Jan. 25, 2026
He Did It! 92 Minutes of the Most Thrilling, Hard-To-Watch Television in History
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RSS Feed Alex Honnold made history last night, free soloing one of the world’s tallest buildings in front of a live, international audience. There were moments where most of us had to look away, as Honnold climbed 101 stories and traversed seemingly impossible metal structures without ropes , nets or any type of safety equipment. Amy and T.J. talk about watching the event, the reaction online to the coverage and what Alex and his wife had to say once he made it to the top.
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00:00:11
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is Sunday, January twenty fifth. He did it. It's over, it's done. We can all relax that Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Alex Honold just pulled off what now he now owns. In my opinion, Robes he has done the two greatest athletic feats I have ever seen a human do, and I think will never be top.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: But Alex Hanold the event last.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: Night, standing on top of a sixteen hundred and sixty seven foot building in Taipei for far too.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: Long taking a selfie after everything he went through. I will get the exact time, but around an hour and a half of steady climbing that required so much focus and so much physical energy just to be able to isolate muscles and hang and dangle from the height he was at with people watching below inside the building staring back at him.
00:01:04
Speaker 4: Babe.
00:01:04
Speaker 3: There were times where you just turned your back to the TV and closed your eyes.
00:01:08
Speaker 1: I didn't want to want and even hearing it wasn't fun to hear. Quite frankly, everybody, you've seen it, He's done it. If you didn't watch it last night on Netflix Live Events, Skyscrapers what they called it, but Alex Hunnel, regarded as maybe the best rock climber on planet Earth, ascend it without a single rope, without any safety net, with nothing, ascended one of the tallest buildings in the world, Type one one, and he did it live in front of everybody, and I was just saying that robes the even turning my back to it, you could hear constantly the ohs and the ooze of the crowd to where they were holding their breath or catching their breath, And even that was a little too thrilling, if you will, for me.
00:01:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have to say I knew that I would be on the edge of my seat, but I cannot recall watching something feeling more twisted and tormented and nervous, because look, I think that's one of the reasons why we like horror movies. But people are acting and no one's actually dying. So that excitement, that thrill, that what might happen next part of it I get.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: And I'm used to sometimes even root for some characters to die in horror movie and it's okay, they're just actors.
00:02:19
Speaker 2: It's fun, it's fine. This is different.
00:02:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, there are no stakes.
00:02:24
Speaker 3: This was everything I love about a horror movie, except for that someone's life was literally on the line and we might all see the most horrific thing we've ever watched in our lives.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Now.
00:02:35
Speaker 3: I know there was a ten second delay, but there was one point where there was a little glitch, and look, we were actually TJ.
00:02:43
Speaker 4: You were on the phone with Sabine.
00:02:44
Speaker 3: I was on the phone with Ava and Analyse, and we were all texting each other saying, oh my god, oh my god. And even when there was a little glitch, there was a concern that they were going to cut to a ten second delay or something was going to cut back to the host. There was just that moment of fear that, oh my god, did something just happened. But I have to say, I think that I should have checked my heart rate during that entire ninety minutes because it was intense as hell to watch, and so much of what I was watching I couldn't believe. His ability to concentrate with the crowds, with the people inside the building really got me taking pictures, taking selfies, waving at him.
00:03:22
Speaker 4: I was screaming, don't distract him.
00:03:25
Speaker 2: Look, he's It's the best way to put it.
00:03:28
Speaker 1: He is just different, and he is locked in in a different type of way.
00:03:33
Speaker 2: And yes, I was concerned.
00:03:34
Speaker 1: But all those videos that have come out this morning, people taking pictures from inside the building while he was climbing past them, are unbelievable. They're just incredible photos, and a lot of them he's looking right at them.
00:03:45
Speaker 2: He's smiling.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: You can't tell that this is a guy whose life in that moment is on the line and he's taking a moment to react, to relax, to interact.
00:03:53
Speaker 2: It was really really what he did is just we saw.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Him climb the down wall robes on the movie, we knew what the outcome was. Seeing this in real time puts him on another superstar level of achievement and athletic achievement. He is superhuman, not just because he has the physical ability. There are enough guys strong enough to do what he did. There aren't enough with the mental fortitude to stand there. I think most human beings can't just stand on a ledge of a building one hundred stories up and just look over the edge. He's doing this. One mistake and he dies, and he's waving at kids taking pictures in the building.
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's different, he is, you know, and because it made me a little less bothered, I still wasn't calm to see his demeanor.
00:04:47
Speaker 4: You're right, he was laughing.
00:04:49
Speaker 3: He was engaging with the folks who were in the building, and clearly he had to sign off on the fact that it would be okay for people to be waving at him, and he was talking at times while he was climbing up. I think only one time did he say he was tired right towards the end, which I did.
00:05:04
Speaker 4: Not like hearing.
00:05:06
Speaker 3: But yeah, he seemed excited by the folks, and in fact, he gave a press conference afterwards and specifically talking about the people, he said, I was pretty enlivened by the energy of the crowd. It was truly wild to walk out of the building. You just see so many people. So he was excited by the crowds, but he had never had them before, and that was something you think you might be able to anticipate how you would react, but he had no idea how that was going to feel. Because every other climbing endeavor a free solo moment.
