The Nateland Podcast - 248: #248 The Revolutionary War featuring Dr. Ben Sawyer

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Nate and Dusty are both missing this week so Brian and Aaron are joined by friend, fellow comedian, and college history professor Dr. Ben Sawyer to discuss the American Revolutionary War. Simpler H...air Color- SimplerHairColor.com/Nate For 10% off your order, head to SimplerHairColor.com/Nate and use code NATE.  Vuiori- https://www.vuori.com/nate For our listeners, they are offering 20% off your FIRST purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at vuori.com/nate. Plus enjoy free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns.Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Cremo: Target.com You can find Cremo’s new line of antiperspirants and deodorants at Target or Target.com Chime: Chime.com/Nate Make progress towards a better financial future with Chime. Open your account in 2 minutes at chime.com/Nate. That’s chime.com/Nate. Chime. Feels like progress 

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 All aboard. I don't remember how to start. Hello folks and Hey Bear. Welcome to the Nate land podcast. This is Aaron Weber alongside my good pal, my compadre, my friend, Brian Bates. Dusty Slay and Nate are out this week. So I'll just pause for a few seconds to let you turn the episode off. Okay. That should be good. If you're still around, we've got a wonderful replacement. Smart enough, funny enough, and nice
Starting point is 00:00:43 enough to fill both of their shoes. He is a longtime friend of Brian and I, first time on the podcast, very funny, stand-up comedian, history professor, all around Renaissance man. Please welcome to the podcast for the very first time, Dr. Ben Sawyer. All right. Thanks guys. It's good to be here with you. Dude, it's an exciting, exciting time. I think the first doctor we've had. You're definitely the first, you're the first person with a post-graduate degree on this podcast. I can guarantee that. I'm glad you guys are like easing into it.
Starting point is 00:01:11 Don't get a real doctor yet. You know what I'm saying? Start with the historian. Yeah. How much of getting a doctorate is you wanted to be called doctor? Was that a big part of it? Uh, I think it was mostly that I failed to be in a high school teacher, so I had to figure out another way to teach.
Starting point is 00:01:23 Okay. You had to get back into, you had to become a student again. Do you insist that people call you doctor? Do you ever do that? Do you ever go guys it's doctor Ben? No, it's a, it's preposterous. Like sometimes, I mean, there's been people I've hung out with, like a place, like a cigar shop for, for years.
Starting point is 00:01:38 And then they go, why you got a PhD? And I'm like, yeah, like, why didn't you tell me? I was like, it's not relevant to our relationship at all. What if I did tell you, would you still talk to me? You probably shouldn't. It's a pretty fun little benefit though. It's worth the extra years of schooling. I think. Yeah, you know, the bummer is there's a comic here in town, Dr.
Starting point is 00:01:53 Ben. So if you- Oh, he's a medical doctor too, right? Yeah. So he's like a real doctor. So he like trumps what you do. Yeah. Well, like in an emergency, you're worthless.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Yeah. I mean, that's great. But if you wanted to know what happened before you'd have to talk to me Exactly yeah, oh the roads now. Yeah my podcast I did with Bob Crawford from the Avery brothers. You can't be plugging stuff We've been here Your own podcast here come on we're excited to have you man. We're gonna talk about for a podcast by the way I'm sorry, dude. The Road to Now is a solid podcast. I like names. It's not named after one person.
Starting point is 00:02:31 Not all about them. I hate a podcast that's a monument to one guy. Yeah, exactly. In a studio that's a shrine to him. Yes. Now, we get it. Dude, thank you for doing this. This will be fun. I want to plug a couple things before we get rolling here. A lot happened in Innate Land, by the way. We had our big Ryman showcase the other night. That was so much fun that we'll have. We already talked about that. Well, we preemptively last week said you've got a standing ovation. I think people knew we were lying, but. Oh, we got that. We'll get into that here. I'm going to talk about our weekends, but a lot's happening in Nate Land. Steven Rogers, who was on the podcast, his special, Half of We,
Starting point is 00:03:05 dropped on the YouTube channel. It's getting great feedback. The view counts are climbing. Hop in now, get in on the ground floor. Steven Rogers is so funny. You're going to be seeing him everywhere, but you can see him right now on the Nate Land YouTube. My special is still out there.
Starting point is 00:03:18 Signature dish, Nick Thunes. And then this is a fun announcement. Steven Bargetzi, friend of the podcast, father of its namesake, is doing a one hour special taping. He's taping a special. Tickets are on sale now. One time only event. See Nate's dad do a full hour special at the Franklin Theater here in Nashville.
Starting point is 00:03:38 November 2nd, two shows. November 2nd. It seems like a far, like far away, but it's going to sell out quickly. So get those tickets. Now there's new merch on nape or get see.com. We got a lot going on here. Go check out the consumers. Don't make me come back there. Our other podcast. Let's get rolling here, dude. Thank you again for joining Ben. Sorry, I trashed you for plugging
Starting point is 00:03:58 stuff. And then I launched into a plug. That's all right. It's your show. It's actually Nate's show. But you're here first. Yeah, you deserve to be here as much as we do. So, what'd you guys do? You want to hop into this weekend or what? Did you want to talk about the Ryman? Yeah. So we did the here. I got the hatch print here. This is the, it's one of the coolest parts about doing a show at the Ryman auditorium is that they have a deal with hatch print.
Starting point is 00:04:23 It's like the printing studio here in Nashville and they do a poster for every show. So we've got a NateLand Presents. You'll see this is mine and I ripped it a little bit. NateLand Presents, Good Clean Funny, everybody on there. Yakov Smirnoff did a spot on the show. Standing Ovation. Murdered. The guy killed and got a big standing, you know, and then, uh, Mia Jackson went up right after him and did great too. I was like, I was, you know, you see somebody standing, you know, when you're like, Oh, who has to go up next?
Starting point is 00:04:51 Right. And you're worried about it. But Mia went up there and did great. It was just solid show top to bottom, uh, beautifully hosted. And, uh, just to, I hosted it, Just to, if that wasn't clear. Just a good night. Thank you to everybody who came. I'm looking forward to a lot more,
Starting point is 00:05:09 a lot more things like this. So this was a very fun thing to get to do. Yeah, I'm still thinking about the following someone. You know, you're always worried about that. I mean, that's the story of my life. Almost every show I'm on. But, but I went to the day of the show, went to eat, name drop here with John
Starting point is 00:05:27 Chris, Derek Strupe and Ryan Hamilton. All funny guys and we're all talking about comedy. And I said, you know, when you're on a showcase and you have a bad set, you want to blame it on the crowd. So you want everybody on this show to have a bad set. I think that's comedy. They all said I was crazy. Like, no, that's not true. Like I'm selfish. I'm like, guys, you're lying to yourself. If you have a bad set, you want the next. Well, just because you're selfish doesn't mean you're wrong. That is how you feel. Yeah, exactly. You're like, yeah, I know it's not good that I think that way. If I bomb, I want everybody bombing. Yeah, because I want to blame it on the crowd and not me. Yeah, I want to do it. The show was a nightmare, not just my set.
Starting point is 00:06:02 They all said I was crazy. Yeah. But anyway, I was on a show a couple of years ago where there were like eight comics and all seven of us bombed up front. And by the seventh one, I was like feeling pretty secure. Yeah. And the last guy went on and murdered. And it was not fun. It's not fun. So I feel you now. I think I was on that show and I was not last. Yeah, I think I was on that show and I was not last.
Starting point is 00:06:30 You used to do a show over in East Nashville at a winery. Oh yeah, forever ago. Yeah, you've got so many. But so Ben's been a longtime fixture in the Nashville comedy scene. He's run all kinds of shows and you have a show to Yazoo. You have a brewery show here that you run and then you had a cigar show for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Any place where you get any you have a show to Yazoo brew. You have a brewery show here that you run and then you had a cigar show for a while. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Any place where you get any place with a vice, Ben would run a show there.
Starting point is 00:06:51 Pretty much any place people just want to be doing something else. I'll show up with comics and, uh, kind of ruin their evening, ruin their night. Ask them to be quiet, stop enjoying what they were doing. That's kind of my thing. Stand-ups great for that. Just y'all trying to have fun tonight. Well, that's the end of that. Turn those TVs off. Yeah. What is that? Yeah. Game y'all trying to have fun tonight. Well, that's the end of that. Turn those TVs off.
Starting point is 00:07:07 What is that? Yeah. Game seven of the finals. Turn it off. Yep. Yeah. No, I listened to Bill Burr recently talking about how he was like surprised when he did, uh, Broadway and people liked him the first time he did
Starting point is 00:07:17 it because he was talking about like, uh, he was just so used to the first few years you do something, everyone being upset when you show up. Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. I still feel that way. Yeah. At a comedy club where they, they know I'm performing. Let's get our weekend.
Starting point is 00:07:32 Yeah. What'd you get into? I felt that way this weekend. Uh, no, I was in Detroit. I did Detroit house of comedy. Are you from there? No, no, I'm from North Carolina. Okay.
Starting point is 00:07:40 But you went to school in Michigan. I went to Michigan state. Yeah. Ooh, Michigan state. Does your doctorate count less? Cause it's to Michigan state. Yeah. Oh, Michigan state. Does your doctorate count less because it's from Michigan state. Yeah, it does actually. You have to preface every time you go Dr. Ben, but it's from Michigan state. So it's not that big. Yeah, I
Starting point is 00:07:53 really do. I said, I should have an asterisk and when I say it out loud, you can't hear it, but it's like a slight, you have to like lean on the valley. You can tell. I had never been to really spend any time in downtown Detroit. It's very nice. They've really revitalized that, you know, I had this image that it was going to be dangerous. It didn't feel dangerous. You watched eight mile before you went.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Yeah. He thought it was going to be that. Yeah. And it was, it was a beautiful day. I wish the tigers were home because like you said, it is right down that club and the hotel was right in the heart of it. You can see the baseball stadium from the club. Like it's the, it's a block away.
Starting point is 00:08:26 And that park is awesome. It is awesome. It's so great. And the Little Caesars Arena where the Red Wings and the Pistons play right next to it. So to come to a show at that comedy club, I really appreciate the people who came. It is not easy. The parking next door was $45 to park.
Starting point is 00:08:44 Yeah. You gotta really want to come down there. The Pistons were playing Friday night when I was there. Cat Williams was there Saturday night. Can you imagine paying $45 to park to see me? No, I can't. You're like, how much just to park? Parking, parking is 45 bucks. Tickets are buy one get one.
Starting point is 00:09:05 Parking is four times more than the ticket to see the show. No, it's a, that's better. When I was down there, I used to go down to Detroit lot and it used to be, the parking was cheaper, but it was mostly just paying a dude not to smash your windshield out whenever you got out of, out of the eyeline. You're paying the guy who would have done it or you're paying a guy to protect your car. You're paying the guy to protect your car from him.
Starting point is 00:09:27 Every lie to guy who like you'd bark there and be like, I think this is free. And he'd pop out and be like $10 to watch your car. And you'd look him in the eyes and be like, I know what you're going to do. Yeah. So you pay him. Yeah. Still $35 cheaper.
Starting point is 00:09:39 Yeah, exactly. How were the shows though? Uh, the shows were fun. Small crowds, but again. Not wrong with that? You know, I get it. It's not an easy place to get to. Look, it's easy to perform in an arena for 20,000 people and just kind of perform that way. It's hard and it's more meaningful, I think, to be in a room with 30 people and give them a real experience. Yeah, I wish. You know what I mean? I'll take your word for it. I know the
Starting point is 00:10:12 second part pretty well. I got to agree. So I'm saying, I think the bar for ticket sales is artificially inflated by Nate being on the podcast. Yeah. That people need to know what the real world is like. But the people who came were so great. A lot of folks came out, met a lot of great people. You know, they'd said they'd seen you there. Okay. And some people saw you in Grand Rapids. And all right. Nice to do. Yeah. We're taking over Michigan. That's a good hall too, man. I mean, they weren't close to each other. I must have really wanted to see one of you guys. Yeah. How far is Grand Rapids from Detroit?
Starting point is 00:10:46 It's a couple of hours, I think. Yeah. It's a hike. Yeah, it's a hike. So, yeah, you're right. They wanted to see one of us. Yeah. They probably just lived in Detroit. Good deal.
Starting point is 00:10:55 They live next to the clubs, what you're saying? Well, Ben, what have you been up to, man? Oh man, this weekend, not a whole lot. Just kind of going to- So you're teaching or you're a college professor. Yes. I know you primarily as a comedian, but it's fun to think about you in a classroom.
Starting point is 00:11:11 I know you're a very good teacher, I can just tell. MTESU. What are you teaching right now? What are your classes? Right now? I'm teaching nothing. Oh, that sounds like- I've been on medical leave for a year.
Starting point is 00:11:22 Are we gonna bring that up? No. Let's get into it. My bad, my bad. Maybe vet the guest a little bit. No, it's all right. I knew about some of that. What were you teaching?
Starting point is 00:11:39 Because we had some comics a few years ago that actually had you as a teacher. NTSU students who are coming to open mics and they're like that's Dr. Ben. Matt Boyd, remember Matt Boyd? Oh yeah. Matt Boyd was in my class the first time that I ever taught. Yeah that's crazy. It was. What's your like the primary, is there a specialty that you have or like a period of history that you? So my specialty is Economic history history of capitalism communism and things like that. Okay, I'm not a career here, but my yeah Yeah, anyway
Starting point is 00:12:18 No, I do too But uh, but then I studied the US and the Soviet Union Russia. I miss my geographic places So what I teach at MTSU is I just teach the basic classes, the survey classes, US History 1 and US History 2. And nobody can quite figure out why I only want to teach those. They've offered me other classes, but I love teaching those classes. And it's the kind of thing where
Starting point is 00:12:41 everybody has to take those classes to graduate. And I really, really love this place we live. And I know, you know, going in there with the expectation that you have history majors is just going to fail. Right. Like I don't like I know some people who give a whole lot of books to read. And I've just never thought that if you didn't enjoy something making you just shoving more of it down. Like when you were a kid and you like broccoli, you were like, no, you were like, what if you just ate like four barrels of it? Like, no. So it's kind of great to, to, it's a, I go in there every day feeling like it's a grind and it's a challenge because, you know, I'm like the last person for a lot of these folks for a while is going to be explained in history.
