#13 Kenny

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Speaker 5 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 9 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 6 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 11 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 12 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 17 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 18 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 20 Hello?

Speaker 21 I have a medical-related question.

Speaker 22 Okay.

Speaker 21 You know my toe ring?

Speaker 4 I think maybe I.

Speaker 20 You don't have a toe ring, John.

Speaker 21 Yes, I do have a toe ring.

Speaker 23 You've never had a toe ring.

Speaker 21 When was the last time you saw my bare feet?

Speaker 24 Three years ago?

Speaker 21 Since then, I've gotten a toe ring. Why?

Speaker 21 I was drunk. Some people get tattoos.
I don't like pain. How can I help you, John?

Speaker 21 I can't get it off my toe.

Speaker 21 And it really is. You just don't give up.
Did you not take a Hippocratic oath?

Speaker 20 John.

Speaker 21 John. Fine, I know.

Speaker 25 Bye.

Speaker 21 I just hung up on myself.

Speaker 21 Or is it hanged up?

Speaker 21 From Gimlet Media, I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and this is Heavyweight. Today's episode, Kenny.

Speaker 21 Like most, when I hear the words tale of betrayal, I think of Judas narking on Jesus, Brutus icing Julius, Satan cucking the Lord.

Speaker 21 But recently, I heard a story of treachery that not only ranks among those, it might surpass them. While those stories merely have devils, this one has something far better.
Daredevils.

Speaker 21 This story of betrayal takes place in the 1970s, a time when brave men and women mounted motorcycles or got behind the wheels of cars to jump anything in their field of vision.

Speaker 21 Barrels, chuck wagons, cement mixers, Stegmire beer trucks, pits of rattlesnakes, and dens of mountain lions.

Speaker 21 This was a time when jumping a shark didn't mean jumping the shark. It was a time when daredeviling was not only a viable career path, it was something your parents could be proud of.

Speaker 21 I grew up in the 1970s in a neighborhood fully infected with daredevil fever. The older kids would lay us younger kids down on the sidewalk and jump us with their bicycles.

Speaker 21 All of us, from the older kids with bath towels tied to their necks like capes, to us younger kids with tire tracks across our backs. We all wanted to be daredevils.

Speaker 21 And the daredevil we most wanted to be was Evil Knievel.

Speaker 21 We ate from Evil Knievel lunch pails and played with Evil Knievel dolls. Evil Knievel was Elvis, Captain America, and Liberace all rolled into one.

Speaker 21 It seemed like everyone in the world wanted to be Evil Knievel, but there was one man who wanted more than that. He wanted to surpass Evil Knievel altogether.
That man's name was Ken Carter, aka

Speaker 21 the Mad Canadian.

Speaker 21 Before he was the Mad Canadian, Ken was a grocery boy with a grade school education.

Speaker 21 His dream, to beat Evil Knievel at his own game, is captured in a 1970s Canadian documentary called The Devil at Your Heels.

Speaker 21 The movie opens at a local Halifax racetrack. The crowd's here to watch Ken Carter jump 18 cars.

Speaker 21 It's nighttime, and the crowd cheers wildly as Ken Carter barrels towards a ramp in a souped-up hardtop convertible.

Speaker 21 Ken doesn't make it. Instead, he lands with a crash flat on top of the last car in line.

Speaker 21 A man runs over to pull Ken from the car.

Speaker 26 How far did I get? How far did I get?

Speaker 21 An ambulance crew arrives, and while being carried out on a stretcher, Ken waves to his fans.

Speaker 23 Okay, take me over to the microphone, please.

Speaker 21 The paramedics carry the stretcher over to a microphone, and while lying injured on his back, Ken makes an announcement.

Speaker 21 Rub on a little Bengay, soak the Tootsies in Epsom salts, and hit it again the next night for three nights, every week. This is how Ken Carter makes his living.
But he has plans to change all that.

Speaker 21 Ken had been watching Evil Knievel on TV for years, and he wanted what Knievel had. Adulation, respect, and a lot more money.

Speaker 21 Up until this point, Knievel's biggest stunt was over the Snake River Canyon, a distance of one quarter mile. Ken Carter's plan was to jump the St.

Speaker 21 Lawrence River, a distance four times that length, a full mile.

Speaker 21 By applying a little Canadian elbow grease, Ken Carter was going to drive a rocket-powered Lincoln Continental off a ramp in Canada and land in the United States.

Speaker 21 Watching the movie as a Canadian, the idea of flying through the air in a Lincoln Continental while listening to Gordon Lightfoot on the 8-track player for one mile and landing in America without so much as a Canadian passport nor written attestation as to whether my rocket car contains fruits or vegetables felt

Speaker 21 noble.

Speaker 28 This is my dream. I don't care if I never jump again, but this I'm going to do.
This is my dream. Nobody ever jumped a car a mile.

Speaker 29 That's what I'm going to do.

Speaker 21 But right from the jump, there are problems. Over and over, a date for the super jump is set.
And over and over, things go wrong. The crew building the 10-story ramp miscalculates the measurements.

