The Nateland Podcast - 32: #32 | Philosophy

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

This week, Aaron deals with the Arizona weather, Dusty does a show under the stars, and the guys debate who would be on the Mt. Rushmore of Tennesseans. Then they delve into the topic of philosophy by discussing great philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Descartes. 

Okay, all right. Well, welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Public Figures podcast. My name's Elsie Slee. I'm one of the three hosts of this podcast alongside Aaron Weber and Brian Bates. All right. Welcome in, everybody. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for being here. We're excited. It's a hot day here in Nashville. Oh, is it hot? I was driving along and I was just like, I had all my windows cracked a little bit because I was I was smoking in the car, and I go, it's too hot for this. Yeah, 94 degrees, by the way. But I did it anyway. And that's because I'm a trooper, you know, I pull through. But no, it is a hot day. I like the heat, though.

I do like it. And I'm not because people, you know, we all complain about the heat. But what happens when the heat's gone? We get comfort for a little while. And then it's cold. And then the ice comes in and the trees fall. Brian's without power for over a week. 10 days.

10 days, and it's just death and destruction. So I say, bring on the heat. I think a lot of people die from heat, too, though. Yeah, but we don't hear about it, you know. I am sick of the heat. Now that we're in September. Yeah, I'm ready for it, Dan. I love a 90-degree day in September, because September feels fall-like.

Yeah. And I like. I think it's supposed to. I know. And I like when you think, ooh, the leaves are about, to start falling and instead the heat's coming in baby they're withering because there's no rain and it's just dry i like that sounds slightly apocalyptic yeah sinister but you're loving it i like when i'm grounding i'm walking across the yard and i just hear the crunch of the dead grass

and the sticks stabbing into my feet yeah i like that yeah the thread of a scorpion or a snake out there had scorpions on your land no but i think feel like there's a threat to it. I like that. And I feel like this is that kind of day, you know? All right. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Yeah.

Well, you ride with your window down and your arms out, and it's just like your hair's singeing on the side. Yeah, arm gets all burned. Yeah. I like to have one arm a little bit darker than the other. You know, I like a... It's warm in here. You ever own a car that doesn't have air conditioner?

Yes. Yeah. It was tough, man. Yeah. It's almost the most important thing in a car. My first car, especially in Alabama, my first car, I was a Bronco, too. And the air conditioner wasn't broken. It just didn't have it. It was a 80, 84, and it had pleather seats in there. And I would ride around with my shirt off all the time because it was, you know, I didn't want to be, I didn't want my shirt to be all sweaty by the time I got to where I was going. Right. You know. So in 84, AC was an add-on for that car, right? Yeah, for that car. Yeah.

I mean, I know AC was around an 84. But not. But not on that Bronco. I mean, it would be insane to you the car now without AC. Yes, it would. Be hardifying. Once, when I think that I broke the air conditioner of my Saturn because I threw up in there and it went on to the dash, started going down in the vent.

And then somebody told me to get rid of the smell that you could put some bacon soda up there. And I guessing they meant a box of bacon soda. But I pour bacon soda all over the dash. So I was riding around in the hot days with a lot of powder on the dash. And I think that probably got down in there and broke that air conditioner. Blowing out white powder smells like vomit. People are like they're like, you've been doing it? drugs ago. No, much worse, honestly. Much worse. I wish. But,

but, you know, so I've grown to love the heat. It's beautiful. Yeah. I like a wet heat, as some would say. I've heard about it. I've heard you like a wet heat. Check out wet heat available now on Netflix. That's right. What about you guys? What kind of heat you guys like? I'm not a fan of the heat I like spring and fall don't care for summer or winter I got a new joke about it yeah

well speak are you going to name your special after it your next special no doubt it yeah I mean if the joke does great I might same just to combat his oh you know

when you write a set list what do you title the joke that's a good question it's a brand new joke I think I title it outside because a lot of it's about people who love to eat outside. Oh, I hate to eat outside. Really? I do hate eating outside. For some reason, I thought you would love it. I would too. No, I like the heat, but I don't, I don't, I don't, when I'm eating, I just like to be in a nice

controlled environment, not a lot of flies around. See, I like to be like that always. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but if you look at a comedian set list, it is funny. The one word. they pick to to represent that bit. Like if you look at mine, it looks insane. I don't have it pulled up for it. I like it.

It's embarrassing. I like that you have so few jokes about outside that that one, just right now that's that joke. That's the new one. Like if you were like inside, you're like, nah, that's a lot of. You got to be more specific for that.

I did. And by the way, this episode comes out before the Frick Killiando episode. is aired. Okay. So we're taping this a week ahead of time because it's Labor Day week. Just a reminder. So we can talk about our last, you don't understand that? No, I feel like that confused to me. Okay. This comes out next week, because next week's Labor Day. Okay. So the Frank Calliando episode will have already been out. Correct. Okay. Correct. But, uh, so you're no longer the greatest impressionist in the history of this podcast. Well, everyone says you are because you're working

Freeman. But mine don't have the charisma of yours. Yeah, that's true. But I open for Johnny W. He taped his special in Knoxville. Cool. At the Bijou? It's a bejew. And he bought a 75-inch confidence monitor for a set list. And he said,

I'll put all y'all set list in, too, so you don't even have to worry about it. And we did it. But to your point about your set looks look crazy. I almost felt embarrassed. Like, this is my personal diary. Yeah, yeah, exactly. If somebody else is typing in, it felt weird. How long was your set? I did, uh, we did, there was two tapings and each was 10 minutes. I did two different 10 minutes. So you wanted it on that screen for 10 minutes? I told him at first. I was like, ah, it's fine. I got it memorized. And then he's like, I don't mind. I'm like, well, why not? I would 100% use it if it were just an option at the club. Like, Why not? You don't have to lean on it.

I wouldn't do it. Why? I don't know. I feel like there's something about, it's like, you ever hear like people do the, they walk the tight rope? And if they, when they're practicing, they put it real low to the ground and they fall more. Yeah. But when they lift it up and there actually is some risk to falling, yeah. They don't fall as much. So I feel like, just go out there, be way up in the sky. But for a big show, you're opening for your buddies, taping a special, you want to do well. I don't think that's not a training session. That's a let's deliver the goods.

I almost think that he would rather you bomb a little bit on his special taping. I will say this stuff. He probably scrambled up your set list on purpose. I'll say this to your point. Brian's hoping a lot of headliners think that way. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I knew my set list.

Yeah. But once I mentally knew that they were putting into the monitor, if that thing had gone down, I think I would have blanked. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Because all of a sudden, that quickly, I just trusted that. It's like relying on Google Maps to get home probably, right? It's the same mentality.

Exactly. Yeah. How did the show go? Great. Yeah, yeah. It looked really good. And Rick Roberts is on the show. Adam Bush was on the show.

All right. Yeah. It's a good lineup. Yeah. Oh, Adam Bush, when was that? You did it Sunday? Saturday. Saturday.

Yeah, he was with me on Friday in Hobbs, New Mexico. How was that? It was great. Actually, it was a ton of fun, but it was, I thought all this time that I was doing the casino, because I was staying at the casino. The casino had given me a hotel, the Zia Park Casino. But it was an outdoor show for the town of Hobbs. Oh, cool.

Put on by the city. Yeah. And I'll be honest, the pictures you sent us of the show did not look good. I sent you a video of Adam on stage and I purposely sent it because it didn't look good. They had like it, they had the stage and then far away they had a set of bleachers. And then everybody else could bring their chairs. Now, this is a free event. They just paid me a flat rate to do the show.

So, and then they had food trucks out there. But apparently there were two high school football games on that night, which is a big deal in Hobbs, New Mexico. It makes me feel good that you still have to deal with that too. That's what they tell me every week. High school football is undefeated. But I also – But I'm also like – Spring practice.

Yeah. You've got the jamboree. Yeah. But also for me, I'm like – A white game. I'm like, well, I feel bad that people didn't show. But again, it – well, people did show. But I feel bad that it wasn't the crowd they were hoping for.

But I'm also like, it doesn't affect me when we're not selling tickets. Yeah, you got a flat rate. But you gave them some of the money back, right? I go maybe a little bit more because, no. No, it was great. I think they were very happy. The audience was very happy. The only problem was that when you have an outdoor stage, you have a generator,

powering the stage. So it was actually hard for me to hear what people were doing. I mean, it had to get a real loud bang. Wow. And then there was a road behind me where a lot of loud trucks and Hobbs. But I enjoyed it. A guy, there was a guy that, I don't know what his job actually was, but he was driving me around the city. Paco Hernandez was his name.

And he owns a porta-potty business in town. So if you're looking for a porta-pottie, contact Paco. He's in the Hobbs, New Mexico area. In Hobbs, New Mexico area. and he was great. He drove me around the city, showed me around, took me to a place called Casey's. I should have shared some of this video with you,

but Casey's was like a real like old school joint, had burgers and fried burritos. I had a few fried burritos and tequitos. And gosh, I had a great time. Do you say, do you say porta potty? Yeah. Is that how you always say it? Yeah.

I used to say it. I thought that was the only word for it. And I always hated saying it. Porta potty. Until my buddy, I heard him call it a port of John. Oh, yeah, Porta John. And I call it that. That just, I don't know.

It feels a little better to say. You know what I mean? Yeah. Porta potty. I don't like that. I like saying potty. I don't like that. That's how I tell people that I need to use the potty.

I got to go potty. I got to get a little boys for you. Yeah, I got to go potty. I got a joke about that time. I got a tinkle. Dude, tinkles's crazy. I actually do struggle with, you know, I guess you don't need to tell people. But I struggle with the word to you.

use. I've settled on poop. That's what I say. I got to go poop. I don't know what to say to people if it's necessary to let them know. Why don't you go, I'm going to go use the bathroom. Yeah. You're saying you want to let them know it's going to be a little more time than a typical. I just want people to know what I'm up to. I don't think you have to tell them. No, you do. You got to go, here's what you do. Anybody need that bathroom for a while? Yeah. Because I'm about to use it. And they know what you do. You say, use it. I go, I'm about to go to the bathroom. bathroom. Okay, I like that.

A horse with no name and don't know what's up. I like that. You go into the bathroom and the music starts. Yeah. There you go. Okay. But it was great. I had a great time there.

It was really fun. Could you see a lot of stars? We mean the sky? Yeah. Yeah. I actually watched the eclipse a little bit. You did? Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. I watched the disc slot over another disc. And it was. I was pretty cool. What you thought was going on. Yeah, I mean, I took a picture and it looked just like a disc sliding over another day. Exactly.

There it is. They're paper thin up there. Yeah. Wasn't it going up, though? It was going up, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

It was pretty cool. And, you know, there was a, there's not very many bars in Hobbs. And the one main bar that everybody told me that's the safe bar. The other bar they said, you may get stabbed at. But it was in the casino. So that night I was sitting outside. I had having cigars and there was like, you know, people, I was a girl crying and people talking. You could just tell it was like young people drama out there.

Yeah. And I enjoyed it. I was like, you guys are going through some manufactured thing that you think is a big deal out here right now. Some type of heartbreak that you think has happened. Oh, it's the end of the world to them. Yeah. Yeah. And you are older and wiser and more traveled.

And maybe you have the perspective to go, none of this really matters. So I can just kind of enjoy it. Yeah, just quit drinking. Go home and read your Bible. And you're going to be fine. Should be the next ad for better help. But they're crying out there. Look, we all want to make our home cozier.

We've got a guest room we're working on right now. Luckily, we had Wayfair, so it's an easy upgrade. The delivery is top-notch, plus the quality and confidence we get from Wayfair keeps us coming back. Wayfair helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, trusted reviews, shop thousands of products across every style and budget, whether you're trying to refresh your space for fall or transform your space for Halloween. Use filters, customer photos, and reviews to find the right fit for your home. More than 20 million verified five-star reviews help shoppers buy with confidence. Plus, Wayfair rewards members get 5% back on every person. We got a photo up right here. This is the bench, my wife. Lucy purchased from Wayfair.

