PODCAST · education
The Best Paragraph I've Read...
by Zac & Don
A podcast that discusses an interesting article or concept.
Episodes
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Back to School: Football! School Snacks! What Should Principals Be Thinking More About? Is Football the Last Hope for Boys? Do We Need to Bring Back Food Trading & Birthday Treats?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from two articles about football and school snacks! What should a school administrator be thinking about as we head back to school? America Needs Its Boys to Play Football Nothing Blows up a Parent Group Like A Fight Over School Snacks.
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Is Youth Travel Soccer the Reason America Can't Win the World Cup? Does Norway Have the Right Model? Would Americans Accept No Score, Volunteer Coaches, Few Games If It Meant Winning Internationally?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from two different articles discussing the reasons behind the success (Norway) and failure (America) of national soccer teams. World Cup Losses Unless America Fixes Youth Soccer System This Nation Breaks Every Rule of US Youth Soccer & Builds a World Monster
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Is the College Bubble Bursting? Evidence: Syracuse Drops 84 Majors! Small Colleges Raiding Endowments for General Funds! Is the College Financial Bubble Finally Coming True? Is this Sad?
The Best Paragraph I've Read" Comes from two articles: Syracuse drops 84 Majors Small Colleges Raiding Endowments for General Funds Zac & Don wonder if there are concrete signs that the college bubble is finally bursting.
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What's More Impressive? Humanoid Robots Or Teens Breaking World Track Records? Will We See An Increase in Double-threshhold & Bicarb Training Among Teens? Don's Son Collin McLaughlin Joins!
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from the following two articles: Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games Elite teen runners are becoming freakishly fast. What's their secret? Zac & Don discussing whether they are more impressed by…
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Why Are K-12 Education & Schools So Hard To "Solve"? Shouldn't $125 Million Be Enough? Should Silicon Tech Entrepreneurs Have the Answers? What Ideas Still Need to Be Tried? Maybe There's No Problem?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from the following article: This School Was Priscilla Chan's Bold Education Experiment. It Just Closed. Zac & Don discuss and wonder why it's so hard to solve education.
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Should We Think of Europe as a Theme Park-Like Disneyland? Where Are the Real Europeans? OK to Pretend They're There? Or Should We Continue to See Europe As a Museum with Big History & Monuments??
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from The Economist: Dismissing Europe as a museum is glib. Think of it as a theme park. Zac & Don wonder whether we should see Europe as a theme park for tourists.
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Should We Lose Sleep Over: Chinese EVs in USA? Autocrats as Peacemakers? Pet Divorce Rights? Refinancing Auto Loans? Jet Ski Drones? Isolation Studies Results? Franklin Advocated for the Bow?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from several articles: America can't hide from Chinese EVs forever Refinancing Car Loans Autocrats are the New Peacemakers Isolation Studies in Antarctica Increasing Pet Divorce Rights Project Maven Ben Franklin Bow & Arrow Letter
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World Cup Tourists love America! Buc-ees, Waffle House, Walmart, Endless Chips & Salsa, Big Trucks, Cowboy Hats, Friendliness! Is this New American Soft Power? How Prideful Should America Feel?
The Best Paragraph I've Read... Comes from the Wall Street Journal as it describes World Cup Soccer Fans experiencing and enjoying many common American activities. You can read the full article here:...
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Ranch! Why Only Popular in North America? Can Ranchbassador Convince Europe to Try? Does Ranch With Paella or Snails work? Could Ranch Ever Meet Ketchup's Continental Sales Diversity? Is Ranch Good?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from an article in the Wall Street Journal. The article is about a new job this summer - the Ranchbassador. You can read the full article here. Zac & Don discuss Ranch and whether it can gain in popularity across the world.
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Wealth Redistribution! Is Norway Too Rich While China Not Generous Enough? Should Norway Worry About Ambition? Should China Care More for Those Who Built it? Is America's System the Happy Middle?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Comes from the economist which had two articles discussing the social safety net programs in Norway & China. You can read the full articles below: Can a country be too rich? China's Failing Pension System
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Space X! Great Investment? Is It a Rocket or AI Company? Or Is Elon Musk the All that Matters? Should People Buy for Orbital Data Centers or Starlink? Any Concern Over 1 Million People on Mars?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Is about Space X and the companies upcoming IPO. Don and Zac debate the merits of the company and wonder if they should purchase shares. You can read the full article here: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2026/05/21/elon-musk-is-going-all-in-on-an-unproven-technology
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Maybe Humans Can Have Jobs & Exist with A.I.? Will We Just Perform Services for the Rich? Or Will Increased Productivity = More Work to Do? What if AI + Human Work Quality Is Bad?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "For most of human history, calories were scarce. Our energy went into finding or growing food. Agriculture steadily made food more plentiful and goods became scarce. Then goods were scarce; hand-me-down clothes were common and tools were expensive. Innovations in...
