Automatic episode summary
Keith Vance opens the fourth Still Strong conversation by paying a debt out loud. Seven or eight years ago, in his early forties and convinced he had plateaued, he asked for fitness help on Facebook; a mutual friend connected him with Morgan Wright, who trained with him in his barn and refused to hand over the strict program Keith wanted. It took Keith months to understand the point: we are going to do this the rest of our lives, so find what does not hurt today and make it hurt, and keep it enjoyable enough to sustain. At fifty he says he is the strongest he has ever been. Morgan answers with a concern of his own: between forty-five and fifty he lost most of his male friendships to men who were ready to grow old, and the friends who remain are the ones who stayed when being a man got harder.
Morgan Wright is introduced as a fourteen-year Army veteran with sixteen months in Afghanistan, a physical education teacher of twenty-one years, a Golden Apple recipient and, by Keith's introduction, the first PE teacher to receive it, a four-time teacher of the year, and a five-time American Ninja Warrior competitor known there as the moose. He calls himself the world's okayest ninja. Keith puts the television credit last on purpose, because what defines Morgan, he says, is that he is a father of two.
The two take the episode as a slow drive through Morgan's life. He grew up an only child to parents he calls hippies, with a middle name of Sunstar and less money than he understood at the time. His father, Ken Wright, taught fifth grade in East Fort Myers, set lessons to music, dressed as Abraham Lincoln for the Gettysburg Address his students recited from memory, and after winning a Golden Apple declined to change schools because he made more of a difference where he was. Morgan read in the school library every morning before class, and years later began his own teaching career at Tice Elementary, his father's school.
Much of the first hour is his working philosophy. The body adapts to what you do and do not do, any program produces results for eight to twelve weeks, and the skill is building something you would keep for life. He teaches children how to pump a swing because many have never learned, changed the rules of dodgeball so undersized kids would still throw, and says he has to be more interesting than TikTok. He is equally candid about the system he works inside, from lunch rules to testing to grading floors, and keeps returning to parents, who he says have a stronger voice than they realize.
The middle of the episode covers being bullied into learning to fight, a parking-lot beating that ended when neighbors he had once driven to the grocery store ran out to help him, and his military service. He enlisted on September 10, 2001. Years later, when his partner became pregnant, he resigned his commission, but the paperwork was never processed; when the orders arrived at his school he took it as a calling and deployed. Afghanistan gave him a permanent sense of proportion. He followed his daughter's growth through emailed photographs over dial-up and missed her first steps and first words, saw genuine scarcity up close, and concluded that since no one can protect everyone, a man works the pond he is standing in.
The last hour belongs to the heart attack. A genetic defect in one artery, held off for years by fitness as he tells it, dropped him at a VA nursing station. He coded twice, spent five days in a medically induced coma, and rebuilt from a thousand steps a day, twice pushing too hard and losing ground before slowing down. Invited back to Ninja Warrior, he failed on the second obstacle, though he says the platform let him say something useful to men about heart health. He closes with an order of operations he believes men get backwards, pay yourself, then your profession, then your spouse, then your children, and with a plea to unplug, keep your friendships, and stop performing manhood.
Speakers
- Keith Vance host
- Morgan Wright guest
Chapters
- 0:02 How they met, and what stuck
Keith describes asking for fitness help on Facebook in his early forties and being introduced to Morgan, who trained with him in his barn and refused to give him a rigid program. Morgan explains why chasing numbers eventually fails and why men lose the friends who are ready to grow old.
- 10:17 Hippie parents and his father's classroom
Morgan describes an only child's upbringing with parents he calls hippies, a middle name of Sunstar, and money that was tighter than he understood. His father, Ken Wright, taught fifth grade in East Fort Myers, put learning to music, and stayed at his school after winning a Golden Apple.
- 27:03 Movement as a lifelong habit
Morgan lays out his core fitness argument: the body adapts to what you do and do not do, any program works for eight to twelve weeks, and a strong mind needs a strong body. He describes teaching by example, from a twenty-pound weight vest to showing five-year-olds how to pump a swing.
- 33:52 An honest look at schools
A long, plainly stated stretch on phones and face-to-face connection, school lunch rules, chocolate milk and sugar, grading policies, graduation rates and remedial college courses. Keith adds what his daughter-in-law learned in two years of teaching, and both men land on parents as advocates.
- 58:34 Bullied, boxing, and a humbling night
Morgan was bullied through high school and started swinging back his senior year, eventually reaching the Fort Hood boxing team. He then tells the parking-lot story in which he was badly beaten and rescued by neighbors he had once driven to the grocery store.
- 1:20:45 Enlisting on September 10th
Hearing the Gulf War announced on a stranger's radio outside a Publix convinced a seventeen-year-old Morgan to ask his father to take him to a recruiter. Years later he signed up for officer school on September 10, 2001, and when his resignation went unprocessed he took the orders as a calling.
- 1:33:20 What Afghanistan showed him
Morgan describes missing his daughter's first steps and first words while receiving photographs over dial-up, an interpreter who predicted exactly what would happen when the Americans left, and a burned child whose candy was taken as they drove away. He concludes that no one can protect everyone, so you work the pond you are in.
- 1:46:11 The moose hat and Ninja Warrior
His daughter Jocelyn asked him to apply to American Ninja Warrior for her tenth birthday, and he spent over ninety minutes learning the fourteen-and-a-half-foot warped wall. He explains how the moose hat began as a deliberate refusal to be the trash-talking heel and made him a fan favorite.
- 1:57:47 The heart attack
Morgan recounts driving himself to the VA without remembering the drive, apologizing to the nursing staff as he collapsed, coding twice, and waking from five days in a medically induced coma to a surgeon who had warned his family he would not be the same man.
- 2:12:41 One thousand steps back
Recovery began with walking and a weight vest and needing help getting dressed. Morgan admits he pushed too hard twice and lost ground both times before rebuilding at a reasonable pace, and describes returning to the show only to fail on the second obstacle.
- 2:25:55 Pay yourself first
Morgan gives his order of operations, yourself, then your profession, then your spouse, then your children, arguing that skipping a step means everyone after it gets a less authentic version of you. Keith describes his own version, a quiet first hour of stretching, sunrise and prayer.
- 2:31:45 Unplug, and keep your tribe
Asked what he would say to a man struggling right now, Morgan says unplug, hold your core beliefs without needing to win arguments, invest in your health and attitude, and find a real guy tribe. Both men close on a friendship that holds despite genuine disagreement.
Key takeaways
- 27:03 The body adapts to what you do and to what you do not do. Any program will produce results for the first eight to twelve weeks because you are finally doing something; the real skill is building a habit moderate and enjoyable enough that you would keep it for life.
- 29:48 Morgan refuses to teach what he cannot demonstrate, so he climbs, swings and runs alongside his students, and says his real competition is a child's attention span: "I have to be more interesting than TikTok."
- 1:37:32 "We cannot protect everyone. So what you do is you focus on the pond you're in." Morgan applies this to teaching eleven hundred children a day, and notes he has held the babies of former students, helped others get their GEDs, and buried two.
- 2:14:20 Recovery was not linear. Morgan felt he had to catch up, pushed too hard, and had further heart trouble roughly a year and two months after the attack and again about four months later. He only held his gains once he rebuilt at what he calls a much more reasonable pace, which is the same lesson he had given Keith years earlier about training for life rather than for a deadline.
- 2:25:55 Morgan's order of operations: pay yourself, then your profession, then your spouse, then your children. Skip a step and everyone after it receives a less authentic version of you. Keith's version is the first hour of the morning given to stretching, sunrise, quiet and prayer, so that what reaches his family is overflow rather than deficit.
Pull quotes
"The men that stay in your life, when it becomes harder to continue to be a man, either mentally, physically, or emotionally, those are the ones that stick around." Morgan on losing most of his male friendships between forty-five and fifty.
The parking-lot story. Weeks after Morgan had driven two heavily pregnant neighbors to the grocery store, he was knocked down and kicked in his own lot; men from that same house ran out and drove off his attackers, and one of the women brought him a bag of frozen okra for his eye. His own framing of his stories: "I am never the hero in my story. You just didn't die."
"Anxiety is the most useless emotion people can have. You are literally borrowing stress from a fictional future."
"Why will men maintenance their car on a schedule, but not themselves? Your body is your best piece of equipment you own." Keith says this episode's subject is exactly why he went and had everything checked, for his wife and children as much as himself.
"If you have to tell people you're an alpha, are you? Just be an authentically good human. And you don't have to put on a show." From Morgan's closing counsel, alongside his advice to unplug, invest in your health and attitude, find a real guy tribe, and never stop rediscovering yourself.
Scripture & context
- 6:43 Keith's on-air introduction of the guest: fourteen-year Army veteran, sixteen months in Afghanistan, physical education teacher for twenty-one years, Golden Apple recipient and, as Keith puts it, the first PE teacher to receive it, teacher of the year four separate times, and five seasons of American Ninja Warrior. Keith deliberately places the television credit last, saying what defines Morgan is that he is a father of two.
- 14:29 Morgan's father, Ken Wright, was a teacher and part of the first group of six teachers to receive the Golden Apple. Morgan went to school with him an hour early each morning and read in the library, and later began his own teaching career at Tice Elementary, the school where his father taught.
- 1:24:05 Morgan signed up for officer school on September 10, 2001, the day before the September 11 attacks. Years later he resigned his commission when his partner became pregnant and lost medical coverage, but the paperwork was never processed; when the orders reached him he said it felt like a calling and deployed with ten days' notice.
- 1:44:53 Keith names his faith as the thing that steadies him, paraphrasing Jesus' teaching not to fret about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself and today has enough of its own (Matthew 6:34). He adds that there is a sovereign God holding the whole thing, and "whenever I try to be God, I break."
- 1:57:47 The heart attack, by Morgan's account: a genetic defect meant one of his main arteries never fully developed, and he says fitness delayed the event long enough for a device that had only been available in his area about fourteen months to save him. He coded twice, spent five days in a medically induced coma, was combative under sedation, and came out with a torn rotator cuff and temporary paralysis through his pectoral, bicep, forearm and hand.
Questions answered
- How did Keith Vance and Morgan Wright meet?
- About seven or eight years ago Keith, then forty-two or forty-three and feeling like he had plateaued, posted on Facebook asking for help with his fitness. A mutual friend connected him with Morgan, who came over and trained with him in Keith's barn. Keith wanted a strict program and Morgan would not give him one, which took Keith several months to appreciate. jump · 0:02
- What did Morgan Wright learn about teaching from his father?
- His father, Ken Wright, taught fifth grade at a school in East Fort Myers that others dismissed as run down, and brought his guitar, harmonica and piano into the room to set learning to music. He dressed as Abraham Lincoln and had students recite the Gettysburg Address from memory. When he received a Golden Apple with a cash prize, Morgan asked whether he would change schools, and his father said he made more of a difference where he was. jump · 15:04
- How does he keep PE meaningful for eleven hundred elementary students?
- Morgan says he will not tell children to do what he cannot demonstrate, so he climbs the monkey bars with them, walks the campus in a twenty-pound weight vest, and teaches kids how to pump a swing because many have never learned. He runs a karaoke choice day on Fridays where children have to know the lyrics and end up dancing hard for thirty minutes without noticing they exercised. As he puts it, he has to be more interesting than TikTok. jump · 29:48
- What made him join the Army?
- At seventeen he was sweeping outside a Publix in East Fort Myers when a retiree's radio interrupted its programming to announce the start of the Gulf War. Watching coverage afterward, he could not understand how someone could sign up and then change their mind about an oath. Three days later he asked his father to take him to the recruiter and signed up on the spot. jump · 1:20:45
- Why did he deploy to Afghanistan after resigning his commission?
- When his partner changed jobs and lost medical coverage and then became pregnant, Morgan resigned his commission rather than leave her as a solo parent. In April 2003 orders were faxed to Tice Elementary, where he was in his first year of teaching, and his battalion executive officer told him the resignation paperwork had never been processed. He said it felt like a calling, told her the deployment would at least bring military insurance, and went. jump · 1:24:05
- What did Afghanistan change in him?
- He describes crying in his bed over photographs of a daughter he was missing, and says he missed her first steps and first words. He also says watching genuine scarcity made it hard for him to feel stressed afterward, because he had seen what the bottom of the barrel looks like. His conclusion is that no one can protect everyone, so you focus on the pond you are in and let the ripple travel. jump · 1:37:32
- Where did the moose hat come from?
- Morgan started wearing it at athletic competitions because he was a PE teacher and could not tell children to be good sports while trash talking like the heels who were popular at the time. The hat appeared on the big screen, the crowd woke up and laughed, and the name stuck through obstacle races, boxing walkouts, jiu-jitsu matches and five seasons of Ninja Warrior. He says he did not care whether people laughed with him or at him, because either way they left happier. jump · 1:53:31
- What happened the day of his heart attack?
- He was in what he calls pinnacle health and around nine percent body fat when his left arm felt strange at the gym. He drove himself sixteen minutes to the VA and does not remember the drive, then parked in the lot rather than inconvenience anyone, walked to the nursing station, apologized, and took a knee. He woke in an ambulance, coded twice, and was placed in a medically induced coma for five days. jump · 1:57:47
- What did his recovery actually look like?
- It began with walking, a thousand steps a day building toward thirty thousand, and later walking in a weight vest, while he needed help getting dressed for a few months. He says he pushed too hard, had another heart problem roughly a year and two months in, then did it again about four months after that. Only after slowing to a reasonable pace did the rebuild hold. jump · 2:12:41
- What does he mean by paying yourself first?
- Morgan orders it as yourself, then your profession, then your spouse, then your children, and argues that if you skip a step everyone after it gets a less authentic version of you. He is careful to say this does not mean buying a motorcycle, but living below your needs and within your means so that bills and groceries do not require checking your balance. Keith agrees with a different version, giving the first hour of the day to stretching, watching the sun come up, quiet and prayer so that he is full rather than at a deficit. jump · 2:25:55
Helpful links
video
- American Ninja Warrior The televised obstacle competition Morgan Wright has reached the stage on five separate times, where he is known for his moose hat.
other
- Golden Apple teaching award The teaching award Morgan received; his father, Ken Wright, was among the first six teachers to receive it.
- Jungle Gym, Tampa, Florida The ninja gym Morgan calls the finest in Florida, whose owner encouraged him after his last run on the show ended early.
verse
- Matthew 6:34 The teaching on tomorrow's worries that Keith paraphrases as the verse he clings to when he starts running future scenarios.
product
- Sync by Frequence (episode sponsor) The collagen and CBN supplement read as the mid-episode sponsor; the read points listeners to the link in the bio and gives no address on air.
Full transcript
Keith Vance: Welcome to the Still Strong Podcast. Here we talk about unfading strength, tested by life, forged through faith, and proven over time. All right. Morgan Wright. That's it. What's going on, Keith? Welcome to the podcast. Oh, man. Hanging out with the big dog again. I've been looking forward to this one all week and excited, but a little nervous. I mean, rightly so. Rightly so. I mean, I groomed for this. Did you? I waxed. Well, Morgan, I'm going to give you this proper introduction, but it seems to be the format before I give the introduction for me to give my own personal take on someone. Yeah. So, it showed up on my Facebook feed about seven or eight years ago. Yeah. I was 42 or 43. I just turned 50. I was wanting to step up my fitness. I felt like I had plateaued. I was wanting to step up my fitness. And I got lost in all the programs and stuff out there. Like, when you do a Google search, I got lost. And so, I just put on Facebook, hey, I'm this old. I want to progress. Help. Help. And a mutual friend put me in contact with you. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah. You came over and worked out with me in my barn. You'd come over and work out. And what I learned from you and appreciated from you, and I didn't appreciate the time. At the time, I was wanting a strict program. Yep. Boom. Boom. I was wanting strict. You weren't giving me that. Nope. And I didn't. It took me several months to appreciate what you're doing. But you said, hey, we're going to do this the rest of our life. Don't be so strict. Hey, what doesn't hurt today? Make it hurt. Yes. You did full body stuff. Jumping lunges. Here, I thought I was strong. Did jumping lunges, and you're cranking them out, and I'm dying. Man, burpees, deadlifts for time. Yes. Like, you made it fun, and I was getting stronger. So I'm running. We're sprinting. We're doing this heavy lifting, and you made it feel like, hey, it doesn't necessarily have to be so regimented. Just do something. And it sticks. And it does stick, because that helped me, and it helps me today.
Morgan Wright: Men, we're taught to live our lives by structure, by a code. I mean, we look at the Ten Commandments, everything. We need things in black and white. That's what we do. Man see, man do. And when it comes to our bodies, though, we need to listen to ourselves, because like you said, we do this our whole lives. And when you stop chasing numbers, you start listening to yourself, listening to your body. I haven't seen you in over a year, and I walked up today, and I'm like, man, you have great. Your posture's never been better. Your shoulder's looking great. You know, you look happy. You know, it's like, when you can just, the gym and fitness is supposed to be, you know, our man space. You know, we're making a positive change and building our bodies. We're being stronger to be able to provide and protect for our families. And if we can't make that fun, if something's not inherently fun, we have to fuel it through discipline only. And then we just eventually it becomes less important. When we look forward to it, we keep at it.
Keith Vance: You unlock something in my brain back then. The other thing you unlocked for me was, you're just a year or so older than I am. I had this mindset that once you hit 40-ish, there's certain things you're not supposed to be doing anymore. Just because of the people around me I'm watching. You broke that for me. Because you were about a year older than me. And you're pushing boundaries. You're doing things that I didn't think, are we allowed to do this? Are we too old to be doing this? And to be honest with you, you unlock something in my brain. And I can tell you at 50 years old, I am the strongest I've ever been. Yep. I have the most endurance I've ever had. And you talk about mindset. If I, if my mindset hadn't been changed, I would be on a decline because you're supposed to be getting old, you're supposed to take it easy. We don't do that these days. That's a young man's game. Yeah. You helped me, man. Back then, you helped me. I just, I wanted to communicate that to you. As I was thinking last night of you being here, I'm just remembering these things. And I was, I'm thankful you came across my path. I'm thankful that we're friends. I'm thankful that you're here. Me too, buddy.
