Have a seat on your porcelain throne.

It's time to talk some shit on the Powell Movement.

Welcome to the Powell Movement.

I'm your host Mike Powell, and while winter is coming and I want to get excited, I just can't right now. If you're a listener, you know what my issues are. And if you're not, I'll tell you. My wife died in June. And I don't know if I'll ever be the same again. You see, for three years, I was a caretaker. And I felt so bad for my wife, Anne. Anne. She was in so much pain and she suffered so much and it was just miserable to watch. There was pain, surgeries, procedures, tubes. It just sucked so much. And then she passed. And while I was feeling bad for her, now I feel so bad for Keaton and I. And I'm just lost. It's so strange. I mean, I'm sitting alone at my house, not talking to anyone. I've never had this in my life, and it's really lonely. I feel bad for all the single people out there. I guess I'm really lucky that I get to talk to people for this podcast, because if I didn't, I don't know if I'd ever talk to people, and I'd be even more lonely and sad. So what I was doing when Anne's first passed was I was going to the bar every day for the first month or two.

And while that seemed to help a little bit, I got really sick of drinking and now I'm back to my regular routine of a lot of best days and barely drinking any alcoholic beverages unless I'm binge drinking, which will probably happen this weekend. The hard thing with life at this point is that there's so much going on, especially with our kid. I mean, he's 16 years old. He's about to get his license. He's about to do his college applications, take his SATs. And it's all on me to raise him. And I never signed up for that. We were a team and we were supposed to do this for life. I don't know where I'm going with all of this. It's just every day kind of sucks. And I actually came really, really close the other day to going a full day without crying. But then I made it to like 9 p.m. and then something triggered tears and there we go. The faucet went off again and the crying from grief is different than the crying from anything else I've ever experienced. That went on for a long time. My shirt was wet from tears. It's pretty crazy, but that's what's been happening to me. I really hate this, but I really hated Anne's being sick and suffering way worse. And fuck, I have to stop doing this to you, telling you how bad my life sucks in these intros, because you really don't sign up for that. You sign up for an awesome podcast.

And someone who doesn't have a shitty life is 22 free ride world tour champion and badass pro

skier Jess hotter. And I'd keep this intro going. Actually, I'm lying. I wouldn't keep this

intro going to head out because I'm going to go see Jess in the new MSP movie tonight. It's in

Seattle. And I suggest you check out the MSP movie, the TGR movie, the Level 1 movie, all the movies whenever they come to your town because it is a fun thing to do and it will get you stoked for ski season. I've also noticed I've had a ton of Kiwis on the podcast recently. And while their accent is interesting, each one of them has a different story and just as is unique and I think you're going to like it. Before we get into it, I want to thank you for listening and I want to thank you for continuing to send me kind messages. It really does mean a lot to me and it does help in some weird way, although I cry a lot when I get them, but it does really feel good. So thank you very much. My message back to you is thank you

and get your colonoscopy. It could save your life. What else may save your life is telling a friend

about this podcast. How will that save your life? Who knows? Who cares? Just tell someone for me, please.

But the most important thing that you can do for me is to listen to my sponsor ads and buy their

products.

The brands that make this show happen are Elon Skies, Stanley, thermic heated socks,

Best Day Brewing, Outdoor Research, and Descent Labs. Now it's time to chat with Jeff Potter.

So I'm going to start this thing out with religion, and I happen to be a non-practicing Jew who doesn't really believe in God, and that maybe makes me not Jewish.

But is it true that you're part Jewish, or am I just making shit up here?

I think there's some Jewish blood in my family way back a little bit, but, yeah, I don't practice any bloodshed personally.

Okay. Are there any Jews in New Zealand that you hear about? Because I never hear about New Zealand Jews, although I never really go asking about it. Yeah, I'm not really sure. I don't really move in very religious circles either, so I actually don't know. Yeah, I don't really hear about any Jewish people kicking about in New Zealand. I'm sure there are people, but just don't really know where they're at. All right. Fair enough. Well, I hear you're a frugal person, a very frugal person at that. And I've had a few dirtbag ski bums on this podcast to tell tales of saving money in the pursuit of being a ski bum. And we'll start there. So, even though you're a well-paid athlete, do you do ski bummy shit in order to save money in the winter? Like, do you hitchhike

instead of drive to save gas money and stuff like that? At the moment, hitchhiking is kind of a spicy

one like as a single female. So especially in other country. So I checked him not to get on that kind of buzz,

but oh man, like at any time if there's like free food or, oh, let's say like actually a big one

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