00:05:37
Speaker 4: You're alone.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: I mean, you might have your crew, and he has had a camera crew with him, but guys, he's known for years. This is a This was a completely different spectacle.
00:05:47
Speaker 2: And good job.
00:05:48
Speaker 1: I would like to give them credit for the city there, and they talk about how the city embraced him, but how they came out it was an event for I mean for that city, for that country to have all eyes on it like that, and by all accounts and even by the energy last night, it was very very fun and cool to watching kids down in the crowd. It because of the stakes, and this is we should get into in a moment, the coverage, But I think the tone of the coverage didn't match the stakes of what we were seeing. And there was an intensity, and we know because we were talking to a lot of other people who were watching it. We all felt the same. And there was something a little too cutesy sometimes about the coverage that didn't just I don't say you need to say all the time his life is on the line and his death I have to say that. But there was an intensity robes and I think people who have no idea who he was, never heard of him before yesterday. You were concerned for him while you watched.
00:06:47
Speaker 3: And I wondered if Netflix gave the directive to keep it light, to keep it upbeat to not make it heavy because it was so heavy.
00:06:55
Speaker 4: Actually, if you.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: Really thought about what the stakes were, if you were maybe reminded too often what the stakes were, it would be even harder to watch. It was hard to watch, there is no question. I struggled watching it. My youngest, my nineteen year old, said I can't watch this anymore. She said, I'm out, and I think that's about the time that you turned your back and said, yeah, I can't, I cannot watch. She came back at the end, but she had to bow out for a solid thirty minute. She just said, my heart can't take this anything there are.
00:07:23
Speaker 1: There were certain parts of it where I felt a little more relaxed. The dragons at they call these ten dragon figures that were on the side of this building.
00:07:31
Speaker 2: How he had to navigate those was And again, I've.
00:07:36
Speaker 1: Seen a little more climbing than most, I suppose, and you get those moves that have to be made, and we've seen hell even in the Olympics. You've seen some climbing and whatnot, and you get it. But again, the stakes here are as such that to see him swinging his body dangling over what is metal, Essentially he's holding on to he had to do that ten times.
00:07:58
Speaker 2: That was I don't know if I watched.
00:08:00
Speaker 4: A fool one of those that was excruciating.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: I watched them, and I even having you just describe it again, I felt my stomach tightened. So yes, the mood of the commentators was upbeat and laughter, and it felt jarring to say or to hear them be so joking and fun and upbeat.
00:08:20
Speaker 4: It felt like they weren't like, are you watching what I'm watching?
00:08:23
Speaker 3: And El Duncan was the head the host, and she is formally from ESPN. She actually just left for Netflix to be their first sports anchor, and this was her debut at Netflix, and when she described what she was trying to do, it made sense, and it made me think that Netflix perhaps gave her this tone to strike. She said, we're trying to entertain people at the same time we're watching someone do something that could kill him.
00:08:49
Speaker 4: But her focus was we're trying.
00:08:50
Speaker 3: To entertain people, and I think that was maybe where the host, as much as they were trying, fell short because I didn't need you to entertain me. I needed to just watch Alex Hunold do his thing, and you explained to me what he was doing in moments where more information would have been helpful. Instead, there was just a lot of silly banter that distracted from the unbelievable achievement that Alex Hunold was making.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: And this was a big part of the night and a big part of the coverage because if you were trying to follow along with the coverage, at least on social media, I told you wrote eight out of the ten comments that you saw about Skyscraper Live had to do with the commentary, and they wanted them to be quiet, to shut up, to stop constantly ranting and raving. Again, that's not my Again. Elle has been a friend on a long time, so I am not at all we're going to be in a position to criticize what they were doing. I can recognize, however, why Netflix might have wanted and gave a directive to have that type of tone, but Rose, we longtime broadcasters. This is something that producers so often over pretty you're trying to produce something that is handed to you as TV gold, there is.
00:10:07
Speaker 2: Nothing to do.
00:10:08
Speaker 1: You could have said, anybody up there said he's on floor twelve. Now, holy shit, he's on floor fifty. Now look at those kids waving. Oh my god, all you had to do was watch it with the audience, and if you try to produce that, it's just unnecessary. Don't entertain, don't talk, don't laugh. I wanted to hear his voice every single time he's on floor seventy five.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: And what did he just say?
00:10:30
Speaker 1: He said somebody? His wife, he said somebody? What is he saying? He was asking for music in his ear? You know what had been great? What's his playlist? This is what he's listening to as his life is on the line.
00:10:41
Speaker 2: It was just easy.
00:10:42
Speaker 3: There were things that they could have said, information they could have given us that would have elevated the experience of watching him. Instead it distracted from it. But you know, you make such a good point, babe. How many times would we, in our roles as people out in the field, beg our party users, don't overproduce us. Just let us describe what we're seeing. Let us be the eyes and ears for people at home who aren't physically here. We can enhance the experience by setting the scene, by explaining what things look like. But yes, just saying what they were saying last night. And I have the other hosts with them, Emily Harrington, who was a climate expert and a friend of Alex Hanold and Pete Woods as well and then former NASA engineer Mark Rober and WWE superstar Seth Rollins.
00:11:34
Speaker 4: It was an eclectic group.
