The Know-It-All and The Optimist

A Symposium of Pedagogy and Eudaimonia

About the show

A Know-it-All and Optimist make a show about being friends with Walther, yes Jason.

Two friends sit down to talk about how to live the good life and how to best educate people. Inevitably one of them makes an ass of himself with mansplaining while the other remains forever positive about the future.

Episodes

  • Tee Time was at 7am, The Car Talk Episode

    26 April 2021  |  1 hr 29 mins
    culture, education, eudaimonia, pedagogy, science

    In this episode Jason and Walther are joined by their friend and colleague Dave to discuss what cars each of them show and have owned. There is a lot of ribbing and surprises along the way, so sit back and enjoy the banter.
    Also this episode was recorded back in January.

  • I Would Like for Somethings to Go Right

    7 February 2021  |  1 hr 36 mins
    culture, education, eudaimonia, pedagogy, science

    Walther needs to talk, so they throw out the show format and just talk. Staying on mic aside, enjoy letting the conversation go where the conversation goes.

  •

    Wallowing in Doubt

    2 January 2021  |  1 hr 34 mins
    culture, education, eudaimonia, pedagogy, science

    In this episode Walther professes his doubt that he has any efficacy as a teacher. This leads to a deep and good conversation about the nature of teaching, assessment, and motivation. There is talk about Moogs and Cars at the end lighting things up.
    Oh and we have mics now and this the start of the second session!

  •

    Walther's Job

    28 November 2020  |  1 hr 27 mins
    avid, education, kinematics, pedagogy, relational trust, student growth

    Jason and Carl spend most of the episode talking about education and AVID in general.

  • The Zelda Chronicals

    7 November 2020  |  1 hr 59 mins
    breath of the wild, legend of link, legend of zelda, link, link to the past, link’s awakening, majora’s mask, ocarina of time, skyward sword, twilight princes, zelda

    This week we bring on a guest to talk about all things Zelda. What more is there to say, other than I am sure you are going to love it!

  •

    Teaching Facts Leads to Racism

    19 October 2020  |  1 hr 31 mins
    chaucer, film and movies, obama administration, racism, shakespear, teaching facts

    Jason and Walther have established some responsibilities upfront before launching into what becoming a theme for this podcast Racism. Namely the racism in how the Obama administration is viewed. The second topic of the episode is almost as contentious as Jason argues with Carl over his indifference to teaching facts in the classroom. They wrap up the show talking about who made the biggest contribution to the English Literature.

  •

    It's Literally in the Title

    7 October 2020  |  1 hr 45 mins
    covid, fear and success, growth mineset, halo, moives, politics, video games, wood joints, young's module, zelda

    Jason and Walther talk about movies, or mostly why Walther is Critical of movies. Jason demands that Walther walk him though this failure of understanding multiple times through the episode, but in the end is left being told to pound sand. There is a little wood talk in the middle, and Jason closes up with a good discussion about the path to success and how to present that as a model to students.

  • You Sniff Your Pants?!?

    27 September 2020  |  1 hr 9 mins
    coffee, electoral college, pants, racist

    This was our second episode recorded and or last Demo Track before we started recording for real. While some of the conversations are a month our two dated, I still think this is a good feel for the report between Jason and Carl.

  •

    It’s not for that, but that's what its used for.

    21 September 2020  |  1 hr 31 mins
    asynchronous learing, back to school, core 4 lms, dyslexia, eudimonia, kolache, metric system, oldschool video games, onlyfans, pedagogy, precision, uncertainty

    This is a long one, and good one. Carl goes on a long tirade about accuracy and precision,
    and then launches into what the metric system is good for.
    The show goes serious and mournful a bit when the discussion moves to job hunting and kids back in school.
    Jason believes all Walther's issues would be solved if he fished more, but Carl not so sold on the idea.
    There is more pedagogy talk on how the open day of school will look like in Sunnyside and what Asynchronous Learning looks like.
    There is discussion of the old video games at the end and bring on a guest to nerd out about Zelda.

  •

    Friends for Life, though Thick and Thin ...

    15 September 2020  |  45 mins 21 secs
    how to read by walther, tracking behavior, turbinia

    Jason and Carl first demo tape, this year. There is a great discussion on what should be tracked in the classroom, how to read a book properly, and what is the nature of suffering and how it affects student learning.

  •

    Rosebud

    11 September 2020  |  1 hr 4 mins
    backtoschool, goldpocketwatch, hollywood, tablegussets

    Jason And Carl talk about the past and family history and end up talking about how education will look in the new normal of distance learning.