Starting point is 00:13:17 And you just can't expect that you can't go in there and expect they care about it. Right. They became aware they were alive like a few years earlier and since since then, they've mostly been thinking about pizza and stuff. You can't be like, well, what about 300 years ago? They're like, don't care. So it's a fun challenge, man. And I also just love talking about why democracy matters, why we're fortunate. And I think if you study history, I tell them, I'm like, I don't have any expectations
Starting point is 00:13:42 for what you come away with from this class. I'm never here to tell you what to think. For goodness sakes, look at what my generation's done to this country and ask yourself, do I have the right to tell anybody what to do? I'm trying to teach you what I know so that you can save my son who's 10. But yeah, no, I just love it. It's a great opportunity to teach and to kind of share what I love with other people. That's awesome.
Starting point is 00:14:04 If you're not familiar with MTSU, Middlesbrough Tennessee State University, one of the most prestigious academic universities in the country. Boasting such alumni as Brian Bates. Yeah, and now I'm also a visiting scholar over at Vanderbilt where... Well, just stick with MTSU. ...where this last year... Well, you know, once you kind of move up, they... A visiting scholar? What does that mean? I mean, I guess I can guess. Well, you know, Bates, I think I said this earlier, but, uh, I remember listening to the early, the early episodes and you guys trying to figure out what an adjunct professor was. And I thought, honestly,
Starting point is 00:14:36 the theme for the show could just be come in and say, I am a master instructor of history at middle Tennessee state university and visiting scholar Vanderbilt. And then we could just spend two hours trying to explain to Nate with that man. Exactly. But yeah, so it basically means that they've, I co-direct a seminar series over there with speakers and have use of all their resources which is very kind of them. So you're like an adjunct adjunct professor at Nate land right now. That's great. Right? I mean why would you do that to me? I don't know but I'm happy you're here man. I'm happy here. Where was I? I was in Florida this weekend with Kathleen Madigan great shows last night I did a little show with Brad Paisley here at Zany's. Yeah, the lineup was
Starting point is 00:15:14 me Henry Cho Kevin Nealon Hosted by Brad Paisley all three of those guys have been on Thaitland. It was basically a Nate land showcase Yeah, I'm trying to get Brad Paisley on here at some point. But it was a great night. Great, great cause. Great, great everything. It was one of those just kind of fun nights, man. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:34 We watched the end of The Masters on Brad Paisley's tour bus. Wow. With Kevin Nealon. And I'm sitting across from Kevin Nealon, who I think of like he was a happy Gilmore. And I'm watching the Masters with him and I just want him to be like, send the ball home. Send it home. It was just a bizarre moment for me.
Starting point is 00:15:55 And then you got Henry. Was Henry on there? Henry's on there. He knows all those guys. He knows all of them. It was a really fun way to watch the end of that. And it was a crazy Masters too. I don't know if you watched it, Ben, but it came down to a playoff at the end.
Starting point is 00:16:07 Rory McIlroy got the win. If you're around people that are passionate about stuff, it's fun to watch it with them. I got a buddy, Connor Larson, who's super into UFC. And if you watch UFC with him, it's the most fun thing in the world. By myself, I don't know what's going on. I really care, but it was kind of like that
Starting point is 00:16:24 with the Masters. But anyway, it's official. I look in the mirror and I see gray hairs. Life is starting to end for me. That's what it feels like. I want to cover them up, but home hair dye kits are a mess. The salon is a hassle. This podcast is proud to be sponsored by Simpler Hair Color. Simpler Hair Color is the easiest way to eliminate grays. Modern men deserve simpler, safer ways to care for their appearance. With Simpler Hair Color, you've got gentler ingredients without the messy mixing. I'm mixing up the word mixing.
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Starting point is 00:17:47 Nate so they know we sent you. Fun weekend. Excited you're here, Ben. Let's get into these comments. Let's get into it, I think. Let's do it. You wanna read them? Uh no, you're doing a great job. Are you sure? Are you me? Do you want me to? Why don't we split it up? I'll do page one, you do page two. Okay. We've never done that before but I think, you know, Nate and Dusty are gone. It's time to take chances on this podcast. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:18:10 Ryan, oh, comments come from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcast Reviews, and naiteland at natepargetzi.com. Ben, feel free to weigh in on these too, by the way. Oh, thank you. And first comment comes from Ryan Clark. As a good Catholic, I chose to give up chips for Lent. Well, that's quite a sacrifice, Ryan. I... He didn't pick a flavor, dude. Like, all chips.
Starting point is 00:18:34 I'm just kidding. What did you give up, Aaron? I gave up, you know what? I gave up making comments like that, so I'm sorry about that, Ryan. Yep. As a good Catholic, I chose to give up chips for Lent. I love chips in all forms, so this has been a challenge. There you go. My work recently put out a bowl of Cheetos for a snack, which spurred a debate amongst myself and my coworkers. Are Cheetos a chip? Easter is
Starting point is 00:18:55 quickly approaching, so I am choosing to ask the greatest minds I know. Can I indulge with Cheetos or would that break my Lenten commitment? Wow. That's tough. We've got a professor on to help this. Yeah, I think if you're looking for some type of scientific definition of a chip, Cheetos probably doesn't fit that. But deep down, you know that's a chip. Deep down, you know that's part of what you're talking about, right? It comes in a bag.
Starting point is 00:19:21 It's got the same texture to it, basically. I think Cheetos is a chip if we're going at just the spirit of it, which I think is what Len is all about. Yeah. I mean, we're just wait till Sunday and you can eat as much as you want. Yeah. I felt like if somebody, you went to a party and somebody was like, Hey man, if you want some chips, they're on the table over there. You wouldn't walk back and be like, uh, you didn't mention that there were Cheetos. Yeah, exactly. Like, I don't see any chips. I see Cheetos. What is that about?
Starting point is 00:19:44 Yeah. I guess you're a What is that about? Yeah. I guess you're a little bugle. Same thing. You. I think it's all. Yeah. I like this. Good bugle bag. All right. Bates was going to give it up for land. Bugle boy. All right. I guess bugle not technically a chip, but it's like, what are we talking about? Yeah like what are we talking about?
Starting point is 00:20:09 It's in the same it's right next to it in the aisle at Kroger like it's a it's a chip and you kind of know what you're doing Yeah And if you want to approach lent as looking for loopholes and things like that that might that might defeat the whole purpose of it Right. Yep. Is a chip about its shape? I mean, is it just how flat does that have to be a certain, like, does that have to be flat? I mean, are we going to like get into this where we had to like, does it have to be a potato? Hmm.
Starting point is 00:20:30 No. Well, if you do that, a lot of these things don't qualify cause they don't have real potatoes in it. You remember Greg Warren told us they had to stop calling Pringles chips because they didn't have enough potatoes to meet the qualifications. We know that it's a chip. So a Pringles counts, right? That's what I'm trying to say.
Starting point is 00:20:49 Yeah. Ryan, but I admire either way, man. Best of luck and, uh, you know, happy Holy week. Zach Bennett, Aaron mentioned that he noticed he never uses his smartphone in his dreams. Since that time, I've been keeping track of my dreams and neither do I. Once or twice I've dreamed about having a smartphone, but then the device fails or breaks and I just move on without it.
Starting point is 00:21:12 I think Aaron may be onto something with this theory. How about that? You ever noticed that Ben? Do you have dreams? Yeah. Okay. We know what you do for a living. There's been crush, but yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:24 Well, I was just thinking when you're, when I never dream about watching TV or looking at a phone, that's interesting. Even though that's probably a bulk of my life is looking at one of those, one of those things. And I bet, I wonder if I were in a car crash and my life flashed before my eyes, how much of that would be like breaking bad, you know, because I've seen the whole show like five times. That's a pretty good percentage of my life.
Starting point is 00:21:50 That's probably why you had a car crash. That's it. Cause I'm watching while I'm driving. Yeah. I remember you used to sit with, you used to sit a laptop on the front seat of your van, didn't you? No, don't say that. That's not true.
Starting point is 00:22:00 I set a laptop up. I know you used to hold an Xbox controller with the steering wheel. Come on, dude. I'm a safe driver, man. But it's just, it's, it's curious. It's a interesting thing. Keep track of that. Let me know if you look at your phone in your dream.
Starting point is 00:22:15 Okay. Matt Duvall, a not so funny story about the Jim Joyce blown call. I called him James Joyce on the podcast, people didn't like that. Yeah, I saw that. But I, that's what I said is I respect umpires. I'm going to call them by their full name. Yeah. A not so funny story about the Jim Joyce blown call.
Starting point is 00:22:37 My buddy's uncle who lives in Toledo, one hour from Detroit, has the same name as the umpire and after the blown call, people started calling him with death threats. He even ended up changing his voicemail message for a bit, explaining he wasn't the umpire to try and head things off. That's, I mean, that's funny now in retrospect, I bet that was crazy at the time. Yeah, that's so crazy. It's also like ironic that they're mad at him for like getting something inaccurate yet they're not really checking which ironic that they're mad at him for like getting something inaccurate,
Starting point is 00:23:05 yet they're not really checking which Jim Joyce they're going after. That's true. That's true. They made a bad call as well. Yeah. How about that? They should have a forgiveness thing the next day.
Starting point is 00:23:15 That's why you have a professor on it. They notice these things. Yep. Joe Clark, planting trees in the median and next to off-ramps is a, all caps, super dumb idea. I wish Dusty was here. The whole point is to have a space with nothing in it in case you lose control and go off the highway. Planning dozens of rigid objects rooted in the ground would put a noticeable increase in highway deaths. It's an excellent point, Joe Clark. I did not think about that at
Starting point is 00:23:42 all. Ben, we were talking about how we wanted to, we wanted to plant some more trees. Dusty thought it would be a good idea. Some of this, like the median on the interstate. Someone suggested it. Oh, okay. It was a comment. Yeah. Why aren't there fruit trees, like on the side of the road all over the place? And we thought, that sounds like a good idea. Joe Clark just reminded us why they don't. Yeah, I'd much rather there'd be nothing in between me and the other side. So when I lose control, I can hit another car. Okay. I'm back. I'm back. I mean, that's a good point, counterpoint here. How often does this guy lose control of his car? That's what I want to know.
Starting point is 00:24:18 I think it happens. I wouldn't want to, you would venture all the way across the interstate median to the other side. That's how bad, watch it break bad. You made it to the trees in the interstate medium to the other side. That's how bad. Why don't you break the bad trees in the middle? You might as well keep going. Yeah. I don't think my car is powerful enough to get across that grass. That's what it was saying. My car is just so weak.
Starting point is 00:24:34 Yeah. Van back, dude. I need the van back. I'd love it back. Brandon life heat, Lafette, Brandon life heat. Is that how you would say it? Leaf height. Leaf height.
Starting point is 00:24:48 Leaf heat. Brandon, in addition to CO2 issues with crops in the medium, the amount of wildlife that causes car accidents would skyrocket enormous safety risk. Okay. I'm back to the other side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:04 That, uh, that makes sense too. You'd have what owls and squirrels and things running up into those trees. Yeah. Deer, deer, I mean deer anyway, but you wouldn't be able to spot them. Is deer in the trees? Well, they're gonna hang out in the trees. Okay. Not, not in the canopy, but they hang out amongst the trees.
Starting point is 00:25:22 They're in forests. Don't act like they hang around trees. They do. And East Nashville, and East Nashville, they're already in the canopy, but they hang out amongst the trees. They're in forests. Don't act like they hang around trees. They do. In East Nashville, they're already in the road anyway. Yeah, that's true. They are everywhere. I almost hit one the other night. Andrew Kahn, I think the NICU and ICU debate has more to do with it being four or three letters. Oh, this is interesting. Four letters, we make it a new word such as NASA. Three letters, we just say the letters such as FBI or CIA.
Starting point is 00:25:54 Huh. Huh. Let me think about that. That's why we call it the USA and not USA. I'd never thought about that. I can't think of a three letter acronym where where we say it as that's a word. NCAA. NCAA, we don't call it... you say that out loud. NACA. Come on.
Starting point is 00:26:23 Okay. All right. That's very funny. I've never, I've never thought about that. I'm still thinking, trying to think of one. I can't think of one. We were talking about, you call it the NICU, which is neonatal intensive care unit, but the intensive care unit, they don't call it the ICU. That I think it just got ICU sounds bad. ICU does sound, sounds like, sounds like they just put the gross face on it. ICU. Oh, we got to they just put the growth space. Oh, we got to put you in the, you.
Starting point is 00:26:51 All right, Brian, you take over. Okay. Cameron Ramsey, a couple of weeks ago, my roommate signed up to be an Uber driver. His first drive was a couple that called an Uber because the husband was having a heart attack. It was much cheaper to call an Uber than having taken ambulance. So my roommate's first ever drive for Uber was taking a man to the hospital while he's having a heart attack in his car. Well, as a former Uber driver, yeah, I never had that happen.
Starting point is 00:27:16 I was trying to think of anything. I never had a crazy trip like that. You've ever had somebody. No, I had a pretty sure a lady of the night I picked her up. A lady of the night. Did you take her to the movie house? Where'd you pick her up from? A hotel. Oh from a hotel. Yeah and I took her to another hotel. Did you really? I'm a trafficker. I mean, I can't promise that's what she was, but there were some signs there. I'm a trafficker. Yeah. How often are you Ubering from one hotel to another?
Starting point is 00:27:51 And she stopped on the way. She had to stop at a bank and make a deposit. Oh my gosh. Yeah, this is definitely what it was. Yeah, but, um. Yeah, but it's not your point. It's not your job to judge what people are doing. No, no, not exactly. It's your job to facilitate it. are doing. Yeah. No, not exactly. You know, I never have to facilitate it. The furthest drive I've ever had. I'm a accessory too.
Starting point is 00:28:13 Just added myself. The longest drive I've ever had that you guys asked, but yeah, was to Clarksville. That's a hike. What about an hour? Yeah. Over there. Is that a pretty good payday for you? Yeah. Was to Clarksville. That's a hike. It's about an hour. Yeah. Hour there. Is that a pretty good payday for you? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:28 I'm trying to think of what an Uber to Clarksville. It's probably, what, $500? No. It's nothing like that. How much? It was maybe $50, $60, something like that. $50? Maybe more.
Starting point is 00:28:40 Yeah. You got fleeced. It was $500 to be cheaper to take an ambulance. I just took it in Spokane. I called the ambulance on myself. I went to the ER. It was a three or four blocks. Yeah. Maybe, maybe half a mile.
