Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
Brian Boone joins the show to talk about why the world has always been weird—not just now. The conversation ranges from animal history and television oddities to fact-checking, collaboration, and why curiosity is the engine behind good stories and human wisdom. In this episode, Tricia and Brian Boone discuss how access to information can make the present feel stranger than the past, even though human behavior has always been full of surprises. They also explore the storytelling and editorial work behind Uncle John's All-Knowing Bathroom Reader, including how the team verifies claims, chooses topics, and turns obscure facts into accessible reading.
— Why the world feels weirder now than it used to
— The case for "the world has always been weird"
— Why cats have far fewer breeds than dogs
— How horses helped shape the modern era
— Why fact-checking is harder in an age of copied information
— The strange story of J. Fred Muggs on Today
— Why risk-taking and weird ideas are part of human progress
— Fads are older than mass media
— How the bathroom reader team collaborates
— Learning from coworkers with radically different interests
— Curiosity as the engine of wisdom