Fit the guest room perfectly. Finally helped pull that room together. I was really concerned about whether that room would come together. And it has. Thank God. I know. I load off my shoulders. Yeah, because it can't be torn apart. That's right. We always recommend Wayfar to our friends and family. The bench is great. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair rewards today. and get 5% back on every purchase. Head to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home.

Wayfair, every style, every home. And then, yeah, it was great. I really liked it. And I hung out with some people, some podcast listeners. I think they listened to both this one and my own, and they hung out. It was great. It was great. We had a great time.

Adam Bush was with me. I think Adam Bush had never done an outdoor show before. I loved it. I was like, I'll do an hour. And then I did an hour 10. So. Adam told me that he did not sleep at all on the Saturday. His flight, I think, was at 5 a.m. in time he drove there. He didn't sleep at all. Dropped off his rental car in Lubbock. And as soon as he put the keys in the box, realized he left his backpack with his laptop and all this other gear in the car. I don't know why he accepted the gig with me if he had to do all of that because you say you say yes to everything. Yeah. That's just that's just kind of what you're taught. I didn't know he had that early of a flight. I flew into Hobbs.

Directly in one flight in one, they take in one flight in the morning and then one flight in the afternoon. Direct? Not direct from Nashville. That'd be wild. Yeah, that would be wild. Can't go to Albuquerque, we can go to Hobbs. Yeah. I flew to Denver.

very tight connection, had to run, not run, but walk real fast through the Denver Airport. Yeah. Walk past the gargoles. Yeah.

I actually, I didn't see a thing. I mean, I was moving. My legs were burning. Well, I was close by all weekend. I was out in Phoenix, Arizona.

Oh, yeah. Doing shows of the desert rib Jim Prov. Connor Larson was with me. My buddy, Steve Rinaldi from Philadelphia. He hosted the shows. Talking about heat,

landed there as 114. in Phoenix all weekend. There's a proposal going on. I'm curious your thoughts about this. Somebody has recommended they paint all of the roads in Phoenix white. I love that. They say if they do that, it will lower the temperature in the city by one to two degrees. That seems useless.

So much of that heat radiates off that black pavement that it was white, less heat would radiate. One to two degrees doesn't feel worth it. I love it just because I think that'd be cool. You like just the look of it? Yeah. Just white roads. I think one to two degrees is a lot. It can't,

I mean, it can be everything, man. I don't know. I think it's a lot of paint for, it would cost billions of dollars to do. You have to shut down the entire city. Yeah. At some point.

That seems like one of the more insane ideas I've heard. But I like, we're thinking outside the box. I like we're coming up with stuff like that. Like, you know, let's paint. the roads. Yeah.

They can be like Boise State with the blue field. Yeah. They're the city with white roads. Yeah. You know, it's probably tough to keep up, too. Yeah. Yeah, like the, you know, the temperature on your car, like the dashboard, it said 129 when I got my rental car.

Yeah, Connor sent me that. Just because that heat's radiating off that black pavement there. It was pretty nuts. The weather was wild all weekend out there. We had a Shaboo or something. What's about there? A hubboob. Oh.

I don't know what either of these are. Yeah, there's a big Haboob coming through. It's like a sandstorm. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're wild. Does it affect your ticket sales? No, we did pretty well. They go, well, it would have been bigger, but there's a huboob.

Like, there's always something. Yeah. Oh, yeah, sorry. Last week, there wasn't a Haboob. Yeah. We had one right between shows. So we were outside talking to people And they were like, everybody's got to get inside.

There's a Habib coming. And I thought it was a slur for somebody. I go, wow, come on, guys. But it's a, yeah, big. Haboob, I'll stay out here. I'm back there. That was my, all right, I had another joke. Last time I was there, I said my Uber driver,

he couldn't understand me, my southern accent. I couldn't understand him, whatever. And I said, what's the wildest thing? What was his accent? You've seen weather wise, and he said, I saw a boob. And I was like, that's cool, dude. Just one. That's funny.

Yeah. I understand there was a phone ringtone that caused a little disruption. Does somebody write in about it? Yeah. And then somebody else said a different show, a heckler. I had one woman that was just really drunk. Who are these people tattle telling on your show? They said you peddled both.

Great. They're righting into Brian. Brian going, look, listen. Well, I had a woman who was just, it was the late show Friday. She was just drunk. She didn't know what was going on. And she was getting kicked out. And she's, you know, she's just talking.

Sounds like Phoenix. She's talking nonsense to me. And then I go, all right, she goes, they're trying to kick me out. And I go, you know, you're not making a good case for yourself here. Yeah. And then she keeps talking. And then the crowd starts to, as she's getting kicked out, the crowd's cheering. Yeah.

And I was like, no, like, I don't know. I don't care. I feel more bad for that woman, that she was being so embarrassing and drunk, right? You're like, just get her out of there. And then... I think she was down in Hobb crying, like... They kicked me out.

Then she turns around and goes, I left my Louis bag. And that annoyed me that she named the brand name of the bag. Yeah. So I talked about that for a little bit. But I had sympathy for her until she did that. I don't care that you have a Louis Vuitton bag. You're getting thrown.

out of a bar in an embarrassing way. I like to think it's a to-go bag from the bar, Louis restaurant. It's a Louis C.K. Tote bag. Yeah. But no, she was, yeah. And then I had one of the shows, I wish I, I texted y'all. It was, I thought I would have great video of it. And it just, I don't, I didn't end up getting good video.

You never can trust a club. to film it, you know? Even a great club, man. I mean, there's so many great clubs with so many good cameras, and then they'll film every show, they'll all look good, and then the one where you had a thing happen, they go, I don't know, the audio didn't work. And I had a little bit of a lull.

It was like an awkward moment in the show, and it got quiet for a second. And right in that moment, someone's ringtone went off. And the ringtone was, so you had a bad day. I mean, it blew my mind. First of all, no one has ringtones anymore. Yeah. It's rare to hear one, let alone a comedically timed.

It was like a five-minute disruption in the show. And then I got off. I was like, oh, man, I don't see the video of that. And we don't have it. But I'm glad somebody enjoyed it. Yeah. I guess it just lived and died in the room. Maybe you could try sharing a screenshot of the email.

Just to be. verify that. Yeah. Dude, we went to, I had a Steve Bernaldi. I don't know if y'all know him. He's a comic I met years ago. And I've always just been a fan. He's just such a great guy to hang out with. He's from Philadelphia, super Italian Philadelphia, like thick accent, culturally, the whole nine yards, right? So it's just fun to like watch him navigate around unfamiliar places, like Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah. So like we land. and I go, let's go get lunch. He goes, oh, you know any good mom and pops around here?

I was like, dude, we're going to Chipotle. I don't even know what you're talking about. And then he had never been to a Walmart before. Wow. He goes, they got prosciutto. What, to Walmart? I go, I'm getting gummy bears. I don't know what you mean.

But anyway, so we found an Italian deli called Rinaldi's deli. That's his last name. Wow. Right in Scottsdale, Arizona. We go, we have to go there, right? So he's so excited to go to this Italian deli that's the same last name as him. And he walks in and he walks up to the counter.

He goes, so how are we doing this, man? We do it. Y'all make like a Sunday sauce here. We do it. And the woman was just like, no, I'm blowing. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, it was so great.

But anyway, he posted about it. And the Rinaldi guy. hit him up on Instagram and was like, they connected. And this morning before he left town, he went over there and met the guy. And he's a comedy fan and got to know. He just wasn't there at that time that we went. But we had a great time in Scottsdale, man. We were thinking about going to the Grand Canyon.

There was a flash flood that looks like it killed about 20 people up there. So I'm glad we didn't go. D floods and the boobs. Yeah. A wild time. I don't know. I got a gig in Nepal next week. Do, uh, did either of you all have a gig Labor Day weekend?

I'm here. I'm in town for Labor Day. Why? Because this will come out after Labor Day. So if you're going to talk about it. Oh, no, I didn't. But I want to say Phoenix, I think, I think Phoenix is my favorite city in America. I like Phoenix. I'm a big fan of. I think I like everything about it. I like. You like the heat? The heat, you know, you, it goes away after a while. It's tough. We love the heat. We love the heat. You're out there wearing a sweater in 114 degrees. No, I wasn't wearing a sweater. We were at an Airbnb with a pool. We're living it up. Oh, yeah. I love finish. The nature out there is beautiful. You can drive. You can park anywhere. Traffic's not too bad. There's a great comedy club infrastructure in the city. I think outside of Nashville, I think it's my favorite other place in the country. Number two is Orlando, Florida. I'll be there September at the Orlando Funnybone. I like the Tempey Improv over there. I like. Never.

Ben. Stand up. Yeah, they have so many great clubs. They have so many clubs right there. And it's great. I do, I like Phoenix, too. Big fan. I was supposed to do the 10 p.m.

Prove, and they had to cancel me because you were in town. Oh, okay. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah. I'm glad you like it, though. Well, I would have been at Zaney, Chicago, I guess last night. So, sending ovation.

Wow. Sold out crowd. Wow. Just go ahead and let y'all know. Wow. Yeah. I got a couple of emails from that show. From the future.

Yeah. What would they say? They said, well, there was a heckler and a hubboob and a downtown Chicago. A hubboobs. Speaking of, Dolly passed and there's been a lot of debate on the internet, which I love about, there's a few things. Who in America is now the most beloved entertainer? That's one debate I've seen, which I've enjoyed following.

One is who's the most beloved Tennessean now. And another one was who would be on the Mount Rushmore of Tennesseans. Living Tennesseans? This one I saw was all time. Yeah. Well, those are all great questions. They're just fun to read and debate. I was saying before the podcast, I thought Dolly Parton was kind of the last type of that celebrity.

That's universally beloved and wasn't really polarizing in a lot of ways. I don't know who else would really fit that mold now. People will say like Keanu Reeves. Why him? I don't know. I don't know. I thought a lot of people didn't like him. As jelly roll is still one of the beloved Tennesseans, right?

What's he been up to? We're talking about nationwide. I don't even know what you're talking about. I hear, I hear post Malone stop. making country music. That's what I heard. His new album is not country. He finally caught wind of what you thought about it. Well, I think everybody did, except for the other two members of this podcast. And they go, no, we don't like this guy. I don't know, man. You know, if you live long enough,

you've become more and more beloved. And she's always been beloved, but maybe more than ever. Carol Burnett. Okay. She's still alive? Well, people will say she won't be now, which that just Look, we've mentioned every celebrity there is at one time or another on this podcast. Everybody dies, guys. Let's just hope they have some life insurance. Am I right? Here's the list. This is a list on IMDB of universally love celebrities.

Betty White. She has passed. Yes. Oh, okay. Scroll past that. Conan O'Brien. I like him, but I don't think he's universal. I don't know.

Do people not like Conan? I don't know anybody who doesn't like Conan. I know some people. Okay. Three Tom Hanks. people that don't like him. Yeah. For Robin Williams.

Okay, I'm going to abandon this list and find living celebrities. Yeah, Robin Williams. Yeah, Robin Williams is a good one, but he is dead, though. Some people say, some people say he's Uncle Pappy. Do you know Uncle Pappy? I met Uncle Pappy. He revealed himself, but a lot of people thought that Robin Williams was Uncle Pappy for a while on Instagram.

Well, I'll tell you for the Mount Rushmore, Tennesseeans, who I saw. And there was this debate, which we've had on this podcast when we do the states, what qualifies you? Do you have to be born there? You know what I mean? Yes. In other words, can Peyton Manning qualify to be? Or could Elvis qualify? Or could Elvis qualify?

He's from Mississippi. Yeah, but spent most of his life in Tennessee. I think if you allow people that aren't born here, it's like any country music star is up for grabs, right? I guess that's true. If they spent most of their life here. Yeah. Like Willie Nelson is losing Texas, right? he's another one that's probably one of the most beloved people.