00:11:35
Speaker 1: They gathered the other guy who had a show on Netflix, so we understand they wanted to use in for promotion. I don't know about the WWE guy, but.
00:11:43
Speaker 2: We get this.
00:11:44
Speaker 1: Wrote how many times though at the same time, we have had plenty of times where you're sent out on a story that you do have to make champagne out of schlit smalt licku right now now, we do need to find some bells and whistles.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: This was handed. There was nothing to do or say, and I get it.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: And we noticed later as I was watching and reading all the social media stuff. Then a little later I said to you, I said, I wonder if this is going to get to them.
00:12:07
Speaker 3: And you nailed it because you were reading to me some of the comments that were on X and they were pretty harsh and pretty brutal, and they were NonStop, and sure enough, within about would you say, ten minutes of you telling me, oh my god, Twitter's going crazy or X is going crazy, all of a sudden, a massive shift in commentary, and suddenly they got quiet, and it was so much better. It was just so nice. Nothing against them to your point. They were doing what they were told. They were bringing energy, they were bringing excitement, but they didn't need to because all of that was being delivered to us by Alex Hanold.
00:12:41
Speaker 1: You know, it's so difficult for producers in our experience. I should only say they hate silence on television. They think somebody needs to be talking. There has to be a sound bite, there has to be something, and it just freaks people out if you just be quiet. But sometimes it's the best job you do as an anchor is to shut up. That's a no one to shut up because a moment is happening. And I'm look, it was a hell of an event. They had an extra day, right it was delayed because of weather.
00:13:10
Speaker 2: We were even so crazy here.
00:13:12
Speaker 1: We got live cameras up from Taipaid in the house yesterday keeping up.
00:13:16
Speaker 2: With the weather. I've never put up alive cam from Taipei before.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: I couldn't have even picked out Taiwan on a map. I'll be honest with you. I know it's in Asia, obviously, and I know everything is made in Taiwan. But yes, I got to see a city I had never even seen or really thought.
00:13:29
Speaker 1: About before, which was kind of cool and now thinking about going there. Great for them, Great for them. But stay here, folks. His wife was there the entire time. She was a big part of the production. We'll tell you why. We have absolutely fallen in love with missus Hanold. Stay here, all right, We continue here on Amy and TJ after a very night at the Holmes House and really around the country for a lot of folks. Alex Hanold, God love you, We salute you. He has now pulled off. And he did this when live, which in a lot of respects you could say it is because of the live element, because of the crowds, robes. This was a more difficult feat in some ways mentally because of who he had to do it in front of. But this is I don't know how to put this in better perspective. What There are adventurers, There are people go to space, there are people who what deep dives. They do all kinds of things. If your foot slips on Everest, you might be able to survive, that's right.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: Catch If your.
00:14:40
Speaker 1: Hand doesn't get in the right spot all kinds of things you have to survive the elements. Maybe you have some all kinds of shit robes. One mistake and you die. You just don't have a lot of things to compare that to. And he's done this type of thing twice now and once live in front.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: Of us all.
00:14:56
Speaker 3: No, I agree with you what you said at the top or at the beginning of this episode. He is the greatest athlete to have ever existed, considering all of what you just said. And then to be that greatest athlete's wife, and to be there in Taipei on hand, little girls, I believe back at home or at least with someone else while she was there, and she, first of all, is just adorable. Her energy is just infectious. And that also helped me feel a little bit more at ease too, because she had a big smile. You know, she had to be so nervous, but she knows her husband, and she said, she said, there's great energy here, and he's doing what he loves, and so she was focused on She was supporting the man she loves doing what he loves, even if she knew that doing what he loves could take him.
00:15:45
Speaker 4: Away from her and her daughters.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: That is sacrificed on her part because as a wife and as a mother, I can.
00:15:51
Speaker 4: See how a lot of us would be like, hell, no, you're not doing that. I know you love doing.
00:15:56
Speaker 3: It, but f you, that is so unfair and so selfish of you to do that at the expense of us.
00:16:02
Speaker 4: And she did not go.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: In that direction because that conversation happened before he proposed, didn't it. I'm not going to stop doing this, she said. I want kids. I do too, but this is something I'm going to continue doing him. I bet they had that conversation and she understood this, but I didn't think about it until you just said it. There was something about her that maybe made everybody watching feel better.
00:16:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, she seems cool.
00:16:25
Speaker 3: And she was smiling, and then she so like right before he climbs, they're just chilling in front of the van.
00:16:30
Speaker 4: It was so wild.
00:16:31
Speaker 3: And then to see her go up into the building and waving him. But you were even like, watch, he's gonna barely look at her. It's funny he waved and everybody else he really waved her. I think maybe it would be too distracting. He couldn't let his mind go. That's my wife, which also I.
00:16:46
Speaker 4: Was like, please, let's not distract him.
00:16:48
Speaker 3: But I'm hilarious because obviously he is. It is proven and indistractable. He knows how to focus. But to that point, he did not really engage with her at all while he was climbing.
00:17:00
Speaker 1: We've joked in recent days again eight years ago or something, when I got to spend a couple of hours with Alex after he had climbed the dorm wall, and I was bouncing in this interview edge of my seat, giddy meeting a superhero, meaning this hero of mine. He was chill the whole time. He's just kind of he doesn't emoke that much. Just it just doesn't get to him.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: He stays.