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3 Education Ideas: Only Fans Professors Who Teach At the Edge of Knowledge? Bored Students Without Phones & Screens? Declining School Enrollment Nationwide? Which Idea Should Be Further Considered?
The Best Paragraphs I've Read: Come from three articles on education: Why the Future of College Could Look Like OnlyFans Are Bored Students A Reason to Not Ban Cell Phones & Screens in School? School Enrollments Are Dropping Nationwide Zac & Don Discuss these ideas and wonder which has the most...
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Worry Meter: Iran Divides Into 30,000 Units? USA Travel Deficit? Paying to Avoid Russia's Frontline? Decline Gulf Remittances? Reducing Buffett Waste? Ukraine = Drone Experts? More Nuclear States?
The Best Paragraph I've Read... Is from multiple articles from the Economist Magazine. Zac & Don Briefly discuss the following topics: Iran Divides Into 30,000 Units? USA Travel Deficit? Paying to Avoid Russia's Frontline? Decline Gulf Remittances? Reducing Buffett Waste? Ukraine = Drone Experts?...
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Driving Across America! Which Route? Windows up or down? Zeppelin or Guthrie? Good Salads in Midwest? Paper Maps or GPS? Is Two Passengers the Best Number? We Debate Tyler Cowen's Ideas!
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "I have driven cross-country four times, at least if you count a 3/4 trip as valid. I also have driving experience in virtually all states, including Hawaii and Alaska, neither of which would be part of typical cross-country travel. I recommend this mode of transport...
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Why Are Americans Rich & Still Miserable? The Economic Theory that Explains Why People Go to Disney, Play Youth Sports, Book Travel and are still unhappy! Can One Be Mad At A Million Tiny Decisions?
The Best Paragraph I've Read... Comes from an essay in the New York Times titled: "How Can America Be So Miserable When It Is So Rich?" The essay is written by David French. You can read the full essay here.
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New American Trend! Make Children Repeat 8th Grade for NIL & Scholarships. What if We Held Back Kindergarteners Instead? Does It Matter if Research Says Only 10% of Children Become Elite Adults?
The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from the following two articles in the Wall Street Journal: Reclassifying Your 8th Grader for NIL & Scholarship Opportunities Most Elite Adults were NOT Elite as Children
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Nuclear Prediction Markets Canceled! Work Harder Now? Is Bitcoin Uncool? Education Tech Failure? US Gov. Unconcerned of TikTok! Single Earning Homes in Decline! Is Russian Economy in the Death Zone?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: comes from the following articles that Zac & Don discuss: Nuclear Predictions Markets Are Canceled Should You Work Harder Now? Bitcoins Vibe is Off Education Tech Doesn't Show Gains No One Cares About Tik Tok Anymore Single Earning Households On the Decline The…
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Do We Need New Cities? Would Building on Open Land Escape Current City Problems? Or Will People Being People Ruin New Cities? Do Irvine, CA & Walt Disney Have the Solution to the Housing Shortage?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Open land represents the future in its purest form — after all, every place was no place at some point. The quest for resources, escaping bondage or seeking places to worship freely have all motivated new settlements and fresh modes of living. Buildings, sure, but...
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Are Schools the Problem? Are Phone Unfairly Blamed When It Comes to Student Stress & Anxiety? Should the Correlation of NCLB/Common Core & Increases in Student Anxiety Be Considered? Dave Mckay Joins!
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "By turning childhood into a thing that can be measured,adults have managed to impose their greatest fears of failure onto the youngest among us. Each child who strays from our standards becomes a potential medical mystery to be solved, with more tests to take, more...
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What's the Urgency Thinking Level: Robots taking Amazon Jobs? The Southern Cone Thesis? More Aircraft Carriers for China? Greenland's Subsidized Population? The Dollar's Declining Value?