I don't know. I don't think of him as a Tennessee guy. No, he's definitely a Texas guy. Yeah. Yes, yes, I agree. Anyway, the list I saw, some people had Elvis. Some people argued he shouldn't be on there. Dolly was on there.

Pat Summitt was on there. Andrew Jackson, which a lot of people wouldn't happy about. Davy Crockett. This was interesting. Nobody's going to be happy about anyone, really. There's no one. Well, that's what we're saying. saying is if Dolly Parton is the last one that most people, I'm looking at some survey here,

Dolly Parton had 77% favorability rating for the American public. Well, that surprises me as that low. I know. It means almost a fourth. Didn't? Morgan Freeman, number one, with 85%. Okay. Well, then I guess that might make him most beloved.

Yeah, but Morgan Freeman's like gone now. Like, you don't need, he's alive, but he's never out and about. He's still doing stuff. Yeah, he just did something. What he did? He just did a dinosaur. That's probably AI. Well, it was AI.

Yeah. They weren't real dinosaurs. No, I mean. You told me that wasn't real footage. Well, I know the dinosaurs aren't real. But in general. But, um, but. I think his voice was AI.

Probably. Probably. But he was on the late night talk shows pitching it. I saw him on Jimmy Fallon. He was out there promoting it. Yeah. What do he say? Because he said, you should want.

When he Frank back here, I guess I just miss my friend. Anyway, I like those type of debates. They always lure me in. Yeah. You're a real Tennessee guy. You care about Tennessee. Yeah, you should be on the Mount Rushmore.

You're on my personal Mount Rushmore. Of Tennesseans. Look, a guy used to be on old podcast, Nebaragazzi, he's not that far from probably really being on there. Well, not if Dussie has anything to say about it. Yeah. Come on, guys. Just kidding.

You got jelly roll on there. Yeah. Yeah, I would say let's do Nate jelly roll. Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But Al Gore, according to Al Gore, Mount Rushmore shouldn't even be there because it should be flooded, I think. Okay.

It should be flooded by now. There have been a lot of floods recently. But I get your point. Yeah. I'm trying to think of some more. But anyway, it's a fun debate. Some people said people like Tino Turner, Samuel L. Jackson,

who were born in Tennessee. But I feel like you need to be associated more, especially Samuel L. Jackson. I don't think anybody associates him with Tennessee. Oprah? You put Oprah up there? Oprah? Yeah, she went to Tennessee State or something.

She did. Went to high school and college here, at her first job here. I mean, that's pretty. Was she born here? No, she's born in Mississippi. Oh. Kind of made her career in Chicago.

Okay. But she had some formative years. here's here. But we claim her. We all claim her. Yeah, Nashville claims are. Interesting. I don't know. I'd like to hear your thoughts. Sound off in the comments. Yeah. Yeah. Who is the top Tennessean? I think Peyton Manning should go on there. Yeah, he's from New Orleans. But he's really, you know, played college at Tennessee. So you lived here for four years. He's lived here for four years and he's like almost 50. At their best four.

Yeah, I'm trying to think of me by my forgetting, but I can't think of it. But like you said, there's so many country stars that... Davy Crockett, I mean, King of the Wild Frontier. I mean, come on. Yeah. He should be on there. Yeah. Taylor Swift?

I mean, yeah. I mean, you have to put her on there. Yeah. Okay. Unless she's on Pennsylvania. I don't have to do anything. I don't want to, though. You want to get in these comments?

Let's do it. Let's start a little. should just do jelly roll and and Taylor Swift. Jelly roll, old jelly roll would take up a few. There would only be room for one other person. That's old jelly roll. I have never met jelly roll, but you guys have and says he's very nice, right? He is a nice guy.

Yeah. Okay, he was. That was years ago. People can change. Oh, you know who else I'll put on there, Leon Morgan? Oh, Lee and Morgan. She's making a case, man. She should go.

She should be on there. She should. I saw some people making the claim that now that Dali's gone, Leanne should be the new, that new, fill that new Southern Lady role. Yeah. Doing what? Just being a beloved, uh, sassy lady saying stuff. Yeah.

Making gas stations. Is Paula Dean from here? Is she a Tennessee? Uh-uh. Savannah, Georgia, I think. Oh, okay. It feels like more herself. She's got a restaurant here.

She does. I've been there. Family style. Is it good? It was good. This is what? They do, though. All these family-style restaurants, they go, yeah, you just order here, and then you let us know, you let your server know when you want to refill of something and we'll just bring you more of that. And then when they bring it, the server clocks out and goes home. You can't get anybody over there. By the time you want to get you, they're gone. They're out smoking the whole time.

Well, they know the people eating there aren't getting up to go find somebody. Yeah, that's true. That is true. I'm not really that into family style. I like, what is it, Monel's here? I like Monel's. O'Nells is out of business. Is it? Yeah, years ago. But yeah, it's a good spot. All of them?

No, I think there's one downtown. I'm thinking of the main one out by the airport. That one closed a year or two ago. There's one still going. There's one in Germantown. Yeah, Germanytown, yeah. It's good. You don't like it then?

No, I do like it. That's the exception for me. I don't. You don't like it? The foods, I do not like sharing a table of strangers, so you have to pass the... I like going there during COVID. Yeah. Coffing a little bit.

Yeah. I got you only more of this chicken? I'll keep it. Support for today's episode comes from Square, the system powering like half the places we all go. If you've ever tapped to pay and thought, whoa. That was fast. It was probably square.

Whether you're selling. selling lattes, cutting hair, or selling merch like we all do, Square helps you run your business without running yourself into the ground. And right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up for Square.com slash go slash Nate. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash go slash Nate. Visit Square to get started because the right tools make all the difference. We all love it so much that we have all been using it long before they were a sponsor.

Nate used it for his merch sales for the Big Dumb Eyes tour. We all love using it for our merch sales. That's right. We use it for our tours too. Square isn't just fast. It's smart, transparent, and built for the way people actually run their businesses. No contracts, no hidden fees, no complicated installs, just tools that it accept every major payment method,

let you see sales and inventory in real time, plus helps you access your earnings immediately with Square banking. Imagine listening to this podcast for the first time, and you just see the three of us, and then they go, Nate used it for his big, dumb eyes tour. They're like, why are they talking about Nate? If you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down.

Right now, you can get up to $200 off. square hardware at square.com slash go slash Nate. That's SQUA-R-E dot com slash G-O-S-Nate. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. Okay, comments come from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcast Reviews,

and Mail at Natelandpodcast.com. The first comment comes from someone named Jesse Bean. Jesse Bean. Jesse Bean. It's a shame you miss. out on 2005 music and movies. Plenty of good songs from then with Fallout Boy, The Killers, and Gorillas. You know what?

I love the killers. Also, the first rap slash country collaboration I remember with Tim McGraw and Nellie. Was that the over and over again? I don't know, but we missed that one on purpose. I'll tell you that. I like Tim McGraw. I like Nellie, but they don't need to do that song ever again. We got the billboard year-end Hot 100 chart from the year 2005.

Oh, Hollaback girl? Hollaback girl, Glenn Stefani. We had, since you've been gone by Kelly Clarkson, a lot of these songs became real classics. Gold digger? Yeah. Sing that one. You know, I had a comic buddy in Charleston. He was a red-headed guy, and he had a joke where he said,

I ain't saying she a pot of gold digger, but she ain't messing with a broke ginger. That was his big joke. It's a tough one to say. You got to be careful. You really want to be careful. Is he still doing comedy? No, I don't think so. Yeah.

How about this? Candy Shop by 50 Cent. Oh, yeah. He had a couple of hits, huh? Yeah. Mariah Carey is still dominating. I mean, she had the number one song. of the year.

We belong together. I didn't even. You didn't recognize it? Not really. Disco Inferno by 50 Cent? Disco it burned that mother down, y'all. It's interesting. Mr. Brightside by The Killers.

Yeah, that was a good one. 16 here, but that song, it's almost like it's gotten more popular every year, especially in Europe. Yeah, I didn't find that until about 2008, but I loved it. Yeah, it's a good song. It's a good song. Drop it like it's hot with Snoop Dog. Yeah.

For real. Snoop Dogg's only number one hit, drop it like it's hot. Is that true? Yeah. Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. Yeah, a lot of good stuff here. Will Smith.

Oh, Swift. I don't even know that song. Nobody does. You heard his comeback? His rap that he did, his comeback? Yeah, I'm super into what Will Smith is doing these days. Yeah. So I like to keep an eye on all his project.

He's hitting a stride right now. Yeah. Feel Good, Inc. That was a good one. I'm an action star. You're talking about that one. Yeah. Yeah.

Sometimes I act real bizarre. He says I bite off more than I can chew and then I chew it. Dude, he got, he got clown. He did. Photographed by Nickelback, only at 43. Yeah. I bet that this came out in a different year than 2005. Came out in 2005, but August.

I bet. So it didn't have time to climb. I bet 2006 it climbed up a little more because that song was pretty important. Yeah, wake me up when September ends, Green Day. Oh, over and over, Nelly featuring Tim McGrath. Yeah, first country rap crossover. I don't know if it was the first. Well, it's the first one that Jesse Bean remembers.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. We can get back to the conference. Oh, he said, he does say that also first rap country collab. Was that before Brad Paisley and L.L. Cool, J? That was way before. They're talking about accidental racists. Yeah, yeah.

That was before that? That was later, yeah. Okay. I think they love, I think people love that. That one, didn't they? They love that one. But that's our good friend, Brad Paisley. Yeah. We don't talk about that. Well, I will. I don't know that we're that good of friends, but, uh... Did he say he'd do anything for you?

He did, but then he never did. I asked him to do a very simple thing after he said, anything I can do. And then he didn't do it. Yes, for his leaves? Well, um, well, there's no need to get into it. But, uh, he did say, let me know if I can do anything for you. And then he didn't do it. But you say that and you know, you don't mean it. Well, I mean it when I say. When you say that, really?

Yeah. I don't just throw it around. Okay. I say, no, I say, let me know if I can do something for you. Okay. That doesn't mean I'll do it. Yeah, but let me know. But I would like to know if I could help you.

Yeah. If I can, I will. But what would you ask me to do? Just share something on something. Just share something. Yeah. Yeah. A very simple request.

I mean, I didn't think he would do it, but he did say, let me know if there's anything I can do. So I said, well, here's something. You took him up on it immediately. Yeah, not long after. And he didn't do it. Well, Brad, if you're listening, you can still share it. Yeah, you still can. Okay, next up, Chris Bell, I just wanted to clarify.

He may be a good friend of yours. I met him twice and he was nice. I think he was, he's, you know, he's a nice guy. Yeah. But I wouldn't say he's a good friend of them. He does that the store here in Nashville. Seems like a really good organization. Yeah.

I like that. Keep it vague with the name and stuff. The store. Okay, here we go. Chris Bellamy. I was deployed in Iraq for the entire year of 2005. Missed everything that year. Thanks for filling me in.

Well, Chris, thank you for your service. I'm sorry that you may. missed that old year and then your best to fill in was that episode. It'd be funny if you was like, I think hearing about two, I think I'd rather be over there. Yeah, he's like, not a lot of habit, huh? I didn't really miss a lot.

2005 was a good year, though. And we'll have Frank Yel and no comments next week. Okay, perfect. Plus comments for this episode. Perfect. Zoe Rose. The way this podcast started was so authentically funny. Every Wednesday I look forward to the pod.

Also, I think Brian says all words that have OI or OE in the middle a little funny. That may be true. Like poem and... Soil. Say soil. No, that's not bad. But I might have just been because I just heard him. Yeah.

Point. Point. Point it. That's, yeah. That's definitely all. If you get arrested, where do you go? Jail. Okay. That's not bad. When you die, where are you going? Pergatory.

Yeah, I'm sorry. But Zoe might be right. I can't. You know, I can't do it on the spot, but. But she's definitely right. I didn't know this was up for debate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's just an observation.