Morgan Wright: You know, it's a, there's something that, you know, I wanted to talk to you about is something I learned the hard way is we talk about men, men bonding. Uh, you know, keeping, keeping, you know, that, that guy tribe around. I had a real hard time from 45 to 50. I lost some. my male friends, they stopped being men, Keith. And I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but they were ready to grow old mentally. They stopped wanting to do stuff. They just wanted to sit down, and now their Saturday was busy yelling at a TV because some 19-year-old dropped a football. Or rather than go play a sport, they're going to watch it. Or they would just do dumb stuff like, hey, I'm going to tell my girl I'm with you Tuesday. What? No, we just had dinner together three weeks ago. I'm not your cover. Or I left a couple of my guy chat groups because they'd be sending pictures of women out in public unsolicited. And I had one friend, I'm not going to say his name, but I'm like, he has a very professional job. He's happily married with two daughters. And I'm like, you just sent a picture of some girl in her yoga pants in a coffee shop to a group chat unsolicited. You would lose your everything if somebody saw your chat. And they just stop. Or one of my male friends, he's like, yeah, I'll meet you out. I don't really want you coming over because then my wife yells at me because she says I'm getting out of shape. Why don't I go to the gym with Morgan? And I'm like, why don't you? I'd love to have you be here. Come hang out. We have a great time. You know, and it just, the men that stay in your life, when it becomes harder to continue to be a man, either mentally, physically, or emotionally, you know, those are the ones that stick around. So, like, you and I can see each other day to day. I can see you in a month. I can see you in a year. I'm still the exact same level of Jack Russell. Excited to see you. I'm like, ha ha, what's up, buddy? You know, to see the big dog on the porch. Yeah. You know, and I always get real excited anytime I get to hang out with you.
Keith Vance: This is going to be a good show because you just hit a bunch of stuff that we could start talking on now. So, this is going to be a good one, man. I'm glad you're here. Me too, buddy. This is meant to be. Let me give you your proper introduction and we're going to rock and roll with this. All right. So, Morgan Wright, 14-year Army vet, 16 months in Afghanistan, physical education teacher, 21 years. Yes, sir. Man, we've got a lot of good stuff here to talk about. Golden Apple recipient. First PE teacher to ever receive it. I was like, where are my people? Yeah. Teacher of the year, four years. Yeah, four different times. PE teacher of the year. Yeah. The one that everybody probably knows you about. The moose.
Morgan Wright: Ninja Warrior, five seasons. Five separate times. I've hit that stage for American Ninja Warrior. I'm like the world's okayest ninja, but I did just good enough. I ended up being a fan favorite. They keep bringing me back.
Keith Vance: What I like about you is, and that's why I put that one towards the bottom, because that doesn't define you. That's not who you are. Thank you, sir. I think what defines you is your father of two children.
Morgan Wright: I love my babies. You know, everyone wants to leave a legacy. The best legacy you can leave is a future generation that's going to continue to do positive things for the world around them.
Keith Vance: I know your kids are your motivation. You and I have had conversations. Yeah. You're a good dad.
Morgan Wright: Thanks, buddy. I appreciate hearing that.
Keith Vance: And then, last of all, you're going to hear some things about this man right here. This man is 51 years old. All right? Keep that in mind. 51 years old. I'm feeling it this morning, but we'll talk about that later. 51 years old and is still getting after it. Still Strong. Yes, sir. So, Morgan, everybody gets a gift. I don't know if you've seen the show yet, but you've got these Richardson 112s. When you're working out or whatever you're doing, when you're making your kids in elementary PE do burpees. All right? My kids say the Richardson 112s are the best. So, anyway. That's hot. I mean, later on. I did my hair. I'm going to be on camera. Oh, I'm. Yeah. So, I was. I don't prepare too much for these because I feel like if I prepare too much, I stick with the notes. And I want to be organic. I want to be real. All right. I woke up. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this. And I had a memory. So, a few years ago, I was in Michigan. I had an uncle that had cancer and died of cancer. My mom was spending time with him in his last days. And my dad and I were giving them their time. And so, my dad and I were just riding around the old neighborhood that he grew up in. And I learned a lot about my dad at 40-something years old that I didn't know about. So, we just drove by and said, Keith, there's where I went to high school. Here's some things that happened. And we just rode around the neighborhood. Some places, Morgan, we stopped. We pulled up in the driveway, put in a park, turned the key off. And he talked about what life was like at this house. So, I kind of want to do that same feeling with you. Let's hop in the car. I want to start from the beginning. Let's just take a ride. Like, we're... How did you grow up? Just hit those little things. Maybe we put the car and park, and we can park there for a little while. But I want to get to know the man today. How did you get to be where you're at? The things that shaped you, the influence on your life early, like all that good stuff. So let's just buckle up and just take me for a little ride. All right.
Morgan Wright: You know what? I'll start off. You know, I grew up, my parents, my mom and my dad, were some of the biggest influences I've had in my life. You know, we joke about it when I say, oh, my parents were hippies. But they were like that true, organic, love the earth, love everybody, be kind. And at the time, I didn't realize that money was super tight. I remember my dad and my mom, they would do things in a way that had never occurred to me. My dad would be like, hey, son, I've got this magic powder. If you put it in a jug and you shake it real hard with water, it turns into milk. I'm like, you're a wizard, Harry. You know, and then my mom, she's like, hey, we're going to go to this place. And you know what? If you wait in this line, they're going to give you free Velveeta. And I'm like, I love cheese. You know, and when I say my parents are hippies, like my middle name is Sunstar. And I'm not part Indian. Now, for those of you at home, let that clock in. When I get off the cattle car for boot camp and I see the drill sergeant like Morgan, Sunstar, where are you at, boy? We're going to be friends. And I was so sheltered growing up that they called up and they were yelling at me. So, we're a pair of hippies? Yes, drill sergeant. Are you a hippie? I don't think so, drill sergeant. Do they smoke the funny weed? Probably drill sergeant. Do you? No, drill sergeant. Well, okay then, Private. That's funny. Like, I mean, but you know, they taught me a lot about being empathetic, caring, nurturing. You know, both parents worked real hard. So, I never had some preconceived notion that men were supposed to do that. Women were supposed to do this. Like, if something needed to do it, you just did it. Like, I'd be helping my dad, you know, fix things around the yard, helping my mom sew stuff and plant gardens. And then... Were you an only child? I was an only child. I was supposed to have a younger sister, but it did not come to full term. And... But yeah, it was like... It wasn't until... It wasn't until boot camp. My first Father's Day. It was a couple days before Father's Day. I had my little Father's Day card. I'm putting it in a mail. I'm like, talking to the other soldier. Hey, don't forget you got Father's Day coming up. And they're like, ah, man, you know, F that guy. Or, I don't know who my dad is. I was like... My whole world got just shot. Same... You think I'd learn? I'm like, wait, you guys don't love your mom? Like, I'd be on the paper. Oh, it's a private right calling his mom. I'm like, I love my mom. Don't you love yours? And it never dawned on me that they were trying to tease me. Like, it just... It didn't click in my brain. I thought they were just having a conversation. You know? And it was like, not until years later, that I was like, oh, they're trying to tease me. I don't care. But, you know, I mean, I'm 51. I'll still hold my mom's hand and walk through the mall. It's mom. You know? I still call my dad. Probably about every two or three days, we chat. You know? Have lunch about once, twice a month. You know, it's like... Hold your dad now. I think he's 75, 76. He's maybe 76. Yeah, 76 now. You know, he's one of those. He's like us. He just motors around still. You know, you don't get... He doesn't get old just because the numbers on the counter says he is. Right. But there's a difference. We respect the number, but it doesn't define us. You have those people. Age is just a number. Try being a counterpuncture as a boxer. Because when you're a counterpuncture and you get old, you become an average boxer with bad head movement. I see you throwing that overhand right and I should move. But instead it hits me right in my eyeball. Because my reaction speed does diminish. But I'll still go scrap a little bit. Still go box. Still run some rounds with grappling. But as long as you respect it but don't let it define you, it really pays off.
Keith Vance: So, those early school years. You know, you're a PE teacher. Yes, sir. What was school like for you? I know certain things about you, so I don't want to try to fill those gaps of things that I know. I'm trying to let you paint the picture. Because going to school or being a teacher? What was school like for you? Going to school.
Morgan Wright: Going to school was, it was interesting. Loved elementary school because what happened, you know, when you don't have any money and your dad's a teacher, you go to school with him. Okay. I didn't know that. Your dad was a teacher. Yeah. My dad, Ken Wright, part of the first original six teachers to receive Golden Apple, the very first group.
Keith Vance: Okay. So, let's slow down a little bit. Okay. We kind of skipped over that kind of stuff because one of my questions is going to be, what was some of the big influence that shaped you? In what you are. Oh, yeah. Did your dad have a big play in that?
Morgan Wright: He did, watching him teach, because he was doing stuff that teachers now do, because they're like, oh, this is great. He was bringing his guitar, his harmonica, his piano, putting learning to music. He was teaching in fifth grade in East Fort Myers, which is, people consider it, oh, it's a rundown or migrant area. And he's like, I love it. He's like, everyone values education here, because they realize, education takes you out of poverty. It makes you the best overall equipped to move up and ahead in life. I mean, he was in fifth grade. He would have his students, he would dress up as characters from American history. He came out as Abraham Lincoln, and the kids were, they were having a Gettysburg Address recitals. Like, they would stand up and recite it from memory. Wow. And, and I'll never forget, too, the, I remember watching him on TV receive Golden Apple, and, and they, you got like a, a prize check to go with it. They gave you some cash to go with it. And I was like, oh, dad, does that mean you're going to change schools now? And he's like, why would I do that? I make, I make more of a difference here, son. Wow. And. That's good, dude.
Keith Vance: It was.
Morgan Wright: Well, and, with him being a teacher, I had, I was at school about an hour early every day. I would go to the library, and I would just read. Wow. So, that's why you see me, you know, I'm so loquacious. My, my vernacular and vocabulary, you know, has just jumped through the roof. Because when you start reading early on, you know, like, like, and I know a lot of parents do this these days, but if you're home and you got kids, put the closed caption on the TV at all times. That way they're seeing, they're reading the words while they're watching their shows. You know, technology is not, technology and typing is the cursive writing of the future. People are like, oh, bring back cursive. Okay, let me go churn my own butter there too, Todd. But learning what the new technology is, you know, is what means going on. I'll segue. I used, you know, I had a cup of coffee. I'll talk about it. No, we're good. Another question. Was your dad ever your teacher? Not, not allowed to be. Oh, you're not allowed to be? You cannot, yeah. You can't be, now, it doesn't, now, like for a large group sports, like for PE, I was my son's PE teacher. But, you know, for his grade level, I had 120 other kids. Got it. You know, so there's a difference, but I cannot, I could not, you can't be their classroom teacher. Got it. Yeah, they're pretty strict about it. For obvious reasons.
Keith Vance: So, are you a teacher because of your dad's influence? Looking back now.
Morgan Wright: You know, this is going to sound super silly. Yes, just watching his success, watching how happy he was, watching how he influenced others positively. But, one of the biggest things that always stuck with me, I'm going to put the car in park real quick, that Tice, Tice Elementary is a small school, but it has a very fiercely tight-knit community of teachers and, and parents. And, and I think I was like seven years old, and one of the, I think it was the art teacher had a Halloween party at her house. And it was like hundreds of people. There was a lady doing fortune teller cards. And I'm like, all right, that looks cool. And I sat down, and she's like, oh, you know, all right, what do you want to know? Well, I don't know, what do you think I'm going to be when I grow up? And she's like, well, what do you want to be? And I said, well, I want to be an army man. You know, I want to be a ninja, because I was dressed up as a ninja, of course. And I said, and I want to, and I want to be a teacher, like my dad. And I don't know what she did with cards. And then she pulled the king card. And she's, and she got real quick. She's like, that's weird. She's like, normally it kind of gives you like a, a path. And I said, for some reason, it says you're going to be pretty good at all these things. Yeah. And so here I am now, years later, you know, I'm a decorated, you know, military veteran. I'm a decorated school teacher. You know, I'm a decorated ninja. You know, I'm a Las Vegas finalist. You know, so it's like, you know, I thought I'd be the cool ninja that like flipped around and jumped through trees, but climbing stuff's pretty cool too. So, you know. That's good.
Keith Vance: I, um, it's funny. You, you talked about your, your perspective of your dad. Yeah. That teaching wasn't just a job for him. Like he went above and beyond. Yeah. He influenced people. I look at some of your social media stuff when you post it. And I read the comments and all these people that you've influenced, these kids that you've influenced, even adults that Mr. Wright, that you've influenced. And, um,
Keith Vance: I remember my kindergarten teacher. She had a big influence on me. Didn't realize it at the time, but I remember everything about her. Good. And I think the reason, but there's other teachers early on that I don't remember that much, but I think what I, I think the reason why I remember her is because I think she loved what she was doing. And I think she wanted to make a difference in my life. I think she invested in me personally. And I heard about her. Yeah. And a kid can tell the difference between someone who's there and wants to be there and wants to shape and someone who's just there to get a paycheck and to do their job. You are the first. You are an influencer. You want to be there. And you can tell by the comments, stuff that I read, you have an impact on people. And kids can tell the difference. Listen, kids are good readers. Kids can read into people really well.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. Yes. Yes. And people who will try to lie or smooth something over with children, children sense that. They do. You know, and I've never understood why. I'm like, be honest. I might use kid-friendly language, but I do my best to be honest. I mean, you know, I had a, I mean, we'll talk about it later, but, you know, I had a heart attack a couple years ago from genetics and my memory got a little spotty. I used to know about half my kids' names. Out of 1,100 kids, I could even have about half of them. That's pretty good. Now I know about 30 of them by name. My, I know their face. I, but names slip. Like, I'll, I'll look at somebody I've been friends with for five, 10 years and be like. And, and, and instead of faking it, I, I tell my kids, I'm like, listen, you know, I had a medical event. You know, I said, my memory is spotty. I said, the chances of me being able to remember names now is really low. I said, please don't let that, you know, offend you. I said, it's a medical issue on me. I know your face. I love all of you. And, and they love it. They're like, oh, thanks. Let me know. And they'll come up to me. Hey coach, it's Aubrey. Hey, you know, and I'm like, thank you. Like, like they'll, they'll, they'll volunteer their names. They'll see me in public. They run up to me. Coach, it's Tim. I'm like, hey, what's up, Tim? You know, and, and, you know, the amount of kids that I have come back to me year after year after year. Now, some of them, you know, hey coach, remember me? No, dude, you're six two. And you have a mustache. I have no idea who you are. You started from the bottom and now you're here, you know, but as you're telling, as you're talking, I had a thought.
Keith Vance: I feel like to be a pastor, you need to be called. Not anybody's meant to be a pastor is that, that burden you carry. First responders, I feel like is a calling. Yeah. Teachers for sure has to be a calling. Gotta be. Has to be a calling. And we, like we just said, a kid can tell when it's not, when it's just, this is my job, you're clocking in and clocking out. A kid can tell. Um, having said that, when, when it comes to what we're supposed to do in life, man, how good does it feel when you found your purpose and you're just doing what you love and it's not a job? A lot of people don't have that. A lot of people have, I'm supposed to do this. This is the route I'm supposed to take. I'm supposed to be, you know, responsible and just get locked into this job. And they almost panic when they don't, they just slow down a little bit. If that's what you're meant to do, then great. But if that's not what you're meant to do, it's, it's, it's not going to feel right. It's not going to fit right. It's going to come. It's not going to cross it organic. I found my purpose, man. Like the work that I do is hard work, but I love it. It's what I was built for. And I see the same thing in you. The work that you do. Listen, I kind of say this hanging around a bunch of kids like that all day long. I ain't built for that, man. And no amount of money would make it like, well, like up ticket. You follow me? Oh, we're all built. We're all built for different things in life. Oh yeah. And I'm so glad that you're built for that because you're having an influence on kids and it matters.
Morgan Wright: Thank you. And, and, and that's exactly it. It's a, you know, I, I, I kind of learned early on that I didn't want to do something that I didn't want to do. You, we spend the majority of our day, at least a solid amount of it, having to do something. To put groceries on the table and roof over our heads. And if it didn't make logical sense to find something, you know, that I'm like, I'm going to hate this for eight hours so I can enjoy this for six hours before I go to bed. And the math wasn't mathing. And don't get me wrong. I mean, every now and then, you know, some days a job is still a job. Uh, it, I don't know if you know this, Florida's hot, brother. And when I first started teaching PE, it was 87 degrees out. First, first couple of years. The last three years in a row, the start, the first day of school, it's been 94 degrees three years in a row. Yeah. And, uh, it's probably what's keeping you young. Man. Well, well, it turns out melanoma is not that sexy. So I look like a homeless roofer at work. I got sweats. I've got a long sleeve shirt. I've got my gardening hat on. I don't even garden. I mean, I have a gardener of kids. You got the zinc oxide thing. I'm like human ceviche just cooking. But, you know, it's like they show up. I see their looks on their faces. They're excited. A lot of people remember their elementary school PE teachers because they're the fun people. I've got dodgeball, scooters, parachutes. You know, yeah. Yes, I still teach dodgeball. I did. The thing is, people always say. Yeah, well, I had childhood trauma with a red rubber ball. You should too. Thing is, though, I want inclusive play. So I made two small changes. As slow as it sounds, growth also adds to changes, which moves on to later in life. I made it so you can't catch a ball to get somebody out, and a headshot doesn't count or even puts you out because I did not want my undersized kids to be too scared to throw the ball. The whole point of dodgeball, overhand throwing mechanics. Kids don't climb trees anymore. Kids don't really throw a ball anymore. You know, it's like those days, and I'm not blaming a child. The people these days, oh, I can't believe kids these days, you're the one raising them. You know, you're the one that put the tablet in his hand and kept him going outside. You're the one that's too busy to go play outside with your boy or your girl. You know, you've met my daughter. My daughter's solid. You know, like she's got good hands. She's got a good wrestling game. You know, she's very athletic. My son, he's pretty. But no, I'm teasing him. No, they're both very athletic. They're strong. He goes to the gym now quite often. You know, it's like, it's all about, you know, finding that path where you make it fun, and then the fun comes back to you.
