Almost Educational
182 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 31 ratingsTwo educators Patrick and Dennis sit down and attempt to educate one another on a subject using a thought experiment as the premise. Topics range from Real Life Super Villains, Language as a Virus, Restructuring the MLB, Alternate History, 1970’s
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Episodes
EP 81: The Politics of Superheroes
April 20, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 69.4 MBPolitical Capes and Tights
EP 78: Alternative Ayatollah
March 24, 2016 02:02 - 1 hour - 40.5 MBAlternate history scenarios of the Iran Hostage Crisis, Iran Iraq War, Ronald Reagan, Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and more. Cthulhu, World War 3, Terrorism, Watchmen, and Dennis’ Trump theory also appear.
EP 77: Civics Hour Meltdown
March 15, 2016 04:00 - 1 hour - 44 MBExecutive Branch What Ifs?. Dennis and Patrick try to make sense of conventions, third party outsiders, and Dennis makes the bold prediction a fractured national race leads to Marco Rubio as president plus and he reads selections of Mein Kampf
EP 76: Reading, Writing, and Redacted
March 09, 2016 20:23 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBPatrick has a conversation with artist / author Ephrat Livni all about the intrinsic value of reading fiction, science fiction, and trying to understand Common Core and YA. Ephrat’s work can found at http://www.ephratlivni.com/ her Twitter is @el72ch...
EP 75: Curt Flood Makes America Great Again
March 03, 2016 02:54 - 1 hour - 40.5 MBAlternate History topic this week in which free agency never comes to pass in baseball or comes early in 1921. Would America be more regionally minded? Earlier Desegregation? Then Donald Trump talk breaks out at @51:30 mark
EP 73: Death and Taxes
February 24, 2016 17:11 - 1 hour - 41.6 MBPatrick gives Dennis a flurry of thought experiments to dissect including, could nuclear autumn prevent global warming? Do mosquitoes matter? Could we put every American on basic income? Should we pay students for better grades? Zika Virus, Elon...
EP 72: Alternative History of Henry the 8th
February 17, 2016 22:29 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBDennis gets to discuss his favorite topic of the Tudors and Henry the 8th. What if Henry had a son with Catherine of Aragon? What would a Catholic England look like? Would England ever become a superpower? What if there was never a reign of Queen...
EP 71: Understanding Zero
February 11, 2016 01:47 - 39 minutes - 26.5 MBPatrick invites Colin Beveridge, mathematician and author from Flying Colours Maths to better explain Zero as a number, concept, and tool. Colin gives some history of zero, explains empty sets and how infinity is zero’s conceptual mate. Plus Patrick...
EP 70: JFK Lives Alternate History of 11/22/63
February 04, 2016 08:04 - 1 hour - 39.1 MBPatrick finally reads Stephen King’s 11/22/63 and Dennis gets his wish to speculate about an America with a second term of Kennedy. What happens in Vietnam? Does Nixon run? What about Bobby Kennedy? Would JFK be impeached? What about LBJ and the...
EP 69: Flint Water and Protesting
January 20, 2016 16:53 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBDennis and Patrick open the show with the recent history of the Flint Michigan lead water crisis which leads into a discussion about the effectiveness of protests, boycotts, and movements. Violence VS Nonviolence Topics range from Black Lives Matter...
EP 68: Alternate History of Soviet America
January 14, 2016 02:58 - 1 hour - 43.9 MBPatrick wants to explore an alternate history experiment and play with concept that America could have become a Soviet nation. What if Lenin came to the states? Could Debs have rallied a Socialist Republic of America? What conditions could have sw...
EP 67: A History of Trolling
January 07, 2016 04:25 - 1 hour - 39.4 MBDennis and Patrick debate and discuss the Donald Trump and the Election of 1912 in regards to the American obsession with trolling. They highlight some of the greatest trolls in American history Andy Kaufman, Hunter S Thompson, and Muhammad Ali inc...
EP 66: Smedley Butler & Captain America
December 31, 2015 02:10 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBPatrick goes solo and tells the tale of General Smedley Butler, the marine who went from super solider to outspoken critic of the military industrial complex. From his roots as a son of Quakers to the man that exposed the plot to overthrow FDR. Thi...
EP 65: Warren Zevon Supershow
December 23, 2015 00:10 - 2 hours - 74 MBPatrick brings on three guests, Geoff, Emily, and Nate to discuss Warren Zevon. How do you define Zevon as a an artist? Why was he never as big as other artists in canon of American musicians? What was the David Lettermen connection all about? Al...
EP 64: Star Wars Survey Class
December 18, 2015 01:13 - 1 hour - 40.7 MBPatrick invites Rod from the Listening Party Podcast to discuss Star Wars, What is like to watch Star Wars for the first time and not speak a bit of English? Why is the Empire so appealing? Does it matter that the Expanded Universe is no longer in...
EP 63: Geek Culture or the Infantilize of America
December 16, 2015 02:13 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBLots of shouty debate when Patrick and Dennis debate the idea that millennials are infantilized in modern. Has the rise of “geek” culture stunted the social and political growth of youth? Is the shouting echo chamber of the internet causing young...
EP 62: A Plague Debate
December 09, 2015 13:06 - 54 minutes - 35.3 MBPatrick and Dennis examine which pandemic from which historical period had the greater impact on the world, The Bubonic Plague of of the Middle Ages or the Spanish Influenza of 1918. How do they compare in death tolls? What influence did the 100 Ye...
EP 61: Animal to Human Communication
December 02, 2015 15:55 - 1 hour - 63.7 MBPatrick invites artist, podcaster, and all around good guy Mike, from Our Hero Comic to talk about the Mad Scientist John Lilly and the possibility of human to animal communication. Part debate, and part discussion the duo journey down the path of s...
EP 60: What is Nostalgia Good For?
November 25, 2015 14:20 - 1 hour - 49.5 MBDennis and Patrick welcome Cassidy from the podcast Jabber and the Drone to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of putting on the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. Where the 1950’s really that great? Does mass media create our memories? Where does...
EP 59: Time Travel Titors
November 18, 2015 16:40 - 1 hour - 41.9 MBThe floodgates are opened to discuss time travel in historical, scientific, and philosophical conventions by looking at the the odd case for internet based chrononaut John Titor. The duo invoke Sagan, Hawking, Doc Brown to help explain the Titor sto...
EP 57: Alternative Civil War
November 05, 2015 16:09 - 1 hour - 40.9 MBPatrick wants to know if the month of April 1865 went very different for America. What if Robert E Lee sanctioned a guerrilla war against the Union? What if the Booth conspiracy was successful and the entire executive branch was decapitated? What...
EP 56: We Are the Real Monsters
October 28, 2015 21:40 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBDoctor Mengele and Lex Luthor Mashup
EP 54: Talking Fascism
October 20, 2015 03:50 - 1 hour - 70.7 MBThis week Patrick invites the “professor” Winston to chat with him about sunny subjects like human suffering, fascism, and the human condition. Winston and Patrick discuss fascism as a concept, African tribal culture, nationalism, American bureaucra...
EP 51: Sport or Activity?
October 01, 2015 05:49 - 1 hour - 55.3 MBPatrick tries to keep it civil when he engages Dennis in the debate of what guidelines deem something a sport or an activity. NASCAR, Baseball, Ping Pong, Dance, Math, Esports, and Horse Racing are all debated using a guideline of four criteria from...
EP 50 : Justice League of American History Draft
September 23, 2015 17:51 - 1 hour - 99.3 MBA most boring Avengers team