00:17:22
Speaker 1: Even so, as he was approaching his wife, we were worried. You were like, oh my gosh, you gonna make google eyes and she's gonna distract him.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: I said, I bet he doesn't give her much of anything.
00:17:30
Speaker 4: He didn't.
00:17:31
Speaker 1: I don't even know if he kind of had a half smile on his face, but he never nodded, a wink, a wave, nothing.
00:17:38
Speaker 4: Oh, he was doing things with strangers.
00:17:40
Speaker 3: He did not engage with just but can we just talk about at the top. First of all, when they reunited after he repelled down, that was one of the sweetest scenes ever. It was so genuine got a little awkward because the cameras were like in their faces, but it was sweet to see that them reunite. But how about him standing on top of the ball like that thing did not look stable, It was not meant for anyone to stand on And after he had done.
00:18:06
Speaker 4: All of that, he literally leans and does a selfie.
00:18:08
Speaker 3: I got dizzy and disoriented, imagining I wanted him to sit down.
00:18:12
Speaker 4: I was like, don't stand on top of that thing. It's windy.
00:18:16
Speaker 2: He looked chill.
00:18:17
Speaker 1: At that moment, he looked comfortable, and that he actually made me comfortable. He was standing and it looked like a ball. It looked like he was standing on something that was a fear of some kind stable, but he was as steady and happy and comfortable and whatever the he put that harness on.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: I think that was the one time I finally.
00:18:34
Speaker 1: Relaxed, thank god. But he did something that freaked everybody out. I've seen these guys do it plenty of times before. But right before he got to the top, there was a weird section of rings that he had to stick his arms and legs into to imagine coins stacked on top of each other, but they were getting bigger as they were getting set. He was inverted, so he's having to stick his hands and his legs inside these little opening. And at one point he does this and he lets his arms go and he's he's leaning back. He's virtually at the top of this thing and he's leaning back, no hands touching the thing at all. And it looks scary as hell, and it looks kind of cool. But that looked cool. That might have been the safest he was the entire time, because those guys lock in in a certain way. I've seen them do this several times. You've seen Tom Cruise do it in Mission Impossible too, actually, but it was such a dope move and it felt like in that moment, I said, he's got this, and he did that.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: He didn't have to. I think he was showing off at them.
00:19:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, good for him. He deserved a little moment for himself.
00:19:42
Speaker 3: And this selfie was a show off move to And you know what, no one like you, I think you said at the time. Damn, no one in the world has that selfie, and no one ever will can ever have it.
00:19:52
Speaker 4: That is so he had a press conference afterwards, and it was cool to hear what he said.
00:19:57
Speaker 3: He hopes that people everywhere who watched will be inspired, yeah, to chase their own goals.
00:20:03
Speaker 4: And so here's what he said.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: One of the things I learned from the film Free Solo over the years is that people often take the message that they need from it.
00:20:11
Speaker 4: It's pretty cool.
00:20:12
Speaker 3: I think that people often find the inspiration that they need to pursue their own challenges or their own goals. It's often the kick they need to do whatever it is they want to do in their life. Often they'll watch something like this and it is a reminder that their time is finite and they should use it in the best way, the most.
00:20:31
Speaker 4: Meaningful way they can.
00:20:33
Speaker 3: If anything, I hope that's what people take from it.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: That's it.
00:20:37
Speaker 1: Most of us aren't going to be some big time climbers. But you look at that. He's not sitting around, he's not waiting, he's risking. His family is on board.
00:20:47
Speaker 2: It's he is.
00:20:50
Speaker 1: He's an inspiration. It's almost like you look at Superman. He can be an inspiration because of how he lives his life. Even though I know I'm never going to be able to live tall buildings in a single bound kind of a thing. This is what Alex has done. He's just you see somebody going for it, you see somebody inspiring, you see a family that's supportive, and it just he is special beyond just an athletic achievement. I love Lebron, I love Steph I love Tom Brady, I love what all those guys do. Alex Hanold is my favorite athlete on planet Earth because he has done something mentally that I don't know how a human being can overcome. I just do not know. He is he has a superpower. I really do believe it.
00:21:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is awe inspiring. And you know what, He's an American that we can all be very proud of. And I feel like this has been such an unsettling past few months and truly an unsettling past couple of weeks. We have been disheartened, all of us, I think, by what we're seeing in our country, Minneapolis and beyond. And so to have a moment like this with Alex Hanald actually came at a really special, perfect time.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: An American I had to leave American to inspire the world great. I get it. But it's good to have.
00:22:09
Speaker 1: An American out there being rooted on by other folks.
00:22:12
Speaker 4: We could use more of it.
00:22:13
Speaker 2: Yes, there are more of those out there. People, We got more Alexis.
00:22:17
Speaker 3: Rise up, everyone, Rise up in all the good best ways possible.
00:22:21
Speaker 1: Congratulations Alex. Appreciate you inspiring us all. What a night, what a show, folks. We always appreciate you spending some time here with us. We will have plenty more updates. It seems there's a lot of breaking news. It seems to be happening even on this Sunday with weather and out of Minneapolis. But keep an eye on our feet. Top right corner of your Apple podcast app where your show pages. That button it says follow click that subscriber. You can always get our updates. But for now, I am TJ. Holmes on behalf of Amy roboc.