Keith Vance: Let's, I want to stay right here for a second, and then we're going to hop back in the car and go back to maybe school years and move along. All right. All right. But those motor skills, even with a baby, you know, a baby learning how to roll over and do these certain movements. Like we're learning how important that is. Movement is important in learning. PE, as a kid, I thought PE was a break from the important stuff. Yeah. Okay. So movement. Like you said, climbing, all this kind of stuff. This is your job. Can you just speak to the importance of being active, moving? Like what happens in the body when we're doing something motor skill-wise and doing something else? This is your wheelhouse. It is. Let's talk about it and talk about the importance of it.
Morgan Wright: The body adapts to what you do and don't do. That's why with how we talked about working out, when I first helped you change your mindset, if you did set reps, set exercises, set fitness things, that's what your body gets good at, but your body is not good at overall health. You created a series of movements that you've gotten used to going through. A strong mind requires a strong body in this day and age. Okay. You can be, a lot of people either want to be mentally resilient or physically tough, but they never correlate the two together. Okay. And that's such an inherent life skill. Just movement. It's like, I have friends, they'll be at the gym at 4 a.m., they're at work by 5.30, and they're sedentary for the rest of the day. That's not overall body health. It's lubricating your joints, getting up, being active. I have a 20-pound weight vest I wear at work. I just walk around it all day long, wear a little 20-pound weight vest. The kids tease me about it like, oh, nice vest, coach. Thanks, I'm bringing back fashion. You know, but it's all about those little things that add up and just continuous movements. It's when people adopt a, any fitness program that somebody gets and adopts, they're going to see great results for the first 8 to 12 weeks because they're doing something. Right. It's learning how to branch off from that. The people who do keto, they're like, oh, I did keto, I lost 20 pounds. Great, but what happens when you stop? Okay, and it's not, you know, a fully, an opinion-based statement coming. Three, two, one. Not a sustainable long-term goal as a nutrition thing. You know, there's some things like, I like cake. Cake tastes delicious. I don't want to go through life not being able to enjoy a piece of cake. But learning how to have moderate fitness as a part of your daily lifestyle and finding a way to make it enjoyable, I can now eat some cake. You know, so not only did I find a way to enjoy fitness, I found out I can enjoy the, you know, the tastier things in life. I don't know what you're thinking. I'm sweet enough already. But, you know, it's being able to just keep that fitness as an aspect. And once you make it part of your lifestyle, it's as easy as breathing. It's as easy as getting up and hugging your kids, kissing your wife. You know, you're just like, it's just, it's simply what you do.
Keith Vance: Are you teaching kids that when you're in PE, are you downloading this to them and say, hey, you need to hang on to this stuff because there's going to come a time in life where you're going to go to an office job, you're going to lose. Are you training them for the long haul? I show them. Good job.
Morgan Wright: There's, you and I talked about this before. I have a real tough time with people who do as I say, not as I do. Okay. And no, no disrespect to. teachers and fitness people around the world. But if that's your wheelhouse, you should be able to physically exemplify what you do. I work hard to practice what I preach. So I can't tell a five-year-old, hey, fitness is important. You don't lose your mobility when you're 73. But they can see me climbing the monkey bars with them. They can see me. I have to teach kids how to swing now because kids don't go to the park. Parks really aren't a thing anymore. Really? They exist. But I have a lot of children. They see the swing. They see the kids on. How do I do that? They go in there and kick their legs. So I'm like, and the thing is. Listen, that's terrible. You would think, but that's terrible because that's what we grew up with. And now what new parents and what new children have grown up with is a whole different world. And if I focus on, say, if I focus on the negative, then that makes it harder for me to switch that over to make it a positive growth mindset. Understood. So I look at it. It's not good or bad. It simply is. So what I do is I show them. You know, I'm the world's biggest kindergartner. My name is Lando Calarissian. And I get on the swing right beside him. And I put my hands up. And the hands go here. I lean forward. I lean back. And they're like, got it. And then later, you know, and they see me. They see me running around school. I am borderline obnoxious these days. When I'm teaching, I have colleagues that don't quite get it sometimes. Sometimes they're like, oh, he's running around like a buffoon. You know, jump around like a buffoon and get a golden apple. But I have to be more interesting than TikTok. I've got to be funnier than whatever cartoon they're watching right now. Like the Fridays. On Fridays, I have Choice Day. A lot of P teachers do that. I have Coach's Karaoke. I take my sound system. I let them play music. That K-pop Demon Hunter cartoon. It's actually, it's a very positive overall. A very uplifting cartoon. Very surprised by it. A movie. Kids love singing the songs. And so they wait in line. They get the microphone. They have to know the words to the song. I have to be able to, it's got to be the language that I can understand. So not sneaking in any naughty stuff. Only the lyrics, not the videos. But they get up there. They're belting out the song. I've got 30 other kids dancing around wildly to it. They're getting, they're learning public speaking. They're learning, you know, the vibrance of camaraderie and corruption. They're seeing that fitness can be fun. I've got kids that just dance their butts off for 30 minutes. They're leaving in a flop sweat. They don't even realize they exercised.
Keith Vance: I got a question for you. What's up? In this, I like what you said about, hey, it's not right or wrong. It's just different. There seems to be a shift in smaller communities. Like the kids seem to be more isolated because of maybe not, maybe not isolated with, okay, maybe they got a bunch of followers and friends on social media. Yeah. But that interaction, that face interaction seems to be deteriorating where kids don't get together like we used to in ride bikes and play. Maybe it's not right or wrong. It just is what it is. But what you just talked about with what you're doing, you're creating that face-to-face community. Yes. Learning how to interact with people, learning how to look someone in the eye and speak, learning how to not lose that skill that we were used to have. Yeah. And I think that PE, what you're doing, is helping with that physical interaction. Oh, absolutely. There's something, there's something about kids and their anxiety nowadays, being around people. And like this, there's this thing where they just, people want to revert to their phone and just be like this.
Morgan Wright: Because you can, you can control the narrative and the interaction on a phone.
Keith Vance: That's the world in which we live in. Absolutely. We got to deal with it. But there's something about, there's something about social connection that's important for our overall development. Oh. Speak to that for a little bit.
Morgan Wright: The power of the phone lets you control the narrative and the duration of an interaction. Okay. If I'm suddenly not liking the way a conversation is going, I can put my phone down. Mm-hmm. Okay. You can't do that in face-to-face. I could have easily Zoomed. This could have been a Zoom podcast, but I wanted to physically see you hang out. You know, I love the farm, I love your area, your household, just the atmosphere that you have here. There's also, we used to bike to our friend's house, but now, boy, that took 15 minutes. You know, instead I could just pick up my phone and in three seconds I'm now talking to my friend and now we're both jumping online to play Fortnite. Yeah. So, I understand the allure and the power for it and the way that parents can help bridge that gap is to create authentically fun experiences. You know, It's important. It's important. It's learning. PE, a well-run elementary school PE program sets the discipline tone for a school. And PE and recess is some of the most important things, activities you can have in elementary because that's the only time left that kids can have. and genuinely socialize. We used to be like, hurry up, eat your breakfast. Okay, now it's quiet time. Now we have to do our reading. You only have 25 minutes to eat your lunch. Don't talk too much. It's like school is very rigid and I do not blame the teachers because teachers are, teaching is the only profession where we are governed by non-educators. Think of, I don't have, we don't have, you know, Bob the professional painter sitting on the bar exam judging lawyers. Okay, it's like teachers, we have politicians in charge of teaching. We have a, Vince McMahon's wife running the Department, Federal Department of Education. Okay, her kids went to private school. I mean, so it's like, one of the greatest sins we've done as Americans is taking away the perceived value of education. I have never had a, I will never have a problem with my tax money going into education. I don't want to go up around dumb people. You know, it's like, and on the other hand too, we were talking about this earlier, I'm segwaying for just a brief second. We were talking about school lunches. If the government says my kid's got to be somewhere for eight hours, the government should feed them. But don't feed them what we're feeding them right now. Good gravy. Okay, so hold on a minute. Let's talk about, what are we feeding them right now? And why is it not good? So, here's the thing. A lot of people, not to be too political, but I remember when Michelle Obama did her healthy, you know, food initiative. Here's the thing. Anytime, and I agreed with it too. On paper, it really is a good thing. What people forget is the people who control the budget will always look for a way to cut costs. So you say something's got to be whole grain, they get the worst grain possible. If I make ice cream, I could make the best ice cream ever, but if I get rotten blueberries, there's only so much I can do with blueberry ice cream. It's still going to have a taste to it that's not going to be quite pleasant. And I look at a, you know, we talk about investing in our children's future. That includes nutrition. You know, it's like, I got in trouble.
Keith Vance: What are kids eating right now in school lunches?
Morgan Wright: It's a, they have to have like a vegetable, a grain, and a protein.
Keith Vance: But what you're saying is, they're hitting those marks, it's just not quality.
Morgan Wright: Exactly. And here's some of the stuff we have to put up with. If a child's on a free lunch, okay, because of income-driven based needs, and he's like, hey, you know what, listen, I only want the pizza and the milk. I really don't, that broccoli, I really just don't want what it looks. They are, they are legally required. They have to put the broccoli on the plate just so the kid can throw it away. If the kid just wants to drink the milk today, he's going to take the whole tray. Wow. Or, pay for the milk. Wow. And, you cannot just piecemeal a lunch. If it's a free lunch, the child should be able to pick and choose. Okay. Kid's seven. At that point, he knows if he likes corn or not or if he wants the corn dog. You know, if he's like, I'd prefer just to have this and this for lunch. But we can't just give him that. You know, these are the laws that get written that a lot of parents aren't aware of.
Keith Vance: I didn't expect to be talking about this, but like I told you, the conversation needs to be organic and it's going to go where it goes. Yeah. So, I have a daughter-in-law that went to school to be an elementary school teacher. Yep. if she, I might get this wrong if I do, forgive me, but if she, she had student loans. Yeah. So, if she taught for a certain amount of years. 10. at a particular school, because I guess they're graded, like a particular lower tiered school. Okay. Title one. Yeah. She, her student loans would be paid off. Yeah. Okay. So, she, that's how my son met her. She came here to be a teacher. She's teaching elementary school. The harder she worked for those kids, the more tasks got put on her to where they buried her. Uh-huh. So, and she was wondering why, because other people had it figured out. The harder you work, the more they're going to put on you. So, people that have been there for a while would back off so that tasks wouldn't get put on them. So, she's buried. She talks about school lunches, them giving them sugar and giving them sugar and like all these high sugar things that, and then they're supposed to expect it to sit still and be quiet. She came to the conclusion. So, she came in wanting to make a difference. Yep. That's what we all do. In two years, she found out, and again, it is what it is. Uh-huh. Okay? I'm not saying it is what it is. It just simply is. In two years, she found out that the school system is not about the kids. It's about the money that flows through it and they allocate money for other things, not the kids.
Morgan Wright: Schooling is run like a business, not a production with an end goal. school. in sight.
Keith Vance: So let me finish my thought. Yeah. Because we're going to talk about this.
Keith Vance: Parents, if you didn't know that, you know that now.
Keith Vance: When my wife, her dad passed away several years ago and she was his advocate when he was going to the hospital because those nurses and doctors that deal with multiple people and maybe get something wrong. So she was his advocate. Nurse comes in, my wife, hey, what are we doing today? No, no. He had that yesterday. I think parents need to be advocates for their children in the school system. You following me? Yeah. I feel like these poor kids, they're getting dropped off. Mom and dad are just both working, trying to make ends meet and thinking things are good. That school system is not what the school system was when we were kids. Absolutely not. It's something different. And I hate to say it, but this is from someone who's from the inside. You're from the inside. It's not about the kids. It's about this budget and allocating the money towards from what I've been told.
Morgan Wright: So I'm going to talk about this.
Keith Vance: We're going to talk truth, but we're going to talk carefully here.
Morgan Wright: Oh, yeah. I'm big on facts. I tend to be very factually driven with these things because they'll say facts don't care about your feelings. It's an inherently aggressive statement and I never mean it that way, but I started saying something earlier. I got in trouble about 15 years ago speaking on nutrition. The chocolate milks. Okay. We grew up on those milk, does the body good. If you didn't drink a milk, you're going to break a bone on the way home. It's like they always made those, you know, you need calcium for your bones. The chocolate milks usually have roughly around 25 grams of sugar in one chocolate milk. Okay. The average soda has 40. Okay. So what I did is I took a bag of those dum-dum lollipops to the lunchroom. This was like 15 or 16 years ago and I just sat in the lunchroom, you know, ate my own lunch and if a kid brought, they drank a white carton of milk, that regular milk, which only had 11 grams of sugar, they could come up to me, show me the empty carton. I would give them a dum-dum lollipop. Okay. The dum-dum lollipop only has three grams of sugar. So now, they had 14 grams of sugar instead of 25. I just gave that kid 11 less grams of sugar than he would have had. I could have given him three of those lollipops that still have been under the sugar content. You got it. And I got in trouble with the nutrition department. They came and they brought me data that was trying to tell me that hyperactivity was not caused by sugar. Now, the data they gave me, though, was funded by the National Dairy Council who makes the chocolate milk. So, as you can see, they had a vested interest in that.
Morgan Wright: Now, when we talk about the school system in general, it's a real tough dichotomy because the ground troops, the teachers, the paras, the maintenance, the janitors, the cooks, they're there by and large because they care. Every now and then, there's always going to be a bad apple in every profession, but teaching and nursing, you tend to have people who, they do, they got into it because they authentically care. Some people burn out and they stay longer than they should, but even them, I give them some grace because even if they're burnt out, they've gotten enough professional acumen that they're still going to do their job correctly even if their hearts are still longer in it, unfortunately. Where we have started losing, where we have lost our way for a while now is running schools like a business. They, well, I now need a model. Show me your gains. You know, here's your, now, I am for some state testing because at the end of the day, you need to perform. I don't want a mechanic who said, you know what, I'm really good. I'm just nervous on tests. I have no certifications. Okay, but I need to know that my engine is going to work. Sure. Okay, and the same reason, I could say I'm not against testing, but I still need to have a degree to be a teacher. Okay, right now, a lot of times in many, not just Lee County, but in many, many states, counties across the nation, teachers, especially middle school and high school, they can't give a zero. If I don't, if a kid doesn't turn on an assignment, you have to mark it as a 50%. And, and there's two trains, two trains of thoughts on this and I can see the merit of both. The, the, the first one is, well, that's, that's, that's not really relevant. That's not, it doesn't match society. If I just, if I don't show up to work for one day, you're not going to give me half my paycheck still. That makes no sense. So why would I give a kid a 50%? But on the other hand, if I'm teaching a, a high school class, I've only got seven grades in a nine week period, you know, at one zero, if, if one kid has one, one issue, misses one assignment. Now he's gone from an A to a C. Okay. Even if he like, you know, did really well on the other assignment. so I can see merit in both. Now, what we're having to deal with now, like at Lee County, they're boasting that we have these super high graduation rates. I was like high 80s, 80th percentile of kids walking the stage. But you'll see in the comments on when the school district posts these things, people are like, okay, but how many of them are functionally illiterate? There is no impetus to make sure a kid can truly actually read because the colleges, they make money on those remedial programs. Take remedial math, take remedial language arts, remedial English. So they're profiting off, because what are we talking about? Oh, you got to go to college. You'll never make something of yourself. College took me seven and a half years to get my four-year degree. I'm not a doctor. Because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I was a dormant at one nightclub and a platform dancer at another. Clothes on. I'm too skinny to take my clothes off. But, you know, so I was just like, you know, pardon, you know, having a great time, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted. And when I finally did, you know, it's like, great, but it took me the length of time it should have taken me. We're too scared to hold kids back these days. In college, you know, you just fail. And then you have to take it again, take it again. I blew through my whole GI Bill and ended up still in college. I paid off my own student loans finally. Uh, but,! But, we can't keep pushing kids through the system and expect them to become productive citizens of tomorrow and the future. We are doing nobody a service and including ourselves and our own children and our own tribe around us because we're lessening the value education of those around us.
Keith Vance: Do you notice that parents are beginning to awaken up to that?
Morgan Wright: Sort of. Parents, parents are, have often, they, they, they're pretty awake. Right now, society and, uh, where the economy is, uh, they can be aware, they can't change it because we talked about earlier, you know, it, it used to be, uh, look at, uh, uh, the old, uh, TV show without money, married with children. I mean, they had a huge house, a stay at home mom and he was a shoe salesman. I mean, and you know, those, those days are done. You know, it's like, you and I got lucky. We tend to, you know, we live below our means. You know, we, we, you know, we manage our money wisely. People say, oh, you know, they need to teach finance in schools. We do. It's at addition and subtraction. That's, that's all you need to balance a checkbook and to look at your account is doing how to add and subtract. What we can't teach is their critical thinking. Hey, uh, teachers now have the very unenviable task. We have, we are now expected to parent as well as educate. And if you look, uh, litigation lawsuits, uh, teachers are held to such a, uh, unrealistic standard when, you know, people, oh, you're, you're, these teachers, they're grooming our kids. They're teaching them all this woke stuff. I can't get Tim to overhand throw me a ball. I can't get him to put his name on the top of the paper. I'm not, no one's, no one's brainwashing anybody. We're here because we want your kid to be, you know, a whole adult one day.
