The Power of Inspiration: From the Mat to the Shop [E246]

The Power of Inspiration: From the Mat to the Shop [E246] Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z · Jul 22, 2026

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Term

high voltage system analysis

Electric and hybrid cars have a high-voltage battery system. “High voltage system analysis” means checking that system with the right tools to make sure it’s working safely and correctly.

Term

TPMS systems

TPMS stands for Tire Pressure Monitoring System. It watches your tire pressure and warns you if something is off, and it may need a tool-based “relearn” after service.

Term

“Drivability concerns” means the car doesn’t feel right when you drive it—like it hesitates, runs rough, or doesn’t accelerate smoothly. Mechanics diagnose these by checking sensors and systems that control engine behavior.

Term

AdOS

“ADOS” here sounds like a specific diagnostic program or workflow used for certain vehicle systems. The episode doesn’t define it, so it’s best to look it up in the tool’s or OEM’s documentation.

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This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.

Welcome everyone to yet another episode of diagnosing the aftermarket

A to Z. I'm Matt Fonzell and bad line, Ted.

Ted, if you don't straighten out that line, you're going to dump all over Al.

Good line, Ted.

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So I caught, I guess, a bit of a tournament.

I didn't watch the whole thing by any means, but I guess I was aware of it.

I just didn't know when it was.

And it turns out it was on Saturday night, pretty sure, Saturday night.

It's an attempt to make or repopularize or popularize freestyle wrestling.

I really can't say like I'm really into freestyle wrestling or watching it.

But I'm aware of some MMA fighters, be it UFC or Bellator.

Or even going back early UFC days.

The freestyle wrestlers would have some very good success.

I mean, Mark Coleman comes to mind way back when even, I think, Don Fry had a background in it.

Dan Severn, Matt Hughes, I think is a big one.

Those guys, they had a lot of success, learned a few submissions, learned some stand-up

Brock Lesnar is a big one, the terrible to forget or have him at the end,

especially being kind of a somewhat native Minnesotan.

I don't think he technically went to school here, college.

And there's really a lot of this is beside the point, just meaning I don't follow it.

But I'm aware of fighters that have a background in it.

And one of those, his name was or is Ben Askren.

He might be most famous for how quickly he was knocked out by George Mosvital.

He took a knee within seconds of the beginning of the fight.

They really ran towards the center of the octagon.

And George jumped up with a flying knee and Ben dove for maybe a double leg and laid out.

That might be what he's fairly famous for.

I mean, he was a winner.

He won titles, not just in freestyle wrestling, but I think in I'm pretty sure it was Bellator.

And then he came over to UFC, kind of won a controversial fight.

And then, yeah, got dominated.

He got sick about a year ago or wrote more.

And if I understand correctly, and the data is accurate,

that he had pneumonia that triggered or resulted in or maybe a repercussion of his immune system.

He got a staff infection inside, like in his lungs.

It was all sorts of bad.

He went from being a very, I mean, there's a fighter, right?

He is in really, really good shape and really just withered to almost nothing.

He needed a double lung transplant.

And according to him, and depending on what they mean by this, while waiting,

he had died a few times and he gets the double lung transplant.

And maybe he died after that, too, recovery.

But I think mainly I was waiting for it.

I guess it was amazing to live, right?

To survive, to work through that issues with his insurance, health insurance,

which could be quite the rant about all of that health insurance is kind of a brutal topic.

And his really, really let him down.

But because of who he is, I guess, and people around him or in that world, I guess,

say what you will about him as a fighter and the stunts on Netflix.

But one of the reasons Ben Askrand's alive is Jake Paul, amongst others, gets the double lung transplant,

lives, I mean, he's just lucky to be alive, honestly.

And he's got younger kids, married, all the things.

It decides that he's not just going to be content living and starts working out,

trying to get back in there, you know, what do you want to call it, on the mat,

try it, wants to get back on the mat.

And that's what he did Saturday.

It could have been Friday night, but I'm almost positive it was Saturday.

Competitively, I don't know, I watched the match.

I'm not sure the guy fighting them or wrestling them, if you will.

And again, this is freestyle wrestling.