Starting point is 00:29:00 Yeah. Ambulance ride, 3,800 bucks. Take that ambulance. Now insurance covers a lot of it, but that's what it costs. 3,800 bucks. I should be an ambulance driver. I know you should. Well, it sounds like you could have been the right person. Yeah, exactly. You ever somebody throw up in your car, Brian? No, I had, I had a drunk guy leave his phone in my car once. I never drove for Uber a ton, but... Would you go pick up on Broadway on Friday and Saturday nights? So that's the danger zone. That's where things happen. A lot of drunk people. I think now people tip pretty well with Uber. This is not a knock on your age. It's just a new thing where I don't even think back then there was like,
Starting point is 00:29:46 the percentage would come up for tipping. No, no. See now you just hit 20%, 15%. Yeah. I didn't get tipped a lot when I drove for Uber and they take so much of the total payout. So I think now people make more money driving for Uber than they did back then. Yeah. Be curious to see that. Did you play, did you have music blasting in the car? I would try to... Profile the person, make your joke. Yeah, I have a joke where I say that, but I would try to do that as well.
Starting point is 00:30:16 I try to match the energy of what, if they wanted to talk, I would try to talk back that same level. If they were quiet, I would be quiet. Okay, but they're leading the dance. Yeah. I would let them lead. I try to get a feel for what I think they do. Yesterday morning, you know, I had a schedule an Uber 5 a.m. at my hotel and the guy wants to talk. Yeah. I just want to be, I'm like, dude. Yeah. What about the guy going to Clarksville? It was a woman. She did not speak English. Okay. Oh, that's ideal. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:43 She had a doctor's appointment. She was pregnant. Had a doctor's appointment downtown She was pregnant, had a doctor's appointment in downtown Nashville and I drove her home. I like when it says, you're Uber driver, Lyft driver, I was hard of hearing. And you're like, yes, I'm talking about that. And then I see him and I don't think this guy's deaf.
Starting point is 00:30:56 I think they just put that on there. There's a lot of them. They probably, if they don't speak English very well or if they just don't want to talk to people. Either way, I respect it. Yeah. Oh, sorry, I way I respect it. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I forgot I'm reading them now. Seth Mondragon. What a name. Mondragon. Mondragon.
Starting point is 00:31:17 I was wondering if you guys ever come up with a joke and then think, how did I not come up with that one sooner? I look at other people's jokes and think, why did I think of that? It's the wrong episode to ask that question. I hear jokes all the time and think, I wish I had a thought of that before they did. Yeah. Cause everything's just for the taken. It's like, I'll hear all the time. You just hear a joke.
Starting point is 00:31:42 You're that was anybody could have made that observation and somebody else did it. Yeah. It's like, I'll hear all the time. You just hear a joke. You're that was anybody could have made that observation and somebody else did it. Yeah. It's so good. I remember when you started, Ben, I felt like the first time I ever saw you was at the comedy bar. Does that sound right?
Starting point is 00:31:53 No, we basically, I moved here in 2013. You know, you were the- You've known him for over a decade. You were the first person I'd ever met that performed at Zany's. Oh, well. That was a big deal back then. And I remember you came over to some show.
Starting point is 00:32:07 It's not a big deal to know him now. Some show up the street. Yeah. And now it's kind of, it's washed over me. Stalled out. It's kind of like caffeine. When I was a kid, it was a big deal. Now it's kind of like I need it.
Starting point is 00:32:18 I don't need you Bates. All right. Anyway, that was a bad analogy, but yeah, I remember like meeting you because you came over and did some show up the street after you'd walked off stage and I was like, wow. And you know, it was, what was that? Man? It was some place called that's cool. I think Chad Rodden was running a show down there. Yeah, there were like more comics in there than there were people watching. You know, it was those days there was no, no chance to get on
Starting point is 00:32:37 stage, you know, I got the location wrong, but I do remember that. And I remember you like, you have smart jokes. Oh, thank you. And not particularly funny, but I do remember that. And I remember you like, uh, you have smart jokes. Oh, thank you. And not particularly funny, but they're smart. I appreciate that. That's what, that's what my wife used to say. I'd get off stage and be like, it wasn't that good.
Starting point is 00:32:54 She goes, yeah, but they were listening. Yeah. Like, yeah, that's what they do. That's how you bomb. You gotta listen to do that too. Yeah. I always respected you would do like we'd be in some dive bar and you're up there talking about Grover Cleveland or something that we're like, dude, we don't
Starting point is 00:33:10 know what you're talking about, but you do, you find a way to make it funny. It's fun to watch. Thank you. Yep. It's not the same old stuff as what I appreciate. Thank you. Let me ask you this on the back of that. Uh, do you guys ever come up with a joke that you feel like so good that somebody
Starting point is 00:33:24 else must have written that joke and you just heard it? Yeah. Yeah. And then it usually is the case of that. Do you guys ever come up with a joke that you feel like so good that somebody else must have written that joke and you just heard it? Yeah. And then it usually is the case. Yeah. Sometimes I don't even want to Google. I'm like, I really liked this joke, but I know if I Google five comics, I've had it. Ignorance is bliss.
Starting point is 00:33:36 Yeah. Yeah, it can be. That's a good question, Seth. We'll table that one and ask Dusty and Nate. Cause I think that's who you're asking. All right, Aaron, let me tell you about our next sponsor, Viori. Our old pals. Oh, it's the best.
Starting point is 00:33:49 Viori is the new perspective on performance apparel. It's perfect if you're sick and tired of traditional old workout gear, but mainly it's by far the most comfortable and best looking thing we wear. Including that hat, by the way. Yeah. It's a great hat. Very comfortable. It fits my head.
Starting point is 00:34:04 It's very comfortable. I rarely, rarely wear a hat on the podcast. People always it's a great hat very great. It's my head. It's very car I rarely rarely wear a hat on the podcast people always complain about it, but the Ori Like they have to dim their their phones but Viori hats are so comfortable. Even I want to wear one dusty even loves it dusty hates everything dusty hates everything on earth But he likes the Ori even at the airport. It's incredibly versatile and designed to look great in everyday life. We all love to wear it and right now I'm into the Sunday Performance Jogger award yesterday as I performed and jogged. It's part of their Sunday collection. It's so soft, lightweight with a four-way performance stretch so it moves with you
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Starting point is 00:35:16 but enjoy free shipping on any U.S. order over $75 and free returns. Go to Viori.com slash Nate and discover the versatility of Viori clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Trace lawless? Tris? Three. Trace lawless. Three lawless. Three lawless. Last week we had a debate about whether you can have coffee in church. I actually listened. I heard that. That's an interesting debate. I can have coffee in church. I actually listened. I heard that it's an interesting debate I am pro coffee in church buildings studies have shown that holding a warm beverage can influence how you perceive and interact with other people
Starting point is 00:35:51 More generous caring trustworthy, etc. Oh more generous. That's one of this Yeah, it works for the church or she get that offer and play it around. Yeah Hold something warm. Yeah playing around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold something warm. Yeah. I just don't know if I believe holding a warm drink will make you give more money to people. Yeah, we talked about this recently. Hey, didn't we? I'm remembering now. It was a study that showed people like react to people differently, more warmly. Did we do an episode on temperature or feel or touch? Touch. Touch.
Starting point is 00:36:25 We did an episode on touch. Yep. Or we talked about this. That's right. Um, I don't remember how I reacted to it. That episode, I'm telling you how I'm reacting to it right now. Well, we didn't talk about, yeah, we didn't talk about generosity then. I think Dusty covered sounds like nonsense for you.
Starting point is 00:36:39 You see that in health care. That's right. Any study, Nate or Dusty are going to shut. Well, I'll just say, keep on going with it. Uh, you know where all the drinks are warm. Okay. I wish I had thought of it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:57 Uh, Colton Benji, Benj. Ben gay Colton, Ben gay Benji, uh,-huh. They made the game halo your play halo no it's the best game halo 2 is the best game ever made all right mmm Colton I remember during a college class I couldn't stop laughing at the worst time and I had to force myself to think of something sad to calm down I usually think of someone who has passed I I know, grim, but it works. Has there ever been a moment where you found yourself laughing when you shouldn't be? If so, do you have, do you have a go-to method of, or thought that helps you stop? I think about Aaron's act.
Starting point is 00:37:39 I put on Aaron's special on my phone. You start crying. Your special just hit 400,000 views by the way. Did it? Yeah. That's a great special. I like that. Are the comments getting mean? Just the ones I find. Just about two thirds of them.
Starting point is 00:37:59 From different accounts. Just from all your alter egos on YouTube. Yeah, this is anything. I remember school. it's anywhere you're not supposed to laugh. You have this in your class? Which I guess is the question, but church, sitting at church, me and my siblings, some of the laughs we had there, I mean, it was painful holding it in. And then school, somebody, just like, I hate to be crass, but like just a fart at the right time is, it's tough to beat. It's tough to beat. It's still to this day. Maybe I'll outgrow that.
Starting point is 00:38:32 I have no idea, but it can be very funny. The fact that you're not supposed to be laughing makes you laugh that much more. Yeah. I'm just trying to think as this one who teaches history and there's pretty dark moments like the worst possible time. I'm just thinking going through my mind and thinking like where in my class would be the worst possible time. What do you think the worst day in history is? The worst day in history? It's some human suffering. What do you think the worst, the worst day of all time? I want the date. The date. Yes. You've got a time machine you're trying to go back. Good gracious. World history. World history, dude. I mean, probably when the asteroid hit the dinosaurs.
Starting point is 00:39:07 Yeah, probably. That was probably, let me get out a calendar for that one. There's definitely BC. I'm not a. All right. It's a tough question. We'll come back to it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:18 Those are the kinds of history questions I'll be asking. So just get ready for it. That's good. Oh, I keep forgetting. Brandon Howe, fourth grade teacher here. Now that's a real educator. Fourth grade. Yep.
Starting point is 00:39:30 The story from Brian's childhood. Yeah, you don't have to get as much of an education, but they work real hard. They work way harder. I mean, you're teaching adults. These kids need, they need to have their hands held. Look, my son is in fourth grade right now. And I just want to say this right now to be clear. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:45 I respect primary school teachers so much more. Oh, yeah. You know what you can't do? What's that? Just tell them to leave. You can't do that. Get out. Like, my students wander off and they're just rejoice, you know? Like, my son was wandering around outside the school. He'd be happy about it.
Starting point is 00:39:59 I think I got sent to the hallway a couple of times. I guess you, maybe that was later, but yeah, just go sit in the hallway or something if you're being disruptive. Or go to the principal's office. But didn't you go to Catholic school? Yeah. Yeah, so like if they told you to sit in the hallway
Starting point is 00:40:13 and you didn't stay in the hallway, there would be consequences. Oh, okay. Right? Like I just feel like in other schools, they're like, they see the kid walking by, they're like, I guess he's going where he's supposed to be going.
Starting point is 00:40:22 Walk out the door, guess the parent's picking him up, I don't know. Yeah, like what year do you teach most of the students? Most of them are first and second year students. So. But I get all across the board. They're borderline adults, 17, 18. They're officially adults.
Starting point is 00:40:35 Although every once in a while, I'll get a student who's like in high school and taking a college class for credit. And it's funny because they totally expect that I would know that they were like 16, but if you're in college and when you're in high school, you're actually so sharp that it doesn't really stand out. So it's kind of a cool thing.
Starting point is 00:40:56 Oh, fourth grade teacher here. The story from Brian's childhood is All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury. This has been a few weeks, Aaron, but we'll all finish this. Believe it or not, the story is still being used today in our reading curriculum. It's a story on how jealousy can cause people
Starting point is 00:41:11 to do things they'll regret. Couple months ago, I told you and Dusty about this story. I remember in school about a kid getting locked in a closet. It was a place where it rained every day. And they had one hour of sunshine and they locked this kid in a closet and they forgot about them. So when they came back in, they're like, oh man, this kid's been locked in the closet. And then, and you realize guys like, that's crazy. That seems so whatever. But a lot of people said, no, this is a very, so the story is
Starting point is 00:41:43 it was set on the planet Venus. Okay. A girl comes from earth. They've never seen the sun on Venus. It only rains. And she says, I've seen the sun and she tells them about it. And they're like, you're crazy. And they get so frustrated with her. They lock her in a closet or jealous of her. Maybe then once every seven years for one hour, the sun comes out, they all go out and play, enjoy the sun, come back in. They're like, Oh, she's still in the closet. And it's going to be seven more years before she sees the sun. Well, well, I was already against colonizing Mars.
Starting point is 00:42:17 By the time we get to Venus, we're pretty, I guess it's a very well-known story. I had never heard of this. Is it interesting though interesting though published in 1954 Things are a little darker back then they didn't feel a need to put a positive spin on things Yeah, you think when she came out she was like, I don't care I still saw the Sun more than you you think she try to hold up to maintain the front Maybe maybe it's hard to say Kristen last comment Christian Grable Graybell Graybeal Maybe it's hard to say. Kristen. Last comment.
Starting point is 00:42:45 Kristen Grable, Graybeal? Graybeal, it looks like. Graybeal. If I had this group of names when I tried to read them in my class to call Role, it would be a nightmare. I don't know where you're getting your listeners from. We do get some especially weird names, Mondragon.
Starting point is 00:42:58 People think I pick because of the names, I don't. I don't think about the names when I, unless it's some business. If it's Bob's Automotive or something like that, then maybe I ain't gonna unless they have a really good comment. You know what I mean? I'd like to hear from Bob's Automotive. Actually, if they write it, I want to hear what Bob's Automotive says. I'd love to hear their comment.
Starting point is 00:43:18 Christian Greenville. I was just listening to an earlier episode about hotels and was curious if Aaron is still collecting hotel keys He must be close to the world record by now. I'm getting there. I just started a second binder. Whoa So how many is in the first one? Probably probably three or three hundred or so if I had to guess I haven't counted them But I keep them in little like the baseball card things But I keep them in little, like the baseball card things. So it's nine per page.
Starting point is 00:43:49 So I've got a whole big binder's worth. Now, like this weekend, the hotel, they gave me two room keys. You put them both in there? No, I just keep one. Cause that'd be cheating. Right? Yeah. Oh, only one per trip I put in there. But I was in three different hotels this weekend.
