The Nateland Podcast - 256: #256 West Virginia feat. Joe Zimmerman

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

This week, comedian, bird enthusiast, and friend of the podcast, Joe Zimmerman joins the guys to talk about his home state of West Virginia.  Aura Frames:  AuraFrames.com Exclusive $30-off Carver Mat at AuraFrames.com. Promo Code: NATE     This episode is sponsored by Better Help- BetterHelp.com/Nate Talk it out with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/NATE to get 10% off your first month. #ad     Vuori- 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.     Rocket Money- Rocketmoney.com/nate Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com slash/NATE today!

Home insurance with Bel Air Direct is simple, much simpler than using a smart thermostat. Hey smart thermostat, turn the temperature down, it's too hot in here. No, you're too hot in here. What? What? Get simple smart home insurance. Bel Air Direct. Insurance simplified. Hello folks and hey bear, as always, I'm Brian Bates, always Aaron Weber. And that's pretty much all the always we have these days. Nate is still on location shooting the breadwinner, Dusty is in his bunker, but filling in the wonderful, we don't

know where Dusty is, but he's not here. Joe Zimmerman's back. All right. That's your boy with my boys. Good to see you boys. Happy to have you back, man. It's been a while. When was the last time we saw you?

It was the birds episode, which people loved. Oh, wow. People loved it. Yeah. Yeah. We did the bird, uh, we did the bird contest. Yeah. I liked it. You come ready. Yeah. Yeah. People loved it. Yeah, yeah, we did the bird contest. Yeah. I like that you come ready.

Yeah. You come ready. A lot of these guests, these people come on the podcast, they take it for granted. They go, we're going to make Brian do the heavy lifting. Joe comes in, he's got PowerPoint slides, he's got an easel, he's got a laser pointer. This guy's ready to go and I'm excited to get into it.

But before that, I know we got some big Nate Land announcements. We do, we do. Is that a good, I'm excited to get into it. But before that, I know we got some big Nate land announcements. Oh, we do. We do. Uh, is that a good, I feel like it was pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good. Throwing it to you. Like we're real anchors here.

Back to you, Eric. The big dumb eyes tour. Nate had incredible shows this past weekend in Roanoke and Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk. Is that how you say it? Uh, Norfolk. I think thefolk, is that how you say it? Norfolk. I think the L is silent, like folk, right? Norfolk.

Norfolk? I have no idea. Okay. Keep going. Hello, Norfolk. Anyway, they had Will Forte out there on the road with them opening the show. Oh, that's cool. By singing the national anthem.

And that's pretty cool. And anyway, the Big Numb Eyes Tour is coming to a city near you. So check out naitland.com. Nate is, he is burning the midnight hole. He's doing that on the weekends. And then during the week, he is filming his movie, The Breadwinner. He's down in Atlanta shooting that. It's, it's going to be great, but Nate is not taking any days off. Long days. Yeah. Long days. Um, when I flew into the Nashville airport, I was greeted by his voice telling me to check to make sure I'm taking the correct luggage to his guesthouse.

It was very confusing. It's like Nate and Reba and Keith Urban. Legally, it's just Nate I hear. Yeah, it's just Nate's voice. All Nate. But as someone who's been traumatized by Nate in the Nashville airport, when I hear him just yelling, check your bags, I'm like, Oh my gosh, he's, he's here.

I couldn't believe it. You land in Nashville. Hello folks. Yep. Come on. Yep. He's everywhere. Get out of here. He is everywhere. Nate land has a handful of great specials from Greg Warren, Aaron Weber, Nick Thune, Steven Rogers, plus Nate land has a handful of great specials from Greg Warren, Aaron Weber, Nick Thune, and Steven Rogers. Plus Nate land podcast network, the consumers with Greg Warren every Tuesday, correct opinions with Trey Kennedy every Wednesday.

And don't make me come back there with Dustin Melissa Nickerson every Thursday. Uh, season three of Nate land presents the showcase. Tickets are on sale now. That's going to be here at the lab June 22nd, 23rd, 24th. If you want to be part of that taping right here in Nashville, get those tickets. Nate Lance producing Ryan Hamilton's next special, Netflix special. Oh yeah. Filming at the Neptune theater in Seattle on October 4th. Get your tickets for that. Now you're not a fan of Ryan Hamilton you said, but we love him. You two have a very public beef, the two of you. Yeah. I think it's important to have one arch nemesis and we're both considered in the clean

genre. People say he's doing better than me. And so yeah, we've got a pretty big beef going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We don't talk unless it's unless it's just to send each other our current numbers, ticket sales. And he's got a lot of ticket sales and that's why I'm so mad at him. Yeah. Y'all haven't talked in a while. And Nate Land Merch is out there. natebargatzee.com. Go there. Just click shop at the top for Nate Land merch. Shop at the top. Check out the site for new drops. If you're coming out to show, come find us at the merch table. But Joe, speaking of great specials, you had a great special, still do have a great special, Cult Classic. I appreciate it. And it hit

a big milestone, I believe. Yeah, hit 500,000 views on YouTube a little while ago. And a lot of nice comments. Thank you for the comments. And there was an idea to do a greatest hits. And so some folks went through, found the top 10 jokes from the special. And that clip just dropped on YouTube,

greatest hits from the special and that clip, uh, just dropped on YouTube, greatest hits from my special and then it's ranked, uh, 10th best through best joke. According to the internet. So you agree with the list? Yeah. Um, it's, it's according to the internet. So I'm kind of like, uh, I don't, I don't know. I, I don't have like a, well, I guess what I'm saying is I don't have like a

favorite joke, you know what I'm saying is I don't have like a favorite joke. You know what I'm saying? You know what they say? The voice of the people is the voice of God. Yeah. That's beautiful. So let's just defer to them and let them decide. Do you have jokes in your act that like they're for you? Do you ever think about it? Like I enjoy this more than it ever gets from the audience. Yeah.

That's most of what I'm doing these days. And sometimes those jokes, uh, continue to do poorly. Yeah. And other times those will get dropped on YouTube and those will hit the hardest. They'll find the little lane that it needs to be. So some of those in the top 10 were those jokes I was doing for myself and they found their little lane on the internet. Oh, that's great. I love that. Joe has one of my favorite jokes of all time. Every tax season, I think about it, about filing taxes.

Oh yeah. It's the most stolen joke in the history of the internet, I think. Thank you. There are a lot of memes now going around. It's so funny. Full on sketches of people doing the bit, basically word for word.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll take it. That's uh, the only, the only, the only, uh, weird thing for me is, uh, a lot of people will tag me and be like, you stole Joe Zimmerman tag. That's kind of nice though. Oh my God. So I see. So I see, get to see everyone. Yeah. Yeah. I got accused of, uh, I see, get to see everyone. Yeah.

Yeah. I got accused of, uh, I posted a bit from my special and there's comment is that this is a stolen bit. I just saw it somewhere and I was like, Oh, I'd love to see where you saw it. He saw a woman lip syncing my bit and thought that, I don't know. It was like, you stole it from this woman lip syncing. My, yeah. I know. Golly man.

People really jumped to the steel, like accusation fast on the internet. They love doing it. They love catching you. You stole it. And you're like, no, it's really not how it works. And then I love to say, show me where. And then they go silent usually.

And this that's still not good enough for me. Like I want to keep badgering them. Oh yeah. I'm so waiting. One of the worst tackles I've ever heard in my life was at me in a giant theater. Yeah. Uh, I, I'm three minutes into my set, open it for Brian Reagan and it was going great in Durham. Everybody's into it. I'm not even like bragging, but I'm saying that because then you hear very loudly,

this guy is stealing his material. Yell from the back. And I've never heard a heckle like that in my life. And I was so everybody just silent. And I was like, OK, whose material am I? Who's he? Yeah. Who's a sea lion bit was that I just did. And he was like, he was silent. And I was like, okay.

Yeah. Well don't back away now. You're the one. Yeah. Let's hash this out. And then he was just quickly removed by security three minutes into the show. And apparently quickly, apparently he was hammered. And to this day, I'm like, I wonder if he heard my voice on serious XM and just was like, I've heard this guy stealing material. This I've heard this sea lion bit. Even blackout drunk.

He's got a deep sense of justice. So anyway, you don't get, you don't get heckled very often, but every now and then you get a guy full yelling mid theater. That is quite a heckle. And then the rest of the show went great. I was about to ask, did you recover? People were like, thank, people were literally like, did you set that up? Because that was really funny.

Did you set up that heckler? Yeah. Wow. You have a very distinct voice on SiriusXM. Whenever I listen, it always takes a little time for my screen to update to what the next joke is. So your joke will start and it'll still be saying Angela Johnson. And I'll be like, I don't think this is Angela. But as soon as I hear your voice, I can like, that's Joe Zimmerman. I like to guess. It's just a

little game I play in the car. Yeah. I don't know how to describe my voice because I only hear it how I hear it. So you feel free to describe it. Sultry. I don't know. Sleepy. Like if a sloth could speak English. Yeah. Let's get into our weekends. I, uh, we pre-recorded last week's show. So we've been gone two weeks now. Yeah. So we got a lot to catch up on. Yeah. Where were you? What have you been doing? How you been feeling? Uh, tired. Okay. Um, is that just age or things going on? Uh, all it's age. It's age and having a three year old. It's a perfect storm. Yeah. It's, it's all of it, but, um, where have I been? It's gonna be a quick, also losing my memory. Um, I was home this weekend.

Okay. I'm thinking about last weekend. Right. Oh, I was with Nate. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was with Nate last weekend in, uh, uh, Chattanooga and Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Yeah. So they call it that there? No. Um, I don't know if that's a derogatory term or not, but that's, that's what people call Fayetteville, North Carolina. Going to go out on a limb and guess Fayette, no, has a negative connotation. That's fair. I didn't know if it was something they've embraced as a city, you know? No, I've only heard that from you. Okay. I didn't make it up. I want to make that very clear. It's not even a good pun.

It's Fayetteville, Fayette Nam. It doesn't even make sense. Did you have a bad gig there once? I had one of the worst gigs of my life in that city. That's why you call it Fayette Nam, it doesn't even make sense. Did you have a bad gig there? I had one of the worst gigs of my life in that city. That's why you call it Fayette Nam. Yeah. I opened for Dusty at a place called the Dog House. Wow. And it was a bonkers gig. You ever worked bonkers rooms? I've heard about bonkers with a Z. Bonkers with a Z, of course. I've only heard of them. Yeah. And it was two shows at the Dog House and they didn't clear the room between the shows. So it was just people at the bar.

We did a show and then nobody left and nobody came and we had to do another show. Same people, same people, same people that didn't want the first show. We got to come back and do another hour and a half. That's, that's like a bad dream. Yeah. And I said, dusty, what do you want me to do? He goes, nah, I don't care. He was like, just open mic it.

So the second show was terrible, uh, worse than the first one. Would you call it your Fayette Nam? I was like, we're taking the last last plane out of here. Right. So I go on Joe, we're, uh, we've been lately. Um, I, uh, well, how was, how are the nature's Chattanooga? He broke a tenants record or something. Yeah. Um, it's like, it's like every time.

Yeah. You're like, why are we even talking about it? Why are we talking about it? He broke the tenants record. Who knows? Uh, no, he did. Uh, it's kind of embarrassing to brag every time he does a show, you know? Yeah.

It's kind of embarrassing to brag every time he does a show, you know? Yeah. The Chattanooga show started 45 minutes late because they'd never had that many people in that arena. So it just overwhelmed everything. So these people who have babysitters, they loved it when they saw me coming up and said, Nate, that's just, this is what we want. We've been waiting this long. No, it was, it was a lot of Nate. They're like, that's just, this is what we want. We've been waiting this long.