Keith Vance: You, you make a good point. Thank you for bringing that up. because, um, God gives children to a mom and dad. Yeah. Mom and dad's responsibility to guide and direct and to create a wheelhouse. You know, you can have your, your group of people to, Hey, your tribe to help raise this kid. You know, we have school systems because mom and dad are working, but it's mom and dad's responsibility at the end of the day to make sure things are that he's being raised and well-rounded, not just dropping them off, not knowing anything that's going on and just saying, well, I guess he's getting it and not like, that's our responsibility. And we, we, we've probably dropped the ball on that. Parents have probably dropped the ball on that, but maybe not intentionally. Maybe it's just because we, you, you mentioned, you know, the last few years, inflation, you know, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're stressed out. We're more connected with work. We're, we're working more with emails. Like we're, we're working more. We're stressed out. And now I got to, you know, make sure my kid's doing, you know, everything's going good. It's like a whole nother job, but you know what? It is your job, mom, dad. You got to figure it out.
Morgan Wright: Now. And to be fair, these parents, they, a lot of times they do want to be involved. And I think the school system could be, uh, held more accountable. No, no elementary school child, especially should go home with an hour's worth of homework. No, that kid's seven. He should, he should play. He should be helping out around the house, learning how to cook, learning how to clean, learning how to fix something, you know, or just being a child, just spending time with mom and dad. Yes. You know, and parents can do things like bringing that up. Yeah. And parents could do the same thing. They can be like, you know, I understand. We all have a day. We're tired. There we go. Homework, work was terrible. Life's hurting. We got another bill in the mail. But your child is still ultimately a blessing. You take that deep breath. Yeah, hey, buddy, I'm going to go fix the lawnmower. Come watch this. Hold the flashlight. But don't do like our dad did. I said hold the flashlight here. It's like, find those little ways to include them, but push back. And on the other hand, too, parents have a stronger voice than they realize. They start adding into the system. When they started adding politics to education, especially public education, things got a little weird. Because everyone has ideas. And there's always going to be outliers. But the vast majority of people who choose to go into education, we chose it because that was our calling to serve. I served my country in the military. And afterwards, I was like, I still want to do good things for good people. So I was like, I want to be a teacher. But I want to be the fun guy. And I love teaching kids about fitness. But finding those ways to do it, finding that at home, being able to find small pockets of time, small things. You set up a 15-minute window. My son and I, at the end of every night, we'd walk the dogs together before we went to bed. It would be like a 10 or 15-minute walk. We'd look at the stars, talk about trees, talk about our day. But it was like that little moment. It's important. It's important. And what's 15 minutes? It's important.
Keith Vance: The times that I look back and reflect on when I was a kid, it wasn't the times that my parents were intentionally trying to make quality time. Hey, let's have some quality time. It was when we were riding to the grocery store, when we were just spending time together, and we were just being. That's when a kid opens up with mom and dad. That car ride to school or to work, just being together and not trying to make a moment out of it, but just having a moment. That's when I would open up. But when I would say, hey, we need to, when it's too structured, you talk about too structured, hey, we need to have a moment here. This is our time. Tell me your feelings. No kid's going to open up to that. But the car ride to the grocery store, you know what I mean? It's just, those are important.
Morgan Wright: Oh, yeah. Like right now, my daughter, Jocelyn, she's 20. She's living her own life now. She's got a good job. She lives with her boyfriend. We'll still hop online and play some video games together on voice chat. So now like, we're playing video games, but we're talking about our day. We're talking about life. We found a hobby that we can bond together with. Or every now and then, we'll just go out and grab a meal. But like, finding those things. And she's annoyingly good at video games too. Like, I thought I was good. And I'm getting beat by my daughter now suddenly. You know, quick segue. We talked about getting old and we talked about the physical aspect. A mental aspect that I really learned is one of the biggest ways people mentally grow old or too old is when they think somebody younger than them cannot teach them something. Good point. That's, you know, I've learned a couple of things from my daughter. I'm like, oh, I didn't know about that. Like new technologies come out. You know, I teach PE. I don't really need to chat GPT. But, you know, I'm getting shown things. I'm like, and we get to a certain age where we're comfortable with what we know. And it goes back to the old saying, when's the last time you did something for the first time? Right. I mean, you know, I'm 51. I still went up to that EDC, Electric Daisy Carnival. It was a three-day dance, techno, whatever music thing. Each day, me and my girlfriend, you know, had a different silly outfit. We were Mr. and Mrs. Colonel Sanders one day. You know, I was like, but, you know, no 50-year-old normally goes, I'm going to go dance my booty off all night long. But I'm with a bunch of people that's all super happy and cheerful, you know, and, you know, and thank God, it ends at midnight, not 2 a.m. because I can't be up that late. If I'm awake at 2 a.m., something's gone horribly wrong.
Keith Vance: I want to ask you one more question in regard to education. Please do. Then we're going to back up to your childhood and move forward again. Ready. You mentioned Chad GPT. Yeah.
Keith Vance: Is there coming a day when AI, like how, just from your perspective, from what you know about AI, which is probably not very much, probably more than me, how is that going to change the game of school? Are we even going to go to school anymore? Is there a need for, like, if you have this thing in your pocket, they can just tell you everything. Like, how, are they talking about that in the school system with the teachers and stuff? What's like, how is that? It seems like every time you get caught up, there's another curveball coming your way. Yeah, all right.
Morgan Wright: So, so, Sarah Connor warned us about Skynet. It's like, so, you're right. We have the entire universe, the whole library of humankind in our hand. And we watch funny cat videos on it. That, that, now, AI is going, to revolutionize the world the same way the internet did. Now, what's going to come down to it, though, is always the human component. Humans become inherently dissatisfied with what they have, and that's why technology and life continues to progress. The greatest way, the most effective, simple way, teachers, especially middle and high school, can work around chat GPT on an assignment. The day of the assignment is turned in. Okay, it's turned in. The next day, all right, Timmy, stand up. Tell me about your paper. Give me the too-long-didn't-read version of your paper. I've got it open right here. Go. And then you just, now, each kid gets one minute to speak authoritatively on their paper, and you don't know when. And what you do is, let's say you have a lottery system. You're like, 10 kids will be randomly picked out of the 27 of you to just stand up and talk about it. Now, they're reading it. And Chad GPT, the average child, even when they copy and paste it, they still read it. They're still like, I used to joke about one of my friends. He would always try to cheat during college, but he would write his notes so small, but he still spent time writing his notes. So by the time he went to cheat, he kind of already was recalling the answers without having to look at his cheat sheet. So there's still ways around it, and it's going to be like that throughout time. Kids are, you know, you're a kid. Why would you try to find a way? Is AI going to replace teachers? I think that AI will reduce the amount of teachers. There still has to be somebody to oversee that. Whether or not it's going to be face-to-face, though, is my big concern. I think that we're going to see more and more people move to homeschooling on AI-led instructional blockways and chains, and that's going to continue to disassociate human interaction and connection. That is a concern for me. What does help is that we still inherently need to go out. There's still an inherent primal urge to want to go out and interact. We have three, but we have to eat, we have to sleep, and we have to procreate. These things are hardwired into us. We cannot fight these things. So there's still going to be that urge. You have to go out. You might meet a mate on Hinge or an online dating app, but you still have to actually go out and have that first date. And the way you do that is you still have to practice human interaction. That's why I do think that AI is going to cause some significant changes in human behavior and how we hang out and assimilate as just creatures. But I think that human nature is also going to bounce that out eventually. I hope. Good thought. No, good. Well, you got to think the positives, brother.
Keith Vance: Yeah. That was good, man. Thanks, man. That, uh, talking about the school system on that, that was good. So let's back back up to wherever you want to, we talked about your child. We really didn't get into your childhood too much, your school years. We started talking about your dad. So is there anything in your growing up, middle school, high school years that you want to talk about? Like what shape do you are today? Like any, any stuff in that?
Morgan Wright: Uh, you know, I got bullied, but I got bullied a fair amount in high school. Uh, cause you know, I mean, I was built like Doogie Howser. Uh, my mouth was six foot seven and I was super, I was super witty, but, uh, you know, and, uh, so, you know, I, I didn't realize that, you know, oh, that came out of my mouth, which gets me, got me punched in mind as well. And, uh, it wasn't until my senior year, I started sticking up for myself and I was like, you know what? No, I don't want to get hit no more. And I, and I started, I started swinging back and I learned, I was like, oh, I'm pretty good at this.
Keith Vance: Okay. You know, I know where we're going here.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. And, uh, so, you know, uh, and also in high school, uh, I love volleyball. I wasn't big enough for any other sport and I was with, oh, that's a girl sport. And I'm like, I'm watching dudes play in the Olympics right now. You know, like, um, you know, I'm watching, you know, the volleyball movies. And stuff like that, you know, uh, at the time, you know, there was no boys volleyball team. So, you know, that's when I started, you know, I, I, uh, I tend to stand up very fiercely for, uh, I won't say gender equality, but like, you know, cause like, you know, I, you know, men are men and women are women, you know, it's a, you know, uh, but me, I like that we're now seeing where people can have the opportunities. People have their thoughts about, you know, uh, I'm not, I'm not talking about, uh, I'm talking about just very straight, you know, like, uh, you know, my daughter, you know, which jitsu or you'll see sometimes, uh, you know, uh, male, uh, cheerleader, you know, people make fun of cheer. You don't realize how athletic that stuff is. Go watch some collegiate cheerleaders. I'm like, I got some 5'8 dude named Tanner holding up a 110-pound girl with one hand. I can't do that. That's strong. But yeah, no, I started slugging back. I mean, you already know, I made it to the Army, the Fort Hood boxing team back in the 1900s because I'm old.
Keith Vance: Let's talk about, is that how you got into boxing because you're getting bullied?
Morgan Wright: Yeah. I never liked seeing people. I've always had this big thing of when somebody just said, why are you doing it? That's not right. That's not the right answer. You're being mean. You're being unkind. You're a defender of people. And Lord knows I wasn't big enough. Right.
Keith Vance: That's good. Both of my daughters, both of my younger daughters, they're the same. They stick up for people. They don't like somebody to be picked on or mistreated. And we will speak up. Oh, man. Yeah. And I'm proud of them for that.
Morgan Wright: Oh, God. That is such a, you know, and my kids as well, especially my daughter. It's such a proud Papa moment, too. You know? Because, you know, the biggest thing we're always worried about as we get old is one day we realize, you know, we're not molding them. We're not shaping them. We're shepherding. We're giving them advice and hoping they pick and choose what we hope they take. That's a good analogy there. You know, it's, and you have to realize that, you know, the hardest thing is letting go. You know, when, you know, my daughter moved out, that was hard for me because I'm like, well, now what happens if something happens? I can't protect her now. But I did protect her by giving her the right mindset. You know, I, when she would grow up, I would, I would let her argue a point. I'd say, the only rules are you're not allowed to yell at me. You can't, if you can't yell, you can't curse, you can't cry. I'd say, if you do any of those three, the discussion's over and whatever I had put forth, whatever I posited, that's the solution. But if she could articulate her way, even if the logic was flawed, but she was able to keep her poised, I'd be like, you know what? Sure. You can stay up an extra half hour and eat those cookies, you know, because she was able to articulate her way. And I built that skill set in about a year and a half ago. She kind of clocked it. She's like, dad, thank you so much. You know, she's like, I, I, I realized now that I'm at work and I'm having to talk to colleagues and stuff. Nice.
Keith Vance: But, uh, but yeah, uh, I wanted to like, back to the bully in the box. Cause I know you told me a story about when you laid some people out and I want to talk about that story, man. But I want to, I want to, when did you get in the boxing? How long you've been doing it? How good were you? And then you can tell the story about when you were living off of Palm beach. Oh, I think an apartment and there were some Spanish people next door. Oh God, listen. Oh, that story. That was a beautiful story. I am never the hero in my story.
Morgan Wright: You know, it's funny. I almost never share stories. Uh, uh, my, my, my girlfriend and a couple of others, they always tease me. Cause, uh, when you're hanging out with people, you know, guys are like trying to tell stories cause they want to be the guy. And so I, they, they tell me, I get customer service voice, you know, I'm like, Hey, so nice to meet you, Bob. I go up an octave. I go real smooth cause I'm not here to compete. It is something I never met him before. I don't need to be feel like I'm the cool dude in the room. And, uh, and it was funny cause, uh, you know, my best friend at the time, she goes, uh, she goes, I believe every single story you tell me, Morgan, because you're never the hero. You just didn't die. But no, uh, with boxing, uh, I was good. Like I was now I was boxing at 135 pounds as a grown man. And, and, uh, I was a phenomenal counter puncher and I'm six foot tall. So, and I have a 75 and a half inch wingspan. So I was like ET. I could just reach out and touch someone a phone home. And, uh, here's the problem though. In the nineties, no one wrestled. Everyone threw hands. Okay. Okay. No one kicked, you know, like, uh, and so I was like, I would, I would, you know, just cause situations, you know, cause I, I, I was righteous. And I, and I, if I felt, uh, righteously indignant, you know, men hold their, uh, they hold their drinks, their dominant hand. And I don't like getting hit. People be like, Oh, and I get hit. I see red and bodies hit the floor. I swell up and bleed. I don't like to get hit at all. I'm not one of them dudes. So when a guy holds their drink in the dominant hand, when they, and I'll use my words now, especially now my age, I'm like young man, this isn't going to end. We think it's going to end. I encourage you to enjoy your night. Well, fuck you. Well, fine. F me then. And then, but I walk away. Everything's fine. You know, uh, uh, but when they, when they help move their hand from their dominant hand to their non-dominant, as soon as their hands touch, I just hit them. Cause I don't want to get hit. And at this point now, now, and, uh, so, Oh Lord, for the viewers at home, I'm sincerely sorry for this story. That's about to happen. Uh, you're right. Uh, I think I was barely 21, 22, maybe. Uh, I think I was. I was living in downtown East Fort Myers. I had the world's tiniest little efficiency. And I was right on the cusp of a good neighborhood and a not so good neighborhood. My rent was $200 a month to let you know just like how this area was. I had Elizabeth, my super racist 81-year-old landlord. And part of my rent was, I need you to run off the undesirables that hang out on the park a lot at night. And I'm just like, what do you say undesirables? That's like you just went hard R, didn't you? Like she was a – and it's funny because I had a buddy of mine who was black. He'd come over and hang out. And she would just say the most unhinged things and he would eat it up. And I'm like – I'm being mortified. He's like, dude, she's like 90. Like her social security number is like 12. He's like, what if I sneeze and break her hip? He's like, but I go home and I tell my family all sorts of amazing stories about Morgan's racist landlord. But anyway, so I had this little tiny efficiency. It was a two-car garage that got reinvented into the world's worst apartment, whatever. And then there was a house and then a third house. In this third house, there was a lot. I would say probably about 12 to 15 Hispanics living in this house. You could tell like they were just migrant workers. Very quiet, very pleasant, kept to themselves. I got home from the night shift one day. Oh, wait. And – hold on, let me back up. Part of the running off the undesirables is we had – we don't have an issue with like prostitutes that sometimes come hang out in the corner. And I'd just be out there, hey, go on. You know, and there was one little scraggly-haired one that I just yell at every now and then. She goes back, but she'd leave. Didn't think much about it. Okay. Now, fast forward. I come home from a night shift one time working at the hospital as a CNA. And, you know, I'm getting ready to park. And two of the little Mexican ladies, they're walking back past me. And I know they're going to walk over to where the Tice Foodway was back when it existed. And they're severely pregnant. They're like – I don't know. She looked like she was 19 months pregnant. I mean that baby came out, you know, a year ago. And I'm like, you know, senora, senora, please. I don't know, man. I will el drive-o you. You know, like what white people do when they don't speak Spanish. They just talk louder, slower, and add O to the end of every word. I will el drive-o you O. And they're like, no, no. And I'm like, please. And you know me. I look like Doogie Howser. I was very non-threatening. And they're like, okay. Take them up there. They go grocery shopping. I fall asleep in the car because I've worked all night. They're tapping on the – senor, senor. I'm like, oh, sorry. I load up their groceries. Drive them back to where I live. I, you know, drop the groceries off. From that point on, that whole house, they see me. Hey, how do you go? They're like – because like, you know, in East Fort Myers, it's not so much a race issue. Everyone just lives separate but equal. No one bothers anybody, but no one interacts. So me interacting, they were like, holy smokes. You know, I got screeched from Saved by the Bell over here, you know, being super friendly. Now, at the time, I was still, you know, boxing locally at the Police Athletic League, and I still felt like I had great hands. Fast forward, okay? It's now – it's in the evening. It's like around, you know, 8-ish o'clock at night or so. It was like – time change just happened, and it was getting dark. And that same scraggly-haired prostitute was out there in the parking lot. It was like my little apartment, a parking lot, and like a dental office in some other building. And I come out there. I'm like, hey, get out of here. What are you doing? You know, we don't – she's like, oh, I knew you'd be yelling at me. And then I don't realize that there's this old brown Cadillac there. And this ginormous guy gets out of this Cadillac. And if there's ever a stereotype of a pimp, this guy has it all. He's got the brown, like, Chino slacks with the docker looking loaf or whatever's the – no, I think it was wearing Chuck Brown's actually. And he had, like, the tank top on. And he's big. And in my mind, I never cared because, like, I had done very well, you know, with laying hands in a very non-prayer way. And I just start, you know, start jogging right towards him because he's, like, yelling at me. And I'm like, I just – I jump. Bop! Hit him just clean right on the button. And he goes – and he just grabs me. And that was the first time I had felt, like, this huge whole wave of fear go through my body. Because I have never – like, it's like, you know, everyone's like, you wrestle with your friends. And then you suddenly get man-grabbed. You're like, ah! You know? And I'm like – and I let out the least manliest squeak ever. And I just saw him lean back. And I'm like, oh my God. And I realized I'm a counterpuncher and I can't move because he's got me. He hits me right in my eye. And it's this explosion of colors, the universe. And he hit me so hard that he hit me out of his own grasp. And I fly back. I fall and I roll. I hit my head on the pavement too. And I immediately cannot see out of this eye. The swelling was so instantaneous. And I look and I see him walking towards me. And I'm on my hands and knees. And I'm like, I should move because he's going to kick me. And I don't move. And I get kicked in the ribs. And my lunch from August of 1978 flies out of my mouth. And I hear all this yelling from the migrant worker house. And suddenly eight guys, they're running out. And I don't know. They have these little dowel rods. But they're this big. They're like, I don't know. I've never sat around with just dowel rods this size before in my house for some reason. I've never had this. And they run past me. They start savagely beating the pimp and the lady of the evening. They're just like, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. And they're yelling. And they're beating them savagely. And they're yelling. And I'm like, eh. You know, I was curled up like the crone who gave Snow White the apple. That's funny. And they're like, they stuffed them into the car. They start driving off. And they're coming to me. Hey, hey. What's up? Slime. Good God. And one of the ladies brings me a pack of frozen okra. And I knew it was frozen okra because I hate okra. I don't like the way it tastes. It's usually kind of slimy unless it's fried. And I'm holding the okra on my eye. And they're like, he's okay. He's okay. Because that's what they knew. And I'm just like, ah. And that, I had a Polaroid. Because in my day, we had Polaroids. On my eye for a while. And I lost the picture. But I wish I had it. It looked like two baby butt cheeks swollen together. But it was one of those moments where I was like, I should have been murdered. Good thing.