Speaker 30 I know Ken is deeply disappointed. He was dialed in to, as he says, he was dialed in to do it.

Speaker 21 There's unexpected rain that turns the ramp to mud. The crew tries to dry it off using a helicopter.

Speaker 28 You know, I'm just coming to the end of my rope.

Speaker 21 On another occasion, an hour before the jump, the crew decides to strike, demanding $27,000 in cash before going back to work.

Speaker 28 I got a budget here.

Speaker 21 Fuel tanks explode repeatedly.

Speaker 28 Holy Christ, man, what are we doing?

Speaker 21 This goes on for five years.

Speaker 21 Again and again and again, the jump is canceled. Over a million Canadian dollars are spent.
Investors back out and new investors are found. Countless problems are allayed, doubts are assuaged.

Speaker 21 Gautés are grown and goets are shaved.

Speaker 21 But then, Ken's luck turns. ABC's wide world of sports wants to air Ken's super jump on live television for its millions of viewers.

Speaker 21 Before making the deal official, the network needs to send an inspector over to the jump site to report back on the stunt's viability.

Speaker 21 And the inspector they send

Speaker 21 is none other than Evil Knievel.

Speaker 21 Once Evil Knievel gives it the go-ahead, ABC will air the jump. And once ABC airs the jump, Ken will become an international star.

Speaker 21 And kids will play with mad Canadian action figures and carry mad Canadian lunch boxes.

Speaker 24 Kind of reminds me of the canyon.

Speaker 24 How much higher is this ramp going to be?

Speaker 23 Another 30 feet, people.

Speaker 21 It should be noted that while Evil Knievel sports the sideburns of an outlaw, Ken Carter sports the goate of an assistant professor.

Speaker 21 And while Evil Knievel looks like a rough and tumble movie matinee idol, Ken Carter, at the moment wearing wearing a leather jacket and a gold chain around his turtleneck neck, looks like your best friend's weird uncle in a turtleneck.

Speaker 29 I don't think I'd attempt to try this stunt. I think that the time and preparation that's been put into it is much too little.

Speaker 29 This is maybe a daredevil stunt

Speaker 28 that might end all daredevil stunts.

Speaker 21 Evil Knievel is essentially saying that if Ken goes through with this super jump, he'll end up killing himself live on national television.

Speaker 21 And in doing so, completely ruin the daredeviling industry for everyone. Ken, sitting on his living room couch, watches as Evil Knievel tears up his dream on TV.

Speaker 28 I've been saying it for years. I still believe that Evil Knievel is the second best daredevil in the world, and I say that because I feel that I'm number one.

Speaker 28 But I also feel that if you don't think in terms of win, you do not win.

Speaker 21 ABC was out. This was a blow, but not a betrayal.
The actual betrayal was yet to come.

Speaker 21 Without the promise of a live televised event, Ken's investors drop out. Desperate, Ken turns to a group of Hollywood producers who offer to fund his super jump with a stipulation.

Speaker 21 A safety net, if you will. They would distribute it as a pre-recorded special.
In this way, the whole huge event would take place without an audience.

Speaker 21 A traumatizable, blood-splashable, We Want Our Money Backable, audience.

Speaker 21 Which meant Ken's dream of grandstands filled with cheering crowds and tables selling Ken Carter onesies, beer cozies and go take homes would not come true.

Speaker 21 All there'd be was a lonely ramp, a small crew, some cameras, and Ken.

Speaker 21 Months of delays follow, and finally, a new date for the super jump is set. And once again, it rains.
But the new investors don't care about safety.

Speaker 21 They have limited funds and just want the jump to happen. The scene opens on the the jump site.
We see the ramp, a group of journalists, a man holding out a boom mic.

Speaker 21 And then, the camera moves in on a man wearing a yellow jumpsuit and a cowboy hat.

Speaker 24 Alright, the lights are green and let's get ready and go. I want to go.

Speaker 21 The man in the yellow jumpsuit is not Ken Carter. But he poses on the ramp and gives quotes to reporters about the jump he's about to make.

Speaker 29 I always liked the state of New York, so I'm sure I hope they like me when I get there.

Speaker 21 The man has the same goate as Ken Carter, the same style of hair, but he's shorter, younger, and brasher.

Speaker 29 All right, guys, my advice is to get off the ramp.

Speaker 24 You don't want no tar tracks on you.

Speaker 21 As I watch it all unfold, I grow increasingly confused. Where's Ken Carter? Had I missed something? Was some key scene accidentally cut?

Speaker 21 Finally, the voiceover informs us that this yellow-suited man is Ken Carter's longtime understudy, Kenny Powers.

Speaker 21 It turns out the investors had begun to suspect that Ken Carter had lost his nerve, that some excuse was always going to pop up, and he would never make the jump. So they came up with a scheme.

Speaker 21 Simply put, ditch Ken Carter and place Kenny Powers behind the wheel of the rocket car. Have him do the jump instead.

