March 13

Ep. 0178: Considering Community College, Part 2 (w/Brett Veinotte)


(This is a crossover episode, featuring the same discussion as School Sucks Episode 602.)

Join Brett & CJ as they discuss many of the negative trends that have been increasing among college students in recent years.

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March 8

Ep. 0177: Considering Community College, Part 1 (w/Brett Veinotte)

Another Dangerous History/School Sucks crossover episode!

Recently I was invited onto the School Sucks podcast with Brett Veinotte to discuss some of the negative trends I’m experiencing in my teaching dayjob; part 1 of that conversation is also the heart of this DHP episode. (This is a crossover episode, featuring the same conversation as School Sucks Episode #601.)

Join Brett & CJ as they discuss some of the negative institutional trends CJ has experienced, such as reduced course variety, problems with online classes in an institutional education setting, issues with the elimination of mandatory remedial courses for certain students (despite the fact that many students badly need them), and some of the warped incentives created by performance funding and over-reliance on quantitative, outcomes-based metrics.

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January 31

Ep. 0176: The Great Alibi & the Treasury of Virtue: The Not-So-Civil War Part 15

More than 2 years in the making, based on reading dozens (I never wanted to count) of books & dozens more articles, over 300 pages of typed notes, 15 episodes long, 28 hours total run-time…..

Boom – here it is, the end of the DHP’s Not-So-Civil War series! What started over 2 years ago is finally done with — took almost half as long to make as the war took to actually happen, it’s done, here we are, one last big push to the finish line!

(Now you can binge the series all the way through, from the beginning, Netflix-style, if you want, starting all the way back with DHP Ep. 131: Opening Gambits, which came out on the last day of 2016.)

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The “Lost Cause” Mythology of the Confederacy
  • One last look at the two sides of why the war happened: First, why did the South secede (including an extensive examination of primary sources on this), and second, why was the North willing to use war to prevent them from doing so successfully?
  • An examination of why the war turned out as it did, and a potential alternative scenario in which it might well have turned out differently
  • And some perspectives on this war that CJ finds interesting & persuasive, from several writers & historians, none of whom are simplistic apologists for either side of the conflict

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December 16

Ep. 0175: The Real George H.W. Bush, with Russ Baker

 

In light of the recent death of former President George Herbert Walker “Poppy” Bush (1924-2018), CJ was very happy to speak to investigative journalist and author Russ Baker (author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, and head honcho of WhoWhatWhy) about the reality of Poppy Bush, which is quite a contrast to the media hagiography that’s been ongoing since his death.

Join CJ & Russ as they discuss:

  • How Russ got into the investigations that eventually became Family of Secrets
  • A bit of the backstory on the Bush family
  • The ways in which the mainstream portrayal & perception of Poppy Bush are wildly different from the truth, including his involvement with American intelligence going back decades before his tenure as CIA director in the 1970s
  • Poppy Bush’s interesting connections to many major events of 20th century American history, including the JFK assassination and the Watergate scandal
  • What this sort of history (and the degree to which it is deliberately ignored) says about the political system and mainstream media in the United States

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December 9

Ep. 0174: DHP Heroes: John Carpenter, Part 2

This episode is the conclusion of CJ’s coverage of John Carpenter’s filmmaking career.

[*Note: Since recording this episode, I did get a chance to watch Bodybags, which is actually a horror anthology movie rather than a series as I think I said in the episode. Long story short, I liked it a lot & would definitely recommend it for any fans of horror in general and/or Carpenter in particular.]

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • All the films Carpenter directed from Christine (1983) through The Ward (2010)
  • Common themes and techniques in Carpenter’s films
  • Carpenter’s statements about what he believes vs. the ideology that his films portray (which are often quite different)
  • Carpenter’s influence on CJ’s worldview, and why his best works have resonated so strongly.

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November 16

Ep. 0173: DHP Heroes: John Taylor Gatto (w/Richard Grove & Brett Veinotte)

John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018) was an award-winning public school teacher before leaving that career to become an outspoken critic of conventional schooling.

In this episode, CJ is very pleased to be joined by Richard Grove of Tragedy & Hope and Brett Veinotte of School Sucks to discuss Gatto’s life, legacy, and influence.

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November 7

Ep. 0172: The Voluntary Difference (What CJ said at Harvard)

This episode contains CJ’s presentation from the Sound Education podcast conference held at the Divinity School of Harvard University in November, 2018.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The differences he’s noticed (for both teacher & learner) between a conventional classroom setting on the one hand, and podcasting on the other
  • His belief that these differences are largely due to the fact that a typical classroom setting is less voluntary and revolves around extrinsic motivations, whereas something like podcasting is purely voluntary (for both teacher & learner) and revolves around intrinsic motivations, and why the latter is superior in most important ways to the former

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  • “Teacher Liberation” (an excellent Ted Talk by Joel Hammon that also addresses some of the ways in which voluntary educational relationships are superior to nonvoluntary ones, for both teachers and students)
  • A Ted Talk by Daniel Pink, author of Drive

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October 31

Ep. 0171: DHP Heroes: John Carpenter, Part 1

Tis the season for some Halloween-related DHP — specifically, part 1 of a 2-part DHP Heroes feature on filmmaker John Carpenter, perhaps best known for his work in the horror genre.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The concepts of ‘auteur’ and ‘cult classic’ or ‘cult film,’ and how they apply to Carpenter and his work
  • A bit about Carpenter’s early life, upbringing, and time at USC film school
  • Coverage and commentary on most of Carpenter’s early films, from Dark Star (1974) through The Thing (1982)

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October 24

Ep. 0170: Johnny Comes Marching Home: The Not-So-Civil War Part 14

This was originally going to be one giant episode to finish off the series, but then it grew into TOO giant of an episode, so I decided to divide it in order to conquer it.

Here’s the beginning of the end of the Not-So-Civil War series.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The costs of the war in death & destruction
  • Changes wrought by the war
  • The fate of the veterans in the decades following the war

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September 16

Ep. 0169: Autodidacts in History: CJ’s Presentation from the 2018 Freecoast Festival

This episode is the audio of CJ’s talk at the 2018 Freecoast Festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the topic of autodidacts in history.

Join CJ as he discusses autodidacts from a variety of fields from ancient to modern times, along with some thoughts on what it means to be an autodidact, and some of the potential benefits and pitfalls of it.

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