Yeah, the only thing she's wrong about it is said, also, I think. It should say, buy the, the way. Yeah, there's no need to think it. You put oil in your car? Is that right? It's, you know, you didn't say oil bad, but it's put, you said. Weird. Maybe it's the P words.

Put, put. Maybe. Yeah. Oil is one of those where I never know what to say, really. I don't know, you know, oil, all. I don't know what to say. Oil. Oil? Yeah. That's how I'll go, can you put some oil in the car? You don't have to scrunch up your face like that.

I need to get my oil change. Just go, yeah, I need an oil change. Yeah, let me get that old change. I need that old change. But guys that say it like that change their own oil. Yeah. You know? Yeah, and when they say that, they mean something else.

Next comment comes from Matt. Ballboy Bates. You don't get a lot of the nicknames these days. I don't feel like they're getting them as much. It's fun to see. Yeah. Ball boy baits. saying he didn't know what e-bom's world is,

and Aaron's simply saying that doesn't surprise me without explaining is why this podcast is genius. Yeah, still or no. It was, I would say, an internet playground for younger people for a while. I'm just picturing you as a ball boy, and it's very funny to me. Imagine being at a game and Bates runs out of the dugout to pick a ball up. That's what I think when you show up to throw the first pitch. they think, oh, the ball boy's here, really?

I guess that would be a bat boy. But a ball, what is a ball boy is football? Maybe for tennis. Yeah, I guess you're right. I didn't think about that. You know, I... You're one of the guys running out for tennis. Like Kramer.

Kramer did on Seinfeld. Yeah. This past weekend that actually not happened, but when I was in Chicago, our friend, worked for the White Sox. He was trying to get me at to throw the first pitch. And I was, you know, I was hoping it didn't work out. But then he said, well, We can't do that, but we can do this thing where you deliver the ball to the mound.

We'll give you a jersey and put your face up on the school board and stuff. And I looked it up and every example was a child doing it. It's a thing for kids to do. It's worth it for the jersey, though. Thank you. Brian, we can let you yell play ball. You know, it lets a kid from the children's hospital do it. So I politely declined.

Yeah. Worth it for the jersey, though, I think. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to get Brandon to the first pitch, but like the worst thing possible happened, the White Sox are really good this year. Oh. So that kind of changes things. Yeah.

You know? Yeah, I wonder how much that has to do with it. It has to be. That guy's legit. He would hook you up if he could. Well, I mean, he's been, I think he tried last year. Yeah. I mean, he doesn't do that.

That's not his job. Right. But he can put in a word. Yeah. Hasn't work out yet, though, the word. It hasn't. he's taken care of he's taking us to games yeah yeah yeah he got his great seats all right well I don't know him he's not my friend no he's not done nothing from me he's a guy he said let me know

if you need anything and he took care of us yeah multiple times Sarah Nistetter Nisteter she's written in a bunch right Sarah Nisteader I recognize the name I'm with you Brian oh geez I grew up in the country outside of a small town. I didn't ride a bike much because it was... I didn't ride a bike much because there was nowhere to go. The closest friend available was a few miles away

down a gravel road. The rest of my friends would have meant crossing a highway. None of us were riding bicycles back then. I added back then. Well, thank you, Sarah. I feel like she really explained it better than I. did. I couldn't even really explain why, but that is true. He had nowhere to go. I lived out in the country and there was nowhere close to me. My dad said, ride that bike. I go,

dad, where am I going to go? They ain't nowhere to go, Papa. My closest friends down yonder about two miles. They got across the highway. On a gravel road, I can't ride this schwin on gravel. What's a swin? The type of bike. That's funny. You don't even know that. No bike. I know Murray. Isn't that appetite? I don't know. As a guy that I had used to work on the bikes.

I had a mongoose, man. Remember the mongoose bikes? I think so. Yeah. I remember Murray. Murray, Schwinn. I had a specialized, but that was when I was an adult. Okay.

Murray was a lawnmower. Okay, maybe that's what I'm thinking. Yeah. I was trying to, I was looking to see if Murray. I think I had John Deere. Yeah. Murray used to make all the, I think Murray used to make all the lawmores for Walmart.

They made all the lawmores for Walmart so much so that it basically became their only client. They were mainly, their whole business was modeled after taking care of Walmart. Wow. And then this is what I heard. Don't sue me. But this is something I heard. Who, Walmart or Murray? And then one day Walmart decided that they just weren't going to go with Murray anymore.

and really messed them up. How about this? Murray was a bicycle company. It went bankrupt in 2005. Wow. What do you know? Full circle. Wow.

When did they start? 1919. Chris, I bet you didn't know that. You missed the end of Murray while you were in Iraq. Yeah. You missed that. Yep. Sorry, Chris.

Okay. Thank you, Sarah, for that. Trip down memory lane. Small town. Super depressing. Small town story. Because I'm going to be honest with you. My dad lives way out in the country.

Thank you for your honesty. And there's a lot of, and there's a lot of dirt roads. And we used to ride bikes all the time. But he's saying a gravel road's harder than a dirt road to ride on, I guess. But, you know, I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. I don't know. I didn't have a ton of places to go. I think you're just going.

Yeah. You're not necessarily. going two places. We would ride bikes down to the river. It's about the journey. And swim. Everything you say is just sounds like a country music song that you would hate you. Right down to the river.

That's why, you know, this Luke Bryan song circulated recently, not the climbed deer, climb tree. Wake up. Not that one. But the one about him, he's like riding on the road with his girlfriend and they crashed to the cornfield and everybody was hating on it. I go, listen. I hate on Luke Brian all the time.

This song's not that bad. Yeah, this is what I was doing. Take it easy. This song's not that bad. Is he the one that wore your shirt on stage? No, that was... I thought about it, Bobby Yul. Josh Turner.

Okay. I love Josh Turner. But Luke Brian, that song wasn't that bad, but everybody was like hating on it. I go, guys, have you not listened to a lot of modern-day country? This is pretty good for the times. These are the same people probably jamming post-Malone. Yeah. Yeah, he's country. He's always been countries from Texas. Okay, here we go. Heidi Perkins,

Brian shaking the ultra pouch was the biggest laugh of the episode. If you just listen to the pod, you're missing out. Don't sleep on the ad reads either. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Have you been working on it, Brian? I have it, but I should, shouldn't I? Yeah. So I can start dipping. Did you never dip? You never try to dip at all? Maybe once at school or something. threw up probably most people throw up their first time i think i put so little in that it didn't even affect me uh do you ever do like the beef jerky that looked like dip i did bigley chew bigly chew that's like chaw yeah yeah yeah i love bigly chew my dad chew tobacco but my uncle dip

what was his brand uh Levi garrett red man those Taylor's pride uh days oh work dayzo work wow yeah it's it's intense yeah you can only buy it like it's like certain places. Wow. Diesel, where I never even heard of that. Yeah, I guess he's more of a man than you.

I guess he is. I guess he is. Wake up. Josh Stringer. Coffee. Brian, lighten up. Laugh at yourself a little more.

Have fun. Enjoy the moment. The sensitive, self-defense on full, self-defense on full display throughout this one. Let me read that last sentence again. I agree. The sensitive self-defense on full display throughout this one.

Yeah, he was having a hard time with that one. He was going through it. I mean, I think probably because we started making fun of him for not being able to swim or ride a bike, that it sent you off on a path. Oh, so you agree with Josh? That you were too sensitive? Yeah. Okay.

But I mean, I... You're as dumb as he is. Yeah. Every week someone says this. I'm like, are you clueless? I'm clearly joking. No, I don't think you are. And that's what me and Josh have been talking about.

I asked Josh to write this comment. I bet Josh thinks the world's flat, too. Well, I hope he does. Well, just for the record. I'm not saying I do. You say, too. I don't know who else you're talking about on this podcast. I just think it's not round and flying through space.

That's all. Okay. Come on, guys. So you're the leading candidate for who he's talking. Well, I may be talking about somebody in the room. Yeah, who knows? Somebody in the booth. Maybe one of the, you know.

But for the record. One of the many, many camera people that I've gotten upset about was who won the Nashville Seans' funniest comic award. Everything else. Stahl jokes. Well, yeah. I mean, when you got, you mean that time you guys teamed up on me to ridicule me about an award that I won?

You mean that time? Yeah. And you guys came at me so hard. hard about winning an award? You won the media's award. Yeah, but who you got, have you guys won it yet? No, no.

It's coming up. Is it? Yeah. It's coming up. You're the defending champ. You're going to reclaim it? I doubt I'll win again after the display we put on on this podcast. But if the media writer doesn't listen to this podcast, that's all it matters,

because you didn't win the fan vote. Nate won that. Yeah. You won from the one guy who's. From the one guy. With the mainstream media. Yeah. The media elite.

That's true. That's true. The elites of the Nashville scene. Controlling the world out here. Pull them the strings. Well, I hope I do win. I hope you do, too. So do I.

I hope you do too, just so you can be proud of it and Aaron can ridicule you. No, I'll be excited for him. I won't do it. I'll be excited for him. Will you? 100%. Oh. Because he knows the difference is.

Just me and you, buddy. The difference is that would be the greatest compulsion I've ever had. Yeah. Were for you, you shouldn't even been mentioning it. That's a compliment to you. I know it is, and I appreciate it. Listen, guys, sometimes old wounds never heal.

Yeah, sorry about that, Josh. Aaron Friedrich. I know y'all think hats and church is a no-go, but how do y'all feel about dipping in church? I see it here in Illinois, and I feel like it's possibly done even more down south. I bet Dusty's done it. Well, Dusty doesn't go to church, but... I've never dipped in church.

Have you ever been to a cowboy church? No, I heard about it. I had a buddy, and that was his selling point for Cowboy Church. You go, I'm going to those Cowboys Church, dude, it's awesome, man. Everybody's dipping. You can just throw a dip in. Yeah. That's all it is, man.

Well, I'm against hats in church and I'm against dipping in church. What about ultra-pounters? Are they a sponsor this week? Not this week. I'm against it. No, I, you know, I just think, you know, I don't go to church these days, but it's because, you know, I don't really find a church that lines up with what I got going on. But I – There's an Indiana in Nashville.

I do think that, well, not many of that line up, I'll tell you that, but the, I just think, you know, have some respect in there, you know. Yeah. That is what I like about the Catholic Church the most is it does feel like there's some real reverence when you're in there. Right. You know. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. I don't recommend dipping in a Catholic church.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially because you have to take communion. Yeah. So, yeah, that doesn't really gel. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, where are you spitting at? You have to be a guzzler.

Well, you'd bring your own cup, I think you have to be a guzzler. In the Catholic church, yeah. Yeah, yeah, if you're trying to hide it. And Aaron's church, you could, Aaron Friedrich, you could just, you know, bring your own dip cup, I think. My friend's dad was a guzzler. He would just swallow the dip. Yeah, and I've known guys like that, and that's. And I have to believe their insides are torn up.

Yeah, it's disgusting. Yeah. I get heartburn thinking about a dip these days. Aaron runs the Brian Bates fan club. Does he? Yeah. Okay. Well, how do you feel about dipping in church?

I think it's totally inappropriate. What if you're sitting in the back? I still don't. Do they have crying rooms at your church? Yeah. Okay. What about in there? What?

I mean, it's less gross than breastfeeding. Crying rooms? Maybe not as necessary. You don't have a crying, you know, crying room? I never heard of a crying. It's if you have like a newborn baby that's crying. Oh, okay. It's just a little room that's soundproofed.

Okay. Not like you're emotionally overwhelmed. Okay. Guess his whole house is a crying. Well, it is. Okay. All right. I was like, whoa.

All right. Clueetta. Great Brian Regan impression, Aaron. You are a talented guy. Your voice, your impressions, your standing. up and your ability to talk through a concept. I appreciate all those great qualities. That's really nice. Wow. Get a clue, Edda.