Starting point is 00:44:02 So I like it, it adds up pretty quick. The goodest world record guy comes in to do the record and he's like, But I was in three different hotels this weekend. So I like it adds up pretty quick. The Guinness world record guy comes in to do the record and he's like, so wait a second, wait a second. I'm sorry. We've got duplicates in here. Call it off. Call it off.
Starting point is 00:44:13 Takes his tuxedo off. Just rips the tie off and storms out. Well, we were all part of a world record for a longest comedy show. We were. That's exactly right. We know they can be strict. These Guinness people. Oh yes.
Starting point is 00:44:24 Absolutely. Had to keep 10 people in the room at all times. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that? Explain what that is? Yeah, I think we talked about four, and it just came up on my Facebook memories feed from like, was it 10 years ago? Does that sound right?
Starting point is 00:44:37 It was 2015. Yeah, 10 years ago would have been the first year they did it. And it was during the Comedy Festival. That was before I started, my first open mic in Nashville was the Monday after that. Really? At Bobby's. Yeah. So I missed the first. So we inspired you to get involved. Yeah. Did you come and watch? No, I watched the live stream on NashvilleStandUp.com. You were like, I can do that. While you drove. No. On his laptop. I am a responsible driver. I want to make that very clear.
Starting point is 00:45:10 So I think we've talked about, but it, but for people who haven't heard it's, we set a Guinness world record for the longest non-stop comedy show. I think we demolished the old record. Well. Yeah, it was by a few days. Right?
Starting point is 00:45:26 We did. We did. I would challenge anybody to go to the Guinness World Record page and check out how long it actually is. I mean, since it's been broken, right? I don't know. I don't think so. But, you know, as it turns out, we're only registered.
Starting point is 00:45:41 And this is why I'm blowing. I'm leaking out some information here. I mean, obviously on the page, but we only got it certified to the point where the guy handed us the trophy. Oh on guinnessworldrecords.com. Oh that makes sense so as soon as we broke it he's like you broke it and then he stopped. Right so it's not actually like eight days long it's just at the moment that we broke it. 80 hours? Whoa Is that true?
Starting point is 00:46:06 Yeah. Oh, that's not. So there you go. So if you guys want to do comedy for three days and 13 hours, 80 hours, five minutes, it's still pretty long. It's very long. It's still over four days, right? Yes.
Starting point is 00:46:19 And the best part was, uh, we were like, we want to do this over three days. So it was DJ Buckley's idea. Yeah. I remember dude, this was, I mean, this was a year before he got me, Joe Kelly, Dusty and Chad riding into smoker's happy cigar shop and was like, I've got an idea and he just looked crazy and we were like, this could be good or bad. And he laid it out there and it was so much fun, but you had to keep the rules where you had to have had show that you had 10 paying gigs in the last year.
Starting point is 00:46:50 Which I only had cause I ran that cigar shop show. You had to perform for 15 minutes you couldn't they couldn't be a five minute set at least 15 minutes on stage and there'd be 10 people in the room. Yeah and I remember you can I just tell my story about this? Yeah yeah. You know you know I'm not I'm not a Bates or Weber level comic even now, but back then I was new to it. And I had signed up, had a Saturday night show. And when people would come over from the festival, they'd spike them in. You remember this?
Starting point is 00:47:12 It's called Handle Burst came over. And I was up and they got a call that Nate and Eric Andre were gonna come over and do sets. And they would just spike them in wherever you go. And they were like, hey, like Nate and Eric Andre in the way over here. And I just started being like, please God, don't get here
Starting point is 00:47:31 while I go on stage. Because if they got there before I went up, I would have to follow them. And I was like, this is gonna be horrible. And sure enough, they showed up. And to this day, I think about what a great comic Nate is because I assumed Nate would go first and then Eric would go but actually Eric Andre went first because I think if you've ever seen him live you know that
Starting point is 00:47:51 you can't possibly match that energy or follow him and I was like how's Nate gonna follow this and this was I mean this was ten years ago so Nate walks on stage and goes I'm just gonna run through the set I'm doing on the Tonight Show this week and that's how you follow. Yeah, that will do it. So then you follow Nate on this show. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Starting point is 00:48:09 It felt like a slow roll down a hill instead of a drop off a cliff. And, uh, it's so that felt great. 10 years later, here you are. You took over his podcast. That's great. Yeah. I've been land podcast. It's great to be here.
Starting point is 00:48:23 That's, uh, that's cool. I had no idea about that. Yeah, that's really fun. Yeah. That's great. I've been in podcast. It's great to be here. That's uh, that's cool. I had no idea about that. Yeah, that's really fun. Yeah, that's super awesome. Well, as you know, NEC, we're coming up on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Well, we're a year and some change away, but yeah. Well, this weekend is the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War. Whoa! We didn't even know that when we picked the category. No, I just noticed it right before I left the house. I was doing some last minute research and then it said April 18th, Paul Revere wrote. I was like April 18th, then it said April 19th.
Starting point is 00:48:55 Bowles, Lexington and Concord. Yeah and I'm like, I did the math, I'm like it's 250 years ago. Yeah. So how about that? And we have a historian here. I'd like to talk. So just, can we talk about the the revolutionary war for a little bit? I would love to. So you were, you're for it. Well, I'm for it now. Um, took a while. There's some years where I was like, I don't know if we could have, you know, having a Monarch, you know, it's really hard to turn against the idea of having one guy who's just born and everybody goes, well, I guess he owns everything.
Starting point is 00:49:23 What, what do you think, first of all, we learn about the revolutionary war as Americans. How different is it? Do you know how are British people, if you grow up a child in England, are they even taught about this period of history? Or is it just kind of a, you know, they've been in empire for so long, who cares about the little colonies? Right.
Starting point is 00:49:43 You know, it's funny is that like, I don't know, I answer this question because I'm from North Carolina, but, um, and you know, colonies? Right. You know what's funny is that like, I don't know how to answer this question because I'm from North Carolina, but, and you know, you would think I would know because I've had several British friends and actually hung out with them around the 4th of July, but most of our relationship consisted of me just screaming at them, we won. And so I never really asked them how it felt. I'm just curious if they even, if they even talk about it. Yeah, they've had a lot of war, so maybe it's not real high.
Starting point is 00:50:07 And they've been around forever. Yeah. And we're only, we're not even 250 years. Yeah, I was, to me, I know 1492 when Columbus came, it's not the official- Sailed the ocean blue. Yeah. Sailed the ocean blue. But that's the date we have in our head for when America was discovered.
Starting point is 00:50:23 Well, discovered by Europeans. Maybe not you, but. People who lived here knew about it. They were. They didn't know about it for a long time. Right. All right. Where's Dusty? Does Dusty even think the earth is that old? I'm not even sure. Come on. That's a good question. I wish he was here. I want to do this to him. Come on. That's a good question though. Anyway, Europeans discovered 1492 in my mind the country kind of got going Almost right after that but there was more time in between that and the Declaration of Independence than it has been since Declaration of Independence To now. Oh, that's a good thought about that. That's the kind of thing I should be saying when I teach that's a that's a good point Yeah, because I mean it's the the Spanish, the Spanish and the Portuguese.
Starting point is 00:51:06 They're the ones who dominate the whole world. And the English basically get started up as like a complete upstart. And they don't even have a Navy. I mean, at first, they just, I mean, mostly what's, I mean, they have like some ships, but mostly what they do is- Well, they were an island, so they had some boats.
Starting point is 00:51:20 Yeah, yeah. So that's the thing is if you're an island, you got to protect yourself. But they would hire like basically pirates. Like they would get privateers and be like, hey, like that's the thing is if you're an island you got to protect yourself But they would hire like basically pirates like they would get privateers Wow and be like hey like you fly under our flag and we'll let you pirate and we'll kind of endorse that and you Can keep your stuff the stuff that you take so they like that guy in the parking lot in Detroit Yeah, a lot actually you did wear a Union Jack shirt which is way weird because this was much later when they got that yeah
Starting point is 00:51:43 That's interesting. So I read that, first of all, I'm so embarrassed how much either I didn't know about the American Revolutionary War or forgot. I'll just say forgot. Some of it hadn't happened when I was 90% of mine is from Mel Gibson's The Patriot. So you have to wash some of that off. That's a, that's literally my job at MTSU is trying to back people out of what they think they know about the revolution. You sent us some good movie though. I mean, it is, it is a fun ride. I'll say that a fun ride. It is.
Starting point is 00:52:13 Uh, and some of my friends actually were extra. So you can see my buddies running down the hill. Yeah. Um, they shot it like just in the border of South Carolina, North Carolina. I think that one or brave heart. I can't remember. They're all the same movie. Um, anyway, I just, everybody just turned it off history professor. You're like, ah, it's all the same to me. No Gibson. I'm that one or Braveheart. I can't remember. They're all the same movie. Um, anyway, I just, everybody just turned it off.
Starting point is 00:52:27 History professor. You're like, ah, it's all the same to me. No Gibson running downhills. That's the whole, most of the movies. Either the Patriot or Braveheart. I can't remember. Scotland or fighting for some kind of independence and people were running downhills. Some of them were my friends in one of them. So did the British at the time that this is all going down, what was, what was, were they called Britain? Were they called England? What were they called England? I can't remember all this side of things. I mean, like United Kingdom comes later, but yeah. Okay. So they're not the British. No, no, no. That's like Britain.
Starting point is 00:52:54 When they, when they form with the other ones, I'm not a British historian. Uh, you know, they only appear, but they're a major player in this war. They are. Yeah. They're British at this point. I was, I was trying to make a point about how that's not for 30 years. Everyone's doesn't even work. The UK is coming. The Soviet Union's here and they're like, what is that? Communism? I know we don't know what that is. Yeah. I was trying to make a point of how ignorant I was about if you didn't ask me when did the Revolutionary War end, I would have said, well, it had to have been before 1776 because that's when we signed the Declaration of Independence. But I think I had it confused with the Constitution.
Starting point is 00:53:30 Yes, you did. This is, all right. Well, I know I did now, but I think that's, yeah. Dude, one of my favorite things is, and I've like tried to campaign against this, is like you drive past somebody and they've got like a sticker on their truck and it says, We the People,
Starting point is 00:53:42 and underneath it says 1776. Yes, sir. But We the People is from the Constitution, which was written in 1787. And it's not, I don't, they usually people have other stickers on their truck that make me believe that they don't want to be correct. Hold on. What's the first line of the declaration of independence? Cause that's when in the course of human events, it's not nearly as
Starting point is 00:54:02 catchy as not, you're right. It's, I mean, it's a beautiful and that would not fit on a bumper sticker at all. So, We the People doesn't appear in the declaration at all, but life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's it. Yes, it does. So, you can put that in there. Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And look, I appreciate the spirit. You know what I'm saying? Somebody has that on their truck. It's like they appreciate this place and that's what I appreciate. That's what it's about. Yeah Okay, absolutely. Um, but it's just it's really hard when you're driving by with your pen trying to mark them wrong Beer over and hit the trees in the median
Starting point is 00:54:36 So what I read was that we've been fighting some other wars French Indian War things like that. It was really getting French Indian War, things like that. It was really getting, it was financially draining on Great Britain's economy. So when those things kind of got settled down, they're like, well, we gotta get our money back, start taxing these colonists. So they started putting on a ton of taxes.
Starting point is 00:54:56 Is that right? So like, here's the thing. It's not necessarily the taxes, like paying the taxes themselves. For a lot of Americans, it's the principle of it all. Like you gotta go back and realize that like the English colonies that were set up, they were set up for like so many different reasons.
Starting point is 00:55:10 So you got like religious freedom with like, I wouldn't say it's, the Puritans were nuts. And it was the freedom to have their own faith. You are, I thought you either that or you were Amish. I didn't see what you drove here. But so like the colonies have nothing in common. They have like nothing in common whatsoever. They're all kind of their relationships with Great Britain. So like one of the things that happens in the American Revolution that you see a huge change is that
Starting point is 00:55:34 like Pennsylvania newspapers are talking about what's happened in Boston, which like they didn't care before. So that was not the case before. Quakers like, I mean, you've got the earlier colonies, you know, the first one is Jamestown, Virginia. I mean, that's just a corporation. It's set up to make money. That's what it's for. It's a Crown Charter colony.
Starting point is 00:55:52 And so like, that's the reason they start sending, you know, the stories about them trying to grow tobacco and people starving and everything. Yeah. The whole idea is they're just trying to give people land so they'll go move over there. And they actually, what they do is they give out head rights. So if you're a single man and you can get over there, they'll give you two head rights, which I think is like 40 square acres. What is that?
Starting point is 00:56:07 That's like 40 square acres. But if you go to Mount of land, but they'll give you one more for anybody you bring with you because they want you to bring like your wife and kids so that you won't go there and just go nuts looking for gold and then starve to death. Wow. So you like, you'll be invested, right? And then, you know, England's an island, so there's no space. Yeah. So there's tons of island, so there's no space.
Starting point is 00:56:25 So there's tons of people, the population's growing, where do you send them? And then colonies have demonstrated that they can make you incredibly powerful, with the Spanish. So the English went in on that game, and that's why they set that up. But the Puritans that establish what is Boston and Harvard,
Starting point is 00:56:41 and they set up in 1630. It's a completely different game. Like what they want is the freedom, their breakaways from the Church of England. They believe they've got the proper way to do things and if they go get their own town, they can show everybody exactly how God wants them to live. But it also makes them really kind of nuts. I mean, like they believe that like most of them
Starting point is 00:57:02 are going to hell if they live the right life. So it's very stressful. But one of the things is it is a tough way. There's some crazy stories about like apparently one woman threw her baby down a well because she said, at least now I know. She knows what she knows. She's not going to heaven. Like she doesn't have to worry about it. I don't know if you know where you're going now, but I would like to have at least a coin toss as chance, you know? I would maybe park illegally or something.
Starting point is 00:57:31 I don't throw it up. Maybe eat chips. I mean, try Bugles during winter. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, so, but they're just completely different. And like even when Quakers show up in the, in the Massachusetts Bay County, they're not down with other people's religious freedom.