Keith Vance: Good thing you took those girls to the grocery store.
Morgan Wright: Oh my God. It's like, my life has been, you know. I've had little acts of just like randomness like that. But yeah. It's, you know. And it's good to be humbled. It's why I love jiu-jitsu. It's like, every man should have a basic martial skill. Okay. You need to have a basic. You can't burpee your way out of a problem. Usually. But I've noticed a lot of them. You know, boxing. Muay Thai. You know, we don't talk about Aikido. That's like the Carlos Mencia of martial arts. Sorry if all you Aikido guys out there.
Morgan Wright: But with jiu-jitsu and jiu-jitsu is uniquely ego-free most of the time. Just like I love wrestling. You know, wrestling is a great skill. Wrestling does have. Wrestling, I understand, you know, why there's the ego behind it. Because you have to give your all every single time. With jiu-jitsu, I can just kind of chill out. I pull somebody in guard. And with jiu-jitsu, there's a lot of fine nuances where, you know, I'll be great with one guy and then I still get caught in something. Yeah. But everyone, by and large, in jiu-jitsu and grappling, they're the nicest. They're Ned Flanders. They're like, I'm getting mauled by a Starbucks barista. And he's like, hey, buddy, you know, let me show you what I just did right here. You put your arm here. Because they want you to get better because that's the only way they can get better.
Keith Vance: So I found out.
Morgan Wright: You and I have had, you and I have talked before. Hold on. Let me, I'm going to finish real quick. The biggest thing about wrestling, you and I talked about this. Everyone knows how to throw a basic punch or kick. Okay. But knowing how to fold someone's clothes with them still in it or helping somebody through involuntary yoga. And in our age, we really don't want to hit nobody no more. You know, it's, it's not, it's not really realistically. Some people do still deserve a high five in the face, but you know, there's other ways to do it. But being able to snuggle someone until they realize the error of their ways and no one's having a lasting damage, you know, is a big deal. And that's why, you know, I stick and you can still do it. I don't want to get hit no more, but I'll still go wrestle because it's fun. And it keeps you, keeps you still feeling, it gives you that fire reminding yourself that you're still a man at the end of the day. You know, that's why I still try to, I tell them overall for kids and adults, jujitsu is still the best. Go ahead.
Keith Vance: So you're still doing, you're doing jujitsu. Yeah, I still roll sometimes. You're still doing 50 at 51. You and I had talked before. And a good point. As men, husbands, fathers, protectors, caretakers, we ought to know how to handle our business. Even if it's just a little combination, you ought to be able to know how to protect your wife, protect your children. Okay. You ought to know that. You ought to know that. And what I have found out is you can tell the guy that knows how to handle those. Business, because he don't talk too loud. He don't posture too much. He's got that quiet confidence, and he's the one that's willing to walk away to de-escalate. You follow me? He's the one that can walk away to de-escalate. I got a friend of mine. His name's Charlie. He's an old hippie. You're going to meet him today, because he's going to come here and go to my birthday party. He's going to ride with me. You're going to meet him. Old hippie, 70-something years old. I like that. Martial artist. He's got a black belt in virtually everything. Just an awesome guy. He's an awesome dude. You shake his hand, and it's like concrete blocks. If he wears shorts, there's these lumps on his legs where he's been kicked. He's hard, but he's gentle. He's got a soft spirit. He recently lost his job, and I found out about it. I was like, man, we've got to figure something out. I love you, brother. We've got to take care of you. He comes over once a week, teaches my girls martial arts. I love it. It's right up his wheelhouse. He's teaching them awareness. Put your phone away. Self-awareness. He's teaching them how to handle business. He's like, hey, have you ever been thirsty in the middle of the night, went to go get a drink of water and stubbed your toe on the bedpost or something? The last thing you're thinking about is water now. He said, when somebody is going to try to attack you, they're thirsty. They're going to attack you. He said, a kick to the shins. There's virtually nothing there. A kick to the shins was like stubbing a toe. They didn't think about how thirsty they are anymore. He said, just real quick, easy, applicable stuff. Yes. Kick somebody in the shins right off the bat. Boom. Be loud. Then he's also teaching them the other stuff. Thankful for that kind of stuff. It's not to be big and bad, but there are some bad people in this world. They need to be handled and taken care of.
Morgan Wright: Oh, yeah. The thing is, there's this weird mindset where people are like, oh, you think you can go beat up the world? No. No. But I want to be confident that I can handle business in the unlikely event that I need to. And there's a balance between being able to use your words first and, like you said, confidence. I mean, there's a reason I run around, I'm super cheerful, because I can choose not to be. And I am highly cognizant. I will never be a big guy. I mean, dude, I'm 51. I'm sweating to finish puberty. I mean, right now, I'm 183 pounds. And that's because I am, that's my version of a bulking phase. You know, I'm now starting to lift and lean out, and I'll drop back on 175 if I'm lucky. I think the average American male is like 205. What are you walking around in? What are you walking around weight? I'm 205 when I'm lean, 215 when I'm heavy. See, and the most playful, respectful of ways, size matters. It's all fun and games. Like, my brother-in-law, great guy, 6'4", 270-pound Colombian guy, Juan. We'll roll sometimes. It's all fun and games, so you have 270 pounds on top of you. And I'm like, oh, okay, I'm a delicate flower now. Yeah. You know, I feel so warm in your loving embrace. You know, it's like, so, you know, having to be reactive and knowing that, you know, that's why I really like jiu-jitsu, because punching is an on-off switch. Either you hit someone or you don't. Right. Okay? And no one smaller than you will normally pick a fight with you. So knowing how to effectively close the distance and just, you know, wrap someone up, big deal. People are like, oh, that doesn't work in the streets. Yeah, it does. Yeah. You know, I mean, what are you talking about? You see so many fights. You watch YouTube nowadays. Somebody throws a one-two, and somebody gets double-egged and dumped on their head. And then the other person just walks away. Yeah. But yeah, I like what you said, because knowing how to handle it, but also handle it with your words first. You know, because, like, I don't, you know, I'm 51. I'm not, I look exciting online in a paper, but realistically, you know, it's like I've got car payments. I've got, you know, bills. I, you know, I've got two teenagers. You know, I'm not that exciting anymore. You know, and I'm, I like, I'm okay with that. I just want to go home and yell at kids to get off my lawn and have an apartment.
Keith Vance: Yeah, it's good stuff. Let's, I'm going to take a break. I drink a pot of coffee. I need to hit the bathroom. Yeah. When we come back, I want to talk about your time in the military a little bit. Obviously, we need to save some time for the American Ninja Warrior stuff. Yeah. And I also want to make sure we spend enough time with that accident you had and that whole change of life that you went through. Yeah. That's a big one. I want to make sure we save enough time for those. Yeah. Let's hit those big three. If there's other stuff that comes up in it, I'll feel free to share whatever you want, but let's make sure we save enough time for that.
Morgan Wright: Oh, yeah. And you know me, I talk for days. However you edit, I don't care. We don't edit. Okay. Oh, man. We're going to have a two-hour long cast. All right.
Keith Vance: This part of the podcast is brought to you by Frequence. The product is Sync. Sync is my collagen and CBN. Thank you. Gen 4, skin, bone, tendon, muscle health. CBN for sleep support. Find the link in the bio. Now let's get back to the show. All right, brother. We're back from the break. Oh, thank God.
Morgan Wright: Listen, I bless the rains down in Africa. I drink so much water.
Keith Vance: I know you're in the military. You showed me a video of a much younger you holding a, I think, an eight-month-old baby. Yeah, yeah. So can you talk about what attracted you to the military that whole time in the military? It sounded like you became a father in the military. Can we just learn that about you in this next little segment?
Morgan Wright: You know, I loved playing Army man when I was a kid. I honestly never thought about really joining the Army until the start of the Gulf War. I was sweeping outside of a Publix in East Fort Myers. Okay. And we used to have a guy we called Mouse. He was a little retiree. He'd pull his little bicycle up and a yellow radio always strapped to the front of his bicycle. And it was always playing the news. And he would go through the trash cans and get the aluminum cans to recycle. And I was out there sweeping. And I was listening to his radio in the background. And it stopped. It interrupted this song to announce the start of the Gulf War. And I was like, oh, my gosh. You know? And something my father and I always did, which I always appreciated, is we'd watch the news together in the evenings. He'd sit down and we'd just watch the news. And he'd be like, well, son, it's important to learn these things. Because if you don't know about the world, how can you live in it? And I was watching it. And I started watching all the conscientious objectors. And no disparagement on them. They all have their reasons. But I felt suddenly so unexpectedly ashamed for them. I felt shame for them. Because in my mind, you signed up for the military. You made an oath and a promise. And now you're like, oh, wait. Now you need to call me on that. I was just kidding, guys. I had my fingers crossed around my back. I couldn't fathom at 17 years old how you would suddenly change your mind about something you signed up for. And I couldn't stop wrestling with it in my head. And three days later, I asked my dad to take me to the recruiter. And I signed up on the spot. So it wasn't a long thought process for you. It was not. It was just some things for me. A lot of times, it just clicks. And suddenly, I'm there. OK. So you signed up. Signed up. Went through basic. Went through, they call it AIT, which is your advanced training. And I was enlisted for many years. And then I went National Guard. And then with National Guard, I had a choice to either exit or sign back up. So there I was. Remember when I said my stories are a little outlandish? Let's go. I've got timestamps to back this up. There I was, September 10th, 2001. Oh, wow. And I went home. And I told my wife at the time, I said, hey, I'm going to go to officer school. I'm going to go be an officer in the Army. And I said, because there's nothing going on in the world. We're on a drawdown. This will be the easiest kick. You know, I can be an officer. I enlisted on September 10th, 2001. The very next day, you know, we had the tragedy of 9-11. And I had friends calling me like, oh, my God. I thought they were messing with me. I'm like, man, I'm trying to study. I'm still in school. You know, quit bothering me. It's not just turn on the TV. And I'm like, well, crap. And, of course, as soon as I finished officer candidate school, you have to go to officer basic school. Now, mind you, when I was enlisted, I was attached to an infantry unit. And there's nothing exciting about infantry. Like, it sounds cool on paper. They apply it in your mandate. And you get there. And you realize, all right, I'm hot and I'm itchy. And I'm camping out here. Every single person I had to share a shelter half with, let me remember this correctly, was a chronic self-toucher. So it's 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm in my sleeping bag. I'm trying to sleep in here. And I'm like, please no. But anyway, so I'm like, I'm going to pick the smartest sounding office, air conditioning-est officer job I could have. And I became a defensive chemical warfare specialist. That was six months of nuclear, biological, and chemical. I'm hanging out with people who had those T86 calculators for fun. I got through that with brute force pity and the pity of others and ignorance. So I'm thinking, fine. I made it. And then they're like, hey. We're sending you to Afghanistan. Oh, I'll get to that in a second. And I was like, okay, great. You know, finally I made it. And I said, okay, great. I thought I was going to be out. I get attached to a field artillery unit running infantry missions in Afghanistan. I'm like, man, that's some full circle BS. The most ironic part is I had been on the volunteer deploy list for almost two years. I was like, please send me anywhere. You know what? I believe in, you know, because at the time I believed in the mission, you know, and then and then, you know, my partner one day, she's like, we were joking around. She switched jobs. And so she was off medical and didn't have any medical insurance. And I said, well, just don't get pregnant. Ha ha ha ha ha. So there we were seven weeks later looking at a pregnancy test. That was positive. And we're like, well, crap. Now they called me. They said, hey, you spun up and deployed. And I was like, no, I'm not. I'm like, I've been on the list for over a year and a half. I'm not about to leave. My freshly pregnant, you know, partner and my wife. And I resigned my commission. So I thought, because I was like, no, I tried. I'm not going to go play in the sandbox now because I'm not going to have somebody be a solo parent. April 1st. I think it was like 2003, April 1st, 2003. They faxed my orders to my school. My very first year of teaching at Tice Elementary, the school my dad taught at. Wow. They faxed the orders. And the lady who got the orders off the fax machine, she had been the library assistant there when I was a student there. Wow. She calls my room crying. Because, you know, every man wants to answer the phone to a woman crying. And she's like, Morgan, the army, they're trying to send you away. And I'm like, come again? You know, and I go upstairs and I look at it. And at the same time, my battalion XO calls me. I remember my company, no, battalion XO calls me. He's like, hey, Lieutenant Wright, you're spun up. You're deploying in 10 days. I'm like, you know, sir, I resign. He's like, something happened with the paperwork. It never got processed. He's like, they took off payroll, but we still have him in the books as active. He's like, you can talk to the battalion commander when you get here about it if you want to. Well, now I had this hard thought. Okay. We had no medical insurance. Okay. And, you know, it kind of felt like, you know, people make jokes about it, but it felt like a sign. You know, it's like, you know, we get our calling from him, you know, from above at times. And for some reason, it just felt real powerful. I'm like, I think, I guess I'm just, this is where I'm supposed to be. Oh. So I take it. It was a, it was literally a 15 minute drive to get home. It felt like 15 hours. Yeah. You know, um, I set the folder down. I go to the bathroom. I come back, you know, uh, she's already looking through the folder and, you know, I can see the tears in her eyes. And I'm like, yeah, I had 10 days. And I said, but now you're going to have, you know, arm TRICARE insurance. I said, and I said, and not for nothing. I said, I feel this is where I'm supposed to be. Wow. Um, and then. Right.
Keith Vance: Yeah. If you felt that was called to be, and you followed through with it. Thank you for that.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. That's, that's how it felt.
Keith Vance: That's like, if you feel a calling, the people that answered the call, I'm thankful for people that answered the call. So if you did feel that as a calling in real time, just from me to you, thank you for that. Well, I appreciate that. That you didn't dodge it.
Morgan Wright: That's, and I, and I, and I had every legal reason to do so. Yeah. I did. When, when I got to the camp, when I, when I finally showed up for, for mobilization and I talked to the battalion commander, I was, I was given a job, uh, called, uh, nighttime battle captain, which means you stay up all night and you just watch patrols and you do patrol documents. It's, it's an important job, but super boring one. It's not what I'm built for. And, uh, and I went to the battalion commander and I said, sir, respectfully, I said, I would, I would, I want a better job or I want to go home. And, and he's like, Lieutenant, you have 30 seconds to explain yourself before I, uh, and then he explained a particular physical act that is unnatural between anybody, let alone two men. Uh, and I said, sir. Okay. And I explained to him what happened and how they lost my resignation packet, but you know, I felt a calling, uh, I didn't know that he was religious at the time and he got real quiet. He goes, Lieutenant, you are 100% in the right. And he goes, I will make you a, I'll make you an executive officer. You be the XO of, uh, one of the companies, you know, said, or I can help you process your paperwork. He's like, cause you are in the right. And I go, thank you, sir. I took the XO job. Now when you're XO, that means you're second in command, which the, the commander puts out a command and the XO is the guy with the stick that goes behind and makes sure it's followed. No one likes the XO. You're, you're the hatchet guy. And I'm used to being liked. Okay. So, uh, so now I'm the hatchet man and, and I'm going through and I'm now I'm in the motor pole because people will turn in, you know, maintenance reports that. I can tell they're just crap. They didn't really look at the vehicle. I'm making sure stuff gets ordered. I'm making sure people are on their guard duties. I'm holding people accountable as a select lieutenant. And then I get pinned first lieutenant. And at that time, about a month later on, my company commander gets caught dying a girl's hair in our command hut. Now, first of all, who needs their roots done in Afghanistan? Now, they were married, just not to each other. And so they both get – he gets booted. Now, I'm suddenly a first lieutenant in temporary company command. And I'm like, please no. I have no skill set for this right just yet. I kept everything together for about a month and a half. And then, thank gosh, we got Captain Adams in. And I had a real close friend of mine, Jeremy Davis. He pinned Fulbert Colonel on about a year ago. He's still in. And they kept me sane and going. But it was a very unique experience seeing what a true scavenger nation is like. Oh, wow. I think it was Russia was in Afghanistan for a long time. Yeah. And when they left, they were beaten so soundly. The old Russian USSR war model was if one tank would do it, we'll send 30. Right. And there's scrap yards of just hundreds of tanks, BMPs, troop carriers, artillery pieces because it was cheaper to scrap them and drive on. And we're patrolling that. And it snows in Afghanistan. My Florida butt didn't know that. And it's just when you realize how timeless it is and what true human desperation is. It really hit me hard. So, you know, there were some things that kind of really picked up on it when I come home now. So, it's real hard for me to ever be stressed out because I've seen what the bottom of the barrel looks like for people having to really truly survive. Wow. That's good.
Keith Vance: That's good. It helped you with your perspective. When things are hard for you, it's really not that hard. And that's a good point because when life gets hard for us, it's good for us to take a deep breath, try to get the big picture, try to get away from the microscope. Yes. That helps in those hardship times. It's when we get too close to it, we stress out about it. That's all we obsess over it. We think about it. But you don't really make good decisions then.