I thought just based on her name, she'd be a Brian fan more than me. Wow. Let's read that sentence again. You are a talented guy. Your voice, your impressions, your stand up, and your ability to talk through a concept. I appreciate all of those great qualities. Thank you, Clue. I appreciate it. Take it easy. Thank you, Ms. Clue. That's a very nice, very nice comment.

I didn't even know I did a Brian Reagan impression. I didn't either. I think I could just. I do have, I think, pretty good recall for bits. Yeah. You know? I disagree with her here about your ability to talk through a concept. That's where I, that she, you are a talented guy.

Your voice, she doesn't really say what it is, but your voice. You know, it's good, I hear it. Your impressions. Your stand-up. Put my ability to talk through a concept. That's where I lose it, yeah. It might brush up against your inability to hear about a concept. Well, that could be hear about the concepts that you're trying to talk through.

Wow, what a great comment. That's so good that I'm surprised Brian put that in here. Yeah, that's so nice. I feel like the next comment's going to be super mean. Do you ever play the game Clue? Underrated board game. I always had a good time playing a clue. I played it as a kid, but I don't know that I ever like fully played it in a way.

I think we were messing around with the pieces and the ropes and stuff, you know. Okay. So no. We had it. We did have it. Tim Peck, deep dive. YouTube launched the same day Aaron Rogers set with. waiting for hours in the green room to be drafted.

Wow. I remember that well. Which one do you think will last longer? Aaron Rogers already announced this is his last season. Yeah, but you two might not make it until the end of the year. Aaron Rogers is still alive too, though. You know, so are we saying outlast career-wise? His career, yeah, his career.

I don't know. He keeps doing ayahuasca, though, I think. He's just opening his mind. That's talking to the devil. Would you ever do a dark? retreat. I don't know what that means. It's a place you go and you do it for, I think, like three or four days.

They cover your eyes and you live three or four days in total darkness. No. And do a retreat that way. And then I've seen videos of people taking the mask off and like seeing the world. And they say it's like seeing it for the first time again. It sounds pretty therapeutic and nice. I like the light. Go towards the light.

I think that's the whole point. Stay away from the dark. I appreciate it every day. I mean, I do not like the dark. People say you shouldn't be afraid of it, but I think it's scary. Oh, I think the whole point is that it's not good. It's a hard thing to do, right? And then do you come out of it? Hobbs, New Mexico, make you a little scared? No. I mean, I was scared of the dark long before I was down in Hobbs. Well, I know. I didn't say that what triggered it. I'm asking, were you scared while you were there? Out in the dark.

Did you hear something? No, but you said this video, you're out in the middle of nowhere in the dark. Now I do question whether something happened. No, I, you know, it was all very well lit. Okay. You know, had you dropped me off in the middle of the desert in the darkness, yeah, I would have been terrified. Yeah. But you ever have sleep paralysis dreams?

I never have. Have you ever had a sleep paralysis demon in the room? Not that I'm aware of, but I think. I think I had a sleep paralysis dream, but at my house. What did you do in it? Do you remember? I couldn't move. Yeah.

That's sleep paralysis. But what were you dreaming? Oh, that I was in my bed not being able to move. And then I finally was able to say Jesus and then I was free. But I couldn't speak either for a while. Do you think you were being abducted by aliens? No, but something was going on. What do you think about that?

I believe it. I've never experienced it, but I know people that have. You not had it? I mean, I've had dreams where you're trying to, like, hit something or you can't make your arms move or catch something. Of course, that could be real life. That's just a memory. Yeah. I'd stretch that.

That was just a memory. What do you think a sleep paralysis dream would be like with a CPAP? Dude, I don't know. Where does the CPAP go? Just under your nose? Or does it go into your mouth? It depends. You can have a full face mask that covers your nose and mouth.

What do you guys do? I have a nasal pillow that just goes over the. over the nose. Or not a pillow, a mask over the nose. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah. So you just close your mouth and breathe through your nose. You don't, what happens if you are an open mouth sleeper?

You can't, you will. Mouth tape. Do you mouth tape? You can mouth tape, but the way, the way to CPAP works is you're not able to breathe out of your mouth once that thing's in there. Yeah. It's hard to even explain, but like you wouldn't be able to do it. What do you think if you just mouth taped instead of the CPAP machine? Do you think you'd die in your sleep?

I think I'd get a bad night's sleep. Yeah. I don't think I would die the first night. You'd tell me if I'd think if I doze off on the plane or something, I'd die? Well, I mean, yeah. I'd like to see you on the plane going, you know, if I plug in here, my seat back? You're like, there are little many travel CPAP machines that people use on airplanes.

Wow. I've never seen it, but I know that they're for sale. What's CPAP stand for? Controlled pressure, something, paraphernalia, something. Do you know? I don't. Joe McAtee. CAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure.

Wow. Keeping it positive out here. All right, John McAty. You think it's McAtee or McCarty? I think it's McAtee. Joe McAtee. I don't know. I could see either way.

It's M, lowercase C, uppercase A, T-E. You used to be a news anchor here in town, Jeff McAtee. Oh, really? Oh, so you know a guy. I don't know him personally. This might be his brother or something. Joe McAtee, then. The fact that two grown men fill the need to have their phone tell them how to drive to and

from a place they've gone to a thousand times is unbelievable to me. Let's at least try to be a little self-reliant, fellas. You guys are raising children after all. Jeez. True McAty. I think I wrote this. Little too aggressive. I just said, I like to know if there's traffic coming up.

And I go, you shouldn't even have a child, you moron. I got to be honest. I enjoyed reading that. We had a lot of people come after us for that. You don't think if push come to shove, Brian, we could find our way home. Of course. I'm going to guess Joe lives in a small town. That's right.

And look, when I'm in my hometown of Lebanon, there's only one route everywhere. I don't do it. But come from my house to Zanis every week. You can take 440 or you can take 40. Yeah. Depending on traffic, which way is faster. Right. Joe, if you ever meet Clueda, I want you to talk to her a little bit.

I mean, let her know. What she, I mean, talking through a concept. How about driving to his house? Before I found Warby Parker, buying glasses, guys, it honestly felt like a chore. Yeah. It was either confusing, overpriced, or just not great styles. Just trying to buy some glasses here. Shouldn't be this hard.

Sorry. This is why we love Warby Parker. That's right. Seriously, nothing comes close on their quality, price, selection, and their amazing customer service. Their virtual try-on is a total game changer. You can literally try them on from home virtually. We have a clip here of Abigail trying on her glasses. She got the Austin and Poblano. Very fancy. Yeah. They look just as good in person. So the virtual try-on was spot on. She gets tons of compliments on them. We compliment them every time. Yeah. Warby Parker doesn't just-

Every time I go, are those Warby Parker? Yeah. She says Paublano. Yeah. Warby Parker doesn't just offer prescription glasses. They also offer contacts, online eye exams, and sunglasses. It's all in one place. You can even go into one of their 300 retail stores if you prefer. Maybe the best part of Warby Parker, for every pair they sell, they also give a pair to someone in need. They have distributed over 20 million pairs of glasses to people in need. That's cool. That is great. Right now, buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pair at Warbyparker.com slash Nateland. That's 20% off any additional pairs when you purchase one pair at W-A-R-B-Y-Parker.com slash Nateland.

All right. Our final comment comes from Angel Christopher. Is Angel or is it on hell? I'm thinking Angel, but it is weird that on hell could be spelled. the same way as Angel. I don't know why. I thought maybe, it might be Angel Christopher.

Something like that. I don't know why you would think that. I don't know. Just a dude named Angel. When you said it like that, it did sound better when you, yeah. I mean, there are guys named Angel,

but I don't know. I don't know if that's one of those rounds. What if it's Angel? Angel. Yeah. Like, there's some other person that he didn't mention at first? Blank Angel.

Christopher? Christopher in jail. Brian was literally asking, if a robot could do anything for you like a servant, where do you draw the line? He meant if you could tell a robot to go to the grocery store, if a robot could go to work for you, where does it become the point that you go, okay, we have done too much. I want normal life back. That was a confusing to read. Well, thanks for clearing that up, Angel. Because I really wasn't sure where I was going with it. I heard that. Do you agree that that's an accurate

representation of what you were trying to say? I heard on another podcast I've listened to if your whole life could be automated, where would you stop? I thought, that's a great question.

Then I asked you guys that. That was pert. Just word it like that. That's what I said last time? And then you go, what do you mean? And then I'm like, I'm not really sure what I mean.

Yeah. I want you guys put it back on me. Well, the thing about this, though, okay, we've done too much. I want normal life back. But before he said, you know, if you could tell a robot to go to the grocery store. At some point, going to the grocery store was not normal. At some point, there were no grocery stores. So you, going to the grocery

store became this new thing where people were probably like, oh, I just want my normal light back. I just want to dig it out of the ground. And I agree, but what's normal? Well, I don't even think that's the point that he's trying to make. Normal was the life that we live right now. I don't even know what you're asking. Well, I'm just saying, normal. People go to the grocery store now. Yeah, but at some point, people weren't going to the grocery store. So at some point, going to the grocery store was the weird thing. Yeah. Just because it's become normal now, doesn't become, that, wouldn't it be, like, now I can have my groceries delivered for 10 bucks. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Right to your door. Right to my

door. Well, I sent you guys this week, something where now there's a voice automated thing where you can call your, your toilet, and it'll come to you. Your toilet? Yeah, didn't I send you all that? No, yeah, I don't remember that. Yeah. You texted? And I said, I did. I texted you guys. I said, this is what I should have used an example for that question. Oh, I did see that. I don't think I, I did a no phone day on Sunday, and I think that's what you sent it. Yeah, that was Tuesday when I sent it. Okay. So now that you understand the question, like, would you let a robot give you a bath? There's no need for anyone to give me a bath.

Do you know what I mean? Like, would you let it give you a bath? Nobody gives me a bath now. You give yourself a bath, I hope. But there are, you know what's common now? But what would the robot do? Robot massages are common now. People will go get a robot massage.

instead of from a person? I don't know that I like that. I like it in concept, but what if the robot's too rough? I get why like a woman would prefer that maybe, if they don't want to deal with a guy. But you just always ask for the female masseuse. Like, I don't even know why.

Like, if you're a guy and you want to be a masseuse, my thing is you work in the athletics department. Yeah, okay. You know? Yeah. Like, you can do it, but don't be at the salon. on going step right up ladies you know you have a robot instead yeah yeah uh so that's yeah

angel like but it's like when you say would you let a robot give you a bath what i'm saying is it's not like that's a job that someone's doing now and i would let the robot take its place would you let a robot cut your hair uh i don't think so not right now not in the early stages yeah let's say it works perfectly you would let it do it yeah okay Brush your teeth? There's no need for someone to brush my teeth. You know, I do that. But I know that's kind of the point.

Like things that you have to do yourself, if a robot did it for you, would you let it? But I think more like let a robot cut the grass. Let a robot trim the hedges. Let a robot put some mulch down. We eat. Cook your meals. Yeah. Some of them.

Interesting. Wash the dishes. Yeah. Like a dishwasher? But put it in there. and then unload it, put it in the shelf. Oh, that would be huge. Yeah.

Oh, that would change. Like this kind of things task that need to be, but like things I'm doing for myself, like brushing my teeth, there's no need for a robot to be up in my mouth like that. Is there anything though you do yourself that you're like, ah, man, this is a, it's an annoying to have to do this, like a task that you're like, I wish I didn't have to do this, but it's just part of life.

Weed eating. Yeah. Is that way, I mean, that is. I was thinking more something internal in the house, I guess, but I can't think of an example. So, sure, wait eating. Yeah, I mean, you know, maybe tying my shoes. Maybe I would wear more tie-on shoes if there were a robot to put my shoes on for me. I like slip-ons because it's easy.