Don tells Zac whether he needs to stop or keep thinking about the following issues: Robots taking Jobs The Southern Cone Thesis China's Growing Aircraft Carrier Collection Greenland's Subsidized Population The Dollars Declining Value
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The Most Interesting Things Kent Hendricks Learned in 2025: Hot Dogs In W. Virginia, Decline in Male Hand Strength, Mexican School Hours & Divorce Rates, Billion Dollar Birders, Adult Diapers & More!
The Best Paragraph this week comes from Kent Hendrick's Blog Post on 52 Things I Learned in 2025. You can read the entire blog here. Zac and Don discuss their favorite facts and statistics that Mr. Hendricks shares in his article.
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Football! Why So Popular When So Few Play & Actually Understand It? The Perfect TV Product or A Distraction from Real Issues? Is Jim Thorpe Greatest Ever with No Video Evidence? Is it Applied Track?
The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from the new book by Chuck Klosterman, "Football." Zac & Don discuss the first half of the book. They wonder about why so few people play the game, if it's the perfect TV product, whether the game is applied track, and more!
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Young Adults Have Given Up On Home Buying! Does this Trend Lead to Less Effort at Work & More Sushi & Crypto Consumption? New Trend? Or Delayed Behavior that Will Fall In Line with Historical Norms?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "With home affordability increasingly out of reach, many young adults are making choices that are reshaping the economy — and mostly for the worse — a new research paper says. They don’t think they’ll ever be homeowners. So they stop trying, and focus on the here and...
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Should Parents Tell Children How Much Money they Make? What Are the Benefits? Any Drawbacks? Is this the Ultimate Personal Finance Lesson? Or Should No Swipe November Become A Trend for Everyone?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Money is a source of mystery to children. They sense its power, so they ask questions, lots of them, over many years. Why isn’t our house as big as my cousin’s? Why can’t I have a carnivorous plant terrarium? Why should I respect my teachers if they earn only…
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China's Large Power Line Projects, Growing Renewable Energy Projects, Intense Domestic Electric Car Industry, & 200 Million Gig Workers! How Does It Compare to America's Abundance Movement?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "The power line starts in a remote desert in northwestChina, where vast arrays of solar panels and wind turbines generate electricity on a monumental scale. It snakes southeast, following an ancient river betweenmountain ranges before reaching Anhui Province near...
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Do We Live In A "Limitless" Society? Has Our Modern World Become a Machine for Destroying Limits? Is this Good or Bad? Have Humans Always Been Expanding Upon Limits? Is there Anyway to Stop the Trend?
The Best Paragraph I've Read If civilization is accelerating down a freeway that’s taking us away from our shared humanity—not to mention destroying the ecosystems we depend on—at whatexit do we get off? Artificial intelligence, new medical interventions, and other modern marvels allow us some...
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Stadiums! Why Are the World's Largest Devoted Semi Professional Football (College) in Fairly Small Cities? Will Anyone Try to Overtake Michigan Stadium's Size? Is It Still Fun to Attend Live Sports?
The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from an article in The Athletic. The article is titled: "Looking for the world's biggest stadiums? Why American College Football has most of them." The author is Seth Emerson. You can read the full article here:...
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Is $140,000 the New Poverty Line? Why Does the Number Trigger Debate? Are You A Complainer If You Agree? Are you Cold Hearted If Disagree? Will this Number Become A New Political Issue? Who Takes It?
The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from the Washington Post. The article is titled: "An investor called $140,000 the new poverty line. Experts disagreed but said he had a point." The article is written by Julie Zauzmer Weil. You can read the full article here:...
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The Enhanced Games! Allowing Athletes to Take Performance Enhancing Drugs! Transparency or Cheating? Should the Records Count? Is A Nation of Gym Cycles & Ozempic Ready to Accept this in Sports?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "With investors that include venture capitalist PeterThiel and Donald Trump Jr., Enhanced is attempting to push sports into a world of logical and physical extremes, unencumbered by the rules, regulations or doping controls of traditional competition. They plan to…
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Orcas! Are the Yacht Attacking, Shark Torturing, Halibut Stealing from A Fisherman's Line Animal Winning the Most News Headlines in the 2020's? How Intelligent Are They? Are their Actions on Purpose?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Skipper Robert Hanson’s lines have been hit by lots ofthe killer whales that dwell in the Bering Sea. He has found the Unalaska pod to be the most savvy, skilled and aggressive — leaving just traces of halibut, the largest of which could have netted Hanson hundreds…
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The Elite College Myth! In the Long Run Does Harvard & Peers Provide Better Opportunities than Other Schools? Should Seniors Applying for College & Parents Think Infinite Instead of Finite?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Think of it this way. All college graduates enter acareer lottery for a chance at landing in the top 1% of earners. Recent research has found that graduates of top-ranked schools like Harvard or Stanford are 60% more likely to hit that jackpot. Essentially, they get...