No, it was, it was a lot of fun. I was trying to think of anything unusual from the weekend, but it was just a good, fun weekend. Just a good time. Yeah. Where have you been, Joe? I'm coming down from my apartment in New York City. I guess I've been home. I will say that each night, some of you know this about me, I go to sleep using YouTube ambient sounds. I didn't know that but it doesn't surprise me. Yeah, you go to rainfall, of course, waterfall, brown noise, pink noise, space station, green noise. You ever do just traffic noises? Or you already have that? That's what I have currently. Okay. I mean, that's just New York. Okay. So I go to drown out the traffic. Yeah. Yeah. So do you guys ever do that with ambient sleep noise? I don't use YouTube,

but I have a white noise machine that I use everywhere. I think that's smart because YouTube, there is a gauntlet I have to run every night where you open it and I try to keep my eyes on the prize. I try to keep my eyes, click Brown noise real quick because it shows you all the temptations below that the robots think that I would click. And they know you really well. They know everything about me based on everything I've ever done. And so it's usually Charles Barkley and Shaq. And I've just, I can't. So I'm like, no, please. But late this week, I had a good clean sober street going of not clicking any of the temptations. This past weekend,

they found a new corner of the internet that hit me, which was old people giving life advice. Are you familiar with this? Brian has a podcast. That's your new podcast. I love that for you. How old are we talking? Like it'll be, it's just a thumbnail of a guy.

It looks like he's a hundred sitting on his back porch, blurry face close to the camera, like a USS Missouri cap. Oh, there you go. Um, and it'll be like, do they, do they know they're giving life advice? Yeah, it'll be like my grandson set this up for me two hours ago. I see. And, uh, he'll be like my grandson set this up for me two hours ago. I see. And, uh, he'll be like, you know, I would love that. There's a lot of different types of old people.

My favorite, I think is the overly modest one. That's like, you know, I don't know too much about these device gadgets, but I did invent the steamboat. So I think you'll find some of the things I have to say pretty interesting. Not that I know how this computer works, but I did get nine purple hearts and I've survived four shark attacks. So hopefully you'll find some of this interesting. And the best part is there's no edits.

You'll just see him just kind of gaze off and think. Think about what he's done. And, oh yeah. Take a deep breath. I love that. So anyway, I love YouTube with no edits. It's my new thing is just the long form direct to cam 30 minute ramble, not unplanned. I like that.

You know, nothing's candid anymore. I was thinking about this. There's an old video that I became obsessed with for a while from like 1988. And this guy just walks into a 7-Eleven at two in the morning and he's got a video camera. And it was the time when it was a big deal to have somebody had a video camera on it. And it's just like an hour of continuous footage at the 7-Eleven. And you's just like an hour of continuous footage at the seven 11. And you're like, nothing's there's no continuous footage of anything anymore. It's all just, let me hold my phone, record

a video, stop it. But there's no, like my, my family videos growing up where somebody just turned the camera on opening Christmas presents. And it's just like an hour of, and you get to really see people how they actually are. And they're not just performing for the camera. It's kind of fun.

Yeah. I, I yearn for the, the lack of, when I see quick cuts on YouTube, the ones with 19 million views, I can't do it with the quick cuts. Right. Yeah. There's a, I'm sure it's on YouTube. There was a, like a public access station or something that would just put a camera on the back of a train and just show it going from behind,

going across the country. And people would watch it all the time. There's just something mesmerizing about just watching go through it. That's my kind of ambient. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all are old, man.

Brian's old. I am old. Brian's old. My least, by the way, I'll cap that. Your least favorite person is Brian Bates. Ryan Hamilton is my arch nemesis. Brian Bates is my arch enemy. Yes.

Yeah, which is a guy you hate, but you're not competitive with. Exactly. I don't feel competitive toward Brian. He just says pure spite. It's nothing to do with competition. Well, thank you, Jeb. Appreciate that. Yeah, it's not pure spite. It's nothing in his competition. Well, thank you, Jeb. Appreciate that. Yeah, it's not a sign of respect, but.

Somebody's feeling comfortable in that seat now. Third time on, you got to start. Three timers club. Well, that was great. But Joe, thank you. But I just wanted to wrap. There's more. Okay. Oh, I didn't. I just wanted to wrap what I was saying. Yeah, sure. Sure. Sure. Go ahead. Wrap what you're saying about me. How you hate me. Go ahead.

Brian's good at this game. I have newfound respect. Wow. Yeah. Ryan Hamilton would never bring the heat like this. I'll just wrap that what I was doing by saying my least favorite form of the old person advice. Yes. Is young person. Yes, exactly. Is young person asks old people for life advice. And then you see this 19 year old who wants to be an influencer being like, Hey, I'm trying to ask old person advice. They're barely on the street. Like you just find a random old guy. Yeah. And it'll be like some woman that's like, I'm 30. And he's like, perfect. He's like, what's it like? She's just like, I guess I would have drank less when I was 19. I don't know. He's like, that's wise.

**Matt Stauffer** Do some of these old guys have accents that you don't hear anymore? I love that old time like turn of the century accent that you don't hear that just kind of died. You know what I mean? I mean, I can't do it, but you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. It's hard for me to delineate between an old person's voice and then the 1950s accent. I don't know which one's which. Okay. You know what I'm saying? I think maybe one in the same. You ever think about how it's weird accents excluded just how as you age, your voice changes. Like you can tell an old person's voice just by hearing it. Like, what's that all about? Yeah.

Is it in their accent? It's in the sound of their voice. Like our voices change. Yeah. The vocal. Become a little more, well, you know, I don't know. There's a little patina in it. I don't know what else you call it.

The vocal box. There's something little patina in it. I don't know what else you call it. The vocal box. There's something that gets worn down, dude. It's just, it goes through some cold. What are we going to do when our voice is like that? Are we going to embrace it? But don't you, uh, I've embraced mine. You don't have an old guy voice.

I bet you've sounded like this forever. I bet you were in middle school and you sounded like you sound right now. You know, I didn't realize it, but when I watch videos of myself when I was younger, I had much more Southern accent. I believe that. Not that I don't have one now, but I had a really Southern accent. Well, Nate had a much thicker one back in like you will old Henry Cho clips.

It's crazy. Leanne's amazing how she's held onto hers. It's been that consistent. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have an accent Joe? Where are you from? I grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Oh, did you really? I did. All right. I've lived in New York city for 12 years. I spent 10 years in North. I've been about eight years in North Carolina. So I'm told in New York that I have a Southern accent when I'm in the South. I'm told I have a Northern accent.

Okay. I don't believe I have an accent, but most people don't believe they have an accent. I bet I'll hear it in a few words. You can probably hear it just the way, but just in general, I think it's just kind of nice down the middle. Yeah, I don't think anybody's ever successfully done

an imitation of a West Virginia accent because they vary from North to South. But in Morgantown, where I grew up, we're really close to Pittsburgh. And so you'll get a little bit of that Steel Town accent where it's like. Yens. Yens or like going up to the Steelers game this week. Real excited to get, well, we don't know how Aaron Rodgers is going to be, but we love the Steelers. I could take a leave Aaron Rodgers, but we'll be, you know, best quarterback stillers have

had in a couple of years. So that's the closest I can do to a Morgan town accent, but that's more Pittsburgh and Morgan town is like Pittsburgh south kind of. Okay. Yeah. We're going to get into some, we're going to get into a lot more of that coming up here soon. I'm excited to dig into it.

As you know, father's day is coming up. What do you get the man who has everything or says he doesn't need anything? That's me. I've been saying, I don't want anything. You say that and people ask you, what do you want? No, I list a lot of things. You have a list ready to go. I have a lot of needs. I go, I don't know. I'm good.

Well, get your dad something he'll love. An Aura digital frame. Every year when Father's Day comes around, I have so much trouble shopping for my dad, we got them an Aura frame. We have one for the family and all the kids are hooked up to it. And you can send pictures to it remotely over the phone and they can see pictures of all their grandkids and whatever else we got going on or frames was named the best digital photo frame by wire cutter. It's easy to see why unlimited storage, as many photos, videos, and funny memes as you can find. And it's so simple to set up. Even your parents can do it.

For the guy who swore he didn't need anything, let the Aura frame prove him wrong. Aura has a great deal for Father's Day. For a limited time, listeners can save on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com to get $30 off their best-selling Carver mat frame. That's a U R a frames.com promo code Nate support the show by mentioning us at checkout terms and conditions apply. All right, Aaron, you got your Notre Dame Jersey there. Where you been? Uh, where was I?

I was off this past weekend, but before that I was in, I was in Northern Indiana, South Bend. Did a show at the Notre Dame reunion at the Washington Hall, beautiful theater on Notre Dame right underneath the Golden Dome. Wow. Just a great night. The show was great. Then we did two shows in South Bend the next night and then Fort Wayne, two shows in Fort Wayne. It was a long, very fun weekend. So thank you to everybody who came out in Northern Indiana. I love it up there.

I love it up there. That's God's country. That's what they say. Which states are not God's country? I mean, I think you know the answer to that. We don't have to get into it. It's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just. Aaron and I just saw the new Mission Impossible movie. Yeah. Oh, I haven't seen it yet. Her good things.

Well, I don't want to give away. Who'd you hear him from? Uh, Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise specifically said it was good. Anyway, I don't want to give too much away, but in the movie, they have to choose a city to wipe out with the nuclear weapon, but they never say which city it is. And we were speculating in the car ride back what city would be. I'm not going to throw any names down. I'm not going to throw any names down. city to wipe out with the nuclear weapon, but they never say which city it is. And we were speculating in the car ride back, what

city would be, I'm not going to throw any names down. We all have our favorites. That's a fun game. If you had to blow up one city, gun to your head. You ever do the nuke map? We've done it on this podcast before. I won't do it again, but there's a great tool

online called the nuke map and you can pick any bomb and drop it anywhere on Google maps. And it'll tell you the casualty count, what the radiation fallout would be. And I mean, it's crazy. Spent hours on there. Wow. Yeah. The largest bomb ever dropped. If it dropped on the Batman building in Nashville, I'm burned up in Mount

Juliet, 25 minutes away. I mean, that's just the radius of these. I mean, I'm wiped out anyway from the- Like a food? The rate- You better move further out of town. You're farther. You better move farther away. Yeah, move to Lebanon. I'm sorry. I didn't know where you were going here. Which part is tickling is which part is tickling him so much. She said he's out anyway. Cause I said, cause I lack of food. Massive fireball. That's funny. That's good stuff. Want to. Oh, that's funny.

That's good stuff. Want to get it in the comments? Uh, sure. Let's do it. Comments come from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Apple podcast reviews and Nate land at natebargetzi.com. Uh, absolutely love this podcast. It's opened up a whole new, who said it?

Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. Jeffrey Rollins, Jeffrey Rollins. Absolutely love this podcast has opened up a whole new perspective on what truly is funny. It doesn't have to be spoken in vulgar and inappropriate language. It can be done just like this and nobody is offended. Also, I stand with Dusty and everything he believes in.

Well, this guy's a loon, but he had me there till the end. Yeah. Good thing we got this comment in while Dusty was not here. Yeah. Well, thank you, Jeffrey. That's very nice. He doesn't need the confidence boost at this point.

You know what I mean? Yeah. We agree with you. Um, yeah, that's what we go for. Yeah. Thank you, Jeffrey. Rollins. Yeah.