Oh, so you don't have to tie your shoe. Yeah. I just don't like have to get down and like open up the shoe a little bit and then grab the tongue and then the thing on the back and then put it on and then I got to tighten it up. I got to tell you, man, I think like... I don't like that. Putting on a shoe is easier than brushing my teeth for me. Yeah, but there's no... You scoffed

at the idea of a robot teethbrusher. Yeah, but there's no alternative, right? With, for me, I don't like doing all that with the shoes, so I wear a slip on. Oh, okay. But... Well, you can not brush your teeth. You can. Yeah. Sometimes I do. We know those days. Yeah.

Yeah. Sometimes I do. It's interesting philosophy. Some days of Brian and I are like this. Yeah. the table. All right. You want to get into it. We've got just a few minutes here to kind of tackle this topic.

Yeah, philosophy. We are talking philosophy. Oh, you got it. Oh, okay. You're running this. I'm going to lead it. Oh. We talked about philosophy on a different podcast about five years ago, but you weren't

here for it. Yeah. So I'd like to revisit it with you and kind of talk through it with you. But I'm curious, what's your background with philosophy? Are you interested? sit in it? Have you read a bunch? What's your relationship with philosophy? I like it. I don't, I wouldn't say that I've read a bunch of philosophy, but I am into it. I like this idea of the whole deep thinking thing. I like Socrates and the, what do they call it, the Socratic method where you're

just asking questions. Right, right. I like that because I feel like that's what I do a lot of times with you guys on this podcast and you get very upset with me. And he go, I'm just asking questions. And according to my wife, they killed Socrates because, you know, he just kept asking questions. And it really infuriates people when you ask them just to explain their stance on something. They want you to argue with them rather than ask questions. And you eventually expose them to their own fallacies. And I like that a lot.

Things like that. Yeah. All right. That's, yeah. Okay, cool. So you're into it. You're into the idea. I do love it.

All right. I love it. Brian, I can't remember where. where we left off. Have you ever had an interest in this stuff? I mean, I am interesting. I feel like Dusty knows more than I did, do because I don't know the Socrates method.

Well, ecclesiastes. Socratic method. Is one of my, ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And I feel like it's very philosophical, you know, from a religious standpoint. I was just talking to my wife about it. She gave me this book, The Story of Philosophy. Who's a by? King James Version.

Will Durant. It's, I love an old book like that. You know, it's written in... That book, it's one of those books. It looks like it's in the office of like a lawyer. Yeah. Published in 1951 by Simon and Schuster, interestingly enough,

same publisher of my book. How about that? How about that? What are those? So they do the full spectrum of stuff. Yeah, they do it all. They do it all. Well, this is just notes that my, you know, my wife marked off that she wanted to revisit.

Oh, that's great. Oh, that's awesome. So, but, you know, I think, you know, there is, you know, there's, there's like philosophy. We were, she was going through some of this stuff with me, but, you know, like in the 1700s, maybe, maybe even before where it was like, it was like religiously backed philosophy. And then you went through the Middle Ages, the dark ages, and then became the enlightened. And these were the thinkers that were thinking outside of. that. Sure. So we'll start to go through these. That's what I lost them. Kind of chronologically, but we'll go through. I was always interested in this. I just always thought these were the smartest people that ever lived these guys. And just the way they're basically starting from nothing. A lot of people laugh at some of the questions that they're asking because they have the benefit of thousands of years of people talking about it. But these were the first guys, like the smartest people ever, trying to figure out what is reality.

what are things, what are we, what's our relationship to the universe. All the questions we're still asking today. 100%. Philosophy, it should say, it kind of means one thing now, but we call these guys philosophers. We didn't really break up the sciences like we do now. So like a lot of these guys were mathematicians, biologists, ethicists, all that stuff. And we call them philosophers, but they did everything. Like science was just kind of one thing.

Yeah. And a lot of people think you majored a philosophy. I minored in it. Okay. I failed a class called intro to logic twice. Yeah. So they didn't let me. Now that class, that logic class was like, it was like a math class essentially.

It was like math equations. So, yeah. It was tough. We didn't even use words in that. It's fascinating that philosophy. and math go hand in hand because you don't think of it that way. It was, you know, it was a lot of like, if A follows Y, then X, all that. And you're like, dude, I don't, this, this is not why I got into this. Yeah. You know, life insurance is one of those things. Most of us don't think about until something

makes it feel real. Maybe it's a conversation with your spouse or parent, the loss of someone close to you, or a big milestone, like having a kid or buying a house. Whatever it is, those moments have a way of making you realize it's something worth looking into. I have life insurance. It makes me feel safe since I'm constantly traveling. They have the safety knowing my family would be taken care of no matter what. Before I got life insurance, I'd stop and think what would happen to my family if we did not have it. The stress it would add, having life insurance, it takes away those worries. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy, 100% online.

You can get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes, and get same day coverage. There's no medical exam. You just answer a few simple health questions. You can get up to $3 million in coverage. Wow. Some policies are as low as $30 a month. And Ethos has 4.9 out of five stars on Trust Pilot with over 5,500 reviews. So take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through ethos.

Get your free quote at ethos.com slash nateland. That's ethyos.com slash nateland. application times may vary, rates may vary, trust palette rating as of August 1st, 2026. I want to start the way we started last time, which I think is a good way to get into it. Zeno, if you heard of Zeno. I don't think so. Zeno the Warrior Princess. He is about 450 BC long time ago.

He, like his teacher, Parmenides, a name I've always liked, a named a World of Warcraft character after him. Is this in Greece? This is, yeah, he's Greek. He believed, they believed that, like, reality is kind of one big, unchanging thing and that all movement is basically an illusion. And so... I just want to say so we don't get comments about it. We are just letting the World of Warcraft character go by.

We are just letting that go by. I've mentioned that before. Okay, all right. I just felt like we would get some comments on. You got something you want to say about it? No, but I just thought they're going to go. You just let that go by. I named a World of War to Warcraft character.

I'm being silly, dude. Yeah, I know. I like it. I don't even understand what you're talking about. It was on E-Bomb's world. Okay. I only get about 20% of this podcast. So Zeno had these paradoxes basically to prove that the way we think we understand movement in the world doesn't make sense.

It leads to logical contradictions. So I'm going to do the same. I did last time, but I'm curious to see how you approach it. Let's say you and Brian are getting after it, right? You're fighting. Okay. Just imagine. Just imagine you and Brian disagree about something.

You want to reach across this table and slap him in the face. Okay. In order to do that, you'd have to take that arm and bring it all the way over here and slap him in the face, right? Yeah. But in order to get from there to here, your arm would have to first, you'd have to first to get here in the middle of the table, right? On its way there.

Yeah. Now, to get here, it would first have to get to about right here, correct? Halfway to that distance. Yeah. And then to get here, it'd have to go halfway. Trace that to infinity. It's impossible to ever get anywhere because you would first have to get halfway to that point. Okay.

So the conclusion being, it's impossible to move anywhere. Nana, nana boo-boo. Yeah, I mean, I guess I can see what he's tracking here. You know what I mean? But, you know, the reality is you just, you know, you just move. Exactly. You would slap him in the face and it would happen, right? Yeah.

If I wanted to. But I don't want to. But if you think that that's happening the way that it appears to be to us, that leads to that logical contradiction. because in order to get anywhere, you have to get halfway there first. Yeah, that is, I mean, I agree, but you would get there. Yeah. You know, like if I, it would go, all right, halfway, half, half, half, half, half, half, you know, you go, and you'd get there.

Unless you stopped it or unless, you know, Brian jumped up and met me halfway. Why would he lean it to a side? Well, maybe he comes in with his own. Yeah. Maybe he's coming in with his own. Yeah. So the Achilles paradox is another one. Okay.

Okay. Let's say Brian and Dusty, let's say you're racing. Okay. Let's say you're doing a 100-yard dash. All right. And Dusty's getting pretty confident. He's cocky. He goes, I'll give Brian a 10-yard head start.

And I'll still beat him. Do you think that would be the case? If you were racing, 100-yard dash? I, sometimes I wonder if I could run 100 yards. but, uh, okay, let's make it a 50-yard dash.

Or swimming. Okay. Yeah, let's do swimming. Okay. Let's do like a 50 meter swim. Okay. And you go,

I'm such a fast swimmer. I'll let Brian get 10 meters out. I'll let Brian jump in halfway in the deep end. Yeah. And then I'll doggie paddle. Now, here's. Then you'd have to save me. Yeah.

Doggy paddle. So the Achilles paradox would say by the time you get to where Brian started, he'll have already, he'll have been moving that time too, right? Yeah. So he'll still be ahead of you. And then by the time you get to where Brian is at that point, he'll have kept moving in front of you. So it's impossible to catch up with somebody, even though obviously you can.

But logically, if we're going to same speed, yeah, you'll never catch him. No, I'm saying even if you're going to faster speed. Because by the time you get to where he just was, he'll have moved up a little bit more. Unless Brian stops in the middle of the pool. Yeah. That's the only way that can happen. I don't think I get that one. I mean, I get what he's saying, I guess.

But, you know, I mean, it just is like, I guess he never was involved in a race. But, you know, if you're going faster. I don't think these guys were athletes, to be honest. If you're going faster, then eventually you will pass. But here's what we're saying. So let's say we're using coffee cups here to demonstrate this. Brian, you're the yellow cup. Dusty, you're the orange cup. So Brian gets about 10 yards up. Okay. And then Dusty starts, right? Yeah. By the time you get to hear, Brian will have kept going. He's not going to stop once you take off.

Right. So he'll be at least a little bit ahead of you. Yeah. Right. Sure. For a while. And by the time you get to there, Brian will be a little bit ahead of you. Yeah. He'll have moved up a little more. Yeah. Yeah. Keep doing. And then. And yeah, so basically it's impossible to pass him. I mean, eventually we're closing the gap. Yeah. But it's going to get real infinitesimally small. Until I'm up here. Exactly.

Yeah. Exactly. So what he's saying is obviously it looked like you would pass him, assuming that you're a faster swimmer than Brian like you say you are. But if, but logically. In a triathlon, the only thing Brian could do was run. Is that bike? Bikes swim?

Yeah. That's so funny. Oh, that's funny. But, you know, it's just because, you know, him and Sarah, they had nowhere to go. Yeah. It's not, it could do it. They just didn't have anywhere to go. So that leads into my favorite guys, which were the ancient Greeks.

You already talked about him. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. They were teachers and pupils. Socrates taught Plato. Plato taught Aristotle. It's like the 400 Bc's up through about 300 BC. Socrates, we only really know about them because Plato wrote, Socrates didn't really write much down. So everything we know about Socrates, we know from Plato. And we already talked about the Socratic method. And what is that again? I'm sorry. Just asking questions. Oh, asking question. Okay. Yeah.

Just asking questions. I got some play. I got a Play-Doh. Just keep asking questions and you'll just keep boiling down. Uh-huh. And someone is forced to. Kind of like what kids do with why. My daughter does that with me.

100%. Why? But better, but like better questions than just why. Yeah. But the same thing. Yeah. It just boils down your argument.

Yeah. And it forces people to confront their own ideas. Uh-huh. And things like that. Yep. You know anything fun? there. Well, there's a lot of underlined things here, but these are not my underlinings. So you don't know why they're underlined? Yeah. Yeah. She has this underlined in Plato.

This is the political problem. This is at first glance a delightful arrangement. It becomes disastrous because the people are not properly equipped by education to select the best rulers and wisest courses. I feel like that fits our time today, doesn't it? I think you underline that. You know, the main thing I remember, it's so funny how I spent all this time studying this stuff years ago. I was never good at it. I never had any kind of hot take about anything. I just thought it was interesting. And then I've forgotten so much of this.

The only thing I remember about Plato is probably his most famous thing, the theory of the forms. You know, the allegory of the cave? Maybe. this story before. You remember the allegory of the cave? I've heard of. I can't, no, I don't remember it. He tells a story about these people in a cave and they're chained up facing a wall, right? They've been chained up since childhood. And they're just facing a wall for their entire life. There's a fire behind them. So when people who aren't chained up walk behind them carrying things or riding horses or camels or whatever, they see the shadow of those things from the fire on the wall in front of them.

