Speaker 1: Guess what will? What's that? Man? Do you know that
Speaker 1: Read College in Oregon actually offers an underwater basket weaving course?
Speaker 1: Are you serious? I mean Read is known for being
Speaker 1: a strange and wonderful place. It's actually one of those
Speaker 1: campuses I've always wanted to visit, but I can't say
Speaker 1: i'd heard about this course. Yeah, so, I know underwater
Speaker 1: basket weaving has been a punchline for so long, but
Speaker 1: it's actually todd each year during a festival at Read
Speaker 1: and does account for credit. I mean, it's more for fun,
Speaker 1: but I love that you can actually learn the skill.
Speaker 1: And actually I read this note from a student defending it,
Speaker 1: where he was saying basically that in this a d
Speaker 1: h D world where we look at our phones every
Speaker 1: three seconds, and you know, we need to constantly be
Speaker 1: stimulated by technology and being forced to concentrate on basket
Speaker 1: weaving in a pool with your face stuffed into a snorkel,
Speaker 1: that that was actually good for both his patients and concentration,
Speaker 1: and it also reduced his anxiety. I kind of like
Speaker 1: this defense, and I mean, I think that's kind of
Speaker 1: the point, right, Like, when you start looking around, there's
Speaker 1: so many of these quirky classes being taught around the country,
Speaker 1: and many of them are way more valuable than you
Speaker 1: inc So I thought today would be a great time
Speaker 1: to spotlight some of the weirdest classes we could find.
Speaker 1: What do you say? We dive in? Heay their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius and Will Pearson And as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend man guest I've
Speaker 1: taken up and we're so happy to welcome back our
Speaker 1: producer Tristan. He's a super important part of this show
Speaker 1: and he's been out for a few days, but we're
Speaker 1: very glad he's back. Well, speaking of back, it is
Speaker 1: back to school time, and to be honest, we're a
Speaker 1: little bit jealous. I mean, there's all these weird college
Speaker 1: classes out there, and we wish we could take them all.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe not all of them, but definitely way
Speaker 1: more than we'd ever be able to. But that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we can't talk about them. So that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do today. We'll also talk to a couple of
Speaker 1: daring professors who spearheaded some pretty unique courses of their own.
Speaker 1: So who's on the line today? Mego, yeah, So we've
Speaker 1: got Kenneth Goldsmith, the poet and professor at the University
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania. Kenneth actually teaches two unusual classes. One's called
Speaker 1: Uncreative Writing and the others titled Wasting time on the Internet.
Speaker 1: And we'll have some wonderful quizzes too. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: before we dive in, we want to hear from you listeners.
Speaker 1: Let us know the weirdest college class you ever took,
Speaker 1: or the one offered at your school that you always
Speaker 1: wish you'd taken but maybe didn't get a chance to.
Speaker 1: So send that into part time genius at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter,
Speaker 1: or you can call us on our fancy new fact
Speaker 1: hotline one eight four four pt genius. So we look
Speaker 1: forward to hearing from you, and of course we'll be
Speaker 1: sending some swag to the top three entries, so we're
Speaker 1: really looking forward to that. All right, great, alright, So
Speaker 1: fair warning to any listeners who haven't perused the college
Speaker 1: course catalog in a while. You need to prepare to
Speaker 1: be jealous. I mean, these catalogs have expanded in some
Speaker 1: wild directions over the past decade or so, and the
Speaker 1: result is this mortgage board of strange and quirky classes
Speaker 1: that you know, they kind of bring new meaning to
Speaker 1: the term liberal education. But I remember like some house
Speaker 1: courses that people used to teach even back when we
Speaker 1: were in college, Like during spring break, you could take
Speaker 1: this course called just Enough Guitar to Impress someone and
Speaker 1: and by the end of the class you learned to
Speaker 1: play something that sounds impressive but actually isn't that hard,
Speaker 1: like Tangerine LEDs up. But I I agree with you,
Speaker 1: these courses tend to stray pretty far from the core curriculum,
Speaker 1: but that definitely doesn't mean that they're all together silly
Speaker 1: or or that their merit lists, although trying to sell
Speaker 1: your parents on the worth of them might be another story, right,
Speaker 1: you know, Because we want to cover as many of
Speaker 1: these weird courses as we could. Mango and I actually
Speaker 1: split up our research for this episode, so we found
Speaker 1: the most interesting surprising courses we could across, you know,
Speaker 1: a few few different broad categories. So we'll share our
Speaker 1: findings and see if we can build our own ideal
Speaker 1: course load for the fall semester. So, so where do
Speaker 1: you want to start? Mango? So I want to skip
Speaker 1: straight to the mouth watering food classes because they're the
Speaker 1: most fun. And the first one we're gonna start with
Speaker 1: is from Alfred University. It's called maple Syrup, the real Thing,
Speaker 1: the real like that day they're throwing there And wait,
Speaker 1: isn't that the coke slogan? Though? Yeah, but this stuff
Speaker 1: is genuine thing. And the fact is that some senators
Speaker 1: from Vermont and Main have actually introduced legislation that would
Speaker 1: make it a felony offense to sell fake maple syrup.