Morgan Wright: Anxiety is the most useless emotion people can have. You are literally borrowing stress from a fictional future. Yes. Why focus on what could go wrong when you can focus on what could go right? You know, it's all about a – I'm confident. I worked on – skill sets. I focus on, hey, most likely I'm going to have a positive outcome with this. And then if a negative outcome happens, it could have been worse.
Keith Vance: So I feel like you were already, based on our conversation, your parents, the way you were raised, I feel like you already had a positive mindset. Yeah. Did that time and Afghanistan just crank it up another notch when you saw like a little broader scope of how people are living and where you live? Did it help? Did it help with that mindset? I think it probably did.
Morgan Wright: It did and I also had – I learned a lot about myself and I had some humbling moments. Even seeing how life was there for the average local, there were still days that I would spend just crying in my bed because I was watching my daughter grow up through AOL dial-up. I could get emailed pictures. I would take my little laptop. I missed her first steps. I missed her first words. You know, and I felt incredibly selfish. I've also – here I am watching, you know, true human suffering, human struggle, human triumph. I remember even – my interpreter was a doctor. Our interpreter was a doctor. He's like, I make four times my salary just talking with you guys. Wow. And he's like – and one of the captains was like, well, hey, but, you know, what are you going to do after this? And he's like, we just survived. He's like, you know, I'm going to make lots of money. He's like, you guys will still leave, but we'll all still be here. Wow. He's like, we'll just take over whenever you leave. Wow. And that's exactly what happened. You know, so, you know, I had to battle, you know, my own realization of my own selfishness of wanting what I wanted. You know, and still realizing that the people around me, they just want to clean water. They want it to not be cold. Like, there are no power grids in Afghanistan. Everything is run off generators. Wow. Because it's such a – they scrap things. We would lay down razor wire. They'd crawl up and they'd just cut it into pieces and take it home with scrap metal. And, you know, it was – and some soldiers – Had no mission. Like, we were told to bring our generator repairmen and our cooks. And, oh, got to have them. And we get there, like, those jobs were being filled by Halliburton. You know, yeah, we need them for tower duty. So, like, you're now telling a 20-year-old, he's got to spend 12 hours in a tower on guard duty. And there wasn't a whole lot of missions in Afghanistan. I mean, like, there's a couple times I, you know, I would work on trying to cancel some patrols, and I got called to carpet. And thankfully, the botanical man had a sense of humor, because, you know, he was, once again, unnatural acts, my skull usually missing one eye. And I said, sir, it's negative four degrees. I have Florida drivers and overweighted gun trucks in a snowy mountaintop. Z Germans are not out there, sir. And thankfully, he found that funny, because the permit had taken us flipping. And he laughed, and he said, you know, get the F out of here, Lieutenant. But it was smooth, you know. But, yeah, it was just a very, you can't help but to see yourself in situations like that. And to see, like, I was seeing, you know, the good parts of me and the parts of me that I didn't want to admit existed. You know, I felt shame, you know, that I felt selfish, you know. But I also felt, right. Two times you said you felt selfish. One, I could be home with my baby. Okay. And even though, you know, I mean, like, I knew that eventually I'd get home. You know, it was just time. I just had to, you know, do the time and then make it home. It was 16 months. But, you know, and I'm watching real suffering. Like, we were doing, we were dropping off supplies to children's hospitals. I'm seeing kids that, you know, I, we, at one time, we, I gave a kid, he had, he had burns. And he was pretty disfigured. He gave him some shoes and some candy. And we're driving away. And in the rear view mirror of the Humvee, I'm watching two other kids just go and take, snatch it right out of his hands. And we can't turn around. You know, it's like, and you knew the kid, I made that kid happy. And the kid, you could tell the kid, he didn't even like fight back. He, he knew that that was going to happen. That's why he didn't look so excited when we gave him stuff. And he shoved some of the candy in his mouth right away. You know, like, and you realize that, you know, like, that's true suffering. I was just wanting time to pass faster. You know, his time's not going to pass. It's, that's his life every day.
Keith Vance: Wow. That's got to be heartbreaking though. We just talked about you and I are natural protectors, providers. And knowing that you can't. And then knowing you can't. That's got to be, that had to be hard on you. It.
Morgan Wright: To watch. It was a growth process. And, and what that does is, you know, the, it's not good or bad. It simply is. We cannot protect everyone. So what you do is you focus on the pond you're in. You throw, you throw the puddle in the pond. That rippling effect ripples out. You know, that, that's why, you know, I go to teach PE every day, you know, and I try to have the best attitude. I try to make the, the best case I can to send these kids home happy, you know, because I know what's going on in their life. You know, I've, I've, I've, I've had many, surprisingly many students, like you said before, you've seen, you know, old students come back. I've, I've held, I've held babies from my former students. I've, I've helped kids get their GEDs. I've helped them sign up for college. I've helped them go to the military. I've buried two students, you know, because it's, you know, the, the fact that they remember their elementary school PE teacher and they reach, come back, they reach back out to me for advice. Years later is one of the greatest compliments I have ever felt in life. You know, I feel like, you know, at the end of the day, we want to know we made a difference, you know, and I want that difference to be positive. I'm creating that rippling effect in my pond as best I can. I have 1100 kids every day, you know, and so every year, you know, I'm sending out another 150, 200 kids more out into the world to go just be a little bit better and a little bit stronger.
Keith Vance: When you finished up your tour, your enlistment. Yeah. When you finished up and got home, what was that? What were those first few weeks like? It was surreal.
Morgan Wright: You know, I was, I was so rigid in everything that I did. You know, my wife was very, she was very patient. She used her words a lot. You know, it wasn't, you know, people, people will talk about PST, PTSD, throw it around, but it's not even that. It's just, you're so set up on a timeline of schedule and being rigid, you know, like how you wanted to be with fitness at first. You're like, no, this is how it is. And then for me to realize that, no, it's okay. I don't have to do the laundry on Tuesdays. If I, if, if I do it on Monday or Wednesday, the world did not end. I didn't, I didn't, my whole schedule is not thrown off. You know, it's being able to reassess and reassign values that are more realistic to day-to-day living to not, I didn't need to be hard. I didn't need to be firm, you know. It was, you know, learning how to parent, you know, because I was still a very fresh teacher then. I was still learning, you know, you know, even now, you know, with my kids, you know, if a stressful moment comes around, I'm like, hey, listen, I know this is stressful for you. You know, it's stressful for me, too. This is the first time, you know, I've had to experience this situation with a child that's my child. So it's your first experience situation. It's like, you know, my son had a car accident and, you know, he was shook up and, you know, I was like, I don't know what to do. You know, it's a financial burden. But I looked at like, you're healthy. Everyone's fine. No one's hurt. You know, I said, it's going to be OK. And we called it down. Big picture. But I said, yes, it's I'm nervous, too. I'm not upset. I'm nervous because this is the first time I've had to deal with this. I've never had a child have a car accident before. You know, and I said, you know, and, you know, here I am. I'm at 50 and I'm learning new things, too. So it was, you know, you find you still keep growing and you still find ways to keep looking to make it a positive experience, even if a negative experience can still be a positive growth experience. And being able to learn that as a man in the world today is such a paramount skill.
Keith Vance: So the theme, again, none of this is planned, but you talked about mindset. You talk about having a positive attitude and think, you know what, just because it's hard doesn't mean it's going to be the worst case outcome. This seems to be a theme threaded through here because it's come across several times. Yeah. This is good for me personally because I always take things like if something hard happens, my mind automatically goes to everybody's dead. It automatically goes to worst case scenario. Oh, yeah. And it plays out scenarios like I'll lay awake and I'm playing out all these scenarios. And then in real life, none of those scenarios came to play. So I just wasted all this energy, all this energy and things that never came to fruition. And at 49, 50 years old, I'm aware of it and learning how to shut that down. Quit trying to plan, quit trying to see where those are going to go in the future. Because every time I've done it, none of them happened. It's a futile, it's a waste of energy. Yeah. So what we're talking about now I think is important. We talked about, you know, being where you're supposed to be. Talk about what you're supposed to talk about. Maybe somebody needs to hear this.
Morgan Wright: It's big. It's big. It's a big one. Yeah. And as men, we do that. We think about the scenarios, the hypotheticals and the possibilities because, you know, we're the protectors. We're the ones that, okay, this is what we bring to the table. And we don't want to be caught on guard with a situation that we don't feel that we were equipped for that. Oh, I should have thought of that. So the end of the day is kind of realizing that life is going to happen whether we think about it or not. And so I put things, I compartmentalize a lot. Like if there's something that could be an issue but I can't address it right away, it goes in this little box. Because I don't, I can spend that energy on things that I can reach out and touch and put my hands on and work on. So being able to find a way to channel that energy positively. And now just because it's in a box does not mean it's forgotten. If a time frame comes up where I'm like, okay, oh, now it's this moment I can address this. And I've learned too, the vast majority of the time, things tend to work out overall in a positive manner. Because I don't remember who said the quote. I don't remember who it, but it said, I'm a firm believer in luck. And I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. It's because look at, you know, you sometimes talk about things like how you'll really overly focus, not obsess. Obsess has a negative connotation. But you have such a singular mindset. I see that to be a very good strength because I've seen what you've accomplished in your life. I mean, this studio, you built the studio, I never would have done this. I'd be like, this looks great. I just wouldn't rent it out of space. Okay, but you're like, I can do this with my hands. I know I have the ability to do that. Okay, that's a very admirable quality. Many people in the world lack tenacity these days. I call it the three-click rule. They look up something and they can't find it within three clicks on the internet. It doesn't exist. Dead to me. You know, and we need people that don't do that. You're like, well, I didn't find the answer, so now I'm going to make the answer. That's you. You make the answer. And I'm the guy that just kind of floats in like Bugs Money. You know, it's like, and that's okay because both skill sets are very necessary to balance through the world. You know, I learned from you. You learned from me. We pick up bits and pieces and we don't appreciate it.
Keith Vance: You compartmentalize it. You put in the boxes there. My faith plays a big role. And like the way I think and what shapes me, there's a verse that comes to mind that I cling to. Don't fret about the things of tomorrow. The things of tomorrow will take care of themselves. You've got enough to worry about the day. Yep. That's beautiful. That helps me. The other thing is there's a sovereign God. There's only one person, I believe, that has the whole thing in his hands, and that's God. And whenever I try to be God, I break. Like I need to learn how to take care of my responsibilities the ones for today, the ones for tomorrow, maybe they're not mine to handle yet. And just putting those future responsibilities down because I've got enough to deal with the day. It's comforting, and it keeps things in perspective for me.
Morgan Wright: And there's more than a few times that responsibility for tomorrow, we get up the next day, that responsibility no longer exists. Something else happened. Good point. So now you save yourself time by not spending time thinking about that. Good point. Because now it's a non-issue. Good point.
Keith Vance: Can we transition to Ninja Warrior stuff? Sure, man.
Morgan Wright: How did that come about? Ninja Warrior came around. The show was popular at the time. My kids loved watching it, especially my daughter Jocelyn. And she was getting ready. She's like, oh, you've got to be on this show. Dad, you've got to be on this show. I'm like, yeah, sure. How old was she? Nine. Nine. Okay. And she's 20-something now, right? Yeah, she's just turned 20. She's 20, yeah, for about back in the end of May. Okay. And she got real avid about it, and she's like, Dad, for my 10th birthday, I want you to apply for this TV show. And I'm like, are you kidding? It's going to be fine. So I look it up online, and the application process is very interesting. You have like eight pages where you have to type out how amazing you are, your accolades, and why you should be on the show, and then what your fitness backgrounds are. And then you also have to submit a two- to three-minute long video highlighting you. And you also have to be – basically, they also want to make sure that not only are you athletic, but are you TV-friendly. Understood. At the end of the day, it's still a TV show. Otherwise, we'd all be destroyed by like five-foot-seven dudes named Tanner who are gymnasts in Ohio. Understood. You know? But that said, you know, I did it. I filmed a little video. And I had another future buddy of mine, Jeff. We got the video put together. I didn't think anything about it. Okay.
Keith Vance: And then – When you sent the letter off and the video off, was your daughter excited?
Morgan Wright: Oh, she loved it. Like, you know, I – you know, she was thrilled about it. And I said – and I said, well, don't get your hopes up, baby. I mean, I'm a – I'm an elementary school PD teacher down here, you know, in Fort Myers, Florida. They probably can't find me on a map right now. And then, you know, I'm sitting there, and one day my phone rings. You know? I jump on my – hello? Like, hey, it's American Ninja Warrior. I'm like, okay. And then – but then it gets real. Because, like, you know, at the time, I was doing the obstacle course races. You know? Oh, yeah. I was running those competitively. Yeah, yeah. And the – I was a good runner, but I was great at the obstacles. Okay. So that's how I would end up getting podiums a lot because I could beat obstacles faster than some of the other elites.
Keith Vance: The obstacle races that you did, was that one reason why Jocelyn wanted you to do American Ninja Warrior? Because you were doing those? Yeah.
Morgan Wright: She saw those, and she's like, dad – well, she was running a couple of them with me at the time, and she was doing great herself. Nice. Like, she was destroying the kids' waves. A couple of times, she would snatch the gold medal in the 17 and under bracket as a nine-year-old or an eight-year-old. Wow. Because she was a super fast runner. I mean, yeah. And I think at nine, she put down, I think, a 23-minute 5K. Wow. And then – and she was like, well, I could have tried harder. I'm like – Wow. You know? But – so – So they call. They call. And then I'm like, okay, well, now I'm really paying attention. So I drove up to the live fitness center and training center in St. Pete because they were the closest thing that had Ninja obstacles. They had a salmon ladder and a warped wall. Now, I learned firsthand that what you see on TV is nothing to seeing it in person. A 14-and-a-half-foot warped wall is 14-and-a-half feet, man. I think it was – it took me about two hours to build up the courage just to try it because I had concretes on both sides. So if you miss the lip, you – Wow. So – and then – and now the other hand, things like the warped wall and the salmon ladder. So hold on a minute.
Keith Vance: Go ahead. The warped wall. Yeah. You – you get the call. Hey, you're going to be on. Mm-hmm. Were you nervous? Were you excited? What were you feeling? Pretty excited. You're excited.
Morgan Wright: It's very rare that I get nervous about things. I love competing.
Keith Vance: That's what I found out about you. Nothing really seems to bother you. You're like, let's go. Let's go.
Morgan Wright: I'm excited. Yeah. It's such a, I mean, we work out every day. We train. Why train if you're not going to test yourself? You know,
Morgan Wright: what's he saying? A knight's armor is great when it's polished, but it's not meant to stay that way. You know, it's, you know, I love competing, you know, from, from boxing, from wrestling, from MMA to jujitsu. It's like, I've always been a super cheerful, happy competitor.
Keith Vance: When you, when you're standing for the first time on the bottom of that warp wall. That's the first time I got nervous.
Morgan Wright: I was like, I could really hurt myself with this.
Keith Vance: Was there ever a thought in your mind that you couldn't be able to do it? Were you like, oh, I just made a mistake. You're like, oh, I'm not going to be able to do this. Okay.
Morgan Wright: So I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to wipe out on TV. Like I said, the entire world is going to watch me die right here. I'm going to fall and break 17 things. And how long did it take you work practicing on that?
Keith Vance: Like how long did it take you to get it? Over 90 minutes. It's too bad.
Morgan Wright: It's a workout. Yeah. You would think you would think, but when you're somebody who's used to being able to, you're naturally good at obstacles. I got you. Like, I'm like, I've never really been stuck at an obstacle. So like I got the salmon ladder within under a minute. I was able to figure out how to do the salmon ladder under a minute. Got it. So I got that, did the salmon ladder for a while. And then I did the salmon ladder first because I looked at the work ball. I'm like, I'll get to that later. Got it. And then I got lucky because I was able to finally, I had two friends that were there. My buddy Jason, who's, we used to compete against each other a lot of times in the obstacle course races. We're in the same category. He's a school teacher too. So just, just a great guy. We would, he was like, I'll run behind you. He's like, I'm going to catch you if you fall and die. You know, so like, so like, so like, okay, I have a safety net. No. And I finally got it. I mean, like that little, like, like it's, it's like three steps. It's like, you run and then right when the wall curves, that's when you have a three, one, two, three. And your, whatever foot you push off for a basketball layup, that's your final push foot. Your other hand swings around and like a grappling hook and you grab the lip. Got it. On the show, they have a small lip over the top. So they don't see it. You can cup that lip like a little pan. I'm a panda bear. You panda grip that thing and you pull yourself up. And once I got it, I'm like, click. Now I got it every time. You know, unless I have like a bad run or a bad approach. The issue with the show too, not an issue, but a challenge is when you get there, you can see the obstacles. You can't touch anything. They give you one walkthrough. They walk you through as a group and they have one person. They have demonstrators show you how each obstacle can be done. And then they're like, any questions? All right, that's it. See you tonight. They film this show. They start filming usually around 9 p.m. They do it at night because the lighting looks better. There's less ambient noise. And it's cooler. You know, every year I have never gotten on stage before midnight. I usually average around somewhere around 2 in the morning. Wow.
Keith Vance: That's got to be a whole other layer of difficulty.