Speaker 21 But first, they had to to get Ken out of the way, so they invited him to a fake business meeting at a hotel an hour from the jump site.

Speaker 21 With Ken Carter out of the picture, Kenny Powers steps up, and Kenny Powers really seems to be enjoying the attention.

Speaker 24 The countdown was too long. I think it was too long.
10-second countdown. That's all I need.

Speaker 29 If I'm not ready in 10 seconds, I'll never be ready. And I'm going to give it hell.

Speaker 21 Kenny warns the people of America to get ready. Staring into the camera, he instructs them to clear off their breakfast tables because when he crashes down on their roofs, it might rattle the dishes.

Speaker 21 Kenny Powers gets behind the wheel of the rocket car, the name Ken Carter, emblazoned along its side.

Speaker 21 And then...

Speaker 21 The car blasts off, races up the ramp, and is airborne.

Speaker 21 Let's press pause here to consider what's happening. The idea of jumping a mile in a rocket car is completely insane.
But as the car soars into the air, so soars my heart.

Speaker 21 It might only attest to what hopeful creatures we humans are, but in this moment, as the car reaches top velocity, it seems that Kenny Powers, that humanity, might maybe, somehow, possibly make it across.

Speaker 21 But of course, this isn't to be. Almost immediately after leaving the ramp, the car plummets into the river.
Debris flies, parachutes open. Someone screams.

Speaker 21 During his nine-second flight, Kenny Powers made it a total distance of 506 feet. For our Canadian listeners, that's a lot less than a mile.

Speaker 21 Because the car was built specifically for Ken Carter, Kenny Powers was too short to reach the gas pedal, so he never gained enough speed before leaving the ramp.

Speaker 21 Several members of the crew trudge through the water and pull Kenny Powers from the driver's seat.

Speaker 21 As though the spinal injury has yet to be invented, They carry him from the river atop their shoulders, Bar Mitzvah boy style.

Speaker 21 Ow, Kenny Powers says. Ow, ow.

Speaker 21 Later he'll learn he's broken eight vertebrae, cracked three ribs, and fractured his wrist.

Speaker 21 After the jump, As Kenny Powers lay bandaged up in a hospital bed, the film's director showed up outside Ken Carter's hotel room door to tell him what happened.

Speaker 26 Ken, what the hell do you want?

Speaker 21 But Ken already knows.

Speaker 23 I just want to talk to you to get the f out of here.

Speaker 21 Eventually, Ken pulls him into the room.

Speaker 20 What?

Speaker 21 The camera crew remains in the hallway, recording audio through the hotel door.

Speaker 23 Did you know about this, Morgan? What is Ken?

Speaker 20 Did you know about this?

Speaker 21 We fade to black.

Speaker 21 Then, a title card appears on screen. It reads, One year later.
Ken is shown sitting at the base of the ramp. He promises he'll make the jump someday.

Speaker 21 And that's it. The credits roll, some song about the power of a man in his dream starts to play, and the movie ends, without ever addressing the craziest detail in this whole crazy story.

Speaker 21 As it turns out, Kenny Powers, the man who hijacked Ken's car and his lifelong dream, wasn't just Ken Carter's understudy. Kenny Powers was Ken's best friend.

Speaker 21 Ken Carter and Kenny Powers have both since died, so I call Bob Fortier, the film's director, to see if I could find out more.

Speaker 21 When I asked Bob why Kenny would betray his friend, who'd ruin the dream Ken had spent so many years chasing, Bob mentions a drinking problem and rumors that Kenny had gotten himself into some sort of trouble down in Florida and was desperate for a way to pay his legal fees.

Speaker 21 For Bob, the reason for this betrayal is as classic as they come. Money.

Speaker 21 The backers offered Kenny a lot of money to betray his friend, and Kenny took it.

Speaker 21 That's just the kind of guy he was, Bob says, someone who'd betray the guy who'd been supporting him for ten years, right at the last moment.

Speaker 21 After the movie wrapped, Bob never spoke to Kenny Powers again. Kenny Powers, he says, isn't the kind of guy you want to keep keep in touch with.

Speaker 21 After the jump, Kenny Powers was effectively run out of Canada. One stuntman website even refers to him as, quote, Judas in a cowboy hat.

Speaker 21 And Ken Carter, he went back to his old life of racetrack jumps. About a year after the St.
Lawrence River jump, Ken Carter died, attempting to jump a pond.

Speaker 21 He never achieved the legacy he'd hungered after, all because of his supposed friend, Kenny Powers.

Speaker 21 I watched the failed super jump over and over,

Speaker 21 and I'm not the only one to be transfixed by it. On YouTube, that one scene from the movie, which has been retitled Destroyed in Seconds Jet Car Daredevil, has over a million hits.

Speaker 21 Before that, The jump was immortalized in the gruesome Faces of Death 2, a movie composed of boxing ring deaths and failed stunts.