So their whole life, these people who've been chained up, only see the shadow. What's being, what's playing out there? I think it sounds like you started mentioning a cave in a fire and it seems like an acoustic guitarist started playing. It sounds like a youth group guitarist out there. Yeah, exactly. You go, they're in a cave and there's a fire and somebody goes, kumbaya. There must be somebody on Nightland Live

who's playing a guitar. Oh, geez. You're going to a sound set. All right, I was very into this. Yeah, yeah. So they only see shadows. So imagine these people. All they've seen are the shadows of things.

Yes. So they think that that's reality is just the shadow. So one day, one guy breaks free from these chains. He turns around and he enters the world and he sees for the first time the things that are casting the shadows. And he's like, oh, my good, this is so much more fantastical than anything that I've seen. I've only seen the shadows of these things, right? He comes back and tries to explain to the other guys who are shackled up.

I don't know why he doesn't help him get free, but he tries to explain to them. They can't do it themselves and he can. Why help? Yeah, exactly. So he comes back and tries to explain to them and they just don't understand. So I think the allegory here is what Plato is known for something called the theory of the forms. basically that the perfect form of everything exists in some way. And we're only seeing the imperfect versions of things.

Much like these people are chained up and they're only seeing the shadows. This guy breaks free and he sees the way things really are through reason and things. And he comes back and they can't really understand it. So like when you draw a circle, if all of us were to draw a circle. They would all be imperfect circles, right? But there does exist a perfect circle. There's a perfect

circle to which all of these circles are appealing to and we're comparing them to. Yeah. Those are the forms of things. Yeah. And there's the perfect form of peace and justice and all of these things that, you know, the way we perceive things, they're all imperfect.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, in a religious sense to the Christian, Jesus is perfect, and we're all trying to be like him. Or heaven, we haven't experienced, so we can't fully understand it. Works for me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm into that. Now, Plato teaches my favorite guy, Aristotle.

He's the dude, man. Did Socrates teach Plato? Socrates taught Plato, and then Plato taught Aristotle. Plato, not Plato. I know who you're talking about. Either way it mattered. So the big three just roll back to back to back. I mean, they had a bunch of other pupils and probably they had multiple teachers and stuff too.

Was Homer around this time? Homer was, I think, way before these guys actually. I think Homer was like 800 BC or something. He was 8th century BC. Isn't it interesting that we have a guy like Homer around for so long and then as we come along, we've made Homer out to be this like stupid kind of guy. From The Simpsons? Yeah, it's like Homer.

Now when you think of Homer, you think of some stupid guy. Or a big fan. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm a real Homer, dude. I love the Titans. Yeah.

He's a huge Homer. Yeah. Sure. It's a negative thing, right? Generally, when you say... No, I don't think. be a homer. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think when you say someone's a homer for that, that means they don't even see things rationally. Like, they're going to say

they're the best, even though they're not. Well, I use it with love. But these guys are like 400 years after Homer. Yeah, I wouldn't say Brian is a homer like that. Because I get what you're saying that. I think it's usually said negatively. They never, yeah, but they never can see their, they're always like, oh, my team's the best. And I mean, I think you would fully admit that, you know, The Titans, although, you know, we all want them to be the best, have not had their best years lately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's a homer.

He's rooting for his home team. Yeah. You're a predator, and that's something that we're all aware of. Been on all your life. Dusty knows my joke so well. He's a homer and a predator. I'm a homer for those predators. So now we come to Aaron,

Aristotle, this is the guy, this is the dude, in my opinion. I think he's the most influential guy, kind of creates the framework for how the whole world thinks about everything for the next 2,000 years, right? Now, a lot of people talk about his virtue ethics, you know, what makes you happy, what's a good life, all of that stuff. And he wrote some really good stuff about that. But I've always been more interested in the metaphysics. You know what the word metaphysics means? I don't. I don't know there. Meta means beyond in Greek.

So it's beyond physical, beyond the physical. Things that you can't see under a microscope, right? Ontology, the study of being. Can I just get like an object? I just need like an object to put on the table in front me. This pen right here. Oh, what is that? It's a hair tie.

That's a more complicated object. There's a hair in it too. Okay. Is that yours, Dustin? Yeah. So we've got a pen here on the table. You need a hair. Brian needs hair time.

We've got this pen here on the table. I want you to tell me some things about that pen. What are some properties that this pen has? Okay. It has a rubber finger grip. Okay. It's long. It's long.

Okay, that's the shape of it. Compared to. Yeah. Yeah. Something smaller. Yeah. It has a clicker. It has a click.

What about a color? It's black. Okay. Material. What kind of material is? Plastic. rubber. Plastic, rubber. Ink. Metal. Is it heavy, do you think?

Not to me. Not too heavy. It's where is it? It's sitting on a table. Yes. On a table in Nashville, Tennessee. In Nashville, Tennessee. About center of the room. And when? In the United States.

It is August 31st is when we're recording this. So. 2020, 26. So here's the argument. Is that pen? What is it? Is it just all of those properties that we just described together, just the collection of those properties, or is it a thing that has all of those properties?

In other words, let me ask you this. If that pen was red, would it still be a pen? Yes. Okay. If it were made out of metal, would it still be a pen? Yes. Okay, so it's not color. It's not material.

If it were four inches to the right, still a pen. So it's not location, right? Yeah. And it'll be a pen tomorrow probably, too. Yeah. So it's not time. So what is it that makes this a pen? It's a container for the ink to be able to write with.

Pennness. Yeah, like because if it were a feather, right. I mean, we wouldn't call it a pen, but it would still be a writing instrument. So this is why the pen was a, I don't know, I wish I had an apple on me. Apple's always the easiest one to do it for. But what Aristotle would say is that... Like that doesn't be an apple back there. That has...

I should have brought an apple. That has... That pen has the substance of a pen. It is a pen. And then all of these other things we described are accidental properties. In other words, you could take them away from that pen, and it doesn't change what the substance of it is. And that applies for all things.

So all things. This reminds me a little bit of your sports team announcement. It's interesting you brought that up. Yeah. I mean, that follows... Same principle. What follows from this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What makes a thing a thing and what is just an accidental property of that thing, right? What do you have... No, what are you going to say about the sports? Well, this was an argument we had about rooting for professional teams. Oh, people really got upset with you. People didn't like it. Well, college teams, I made the argument that a college team, Makes more sense because the college itself persists. A college is almost like the substance of something.

And the players are the accidental properties that are changed over time, right? Whereas a professional team, there's no, the team is just a collection of these accidental properties. There's not a substance underneath it. Unless you say the substance is like the front office. Right. Yeah, I remember why people got mad. Of the Titans, yeah. It's all coming back.

Well, in this book, you have Aristotle, and the chapter is metaphysics and the nature of God. Yeah. You want to share anything? Well, I don't know anything about it, but I'm just, you know, I'm following along. Okay. Trying to find it in the book. His metaphysics grew out of his biology. Everything in the world is moved by an inner urge to become something greater than.

than it is. Everything is both the form or reality which has grown out of something, which was its matter or raw material, and it may in its turn be the matter out of which, still higher forms will grow. Yeah. Yeah. That's beautiful. It's very deep. In other words, change is potential becoming actual. So this is why, so then he creates a first move. argument where he says everything's moved by something, right? And then that means that would have to be moved by somebody and you trace that all the way back. There has to have been a first mover. Now, he doesn't necessarily call that God and the way that we think about it now.

But yeah. So that leads me to the next. And we can we can abandon this if we want. No, I love it. I just have some stuff written down here. So we're going to skip ahead about 1,500 years. Okay. To Thomas Aquinas.

Oh, yeah. So the year 1225 through 1274, probably the most important Christian thinker of all time. He was called a dumb ox by his classmates. Have you ever heard that? I had a tough time speaking. He was fat and he didn't talk very much. So they called him a dumb ox. Oh, yeah.

And all these, he's getting bullied at school. And then one day his teacher goes, you call him a dumb ox. But in his teaching, he will one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout the world. Wow. Their teacher really sticking up for the kid getting bullied. Yeah. You said he's the most influential Christian speaker? Has to be.

Of all time? I think so. So what he did, he's a huge Aristotle fan. He was like, how can I take all of Aristotle's teachings and apply them to Christianity? That's where the five arguments, the five proofs for the existence of God comes from. He just takes that framework and applies it to Christianity. And it's still influential today. It's pretty crazy.

Love that. Yeah. What's a book that we should find for? Aquinas. Yeah, people are looking to get a book. I mean, you can read the Summa Theologica if you want. All right. It's all very, dude, a lot of this, I was looking through back to theater.

It's so, so dense. I mean, you heard that passage that he just read. It's not light, fun reading. It's not, and it's like, it is like, it takes a, you know, it takes a, you know, and the Bible can be like this, too, where it takes several readings of it. You don't just, you're not reading it. Yeah, you're not, yes, you're not reading it like a novel. You got to like, you got to read it and then really like try to dig in there and understand what it's saying.

It's hard to read it for enjoyment. Yeah. Like you're not reading it for the poetry of it at all. Yeah, totally. It's just dense, man. We'll skip ahead another few hundred years. Can I ask something? Yeah, go ahead.

Was it Aquinas who he quoted? that back dusty epa? It was Augustine that he quoted. Oh, never mind. And then I said, well, if you're reading that, we should read some McQuinus together. I was joking around. Okay. I would like to read it, though.

Yeah, it's good stuff. That's why I really liked that thing that I read about, I mean, even though it was backing me up, it was also, it made a lot of sense. Do you know what I mean? Of course. And it was really great. Yeah. I mean, backing me up was a bonus. Yeah.

But I was like, wow, this is, it expanded further what I was thinking, you know, went deeper because, yeah, I mean, and it's like, people got mad at me about the emotional manipulation thing. I'm not saying, I've been watching, I've been crushing movies lately. Yeah. And I'm not saying it's so bad, but I'm saying it is what's happening. Oh, okay. Moving the goalposts a little bit, but I don't know. Well, I do think that we should... How are your kids doing?

I do think that we shouldn't be making ourselves cry all the time for no reason. Oh, okay, okay. I think that's bad. So even it's bad to watch, like, a bunch of videos of, like, troops coming home to their dogs and stuff? Probably. Over and over again, yeah. We all like one of those. You don't like a compilation.

Not the dogs, but the kids, I like. Yeah, well, a dog can be nice, too. But, you know what I mean. But yeah, it's like over and over again, you're crying? Why? It's not, you know, it's like... Because it's beautiful, man. It's beautiful, but it's like somebody else's beauty. It's a good cry. It's a good cry.

Yeah. You see the videos of like stepdad's getting adoption papers from their stepkids and stuff? Yeah. And saying, will you adopt me? Yeah. The dad breaks down. There's a great subreda called Happy Crying Dads. And it's just...

Yeah, that would ruin my faith in humanity. It's just nice moments like that. A bunch of dads crying. Dad's getting emotional, that big stuff. Like when they're, you know, a grandfather shows up to the hospital and finds out his grandson's named after him. Stuff like that, nice moments. You don't think those are good moments?

No, I do like it. I mean, I don't know. It makes me emotional a little bit. Just bringing that up for some reason. Yeah, exactly. And I don't know. I'm not trying to manipulate you. Yeah, I know, but I don't know that it's good is what I'm saying.

Okay. I don't like you a good story I mean you want to enjoy it yeah you want to get into it but I watched oh great no we got we're doing a thing that's all right well you know maybe this ties in a little bit I watched the movie searching for Bobby Fisher you ever seen that a great movie I saw it as a kid and I just watched it again and I think it may be one of my favorite movies of all time wow it's so good it is and I feel like that it's a bit philosophy oriented because, you know, it's a, you know, the philosophy of life and of chess. And it is just...

I should go watch it again. It's so good. It's crazy. It lost $5 million. Yeah. Such a like classic movie, though, the people still talk about and it lost money. I mean, it's like, me and my daughter played chess yesterday. I'm like, I've been, I loved it.