Speaker 1: So the stakes are actually pretty high. But the class
Speaker 1: sounds fascinating. It covers the history of maple syrup production
Speaker 1: and that spans from traditional methods to some of the
Speaker 1: more cutting edge harvesting methods that are used today. And
Speaker 1: students also get to take field trips to restaurants and
Speaker 1: local syrup producers, and they even get to go to
Speaker 1: a maple syrup festival. So but but the best part
Speaker 1: of the best part of all of this is that
Speaker 1: every student gets to create and eat their own maple syrup.
Speaker 1: I mean, it does sound like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm a total sucker for a good
Speaker 1: course description. Like in college, I almost took organic chemistry
Speaker 1: just because the class promised that um that you get
Speaker 1: to make something that's the scent of pairs, like you
Speaker 1: get to manufacture that in the lab. And and I'm
Speaker 1: terrible at chemistry, but I like pairs. I love how
Speaker 1: you felt for that with organic chemistry, which is maybe
Speaker 1: like the hardest class or the we eat out class
Speaker 1: in college. But anyway, what did you learn about maple syrup? So?
Speaker 1: You know, I couldn't resist looking up some more facts
Speaker 1: about maple syrup. So here are a few facts from
Speaker 1: my new favorite website, cottage Life. Yeah you want to
Speaker 1: shut up about this one, I know. The first one
Speaker 1: is that of the world's maple syrup actually comes from Canada.
Speaker 1: So that surprises me. I mean, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: you always hear about Vermont's maple syrup that I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have guessed that that larger percentage came from I feel
Speaker 1: like Vermont is always bragging about it, but Canadas, so
Speaker 1: they're king. Yeah, I guess so and and and it
Speaker 1: takes forty years for a tree to actually become ready
Speaker 1: to tap. And then once it's ready, it takes about
Speaker 1: forty liters of sap just to make one leader of syrup,
Speaker 1: which is crazy. That is crazy. So I mean that's
Speaker 1: a pretty serious long term investment to be able to
Speaker 1: get anything. So you said, forty years before they can
Speaker 1: get any syrup from this, which is which is why
Speaker 1: class is a good idea, right Can you imagine just
Speaker 1: diving into the business without knowing about it. But back
Speaker 1: to the college classes. There are actually a ton of
Speaker 1: classes out there that deal with the history of production
Speaker 1: and of specific foods and drinks, and so for example, St.
Speaker 1: Mary's College of California offers a course on the science
Speaker 1: behind craft beer and brewing it. And Purdue University in
Speaker 1: Indiana has this wine appreciation class that helps students develop
Speaker 1: their palates. All right, wait, so let me make this clear.
Speaker 1: So California has the beer class and the Midwest has
Speaker 1: the wine appreciation class. I know, it almost seems backwards, right,
Speaker 1: but in fact, there are a lot of California schools
Speaker 1: that offer courses on the business of wine making. But
Speaker 1: produced class is purely about appreciating the wine. But for
Speaker 1: all the listeners out there, like, it's only open to
Speaker 1: students who are twenty one or older. So for anyone
Speaker 1: who's going to college there, they've got to pay their
Speaker 1: dues before getting the indulge into weekly wines and things.