Speaker 21 Ken Carter had spent years training for his stunt, meticulously planning out every last detail.

Speaker 21 As a professional stuntman, Kenny Powers had to have known the risk of just jumping behind the wheel like he was dipping out for drive-through chicken nuggets.

Speaker 21 Even for all the money in the world, he had to have known that trying to fly a rocket car across a mile-wide river with absolutely no training was a death mission.

Speaker 21 In a bid to better understand the Daredevil psyche, I bravely jumped down a rabbit hole of daredevil subculture.

Speaker 21 I watch stunt video after stunt video and even learn the distinction between daredeviling, stunt manning, and thrill mastering.

Speaker 21 I read about important industry figures like Spanky Spangler and Spanky Jr., Lucky Teeter, Calvin Scarecrow Shirk, Big Ed Beckley, Jim Crash Moreau, Stony Roberts, Daredevil Doug Klang, Dr.

Speaker 21 Danger, Mr.

Speaker 21 Dizzy, Corey the Headache Howl, Froggy, Jasper the Clown, Walt King Kovaz, Bumps Willard, Risky Rick Cruz, Doug Danger, Earl the Squirrel, Nikki Mighty Aphrodite Mick Burnett, Don Snake Prudhome, Levi the Kamikaze Kid Troutman, and Snooks Wensel.

Speaker 21 It's while watching my stunt videos that CEO and Gimlet Media founder Alex Bloomberg sneaks up behind my desk and asks what I'm doing.

Speaker 21 Research, I say, pausing a video of a flaming station wagon falling from a drawbridge. I close the browser window and open up a TED Talk on how to do business, and Alex smiles approvingly.

Speaker 21 I know, folks, you're wondering, why do you allow Alex to walk all over you like this? But I've got a wife and child now.

Speaker 21 And podcasting into a chicken drumstick on a Canadian breadline is the last thing I need.

Speaker 21 At home that night, a one-room Coldwater flat with a screaming baby and a second-hand bassinet, I continue my research. And somewhere around 3 a.m., I stumble upon a video that defies explanation.

Speaker 28 The Mad Canadian.

Speaker 22 And your madness, I guess that's the way to call you.

Speaker 21 Well, I'll tell you what, you know, the video was shot just a few months after the failed super jump, and Ken Carter is back to working racetracks. Here he is being interviewed before his stunt.

Speaker 21 This is where I spot something unbelievable. Strolling in the background, right behind Ken Carter, is the man who betrayed him, Kenny Powers.

Speaker 21 Kenny stops, turns to Ken, and just watches him, smiling.

Speaker 21 And then, he walks out of frame and is gone.

Speaker 21 I rewind the moment several times.

Speaker 21 And there Kenny is, as clear as day, a warm smile on his face, watching Ken Carter admiringly.

Speaker 21 By all measures, Ken Carter should have hated Kenny Powers, should have been trying to hunt him down and beat him up. But there they were, happily spending a day together at the Speedway.

Speaker 21 A betrayal as grand as the one we see at the end of the documentary isn't the kind of thing you get over, especially not after a couple months.

Speaker 21 And so I hop down a new rabbit hole and search for whatever information I can find about Kenny Powers.

Speaker 21 According to the internet, Ken and Kenny remained friends after the jump.

Speaker 21 Not only that, but to quote the internet, Kenny Powers carried around an 8x10 photograph of Ken Carter, taking it everywhere he went, right up until the very end of his life.

Speaker 21 Why would Kenny Powers carry around a photograph of Ken Carter, the man he betrayed?

Speaker 21 I promise to answer this question and possibly other questions if you promise to patiently sit through these messages from our sponsors.

Speaker 2 In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that.

Speaker 2 They're now the best network, according to the experts at OOCLA Speed Test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile.

Speaker 2 the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage. With Supermobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged.

Speaker 2 With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity even in times of high demand.

Speaker 2 With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients.

Speaker 2 And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid. That's your business, supercharged.

Speaker 3 Learn more at supermobile.com.

Speaker 2 Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S. where you can see the sky.

Speaker 2 Best business plan based on a combination of advanced network performance, coverage layers, and security features. Best network based on analysis by OOCLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

Speaker 5 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 9 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 10 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 11 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 12 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 17 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 18 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

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Speaker 24 Steve?

Speaker 24 Yeah.

Speaker 21 To help make sense of Ken and Kenny's relationship, I reach out to Steve B. Lock.
Steve knew Ken Carter and Kenny Powers from the very beginning.

Speaker 21 For years, he spent countless hours with them on the road. You're in your car right now.
It's all hands-free, so I'm good.

Speaker 21 Steve also toured in the Mad Canadian stunt show as a mechanic.

Speaker 21 Back then, he went by the nickname Super Wrench, named after, I assume, the tool that professional mechanics use and not the feeling of sadness caused by a painful parting.

Speaker 21 Because I had limited time for our phone call and wasn't looking for drama. At first, it was just me and Ken for the first two years going around the country, jumping ramp to ramp.
And

Speaker 20 he was stubborn. He was fair, but he was stubborn.