Um, Mike Myers, Austin Meek. You think that's meek? I am meek probably. I was driving a rental minivan in LA traffic when bathroom issues hit and I didn't make it. Hey dude, I've, you know what, man? I've been there, man. I couldn't get the smell out.

It was too embarrassing to return. So I was too embarrassed to return it. So I parked it in front of a smoke shop and reported it stolen. I've always wanted to turn the story into a standup. A rental mini van reported. That's so great. I've always wanted to turn the story into a standup. Is he a standup? I don't know. I think he might be like,

I might just launch your career just because of the story. He probably could. I mean, those are your two options, right? You buy the car or you report it stolen. I don't think he had any other choices in that moment, but you know that feeling where you, it hits and you look around and it, you're like, I have, it's happening. Yeah. It's happening right now. Yeah.

And I can't do anything about it. I feel like any, I feel like a decent investigator. Austin would have pretty gotten to the bottom of what really happened. Pretty quick DNA is all over that man. Strong evidence here. Uh, what did he do? Did he just get an Uber from the smoke shop? Well, what did he do?

Did that Uber driver has to report his car. Still just a cycle. Yeah. That's a destroy some Uber. Wow. Uh, Mace Mason, Vandy. I'd like Austin right in with some more details. I would just want to find out like what I mean, just all the, like, what'd you do?

You pull over to the smoke shop, you get out. You're obviously not in the best condition. Like, what do you do? You know, there's a lot of unanswered. Yeah. And that's also a shout out to how bad LA traffic is. Can't do anything. How bad is it?

I'll tell you how bad LA traffic is. Awesome. Yeah. Let us know. We want to produce your next special. Mason Vandypole. That's a made up name. Mason. That's good, Joe. You should try comedy. Don't hate on me, Brian. That's a cult classic. Uh, you should try comedy. Don't hate on me, Brian. That's a cult classic. My wife and I had the pleasure of seeing Aaron in Des Moines last year.

And I had him sign his card. All right. Now I just need blank dusty and Nate to create cards so I can complete the page. Why don't more non-athletes in the public eye have trading cards? I would think it's an easy merch item to travel with. It is an easy merch item to travel with. It is an easy merch item to travel with. I'm going to have some new baseball cards coming up this fall, I think. I have baseball cards that I've made. I sign them and get my dates on the back. It's a nice little easy thing to sell. I think it's, I have to say the main reason more people will do it, it's a little embarrassing to be a grown man or a grown woman and you have a fake trading card that

you designed yourself. You know what I mean? So you have to get over that hurdle. But if you do that, I recommend it. What are some fun, have you seen some fun merch from other comics, like some crazy things that people sell on the road? I've seen some embarrassing t-shirts.

Oh, for the most embarrassing. Yeah. Comedians, we have to embarrass ourselves with our merch. You do have to a little bit, but the more embarrassing they are, the joke. I feel like the better they sell. Exactly. The cooler the shirt, you're going to sell one. You're going to sell one.

It's going to be some hipster person buys it. Yeah. The, the more, the more people make fun of it is just hotcakes. That's right. Oh yeah. So I do know, I thought I won. There's a flaming wallet merch. Have you seen this? No.

There was an MC, good comedian, but he was an MC, he was MCing the week at some improv or funny bone. And so MC feature headliner at the end of his MC set, he would be like, by the way, I got these wallets for sale and he opens it up and the wallet catches fire. Oh, that's pretty cool. sale and he opens it up and the wallet catches fire. Oh, that's pretty cool. And then he closes it. Has nothing to do with his act. Nothing to do with it.

He doesn't even do it in a bit at all. No, no, no bits. But he has a like a little joke about the flaming wallet. Okay. Like pulling it out of the store or something. Okay. He does a bit about the merch. So after the show, it is a line longer than you've ever seen just to his table. And me and the headliner over here by ourselves, everybody who wants a flaming wallet, Brian Regan is just sitting there just watching. Well, how does it work? There's well, it seems like a safety hazard. Well, I can guarantee that many people have set buildings on fire with this merch. Okay. So it is, there's no way it's not, there's no way it's safe, but,

but basically as you open it, it's strikes like a lighter. Yeah. I don't, I'm not an expert on the flaming wall. I'm sorry to admit. Yeah. Did you buy one though? I would have, or did you not? I know you wanted one. And I believe the wallet. Let me ask you this. Is it a one-time thing? No, it keeps, it keeps, uh, it doesn't catch it on fire. I think you can keep refilling it like a lighter. Okay. Yeah. Um, I bet you can find a video of a flaming wallet and I, I'm sure there's more people, more comedians in the country selling them because I mean, he made, he must've made three grand just on his flaming wallets for the week. Wow.

I recommend everybody to sell flaming wallets. They start doing this. Have you ever sold merch? Yeah. I got my, I got my two birds, one scone t-shirt. More recently, I have more embarrassing ones in the past. I'm trying to think of my most embarrassing one. Probably my worst selling one was just I heart Matt Damon. And it was funny to me and people were like, we don't really need this. You sell a lot of? Didn't sell a lot. Yeah. What's your most embarrassing, your CD? Yeah, probably right about that. The fact I still sell it.

We don't have a CD player. Well, just give me $10. It's a coaster. I got a bunch in my trunk. If you want one. I do. I want one. Um, I, I only started selling shirts in the last two or three years because in their nightland theme shirts, because I never could, like people would always say, my friends would say, put that joke on there that you tell about this, but it's not a standalone.

It's not funny enough unless you know who I am. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like Nate, Nate's had so many had one for Hammett season or whatever. People know Nate. It's just, you're excited by his shirt, but for some no name guy, unless the joke's really funny, why would they want it? And then you have to tell that joke every time you want to sell it.

That's true too. Yeah. So you get boxed in that way. Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. Well But thank you, Mason van de Poel. Let's see here. Run. Yes, I'm. I just like that. I just think that is the correct way to describe the four of you as non-athletes, just to follow up on what Mason said. Well, I forgot we're dealing with a college athlete here.

Oh yeah. That's right. That's right. Good memory. Thank you. Play golf at Davidson. Davidson college with Steph Curry, division one athlete. Steph Curry was basically a teammate as close as it gets.

Was he there when you were there? No. Okay. But I feel like he was. But if you ever met him, that'd be a conversation starter right there, right? Yeah. I played golf at Davidson. I played golf at Davidson. It would be a conversation starter. I have met him. I think it would end pretty quickly after that. I did say that. Did you really? Yeah. It'd be weird if you didn't ever bring it up.

It's a little weird that he's probably a better golfer than most of the guys that were on the team at the time. You think so? Is he that good? No, sorry. I should just say he's probably better than me because he is like a scratch golfer. And so he could have easily played on the golf team. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Golly. Athlete. Those freak athletes. Yeah. Men today face immense pressure to perform, to provide, and keep it all together. So it's not wonder that 6 million men in the US suffer from depression every year and is often undiagnosed. It's okay to struggle. Real strength comes from opening up about what you're carrying and doing something about it so you can be at your best for yourself and everyone in your life.

It's not just all about you anymore, Aaron. You got a family to think about, so you got to get it together. Therapy is helpful for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries. It empowers you to be the best version of yourself. It isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma therapies for everyone. Nate goes to therapy now. There's over 35,000 therapists that BetterHelp helps out.

It's the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. It's convenient. You can join a session with a therapist at the click of a button, help you fit therapy into your business life plus switch therapists anytime. It's the largest online therapy provider in the world. BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse

variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash Nate. That's better. H-E-L-P dot com slash Nate. Uh, Ron Nunnally. You think that's right? Yeah. Uh, I host a trivia chat where I ask trivia questions for a few times, a few times a week to about 30 of my coworkers.

I debuted Fun Fact Fridays where I would give a fun fact instead of asking a question. My first fun fact was our 10th president, John Tyler, despite being born in 1790, still has a living grandson. Two days later, the grandson passed away at the age of 95. Now I know how bad news Bates feels. Well, thank you, Ron, for taking some accountability because everyone still blames me for this. Because we did, we've mentioned this guy a few times. We mentioned it recently on the Virginia episode.

But hey, he's 95, come on. It was time. The Lord called him home. He did. Or sent him away. Somebody called him home. We don't know anything about it. He left.

Justin. I really set myself up with. Give it a shot. Squidierri. That's gotta be Italian. Squidierri. Squidierri. I really hate Dusty's out here for this comment.

I recently saw Craig Ferguson live and he came right out with no openers and did an hour 30 minutes in a theater. The crowd was immediately into it and laughed the entire time. What are your thoughts on this and who else do you think could pull it off? Well, a ton of guys, tell me if you disagree, a ton of guys could do that if they wanted to. Any of these big, Brian Regan, any of these guys, they could go out and do an hour and a half. And it's just, they don't want to. it's easier to jump in there when the crowds already warmed up and you know, they've been, they've been hot for 20 minutes.

Yeah. I agree. I also have seen musicians that I really wanted to see and they came out cold. I would say call it cold. They just came out, performed for two hours, three hours, and it was great. I get to see the musician I wanna see the whole time. But at the same time, I kinda like the buildup and the anticipation.

Like it's, to me, there's something about the buildup and the anticipation and also getting to see a variety of performers. Seeing somebody you've never seen before. Yeah, that makes it more of a full show. So I would ask, sure, Craig Ferguson put on a great show for 90 minutes, but it's also possible that it could have been a better show. That I would ask, sure, Craig Ferguson put on a great show for 90 minutes, but it's also

possible that it could have been a better show. So I'm not a, I mean, it's just his style. It sounds like that's it, Craig Ferguson's style. And he's capable of that because he's hosted his own show for 15, 20 years. I feel like for music, people have really kind of built in, if we don't get there at time or need to go to the bathroom at concession stand, it's just the openers. So I could see how some people would actually be annoyed if the person or group they came to see

started right off the top. Yeah, the late comers are gonna miss something. But anyway, he's saying this, Justin is saying that Justin who squitty airy is saying the crowd was immediately into it and laughed the entire time. So he's saying it was a great show. And, uh, what are your thoughts? Uh, yeah, I think that, I think that you can do it either way. Yeah. More power too. And if, but I will say if the whole crowd is there to see just you, that makes it much more doable. Yeah. Me too. A paper comedy club.

I want a couple of others in there to bite the bullet. The bullet is almost always the crowd. The laughs aren't going to be feel as big in the first five minutes and 10 minutes. Yeah. And then everybody sort of is warmed up after 10 minutes. So it sounds like Ferguson quote unquote, bit his own bullet and then went from there. Well, I think Dusty would agree. Dusty has his opener to five and then he does an hour and a half. Is that real? Yeah. Uh, pretty close now.

He, his opener does, I don't know how it does more than five. I don't know. Yeah. 15 probably. Yeah. 15. Then I see you'll do about an hour 20. Wow. Okay. Is something wrong with it? What's wrong with dusty? We were trying to answer that on this podcast for over a year now. I've heard Greg Warren, a comedian I respect so much say that nobody wants to see more than 50 minutes. I've heard him say that. Wow. I don't know if he still agrees with that, but I so much, say that nobody wants to see more than 50 minutes. I've heard him say that.

I don't know if he still agrees with that, but I've heard him say that. I think people want to see more than that from Nate. Yeah. Or any headliner, I think in ours. All right. Greg, you heard it first. Calm up. Tell Greg he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Greg, you're wrong, Greg. Consumers podcast, Greg Warren. Ginger Giffen, as a fellow sleep apnea comrade, I'm curious what lotion practice uses on his face to help with the redness from the mask. Aaron, do you use anything? Thanks guys, love the pod. We found our audience, Brian. Joe, do you wear a CPAP by chance?