She knows how to play? She doesn't know how to play, but I'm teaching her. I don't know how to play. So. I had that. You know how the pieces move. You had nowhere to go. I know.

And you didn't even learn chess. I know. Can you play the peg game at Cracker Barrel? Pretty good at that. Well, chess, I think, my uncle taught me to play. I have a bit of an eccentric uncle. And he taught me how to play. What kind of uncle?

Acentric. Oh. Isn't that a word? Accentric? Accentric. Yeah. Maybe I missed one of the seas. I said,

no, centric. Oh, yeah. I was like, is that a model for the universe? I don't know. My uncle's a,

you know, a normal guy, but, you know, he gets into... He's a bit of a kook. Well, he's, you know,

he smokes a lot of cigarettes and he makes, does a lot of artwork. He's a, he's a card. Yeah. Yeah. And he,

where do he live? He lived in Tennessee. Yeah. Gatleberg? Yeah. He lives in Kodak now. Brian grew up with him, apparently.

He lives in Kodak. Yeah. So it's Gatlinburg, then Pigeon Forge, then Severeville, then Kodak. Used to sit down on his porch. No, that's a different uncle. That is a different uncle. They're brothers, though. What, Aaron?

I don't know, man. I wish I was as good of friends with it, too, y'all as apparently Brian is with Dusty. I listen to his podcast. Listen, you guys have a Chicago White Sox friend that gives you tickets, letting you take the balls out to the guy, throw the... the first pitch. I mean, I know about your granddad Faustin. Oh, I appreciate that, man.

Yeah. And all the spoons under the couch. Yeah, all right. We know about each other. Yeah. All right. Yeah. But wouldn't you say that some stand-up comedians are kind of like philosophers?

Some. I think they all think they are. We are having a good time. Well, that's a philosophy in itself. That's what I'm saying. Exactly. There's a book about it now. And there's a book called We're Having a Good Time.

There's a podcast called We're Having a Good Time. I want to tell you, if you're going to look up the podcast, you've got to keep typing. If you get to We're Having, something else pops up and it's wild. But you got to keep typing. I will look that up real quick. Dusty Slay, We're Having. Don't type Dusty Slay. Just do podcast.

You know, we're having. Go to iTunes. Oh, go to iTunes. Okay, something else. Yeah. But anyway. Yeah, I mean, I think there is some philosophy in stand-up comedy, but not, you know, a lot of it's not. And I'm not saying I am.

I mean, even though, you know, that should go without saying. If you've heard the expression or the saying, I think, therefore I am. Yeah. Yeah, do you know anything about that or where it comes from? I know there was a comic who had an album that was, I think, therefore I drink. I drink, therefore I am. Yeah. Matthew Tatee, right?

Yeah, yeah, Hansville comedy. That's what it's based on. That's funny, that's your intro to Renee Descartes. No, I guess, I don't know, but I would say I think therefore I am, meaning that, I don't know, if you couldn't think, would you be? So, Renee Descartes, French guy is 1600s, father of modern flight. philosophy, he's called. He basically goes into a dark room. He's like, I don't know if I trust any of my senses. I don't know what I believe. I don't know what's really here. I don't know what anything is. Let me go into a dark room, close my eyes, and just try to rebuild the world from scratch,

like things I'm actually sure exist, right? So he closes his eyes and he's like, what, I can't trust my senses. I don't know. What can I? What is really there? Yeah. And he debates with himself for a long time. And ultimately, he says, the fact that I am here asking these questions proves that at the very least, there is a questioner here. I think, therefore, I am. Yeah. And then he builds up the world from there. I like that. Interesting stuff. It is because, you know, also. Also, you know. Actually, that's a good question. I don't know. I stopped reading it right around there. Animals have no consciousness.

Yeah, they're not rational beings. So they're not thinking. I mean, maybe something goes on in their heads, but I think they're all instinctual. Right, but he's saying that literally he can only prove that the very first thing he can prove from scratch is that he exists because he's asking himself question. He's the one asking these questions. I don't know. You can't start with, I can't prove you exist before I prove that I exist.

I often think about the idea of a simulation, that we live in a simulation, and that you ever think about that where you go, when I'm not around Aaron and Brian, do Aaron and Brian exist? Yeah, of course. Does any of this exist when I'm not here? Is it all just a Truman Show slash Matrix type simulation that is created for me? I think you're having a disassociative episode. Yeah. No, I get what you're saying. But like in that sense that you kind of create your own reality and that if you're having a bad time.

Yeah. Then you got to create better things. Yeah. I have a good time. Therefore I am. Yes. Therefore I am having a good time. But there are a lot of, I think Berkeley was his, Barclay was his name.

I can't remember his name. But it was another. philosopher who was like something only exists insofar as it's being perceived by somebody. Like if we're like, none of us are looking at the parking lot right now. Yeah. And so basically does that parking lot exist if we're not looking at it? You ever like you. I'm sorry.

Can you hold that thought? Yeah. A little bit like the tree falling in the woods. Yeah, the tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it doesn't make a sound. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's the same thing. Like you ever walk into a restaurant or any place?

and you walk in and there's no one around. And then within a matter of minutes, it's packed out suddenly. Yeah. Like, what a, you guys showed up late? Like, where are you been? Why are you here now? Dude, I flew out of Phoenix this morning. I got to the train to take me to the terminal.

Just me and Connor Larson standing there. I go, who, minute later, 500 people right there at the train. It's the exact same thing. How many times have you, if you gotten in line somewhere and then you, And then a huge line forms behind you and you go, oh, made it just in time. Beat the rush. You know?

But was there going to be a rush? Mm-hmm. Are they real? I remember you, the last time we talked about this, saying that's maybe the most famous quote in history. I think it has to be. I think, therefore I am. Yeah.

Yeah, I think so. Can you think of another one? The only other one I thought came close was... I am not a crook. Yeah, that's up there, too. I think Nate said Calabunga. Yeah, Nate said Calabunga. Yeah.

I think one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Yeah, it's a big one. That's a big one. That's a big one. I can't think of another, can y'all think of any off camera here? You all know, like a famous quote? I have a dream. I have a dream.

That's a good one. John Kennedy. Kind of put me in a corner here. I can't really change JFK. JFK, I have a dream. Yeah, I have a dream probably is in the conversation. Yeah. But that's American.

I think therefore I am, cogito ergo soon in Latin. Oh, yeah. The less popular version. No, but I think that's the way more popular. I think it's up there. I'm trying to think of some more.

Mine are all movie quotes. We're going to need a bigger boat. May the force be with you. Yeah. I mean, that's a huge one for sure. That is a huge one. We're having a good time is going to get there one day. Yeah, I think so.

I think so. We're working on it. Yeah. We have a book coming out. November 10. By the same publisher. Simon and Chester, from the story of philosophy to we're having a good time. Oh, that's awesome.

All in 76 years. Actually, 75. This came out in 1951. So, yeah, 51. So 75 years took us to get from here to there. Wow. Think of the evolution. They'll definitely be gone in another 75 years.

75 years. We won't even be reading books. What will we be doing? We'll be probably staring at our meta-contacts actually living in some kind of virtual reality state. Well, let me end on this. This is the question. If you were to find out, we'll end on this. If you were to find out that this has been some simulation.

Your entire life has been a simulation. and you are where you are right now, would you want to be woken up and be in the real reality, or would you just go, let's finish this out? Well, when you think about the movie, The Matrix, okay. You know, there's that moment where the guy, I can't think of his name, but he, he, the Judas, essentially, that turns on them. Yeah. And he's eating the steak. And they're promised because he's turning them in that they're going to give him the best life. And he goes, even though, I don't remember his exact quote, but he's eating the steak. And he goes, even though I know this is not real, you know, I don't care. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of is like, you woke up from your matrix and then

you found out that it wasn't real. And then you went into the real world and you're like, oh, this is terrible. Yeah, yeah. Take me back. But now you have the knowledge that it isn't real. I think he says, I don't remember anything, right? Oh, he says I don't want to remember anything. Gosh. Would you stay where you are, Brian? I think so. Yeah, me too. I think I'd want to be woken up and then come back into the Matrix, but remember everything.

Yeah, you want to leave the cave. Well, you're Neo. That'd make you Neo from... Yeah, I would want to live in the Matrix knowing that I live in the Matrix. I think that would be fun. No one that, no of this is real. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. That's philosophy. What about you? Oh, yeah, you said you would. Oh, yeah, yeah. I like this life. You know what I mean? Yeah. I want to start over. I was afraid if I start over, then like, I don't know. If you do anything different, it's like the butterfly effect, you know,

then like your daughter's not who she is now. I did have the thought as I was watching, um, uh, searching for Bobby Fisher, that this was. in the movie, Lawrence Fishburn was a lot younger. And then so I thought, Neo is the kid that's playing chess, Josh. And then Lawrence Fishburn is, you know, what do they call him in The Matrix? I don't know. Who?

Lawrence Fishburn. Oh, Morpheus. Morpheus. Yeah. This is Morpheus before he wakes up, the guy who's really good at chess. And Josh is Neo before he wakes up when he's a kid. who's also really good at chess. They're the great thinkers.

They wake up later and come out of the Matrix. It's amazing. That's it. That's philosophy. Okay. Well, thank you, Aaron Weber for leading a great, one of the best podcasts we've had in a while. You know, last time Aaron led one was the grocery store episode,

one of the most watched. Oh, that's about Aaron's touch. Well, I don't think Aaron put the kind of work into this one that he did the grocery store. I didn't bring in a book that my wife made notes in. It was still very good. I loved it. We got through about a tenth of the stuff I had written down.

No, it was very good. We should do part two. We got to talk about Spinoza. Your comments were so good this week. That's why there's some that were, you know, a miss. Cluetta. She should, you know, as Brian said, get a clue. Oh, come on.

But the rest were very good. And we appreciate you guys tuning in. This weekend. Oh, can I plug dates while you look at yours? Yeah. I'm going to be in the, this is Aaron Weber speaking. Orlando, Florida, September 17th at the Funny Bone. Then later that weekend, I'm in Conroe, Texas at the Riot Comedy Club.

And then later that month, or October 1st, I'm in Birmingham, Alabama at the Stardome. First time back there in a while is coming out and see me, Aaronwebercom. Thank you. Tuesday, September 10th. I'm going to be at Theater 99 in Charleston, South Carolina. I have two shows. They're both sold out, but I just want you to know they're happening. Is that a Thursday?

That's a Thursday. Okay. Friday, the 11th, I'm in Columbus, Ohio, low ticket sales. And then on Saturday, I'm in Louisville, Kentucky. Not low ticket sales. Low tickets available? Tickets available. That was the funny thing to plug.

No, just try to get some tickets, though. Whether there's limited tickets or a lot of tickets, try to get some. Okay. And then Louisville, Kentucky, also limited tickets available, if not sold out already by the time this comes out. So, you know, try to get on top of that, guys. September 25th, I will be in Canton, Ohio. That is a free show for the public. Plenty of tickets available.

October 3rd, I'm in Cincinnati at Commonwealth Comedy Club doing two shows. I think 4 o'clock and 7 o'clock. The 4 o'clock show is in all ages show. So bring your kids. Awesome. Bring whoever you want to that. And then October 7th, it's Orlando Funnybone,

October 8th in Raleigh at Good Night's Comedy Club. Great. And October 18th, we're doing another Nate Land Presents, half hour at the Wolverth Theater. Mike James, who... Oh, our buddy. Our buddy.

We love. Mark Shalafoo, who... Who's great. I've done so many shows with. Andy Woodhall. and who I had to follow one time and was not happy about it. He's so funny.

That's October 18th here in Nashville. Tickets are on sale. Okay, guys, well, listen, this has been a hot podcast. I hope you learned a lot. I hope you paid attention. Thank you for tuning in. This is the Public Figures Podcast, and we're having a good time. All right.

We love being in the public eye. If we weren't, then we want to die. Cots with Brian Aaron and Dusty these three guys are old fat and gers podcast