00:22:48
Speaker 2: We will talk to you all soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is Sunday, January twenty fifth. He did it. It's over, it's done. We can all relax that Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Alex Honold just pulled off what now he now owns. In my opinion, Robes he has done the two greatest athletic feats I have ever seen a human do, and I think will never be top.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: But Alex Hanold the event last.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: Night, standing on top of a sixteen hundred and sixty seven foot building in Taipei for far too.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: Long taking a selfie after everything he went through. I will get the exact time, but around an hour and a half of steady climbing that required so much focus and so much physical energy just to be able to isolate muscles and hang and dangle from the height he was at with people watching below inside the building staring back at him.
00:01:04
Speaker 4: Babe.
00:01:04
Speaker 3: There were times where you just turned your back to the TV and closed your eyes.
00:01:08
Speaker 1: I didn't want to want and even hearing it wasn't fun to hear. Quite frankly, everybody, you've seen it, He's done it. If you didn't watch it last night on Netflix Live Events, Skyscrapers what they called it, but Alex Hunnel, regarded as maybe the best rock climber on planet Earth, ascend it without a single rope, without any safety net, with nothing, ascended one of the tallest buildings in the world, Type one one, and he did it live in front of everybody, and I was just saying that robes the even turning my back to it, you could hear constantly the ohs and the ooze of the crowd to where they were holding their breath or catching their breath, And even that was a little too thrilling, if you will, for me.
00:01:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have to say I knew that I would be on the edge of my seat, but I cannot recall watching something feeling more twisted and tormented and nervous, because look, I think that's one of the reasons why we like horror movies. But people are acting and no one's actually dying. So that excitement, that thrill, that what might happen next part of it I get.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: And I'm used to sometimes even root for some characters to die in horror movie and it's okay, they're just actors.
00:02:19
Speaker 2: It's fun, it's fine. This is different.
00:02:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, there are no stakes.
00:02:24
Speaker 3: This was everything I love about a horror movie, except for that someone's life was literally on the line and we might all see the most horrific thing we've ever watched in our lives.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Now.
00:02:35
Speaker 3: I know there was a ten second delay, but there was one point where there was a little glitch, and look, we were actually TJ.
00:02:43
Speaker 4: You were on the phone with Sabine.
00:02:44
Speaker 3: I was on the phone with Ava and Analyse, and we were all texting each other saying, oh my god, oh my god. And even when there was a little glitch, there was a concern that they were going to cut to a ten second delay or something was going to cut back to the host. There was just that moment of fear that, oh my god, did something just happened. But I have to say, I think that I should have checked my heart rate during that entire ninety minutes because it was intense as hell to watch, and so much of what I was watching I couldn't believe. His ability to concentrate with the crowds, with the people inside the building really got me taking pictures, taking selfies, waving at him.
00:03:22
Speaker 4: I was screaming, don't distract him.
00:03:25
Speaker 2: Look, he's It's the best way to put it.
00:03:28
Speaker 1: He is just different, and he is locked in in a different type of way.
00:03:33
Speaker 2: And yes, I was concerned.
00:03:34
Speaker 1: But all those videos that have come out this morning, people taking pictures from inside the building while he was climbing past them, are unbelievable. They're just incredible photos, and a lot of them he's looking right at them.
00:03:45
Speaker 2: He's smiling.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: You can't tell that this is a guy whose life in that moment is on the line and he's taking a moment to react, to relax, to interact.
00:03:53
Speaker 2: It was really really what he did is just we saw.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Him climb the down wall robes on the movie, we knew what the outcome was. Seeing this in real time puts him on another superstar level of achievement and athletic achievement. He is superhuman, not just because he has the physical ability. There are enough guys strong enough to do what he did. There aren't enough with the mental fortitude to stand there. I think most human beings can't just stand on a ledge of a building one hundred stories up and just look over the edge. He's doing this. One mistake and he dies, and he's waving at kids taking pictures in the building.
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's different, he is, you know, and because it made me a little less bothered, I still wasn't calm to see his demeanor.
00:04:47
Speaker 4: You're right, he was laughing.
00:04:49
Speaker 3: He was engaging with the folks who were in the building, and clearly he had to sign off on the fact that it would be okay for people to be waving at him, and he was talking at times while he was climbing up. I think only one time did he say he was tired right towards the end, which I did.
00:05:04
Speaker 4: Not like hearing.
00:05:06
Speaker 3: But yeah, he seemed excited by the folks, and in fact, he gave a press conference afterwards and specifically talking about the people, he said, I was pretty enlivened by the energy of the crowd. It was truly wild to walk out of the building. You just see so many people. So he was excited by the crowds, but he had never had them before, and that was something you think you might be able to anticipate how you would react, but he had no idea how that was going to feel. Because every other climbing endeavor a free solo moment.
00:05:37
Speaker 4: You're alone.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: I mean, you might have your crew, and he has had a camera crew with him, but guys, he's known for years. This is a This was a completely different spectacle.
00:05:47
Speaker 2: And good job.