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Two Parenting Trends: All Meat Baby Diets & Out Feral their Feral! Do Babies Need Whipped Bone Marrow & Parent Prechewed Meat? Or Should Kids Be Bitten Back & Thrown Into Ponds? Which Trend Will Last?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "When Dariya Quenneville’s infant daughter was ready for solid food, she skipped the mushed up avocado and banana. On the menu instead? Raw egg yolk and puréed chicken liver. The child, named Schizandra, then moved on to sardines, butter and ice pops made out of bone...
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Shameless Self Promotion! Crypto School 2 the Book Is Out! Don & Zac Discuss the Sequel: Do Schools Understand A.I., Character Education, & Unanswered Questions? Principals, Parent Meetings, & More!
Shameless Self Promotion this Week! Zac & Don discuss the book Zac recently wrote, Crypto School 2: Privot to A.I. While they discuss moments from the book, they also talk about AI in schools and wonder if education has fully considered what they should be doing with the technology. They also...
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3 Trends: 6-7 Classroom Excitement, Run Ultra Marathons While Eating Taco Bell, Consuming MRE Rations from Old Wars. Which Trend Lasts Into 2026? Brain Rot, Bro, & Skibidi Toilet Also Discussed!
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "The name of this fall’s most obnoxious classmate: SixSeven. Math teacher Cara Bearden braces herself for any equation that yields the two numbers, knowing her students will immediately scream them right back at her. “SIX Sevennnnnn,” they squeal with a palms-up,...
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The Scarlet Plague! What Did Jack London Writing in 1912 Get Right About 2012? How Fragile Is Civilization? How difficult Is It To Rebuild? How Thin is the Line Between Nature Winning & Losing?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: “The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it—the same old story over and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be...
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Is Your Identity Based Upon Your Grocery Store? Why Do Brands & Stores Make Us Feel Specific Ways? Which Grocery Stores = Biggest Satisfaction Rates? Is Trader Joes Special? Can Only 85% Be Fans?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "A place that was once entirely utilitarian is now a place to line up to get into. On social media, people profess their love for the Pennsylvania convenience store Wawa and talk about Target like it’s a habit-forming substance. Recently, I saw a guy at a bar wearing...
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Is AI an Investment Bubble? Can the $45 Billion Industry Earn the $2 Trillion It Needs to Justify Investment? 95% of Companies See No Return on AI Investments? Lots of Debt & Chips ONLY Last 3-5 Years
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "The windswept town of Ellendale, N.D., population 1,100, has two motels, a Dollar General, a Pentecostal Bible college—and a half-built AI factory bigger than 10 Home Depots. Its more than $15 billion price tag is equivalent to a quarter of the state’s annual…
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Is Mexico's Molar City the Answer to America's Dental Problems/Costs? Why the Focus On Non Medically Necessary Procedures? 75% of Kids Now Get Braces! Why Do People Despise Dental Visits?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Crossing the border can be a little daunting the first time, some said. “Took us three years to work up enough nerve,” Ken Foshaug, a retired Coast Guard engineer who was staying at a nearby Sleepy Hollow R.V. park with his wife, told me. “All the guys holding guns...
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Sports Gambling! Problem for Young Men? Ok If the Gambling Companies Only Allow Losers to Play? Should Schools Be Required to Teach About Sports Betting? How Did Betting Become Legal?
This week Zac & Don discuss all of Season 5 of the Against the Rules Podcast. This is the podcast by Michael Lewis. You can listen to individual episodes and the entire season here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-rules-with-michael-lewis/id1455379351 Zac & Don wonder about what...
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Private Equity's Youth Sports Investment! How Did America End Up Spending $40 Billion to Watch Kids Play? What About those Who Can't Afford? Why Sports & Not Other Kid Activities? Is This A Bubble?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: This year, a team of researchers from Ohio State University and Oregon State University found that success in competitive youth sports might have more to do with money and opportunity than with talent and hard work. The researchers determined that 70 percent of...
