
Commentary on news, art, and ideas from a libertarian and rationalist perspective. Science, politics, education, sports, and culture from a teacher exiled from the classroom because of mask mandates. Plus quizzes!
Episodes

Sep 21, 2021
Sep 21, 2021
22 min
It seems impossible to believe that Disney would release an anti-woke movie. But when you hire the woman who wrote the screenplay for 50 Shades of Grey to do your black-and-white Dalmations movie, you don't always get woke. Fascinating and subversive messaging in Cruella.

Sep 21, 2021
Sep 21, 2021
33 min
By request, the "what your kids are learning" series continues. Today it's science. The Next Generation Science Standards leave out circuits almost entirely. The state of science education has a lot of room for improvement.

Sep 20, 2021
Sep 20, 2021
23 min
We had a fantastic soccer tournament at Westport last weekend, but the hypocrisy surrounding masks was stunning. It's all about signaling, just like it was for Agamemnon and Achilles in the Iliad!

Sep 20, 2021
Sep 20, 2021
28 min
First in a requested series: What are kids learning in school?
We're starting with what kids are learning about mental health in school. The data on this point is very disturbing, both in my school and in many schools across the US.

Sep 17, 2021
Sep 17, 2021
25 min
Let's take a close look at the factors that went into my school district being able to remain open 5 days per week, for all students, in person, all last year. Why could we do it when almost every other district was fully or partially remote?

Sep 17, 2021
Sep 17, 2021
33 min
Covering the news: Is Mark Milley a traitor? What happened with the BU professor who fell through a stairway to his death? Did XENON1T find dark energy? More on the Yale Bangladesh mask RCT.
Plus the Friday pop culture quiz!

Sep 16, 2021
Sep 16, 2021
48 min
Topics inside the classroom and outside. If you haven't talked to a teenager in a couple of decades, you might be surprised. Plus an E. Paul Torrance fluency quiz! And of course the Science Fact of the Day answering the question: How is laser light different from normal light?

Sep 15, 2021
Sep 15, 2021
46 min
Today we change up the format a bit. As always, we start with the Science Fact of the Day (you have many more than five senses), but then we focus on a single topic. I received some feedback saying that I hadn't given enough time to the 20 T magnet at MIT and that this was a fascinating topic. So today, I cover in detail why it's newsworthy, what nuclear fusion is, how it's different from nuclear fission, and why fusion power has the potential to change the world.
Emily Dickinson at the end!

Sep 14, 2021
Sep 14, 2021
51 min
The E. Paul Torrance flexibility quiz is back! My dog charges through the studio, but we still manage to talk about Luis Elizondo's new book, New York's new vaccine mandates, the effect of public preschool on IQ, and Biden claiming that Nevada has wetlands and that 'tornadoes' is a term no longer used.
Back half of the show we continue to look at longevity and discuss half a dozen anti-aging treatments finally in studies now that people have realized that old age is a disease.

Sep 13, 2021
Sep 13, 2021
1hr 51 sec
I was crashing around the walls of my studio on this one! In-depth discussion of the vaccine mandate and the two legal precedents, Jacobsen v. Massachusetts and Zucht v. King. Also Newton's Great Synthesis, China bans all new video games, Megan Fox's VMA dress, and MIT's new 20 T magnet potentially guiding the way to useful fusion.
Then we talk possible near-future advances: today it's biogerontology and metformin. I quote Shakespeare and Urkel in the same sentence. Listen, learn, and enjoy!