Speaker 21 Steve proceeds to pull back the curtain on the version of Ken Carter we see in the movie.

Speaker 21 According to Steve, he put a lot of pressure on his crew, often requiring everyone to sleep in the same school buses they jumped over.

Speaker 21 He aggressively booked shows miles apart, and while his team was forced to drive for days on end, Ken would fly ahead, arriving at the events in a helicopter.

Speaker 21 But in spite of the cushy travel arrangements and his Mr. Macho Man image, things were getting tougher for Ken.

Speaker 21 He was only in his late 30s, but in daredevil years, Ken was old, his bones more brittle with each passing year.

Speaker 20 Ken fractured his ankles several, several times.

Speaker 20 That's why he walked funny. One jump in Tulsa, he

Speaker 20 landed past the ramp and

Speaker 20 split his sternum in two when he hit the sternum column.

Speaker 20 And when Ken was really hurting, it was when Kenny Powers would step in.

Speaker 21 When Kenny Powers joined the show, he was a young guy in his 20s.

Speaker 21 So as Ken spent more and more time laid up with injuries, Kenny would step in to perform for him to the point where he was doing more jumps than Ken, but still getting none of the credit.

Speaker 21 I wondered if on the day that Kenny got behind the wheel of that rocket car, he saw it as a chance to emerge from Ken's shadow and show the world that he was the better stuntman.

Speaker 21 Because Steve says, even when Ken was in top form for a stuntman, he was surprisingly cowardly. Ken Carter was never really into speed, okay?

Speaker 20 He did not like going fast.

Speaker 21 Yeah, you know, there's a scene in the documentary where he's taken into that rocket car for the first time

Speaker 21 and when he steps out of the car you could see that he kind of has his

Speaker 21 his his stomach is just in his throat.

Speaker 20 He probably had to change his underwear

Speaker 20 I don't know if you can say that on radio, but

Speaker 21 lucky for us, we're not on the radio. We're on a podcast.
And so we could do all the cussing and a fussing we like.

Speaker 21 Butter tart licking, sugar crotch kicking, spam dagger, dorkin's squacker, poo-poo platter with a heinous. That's right, rhymes with anus, case of the trots.

Speaker 21 That's just a few of the things I can say here at Gimlet Media.

Speaker 21 He probably shit his pants, tell you the truth.

Speaker 21 He was scared. I mean,

Speaker 20 there's no doubt in my mind. Even when we were in the ramp truck together, he did not want me driving over the speed limit whatsoever.

Speaker 20 He just did not like to go fast.

Speaker 21 You'd think that a need for only the legally acceptable amount of speed would be a liability for a daredevil. Not only that, but according to Steve, Ken was even scared of water.

Speaker 21 He never learned to swim. So driving off a ramp at almost 300 miles per hour over a deep, fast-moving river seemed like an odd career move.

Speaker 20 I don't think Carter had the cojonies

Speaker 20 to do it.

Speaker 21 So you think that Kenny Powers

Speaker 21 had more cojonies?

Speaker 20 I do.

Speaker 21 Steve says that Ken Carter was never going to attempt that jump, that it was all an act, nothing more than showmanship.

Speaker 20 I can't believe any other way. Only because of being in the same hotel room with Ken Carter for three and a half years,

Speaker 20 knowing the promoting that he did, knowing him as well as I did,

Speaker 20 I just don't think it was his intention to get into that Lincoln. I don't think it was.

Speaker 21 According to Steve, Ken must have asked Kenny to do the jump for him, knowing that Kenny would do whatever Ken told him to, just like he always did.

Speaker 21 So to my question of how is it possible that Ken and Kenny made up and became friends again, Steve's answer is simple. They were never not friends in the first place.

Speaker 20 And I can just see the conversation going on. Ken standing there going, Kenny, you're going to sit in that seat.

Speaker 20 Do you think you can do it? And Kenny saying, yes, I think I can.

Speaker 20 And I truly believe that Kenny Powers did this

Speaker 20 just out of the love of his heart for Ken.

Speaker 21 The idea that Kenny had attempted the stun, not out of hatred, but out of love, explains everything,

Speaker 21 is what I thought for all of two minutes before realizing it made no sense at all. Don't get me wrong, I believe in love and have plenty of it.

Speaker 21 If a friend asks me to pick him up at the airport, while I never do it, I do make a point of apologizing profusely, really scrunching up my face as though my refusal is causing me as much agony as it is them.

Speaker 21 I'd even go so far as to say that this is because my mama raised me right. But we all know she hasn't.

Speaker 21 But even if she had, going off a 10-story ramp only to plummet to my death because I wanted to do a pal a solid?

Speaker 21 For that, I'm afraid, my heart as well as my cojones are far too petite.

Speaker 21 When I asked Steve about the photo of Ken that Kenny carried around with him, He didn't know anything about it, but he says that daredevils share a special bond.