Morgan Wright: I like having a structured bedtime. Sleep is the number one thing that influences your health. Got it. You know, so if I'm awake at 2 in the morning, that means something exploded normally. You know, something's bad. You know, it's Charlie in the trees. Like, there's a problem going on. So, you know, and it's just balance too because now you're hungry. You want to eat a little bit, but not enough. Not too much. Right. You want to have some coffee, but not too much. Right. But, you know, in the first season, I think I wiped out the fourth obstacle. But I was surprisingly like, I didn't get on stage until around 3 in the morning. And I started walking up there. I'm wearing my little silly moose hat. So, quick segue. I started wearing the moose hat when I was doing athletic competitions because I was a PE teacher. You know. And I like wearing hats teaching kids because it makes it funny. They pay attention. Sure. But it was a very popular time for athletes to be the heel, the bad guy, to be a jerk, to talk trash. And I'm like, I can't talk trash, but also tell these kids to be good at sports. So, I started intentionally putting on the hat because, for one, you know, fitness should be fun. You know, competing should be fun. Okay. Competing is hard. I like winning. I hate losing. But I've never once been a sore loser because if somebody beat me, I know they earned it and they deserve it. You know, and I'm here to celebrate them now. It's a good lesson. You know, and, but, you know, my little moose hat went on the camera and on the big screen and the crowd starts waking up. They start clapping and laughing. And I don't care if people left with me or at me, Keith. Right. Right. I made them happier. Either way, they're not hurting my feelings, and I made other people happy. And then year after year, they kept coming back, and people started calling me moose over and over again. I put on the hat one time at the end of an obstacle course race, because I would always run a fun lap. The competitive lap, you already know this, running for time is awful. There's nothing fun about running competitively. Your whole soul hurts. Yes. So, I would put a kilt on, and I would peel off my racing speedo. Please, sorry for the visual. Racing like Spanx for what it is. Spanx for men. And then I'd just put on the moose hat, and I'd run barefoot with my kilt and my moose hat on. But then I would help get people through the race. I would cheer them on, because you can't have an elite wave if you don't have all the people who buy the open waves. Understood. Because if they're not there supporting the race, my check for winning a race is going to be much smaller. Understood. So, why wouldn't you? And it's fun seeing other people have fun and helping them accomplish. It's within your wheelhouse. Yeah. It's what you do. And they start calling me, hey, oh, you're that moose guy. You helped my mom, my sister, my brother, my kid through the obstacle. So, it just became a thing. I started wearing the moose hat. I started wearing it to walk out for boxing, for jiu-jitsu matches, for obstacle races, for ninja. I just put the moose hat on, because I would spread positivity. And that ended up making me a fan favorite. Even though I'm like, really, the world's okay as ninja.
Keith Vance: Isn't that crazy that something as trivial as a hat would be like an iconic thing that people would remember? Yes. That's crazy. If you had no war that, you would have just been lost in the crowd.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. Crazy. I'd be like, oh, here's another white guy, a ninja warrior. You know, it's a, oh, he looks tall and lanky. You know, like, oh. But, and the biggest thing I love about it is the amount of positivity that, you know, that it's brought. You know, people look at that, you know, the whole moose thing, and they get super excited about it. They're just like, they're like, man, you know, like, I love that I can give them that positive energy. But, yeah, overall, I've been on this show five times. And, as you know, you know, I had the, I had, Ninja, there was a joke about wanting, oh, everyone has to have a sob story to get on the show. And I'm like, I barf glitter, guys. I am positivity. So, as you know, I had a heart attack three and a half years ago. And I thought I was done. And I was able to, out of the blue, I started building myself back up. Ninja reached back out to me. And they're like, hey, we heard you're healthy again. You want to come back for a fifth time? And that's why my last season, you know, they had me. I was on a commercial, like, every 40 minutes on Nationwide, seeing me in the hospital bed. Yeah. You know, not humbling at all. Really humbling.
Keith Vance: Let's talk about that heart attack.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. I think you were driving or something, weren't you? It was worse. So, for me, you saw me, I was in pinnacle health. Yes. I mean, I was around 9% body fat. I was just, everything was great. I was at the gym. And I wasn't feeling right. I remember talking to my dad. I don't remember the conversation. And apparently I told him, yeah, dad, you know, my left arm's feeling kind of weird, you know. He's like, son, that's normally a heart thing. You should go get checked out. I'm like, nah, it's going to the gym. I'm at the gym. I remember I did a couple of squats. And I'm like, something doesn't feel right. Now, I walked back to my car. And I was like, I'm going to go to the VA and get this checked out. Now, I should have just had them call me an ambulance right now. But what happens is your brain stops functioning the way it should. My thought process became very disjointed. And I would just pick the first thought. And I was like, that's it. I drove myself to the VA. I don't remember driving. I am mortified by that. Because it was a 16-minute drive. I could have caused a car accident. I could have caused death, mayhem, destruction. I remember getting to the VA. And I'm so used to doing the right thing. I'm like, I should just pull right up there and tell them I'm having a problem. I still parked my car in the lot and walked up to the nursing stand.
Keith Vance: I think part of that is if you tell yourself, okay, you're okay. You feel what I'm saying?
Morgan Wright: It is. But I knew I wasn't. But I knew that I wasn't. I was feeling weird. You're feeling weird. I was feeling it.
Keith Vance: But were you trying to tell yourself, hey, it's going to be okay. And trying to talk yourself through it. Because that's what I do.
Morgan Wright: I felt bad. I didn't want to inconvenience somebody by having them have to park my car. And I felt like the corner of the vision getting fuzzy. And I remember walking up to the nursing stand. And I looked at the nursing stand. And I saw them look at me. And I saw the look at their faces. And I was like, oh, that's not good. And I said, I'm sorry. I think I'm having a heart attack, though. I really apologize. And then the lady said, sit down. And I was like, I don't think I can. I don't think I can. I took a knee and then I woke up in a vacuum in ambulance and the guy's like, Hey, you have about three to five minutes. I put some nitro under your tongue. Call somebody. And so I'm trying, I'm trying, uh, you know, and I couldn't get my fingers to work. Right. So the, the paramedic did it for me and you know, and of course my, you know, uh, my wife, she's freaking out. She's like, okay, I'm on it. I, I'm like, got it. I'm turning my phone off. I code. Okay. I go out. Uh, he, they had to use the 80 shock machine and do CPR on me. Uh, but by now I'm unconscious. Okay. They brought me, got me stable, get me to Lee Memorial. I code again. They have to use the AD machine, CPR again. And then they run me to health park. Now, uh, I was in a medically induced coma for five days. I, uh, I was, uh, unfortunately, uh, very combative. And at the time I was in very good shape. I, uh, I felt bad. Cause like one of the nurses came and visited me later on and she was shying up. I headbutted her, uh, and it was bad. It was bad, man. And I started crying and she was like, no, no, it's okay. You know, it's, uh, you know, um, I was restrained. They had to put a, uh, intubation tube. And I remember at one point I kept, because of my, my lean body fat, I kept breaking through the medication. Wow. Uh, and I remember chewing on the tube. Like I was like, I'm not happy. I was not happy. I was mad. And I really, I never really get mad. And I remember, and, and it was like the huge bright light. Cause you need to have the medical light. But in my mind, it's like this huge shining light. And there was what I thought was an angel, but it was the same nurse I had head butted. And I, and I said, is this reality? And she just said, I am so sorry. And then they up to my meds. I'm back out. Wow. Uh, and then, uh, you know, finally I come around. Uh, I had had my life saved by a, a, a brand new medical device. So this heart attack happened because I had a, a, a genetic, uh, issue. Like part of my, one of my main arteries never quite fully developed. And I was supposed to have had this heart attack a little over a decade earlier. But fitness kept that from happening. And I made it so that technology only been in the area for about 14 months. So because of fitness, I made it to a time where the technology was able to save my life. But the surgery, they cranked this arm back so hard. They tore my rotator cuff. I lost a sec. They had to take out one muscles, uh, strand, uh, ligament of my, of my pack, uh, in order to shove the device in to get it. It's a straw that goes in my heart, uh, in one of the main arteries and it pumps the blood. But for you, so your heart can, a heart's like any other muscle. It's going to recover better when it can rest. Right. So my heart got turned down to only having to do about 10% of the workload. So, uh, but even then when I woke up, uh, my rotator cuff had gotten torn. I was my, I had muscle paralysis from my pectoral by bicep, my forearm and my hand. Like I did it completely useless. Um, and the swelling was so bad. I was having blisters on my skin just so the water could release itself. And, uh, you know, and, and of course one of the more humbling things is having a catheter put in. Like, I mean, you, you look down and you're like, Oh, that's okay. This, I have, I have tubes in and out of me now.
Keith Vance: Um, but did that feeling of helplessness. That's what I want to talk about just briefly. Yeah. So, men find their identity and who they are, what they can do, the mark they make. Mm-hmm. You're describing something that's, you're helpless. Yeah. So, here you are, um, you've always seen the positive and everything. What were those emotions like laying in the hospital bed? Were you positive? I, when I, when they brought me out of our identity, well, it was rough. What were some of those emotions?
Morgan Wright: Well, my, my first emotion was honestly confusion. Cause I, I, I remember I went from being in the back of an ambulance to waking up. Yeah. And, and I hurt. Yeah. It, it was painful. Uh, when they tell you in CPR class, you know, you, you, you might break some ribs, you know, you might, you know, you might do this. Like I didn't have any ribs broken, but because I, you know, I'm fit, but, uh, I was sore. The rib bruises. If, uh, you know, a lot of men out there know if bruising a rib is almost worse than breaking or fracturing a rib. Cause the, it's just the, the tenderness of it. Plus my rotator cuff being torn. And, uh, the surgeon was just a phenomenal surgeon. His bedside manner though, cause he came out of the surgery finally. And, uh, and looked at my, you know, my whole family was there, you know, there's like 30, you know, 25 people in the room waiting. And he goes, he goes, okay, the surgery was a success, but he, he went too long without. Oxygen, he will not be the man you think that you knew. So now, the men in my family, my father, my uncle, they're like, okay, well, he's a grown adult. He's athletic. He's strong. If he's mentally incapable, we can't take care of him if he has a violent outburst. And I'd already been violent. I had to be restrained when I was under. So, now the whole family, they're all breaking down and crying. And they had to wait five days for me not knowing. And then they brought me out of the coma.
Morgan Wright: My partner comes in, and she's like, hey, what am I doing here? And so then everyone starts breaking down crying because they're like, okay, he's mentally okay. And I'm like, once again, I'm surrounded in a room with crying people. This is awkward. Why does everything hurt? And it was such a foreign experience, not being able to move, being in constant pain. And I also learned that I don't do morphine well. I have a, morphine causes me to hallucinate. And so pain meds run through my system really quickly. Yeah. So, and the thing is too, when I hallucinate, I become irritable because I know it's not real. So I'm having these floating geometric shapes trying to like, ooh, I'm here. I'm like, you're not real. Yes, I am. I swear. And so now I'm irritable and I'm trying to explain to whoever's in the room, like, yeah, there's floating shapes and squares and triangles. And I'm mad because I know they're not here.
Keith Vance: And my son, Thomas, when he was a kid, he fell and hit his head and his brain swelled. He lost vision. My wife.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. When it's your kid. Yep.
Keith Vance: My wife takes him to the hospital with all my kids. That was somewhere else. And I pull in the hospital. I hear my babies crying because my babies are crying. And I hear Thomas screaming.
Keith Vance: But he couldn't see. The swelling in the brain, he couldn't see. And they gave him some medication. That medication made him like you talked about. Wow. Made him mad, agitated. Yeah. So he's agitated. And those doctors and nurses of mine, this kid's a brat. Yeah. And they're treating him like that. They're treating him like that.
Keith Vance: I hear him say.
Keith Vance: If my dad was here, you wouldn't be doing this to me.
Keith Vance: He had thrown up. He had thrown up because he had a trauma. Yeah. Nurse got pissed off at him. He threw up. They're trying to put him in a thing. And he's. He's. All right.
Keith Vance: So I'm going to. I find him. I find him because I can hear him. Yeah. I find him. And I said, hands off. Hands off. And I just laid on him. He's like, dad. Dad. Yeah. And he's good. He's good. He's good. But now we found out he don't like. He can't take certain medications either. What a way to find out, though. They had him strapped down. He's fighting. My dad was here, you know. And then. But they missed that. They mischaracterized us. It's just a little brat kid. I say, this ain't no brat kid. Like, this is not who he is. But they. I had. When I came in the room. And I wasn't mean to people. But I said, like. It changed. Yeah. But he was. Listen to you. Can you imagine being a 10-year-old kid? Like, what you're talking about. Being bewildered. You can't see. Like, where am I? All this kind of stuff like this. You know what I mean? I mean. I actually. Listen to you talking about it. I'm remembering. So, anyway.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. No, I can't believe he handled it that well to begin with. I'm 10 years old. But. And I'm really glad. For it's worth it. You were able to go in there. And, you know. And. You know. I wasn't there. You know. I agree. The medical staff could have handled it differently. However. They call it medical practice. Because it's not. It's not a. It's not a. A resolution there. They're learning every day, too. You know. New things come out. At the end of the day, they got a job to do. They're human beings. Yeah, and I'm glad they're there to do that job. But every now and then, it costs nothing to be graceful. It's like, there are days to, I'm at work too. I'll snap at a kid. I'm human. And I see that I really hurt the kid's feelings, and I'm like, and I will apologize to that child. Because I will never trust an adult that thinks they do not have to apologize to a child if they do something wrong. It's a good lesson. That is, I mean, it goes back to thinking that you can't learn something from somebody younger than you. If somebody has the hubris and the audacity to think, to realize that they made an error, but they're like, no, it's a kid. I'm not going to apologize to a kid. That person is dead to me. And now, let me take that back. I have given them the opportunity to succeed. I'm like, what should you say? And if they take ownership of it, that's a growth moment. Good job. You know, but there are very few things that will be a very finite thing for me, but that's a big one. You know, everyone always jokes, if you're mean to the serving staff, you know, when you go out to eat. You know, stuff like that. But, you know, I think that, you know, I'm sorry that you had to go through that. Because you feel helpless. My boy, Jackson, he went to see the sandcastles getting built with my grandma. And then he came home. I was getting ready to go watch some of my friends do some amateur MMA. And he looked up at me and goes, hey, Pop. And one of his eyes, the pupil, the actual, it was like massively dilated. And the other one wasn't. That normally means, oh, it's not a tumor. No, that means it's a tumor. So suddenly I'm like, ah! Run into the ER. I had to sit there and pet his leg. They'd put him in the MRI. But it's like the loud, super big, clanky one. So I'm just sitting there. I got my hand on his leg, you know, so you get the image. And we had 45 minutes, you know. It's like, you know. And I've never felt so helpless. Yeah. You know. So not near what you went through. But I understand when you realize it's your child, you know. And I'm sitting there like I'm, you know, silently crying. But I'm trying not. I'm like, you know, you're crying. Like, everything's okay, buddy. You know. And because you have to be there for them. Yeah. You know. So I love that. And you handled that right, the right way, Jelena. Lay on him, hug him. Let him know that dad was there. Really proud of you, buddy.
Keith Vance: I had forgotten that memory. Why would you want to remember it? That's some traumatic stuff, bud. But listen, you talk about being agitated. It made me remember. So I didn't mean to get off as a side track.
Morgan Wright: No. Long story short, though. I mean, yeah. You're right. It sucked. And you saw with the buildup. It took me months to get feeling back and everything. I could do nothing. Fitness. All I could do was walk. So I started walking. I would walk 1,000 steps a day. 2,000. 10,000. 20,000. 30,000. All I could do was walk. And then when walking was enough, I bought a weight vest. And I would walk with a weight vest. I couldn't put my hand on a wall and lean forward because everything was so painful. I couldn't do anything with this hand. You know, it was just like a limp. I had to get help. I needed to get help getting dressed. Getting my shirt on for a hot minute for a few months. I mean, you know. And, you know, kudos to, you know, Lisa for being with me during that time of our relationship. Because she was just very stalwart, always there, you know. And, you know, everything was always positive, you know. And, you know, sometimes, you know, partners stay and go. But, you know, it's always important to honor them for, you know, and appreciate, you know, as those relationships bloomed. And she was authentically always, and we're still, you know, we're still great friends. We're no longer together as a relationship. But we're still, you know, very close. We communicate. We, you know, we talk about our kids. Talk about finances. You know, we talk about life. You know, it's, you know, just a wonderful, true, you know, life friend and life partner. You know. And she was there through that hole. Built myself back up, by the way. And then I pushed too hard. Heart starts getting weak again. I have to go in, spend a couple days. Okay. So I get knocked down again. Slow down a minute. Yeah.
Keith Vance: What was the timeline between, okay, you got, you had the heart attack. You got out of the hospital. You're, you start by walking.
Morgan Wright: Year and a half. A year and a half. About a year and a half later, I think I'm good. And then my heart has an issue again because I'm pushing too hard with fitness. Pushing too hard.
Keith Vance: Did you, okay, so let's talk about pushing too hard. Did you know you're pushing too hard? Or did you feel like, hey, I need to catch up because I lost some gains. Like, did you, what was that? Did you know you're pushing too hard?
Morgan Wright: I, I didn't think I was. My heart disagreed with me. And it turns out the heart, uh, that's, that's the call. That's the shot maker, you know? That's the shot caller. Uh, and I thought I was doing good. And then. And then. And then. And then I was like, I flat. I was like, I am not good. Wow. And then, you know, this time, though, I knew it wasn't the same. I knew it wasn't a heart attack, but something wasn't right. Go to the VA. And they're like, yeah, dude. They're like, you're going too hard. And you're right. I felt like I had to catch up. You know, I'm like, no, I can't rest. I'm so diminished now. So then I rested. And then I freaking did it again four months later. What in the world, man? Are you hard-headed? Yeah. Hey, you know, I'm bright for some things. I'm not bright for others. There's a reason I teach PE, brother. And then finally, I found a.
Keith Vance: I'm going to give you your own device. You said, you told me, hey, when you get in the mindset that this is what you do the rest of your life. So why did you have to all cram it in in a few months? It's like, just go a little slow. Because we're all only human. I know. You know, and we're men. We're men. We're men.
Morgan Wright: I'm feeling good. So let's just put a little more on. That's exactly what happened. And a lot of people forget. They think of, you know, overloading the heart by doing too much cardio. Okay. And, you know, when you put the extra 25-pound plate on, your heart's pumping harder because you're moving your muscles more. And what happened again, four months later. I said, no, it was, I think it was actually about a year and two months when I had the first issue. And then, yeah, and then about four months after that. And then I finally slowed down, built myself back up at a much more reasonable pace. And lo and behold, on my 50th birthday, I get a phone call from, I got an email, email from Ninja Warrior. And they're like, hey, listen, we're doing an episode, bringing back fan favorites. Any chance you want to come back? You know, and I'm like, well, yeah, I've been knocked down three times now. Heck yeah. Okay. You know, and then I felt good. My training was solid. And once again, you know, it was like, I was like, it had been five years since I got on that stage. And I was like, they're not going to remember me.