Starting point is 00:57:44 They just want to do their thing. They run them out. So they- Was Georgia like, S-E-C, S-E-C? Georgia was a prison colony. I mean, it was like they sent prisoners there. This guy, James O'Wilford, thought that he could take the debtors prisoners from the old world
Starting point is 00:57:58 and bring them there to be soldiers, and they would appreciate that. And they were not very good at it. So it pretty quickly became a slave colony. Oh, geez. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense though that, I mean, we talked about a few weeks ago, we did an episode of Virginia and we talked about Patrick Kenry and give me liberty, give me death. That was about Boston. Or give me death. What did I say? Give me liberty, give me death. Give me liberty, comma, give me death. I think the or is the operative word there. True freedom comes through death. It's like, wow, he was goth back then. That's pretty,
Starting point is 00:58:29 it's pretty ahead of the times. Yeah. Just give them both to me, dude. I don't care. Give me liberty. What if he just went liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. But that was talking about Boston and to your point, it was very rare, I guess, for one colony, almost a state, to care about what's going on in another state But that's how big it was getting well It's the it's the fact that the British first of all they passed this one all the colonies at the same time so like for the first time they had something in common and What they had in common was nobody asked them about these stamps, right? first you get the sugar tax and then you get the stamp act which is really what makes people very mad because it's like
Starting point is 00:59:01 The sugar tax is like an excise tax. You don't see that you're paying it, right? It's like what's happening with the tariffs when you have tariffs, right? You don't see that. But with like the Stamp Act, it's like a sales tax, right? Where you go in and you see that line at the bottom. Yeah. So you saw that it was on there. So it made everybody mad and they they went nuts. The Stamp Act was any piece of paper.
Starting point is 00:59:19 It was like playing cards, legal documents, like all that kind of stuff. So, of course, it like hit people in cities more than it hit people outside of it, right? So that's the reason you see the big riots happen in the city. Were these things designed to, were they punitive to us or it was just a necessity? They just needed the money. Here's the thing about it all is that, all right,
Starting point is 00:59:38 so when the British win the seven years war, the French and Indian war, it's like all part of the same thing. It's like seven years. They get like all this, they get control over all this land to the West. And in order to not start a war with the Native Americans out there,
Starting point is 00:59:54 which I mean, they're still powerful at this time, they have to agree that no American, no American colonists will cross this demarcation line. And what is this line? What was considered the West then? It's kind of the Appalachian Mountains, kind of the crest there, right? Yes, this is where we are right now, we're far West.
Starting point is 01:00:09 Yeah. And so the thing is that like American colonists aren't going to listen. So the British literally have to start policing this, which like jacks up their costs. And so a part of the reason, it's not just the debt from the American Revolution, it's like they literally have to maintain a presence here
Starting point is 01:00:24 to stop these colonists from from going across and starting a war that this is the thing. It's like it's really it's really a miscommunication a lot of it because you can't I mean it takes months for a message to get across right. So the American colonists see the British taxing them and then all of a sudden there are these redcoats everywhere right and they're like so you passed a tax on us without asking us and now you're going to shoot us if we don't listen. Yeah. But from the British perspective, they're
Starting point is 01:00:47 like, we're trying to stop you guys from starting a war that could basically destroy your colonies. Okay. So that's a big part of it. But the debt is another thing too, because you didn't have a long time to pay back debt back then. So you kind of had to like pay it back quick. Or if the French started a war and you burned your credit, like you'd lose the next one. Wow. This is not funny. you burned your credit, like you'd lose the next one.
Starting point is 01:01:02 Wow. So they're putting, I'm sitting here thinking when we go to Mars and colonize it, every country will eventually get the technology to go to Mars and then is there going to be another war breaking out is people that even from our country go to Mars, you know, on space X or whatever. After a while, we were like, guys, we don't need this United States taxes on us. Right. And we'll start an intergalactic war with Mars. Well, my thing has always been like, if you know anything about colonies, like if you study them at all, let's assume we don't. Okay. You don't want to be, you don't want to be a colonist. Like you just, like people starve, they die.
Starting point is 01:01:45 Like if you look at like what it's like when you first, they first go to Jamestown, like you wouldn't want to be that. Anytime somebody says the word colonist, don't go along with them. It's going to be a long time before it's over. You don't want to be the first. You want to wait it out and let them get some stuff. Yeah, let them get some, yeah, let them get the tobacco growing.
Starting point is 01:02:01 I'm assuming that's what we're going to do on Mars. It'll be legal up there. That way still? Yeah, a lot of them do think of girl. And I'm assuming that's what we're going to do on Mars. It'll be legal up there. That way still? Yeah, a lot of them do think of themselves as Englishmen. And that's the reason they're so mad whenever they just start passing taxes on them, when parliament starts passing these taxes. Cause they're like, we're supposed to be members
Starting point is 01:02:14 of this whole thing. And you didn't ask us, like the British just come with the understanding, well, we fought a lot of this war to keep the French from taking your colony. So like, you're going to pay that back, right? But again, when you pass a tax without asking and a bunch of soldiers show up, that doesn't look like it's being done like with your interest at heart. Taxation without representation. Taxation without representation, which by the way, the stamp tax gets repealed six months later.
Starting point is 01:02:37 It doesn't even last that long. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. They realize it. But the problem is that when parliament decides to stop the stamp tax, they have a new prime minister and this guy's like, well, the reason what happens well, I should back up and say what happens is that mobs form and Destroy property like after the stamp tax is announced before it even gets to put into place Okay, they bash out windows like tear things down. They're like hanging effigies of people by nooses in town squares Where's most of this app is happening every Boston is the hotbed of it. Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:07 Boston, because there's Puritans, those Puritans. Yeah. They all believed you had to read the Bible to, uh, to as a part of your faith. So the literacy rates in Boston are like sky high, so they can read all the pamphlets, right? Wow. Okay. It was like some estimates like literacy rate in Boston's as high as it was.
Starting point is 01:03:23 So they're down in Charleston. Like if we knew what was going on, we'd be upset. Charleston, there are people who are mad different places, but it's really the cities, right? Again, cause like the stamp tax is going to hit you if you're like, what they do is they directly put this tax, people have to deal with it, are like lawyers and people who have printing presses, right?
Starting point is 01:03:42 So the people who control the law and the people who control the media, and those are the wrong people to make mad. Right, right. Literacy rate, 1776, is it was about 60 to 70%. So that's lower than it is now? Crazy, lower than it is now. Wait, what is it now?
Starting point is 01:04:03 In most developed countries, you're the person like 98%, like 99%. Global, it's 86.3. Well, you gotta, you know, there's a lot of countries where they're like, women shouldn't read, you know. Right, right, right. That factor's in for sure. So the U.S. were pretty good.
Starting point is 01:04:18 Developed nations often exceeding 96%. Yeah, no, that's crazy impressive for the time. So what ends up happening is, uh, the mobs go nuts. The new prime minister realizes six months later that it's a terrible idea. The stamp act isn't really going to raise the revenue and he decides to cancel it and they're going to reintroduce something different. But he also knows that from the colonial perspective, they're probably going to think that it was being nuts that made him cancel it.
Starting point is 01:04:43 Right. So he's like, we can't let that happen. Reinforce some bad behavior. Yeah. So they, they crack down harder. Right. And what have the colonists learned? They go, well, when we were nuts, uh, that stopped the stamp tax.
Starting point is 01:04:53 So they send more people will act crazier. Yeah. And the British go, we can't let them think being crazy. And it's just a vicious cycle. And with like an ocean between you back then with a ship that would take like months to get across, you can't really have like a sit down and talk you know did did the did uh people in boston what were their accents like at this point did we know did they have british accents i have it's a good question no clue i thought that too i wondered could i even understand in the
Starting point is 01:05:19 patriot yeah i'm just curious i i wonder like when that I'm guessing with these kids that can grow up in England, they grew up in Boston. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know if they have British accent. And there are people who come from all over the world there too. So. Okay. Okay. Recently had to pick up some body care stuff, but the scents were all so boring. We know how that is. Men's products need more variety. It's the same stuff, same bland smells. Once I smelled Cremmo, I knew I had to make the switch.
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Starting point is 01:07:16 Sweat resistant. There you go. In the Italian bergamot and Palo Santo scents. Once again, that's Target or Target.com. Do you think if you went back in that time and just overheard a conversation from 1770s, you could easily understand what they're saying? I mean, probably just, I mean, I don't know. I mean, the thing is I've read what they write and that's pretty hard to read sometimes, but I get it. Yeah, they use F's as S's. Stupid. Idiots. That's why we're better now. The future's better. It's always better. Yeah, they use F's as S's. Stupid. Stupid. Idiots. That's why we're better now. The future's better.
Starting point is 01:07:47 It's always better. Yeah, they're a Congraf. Don't they write that? Yes, and it is hard. What's the F and the S thing all about? I have no clue. I really don't know. George Washington told us what we're fighting for.
Starting point is 01:07:58 George Washington told us what we're fighting for. It's sketchy. He's done two sketches about it. Yes. So then the Boston massacre, it kind of led up to that, right? It was bowling, bowling, bowling. Yeah. Yeah. It was, I mean, this was years later, right?
Starting point is 01:08:14 So, I mean, this, it's, it's, it's such a slow process, right? Cause you go from like these riots happen and then the first battles are like 10 years later. Wow. Crisp, Crispus Attucks, another name I heard. I forgot who he was. I couldn't, I know now, but I couldn't have told you yesterday.
Starting point is 01:08:28 Crispix. Crispus. Crispus. I was thinking this is a cereal. Do you know Crispus Attucks? No, I know Crispix. I bet you did. Who's Crispus?
Starting point is 01:08:39 Who's that? He was the first person to die from the war. the Boston massacre was some British soldiers, things were getting out of hand. Somebody got a little Lucy Goosey with the gun, got some fire, some shots. This guy died and it was kind of a rallying cry for the colonists. Like they're killing us now. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:00 It was also an incredible, incredible example of like propaganda, of a propaganda mill for this because- Pulled up Chris Picks. I was like, what does he look like? I'm just trying to give some context to what we're talking about here. That's Chris Picks' original cereal. This is way funnier for all you guys don't know what's coming. Anyway, so like, I mean, yeah, Chris Picks was a black man.
Starting point is 01:09:22 And it's fascinating because we don't know much about him. Like the thing about port cities at the time was people come from all over the world and So like, I mean, yeah, Christmas Axe was a black man. And it's fascinating because we don't know much about him. Like the thing about port cities at the time was people come from all over the world and just end up there, right? Cause these, I mean, there's a- Like in Star Wars. Just like Star Wars.
Starting point is 01:09:32 Cause if you miss your boat or something, you're just stuck there. Really, Mos Eisley is a, well, it's not necessarily that. It's that people are in dock, right? And so you don't really know, then people will stay behind. But anyway, so yeah, you end up with this interesting mix in these cities and he's the first one shot.
Starting point is 01:09:48 But, and the story really, a lot of people don't know this, but what happens later on is that the question is, were these guys just awful and they just opened fire because they hated colonists? Or were they reasonably scared because colonists had assaulted people, literally tarred and feathered people, destroyed property. I mean, these mobs will be drunk and out of control. And if you're in the British army at this time,
Starting point is 01:10:12 like there's no sense of patriotism. It's a job. And this is not the job. You're a mall cop. Yeah, you're a mall cop and this is the worst mall. Yeah. Right? If you have any say so, you don't want to be there in Boston.
Starting point is 01:10:27 Right? So like, you're probably like no experience, likely lower experience and probably, you know, not getting your first choice. And so what ends up happening is there's a, apparently like there's a scuffle and one of the soldiers thinks they hear the order to fire, then everyone fires because they thought they missed the order to fire, then everyone fires because they thought they missed the order to fire. And yeah, I mean, same outcome,
Starting point is 01:10:49 but later on, John Adams actually defends those soldiers in court and has them found innocent of malicious intent. That's interesting. He was the trial lawyer, yeah. Because I've seen John Adams on HBO, which is a great... Paul Giamatti? It was Paul Giamatti, yes.
Starting point is 01:11:05 Unbelievable show. That's how I knew that. Were citizens allowed to have guns at this point or was it just the British shoulders that had guns? No, I mean people would have guns because it was just a part of your life. I know less about the details, but I know it was in the early colonies,
Starting point is 01:11:22 there's this idea that everyone had a gun, but you were actually less likely to have one in a lot of places, especially if you were poor, because they were expensive. Okay. But yeah, I mean, they had them, but by the time you're out in the field, by the time the actual revolutionary army is formed, like a substantial portion of Washington's men don't have shoes or guns. Wow.
Starting point is 01:11:39 I don't know the exact numbers. I'm trying to think of which one I'd rather have in a war. I think it's pretty close, dude. I think shoes, you're going to want some shoes. I think I'd rather have numbers. I'm trying to think of which one I'd rather have. I think it's pretty close, dude. I think shoes. I think I have shoes I could run. Yeah. All right, so then when did the Boston Tea Party happen? So Boston Tea Party is 1773.
Starting point is 01:11:58 I mean, is that in the order? In the story, so it happens after the Boston Massacre. Okay. And the story with that is what ends up happening is like all these taxes have been passed and of course it's amping up, right? You get more and more like both sides are getting crazier. The British are passing more regulations.
Starting point is 01:12:13 They try to like target Boston specifically. I'm thinking that that'll stop the other states from our other colonies from like, you know, feeling the pain. By that point it doesn't work. But what they do is they actually, it's not because they increase taxes, it's because they lower taxes, but only on the British merchants. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 01:12:30 And they're like, Colin, just love tea, man, they're going to love this. Yeah. But they're mad because they're like, this is just another act of favoritism towards you. Oh, interesting. And so that enrages them. And at that time, you're only supposed to trade with Britain. You're not allowed to like, you know, sell some tea to the Spanish because they really want it, you know.
Starting point is 01:12:46 This might be a dumb question. Are average people concerned about this and upset about it, or is it just like high level people doing business that are, because I'm just trying to think of like a commoner. Is he that affected by these taxes that he would resort to a mob in the streets or is he like, what do you think? It depends on where you are, right? I mean, if you're in a city, you're more likely to see it. Okay. If you're out in the countryside, I mean, you know, you, you, and you still,
Starting point is 01:13:14 this is another thing. You still have tons of loyalists, but even in Boston, you know, when this whole war, when it's clear, it's going to be a war happens. I think it's a, is it a thousand loyalists who lived in Boston just leave. They leave with the British because they know they see what's coming. Yeah. So like a big part of this thing is like, you don't know who your enemy is, right? Everyone looks the same. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:13:34 And you don't know if they're a spy. You don't know if they're on your side. I mean, the whole Benedict Arnold thing is just one big example of how this like plays out. He's another person that I knew it was a, if you said who's Benedict Arnold, it's like, I'm pretty sure he's a trader But I couldn't have told you who he was until I researched last night He started with them almost at Americans, but they the colonists I guess they caught and then he defected over to the British
Starting point is 01:13:56 Yeah, yeah in a pretty stunning act of betrayal. Yeah, he was planning to give over a fort Yeah, no, he's a yeah it's but but but it's just it's's part and parcel of the fact that like, a lot of these folks, even the officers in the Patriot Army, they have been in the British Army. Right? So like, that's, I mean, that's all there was before. And there's not even an army until they just make one up in 1775 and say, Washington, you're the leader of it. And even like several colonies don't like it. They're mad. They're like, no, we're colonies. We're not like partisan and bigger. So we have a Navy?