I actually wear, um, a little, I, I do wear a sleep aid. A breathe right strip. It's like a breathe right strip, but it's more powerful. It's got the magnets on either side. Yes. Pops open. I've seen those. They look pretty exciting.

It feels good. Yeah. You put the magnet on your nose. All of a sudden you're inhaling all this oxygen. You ever just wear it like to the store or anything? I, uh, I've seen people with them on podcasts. I don't know why it's almost like an eye catching thing, but I've worn it around the apartment.

Okay. I like it. It's a good feeling. More oxygen. Uh, I use, uh, prescribed by my dermatologist Keto. Ketamine. It's not ketamine. It starts K-E-T-O and then some other stuff in there.

Keto. And yeah, it's- You're on the bacon thing. And that's a good joke. So anyway. anyway, uh, no, I don't use anything, man. Just get in there, you know, cause you're a real man. I'm a real man. Yeah. Dry.

So you're, so it's some sort of cream you use? Yeah. Because the mask right here, especially irritate the skin. So I'll just rub a little nice. Used to do a little aqua for that's what we put on. Well, beef tallow, something like that. I don't know what that is, but.

It's keto. Beef tallow is keto. Walk before us what we would put on our babies. You know, she had a diaper rash or something. And I'm like, hand me some of that. Yeah. Jacob Dean. There actually is a Shazam for bird calls. The app is called Merlin Bird ID. A good time for all of us 40 plus year olds

who have entered our bird watching phase, love the podcast. Joe, do you know about this? I 100% have Merlin Bird ID. I have called it the Shazam for birds and I walk around Central Park with it and it tells you all the birds that are singing. Do you find that it's pretty accurate?

It is very accurate unless you have a mocking bird in the area. Yep. Whoa. And the mocking bird does perfect imitations of about 14 other birds. Is that why they call it a mocking bird? They do, it nails other bird calls. That's crazy. Exact other bird calls. That's

crazy. Exact other bird. What's the purpose of that? What does it, does it try to, is it a camouflage uh, technique or what? Or is it just being a jerk? I mean, what's the evolutionary like reasoning? The only, I, I don't, I can only guess because I've seen one David Attenborough documentary where there was some type of bird that mimics sounds and some sort of wild boar was sniffing around its nest, about to knock down its nest. And the bird made some like call like, bird made some like call like 911. Like a truetor, the bird made some call of like whatever predator of that animal was. Yeah.

And the animal like ran away. Wow. So I can only imagine it's maybe used in weird cases like that, but I don't know. So this app is never usable because you could always just be like, well, there's probably a mockingbird nearby. The good news, there's probably a mockingbird nearby. The good news is there's only a mockingbird around like once every five tries. So you're okay. I mean, she has 20% of the time.

It doesn't work. 80% accurate. 80% accurate. I a hundred, I a hundred percent agree that it is 80% accurate. Can you, can you imitate those calls and trick the app? Sure. You want to hear a Tohee? I mean, I've been waiting.. You want to hear a tohi? I mean, I've been waiting.

Did you want to hear a tohi? Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'd like to hear a tohi. Okay. Here's a tohi. Drink your tea. That's it. I just did it perfectly. I don't even know what just happened. I just did a tohi call. I don't know what else just happened.

I told you what I was going to do and I did it. Is that a bird? Yeah, a tohi. It says, drink your tea. A bard owl says, who cooks for you? Who cooks for y'all? I'm doing bird calls. Anyway, you wanted it and now I'm done.

So I'm not doing it anymore. Can you verify that area? Yeah, I'll take that. calls anyway. You wanted it and now I'm done. So I'm not doing anymore. Can you verify that area? Yeah, I'll take this word for it. But now if I did that, the Merlin bird idea I admit would not register. It wouldn't pick that up. I don't do it as well as the Merlin bird. That's fair. Yeah. Well, I meant to ask you before we even got in this comments, but I forgot before we read the last comment, you had a follow-up on our last previous discussion about birds evolving from dinosaurs. Yeah. And again, I really hate that Dusty's not here today, but we'll play devil's advocate,

although he wouldn't agree with that term either, but we'll play his role. Yeah. Okay. Well, I just, we did our last podcast was on birds. And, and I think there was a moment where Nate said, I don't think birds are dinosaurs. And we all kind of nodded our heads. And I hadn't really thought about it that much.

I always hear people say, I hear scientists be like birds are dinosaurs, but I've also heard people say, you know, alligators are dinosaurs. Okay. And I don't know what they mean by that. Yeah. Do you guys know what they mean by that? Alligators I could see, they seem like they come from the same species. So I decided to look into it because I'm like, if Nate said it, it's probably wrong. Right? Yes. That's a good starting point. Yeah. Yeah. So here's what I found. good. That's a good starting point. Yeah. Yeah. So here's what I found. So here's how birds are dinosaurs. Okay. This is what they mean when they say birds are dinosaurs. And this has only been

consensus for the last 15, 20 years. All right. So I learned something different when I was a kid. 65 million years ago, the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, correct? We suspect, right? Is that confirmed or that's how we think they died? That's the leading theory. That's how we think they died, yeah. Yeah. Chicxulub asteroid went 120 miles, 120 miles into the earth's surface.

They found the crater. Where, where was it? Somewhere in what's now Mexico. Yucatan Peninsula, I think. Yucatan Peninsula, yeah. Wow. If you were in Mount Juliet, it would've wiped you out. Speaking of nukes, it was something like a million times the power of a nuke.

Wow. A tsunami one mile high. Oh, yeah. So, so that is our understanding that the dinosaurs went extinct after that. But what's actually true is the big dinosaurs went extinct after that. But what's actually true is the big dinosaurs went extinct. The little dinosaurs under 50 pounds, dinosaurs survived. How? Follow me? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

And so the asteroid that didn't extinct the dinosaurs, it extincted the big dinosaurs. The little dinosaurs stuck around. A lot of them had little feathers. And some of those were birds that birds today descended from directly. So essentially dinosaurs didn't go extinct. And now the reason they say that birds are dinosaurs is because birds are literally dinosaurs. The way that humans are primates are mammals. It doesn't mean all mammals are humans, right? It doesn't mean whales are humans, but it means that humans come from mammals. So the way that humans are mammals,

birds are in the group dinosaur. Now we did a long time ago, we did an episode on dinosaurs and some of this is familiar to me. I think that's why I knew about the Yucatan Peninsula. Is it because big dinosaurs, they have to eat a lot and most of the things were wiped out. Is it because smaller animals could just survive because they didn't need as much resources? Well, if they could fly, they'd fly above the tsunami, huh?

Well, I think it had more to do with the change in the atmosphere. It didn't support bigger animals anymore. But if you go back to the previous image, Aaron, so this is another reason it's confusing. What do you see, Brian? What do you see up high there? It looks like a cross between a bird and a dinosaur. Yeah. So that's exactly. Thank you. So that's- Can I get ahead? Oh, sorry. That's correct. And what do you see down below?

That just looks like a bird. It's a common mockingbird. Okay. So this display worked because what you see up top is Archaeopteryx, the old drawing of Archaeopteryx. This is what we thought Archaeopteryx looked like. And now what we think Archaeopteryx looked like is that bird. So that helps us with a better understanding of how birds are dinosaurs. If you look at that lower drawing, that looks like a bird

so it's more believable that birds are dinosaurs. It's more just that we're picturing these old renderings of like green, gray dinosaurs. And now all the new renderings are like colorful and feathered. Right. Even T-Rex. T-Rex. Uh, and T-Rex, uh, I think, uh, is one of the theropods, which is related. So the T-Rex is more related to a pigeon than it is to Triceratops. Okay.

Just like we're closer to a banana than we are like a lobster. Right. I don't know if I can agree with that. We have 98% of the same DNA as a banana. Is that true? I mean, I feel like it's been said before. I think it's more like 50, but I'll go with you. No, it's a cucumber's 98% water.

I got it mixed up. Oh yeah, that's a common mistake. I got it mixed up. Yeah. But we do share some DNA with fruit. Well, that's very interesting. Now, Dusty would, I guess, would argue the fact that you just admitted they're changing the way they look.

So you'll be like, well, sure. 10 years from now, they'll say something else. Maybe. They'll say it comes from a mockingbird. And I would say, Dusty, that is scientists, that's how scientists work. They like to be wrong because they're trying to get the information correct.

So they keep changing the information as they get new fossil records and more DNA records. But yeah, so that's what we used to think. That's what we think now. And so it makes birds being dinosaurs a little more believable in our heads. Totally. Let's see.

And dinosaurs, think about it, warm-blooded, they lay eggs, they build nests. T-Rex probably built nests to lay eggs. All the velociraptors. With their mouths, I guess. And so if you look at a cassowary or an ostrich or an emu, you get a vibe of like kind of how dinosaurs were. Yeah. On the ground, feathered, but not flying. A lot less fun than they've been depicted in the past.

Well there were some fun ones that there were some fun ones. There's just such a big group. And when you think of the little ones, you can sort of start to figure out why birds are considered dinosaurs. And here's the other thing, alligators and crocodiles, not dinosaurs. That's a whole separate thing. CB. Okay. What was their ancestor? Do we know? AC. They came from- CB. Just in the ocean? AC. A further back ancestor that's considered reptilia, which branched off into dinosaurs and lizards.

If I simplify it. Okay, salamanders in there somewhere. Somewhere, yeah. But I will say taxonomy, very complicated. And so that's why it is confusing. Okay. Yeah. So I think that's it.

If you look at the cassowary feet, they pin down their prey, they stand on it until it dies. And that's basically what they think T-Rex and Velociraptors do. Wow. Yeah, these feet are terrifying, dude. Yeah. That's, see, there you go, dinosaur feet.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, this does look like, so that's a Velociraptor. Is that a Velociraptor or a Crasso-Ware do you think? Yeah. Yeah. The feet are disgusting looking. And then you can start to imagine how some dinosaurs might have had those sort of colors

instead of being how we picture them as gray from our childhood. So there you go. I was surprised to learn that birds are literally considered dinosaurs. And I was surprised to learn that dinosaurs didn't all go extinct. Yeah. Yeah. I thought they were all out of there. Yeah. Pretty crazy. Was there a nuclear winter? How exactly did the asteroid kill them? Well, the asteroid changed everything. It killed everything within where it hit. And then on the other side of the planet, it changed the atmosphere. And I'm sure for, one of the things was, you know, there's a dark, the sun is blotted out for 10, 15.

Yeah. So no plants can grow. 20 years, however long the sun has blotted out. And for whatever reason, that new atmosphere, the new oxygen levels didn't support big animals. And the little ones, a few of the little ones, well, a lot of the little ones survived. Some little mammals survived. They just had to breathe real heavy. Some little mammals survived, some little dinosaurs survived,

some little reptiles survived, et cetera. What little mammals survived? A little shrew-like creature. If you imagine a shrew, you can sort of imagine. I'm sorry to make you think of that. Let's see. I'm not an expert by the way, but I looked into it a little bit. A little pointy face mouse, essentially. It was very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you could also say we're closer related to that shrew than a T-Rex is to a triceratops as well.

I guess we could say that. I don't know. Or a banana. But, but I was kind of blown away by that and I'm sure dusty and Nate would be sitting here, uh, disagreeing vehemently that birds are dinosaurs. So probably, but that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. Not everyone has to agree with what's scientifically obvious.