00:05:48
Speaker 1: I would like to give them credit for the city there, and they talk about how the city embraced him, but how they came out it was an event for I mean for that city, for that country to have all eyes on it like that, and by all accounts and even by the energy last night, it was very very fun and cool to watching kids down in the crowd. It because of the stakes, and this is we should get into in a moment, the coverage, But I think the tone of the coverage didn't match the stakes of what we were seeing. And there was an intensity, and we know because we were talking to a lot of other people who were watching it. We all felt the same. And there was something a little too cutesy sometimes about the coverage that didn't just I don't say you need to say all the time his life is on the line and his death I have to say that. But there was an intensity robes and I think people who have no idea who he was, never heard of him before yesterday. You were concerned for him while you watched.
00:06:47
Speaker 3: And I wondered if Netflix gave the directive to keep it light, to keep it upbeat to not make it heavy because it was so heavy.
00:06:55
Speaker 4: Actually, if you.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: Really thought about what the stakes were, if you were maybe reminded too often what the stakes were, it would be even harder to watch. It was hard to watch, there is no question. I struggled watching it. My youngest, my nineteen year old, said I can't watch this anymore. She said, I'm out, and I think that's about the time that you turned your back and said, yeah, I can't, I cannot watch. She came back at the end, but she had to bow out for a solid thirty minute. She just said, my heart can't take this anything there are.
00:07:23
Speaker 1: There were certain parts of it where I felt a little more relaxed. The dragons at they call these ten dragon figures that were on the side of this building.
00:07:31
Speaker 2: How he had to navigate those was And again, I've.
00:07:36
Speaker 1: Seen a little more climbing than most, I suppose, and you get those moves that have to be made, and we've seen hell even in the Olympics. You've seen some climbing and whatnot, and you get it. But again, the stakes here are as such that to see him swinging his body dangling over what is metal, Essentially he's holding on to he had to do that ten times.
00:07:58
Speaker 2: That was I don't know if I watched.
00:08:00
Speaker 4: A fool one of those that was excruciating.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: I watched them, and I even having you just describe it again, I felt my stomach tightened. So yes, the mood of the commentators was upbeat and laughter, and it felt jarring to say or to hear them be so joking and fun and upbeat.
00:08:20
Speaker 4: It felt like they weren't like, are you watching what I'm watching?
00:08:23
Speaker 3: And El Duncan was the head the host, and she is formally from ESPN. She actually just left for Netflix to be their first sports anchor, and this was her debut at Netflix, and when she described what she was trying to do, it made sense, and it made me think that Netflix perhaps gave her this tone to strike. She said, we're trying to entertain people at the same time we're watching someone do something that could kill him.
00:08:49
Speaker 4: But her focus was we're trying.
00:08:50
Speaker 3: To entertain people, and I think that was maybe where the host, as much as they were trying, fell short because I didn't need you to entertain me. I needed to just watch Alex Hunold do his thing, and you explained to me what he was doing in moments where more information would have been helpful. Instead, there was just a lot of silly banter that distracted from the unbelievable achievement that Alex Hunold was making.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: And this was a big part of the night and a big part of the coverage because if you were trying to follow along with the coverage, at least on social media, I told you wrote eight out of the ten comments that you saw about Skyscraper Live had to do with the commentary, and they wanted them to be quiet, to shut up, to stop constantly ranting and raving. Again, that's not my Again. Elle has been a friend on a long time, so I am not at all we're going to be in a position to criticize what they were doing. I can recognize, however, why Netflix might have wanted and gave a directive to have that type of tone, but Rose, we longtime broadcasters. This is something that producers so often over pretty you're trying to produce something that is handed to you as TV gold, there is.
00:10:07
Speaker 2: Nothing to do.
00:10:08
Speaker 1: You could have said, anybody up there said he's on floor twelve. Now, holy shit, he's on floor fifty. Now look at those kids waving. Oh my god, all you had to do was watch it with the audience, and if you try to produce that, it's just unnecessary. Don't entertain, don't talk, don't laugh. I wanted to hear his voice every single time he's on floor seventy five.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: And what did he just say?
00:10:30
Speaker 1: He said somebody? His wife, he said somebody? What is he saying? He was asking for music in his ear? You know what had been great? What's his playlist? This is what he's listening to as his life is on the line.
00:10:41
Speaker 2: It was just easy.
00:10:42
Speaker 3: There were things that they could have said, information they could have given us that would have elevated the experience of watching him. Instead it distracted from it. But you know, you make such a good point, babe. How many times would we, in our roles as people out in the field, beg our party users, don't overproduce us. Just let us describe what we're seeing. Let us be the eyes and ears for people at home who aren't physically here. We can enhance the experience by setting the scene, by explaining what things look like. But yes, just saying what they were saying last night. And I have the other hosts with them, Emily Harrington, who was a climate expert and a friend of Alex Hanold and Pete Woods as well and then former NASA engineer Mark Rober and WWE superstar Seth Rollins.
00:11:34
Speaker 4: It was an eclectic group.
00:11:35
Speaker 1: They gathered the other guy who had a show on Netflix, so we understand they wanted to use in for promotion. I don't know about the WWE guy, but.
00:11:43
Speaker 2: We get this.
