[aydian_dowling_]: Welcome to the State of Men, I am Aydian Dowling,

[mike_watts]: And I'm Mike Watts.

[aydian_dowling_]: and we are so happy to have you here. Uh, if you have not subscribed, we're

[aydian_dowling_]: just go to tell you right away. Go subscribe to the podcast. Follow us on

[aydian_dowling_]: Inigram at the State of Men, and Mike and I have been working on this thing

[aydian_dowling_]: for probably far too long that I'd like to admit.

[aydian_dowling_]: Is that not true

[mike_watts]: It's been a while. I mean. I, you know it to me, the timing always works out. I

[mike_watts]: to straighten you out on the computer. I realize you way over due to the other

[mike_watts]: things we are working on.

[mike_watts]: I think it's just you know the timing' perfect. but it has been awhil. and

[mike_watts]: you'll hear about that in the upcoming episodes Will give you a little bit of

[mike_watts]: background of how this state of man was created and how we kind of ended up

[mike_watts]: here.

[aydian_dowling_]: right? So we want to give you a little bit of what to expect, So we are

[aydian_dowling_]: going to be posting on

[aydian_dowling_]: Thursdays. No, that's a lie.

[mike_watts]: No Tuesdays and Fridays.

[aydian_dowling_]: Yes, Tuesdays and Thursday, Tuesdays and Fridays. Great, I already

[mike_watts]: Yeah,

[aydian_dowling_]: fucked it up. Um, that's fine, so I'll cut that part out. Um, so we want to

[aydian_dowling_]: give you a little bit of what to expect, So we're going to be uploading on

[aydian_dowling_]: Tuesdays and Fridays. We'll be putting up two episodes every single week

[aydian_dowling_]: and we're really just going to. We're going to dive into some of our

[aydian_dowling_]: personal life, right, Uh, Mike, Shdy, on. Uh, you know, his life in

[aydian_dowling_]: masculinity, fatherhood, my journey as a transgender man on, you know, in in

[aydian_dowling_]: the the world of masculinity and my own journey of fatherhood. Um, and we

[aydian_dowling_]: really created this Podcast because we wanted. We just saw something that

[aydian_dowling_]: wasn't there, which is

[mike_watts]: Mhm.

[aydian_dowling_]: a fun,

[aydian_dowling_]: but also kind of serious. I don't know. serious. too serious of a word.

[aydian_dowling_]: What do you think?

[mike_watts]: no, I don't think so. I think it. I think having the only thing that comes to

[mike_watts]: mind is when you say that is like self improvement for men. Right,

[aydian_dowling_]: Mm,

[mike_watts]: it is. it is like more of a serious topic topic like we

[aydian_dowling_]: right?

[mike_watts]: have to dive into

[mike_watts]: these these conversations and talk about it from the perspective of as you're a,

[mike_watts]: as a Trans-man and myself as a man and the dynamics that are the same as well as

[mike_watts]: different, and also taking that into that's our own experiences, but also in

[mike_watts]: interview processes through other people's lived experiences as well. and it,

[mike_watts]: there is some fun and exciting around it, but it also becomes. it's also

[mike_watts]: serious.

[aydian_dowling_]: Yeah, and I think you know, Mike and I have seen a lot of very serious or

[aydian_dowling_]: then super, um, like more emotional, and we're trying to find that nice

[aydian_dowling_]: medium ground right where we can have like some serious masculinity talk.

[aydian_dowling_]: Also kind of go out of the stereotypical version of masculinity and start

[aydian_dowling_]: exploring some of that. And what does that feel like? And Um, talk about,

[aydian_dowling_]: like the good parts, the bad parts, the fun parts. Um, and I mean, that's

[aydian_dowling_]: really what this podcast is about. so we're really really happy to have you

[aydian_dowling_]: here again. Make sure that you subscribe so you can get all the downloads

[aydian_dowling_]: when they come out. Follow us on Ingram for some of our more interactive

[aydian_dowling_]: stuff. or we ask you all some questions and we can start really building

[aydian_dowling_]: this community. That's really what I. I think. Another part of this about

[aydian_dowling_]: is like let's build a community of guys who who want to have fun and like

[aydian_dowling_]: want to do our part in the world to

[mike_watts]: Mhm.

[aydian_dowling_]: to make it a better place. We kind of you know, think we've We've got

[aydian_dowling_]: some work to do

[mike_watts]: we get. we've got some work to do. Yeah, we have, as men, have caused a lot of

[mike_watts]: damage and

[mike_watts]: not that it's okay or good, but I think recognizing the damage that has been

[mike_watts]: created and that the fact that like we can fix it, you know and we can, we can

[mike_watts]: heal the past damage the best that we can, but also be able to take this forward

[mike_watts]: to all right. How do we create a a world that is acceptive to everyone that like

[aydian_dowling_]: right,

[mike_watts]: we can be in this society to uplift that. What? that's across all categories

[mike_watts]: here. People that

[aydian_dowling_]: Mhm,

[mike_watts]: includes business, non profits, you know, includes your yoga class. It includes.

[mike_watts]: you know the

[aydian_dowling_]: you,

[mike_watts]: baseball teams.

[aydian_dowling_]: yeah,

[mike_watts]: It's like

[aydian_dowling_]: your cross fit ▁jim your workout bro.

[mike_watts]: y. you're cross fit jam. Yeah, and it's like as myself, growing up in the

[mike_watts]: Midwest. You know you feel

[mike_watts]: there was a guy who told me when I was looking for a job. once said he only

[mike_watts]: hires people from the mid west because of their work ethic, right. It's how

[mike_watts]: they're They get. Deal with the the knitty gritty of summer winter like this

[mike_watts]: type of thing and so like I would say, our podcast kind of the angle that I'm

[mike_watts]: looking at at eight and you can share yours too. But it is this place that it

[mike_watts]: creates a. We have all the seasons, we have spring, fall, summer and winter, and

[mike_watts]: that it allows this 'cause a lot of the stuff that we've seen out there. For why

[mike_watts]: this is created it it only focuses on like the summer, or

[aydian_dowling_]: M.

[mike_watts]: it only focuses on one of the seasons, And so For using that out in the analogy,

[mike_watts]: this podcast will allow that to take place to have all

[aydian_dowling_]: Yep,

[mike_watts]: the seasons.

[aydian_dowling_]: I love it all full seasons in one podcast. Have you ever heard that?

[aydian_dowling_]: Oh, yeah, I don't know. It might be a sneak peak of what's to come, So if

[aydian_dowling_]: you liked any of that and if you didn't like it, please stay too, cause

[aydian_dowling_]: that's wasn't that good. Um, go ahead. follow us here wherever you are

[aydian_dowling_]: listening to this podcast subscribe, and we're really excited to have you

[aydian_dowling_]: here. Can't wait to dive into some more stuff and will catch you on that

[aydian_dowling_]: next episode.