Yeah. Uh, so when you're looking at a chicken, I'm kidding. When you're 60% of the, we share 60% of our DNA with bananas, by the way. So also chicken, not that far from 98. It just occurred to me, chicken. A lot of our diet is dinosaur. How about that? Damn.

We eat dinosaurs every day. That's crazy. Egg, laying warm blooded nest making. That's my, that's my, that's what I had to say. I love that. We eat dinosaurs every day. That's crazy. Egg laying warm blooded nest making. That's my, that's my, that's what I had to say. I love that. That's what I had to say about dinosaurs. What do you think about them bringing back some of these extinct animals? Oh, wow. That is ethically complicated for sure. But I, from a, from a fun standpoint, which is how we like to operate here on the podcast, from a fun standpoint, I would love to

get the wooly mammoths back. I would love to get the Dodo bird back. Yeah. Because, and can you imagine the, the, the app on your phone picking up the Dodo? I mean, wouldn't that be incredible? That would be so sweet. Uh, because my argument would be, it was humans that early humans, it was early humans that wiped out the woolly mammoth and recent colonists that wiped out the dodo. So if, if humans killed them, maybe, maybe humans should, should bring them back. Passenger pigeons to bring those back, start using them again. If we could bring them back, I say that would be fun, but also there's all sorts of ethicists that are confused about it. Right. Yeah, it's a

complicated thing. Dodo, by the way, new evidence says was a smart bird, not as dumb as, we just assume, oh, it died, so it's dumb. Yeah. Which is kind of mean, if we're being honest. We just assume, oh, it died. So it's dumb. Which is kind of mean if we're being honest. We didn't name it the Dodo bird till after it was extinct. What do we call it while it was still around? Yeah. Well, how do you feel about them bringing them back? Woolly Mammoth? The same. Yeah. I think it'd be fun. I was disappointed that that dire wolf was a completely false story No, was it really was not really a dire wolf. Is it it's uh, they just brought back some other some other type of wolf But even wooly mammoths, aren't they just trying to breed some hairy elephants

well the reason No, no, no the reason they might be able to bring a woolly mammoth back is that woolly mammoths could maybe crossbreed with African or Asian elephants. I forget which one. So you might be able to impregnate an African elephant with a woolly mammoth baby. That's great. We don't even know if they get along. And then you have a half woolly mammoth, half elephant, and eventually you could get to a full wooly mammoth. I'm creating a lot of silent responses. No, no, no. How would you get to a-

I'm bored with it. I don't understand though. How would you get to a- Oh, if you had multiple wooly mammoth. If you had multiple half wooly mammoth, multiple half- But that would still just keep splitting them more. Eventually you could hit on a, you might get lucky and hit on a full wooly mammoth. Hey, you can't win if you don't play. Yeah. Well said, Joe.

Well said. Okay. Anything else? That was my birds or dinosaurs notes and it really kind of blew my mind. So I thought it was worth bringing back. It absolutely was. I appreciate that. That's what I'm talking about.

This dude coms ready to go. I know. I'm gonna need you to come back next week for the counter. Yeah, next week. Also the way that we're in the category of mammals. Do you know the category that birds are called? It's called Aves. Yeah, Aves are within the avian flu. Aves are within theropods, which are within dinosaurs. Okay. So there you go. Our next sponsor is Viori. Aaron, we love Viori so much. We all love it. Even Dusty loves it. And Dusty doesn't love almost anything, but he loves Viori. He now wears it on a plane. He talks about that all the time.

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So it moves with you with no restrictions. I don't like restrictions when I'm, when I'm out moving. Just in general too, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, I got a flow to me. I kind of. You're a wild stallion.

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One more comment. Jay Cooke. Aaron's already moved on. On the Virginia episode y'all bring up Travis Tritt and Bonnie Clyde's Bonnie and Clyde's, Travis Tritt's Bonnie and Clyde song, not making sense about I-95, but don't bring up John Deaver's Country Roads. In the first line, he says, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River in West Virginia, but they are both in Virginia. The song is a lie. Wow. All right. So now that we get into our topic of West Virginia. All right. There it is.

Joe, answer that first. Is there a more iconic song for a state than Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver? Now John Denver has two. He has Rocky Mountain High for Colorado and Country Roads for West Virginia. So he's got two. I sure like Tennessee has some, you know, the Tennessee Waltz, Rocky top. You can probably put those up there, but Country Roads is, I mean, what a great song. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

What did you have? Have you ever heard that? Sweet Home Alabama for Alabama. Yep. Come on. If you go to a jukebox at a bar in Morgantown, which I've, if you go to a bar in Morgantown, Country Roads will play about one every seventh song on the jukebox. But did you know the part about Shenandoah and, and. So I learned that, yeah, in the lyric, they talk about the Shenandoah by the Shenandoah Valley, which is mostly in Virginia, Western Virginia. And what else? What's the other thing? Appalachian Mountains?

Well, Appalachian Mountains are West Virginia. What was it? Blue Ridge Mountains. Oh yes. Blue Ridge Mountains are mostly in Virginia and I think Maryland. So some of the lyrics are representing places that are kind of on the border of West Virginia. But most of the lyrics, they also talk about coal miners and most lyrics do represent West Virginia. So West Virginia adopted it as our anthem. But the other fun fact is that they wanted it to be about Massachusetts and Massachusetts didn't just didn't sound good. Take me home. Yeah. Massachusetts.

Now I think, uh, so they're like, all right, West Virginia, let's tweak the lyrics. I think it was Maryland actually. Maryland. I read, I thought I read that when they wrote the song, they had a road in Maryland in mind. Okay. I don't, maybe both. But even if all those things are mostly in other states, all the things mentioned in the song, I always picture the song was about a guy driving home to West Virginia. Yeah, that's true. Country roads take me home. So he's seeing all these other things and they're a reminder that his home is not far away. He's almost there. It's like when I see the Buc-Ees coming back, you think, take me home, bringing me back to Nashville. Thanks, Pratt. So the people, yes, you're right. So people that

are saying he got it wrong geographically, you could push back and say, actually, the Shenandoah got it wrong geographically, you could push back and say, actually, the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains do touch West Virginia. And yeah, if you're driving home, you might drive through there. Those are all the landmarks you see and you go, I'm almost there. Plus John Denver's dead. So he might've nailed it and he's dead, you're right. He might've nailed it. So you grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, you said. Grew up in Morgantown, yeah., you said. Grew up in Morgantown. And then was there until you went to college?

Yep. So you, you're a real West Virginian. Grew up in, I guess, yes, you could say that. I grew up in West Virginia. Um, it's the 10th smallest state by area, 12th least populous state, 1.7 million. Uh-huh. Uh, capital and most populous city. Aaron, you want to guess?

Huntington. Charleston. Charleston. Hey, yeah. 49,000 people. Talking to me. Speaking of 1.7 million, I got to hit you with my population fun fact. Sure. I love these. This might blow your mind, Brian. I bet I'll... Okay, go ahead. So would you believe that the northernmost tip of West Virginia is as far north in

terms of the latitude as guess how far north? Canada. Come on. You went too far. Well, you said it was gonna blow my mind. New York City. It is as far north on a latitude, if you allow for the fact that the earth is a sphere. It's as far north as New York City and there are more, so there's a greater population in New York City south of the northern part of West

Virginia than all of West Virginia. Wow. So basically Staten Island and some of Brooklyn are south of the northern tip of West Virginia. But you don't see it on a flat map. You'd have to do the spherical map to see that it's slightly north of New York City. Wow. But this little, I don't know what you call this, this little finger. Yeah. Panhandle. Is it called the panhandle? Uh, I believe so. It is now. Oh, I believe so. Yeah. I won't do the hand gesture that West Virginians use to point to where they

live. But yeah. I believe it's called the panhandle. Have you been up here before? How much would you say you've traveled around West Virginia? You think you've explored every crack and crevice of this place or have you? I have not been to Southern West Virginia that much. Southern West Virginia is kind of a long way from Morgantown, but I have been to a lot of West Virginia thanks to high school golf tournaments. Okay. Yes. You get to play on a lot of mountainous, backwoods golf course. Is it the most mountainous state in the country? I wouldn't think so. You get to plan a lot of mountainous backwoods golf. Is it the most mountainous state in the country? I wouldn't think so.

You don't have the States ranked by mountainousness. I'm going to guess it's one of the Rocky mountain States. You're going to guess it's what? One of the Rocky mountain States. What'd you think I said? You're still saying Rocky. Rocky. I do.

All I, all I know is that West Virginia is the only state that. Well, why are you laughing at me? Well, cause you said Rocky and you kept saying. Ruckie road. Uh, go ahead. You're see Ruckie for. Yeah. How would you say Ruckie for? Yeah.

Right. Who will rock and roll? Ruckie for. It's getting better. It's getting better. You have a real accent. I like it. But I picture West Virginia, the whole thing is in the mountains, right?

It's all contained in the Appalachian mountains. It's the only state that it's all contained in the mountains. It's the only state that, that's great. You have a real accent. I like it. But I picture West Virginia, the whole thing is in the mountains, right? It's all contained in the Appalachian mountains. It's the only state that it's all of it is in the Appalachian mountains. It's called the mountain state. Yes. The Mountaineers. How about that?

Things starting to fall into place for me over here. Here's something. Yeah. I did. What thing is starting to fall into place? I'm starting to connect all the dots. I never put it together why they're called the Mountaineers. Yeah.

It's cause they're in the mountains. Yeah. You don't think about that. You know, I don't think about the name for the university of West Virginia that often or WVU. Sorry. Yeah. You're wearing a Notre Dame shirt.

What's Notre Dame's mascot? Uh, the fighting Irish. Because they're Irish people who fight. Yeah. He's a bar, the bar fighting Irish. That makes sense. It was a pejorative term that we co-opted. There you go.

Spawn it to our. Is there an advantage? Yeah. West Virginia Mountaineers. I grew up going to football games and, uh, the Mountaineer would come out and shoot a big shotgun into the air. Yeah, that's awesome. Boom.

We were going, Whoa. Was he wearing like a stumped up of skunk in hats? Skunk in cap. Skunk, skunk, skunk. Skunk in cap. You got it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. I did not know this. It became a state during the

civil war when Virginia seceded. Did you know this, Aaron? Mm-hmm. Okay. But keep saying it. Maybe the listeners. Virginia seceded. Don't want to pretend to not have heard it. From the union. Keep going.

I was just, I thought I was going to impress you guys. Uh. This is important. This is important. I was just impressed by Mountaineers. You just keep going. When Virginia seceded from the union, uh, the Western part of the state did not want to do that and their

lawmakers strongly were against it. So they- Just lazy or what? They were like- They feel like doing the paperwork? So they broke off on their own and became a northern state. Yeah, went with the north, went with the union.

And they're still with the north. Stayed north. Yeah, I was going to ask you, I mean, we talked about this earlier, but I was going to ask Aaron this I mean, we talked about this earlier, but I was going to ask Aaron this, what do you think of as far, when West Virginia as far as what part of the country it's in? I think of it, it's its own thing.

That's not a fair answer. But I don't group it in. It's a, I don't group it. I don't consider it a part of the Southeast. I don't, it's not part of the East coast. It's not, it's not the Midwest. Yeah. I don't know what else to call it.