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Fantasy Food Brand Draft!!! Pepsi, Hershey, Campbells, General Mills, Nestle, & More! Which Companies Can Turn their Stock Price Around? New Products or Spin Offs? Zac & Don Discuss their Picks!
The Best Paragraph I've Read: the big packaged food brands that dominated Americanpantries and refrigerators for decades are struggling as consumers spend less on brand-name cookies, spaghetti sauce and cream cheese. The companies are grappling with a number of stressors. Shoppers, feeling…
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Superintendent Heidi Mercer Joins to Discuss The Anxious Generation, Smartphones in School, Free Play, Her District's New Cell Phone Policy, & What Her Stakeholders Are Saying. About It All
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Gen Z became the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addictive, unstable, and - as I will show - unsuitable for children and...
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A Potential AI Scenario: 20-30% GDP Growth! Mass Unemployment! Higher Wages for Trades & Service Workers! 30% Mortgage Rates! Capital/Land Owners Win! 0% Saving Rate! Could this AGI Future Come True?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "The likelihood that AI may soon make lots of workers redundant is well known. What is much less discussed is the hope that AI can set the world on a path of explosive growth. That would have profound consequences. Markets not just for labour, but also for goods,...
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More Lonesome Dove! Does the Book Get Too "Hollywood" In Action & Natural Disasters? Why Don't We Get the Native American Perspective? Why Is this Book So Captivating & Hard to Stop Reading? Spoilers
This is Part II of our Lonesome Dove discussion. Zac & Don discuss more of their favorite quotes while also wondering why the story does not get told from a Native American perspective. They wonder if the story gets a little too "Hollywood" and if they have interest in reading the sequels. Lots…
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Not Everyone Wants A Buc-ee's In their Community??? Who's Right In this Colorado Gas Station Fight? A Billionaire's Involved! Is this an Abundance or NIMBY or Western Land Issue? Who Will Win?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: The Buc-ee’s representatives tried to outline the planfor about 300 locals packed into the cafeteria at Palmer Lake Elementary School on Dec. 3. But they were met with jeers. “We don’t want your Buc-ee’s, we don’t need your Buc-ee’s, we don’t desire your Beaver...
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We're Reading Lonesome Dove! How Can A Book Be this Good While Little Seems to Be Happening? How Accurate Are Character Behaviors & Thoughts? Zac & Don Break Down Part I. Plot Spoilers Discussed.
Zac & Don are reading Lonesome Dove. This week they reflect on the first third of the book. They wonder how a book can be so interesting while very little seems to be happening. They also wonder how authentic the characters are to those who lived in Texas during the late 19th century. They also…
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Elon Musk's New Political Party! Is America Ready to Support A 3rd Party? What's the Best Strategy? Is Musk the Right Leader With Right Focus? Mark Cuban? Are there Better Ways to Impact Politics?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: Perot was the most successful third-party candidate in modern history. You helped run his campaigns and build the Reform Party. What advice do you have for Musk when it comes to building a new party? My basic advice is: Go to rehab and then focus on creating a new...
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Are America's Kids the "Sickest Generation in History"? Will Eliminating Food Chemicals Save them? Does Exercise Need Promotion? What's Better: Kids Eating Unhealthy School Lunch or Not Eating At All?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the healthsecretary, set forth their vision on Thursday for how to “make America healthy again” with the release of an expansive report on a crisis of chronic disease in children. The report lays the blame on ultra…
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What's a Genius? Specialist or Well Rounded Skills? Can Athletes, Ballerinas, and Toilet Scrubbers Be Geniuses? Should We Excuse Geniuses for Being Jerks & Aloof? Were Jobs, Darwin, Leonardo Geniuses?
The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Let’s say there’s another pandemic. This time, a lethal disease spreads through contact with other people’s fecal matter. Precision toilet cleaning becomes a matter of life and death. In the wake of this pandemic, an aptitude test—callit the T.I.Q.—is developed to...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A podcast that discusses an interesting article or concept.
HOSTED BY
Zac & Don
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The Best Paragraph I've Read... currently has 291 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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A podcast that discusses an interesting article or concept.
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The Best Paragraph I've Read... is created and hosted by Zac & Don.
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