It's not professional wrestling.

There's no ropes or anything like that.

It's looks fairly legit.

But I do wonder if you're in that position with somebody that you very much respect,

just for what he accomplished as a freestyle wrestler and in the octagon,

and then now here he is lucky to be alive, on that mat competing at that level.

You're kind of damned if you do, don't.

You know what I mean?

Like if the guy beats him handily, he beat somebody that was essentially dead a year ago.

He loses to somebody that was dead a year ago and like was a hundred pounds lighter.

Just withered away and what do you do with that?

And then do I try to make it look legit, but let him look good for a round or two

and then really exert myself so I win?

You know, is that that guy?

Is that what he does?

Like try to make him look pretty good for a round or two and then make sure you get the win.

He got the win.

Or is it more honorable to just go in and give it all you got?

And if you end up mopping the mat with him, then that's what happened.

I mean, that's he's in there.

That's what he signed up for.

I got a level with you.

I think I would wrestle with that, no pun intended.

But it's true.

I would really struggle with that.

I don't know if the win is so important to me, but I don't want it to be an illegitimate loss.

But can I honor him by letting him look good for a round or two and then

you know, do what I need to do to win?

Or is that really dishonorable?

No, I don't mean just dishonorable to the crowd too, but also is that disrespectful to Ben Askren

where however he performs is how he's going to perform is going to do his best with what he's got.

And in this case, experience may help a little bit.

But what can his stamina afford him to do?

Strength even.

Like how much strength could he get back in such a short amount of time?

I would honestly struggle with that.

But the competitor Muhammad was extraordinarily respectful.

I think before the match, there wasn't a lot of smack talk like some of the other matches.

And during the match, it looked like they were both trying and working.

But also, like I said, just a heavy amount of respect.

And then afterwards when he did win, really no celebration.

Not that he was lamenting it.

I didn't get that, but the focus was on Ben to be able to do that.

And even mentioning during training how inspiring it was like when he's training and hitting the

wall and thinking about giving up.

And I don't mean like giving up on the fight or giving up on training, but just taking a break,

letting off, lowering the exertion levels, coasting and thinking about what Ben Askern

had to do just to be on that mat and being inspired to just keep at it.

And I guess that's kind of a long-winded way to get to the subject of this episode of inspiration.

Again, normally I don't like giving away movie quotes.

It's not the point or whatever I'm quoting.

Music, song lyrics or TV shows or whatnot.

The movie quote comes from a movie called Always, Richard Dreyfus, John Goodman.

I think it's Holly Hunter.

It's kind of cool because it's about really, I think it's technically aerial firefighting.

They'd drop water from airplanes, particularly old airplanes, not design specific like there are

some, but these weren't.

They're recommissioned, reconditioned, adapted.

Kind of the, I guess I have a little bit of a somewhat non-direct link to the movie in that

my uncle would be my dad's sister, husband, worked for the Forest Fire Service up there,

Forestry Service, then particularly Libby Montana, which is about as far northwest

of Montana as you can get.

And he was responsible for setting the fires used in the movie.

And then there's, you'd have to pause it almost perfectly, but at the very,

very beginning of the movie where they're in the forest fire, you could see him leading

a charge of forest firefighters running by a camera for sure, uncredited.

At the end of the movie, I think they think specifically the Libby Forestry Service, but

that would be my, you know, a link.

So I was very much aware of this movie before it was released and then it was released and

thought it would be cool to see my uncle on it.

And of course you can't.

So, or you got a time at really, really good and back in the day with VHS, you know,

you needed a really good VCR to freeze it and have, or maintain picture quality.

So honestly, not that big a deal, but it was kind of cool.

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The movie really is about inspiration.

Yeah, honestly, I forgot one of the actors that was kind of important.

Not that I'm just such a fan, but really it was her last role, Audrey Hepburn,

and the reason I bring that up is I think I did an episode a while back, quite

of all things, My Fair Lady, of which she was a star.

She was allies of do little, so maybe some circular stuff going on there.

But the movie is really about inspiration.

The main character dies and comes back however long later.