What do you call it? It's like Cincinnati. What would you call Cincinnati as a city? Is it a Midwestern city? Well, I know it's right on the cusp. I say since Ohio's yeah, I'd say Cincinnati is I Louisville is the place I used What do you call Louisville, Kentucky? Yeah, I call Louisville South. I call Cincinnati Midwest Okay, what do you call West Virginia? I think you nailed it actually, because I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I am. Because when I'm in New York, people say I'm from the South. And when I'm in the South, people say I'm from the North. Some people say it's in the Mid-Atlantic with Maryland and Delaware. But I think a lot of people call it just Appalachia. It's not part of the North or the South. people call it just Appalachia. It's not part of the North or the South.

So it's either Appalachia or it's the Midwest or it's its own thing. It's the ACC. That's how I think about it. ACC. That's how I think about it. Yeah, it's group them up like conferences, but that doesn't really happen.

It doesn't make sense anymore now. I know, I had a joke about that. Yeah, all these USCs and the Big Ten now and all this stuff. But yeah, I think of it as the ACC area. Yeah. Yeah. It does.

Yeah. It's hard to, but the annoying thing is people like disagree with me. Like if I'm in New York, they're like, you're from the South and I have to be like, well, I grew up near Pittsburgh. But they mean culturally, not locationally. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's get into some of stats about West Virginia.

It's the, uh, these are going to be brutal. This sounds fun. Highest come with fun facts. Start with the fun ones. You're doing fun facts. Yeah. Fun facts. Uh, it leaves the nation in smoking rate.

Hey, all right. 21% of West Virginia. Harkening back to a better time. Yeah. You know? It's the most obese state in the nation. I mean, I'd like to fact check that, but sure. I mean, I think it's close.

I think it's a real. I think I don't see, I see a lot of skinny people around West Virginia, but I don't know. But see a lot of skinny people around West Virginia, but I don't know. But I, you, you, what, what, but you, you found these facts somewhere. Yeah. From US news and world report. Uh, it has the shortest life expectancy.

Brian. Jeez, Brian. What? What are you trying to say? I'm just sharing the facts here, guys. All these things are connected to smoking rate rate, obesity rate, and life expectancy. Can you click on the life expectancy, see if that works? Yeah.

Let's see if this one. All right. There's your top ones. Okay. Hawaii. Hawaii's got the best life expectancy. Almost 80. 79.9.

I love that. Bottom. Oh, this one has, this says Mississippi edging out West Virginia here. Oh, 70 years. You're only 49. 49th baby. Tennessee, not far behind them right there. Oh, there.

Average life expectancy, 72.4 here in Tennessee. Yeah. You guys only got a year on me. Yeah. That would group you about how much more we get done in that year than you ever do. Yeah. That's, that is a lot. Yeah. I'll end on than you ever do. Yeah. That's, that is a lot. Yeah.

I'll end on a positive one though. Okay. And I mentioned this when we did episode a few months ago in school. Yeah. Highest graduation rate in the country. High school. Wow. I don't know how any of this, I don't know how any of this adds up.

Highest graduation rate for high school? Mm-hmm. That week I sent you, I think it's the same one I showed, uh, we showed a few months ago. That is shocking to me. Now, after we showed that the first time a teacher wrote in and said, it's because their standards are so low. She was a teacher in West Virginia. So, but 91 even in Tennessee second.

You got to see, even when we do something good, people are still ripping us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We only do something good. Yeah. Unbelievable. Well, speaking of West Virginia, having a bad reputation, Aaron, have you seen the movie Deliverance? I have seen Deliverance. Yeah. Thanks for bringing this up as well. Do you know where it said it? I thought it was Georgia. Okay. Well, you're just destroying my theory here.

I feel like most people think it's West Virginia. Do you think that? I never really thought about it, to be honest. Okay. California. I always thought it was... Now part of the reason Rick Roberts, do you know Rick Roberts? Stand-up comic. Nashville based. Plays guitar. And he used to have a joke where he'd say, and he would play the first few chords of Sweet Home Alabama and like, you know, that's the coolest state song when he's like... GDC. Every song, you know, every state has its song like, and then he would do the chords to Deliverance, and he would say, West Virginia. What?

Pete Slauson I said the chords wrong. Jared Larsen Oh. Pete Slauson Couldn't matter less. DCG. Jared Larsen Okay. Pete Slauson Okay. Sorry. Jared Larsen Anyway. Pete Slauson There you go. I heard it that time. I heard your age that… Jared Larsen The, just…

Jared Larsen Coughing into the mic? Pete Slauson We were talking about the voice. Sorry, dude, I'm getting distracted here. Keep going. Jared Larsen Anyway, that… Pete Slauson You're talking about West Virginia? Jared Larsen Yeah, he would do the thing to Sorry, dude. I'm getting distracted here. Keep going. Anyway, that, uh, yeah, he would do the thing through deliverance. He said, I asked him about it. He said he used to do it for Georgia and everyone would argue with him.

No, it's, it's West Virginia. He finally just changed the joke to say West Virginia. Wow. But I always thought it was set in West. I've never seen the movie, but it was set in Northern Georgia. I wonder why that is But you didn't think that and you didn't think it was set in northern, Georgia and in the movie. It's considered northern, Georgia Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, I I'd never heard of it being based in West Virginia

Well, I guess it was just me then and maybe from you're saying the connotation for West Virginia is so bad It's yeah that people assume that the deliverance took I googled this and it said because the hillbillies and people associate it with… They probably set it in the mountains. It's probably in the same Appalachian mountains, maybe. But just keep in mind when you're watching deliverance, it was written by Hollywood outsiders. Was it really? It was not written by anyone from that area. It was written by Hollywood outsiders who wanted to use the stereotype to make a movie. Hollywood insiders. Exactly. Hollywood insiders. Thank you. People in Georgia would be Hollywood outsiders.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'll tell you, West Virginia is the setting. I don't know if they filmed it there, but the setting of one of my favorite movies from my childhood, October Sky. Oh yeah. Which is a great movie about Homer Hickam and the Rocket Boys. Have you ever seen that movie? No, I don't think I have.

In spades, Jake Gyllenhaal, few others. Laura Dern. And that's based on a true story. It is based on a true story. Homer Hickam, very active on Twitter. You can go check him out. He's on there all the time. What's he doing on there? Mostly tweeting about NASA and stuff. Okay. Still works for NASA, but he's a group of four boys from a mining town called Colewood that has since been disbanded. And they get inspired by Sputnik. They see Sputnik over their town and they decide they want to build a rocket.

So they build a rocket and they enter the science fair and they win the national science fair. And these four kids from a coal mining town where the only way to get out was to play college football. They all got scholarships to go to college. Great movie. Great movie. I would have thought that West Virginia was by far probably the leading coal state in the country. It probably was in the early 1900s, right? Maybe, second now, but by far, number one is Wyoming. Oh, I would have guessed Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's third.

Okay. Wyoming does 41%, West Virginia's second with 14% of the coal. Good for them. Good for Wyoming. I think we already extracted a lot of our coal back in the early 1900s. Yeah. And I also always thought diamonds came from coal, but I read that that's not the case. Yeah, that's confusing. They say, yeah, what do they say? Makes diamonds? Pressure. Pressure makes diamonds. There's more there. Aaron, say makes diamonds? Pressure. Pressure makes diamonds. Uh, there's more there. What does it make? What makes diamonds? It's a little more beautifully worded than

that. Pressure makes diamonds. What makes diamonds? Coal plus pressure equals diamonds. The largest, uh, diamond, a, a viol, a viol diamond ever found in North America was found in West Virginia. The Jones diamond. They don't know how it got there. I think a bird maybe dropped it. Are you serious? Not joking. Yeah.

That feels like you're joking. It does feel like I'm joking based on who I'm talking to, but no, that's true. Have you ever heard the term West by God, Virginia? Oh, I've heard that a lot. People say that a lot. I've heard that a whole lot. say that a lot. I've heard that a whole lot. People in West Virginia say that. Okay. What does it mean? What's the expression? What is it? West by God, Virginia. I feel like I should mention a lot of West Virginians kind of

have a self-deprecating sense of humor about themselves. I would compare it to the way if you ever go to Ireland or Scotland, they'll also kind of make fun of themselves and just be kind of a funny, funny people. West Virginians are self-deprecating, funny people. And they'll be like, yeah, I'm from West by God, Virginia, man. But they're doing it in a joking way. Right. Now, according to its origin, there's two different origins they say. It first appeared online publications, online accessible publications in 1926.

OAPs? It says online accessible publications. I don't know what that means. When students at the University of Virginia wrote an article claiming that West By God Virginia women could consume corn liquor on its own without having to mix it with other liquids. So it was about the West Virginia women could handle their liquor. And then history professor at WVU was called a Virginian

and he got annoyed by it. And then he claimed he yelled, I'm from West by God, Virginia. There you go. Yeah. I mean, it's got a nice ring to it. It's like saying fricking or something. Yeah. Yeah. It's just the rhythm of it. The rhythm has a nice little ring. I have never said I'm from West by God, Virginia, but I've heard it a lot. I think it sounds a little sacrilegious.

Well, good thing I never said it. Good thing I never said it. It's God's country, dude. You can say it. Okay. When it comes to spending, sometimes it's out of sight, out of mind. That daily coffee habit, those streaming subscriptions, they add up fast without you even noticing. You know, you just put them on the back burner and they pile up. Rocket Money spots those patterns so you can do something about them and keep more money in your pocket. Rocket Money, as you know, there are a long time friends, there are personal finance,

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unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with RocketMoney. Go to rocketmoney.com slash Nate today. That's rocket money dot com slash nate rocket money dot com slash nate mothers did we talk about this recently a mother's episode mother's day started in West Virginia oh yeah the woman that started and remember she later tried to stop it because it became so commercialized yeah but she originally started it to honor her mother in West Virginia. Uh, there's never been a president from West Virginia, but there has been a candidate democratic nominee for president 1924, John W.

Davis, John W. Davis never heard of him. He lost to Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge. He lost his home state of West Virginia. That tracks. Yeah. Probably lost off. Probably lost West Virginia. That tracks. Yeah. Probably lost off. Probably lost most states.

Let's be honest. Probably so. That happens more often than you would think. You lose your home state. Al Gore lost Tennessee when he- Did he lose Tennessee? Yeah. I mean, Clinton won Tennessee, didn't he?

So Gore just kind of stunk, huh? That's just when the shift happened. Yeah. I think it's happened a few times. The oldest and youngest governor. Oh, I mean, Trump lost New York. That's an obvious one. Okay.

You know? In 2016? I think both times. But he was running against Hillary, who was also from New York. Oh, that counts. Yeah, I thought she was from Arkansas. But she was a Senator in New York.

Yeah. I think New York and California have always gone blue. No, I mean, Reagan won both of them. I think Trump ran, really. Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah, he had to because Mondale- I think Mondale only won Minnesota.

Yeah. Yeah, 1984. Yeah. It's a long time ago. All right. So let's get into some, well, the famous people from West Virginia. Aaron, who would you say is, what do you think of West Virginia? Who's somebody famous from West Virginia? Homer Hickam. Okay. I don't have him on here. Joe Zimmerman. I think of, I don't know, I watched Dope Sick recently. I'm trying to- You watched what?

The movie about the opioid crisis. Okay. Our show about the opioid crisis. I have no idea. I can't name another person. I can name- Not John Denver. Some of these I forgot about until,

but I think I could have named it Brad Paisley. Oh yeah, okay. From West Virginia. Yeah. Randyley. Oh yeah. Okay. West Virginia. Yeah. Randy Moss. Oh yeah. Wide receiver. Was committed to another name.

