocity, not towards the beach, but rather straight toward the shallow bottom. Even over the crashing roar of the surf and the muted sounds of his own screams. He could hear the sound of his future vanishing before him, the snap of his collar bone, the crack of his arm, the crunch of his shoulder as it popped out of its socket. These were the sounds of a football scholarship coming to an end along with the college education. At: U s C and the law degree he had hoped to graduate with all of its gone take a by a really big see later in the back of the ambulance, broken and lucky to be alive. The manly man who had yet to win a gold medal lit another camel. Did he

Imagine the only job he'd be able to find that year would be in the props department, a twentieth century fox. Did he imagine that slipping those props back and forth between sets would lead to an audition ultimately require him to change his name to something more masculine? Probably not, but one thing is for sure. For sure the manly man could have never imagined the press conference that he would hold in his living room. Thirty, five years later, the one conducted just four days after his surgery, in his and see no home. The manly man who had yet when a gold medal, but who now had a manly name, gave an Oscar worthy performance smile smiling bravely through unspeakable pain and talking with great confidence to the Hollywood press. Assuring them he was ready to get back in the saddle. He didn't show them

the giant purple scar around his left side. He didn't discuss the lung they removed or the four He didn't mention the sutures. They kept breaking open every time he coughed or the bucket of phlegm sputum upstairs by his bed. As for the disease itself, He didn't even mention by name I've licked, the big see before he told the reporters and I'll lick. It again. Trust me fellows when I go out it'll be on both feet. The reporters were delighted. No one had ever called it's the big see before or dismissed it as a mere nuisance. But surely, if anyone could beat cancer, it would be the manly man who reduced it to a nickname and sure enough. He did completing two dozen feature films.

For next twelve years, including the one that finally won him an Oscar. But here's the thing: if you're gonna go Toto with the really big see you now need more than manly confidence. You'll need to surely stop smoking and that, unfortunately, was simply too much to ask, and so the man who beat the Japanese, the Mexicans, the Nazis, the Vietcong, the Mongols and too many Indians to count in too many westerns to recall was ultimately vanquished by a deadly horde of unfiltered camels, specifically I've backs a day for more than forty years. In the end, the man who shot liberty balance didn't possess enough, true grit to actually quit smoking today, there's a cancer foundation that bears his manly name along with a park in Newport Beach and Airport and orange.

Money and the credits of over two hundred films. It's the same name on the back of the gold medal he finally received in the hospital a month before he died in eighteen. Seventy nine, the congressional, gold embossed with the name. We all know today

to run in with a big see the changed his life and a really big see that ended it a shame, but all in all, not a bad run for the kid who was born Marian Morrison and died a manly man named John Wayne anyway. That's why I heard the story you just heard is true least away. I heard that could shut Klaus Mire for producing this podcast Matthew. Zip can thank you for hit the buttons over here. One union recording studios. Thank you, gentle listener for listening and if you haven't subscribed- and you would prefer not to miss a new episode. Consider yourself officially invited to do that very thing. Talking next week,