Starting point is 01:14:25 No, not at all. There is zero Navy. It is a, we picked a fight with the world's biggest Naval power. And no, y'all come over here. We'll fight over here. Bring it over here, buddy. They're like AP polls, like coaches poll number one, number one Navy British. They're the Alabama of a, okay. They're like, we're going to build some ships. And you know what they do get is they get a, they get a submarine out of this. They do build one of these. It's called the turtle. Yes. Yes. It's, it's, it's
Starting point is 01:14:53 You know about this, Aaron? No, I put the submarine in the revolutionary war. I mean, made out of wood, right? Made out of wood. So how does it even sink? I don't know. It keeps going up. Like what's the problem? Once they told me it was made out of wood,
Starting point is 01:15:05 I agreed, I said, I'm not getting in it. Yeah. But yeah, it's like, basically the guy who invented it had done, had studied at Yale and his project was trying to figure out how to make gunpowder explode underwater. Okay. Which has got to be the coolest college life ever.
Starting point is 01:15:21 Yeah. Just like, what are you doing? You're in a scuba diving outfit and you got a whole bunch of fire. But he figured out how to do it. So he built this thing that could go under and like, the thing is like, nobody's looking for it, right?
Starting point is 01:15:32 Nobody's gonna be like, oh, there's a submarine cause that didn't exist. But his whole thing was like, he's gonna like crank this thing over to the ship and like essentially like stick gunpowder to it and then get far enough away from it and ignite it and it's supposed to blow a hole in the side of a ship because there would. He never pulled it off. Never worked for him. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:54 So he was supposed to scoot over, get close to the ship, stick it on and then get out of there. Yeah. Yeah. That's the idea. But apparently like the gunpowder pack, like I think the story is like he ignited it, but he couldn't get close enough. So we had to just let it go down the river to explode somewhere else. Um, because I was, I thought it was called the turtle because it was slow, but it says because it looked similar to a turtle. Yeah. Two turtle shells. And, uh, one of my favorite things was when I was sending baits, like some of this information about maybe topics to work out, I realized that in 2007, there was a Brooklyn man. He was like an artist. Uh, he was detained by the NYPD, NYPD boat. Cause he built a replica of it and was out in the water, uh, Hudson
Starting point is 01:16:33 river, like he's like over and he was trying to get near the queen Mary too, with it. Not good. No. And he was like, I just wanted to take a picture with it. And it's like, that's not why we made the turtle. The turtle, and the Queen Mary too, also seems like something you would want to sink with a Revolutionary War submarine.
Starting point is 01:16:49 There's tons of terrible ideas for submarines. We should talk about terrible Confederate technology sometimes, or Civil War technology. They had one too, and it worked out even worse. George Washington in a letter to Thomas Jefferson called the turtle an effort of genius in 1785. So it's a lot like fire festival. I gave it the old college try like fire festival.
Starting point is 01:17:11 You gotta get in on that. I mean, they keep on trying it a couple of times too, but I don't know. I guess like it could work, but it just never did. So did we develop a Navy during this war or do we just rely on the French? Well, we heavily rely on the French, but we do get ships. I don't know all the details of naval history, but we do get some. And then you have privateers who come in on our side, which are like independent ship owners. So they join us, which is a terrible idea.
Starting point is 01:17:45 Okay, so things are building up, building up. And then April 18th, which would be this Thursday? Yeah. 1775, Paul Revere rides. Now I read, he probably did not say the British are coming because back then they didn't know what that meant. Yeah, I'm not sure. Did he say cometh or something like that?
Starting point is 01:18:03 It was more like, What did he say? The British doth comeeth. What did they think he said? Probably the loyalists are coming in and because everybody was British basically there, so they'd be like, yeah, we're here, dude. Yeah, and then they all saw themselves as British first. Then they saw themselves as being from the colony.
Starting point is 01:18:21 That's why whenever the British identity goes away, they don't think of themselves as Americans first. That's a new thing. They think of themselves as Virginians. Yeah, which is why it's so remarkable they all came together. Wow. The United States is, not the United States are.
Starting point is 01:18:36 Right. That was a big moment. I can't remember the context for that, but I remember, wasn't that a big moment with the first time they said the United States is versus the United States? Is that the Patriot? That's actually, it's one of the more mind bending moments. The U S has not mentioned in Braveheart once.
Starting point is 01:18:55 That would be. All right. There needs to be a sequel to Braveheart where he takes on the Soviet Union. Can I ask you, Ben, are there, what is a historical movie that you think does a good job of, of telling the history Ben, are there, what is a historical movie that you think does a good job of telling the history of something? Yeah, that's a good question. Because I feel like all the blockbuster historical films are anachronistic and silly and just get things wrong, right? But what's one that gets it right? Okay. So movies. Yeah. I would say, have you ever seen Enemy at
Starting point is 01:19:22 the Gates? It's a World War II movie? World War II movie. It's about Vasily Zaitsev, the sniper, the Soviet sniper. Oh, is this Tom Cruise? Oh, it's Valkyrie. No, this is Ed Harris, I think. All right. No, that's Vanilla Sky. Is this Tom Hanks or is that Ben? No, man, that sniper showdown, like between Zaitsev and the German snipers, in that tank factory, which actually Henry Ford built in the Soviet Union for the Soviets. Crazy story. But that, I think that captures it. Open and seen where they're pulling in and they had these train loads of people and they're
Starting point is 01:19:55 just dumping them out at the Germans. And the guys, they're handing them a gun and they're going, they hand the first person the gun and the next person bullets. And the guy's going, when the person in front of you gets shot, pick up the gun, put in your bullets and keep shooting. Yeah, that's how they that's how the Soviets fought their way out of Stalingrad. And that like that, that scene is epic. And, you know, someone who spent a lot of time studying Soviet history as well
Starting point is 01:20:16 in World War Two, that that is that's really, oh, that's cool. Of course, it's dramatized. Yeah, well, it's got to be a little bit of a movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Saving Private Ryan. Yeah, I mean,'s gotta be a little bit. We gotta make a movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Saving Private Riot? Yeah, those movies are good. Glory? I haven't seen Glory. Really? Yeah, sorry.
Starting point is 01:20:34 I haven't seen, obviously I haven't seen The Patriot or Braveheart. John Adams. I wish you'd watch John Adams. Alright, so the shot heard around the world. Right. When the war started. Lexington and Concord. Yeah. I wish you'd watch John Adams. Were these, all right, so the shot heard around the world. It's when the war started. Lexington and Concord. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:20:49 Concord. Well. Well, but we weren't. We weren't Concord. Ironic, isn't it? And now that phrase has been used so much in sports. Yeah. World Series Bobby Thompson's home run, shot heard around the world.
Starting point is 01:21:04 Yeah. He used every, you know, but that's the original shot heard around the world. Yeah, yeah. He used every, you know, but that's the original shot heard around the world, right? Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's going to change everything because they had spent the last 10 years wondering, is this going to be a war or what? Yeah. And even when the shots are fired, this is what a lot of Americans don't get is that nobody thought, well, they've started shooting, this is going to be a full scale war between the British and the colonies.
Starting point is 01:21:22 Right. They go, well, a couple of rednecks in Boston got upset and got a hold of some guns. And so still, I mean, it's, it's, I mean, that's like you pointed out, that's April of 1775. We don't even declare independence until July 4th, 1776. So there's a whole period of like, the, the, actually the first, one of the first things that continental Congress does is writes to England and goes, Hey, to the King. And they go, Hey, you probably don't know how bad
Starting point is 01:21:45 the parliament's being to us. Could you stop them because we love you and we wanna be loyal citizens. That's the same body that later on writes the Declaration of Independence. When the king ignores them and actually passes even worse stuff on them. Okay.
Starting point is 01:21:58 So. I read that no one called it the Shoddard around the world at the time. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem years later called Concord Hymn, where he called it that. And that's how it became popularized. There's a lot of that. I mean, like the Washington Cross and the Delaware painting, that's a painting in 1851. Right?
Starting point is 01:22:15 But people imagine that's the way it was. It was way worse. I think of it for starting out live again. It was way worse. Oh yeah. What we're like, all right, so George Washington becomes the leader of the army. Yeah. That doesn't exist.
Starting point is 01:22:27 Yeah. The continental army. What are these famous founding fathers doing during the war? Benjamin Franklin, is he on the front lines? Yeah, he was actually fighting. He fought with just a knife. He was like, was he like 70 when this war? Yes.
Starting point is 01:22:40 He's so old. Samuel Adams just holding a beer. And the people. Yes, and Adams was drunk. Ben Franklin was actually behind him in lines trying to sleep with everybody's wife. Yeah. Me and Weber watched the Ben Franklin documentary.
Starting point is 01:22:51 The Ken Burns documentary. Yeah, the Ken Burns Ben Franklin documentary. That dude was a dirtbag. He was. But he was awesome. Yeah, he's a very cool figure. But man, what a. You watched it together?
Starting point is 01:23:00 Scoundrel. Yeah. Yeah. Weird. He's friends with Ken Burns. I'm not friends with them. They hang out all the time. He's been on our show and uh because I love their stuff. A lot of times they send me the screeners and we'll
Starting point is 01:23:11 have we either have Ken on before we've had the writers and stuff like that on the road to now my podcast that I do with Bob Prophets. David Brothers on Sirius XM Podcast on weekends. And on uh all podcast players streaming right now. Um live in DC May 29th. Anyway, so. So y'all watch the Spin Franklin, what kind of snacks y'all have? Well, I would have said chips before now, but.
Starting point is 01:23:32 Chino's. Crispics. Yeah. Crispics. All right, but like Alexander Hamilton, guys like that, are they fighting in the war? Yeah, Hamilton's a kid, basically. He's like a teenager.
Starting point is 01:23:43 Is he fighting? Yeah, so when the war breaks out, all he realized, Hamilton's a kid, basically. He's like a teenager. Is he fighting? Yeah, so when the war breaks out, he realized he's from like, he's an illegitimate child, his mother's dead. And he like, by a crazy fluke, wrote a description of something he didn't see, which was a hurricane in the Caribbean that raised money. And all these people were like, who wrote it? And they realized it's just this orphan kid who works in this import export firm.
Starting point is 01:24:05 So they send him actually to New Jersey to finish high school and he applies to Princeton and he really wants to go there but they reject him. So he ends up going up to New York and when he's there he realizes like maybe he could rise up this revolution. Like revolutions open up opportunities for people to like get places they never were before. So him and his friends insanely steal a bunch of cannons from the British and now he and now he's honestly, he's one of the most well-equipped guys like around there. He's like a teenager, 19 or something.
Starting point is 01:24:30 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, he basically like, he has very little military training. Yeah. He may have had some from the, from the colonies where they always, every, all the white people drilled in case there was a slave insurrection. So you kind of like knew some basics.
Starting point is 01:24:43 Okay. Um, but yeah, I know he like reads books and decides like I can run this. And so they end up they end up taking him out. He ends up showing that he's incredibly brave. And that's when he joins Washington's men to get whipped across the state of New Jersey and after 1775 when the British show up. So he's there. Thomas Jefferson serves as he's in Continental Congress, then he's the governor of Virginia for a while. Franklin goes abroad to be our diplomat in
Starting point is 01:25:09 France because he's the guy you want there. People love him. But they did love him, right? Wasn't he kind of like the suave, like he would hold court? You know, like, was he well liked by people? Dude, yes. I mean, like, look, this guy, you remember in the documentary, the thing, it's like going across the ocean was the worst because it was just like months of being on a wooden ship. Benjamin Franklin looked forward to it because he could do experiments. Like you remember that, like in that documentary, there's like all the things this guy did.
Starting point is 01:25:35 There's just a line where they say in passing and during this trip, he discovered the jet streams and they don't even stop to appreciate that. Like if any of us did that, we would, they would have been like, it'd be on a plaque. They'd be this guy. He just did it on the side. So yeah, so he's over there. And so a lot of these guys are in the trenches. I mean, this is where Marquis de Lafayette shows up, an unknown kid who just wants to kill British people because they killed his dad. Wow. It's like a movie. It is like a movie. It's a funny story too, because-
Starting point is 01:26:01 Sounds like it. So like during the revolution, the Americans were broke, but the French were like, never join us because we were going to lose. They were like pretty sure of it and they didn't want to make the British mad. They just whipped them a couple of years earlier. So the way they make money is like the French are really, they're really like, they're just really, uh, the imagination that they have of the Americans, which Franklin plays up. It's like really big. Franklin walks around with a coonskin hat on like a raccoon skin hat, right? The whole time. Oh, just to play into the mythology of... Yeah. Really? Yeah. And the French are like, whoa, these like rednecks are like smart and they're
Starting point is 01:26:31 reading, you know, like philosophy. So the French, all these wealthy people, they go over to Philadelphia where the capital is and they will let you, they will, they'll be like, oh, you're an officer in the colonial army now. And they'll go get like these uniforms made and they will like, okay, here's your official commission. And then the rich people will like give them some money they need. And then they go back home. It's like a parade, right? It's a charade. It's a, it's a, it's a game they play. And that's how life ends up coming over. And they're all like, Oh,
Starting point is 01:26:59 look, this kid wants to come like, Hey, look, I'm a real, go back with your army. Right. But he gets there and he's just like, where's Washington? And they're like, he's in the field, buddy. He's losing real bad. You don't wanna go out there with him. And he's like, I wanna go to Washington. And they send him out there and Washington like writes back shortly after.