Keith Vance: It had been five years. It had been a five-year gap now. It had been a five-year gap. I'm glad you said that because I'm not remembering that. It was a five-year gap.
Morgan Wright: It was a five-year gap. Wow. And then I was supposed to go on season 14, but I tore a muscle and I couldn't compete that year. So I had to sit that year out. Can I ask you a quick question before we lose track?
Keith Vance: Yeah. When you had the heart surgery done. Yeah. And you got back to full health. Did you notice a difference between, like, did you feel your heart wasn't operating correctly? Yeah. I'm not. I will never be back at the same. No, what I'm saying is your heart wasn't working right. Correct. Now you have this thing. Yeah. I have a stent in me now.
Morgan Wright: Did you feel a difference in your heart? Yes. I do feel a difference. I feel, like, near the end, I was like, before the heart attack, I would be exercising and I'd be like, why am I so winded? Okay. You know. Before. Yeah, before. I was like, I was getting winded when I shouldn't be winded. Like, it was starting to have effect. Oh, okay. Remember, at the very end, when you and I would be working out over here, and notice, and I started dropping off. I remember this. I was doing a little bit less. Yes. Without workouts. And you were like, what's going on? Is my trainer getting lazy? No, your trainer's heart was starting to fail.
Keith Vance: Listen, don't put words in my mouth. I never said that.
Morgan Wright: No, I said that. Because, like, that's what I would think. I would think, if I have a trainer and I'm not working my trainer, because I love coming here, I love competing against you when we're doing fitness. And then I realized, I was like, what's going on? But that's what took place. Like, I realized my fitness was starting to, like, my cardio, my heart was getting too ramped up. Got it. And when you do something long enough, you know, I should, if I do five rounds on the heavy bag, and I'm suddenly getting tired at round three, when I do five rounds all the time, I should have clocked that better. Got it. But, yeah.
Keith Vance: So now you get the thing in. Yeah. Is your heart rate back, like, two? It's getting better.
Morgan Wright: It's called a refraction rate. Okay. And normally, the average person has around a 55% refraction rate. Okay. Okay. If you have a 70% refraction rate, you're considered a pinnacle of health. Okay. Okay. I was, before, around, like, 62, 63. Now, I'm at, like, 51. Okay. But before, I was around 33. Wow. I, you know, but when they, when they were, like, put it in. So it was like, you know, and I was still trying to push myself. Mm-hmm. But, yeah. So Ninja's finally, like, hey, you know, they're like, gotcha. You know, you finally have a sob story, Morgan. And I'm like, okay. I said, it's not only a sob story, because I didn't die. Right. But, you know, I said, but I would love, if you have to let me talk about heart health, I'd love to come back. Nice. Now, you know, and this is going to tie into something that you and I talk about at times. You know, so I'm excited. I go back to the show. And it was just at four in the morning. I was like, nobody's going to remember who I am. It's been five years. Okay. Okay. I'm in the warm-up pit, and the camera, the main camera zooms to my hat, and it goes in the Jumbotron. And the whole crowd just erupts. And all the ninjas are like, I joke, I really am everyone's favorite uncle in that community. Because I just, you know, I'm so happy to be there. You know, I'm there to cheer on everybody. And I see the crowd, and I'm like, oh. And then I get on stage. It hits you. And it hits, man. And then, you know, I just broke down crying.
Keith Vance: Good for you.
Morgan Wright: I mean, it was crazy. Yeah. Because I never thought, you know, I never thought I would, you know, be there. I didn't think I'd be able to do fitness again for a while, you know. You know, and I'm sitting there, and I see everybody cheering me on. And then, to top it off, you know, I'm feeling good. And what got me is I felt strong. This was a course I should have been able to beat. Yeah. And I rushed the second obstacle, which is, it's called the barrel, the barrel hold, barrel log. And you have to grab the log, and you hold onto it, and it goes down, and it drops a little bit, and it goes down and drops again. I have a way of gripping things called the gable grip. You fold your hands like this and grab that. Instead, I said, oh, let's grab the handles. And that was a, so imagine, like, me building my way all the way back up just to fail on the second obstacle. I have never failed any competition that early in my life. And I have over 1,000 competitions. I've got hundreds of medals from the podium. I only keep my podium medals, and you've seen my medals. Right. You know, so then now, I have to swallow that, you know. And at first, I was very bitter, which is very uncharacteristic for me. Yes. And I had to sit there and process it. And I got lucky. There's a ninja family in Tampa, the Bajershom family. They run Jungle Gym out of Tampa. They're the finest ninja gym in the state of Florida. And they were like, and the dad, Jason, he's like, hey, listen, I know how you're feeling right now. He's like, it's okay. He's like, remember, you got here. Right. You know, and. Well, that's good advice. It was. And, you know, and sometimes you said we need to hear our own advice. Yes. You know, and I didn't go back this last season. I'm thinking I may or may not apply for one more season. But also, too, you get to a point where it's like, you know, I've gone five times. You know, if I take up a slot, that could be a slot for some, you know, younger athlete that really wants to have his first time on the show. You know, so I go back and forth on that. And it doesn't define me. But, you know, do I wish I could have ended on a better note? Yeah. I mean, I've managed to Vegas finals before, you know, so it's like so wiping out, you know, on on the first qualifying run. You know, it hurt my ego. But it which I was surprised because normally I work hard on not having ego on these things. So it also it gave me an opportunity to self-reflect and grow.
Keith Vance: That was my next question. Has enough time gone by that reflecting back you've grown somehow through failing second obstacle? Like you didn't complete the course. You didn't succeed. But did you find did you grow in some way now that enough time has gone by? That was my next question.
Morgan Wright: Yeah. Ultimately speaking, I was able to get a really strong message off of heart health. We talked about that earlier. You know, guys like I'll get that checked later. And one day later doesn't come. You just drop dead. So me being able to I mean, I said they had they had me on the commercial all week long. Every 40 minutes, you know, people. Hey, I saw you in hospital on TV. Are you OK? I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's why I'm going on the show, bro. But but but be and then being able to give a powerful message out there, you know, for just heart health in general, but especially for males, you know, I was like that was ultimately what I realized, you know, the right thing to do. That was, you know, you know, him giving me the platform to get out there and give that message because men, we we get locked in our routines and our rigidness and we're too busy taking care of others that we forget to take care of ourselves.
Keith Vance: This is a good what you just said was I'm an example of that. Yeah, because you're just a year or so older than me. That happened to you. My parents are 17 years older than me. So I'm just kind of watching them. Yeah. And then trying to navigate some potholes that they may have possibly fell into. Like, OK, it's kind of I feel like it's like this. At some point you got old. How did I get old? And then. As you get old, you get a little ache and pain and that's your new normal and you just go on with it. Yes. I'm watching my mom and dad just develop these aches and pains, not getting checked out and just kind of go on with it as my new normal. And then with what happened to you. So I I did the whole gambit, brother. I went and had everything checked out. I said, hey, here's where I'm at. I just make sure. I would have to do the effect on my family. I'm sorry. Good. I had everything checked out for my wife, for my children, like for my overall deal. Love that. And what it is, is it did take some work to hit the pause button on life. And it's work getting everything checked out, getting the blood work done, getting all the, you know, they checked my lungs, my heart. They did all of it. But at the end of the day, I'm glad I did it. I'm good. There's no question marks. My cholesterol and all my good cholesterol, my arteries, that's all good.
Morgan Wright: I know where I'm at right now. Yes. Why will men maintenance their car on a schedule, but not themselves? Why? You know, it's a, you know, your body is your best piece of equipment you own. Yeah. You know, but they're like, but look, look out, look out, look at this polish I put on my car.
Keith Vance: You make a good point because the better we take care of this thing, the better we can take care of others. Yes. The better, the stronger, the longer I can be stronger, the longer I can be healthier, the more I can help the ones around me I love.
Morgan Wright: I have something really important that really ties into that. Uh, and it's, it's going to sound very, uh, not used to what you and I do, but it's what I've learned. Uh, the order in which you pay things, you have, you have to pay yourself first. First, then you pay your profession because money is the number one reason couples separate finances. Then, uh, you, uh, pay your spouse because that's your partner through life. And then you pay your children. I understand how that sounds. However, if you skip any of these steps, whatever is next, if I skip this step and go here, these next three, they get the less authentic version of me. And when I say pay yourself, I'm not saying go buy a motorcycle. Like sometimes I don't.
Keith Vance: Dude, I literally bought myself a motorcycle Monday.
Morgan Wright: You know what? You paid yourself.
Keith Vance: Pick something else. All right. All right. Pick something real bad, like a boat. Let's talk about that.
Morgan Wright: Oh, the happiest day, the two happiest days when you buy the boat, when you sell the boat. All right. So when you buy a boat, but like you pay yourself within reason. And to be fair though, too, jokes aside, you know, you also control your finances. You live below your needs and within your means. So that's, you paid yourself first. Okay. Then you pay your profession. So that way, you know that you electricity, you're, you are authentically, truly rich when you can pay your bills, buy groceries and enjoy small things without having to check your bank account. I've looked at my bank account in about a month, you know? Cause like, I know that what I put in there, I usually try to look around once a month just to make sure that, you know, I didn't have falsified charges. Okay. Then you pay your spouse, you know? And, uh, cause you don't, you want, that's your partner. That that's your go to ride or die, you know? And then your children, cause now your children see that you're happy, that they're, they know you're secure with your profession. They can look at your professional pride. They see that you authentically love your partner. So, and now you're also saying like, and I love you guys. They're like, life is beautiful.
Keith Vance: I'm going to agree with you on this in a different version because we just talked about this. I had a guy last week and we talked to something like this. So in paying yourself, yeah, a lot of paying yourself is how you prepare for the day, how you prepare for the day. So I make sure that first hour is for me and my alone time. I'm stretching. I'm watching the sun come up. I'm quiet. I'm praying. I'm not fixing everybody right now. I'm preparing myself for the hour, preparing myself, paying myself. Yes. So that out of that, I'm what I'm supposed to be to my wife, my employees, like everybody that needs me. I need to be full because if you're at a deficit, you're walking around a pissed off, you know, like everybody's a problem. But when you're full, it's just an overflowing. You got to charge that battery in the morning. And like you said, that paying yourself, filling that thing up, quiet. Okay, people, what do you need? I love that. Let's get it.
Morgan Wright: And now they're getting the best version of you.
Keith Vance: It goes along with that same thought process that you talked about.
Morgan Wright: No, that exactly goes along. You are preparing your day. And I think the morning ritual is such an important thing. I love that you started off with stretching. Men don't stretch. They do bench press and call it a day. Stop skipping leg day. I do legs three days a week to look like I skip leg day. My friends look at me like, Morgan, my wife would kill for legs like that. But they do. It kills me. But you pay yourself. And then now whatever's next. And now we said you start work. Now you're paying your profession. Okay. You're paying your spouse. You're paying your children. I love that, Keith. That's good. The nice thing about the sun rises, too, it's the greatest line ever. Because, you know, you whistle at the wife. You know, they're like, oh, whatever. You've seen it a thousand times. I've seen a thousand sunsets. Doesn't mean I don't want to see one more.
Keith Vance: That's it. We're going to have to cut this loose because I've got a birthday party to go to. I don't want to be late for her. Oh, yeah.
Morgan Wright: I've got the bladder of a small chihuahua, too. I teach PE. Oh, yeah. I teach PE. I don't have to have a teacher bladder. You know? I don't know. I have a bathroom out there. I'm like, woo-hoo-hoo.
Keith Vance: Making it rain. We've got 160 people at the ranch waiting on me.
Morgan Wright: Oh, my God. Are you coming? I think so. I want to bring Chris. I want to bring my girl and hang out. I think so. I've got to get home. She moved over the weekend. Good. So you all get a lot of personal talk. We'll kind of like to meet her. No, we're leaving it. I'm not missing either.
Keith Vance: I would like to, though. Morgan, thank you for your time. I know you weren't feeling well this morning.
Morgan Wright: It was a bowl of virus. Dude, all right. So I love children. But I lost a lot of my hearing in Afghanistan. And this one kid, he looks just like Drew Carey. Okay. Special needs kid. He's just adorable. And he talks. And I couldn't quite hear him. I've been like, hey, what's that, buddy? And he barked, sneezed into my mouth and eyeballs. And I'm like, and I sealed in his Ebola virus juices. Like a dengue fever. And then I was like, all right, maybe I'm good. Like, I was missing a ton of students on Friday. Yeah. Because they were all out with the plague. I'm like, I got this. And then today I woke up. And I'm like, eh. I sound like a 60-year-old chain smoker for the first 30 minutes. You know, I'm trying to, you know. And then it was like, you know, then you try to get your fitness in. And your body's like, listen, you really need to rest. I'm like, just one more set. Let me not take my own advice.
Keith Vance: Before we go, let's leave. We talked about a lot of stuff. But what final thought would you want to leave somebody who's listening to this podcast? With the journey that you've been on at 51 years old, where you're sitting at in life right now. You had some up and downs. You had some major things happen to you with your perspective. Like somebody who's in the middle of right now. Somebody, what would you speak to someone who could be struggling a little bit?
Morgan Wright: I would say unplug. You know, at the end of the day, I've seen a lot of friendships right now. Especially lately with the climate. Political climate. You know, people are losing friendships. They're saying things that they mean in the moment. But not truly. Focus on your core beliefs. Okay. I know that you and I have a lot of beliefs that we share similar. And a lot of beliefs that we have wildly different viewpoints. However, I look at you and I know that you're always going to do the right thing. Okay. We do not need to have the same belief cycle. I don't need to conform or convince somebody. I need to know at the end of the day, you're a good man. And I believe that with my soul. And people take it like they need to be right. I don't want to. It's more important for me to be correct. If I'm confidently wrong on something, I want to be surrounded by people who will tell me. Okay. If I'm wrong, I want to know the right answer. Okay. I don't have an ego for these things. But taking the time just for men out there, pay yourself. You know, look at what you can do to invest in yourself. We invest in our 401Ks, our 403Bs, our cars, our clothes. But they don't invest in their health. They don't invest in their attitude. They don't invest in just being a genuinely good human. But, you know, there are influencers out there that, like, try to go with this overly manly thing. If you have to tell people you're an alpha, are you? You know, like, guys, I swear, I see red and bodies hit the floor. Shut the door, sir. Yeah. Like, just be an authentically good human. And you don't have to put on a show. Men are so worried about appearances. You know, we talk a lot about women. You know, oh, the guy that hails the makeup's done, this and that. You know, guys, they can't talk about it at all. You know, find a friend. Find those guy tribes. I tell a lot of guys, go to jiu-jitsu. That's where you get your authentic guy tribe to be with. But first of all, never stop trying to discover and rediscover and rebrand yourself. You know, like we said earlier, you know, the moose doesn't brand me. It doesn't, it's not me. It's not my thing. It's just, it's a part of what I do. And I use it as a tool to help others be happy. Find your own happiness.
Keith Vance: That was good. That was, thank you for that. Yeah, buddy. Something that you had said was you and I, we think differently. We're not, we don't agree on a lot of things. But I still love you, brother.
Morgan Wright: I love the conversations, yeah.
Keith Vance: And you don't have to, like everybody doesn't have to align with your way of thinking to be friends.
Morgan Wright: And there have been things that you've given me a different way to look at. You know, like when I change your perception on fitness, there's things that we've talked about in society and work ethics and looking at, I'll see where you do some of your projects. And I'm like, huh. You know, like you bring me outside of my circle of thought where I thought I was more free with my thinking. And then you'll come up with something like, let's say, you're building a podcast. I'm like, what are you doing building a podcast, you know? And you do it and I'm like, yeah. What would you do would you do? What would you would do would you would do would you would do would you would do would you would do would you! What Good. And I love that, because it's a thought process I wouldn't have had. You have beliefs that I wouldn't have thought about, but then you explain the reason behind it. I'm like, that makes a lot of sense.
Keith Vance: You and I have had a lot of good conversations, and you've left a room. You've been gracious with me to have my own way of thinking. I've been gracious with you to have your own way of thinking. At the end of the day, you love your family. I love my family. You're trying to be a man to protect, support, and love, and I'm the same way. We have that connection. And the other stuff really doesn't matter.
Morgan Wright: And I know that if you called me or I called you, hey, I have a problem. I'm happy that you called me. Yes, sir. I look forward to being helpful. It's not like, what do you need? It's like, because now I have a good man reaching out, or if I'm calling you. I talked about, we had a mutual friend. I'm like, hey, this person is down to his luck. And you're like, heard on my radar. And the true mark of a friendship, Keith, which I really appreciate that we've had, is being able to have awkward conversations where we know we have different viewpoints. But I'm inherently, I would never think to be offended by anything you could say. Because our nature is, we're not going to say things that are inherently offensive. It doesn't exist. So if I said something, or you said something that could be clocked one of two ways, we automatically know it's not that other way. There you go. And that is the true benefit of male friendship. Yes.
Keith Vance: You know I got you.
Morgan Wright: Yes. And men let their male friendships go away. You know, and I didn't want to. My male friendships dwindled down a lot just because of how men, unfortunately, choose to be because they went with how society told them they had to be. And that's bull. You know, like, I mean, the least manly thing you can do is succumb to society's beliefs because you feel like you have to. You know, instead of being your own authentic man. You know, I love being mean. You know, it's like, you know, there are parts of me I could do better, and I clock that, and I work on it. But at the end of the day, I wake up happy, and I go to bed happy.
Morgan Wright: Man, I need to drink this coffee. I can tell you that. I'm floating through this chair right now. Let's get out of here. All right. I appreciate you. Hey, y'all have a great night.