As a ghost, as an angel, as something, and uses inspiration to help, in particular,

a new love interest for his ex-girlfriend, or widowed girlfriend, I suppose,

and wrestling with that, and then most movies.

Sorry, if you've ever seen it and I give away the end, he figures it out.

And multiple ways, helps her, helps the new love interest, Ted.

I guess it's just really the power of inspiration.

In this case, in the movie's case, it's, you know, they can't see you, but whispering in their ear,

helping make the right decisions, or do the right things, or do what you need to do, and

with Ben Askren, what an inspirational story, and we have so many inspirational stories

around us, and we don't necessarily need them like that.

They don't have to be that, I don't know, big.

We have them of all sorts, all levels, from very personal to shop wide.

But I mean, honestly, like shops that Tanner Brandt helped in his area get back on their feet after

storm damage, there's just so many inspirational stories, even just a shop that's struggling,

and turns it around, I mean, that's inspirational.

And I guess that's what I mean, is there's so much inspiration around us, and it could be in the form

of movies and music, the arts, if you will, stories of others, but also just class, go into class,

go into a training event, and getting inspired by an instructor, or presenter, or whatever,

educator, or somebody in the lobby, somebody during break time, listening to their stories.

You can leave inspired, it might be inspired to persevere, it might be inspired to go to another

class, it might be inspired to buy a piece of equipment, it might be inspired to make some

big change, or some series of small changes, or a small change that has big effects at the shop,

we're just surrounded by inspiration.

And are we paying attention to it, and then recognizing those

that contributed to that inspiration, and just the topic itself just floods my brain with,

or my memories with so many different inspiring tales, be it directly related to our industry or

not, Adam Gashi's daughter, Stormy, when she was born, and then very small, was going to need

heart surgery, for which they couldn't afford. And I don't know if it was a similar issue with

health insurance or not, but the Eric Ziegler, very involved in others, but Eric spearheaded a lot,

showed just what this profession, as much as we do talk smack about each other,

maybe, I don't know, maybe not so much at the local level, I mean, that's a lot of smack

talk I'm talking about, that's negative, but at the level we're talking about people that are

kind of tapped into the matrix, if you will, via social media or professional forums or whatever,

that could get involved and really help, and they did, and how inspiring that is,

how comforting that is, and there's so many stories like that.

Donations, are we awake? Are we awake for this? Are we aware? Are we looking for it a little bit?

And are we thinking in those terms, back to like the training events or the expos or the,

not even the events, just class, like if you have whatever entity that puts on monthly courses

at night, sending people, yeah, we want them to learn how to do things, absolutely, yeah,

we want them to keep expanding their skill sets or deepening their skill sets or preparing for

the next thing, but how about also to be inspired, to come back and re-energized, I mean, I think

that is a big, big thing with going to training, be it online, in person, in person is a little

easier to mingle with other attendees and more opportunities to be inspired, but by the instructors

being inspired by watching what they do and thinking, no, yourself, like, I think I could do

that, or this piece of equipment could make a huge difference, or a piece of equipment we already had

never thought about using a certain way. Sure, that's just what education is, but also just

inspired, it inspires you to start thinking outside the box, it inspires you to remember to use that,

you know, if it's tucked away somewhere, pulling that out, setting it on your toolbox so that you

remember to use it, I think inspiration is a very powerful tool that we can use intentionally,

not wait for it, that we can go looking for it and put ourselves in positions to be exposed to

it and receive it, and then honestly, unwittingly, maybe even inspire someone else, that is where

I will leave you on that disappointment. Yeah, really, really appreciate you guys listening

and watching. Thank you so much for the messages and emails, this Mount Rushmore thing might

be popular, I don't know, I get a kick out of doing them. So if you like them, please let me know.

If you're watching this on YouTube, please don't forget to give the video a like and subscribe

so you get alerted for new episodes, it really, that stuff really does help. And yeah, I can't

thank you enough for listening. Thank you so very much to our sponsors, Pico Technology and Autel,

and a big thank you to the Automotive Repair Podcast Network. And until next time, take care.

Show notes for his email, your input matters.

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high voltage system analysis

TPMS systems

drivability concerns

AdOS

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