00:11:44
Speaker 1: Wrote how many times though at the same time, we have had plenty of times where you're sent out on a story that you do have to make champagne out of schlit smalt licku right now now, we do need to find some bells and whistles.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: This was handed. There was nothing to do or say, and I get it.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: And we noticed later as I was watching and reading all the social media stuff. Then a little later I said to you, I said, I wonder if this is going to get to them.
00:12:07
Speaker 3: And you nailed it because you were reading to me some of the comments that were on X and they were pretty harsh and pretty brutal, and they were NonStop, and sure enough, within about would you say, ten minutes of you telling me, oh my god, Twitter's going crazy or X is going crazy, all of a sudden, a massive shift in commentary, and suddenly they got quiet, and it was so much better. It was just so nice. Nothing against them to your point. They were doing what they were told. They were bringing energy, they were bringing excitement, but they didn't need to because all of that was being delivered to us by Alex Hanold.
00:12:41
Speaker 1: You know, it's so difficult for producers in our experience. I should only say they hate silence on television. They think somebody needs to be talking. There has to be a sound bite, there has to be something, and it just freaks people out if you just be quiet. But sometimes it's the best job you do as an anchor is to shut up. That's a no one to shut up because a moment is happening. And I'm look, it was a hell of an event. They had an extra day, right it was delayed because of weather.
00:13:10
Speaker 2: We were even so crazy here.
00:13:12
Speaker 1: We got live cameras up from Taipaid in the house yesterday keeping up.
00:13:16
Speaker 2: With the weather. I've never put up alive cam from Taipei before.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: I couldn't have even picked out Taiwan on a map. I'll be honest with you. I know it's in Asia, obviously, and I know everything is made in Taiwan. But yes, I got to see a city I had never even seen or really thought.
00:13:29
Speaker 1: About before, which was kind of cool and now thinking about going there. Great for them, Great for them. But stay here, folks. His wife was there the entire time. She was a big part of the production. We'll tell you why. We have absolutely fallen in love with missus Hanold. Stay here, all right, We continue here on Amy and TJ after a very night at the Holmes House and really around the country for a lot of folks. Alex Hanold, God love you, We salute you. He has now pulled off. And he did this when live, which in a lot of respects you could say it is because of the live element, because of the crowds, robes. This was a more difficult feat in some ways mentally because of who he had to do it in front of. But this is I don't know how to put this in better perspective. What There are adventurers, There are people go to space, there are people who what deep dives. They do all kinds of things. If your foot slips on Everest, you might be able to survive, that's right.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: Catch If your.
00:14:40
Speaker 1: Hand doesn't get in the right spot all kinds of things you have to survive the elements. Maybe you have some all kinds of shit robes. One mistake and you die. You just don't have a lot of things to compare that to. And he's done this type of thing twice now and once live in front.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: Of us all.
00:14:56
Speaker 3: No, I agree with you what you said at the top or at the beginning of this episode. He is the greatest athlete to have ever existed, considering all of what you just said. And then to be that greatest athlete's wife, and to be there in Taipei on hand, little girls, I believe back at home or at least with someone else while she was there, and she, first of all, is just adorable. Her energy is just infectious. And that also helped me feel a little bit more at ease too, because she had a big smile. You know, she had to be so nervous, but she knows her husband, and she said, she said, there's great energy here, and he's doing what he loves, and so she was focused on She was supporting the man she loves doing what he loves, even if she knew that doing what he loves could take him.
00:15:45
Speaker 4: Away from her and her daughters.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: That is sacrificed on her part because as a wife and as a mother, I can.
00:15:51
Speaker 4: See how a lot of us would be like, hell, no, you're not doing that. I know you love doing.
00:15:56
Speaker 3: It, but f you, that is so unfair and so selfish of you to do that at the expense of us.
00:16:02
Speaker 4: And she did not go.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: In that direction because that conversation happened before he proposed, didn't it. I'm not going to stop doing this, she said. I want kids. I do too, but this is something I'm going to continue doing him. I bet they had that conversation and she understood this, but I didn't think about it until you just said it. There was something about her that maybe made everybody watching feel better.
00:16:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, she seems cool.
00:16:25
Speaker 3: And she was smiling, and then she so like right before he climbs, they're just chilling in front of the van.
00:16:30
Speaker 4: It was so wild.
00:16:31
Speaker 3: And then to see her go up into the building and waving him. But you were even like, watch, he's gonna barely look at her. It's funny he waved and everybody else he really waved her. I think maybe it would be too distracting. He couldn't let his mind go. That's my wife, which also I.
00:16:46
Speaker 4: Was like, please, let's not distract him.
00:16:48
Speaker 3: But I'm hilarious because obviously he is. It is proven and indistractable. He knows how to focus. But to that point, he did not really engage with her at all while he was climbing.
00:17:00
Speaker 1: We've joked in recent days again eight years ago or something, when I got to spend a couple of hours with Alex after he had climbed the dorm wall, and I was bouncing in this interview edge of my seat, giddy meeting a superhero, meaning this hero of mine. He was chill the whole time. He's just kind of he doesn't emoke that much. Just it just doesn't get to him.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: He stays.
00:17:22
Speaker 1: Even so, as he was approaching his wife, we were worried. You were like, oh my gosh, you gonna make google eyes and she's gonna distract him.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: I said, I bet he doesn't give her much of anything.