Starting point is 01:27:14 He's like, what did you do? Like, did you not tell him he's not really an officer? And so it's only when he gets cornered that he like lets Lafayette go and he runs at the British, like a maniac, gets shot and keeps going. So he becomes a hero. He becomes a hero and I'm probably my single favorite person in all of history.
Starting point is 01:27:31 You know, this week in Detroit, people told me you got to go eat at Lafayette Coney Island. And it's a hot dog, famous hot dog place in Detroit, right down the street from a hotel. Yeah. So I went in there. So then I googled, well, who's Lafayette Coney Island? They said it was named after the street Lafayette. And then I They said, well, it's named after the street, Lafayette. And then I Googled that, and the street was named after your guy, Lafayette. This is the 200th anniversary also. His tour, he came back.
Starting point is 01:27:52 He was the longest living officer from the American Revolution. He came back after serving, and he went and brought the, he could have joined the French army, which was like a big deal, but he stayed an officer in the American army. And he's the ones who was like shadow in the British as they were getting cornered at Yorktown. He brought his resources back. And afterwards he went back home. He got arrested during
Starting point is 01:28:15 the French Revolution, but he was the longest living officer in the American, from the American Revolution. So in the 1824, he came back and did a farewell tour of the United States where he went to every state but one. And that's why things are named after him all over the country. Oh, wow. How about that? He went and visited Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage, took a boat down the Cumberland River through Nashville. There's a Lafayette street here. We call it Lafayette. I know we do. That's a problem. Lafayette, yeah. Alabama is called Lafette. Lafette. But they're all named after Lafayette. After that guy. And to this day,ette. Lafayette. But they're all named after Lafayette. After that guy.
Starting point is 01:28:46 And to this day, he goes back to France and he passes away. But to this day, Lafayette is buried in a French cemetery under an American flag. Wow. I like that. You know what they say, the smallest step forward can make a big difference in your financial future. When you open a Chime checking account, you're one step closer to a better financial future. No maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200. Don't you hate overdraft fees? Oh, it's the worst.
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Starting point is 01:30:22 limits apply. Fees apply at out- network ATMs. My pay eligibility requirements apply. Credit limits range 20 to $500. $2 fees apply to get funds instantly. Chime checking account required. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. I don't know that people listen to this podcast are going to be happy that we have someone on who actually knows what they're talking about. I'm so sorry. How dumb we are. So sorry. I thought about that when I came on. I was like, shut up.
Starting point is 01:30:47 Pretend like because, but the people on Reddit always like these guys are idiots. I can't listen anymore. So maybe now they'll be happy. Well, we'll get them back. Yeah. You really want those listeners. Yeah. Finally, some people who have some standards for us. I remember early on Aaron, listening to the show and you, you, I know how smart you are and just listening to you try to hide it. Well, he does a good job. 250 episodes in. You're a great actor, Aaron. Yeah, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to everyone listening right now. Who's just like, we, you know, what reason we don't listen to your podcast, Ben? No, this is why. This is great. I've learned a lot.
Starting point is 01:31:25 No, I think it's so interesting. I read that the biggest killer of soldiers was not bullets, but disease, like smallpox. And George Washington was revolutionary, no pun intended, had his soldiers inoculated and that really helped save them. Yep, had them barialated. It was like an old timey thing where that.
Starting point is 01:31:43 So you know the whole idea of like a vaccine is that you, that you introduce someone to a small amount of that thing. Well, back then, the way you did that was you got somebody who was sick from smallpox and you literally went and cut their, their wounds on their arm. And you would cut it open and dig out the pus and blood and then come cut somebody else's arm and just rub it in there. There's a scene of this in John Adams on HBO. Oh really?
Starting point is 01:32:07 Yeah. I tried to watch that so many times. Abigail Adams does that to all her kids. Yeah, but it's risky. Obviously, it's not exactly precise. Yeah, it's just not exactly. Like how much do you use? Is it like one knife blade?
Starting point is 01:32:19 Yeah, just cut off a little piece, throw it in there. But yeah, because there was actually... Were they wearing socks back then? I mean, you think they didn't have shoes. You think they were, but did they wear it? Cause it was all leather shoes. Did they wear socks? You think?
Starting point is 01:32:33 I don't know. Hmm. I mean, they wore knee socks. If you were fancy, I'm just wondering if they're, cause I, cause if there's one thing I know, Forrest Gump is that, you know, they tell you to wear socks in battle, so maybe if they would all wore socks. Then we would have won. We don't remember that.
Starting point is 01:32:48 We did. We would have won fast. If that and machine guns, that and flamethrowers. All right. So George Washington crossed the Delaware and pushed back the Hessians? Yeah. He didn't really push them back though. He just caught them off guard.
Starting point is 01:33:05 Who are the Hessians though? So they're just mercenaries. So like the... Oh stockings. They were stockings. Stockings. Made of wool, cotton, linen, or silk. Insulation and comfort. So they were, yeah, okay. Probably not as comfortable as modern socks, but they had stockings on. Just for everybody. I mean, it's one of the dumbest questions I've ever asked somebody I'm glad we figured it out. This guy plays it so well. I don't know that I feel like if we had had those
Starting point is 01:33:30 He is good. Yeah. Yeah, I know really Somebody told me I think was somebody told me they were leather shoes You're not supposed to wear socks with leather shoes because leather can't smell bad. They were starving I don't think they were like, but the problem here is you're not wearing any stockings under your pantaloons. But I didn't get foot disease. That's gangrene. You know, we can't have foot disease without a foot, you know, that's a kind of a luxury for a lot of people. The Hessians were mercenaries. Yeah. They're like from modern Germany, like all these states formed together to form out of Germany. But they were, they were just basically like they had, why were they fighting? Why do they care? Money. Oh, they're like from modern Germany, like all these states formed together to form modern Germany. But they were just basically like they had... Why were they fighting? Why do they
Starting point is 01:34:07 care? Money. Oh. They just they'd pay... We'll come over and fight for your side. Yeah, well they're just like you have an army, right? Right. It's expensive to maintain an army. So the British would just come to them and be like send your soldiers here. We can't maintain enough of them. But if you'll send them, then afterwards you can, you know, you don't have to worry about them. They go back home. Are we using British pounds at this point? Do you think we're using their money? Yeah, I mean, the global currency is the Spanish milled coin for a long time, but they're using British currency.
Starting point is 01:34:34 And then we start printing our own, which has absolutely no value, which is kind of hilarious. It's worthless. And that's what we pay soldiers in. And they were not real happy about it. Afterwards, when the country's broke and they're like, they start taxing them and they're like, okay, we'll pay with the money you paid us. And they're like, we won't, we're not going to take that.
Starting point is 01:34:48 It's like when somebody gave me a movie pass. Yeah. Only an idiot. Yes. Only, I, by the way, I sold it in a thousand shares of a Helios and Matheson stock movie pass. If I want to buy them, just send me a nickel. Diamond hands over here.
Starting point is 01:35:00 But for real, it's coming back. Who were, uh, the Native Americans and the slaves? Which side were they for? I mean, it depends on where you are. I would say a lot of the enslaved people were actually for the British because the British say if you'll come fight for us, we'll free you after the war. So that's a- Were they Americans?
Starting point is 01:35:20 Not Americans, but call it a say. Like come fight for us and then go right back to work. Well, it's interesting because it's slavery doesn't work the same way as it does later on. So it's, it's, it's a hard dynamic to get across to people. Cause most people think of like slavery as the thing that it is right before the civil war, which is a totally different thing than what it was back then.
Starting point is 01:35:39 Um, you have plantations like in South Carolina and places like that. Yeah. Um, but yeah, no. So, so a lot of enslaved people run away and go join the British. And then you're not gonna believe this, but the British do a pretty lousy job of living up to their promises.
Starting point is 01:35:55 Well, they lost. Yeah, they're like, I guess you guys were any good, we'd free you. But yeah, so in the Native Americans, they kind of varies by group, right? So some side with the British, some side with the Americans, but a lot of them stay out of it. Yeah, so in the Native Americans, they kind of varies by group, right? So some side with the British, some side with the Americans, but a lot of them stay out of it.
Starting point is 01:36:08 Yeah, so. Yeah, it would seem like they would side with the British because the British want to keep them kind of close to the coast, right? Yeah, so I think, and I'm not an expert on Native American history, but yeah, I mean, there are some in the North especially where, like in the South,
Starting point is 01:36:23 there's so much distance between the coast and the Appalachians, kind of that line. And then there's just less settlement because the land's not as easy to, like South Carolina is a nightmare to, you know, to a lot of that to farm at the time. So there's plenty of space, right? But if you're up in New England, man,
Starting point is 01:36:39 the mountains are right there. And so, yeah, there's definitely more of a sympathy there. Ethan Allen, I swear, I thought that was just a furniture store, but apparently he was a pretty big deal. I've never heard of Ethan Allen. Heard of the furniture store, Ethan Allen? I have heard of it.
Starting point is 01:36:55 Yeah, Ethan Allen, the person made a little less time than the company has. Who do you guys think is the most famous person in American history? George Washington. I would think either him or Lincoln, right? But I think Washington is just like, he's a part, I mean, I don't think there's anybody who goes, who knows about George Washington and you go, what about Lincoln? And they go, who?
Starting point is 01:37:18 Right. Well, that's my point. It's one or the other, right? I mean. Yeah, but I think, I mean, I just think it's Washington. And the thing about it is nobody knows anything about him, which is kind of funny. They have a cherry tree. He didn't cut down on cherry tree.
Starting point is 01:37:31 Look, I don't want to get into, I don't want to get into a story I do, but that story is a psycho story. It's nuts. It starts off with a child with an ax and we're just supposed to accept that. Different times back then. And then he goes and chops down his father's favorite thing. He destroys his father's favorite thing with it. And then his father acts like he's not sure who did it when there's
Starting point is 01:37:52 only probably one ax and it's his son's holding it. Yeah. And he walks over to the kid and goes, did you cut down the tree? And then the kid goes, yeah, I did. Like that's kind of crazy. Yeah. I cut it down. Like, what else do you love?
Starting point is 01:38:09 What else do you, I mean, that's not, to me, that's not leadership quality. That's the sign of someone who should be institutionalized, but what do I know? But he's honest. He was honest. But why does his dad love a cherry tree that much? That's what I'm saying too. It's also very creepy. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:38:21 It's just a weird family. He's like, he's like Dusty. But does Dusty have a one tree that he goes, that one's my favorite. Yeah, they're all his favorite. Yeah. Yeah. They're tight. He might, he might, man. He's trying to put them up in the medians on the interstate.
Starting point is 01:38:33 These kids are going to get some lats. They're going to cut down all these trees. You know what I'm saying? So I was having this debate with myself today, thinking about it. George Washington. Well, sounds like pull up next to Brian at a stoplight. He's just arguing with himself. Literally switching seats.
Starting point is 01:38:50 People are beeping at him. Guys, what I do in my own time. You're both going to lose. Just go. So George Washington's on the one dollar bill. Very prominent. He's on the quarter. Very prominent. But Lincoln George Washington's on the one dollar bill, very prominent. He's on the quarter, very prominent. But Lincoln, he's on the five, but the penny, which is
Starting point is 01:39:09 worth less than a penny is going to be discontinued. But throughout history, it's probably the most popular coin in America. Again, in 1873, the most popular coin, the penny. I looked as I was arguing with myself, I Googled most famous Americans and NBC did a show in 2005, the 100 greatest Americans all time. Okay. Hosted by Matt Lauer. Yeah. He's out. And then one of the top 100 was Bill Cosby.
Starting point is 01:39:44 So some of these did not age well. Yeah. And that's why you don't kind of put people on coins by fiat. Was Ben Franklin on this list? He had to be, right? Yeah. That's one of the things I remember from the
Starting point is 01:39:55 documentary is that what's lost in all this, Ben Franklin was a legit celebrity. Yeah. At the time, all this is going down. He's not just some old guy who's into science. He's well-known, respected, liked. He's, he's the greatest American celebrity at that time. So it'd be like, uh, I don't know who's the equivalent of that now.
Starting point is 01:40:15 Dolly Parton. Yeah, that's pretty good. It'd be like if Dolly Parton was also an inventor and scientist and signed the declaration of independence. Yeah. Kind of beloved. Yeah. No, I mean, that's kind of the crazy thing is that like at the time, people didn't know who anybody was. Right. You know, and that's why when you get to the constitution, everyone knows that if you're going to, which was written basically illegally, if you're going to have anybody back it,
Starting point is 01:40:41 you have to have the only two people that everyone knows in there. And it's Washington and Franklin. And Washington did not want to go. They just showed up at his house and they were like, congratulations. We were Virginia has elected you to be our delegate. And he's like, no thanks. And like one of the reasons he decides to finally to go is like, of course, if he feels like the country wants him to do something, needs him to do something and they're, they're right about it, then he will go do it.
Starting point is 01:41:04 But also he had like a, he had like a reunion of his friends from the society of Cincinnati that he wanted to go to. So he was after the Revolutionary War, he was like kind of a legend. Okay, well-liked, respected. This guy led one of the most epic upsets in history. I mean epic. And when he was done, was well poised to just take over. And this guy, not because they asked him to, but because he starts contacting Congress, he hands over his commission. He just goes, I don't want it. Like, I'm done with it. And he basically is like, hurry it up, hurry it up.
Starting point is 01:41:48 I want to be done. I want to hand this back over and go home. To Mount Vernon? Yeah, and nobody like, nobody can make sense of this. Nobody's ever like, you have this power and you just want to go back home. He wanted nothing to do with politics. He was like, I want to be remembered as a unifying figure.
Starting point is 01:42:02 I don't want to be involved in politics. But Americans couldn't stop dragging him to do things. And so, I mean, he's a life of service. It's funny to think about how different it would be if say the British had won, but we wouldn't know any different. Like this would just be the world we live in here and we'd be, we'd probably be glad they won.
Starting point is 01:42:23 We like, you know, it's just funny how. That poster probably wouldn't be here. Yeah. Yeah. George Washington wouldn't be our first president. Be sketchy how funny it was when they drawed and quartered him. You know, look at him hanging, snap, crackle pop when he burns like this. Cause they would have done that, man.
Starting point is 01:42:41 They weren't kind to the traders. They did that in Braveheart too. Did they? They draw and quarter people. Yeah. Is that where they tie ropes to and they pull you apart? Yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 01:42:49 Yeah. They did that in Braveheart. Yeah. Fun doesn't, doesn't kill you right away. That's the fun part. It looks like it feels good for about a second. Oh, my back. Don't you kind of want a chiropractor to do that to you?