Speaker 21 While I could, of course, imagine the love that unites a spanky spangler and a spanky junior, or even Evil Knievel and his Laverda Eagle motorcycle, this felt deeper somehow and more complicated.

Speaker 21 Kenny nearly died for Ken.

Speaker 21 What was the power that Ken exerted over Kenny? What made Kenny so loyal that he was willing to speed off a ramp and into oblivion just because he'd been asked to?

Speaker 21 To find out, I phoned Beverly Powers.

Speaker 32 Let me give you the landline where I am because I'm in the mountains right now.

Speaker 20 0454.

Speaker 4 Sorry. 647.

Speaker 4 Active break.

Speaker 25 A love break.

Speaker 2 In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that.

Speaker 2 They're now the best network, according to the experts at OOCLA Speed Test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

Speaker 2 With Supermobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged. With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity even in times of high demand.

Speaker 2 With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients.

Speaker 2 And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid. That's your business, supercharged.

Speaker 3 Learn more at supermobile.com.

Speaker 2 Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S. where you can see the sky.

Speaker 2 Best business plan based on a combination of advanced network performance, coverage layers, and security features. Best network based on analysis by OOCLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

Speaker 5 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 9 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 10 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 11 If anyone has ever said you snore loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 12 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 17 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 18 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 33 This is Tim Harford from Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. It's 1972.
A young British family is attempting to sail around the world when disaster strikes.

Speaker 33 Their boat is hit by killer whales and it sinks in seconds. All they have left is a life raft and each other.
How will they survive?

Speaker 33 The true story of a family's fight for survival, hosted by Becky Milligan. This is Adrift, an Apple original podcast produced by Blanchard House.

Speaker 33 Apple TV subscribers get special early access to the entire season. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 21 Hello. Beverly?

Speaker 32 Yes, let me turn off the television.

Speaker 4 Oh, great.

Speaker 32 Okay, the television's off.

Speaker 21 Beverly is Kenny's widow. She grew up in the same South Carolina town as Kenny.
I knew him back when he was the star halfback on the school football team.

Speaker 32 When I was in the sixth grade, Kenny was a senior in high school. And I had a crush on him then, but you know, he didn't know I existed.

Speaker 21 Years later, after Kenny had already been married seven, possibly eight times, no one seems to be too sure, they found each other again.

Speaker 21 Kenny asked Beverly for a ride home one day and then asked her if she wanted to stay for Jambalaya.

Speaker 32 Oh, he was a wonderful cook.

Speaker 32 And he was a barber in the Navy. He cut my hair better than anybody has ever cut my hair in my life.
He should have just stuck to and instead of stuck man.

Speaker 21 If he had, says Beverly, he'd have avoided all the pain of the super jump.

Speaker 32 All that he received in compensation for his jump was his paid medical bills.

Speaker 21 And that was it.

Speaker 21 There was no profit.

Speaker 32 No, Kenny didn't make anything. No.

Speaker 32 Why do you think he chose to remain relatively in the background with Ken Carter as as the main that that has always been a mystery to me because Kenny had a type a personality that was totally out of character for Kenny to stay in the background

Speaker 21 while there's a lot Beverly still doesn't understand about Kenny like Steve the mechanic she's certain that Kenny attempted the jump not to betray Ken but to protect him In Beverly's telling, the investors were out of money, and they were getting threatening.

Speaker 32 Kenny and Ken should have never become involved with these men.

Speaker 4 But what do you mean by the money?

Speaker 32 It's not something over the phone that I could discuss.

Speaker 32 You think about that for a while.

Speaker 21 And so I thought about it for a while. You're talking about,

Speaker 21 if I can say over the telephone, the MOB?

Speaker 20 I won't say you're wrong.

Speaker 21 So Kenny Powers knew someone had to make that jump, and he also knew that because of his youth and physical condition, he stood a better chance of surviving it than Ken.

Speaker 21 That's why, according to Beverly, Kenny decided to step up.

Speaker 21 But unlike Steve the Mechanic's version of the story, Beverly says there was no secret plan, no plan at all, just Kenny deciding on his own, spur of the moment. to help his friend.

Speaker 21 And if that's true, Ken's getting angry back at the hotel might have been less about having the jump stolen out from under him and more about being scared for Kenny and angry that Kenny would just up and try something so impetuous.

Speaker 21 In the documentary, When We First See Kenny posing beside the ramp, the voiceover explains that Kenny always wears his back brace when making jumps, but that day he'd left it behind.

Speaker 21 When I first saw the movie, I chalked it up to vanity, that, as he enjoyed his moment in the spotlight, he wouldn't want the brace visible under his tight jumpsuit.

Speaker 21 But thinking on it now, how last-second the whole thing was, he probably didn't even have time to put it on.

Speaker 24 10-second countdown. That's all I need.

Speaker 29 If I'm not ready in 10 seconds, I'll never be ready.

Speaker 21 If Kenny had taken any time to consider the insanity of the jump, he probably wouldn't have been able to do it.