00:17:30
Speaker 4: He didn't.
00:17:31
Speaker 1: I don't even know if he kind of had a half smile on his face, but he never nodded, a wink, a wave, nothing.
00:17:38
Speaker 4: Oh, he was doing things with strangers.
00:17:40
Speaker 3: He did not engage with just but can we just talk about at the top. First of all, when they reunited after he repelled down, that was one of the sweetest scenes ever. It was so genuine got a little awkward because the cameras were like in their faces, but it was sweet to see that them reunite. But how about him standing on top of the ball like that thing did not look stable, It was not meant for anyone to stand on And after he had done.
00:18:06
Speaker 4: All of that, he literally leans and does a selfie.
00:18:08
Speaker 3: I got dizzy and disoriented, imagining I wanted him to sit down.
00:18:12
Speaker 4: I was like, don't stand on top of that thing. It's windy.
00:18:16
Speaker 2: He looked chill.
00:18:17
Speaker 1: At that moment, he looked comfortable, and that he actually made me comfortable. He was standing and it looked like a ball. It looked like he was standing on something that was a fear of some kind stable, but he was as steady and happy and comfortable and whatever the he put that harness on.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: I think that was the one time I finally.
00:18:34
Speaker 1: Relaxed, thank god. But he did something that freaked everybody out. I've seen these guys do it plenty of times before. But right before he got to the top, there was a weird section of rings that he had to stick his arms and legs into to imagine coins stacked on top of each other, but they were getting bigger as they were getting set. He was inverted, so he's having to stick his hands and his legs inside these little opening. And at one point he does this and he lets his arms go and he's he's leaning back. He's virtually at the top of this thing and he's leaning back, no hands touching the thing at all. And it looks scary as hell, and it looks kind of cool. But that looked cool. That might have been the safest he was the entire time, because those guys lock in in a certain way. I've seen them do this several times. You've seen Tom Cruise do it in Mission Impossible too, actually, but it was such a dope move and it felt like in that moment, I said, he's got this, and he did that.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: He didn't have to. I think he was showing off at them.
00:19:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, good for him. He deserved a little moment for himself.
00:19:42
Speaker 3: And this selfie was a show off move to And you know what, no one like you, I think you said at the time. Damn, no one in the world has that selfie, and no one ever will can ever have it.
00:19:52
Speaker 4: That is so he had a press conference afterwards, and it was cool to hear what he said.
00:19:57
Speaker 3: He hopes that people everywhere who watched will be inspired, yeah, to chase their own goals.
00:20:03
Speaker 4: And so here's what he said.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: One of the things I learned from the film Free Solo over the years is that people often take the message that they need from it.
00:20:11
Speaker 4: It's pretty cool.
00:20:12
Speaker 3: I think that people often find the inspiration that they need to pursue their own challenges or their own goals. It's often the kick they need to do whatever it is they want to do in their life. Often they'll watch something like this and it is a reminder that their time is finite and they should use it in the best way, the most.
00:20:31
Speaker 4: Meaningful way they can.
00:20:33
Speaker 3: If anything, I hope that's what people take from it.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: That's it.
00:20:37
Speaker 1: Most of us aren't going to be some big time climbers. But you look at that. He's not sitting around, he's not waiting, he's risking. His family is on board.
00:20:47
Speaker 2: It's he is.
00:20:50
Speaker 1: He's an inspiration. It's almost like you look at Superman. He can be an inspiration because of how he lives his life. Even though I know I'm never going to be able to live tall buildings in a single bound kind of a thing. This is what Alex has done. He's just you see somebody going for it, you see somebody inspiring, you see a family that's supportive, and it just he is special beyond just an athletic achievement. I love Lebron, I love Steph I love Tom Brady, I love what all those guys do. Alex Hanold is my favorite athlete on planet Earth because he has done something mentally that I don't know how a human being can overcome. I just do not know. He is he has a superpower. I really do believe it.
00:21:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is awe inspiring. And you know what, He's an American that we can all be very proud of. And I feel like this has been such an unsettling past few months and truly an unsettling past couple of weeks. We have been disheartened, all of us, I think, by what we're seeing in our country, Minneapolis and beyond. And so to have a moment like this with Alex Hanald actually came at a really special, perfect time.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: An American I had to leave American to inspire the world great. I get it. But it's good to have.
00:22:09
Speaker 1: An American out there being rooted on by other folks.
00:22:12
Speaker 4: We could use more of it.
00:22:13
Speaker 2: Yes, there are more of those out there. People, We got more Alexis.
00:22:17
Speaker 3: Rise up, everyone, Rise up in all the good best ways possible.
00:22:21
Speaker 1: Congratulations Alex. Appreciate you inspiring us all. What a night, what a show, folks. We always appreciate you spending some time here with us. We will have plenty more updates. It seems there's a lot of breaking news. It seems to be happening even on this Sunday with weather and out of Minneapolis. But keep an eye on our feet. Top right corner of your Apple podcast app where your show pages. That button it says follow click that subscriber. You can always get our updates. But for now, I am TJ. Holmes on behalf of Amy roboc.
00:22:48
Speaker 2: We will talk to you all soon.