Then they revoked his scholarship. Yeah. What a shame. And then there was one other on here. There's a lot more. Oh, Chuck Yeager. Jerry West, the NBA logo. There's a lot more on here, but I'm thinking about people

I could have told you were from West Virginia. Yeah. Chuck Yeager, the airport's named after him. The Chuck Yeager airport? Yeah. Charleston. Okay. Yeah.

Um, I think I knew this. Jennifer Garner's from West Virginia. All right. So you are churning them out. Now here's some I didn't know. Uh, Don Knotts. We got Don Knotts Boulevard, Morgantown, West Virginia. Really? Mm-hmm. Oh, that's cool. Steve Harvey. I didn't know. Don Knotts. We got Don Knotts Boulevard, Morgantown, West Virginia. Really? Oh, that's cool. Steve Harvey. I didn't know that. I feel like he, I think of a few

different- He was born there at least. Cleveland, and then he spent some time in Birmingham, I think. Yeah, he was born in West Virginia. He probably moved some after. Nick Saban. That's another one. I didn't know that. You didn't know he was from West Virginia? No, I had no idea. Yep. Uh, he was from Fairmont, West Virginia.

And so was Mary Lou Retton. Oh yeah. Mary Lou Retton. Who would you say the signature person from West Virginia is? Like, I think we determined on here at some point, Tennessee is, Dolly Parton is kind of the, the signature celebrity that represents the state more than anybody else. I'm in Morgantown. It's Jerry West and Don Knotts. I can't really speak for the rest of the state.

Thanks for coming on this episode about West Virginia. See yourself out over there. I don't think we'll, uh, well, I'll take it from here to answer you. We do a Morgantown episode. We'll call you back. Just speculating. I don't think we have a celebrity that, but it might, you know, I don't think we have a single celebrity that we're like, that's our person.

I can think of one that, uh, in sports, that's pretty, Bob Huggins is pretty universally loved, right? Is he well, I don't know all the scandals. Yeah. He's one of the winners basketball coaches of all time. Yeah. He's a lot of growth in West Virginia coach there time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a lot of fun. Grew up in West Virginia, coached there for many years, a legend at least.

Sure, I don't think people in West Virginia would be like, that's our guy. Okay, yeah. But he is a guy, yeah. He's a guy. I would think maybe, yeah, the people I'd, I don't know. I think Jerry West comes close, he's the NBA logo. Yeah. Um, I think, I think Jerry West comes close. He's the NBA logo.

Yeah. Yeah. I always thought he looks like he's about the, I never liked the pose of this NBA logo, the way he's been doing. What is he doing? He's uh, what are his feet? He's making a move to the right. He just crossed you over, Aaron.

That's how they moved back then. He just crossed you over. That, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that's this. Yeah. He's about to do a little finger roll. I mean, it's iconic. That's a fast break.

That's a fast break. Fast break, Aaron. Come on. A few more before we decide who's the most, I mean, I think we have Bill Withers. Oh yeah. Slapfork West Virginia. It was the inspiration for the song Lean on Me.

Lovely day. He wrote Lovely Day. Yeah. Bunch of songs, bunch of good songs. Bill Withers. I think about the MLB logo. I don't know who this is based on. I don't think that's supposed to be any guy in particular.

No, big nose. But I always thought this is because that guy, there's no way he hits that ball. Yeah. It's going to hit him in the shoulder. Big, big old bruise right there. The ball, even if that's a, let's say that's a strike, you had to, he didn't even have his arms. He didn't have the bat pulled back yet.

He hasn't even started the swing. He's taking, I guess he's about to take a ball high maybe. Yeah. So why would your logo be a guy taking a pitch? This is how boring baseball is. Here's the logo to represent exactly how much fun you'll be having at a game. Now, do you think that that guy's a right-handed better or a left-handed better? That looks very right-handed to me. But now that you say it, I could see the left-handed. It could be either one. Now that you say it, I could see it

more left-handed. I don't see left-handed. You don't? I mean, we'll just try to. He's facing this way. Yeah, but that could be the front of his face. And yeah, he could be facing either way. And yeah, he could be facing either way. And that's a softball he's hitting. There's a lot of problems here. The point is, uh, the Jerry West was not as bad. Anyway, that's supposed to be a Babe Ruth, but, uh, it didn't quite come out right. Uh, Lou Holtz is from West Virginia.

Oh, that rules. Heck yeah. Lou Holtz feels like an accurate representation of West Virginia to me. Yeah, just the way he talks. Yeah. Michael W. Smith. Oh.

Charles Manson grew up in West Virginia. Thank you for bringing that up. Are y'all proud of that or do you talk about it a lot? I actually- Not proud is not the word, but. I did not know that. I knew he was a Scorpio. I did not know he was. I did not know he was also from West Virginia. So we share a few things in common.

He grow up there. He just go to like juvie there or something. No, I think he grew up there. I think he. When did the CIA? Went to live with his aunt and uncle or something. He had a bad childhood. Okay. That tracks. Oh, I thought he had a great. Now, what do you know about the Mothman? Mothman, I know that's like our version. It's kind of our Bigfoot. Yeah. I don't know a lot about it other than it being in Mount Pleasant and Dusty types would

love the Mothman. Dusty probably knows everything there is to know about the Mothman. He probably just thinks it's a demon, but- There was talk of it being some sort of alien. In fairness, this looks like a demon. This drawing of it right there, if I saw that in the woods, I think that that's Satan sending one of his boys. AC But I know that Mount Pleasant, it was a foggy area, a lot of fog, so it tracks that you would just see something in the fog that looks scary. Especially if you're drinking a lot of moonshine.

Especially if you're drinking a lot of moonshine. So that's what it is, moonshine plus fog. I think that's the combination. With pressure creates darkness. If it's not an alien, if you want to believe in the non-alien theory. Okay. Yeah. But I actually don't know the story very well, Brian, if you know the story. In West Virginia folklore, it's a humanoid creature reportedly seen.

This says point pleasant, but maybe it's near Mount Pleasant. Okay. Point pleasant. From November of 1966 to December of 1967. And a lot of people's claimed they saw it, but then it was introduced to a wider audience in 1970 with a book and then another book in 1975 called the Mothman Prophecies. And then it was later adapted into a film starring Richard Gere. I'm guessing it wasn't a great movie. I'm guessing it wasn't a highly reviewed movie. I haven't seen it. I've heard of it, but I haven't seen it.

I bet it has 32% on Rotten Tomatoes would be my guess. This is the movie The Mothman Prophecies, 2002, supernatural horror mystery film. Richard Gere and Laura Linney. I mean, that's a great cast. Mm-hmm. Laura Linney, love Laura Linney. Yeah. Yeah, this must have, Deborah Messing. I mean, this is like a star-studded cast.

I'm going to go 28% critic. Yeah. Well, it made $20 million in the box office. I'm going to look this up real quick. Mothman and Propheciescies 52% on rye tomatoes. So critics are audience. Let's take a look. Yeah. I want to know how far off I am. Oh, it's pretty close.

Okay. So I'll give that a watch. I'll give anything over 50% of chance. Sure. That would be the most critically acclaimed movie we've ever talked about in detail on this podcast. Yeah. Nate will come in and go, Hey, I watched this snowboarding movie from 1982 and it will be 4% on Rotten Tomatoes. It'll have like a whole breakdown about it. I go, nobody's seen this movie. And he'll love it. He'll think it's the greatest thing ever. All right. Here's some other movies said in West Virginia.

We Are Marshall. Okay. Yeah. That, you know, that's, for people who don't know, that's kind of a, that's a crazy story. The deadliest tragedy of any sports team in US history. It was the second college football team plane crash in a month. Oh, I didn't know that.

What else happened? A month earlier, Wich toss state had a plane crash that killed 31 people. Yeah. You kind of feel for Wichita state that Marshall came in right after kind of stole the thunder. Yeah. Thundering, thundering heard that.

Thunder. Nobody's ever. Wow. What? That's impressive. That's a comment. I didn't know how you're going to turn two plane crashes into a joke, but you did it. I was really worried. We weren't going to get anything funny there. Now I have seen this movie.

You better put those fears aside for this podcast, Joe. I've seen this movie, We Are Martial. It's good. We are with Matthew McConaughey. Yep. I can't remember who else, but I remember Matthew McConaughey. Well, that's all you need is that was that model for that kind of movie. You just need It's good. We are with Matthew McConaughey. Yep. I can't remember who else, but I remember Matthew McConaughey. Well, that's all you need is that was that, that model for that kind of movie. You just need like one star and then just like kind of an emotional sports story. But how crazy is that for an entire football team to get wiped out? And just start all over.

Yeah. When was that the seventies? Yeah, maybe 1970. Okay. 70s? Yeah, maybe 1970. When I was in college in the early 90s, Marshall was one double A like my school in Middle Tennessee State University was, and they were kind of rivals because they were both good. They weren't the same conference, but often in the playoffs they would meet each other. Okay. Because Marshall's had a lot of good play. Randy Moss obviously. So you were happy that it happened? Well, that was before I was even born.

There's definitely, there's a famous NFL quarterback that played for Marshall, but I'm spacing on him. Byron Lefwitch. Thank you, yes. And Chad Pennington too, right? Byron Lefwitch is now the, he's the head coach somewhere, right? Wasn't he a coach in the NFL?

By the Bay, West Virginia university has Gino Smith starting QB in the NFL right now. Yeah. Gino Smith. I forgot another famous person. Tavon Austin, greatest highlight tape of all time. Yes. Love Tavon Austin.

Pat McAfee. How about that? Oh, West Virginia. Perfect. Yep. Uh, Mike Vanderjack. You guys know Mike Vanderjagt. You guys know Mike Vanderjagt?

How long is this list? I got one more after that. Mike Vanderjagt was a great kicker. Oh my God. What is Brian doing? He's just trying to. Well, we're almost out of squelching a lot of West Virginia stuff. Mike Vanderjagt was a great kicker for the Colts.

Right. And during the Pro Bowl, I think he said some stuff and then they interviewed Peyton Manning on the sideline and he said, our liquored up kicker, like he totally like blast. Oh, that's a great moment. Yeah. He just trashes them. And I think Jeff Dye has a joke about stealing his jersey. Oh, okay. So there you go. And the last one was Pac-Man Jones, who played for the Titans.

Nashville legend. Pac-Man Jones, love Pac-Man Jones. Big comedy fan. Yes. He used to come to stand up shows. Yeah. Not nice to people. All right, so a few more movies set in West Virginia.

The X-Files, one of their movies was in West Virginia. X-Files, I want to believe. Silas and the Lambs, Clarice Starlin was from West Virginia. Wow. Remember when Hannibal, he could tell her accent. Oh yeah. Kind of broke it down. Was your father a coal miner?

I'm trying to remember her accent. I think she did a, I want to say she did a good job with the West Virginia accent, but I don't know if that's, it's been a while since. Well, she was great in the movie. So that was a great movie. Jodie Foster. Yeah. I think she did a good, pretty good West Virginia accent.

Don't you think sometimes you just watch a movie and they gave like a bad accent and you're like, just don't do an accent. Cause there are people from everywhere that don't have accents. Thank you. It just be a guy without an accent instead of trying to do this crazy, like, what are you doing? Who's one that you're thinking about? The British guy in white Lotus this year, trying to do a North Carolina accent. Oh, yeah, Jason Isaacs?

Yeah, his North Carolina accent was all over the place. Lucia's Malfoy, yeah, and I warmed up on Parker Posey's throughout, like, I thought it was terrible at first too. But I was watching Catch Me If You Can, Tom Hanks' character. Crazy, crazy accent for no reason. And he's playing a fictional character. So you can just do any voice. Why are you doing a crazy voice? What was he trying to be? Carl Hanratty. I can't even, I mean, it was like insane.

