All aboard.

I don't remember how to start.

I don't remember how to start.

Hello, folks, and hey, Bear, welcome to the Nate Land podcast.

This is Aaron Weber, alongside my good pal, my compadre, my, my, my, folks, and hey, Bear, welcome to the Nate Land podcast. This is Aaron Weber,

alongside my good pal, my compadre, my friend, Brian Bates. All right. Dusty Slay and Nate are out this week, so I'll just pause for a few seconds to let you turn the episode off. Okay, that should

be good.

If you're still around, we've got a wonderful replacement, smart enough, funny enough,

and nice enough to fill both of their shoes.

He is a longtime friend of Brian and I, first time on the podcast, very funny,

a stand-up comedian, history professor, all around Renaissance man.

Please welcome to the podcast for the very first time,

Dr. Ben Sawyer. All right. Thanks, guys. It's good to be here with you. Dude, it's an exciting,

exciting time. I think the first doctor we've had. You're definitely the first, you're the first person

with a postgraduate degree on this podcast. I can guarantee that. I'm glad you guys were like easing into it.

Don't get a real doctor yet. You know what I'm saying? Start with a historian.

Yeah. How much of getting a doctorate is you wanted to be called doctor? Was that a big part of it?

I think it was mostly that I failed to be in a high school teacher. So I had to figure out another way to teach. Okay, you had to get back into, you had to become a student again. Do you

insist that people call you doctor? Do you ever do that? Do you ever go, guys, it's Dr. Ben.

No, it's a, it's preposterous. Like sometimes, I mean, there's been people I've hung out with,

like a cigar shop for, for years. And then they go, why you got a PhD? And I'm like, yeah, like, why didn't you tell me? I was like, it's not relevant to our relationship at all. Like, what if I did tell you?

Would you still talk to me?

...