Speaker 21 Kenny Powers, standing alone on the ramp in his yellow jumpsuit and cowboy hat, must have been terrified.

Speaker 21 Beverly says that Kenny's relationship with Ken was more complicated than just the special bond between stuntmen. For Kenny, she says, the story begins much earlier.

Speaker 32 He was always an injured soul because of his abusive

Speaker 32 upbringing.

Speaker 32 He never could escape that.

Speaker 32 As his father was a binge drinker, his father was often very abusive to him. He talked about his father swinging around by his testicles once through the air.

Speaker 32 I think that one incident was pretty traumatic for him.

Speaker 21 Do you know how old he was?

Speaker 32 It must have been before he was eight years old.

Speaker 32 I think he might have gotten things from Ken Carter that he never got from his father

Speaker 32 and that he really needed emotionally.

Speaker 32 Just spending time with him and showing him affirmation

Speaker 32 and

Speaker 32 teaching him things and helping him to grow as a person and as a professional and making Kenny feel good about himself

Speaker 32 when the car was floating in the water, even with eight broken vertebrae, he was getting his self

Speaker 32 out

Speaker 32 and the first thing that he said,

Speaker 32 did I do well? Are you pleased?

Speaker 32 He wanted to please people.

Speaker 21 Beverly says that after the failed jump, Ken visited Kenny in the hospital and that they made amends.

Speaker 21 And the thing about the photograph, that Kenny carried around, an 8x10 picture of Ken for the rest of his life, Beverly says that not only only is it true, but that she gave Kenny a special leather portfolio that he used to carry it around in everywhere he went.

Speaker 32 He had a briefcase before then and he used it, but he started using a leather portfolio.

Speaker 4 Were there other photos in there that he had?

Speaker 26 No.

Speaker 21 Just Ken Carter's?

Speaker 26 Yes.

Speaker 4 Why do you think that was?

Speaker 32 I guess true love forgives.

Speaker 32 Kenny never quit loving Ken.

Speaker 32 Who loved Ken?

Speaker 21 But in the end, all that love got Kenny powers was the role of Judas in the Ken Carter life story.

Speaker 21 But while most stories of betrayal begin as love stories, this is the rare tale that ends as one.

Speaker 21 It takes guts to risk your life for glory, but it takes even more guts to risk your life for someone else, knowing that risk will only lead to obscurity and shame.

Speaker 21 A jump that big needs to be fueled by something bigger than money or the spotlight.

Speaker 21 The greatest leaps always do.

Speaker 21 After the failed super jump, Kenny continued performing stunts on his own, but he never achieved even a fraction of the fame and respect that Ken Carter had.

Speaker 21 In 2009, Kenny died and Beverly planned his funeral. Everyone ate hot dogs and watched videos of Kenny's stunts.
And of course, they traded their craziest Kenny Powers stories.

Speaker 32 Kenny could be hilarious. You never knew what Kenny was going to do.
Like, Kenny had a load of dynamite,

Speaker 32 and he drove up into a horse barn of one of his friends, and

Speaker 32 they made him get it out real quick. He just never knew what Kenny was going to do.

Speaker 32 You had to be there.

Speaker 21 A lot of Kenny Power's stories end this way. You just had to be there.

Speaker 21 For the time he snuck up behind a friend at the urinal and kissed him on the lips, or the time he wore his best suit to visit the dogs at the town dump.

Speaker 21 It's while listening to one after another of these stories that something occurs to me. It's a crazy thought, but one I'm compelled to share with Beverly.

Speaker 21 Did you ever see this TV show called Eastbound and Down?

Speaker 32 I did, and this is interesting you asked me. You cannot tell me the writers did not know my Kenny Powers.

Speaker 21 Eastbound and Down was a comedy series on HBO.

Speaker 21 The main character is a brash, foul-mouthed, and washed-up athlete from the South. And his name? Kenny Powers.
Woo! Yeah! Kenny fucking Powers, come on, raise it up! Woo!

Speaker 21 Come on, I ain't gonna cool at you! Look at your fucking board!

Speaker 21 All right, cool! Okay,

Speaker 21 okay, okay, shut the fuck up!

Speaker 21 But it's not just that his name is Kenny Powers. The TV Kenny Powers macho swagger is eerily similar to the real Kenny Powers.
And so is his physical style, right down to the goate.

Speaker 32 There's so many things that he said in that. It's just exactly verbatim verbatim what Kenny used to say.

Speaker 21 Do you remember what those moments were in the show?

Speaker 32 I don't think I can repeat it.

Speaker 4 Oh, please go ahead.

Speaker 21 After all, it is a butter-tartan podcast. Oh,

Speaker 32 I don't talk this way. Like, I need to say, Kenny motherfucking powers as an example.

Speaker 32 Kenny could use an F-word as a noun, verb, adverb, conjunction, adjective, all in one sentence in every every sentence of the paragraph, quite effectively.