Oh, worst accent, worst accent I've ever seen was Twister, the bad guy in Twister. Okay. Oh yeah, Carrie Elwes. Worst accent, worst accent I've ever seen was, uh, twister, the bad guy in twister. Carrie Elway who I love. And you can say you'll that's fine. I don't think it's Elway. It's not John Elway's brother. It's Elway. Elway's that's how you pronounce it. Elway's.

Where is he from the Rocky mountain? He's from somewhere in the UK. The Rockies. Yeah. He's from the Rockies. Carrie Hughes. Just go ahead. Carrie Ewell's from- What's the accent?

So he's trying- So he's a British guy trying to do, I believe, a Southern accent. He sounds like the rooster from the cartoons. What's the Southern rooster? Foghorn Leghorn. He sounds like Foghorn Leghorn. And he's trying to be a Southern guy. I'll say there's a

tornado approaching. Yes. They were like, what are you doing? Please stop. They cut, apparently they cut so many of his scenes in Twister. And I love Kerry Owais. Euls. I love Kerry Owais. I'm talking about a different guy. My guy's name's Kerry Owais. Okay. But Kerry carry always kills it. He killed it in Princess Bride. He killed it in Robin Hood men and tights But his accent Oh this dude, okay Can you play like a 30-second? Yeah, I'll find out fine. I can just type bad accent Bad accent twister, it's gonna be worth it. I just find a clip of him from twister on here. Yeah, if it's not yes And this is pro if you're listening video unavailable, the Zadies Wi Fi network that we're on doesn't want us to have fun. I mean,

they take work very seriously here. They go, you better not be wasting time on any more than this CIA. It's crazy. Uh, a couple more movies, dark waters. You seen that? Well, I have, I think I've seen dark waters. Yeah. Do you know this movie, Aaron? No, I've never heard of it. Is there a lawyer? There's a lawyer in that. Is it George Clooney?

I think it's Mark Ruffalo. Okay. Same that tracks. Yeah. Yeah. It's the Hulk and, uh, yeah, it's about, I think it's based on a true story about, uh, DuPont chemical plants. Good movie. That was a good movie. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It's people are dying. Cattle are dying and it's because they're poisoning the water. Uh, evil DuPont corporation

poisoning the water of West Virginia for sure. A lot of people got cancer. Like in real life? A lot of people got cancer, yeah, because the corporation was just ruining terrible toxic water and then hiding it, hiding it, hiding it, hiding it. And so yeah, that was one of the biggest class action lawsuits, I think. Wow. In the US. It's like Aaron Brockovich. Yeah. But in West Virginia. It's like Aaron Brockovich. Yeah. But in West Virginia. Mm hmm.

Um, so the, catch me if you can, but going back to that. Yeah. Frank Abagnale, Abagnale, yeah. He's a real person. He is a real person. Yeah. But Tom Hanks character, was it? I think it's an amalgam of a bunch of different people that worked at the, uh, the FBI or whatever organization, but I think he's playing like it's a made up guy.

Yeah. So why choose a crazy voice? Just be a normal guy. Why do you got Carl Hanrad? It's like, who talks like that? I mean, Tom Anks, he was like, this is my 73rd movie. I want to take a risk. He's probably, yeah, I got to make it interesting for me. I'm too good at this. Let me just do a crazy voice. Patch Adams. Patch Adams is a real person.

Okay. Still alive. Robin Williams and no Pat. Robin Williams is not how to patch Adams outlive Williams. Uh, that is wild. That is insane to outlive the guy who played you in a movie. Yes. That doesn't happen that often. Yeah.

Uh, activity chalome dies. Yeah, I know. That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. So Patch Adams basically had a kind of a philosophy. Laughter is the best medicine. I don't know if you say the best, but definitely helps. I hope it wasn't that.

So he started the Gesundheit Institute. Yeah. And it was originally called the Zanies. Wow. Isn't that interesting? That's really cool. But then they changed it to the Gazootite Institute. Uh, it's in West Virginia.

The club sued them. Brian Dorfman sued them. Those sick kids can go somewhere else. Uh, but it's a hospital envisioning, uh compassion and community, offering free healthcare, integrating various healing arts. So, all right, again, Joe, jump in anytime. I don't know everything about everybody from West Virginia. Well, we need you to, we need you to.

What do you got there? Are you going to do your, are Are you gonna mention any tour dates? Look, Patch Adams not happy with how he was portrayed in the movie. Really? Joe's wanting us to wrap it up. No, I just didn't know if you're gonna do him. I just wanted to check.

Yes, yes, yes. Heavily criticized the film. He said out of all the aspects of his life and all his activism, the film only portrayed him as a funny doctor. And then he said, Rob Williams made $21 million in the movie and didn't give a dime to his hospital.

Wow. So he called out Robin Williams. Whoa. I would not have seen that. That rivalry. And then after he died, he walked it back a little bit. No, I think he's great. Too late patch.

Well, he is depicted as having some sort of bipolar or something. If I remember. Oh, well, so I keep chugging along, patch. Is he wearing a wig there? Is that his hair? No, I think he was just a bit of a kook. That's part of his thing. So he's got blue hair and that and some Corella DeVille glasses and giving somebody a hug. But more power too. I'd never seen the movie. Is it good?

I remember. Yeah, it's been so long since I've seen it. I don't remember it. Huh. That's interesting. The artwork is very funny. Just putting the nose on it. Patch is like, come on. Laughter's contagious. I mean, that's a good line. There are good writers in Hollywood. All right. So that's it for West Virginia, I think. Okay. There's, there's anything else you wanted to add Joe? I think you covered everything. Yeah. I'm trying to think of there's anything we missed. Oh, you know, a lot of great Appalachian roots music, a lot of great musicians from Appalachia bluegrass, bluegrass,

yeah. Hammered dulcimer bangrass, a lot of good bluegrass music. Yeah. Hammered dulcimer, banjo, a lot of good roots music, a lot of good musicians from West Virginia, but, but that's all I can think of that we didn't have. And a great place. You'd like it there. You're proud of it. You like it. Oh yeah. Okay.

It's a great, well, Morgantown is a great college town and there's a lot of beauty. Uh, it is beautiful. The newest state park is, uh, is new river Gorge. The newest national park is New River Gorge. The newest national park is New River Gorge. So yeah, a lot of wildlife. Growing up in West Virginia, the most West Virginia things probably were eating pepperoni rolls. Pepperoni rolls? That was a coal miner food that became a staple.

Pepperoni rolls, delicious. You got to try homemade pepperoni roll. Okay. And let's see. We had the PRT in Morgantown. First ever public rail transit. First ever built in the seventies. Went around campus and it's still there. It looks kind of like it's built in the seventies. Yeah. And I would say one of the most West Virginia things about Grumman and West Virginia was day one of squirrel hunting season. About half the kids would not show up to class. Wow. Yeah.

I love that. No, Ryan Hamilton had a similar story about Idaho potato season. They would take off and actually make money by working in potato fields. Yeah. So spud money. Yeah. Spud money. That's right. Oh, that's interesting. I made a lot of money shoveling snow as a kid. A lot of snow in West Virginia. I got a lot of snow days off because steep roads, buses can't drive on steep roads. Lot of snow days, those were the best days.

I feel bad for the kids that have Zoom days now. Cause those were sweet. Snowball fights, sledding, the best sledding you'll ever find, West Virginia. I had a corporate a couple of years ago in West Virginia and my connecting flight through Charlotte, it didn't make it. So I had to rent a car and drive from Charlotte to there.

And so I got to see West Virginia. I got to go through the mountains there and then. It's amazing. Yeah, very pretty. Yeah. Yeah. There's a big span where there's no internet, no wifi because of the observatory.

There's a- Yeah, that's why. There's a- The Green Bank. Green Bank Observatory. So there's a huge span. Yeah, that's why there's no internet, the green bank. Green bank observatory. So yeah, that's why there's no internet because there's too much science going on there. Just too sciencey.

That's the reason. Thank you. Uh, yeah, what goes on at the green bank observatory? I think they chose it as a good place to where Wi-Fi wouldn't be a problem. Oh, they don't want Wi-Fi there. They don't want Wi-Fi because it interferes. I guess it interferes with something.

I believe you. But a lot of people have moved to that area that they believe that Wi-Fi is giving them head. Yes 5g and stuff is bad. Yeah, a lot of those people move to that area Anyway, it's a lot of beauty go visit. Yeah, see some great birds All right. Let's plug some dates. I'll go first. Yes July 6th, I'm at good nights comedy club in Raleigh beautiful July 9th the comedy catch in Chattanooga. I was trying to think of a scene thing, I just wanna plug right now.

I think I'll just stick with those two for now. Nice, okay. Yeah. Go ahead. I will be at Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis. Awesome. At the end of July, beginning of August. Okay.

And Tennessee, I will be in Bristol August 30th. Blue Ridge. At Blue Ridge Comedy. Awesome, dude. Have you been there before? I've been there a couple of times. Yeah. I haven't been in the new room, but I've heard it's great.

Yeah, I'm excited about that. And also the end of July, Chad Daniel's country, I'll be in Fergus falls and battle Creek up in Lake cabin country in Minnesota. You got a lot of listeners up in Lake cabin country. I think so. I think it's a bit of a hotspot. Cool. Uh, only other one to mention is October, uh, Salt Lake city wise guys.

Nice. I feel like you guys got some Utah listeners. And if you enjoyed Joe, check out the out the top 10 video that just came out. Top 10 internet, top 10 favorite bits from his new special produced by Nate Lee and cult classic. Check that out available now. You let me know if they got the order correct on those jokes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make your own ratings on there. Aaron Weber here. I'm going to round this thing out here. I'll plug one day. I got a bunch of dates coming up. August to the end of the year, but kind of the one before that July, middle of July, I'm at the comedy catch in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I'm there for a weekend. It's a, you know, go see Brian on the ninth and then come back out the 17th through the 19th to see Aaron Weber there. Something seems off here. Why is he doing one night and you're doing three? He's doing five shows though, right? Why are you doing five? Brian, why don't you do five shows? Well, talk to the comedy catch. I said, Aaron's doing five. They're like, okay, you can do one. Listeners, you got to pile into Brian's show. So they add four more shows. We need so many people there.

They're no way at another show. They just go ahead and add four, but come see me in a chat. Nuga, Tennessee in July, get those tickets now so we can add more shows. I'd like to do seven shows there. Uh, that won't happen, but please come out and see me and Brian there in Chattanooga. And this was a great episode and I love you all. Joe, congratulations on 500,000 views. Keep it up.

Climbing. Thank you for having me. Great to be here. Yeah. You're welcome. Anytime. All right, folks, we miss you, Dusty and Nate. Yes.

You know, we love you. Come back. That's it. Uh, yeah. Well, hopefully they'll be back soon. I look forward to hearing their dinosaur takes hopefully at and Nate. Yes. You know, we love you. Come back. Yes. That's it. Uh, yeah. Well, hopefully they'll be back soon. I look forward to hearing their dinosaur takes hopefully at some point. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have to have you back to counter what they say. That's, that's smart on

your part. We'll have to have you back. That's it folks. See you next week. Bye. Bye. If If you're like me, you're always craving that specific comfort food your grandma makes, and I finally found it. Nana's products just there, in the deli section at the grocery store. Samosas, toasties, and so much more, just like my Nana makes them. And you can tell from the taste that they're made with love. So good that, you know, I gotta go. I need to call my Nana and tell her I love her.

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