Starting point is 01:43:01 Kind of pops? A split second and then put you back down. I've got an idea. Okay. It's that service to you for a split second and then put you back down. I've got an idea. Okay. It's that service, but they tie your hands and arms to goats. Okay. Those are like goat yoga, right?
Starting point is 01:43:11 Aren't we like into bringing like smaller barnyard animals into our healthcare regime now? Yeah. Let's get them in there, right? We whip them or we show them some food and they all run different directions and you walk away limber. Okay. How did the Revolutionary War end?
Starting point is 01:43:24 Like what was the final straw? So the final thing is it's Yorktown, right? Cause they surround them there. But the whole thing, and this is a weird thing, like Washington's greatest asset was that he knew how to escape. He knew how to keep his men together on the battlefield. He shared the sacrifice, but he knew how to get away.
Starting point is 01:43:39 Like deception was a lot of his thing. Because the thing is that like the Americans know how to win the war they forced the British out But the British have no really have no clue how to win. Like do you win by? Can you catch Washington? Okay, that would matter you catch Congress. They take Philadelphia and Congress just runs into the woods Like bunkhouse or somewhere they're like normally you take the capital and you're like game over But they they were like we got your capital and they're like, we live in the woods now. Like, what do we do? So like the whole American strategy was just make it cost so much and make
Starting point is 01:44:13 it last so long that it wouldn't make any sense to keep going. Because the British only cared about it because it was profitable. Yeah. And so once you make it cost and you go, it's, you're too far gone. Once you invade like inland, like the British do following the siege of Charleston, they go inland North, people who didn't really hate the British now hate them because they've showed up. You know how it is in the South, somebody from the country shows up and they're like, get out of here.
Starting point is 01:44:38 Like, and so, and so they, they've stirred up people so bad and they realized like, okay, they surrounded us at Yorktown, we surrendered there and the French are now involved heavily and there's just no way we can win this. So they finally go all right. But they don't, and this is a side story that's really important. The British don't think it's over.
Starting point is 01:44:57 Like they're ready to come back. They're like, you guys go try this experiment and we'll be back whenever you're ready. Like, and they're totally, it's not until after the war of 1812, they accept it. So the Americans are broke and they're trying to figure out how to pay their bills and they know that if they can't pay back the money that they borrowed, then they'll be, have no loans again, the British will come back.
Starting point is 01:45:17 And that's the reason they actually write the constitution is because they need to be able to raise revenue. That's a whole other story. One of the big reasons. Whoa. Was this funny? Was that funny? We, the people, we, the people, we, the people of the United States broke.
Starting point is 01:45:31 I feel like we've seen four movies. We kept referencing the Patriot, John Adams, John Q. Might as well throw that in there. And enemy of the gates about what he's at the hospital. I'll find a way to bring that up. I was like, yeah. And the fourth one is a movie about World War II, Enemy of the Gates. Oh, Enemy of the Gates. That's right. That's right. All right. This is fun. This is, you know, people are going to be like, wow, this guy knows what he's talking about. I don't know how to take this. Yeah. You guys just know I won't be here for the comments to respond. So you guys will have dusty. It's the comments. That'll be great.
Starting point is 01:46:08 And I, uh, and I won't listen to the next one. How about that? Well, you want to go through maybe one or two of those fun stories that you send over a couple of those, like the, uh, you sent over a list of some of those that I read through and they look great. Just like the fun. Uh, let's see, there was a Duelz. Yeah. Group of folks try to get George Washington ousted and replaced Horatio Gates. Yeah, they try to replace him and the best part is.
Starting point is 01:46:32 It was Horatio Gates. I don't know. Ben, take a. I guess you guys were like, he might still be likable, let's keep going. I was trying to wrap up but. Oh, I thought you were just gonna run through him real quick. Okay. So like Horatio Gates is basically this guy they try to oust Washington and Washington's
Starting point is 01:46:48 men are furious. And, uh, one of his kind of like right-hand men finds this guy, Thomas Conway, who was one of Gates's right-hand men. And, uh, Washington orders everyone not to duel anybody, but this guy like leaves the military. So he's like, I'm exempt. He finds this dude and shoots the side of his face off. Like the thing you like duels back then. Usually, usually you went out there and we're like, I'm man enough to stand here for my honor and shot over each other's heads. If you had something to lose. And this guy, John Cadwallader just goes out and just aims and shoots him in the face. And normally you want to walk away, right? You want to be like, And normally you want to walk away, right? You want to be like, I don't even know what happened, right?
Starting point is 01:47:27 You just turn around and you go, I saw a bullet flying and then I heard something drop as I was leaving, like for deniability. But the cod waller apparently upon shooting, it went through his mouth and out the side of his face. Oh geez. And apparently he walks over to him, looks at him on the ground and goes,
Starting point is 01:47:40 well, that should silence the fool's lying tongue anyhow. He's got some cold blood. It absolutely is. Well, that should silence the fool's lying tongue anyhow. These cats are cold blooded. It absolutely is. That's wild, man. Yeah, that's people are just built different back then. They were. Some of them didn't have cheeks. I mean, they did and then they didn't.
Starting point is 01:47:58 It's a real bad time to run a giant car wall. They're like, I thought you couldn't do me. He's like, I'm out. Yeah, I'm off. I just got off my shift. I'm gonna ask you this. When I was in school, American history, there was no internet.
Starting point is 01:48:10 So you had a book. You had a book. You had a phone where you picked it up and you were like, Susan, connect me. All right, man. I'll stop now. Gas getting cocky at the end here. I feel like I belong.
Starting point is 01:48:24 But anyway, you had a history book and maybe encyclopedias at your house. But now with the internet, where you can look up anything, like why do we need you? Well, I don't think we do. Well, first of all, we need you so I can produce the audio of this stuff
Starting point is 01:48:38 so Weber doesn't put a laptop on the front seat of his car and try to read stuff and scroll while he's driving. So one life saved alone right here. The reason, I mean, why is what I do important in teaching? I was joking about you personally, but has it changed now for students now that, uh, I know, you know, that's probably more grade school, I guess, where they would use the internet because you're teaching more than just facts. You're teaching the why instead of just the how come, right? Yeah. I mean, I mean, the thing is we're human beings
Starting point is 01:49:05 and human beings understand things in stories. And the random facts don't make any sense unless you put them into a story. I mean, this is literally how we've evolved to think. And, you know, I tell my students, I'm like, if I gave you a list of every character from the Avengers, how long, and like their traits, how long would it take you to memorize that list?
Starting point is 01:49:22 And they're like, forever. And I'm like, yeah, but I can show you a movie that's now in 45 minutes and you could answer every question that I asked you about. So it's the story there. It's also because, I mean, I try to mentor my students a lot, right? Help them with their writing, help them with scholarships. I got incredible success stories. So I mean, from my perspective, teaching is not something that's just about going in there with facts. You tell the stories. And I think that if, you know, in a perspective, teaching is not something that's just about going in there with facts. You tell the stories. And I think that if, you know, in a democracy, you need to have people who are grateful for what they have
Starting point is 01:49:50 and we're willing to sacrifice for it, and you don't just get that from being like, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. You know, the way I try to teach it is like, this is an inheritance that we've all got. We didn't earn it. It was passed down to us.
Starting point is 01:50:04 And like every generation, we have to decide whether or not we're gonna be good stewards to that and pass it on to the next generation as good as we've got it. And I think when you understand that you're in the story like that, it means something better.
Starting point is 01:50:15 And I can't teach them everything, but what I try to do is teach them a little bit of love for this place we live and a little bit of appreciation for what happened before. Wow. Wow. How about that? That was well said. That was powerful.
Starting point is 01:50:25 I'm trying to put it in your face and you've like, wow. I hope if you're listening, MTS, you don't fire me. That's why. That's why. Yeah, that's great. That's awesome. That's so awesome. Uh, thank you so much for coming on, Ben.
Starting point is 01:50:37 This was fun, man. It's good catching up with you. Yeah. Haven't seen you in a minute. Yeah. Thanks for having me. And next time we come on, I come on, which this is my podcast now. So next time I invite you guys on, we'll talk about something you guys know.
Starting point is 01:50:48 So good luck with that. Dumb movies. What do you think? Real quick, real quick, biggest misconception about the Revolutionary War, something that you think is taught wrong or something that people believe that isn't true? Is there one that jumps out to you? People believe that folks were like, brah, America. They were not. They didn't know what it was. It was introduced to them. They spent a lot of time refusing to cooperate with Washington and
Starting point is 01:51:12 the states. Washington's constantly writing back to Congress being like, yeah, I've told them I'm the commander chief of the Continental Army and they refuse to acknowledge that that exists. The local militias won't participate with him. He sees this country for what it could be and so do a couple of people, but most people are fighting for Virginia or Massachusetts. It's only after the War of 1812 when we whip them, Andrew Jackson whips them down in New Orleans, right? It's only after that unlikely victory.
Starting point is 01:51:39 Americans have been born here for a while, right? So you think about it, like by the time get to 1815, there are people who have been born in the United States. At this time, there were people that were born British citizens. They were born into their colony. But once you've got enough people who have born here, and then you have a huge win like that, that's when people start thinking of themselves as Americans. It's like the Carolina Panthers where I'm from. It absolutely is. When they first showed up, I remembered it was everybody's second team. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:52:07 Right. But what happened by the time you get to like, you know, 15 years later, kids have been born there. Yeah. We go to the Superbowl where we're going to lose terribly blown kick. Uh, and that's the point where everybody becomes Panthers fans. Right. And so it's like a little analogy, but like, that's the way it was.
Starting point is 01:52:21 And then after that, you have really the first era of American nationalism. Oh, wow. Oh, that's great way it was. And then after that, you have really the first era of American nationalism. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's great. It's a good question. Yeah. I've always said the U S is the Carolina Panthers of the world. Don't ever say that. Thank you, Ben.
Starting point is 01:52:34 You're the man. Anything we're going to plug something real quick. Where are you going to be Brian? April 26th. I'm going to be in West Bend, Wisconsin at the Ben theater. May 9th. I'm in Madisonville, Kentucky at the, I think it's called the Ballard Convention Center.
Starting point is 01:52:49 It's a fundraiser, but it's a full comedy show. I'm taking Paula, cause I can't say her name. Paula. I'm taking Paula and her husband, John. And it's May 9th in Koshinski. Is that right? Yeah. As you can tell, she's a listener to this show. You kind of say it quickly so you don't... Paul Koshinski. All right, there you go. Anyway,
Starting point is 01:53:11 that's May 9th in Madisonville, Kentucky. You got your Yazoo show coming up. I got Yazoo Comedy Hour First Fridays, but the things I really wanted to promote here, if that's all right. If that's okay, Aaron? Please, please. This is the time. As long as it's not your podcast. So, my podcast, The Road To Now, if you like history, that's all right. If that's okay, Aaron? Please, please. So my podcast, The Road to Now, if you like history, that's what we do there. And we're doing a live show in Washington DC on May 29th at the Hamilton Live. Guests are Major Garrett from CBS News, Margaret Tylev, who's a great journalist, and then Doug High, who ran the whole communications for the Republican party in the country
Starting point is 01:53:45 and is now like regularly on CNN. And we're gonna tell, it's gonna be funny. Like if you like this, you'll like that. So it's gonna, we don't normally do that stuff, but it's gonna be tales of murder and mayhem in DC. And then locally, if you're in Nashville, perfect timing, my live comedy game show, kicking back off here, May 22nd.
Starting point is 01:54:01 I've been doing it since 2015. Weber once hosted for me, wrote the show lasted 20 minutes, apparently. I did the worst job ever hosting, dude. I remember that. I hosted Perfect Timing and Lucy came out to me in the middle of the show. I was like, you have to slow down. The show is going to be over in 15 minutes. It was not good.
Starting point is 01:54:21 It was, it was, I still feel bad about that. I'm sorry, Ben. Uh, but Ben, you do a great job with it. And it's a fun, fun little something different for people to check out. What time, uh, Eric and I were teammates on the show here at Zadies. And two things I remember one, you convinced me to take a bite out of your, uh, disgusting shoe. You remember that you weren't supposed to get that one dates.
Starting point is 01:54:43 I was doing trick questions for awhile and, uh questions for a while and he picked one on the game board and it said, theoretically at the top, it said, if you were to put this shoe in your mouth, would you put this flip-flop in your mouth for 200 points? Right? And of course no one was going to say yes to that. And the surprise was that the answer on the next slide, where you reveal the answer was, of course you wouldn't, you're too good for that.
Starting point is 01:55:09 Here's 300 points. All right. But Bates put the flip flop in his mouth as the crowd counted to 10. Yeah. Got no points. I'm still, I still feel terrible about that. It was supposed to be for one of the younger comics. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:55:24 And the other thing, so at the end you go off stage, one of the two participants goes off stage, right? That's what we answer some questions and they come back out. I developed a system, full proof I thought, for Aaron and I to basically, I was gonna game the system, but we got confused somehow and it went,
Starting point is 01:55:40 do you remember any of this? No, not really. It went terribly wrong. Like I can't remember the way I figured out, like Aaron, I say this, say this or whatever. We tried to cheat on your game and it didn't work. Yeah. Well, if you had succeeded,
Starting point is 01:55:52 you would have won exactly what you got. Yeah. Anyway. But Aaron's so good at playing Dom, he couldn't do it. Yeah. It was fun. Check out Ben. Ben's the best.
Starting point is 01:56:03 Thank you for coming on. May 16th, I'm in Greensburg, Pennsylvania at the live casino., check out Ben Ben's the best. Thank you for coming on May 16th. I'm in Greensburg, Pennsylvania at the live casino, May 31st, South bend, Indiana. June 1st, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Just added that coming out and see this is Aaron Weber, by the way. Come see, uh, one of my life shows. You guys are the best. We love you.
Starting point is 01:56:22 Uh, none of us has lost on us. Dusty's back next week. We hope. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Uh, none of us has lost on us. Dusty's back next week. We hope. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. God bless America.
Starting point is 01:56:31 Give me Liberty. Give me death. Boom. We the people. Nate land is produced by Nate Land Productions and by me, Nate Bargetzi, and my wife Laura on the AudioBoom platform. Recording and editing for the show is done by Genovations Media. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to catch us next week on the Nate Land Podcast.

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