Speaker 21 I'm not kidding. I'm fucking in, and you're fucking out.
Now get the fuck out of my chair.

Speaker 21 Kenichoa, bitches.

Speaker 32 I'm Kenneth. You know, after Kenny died,

Speaker 32 my son and I used to sit and watch it and laugh and we'd say, Kenny, Kenny.

Speaker 32 It was hilarious. It really brought comfort to me.

Speaker 21 The idea of Beverly sitting on a couch in the days after Kenny's death and taking solace in the antics of possibly possibly one of the crudest, most offensive characters in the history of television was enough to warm my heart and my researching fingers.

Speaker 21 I'm looking at the Wikipedia page for Kenny Powers, the character from Eastbound and Down.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 21 Yeah, it has all of his nicknames here: the People's Champion, the Shelby Sensation, the Man with the Golden

Speaker 21 DICK,

Speaker 21 Dr.

Speaker 21 C.O. Okay, some of these

Speaker 21 can't even, I can't even say some of these. Even a podcast has its limits.
But as I continue to read, I see that Wikipedia supports our theory.

Speaker 21 The name Kenny Powers, it says, was inspired by a real-life American automotive stuntman in the 1970s by the same name. But there's no citation, no way to confirm whether it's true.

Speaker 21 So before getting off the phone with Beverly, I promise her I'll deploy all of my journalistic learnings and all of Alex Bloomberg's bitcoins to track down the truth.

Speaker 21 Eventually, I get a hold of an executive at the production house that makes Eastbound and Down.

Speaker 21 He forwards my question about the Kenny Powers character onto the show's creator and star, Danny McBride. The executive says that Mr.
McBride, quote, wants to take the time to formulate a good answer.

Speaker 21 For the next few weeks, I send emails checking in to see if if there's anything I can report back to Beverly. Even a simple yes or no would be fine, I say, but I never get an answer.

Speaker 21 In the end, I decide to take Mr. McBride's unusual response to mean that the real Kenny Powers did receive a legacy after all.

Speaker 21 For what greater homage can a person be paid than to be immortalized in a hit TV show?

Speaker 21 In such a way that there's just enough ambiguity to avoid possible litigation over the non-consensual use of their identity and or likeness.

Speaker 34 I'm Kenny Powers! I don't mean to offend you, Wayne. You have fucking pissed me off, so I'm gonna go ahead and go.
But I'm not gonna stop yelling because then that'll mean I lost the fight.

Speaker 34 I love y'all very much. Peace out!

Speaker 21 So maybe, somehow, possibly, Kenny Powers did land that jump into America, after all.

Speaker 20 Now that the furniture's returning to its goodwill home

Speaker 20 Now that the last month's rent is scheming with the damaged deposit

Speaker 20 Take this moment to decide

Speaker 20 if we meant it if we tried

Speaker 20 But felt around for far too much

Speaker 20 from things that accidentally touched

Speaker 21 Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me, Jonathan Goldstein, along with Kalila Holt. The senior producer is Caitlin Roberts, editing by Jorge Just and Alex Bloomberg.

Speaker 21 Special thanks to Emily Condon, Risky Rick Cruz, Cody Glive, John Bolton, Freddie Sibley, Anna Sesnowski, Lee Fortenberry, Tony Asmakopoulos, Adam Szymansky, Lou Ann Leonard, Dick Keller, Harry Simpson, Gordon Kadyk, Saeed, T.

Speaker 21 John Thomas, Blythe Terrell, Jessica Weisberg, Devin Taylor, and Jackie Cohen. The show was mixed by Kate Bilinski.
Music by John K. Sampson, Steven Page, and the amazing Christine Fellows.

Speaker 21 Additional music credits for this episode can be found on our website, gimletmedia.com/slash heavyweight.

Speaker 21 Our theme song is by The Weaker Thans, courtesy of Epitaph Records, and our ad music is by Haley Shaw.

Speaker 21 You can watch the wonderful National Film Board of Canada documentary, The Devil at Your Heels, at nfb.ca. Follow us on Twitter at heavyweight or email us at heavyweight at gimletmedia.com.

Speaker 21 We'll have a new episode two weeks.

Speaker 5 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 9 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 10 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 11 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 12 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 17 Learn more at don't sleep on osa.com.

Speaker 18 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

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Speaker 1 PrEP can be about 99% effective when taken as prescribed. It doesn't protect against other STIs, though, so be sure to use condoms and other healthy sex practices.

Speaker 4 Ask a healthcare provider about all your prevention options and visit findoutaboutprep.com to learn more. Sponsored by Gilead.

Speaker 25 Hey, audiobook lovers. I'm Cal Penn.
I'm Ed Helms.

Speaker 25 Ed and I are inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with our new podcast, podcast, Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.

Speaker 35 Each week, we sit down with your favorite iHeart podcast hosts and some very special guests to discuss the latest and greatest audiobooks from Audible.

Speaker 25 Listen to Iarsay on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Iarsay and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

Speaker 7 This is an iHeart podcast.