Speaker 1: Yeah that makes sense, alright, So the maple syrup classes
Speaker 1: a little lot, and the beer and wine classes would
Speaker 1: definitely make your parents take a second look at your
Speaker 1: course load. But what would you say as the food
Speaker 1: class that you found the most surprising? So Penn State's
Speaker 1: College of Agricultural Studies has a course that's all about
Speaker 1: ice cream making. Oh wow, all right, well, what's the
Speaker 1: scoop on that? So the course is actually called I said,
Speaker 1: what's the scoop? Just making sure? The course is actually
Speaker 1: called the ice Cream Short Course. And it's this seven
Speaker 1: day long class that's open to industry professionals as well
Speaker 1: as students. Basically, people come from all over the world
Speaker 1: to take part in a bunch of workshops that teach
Speaker 1: them about the different aspects of ice cream and you
Speaker 1: know the technology used to make it. But the really
Speaker 1: crazy thing is just how long the class has been
Speaker 1: going on for. Hence State has been offering it every
Speaker 1: January for the last six years. Oh wow, seriously, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. So, in fact, it's very likely the first
Speaker 1: continuing ed course ever offered in the US. It first
Speaker 1: started back in two when the School of Agricultural held
Speaker 1: this uh dairy manufacturing class in the winter and this
Speaker 1: is courting the school. This is when farm work is
Speaker 1: least pressing and the boys can be spared. Is that
Speaker 1: really what it says, the boys can be spared? That
Speaker 1: kind of sounds like an ad for like a group
Speaker 1: that likes to go without underwear. They commando grew anyway,
Speaker 1: So sorry. Ice cream making was was always part of
Speaker 1: the curriculum, but by the Frozen treat became so popular
Speaker 1: in the US that the course exclusively focused on ice cream.
Speaker 1: And so so you've got to figure in this time,
Speaker 1: reps from every major ice cream place and started taking
Speaker 1: the course. So you've got good humor. Baskin Robbins, Ample Hills,
Speaker 1: Bluebell Hog and does. It's like a finishing course for
Speaker 1: every ice cream maker in the country, even Ben and
Speaker 1: Jerry's they learned their craft there. That's quite a crew
Speaker 1: that's been there. Well, did you find any other food
Speaker 1: classes that were kind of like that, you know, a
Speaker 1: bit more prestigious, but it still a little bit weird. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: But before we get to any of that, I've got
Speaker 1: to share at least one more ice cream factor. So
Speaker 1: did you know in nineteen seven, Fidel Castro was so
Speaker 1: threatened by Baskin Robbins and the fact that America had
Speaker 1: thirty one flavors of ice cream that he bragged that
Speaker 1: Cuba was already producing twenty six flavors and they'd soon
Speaker 1: be producing for I love the ramp up that he
Speaker 1: didn't just say they had more, that they really were
Speaker 1: working towards this goal. I know, if I understand why,
Speaker 1: like eleven more flavors makes Cuba like a superior society
Speaker 1: is pretty intimidating. Hey, he said they were gonna put
Speaker 1: America to shame. But back to your question, and this
Speaker 1: one is maybe my favorite class of this whole food category.
Speaker 1: It's called gastro Diplomacy and it's offered at American University
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. It's this really neat course based
Speaker 1: around the idea that food can be used to help
Speaker 1: increase cultural understanding between countries. Oh wow, well that's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially when you consider that for a lot
Speaker 1: of Americans, you know that the most personal interaction they'll
Speaker 1: ever have with some foreign cultures really is through the
Speaker 1: cuisine they might try at their own home. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: Public Diplomacy Magazine which I mean, we were in the
Speaker 1: magazine business with Metal Plus for fifteen years and I've
Speaker 1: never heard of it, but now I'm totally hooked. They
Speaker 1: did a study a few years back where they surveyed
Speaker 1: a hundred forty people about eating other cultures cuisine, and
Speaker 1: more than half the respondents said that eating a foreign
Speaker 1: country's food lead them to think more positively about that country.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's true. The way to people's hearts,
Speaker 1: it really is through their stomach. Well, I like that idea.
Speaker 1: And how exactly though, does this translate into a college class. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was curious about that too. But the students study
Speaker 1: wars and conflicts, so they might look at the Vietnam War,
Speaker 1: or Ethiopia Civil war are or the Soviet War in Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: And then they actually take field trips to local ethnic restaurants,
Speaker 1: you know, so they can actually taste traditional meals from
Speaker 1: these cultures and even get some face time with immigrants
Speaker 1: who prepare them. It's pretty awesome. And the instructor and
Speaker 1: Mendelssohn Foreman said, I've got this quote. The ideas for
Speaker 1: students to hear from the cooks, from the owners of
Speaker 1: these places about how they see their cuisine as a
Speaker 1: communication tool in their own communities. I think this one
Speaker 1: might be my favorite too. That that's that's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, do you have any others in that category? No,
Speaker 1: I think that covers it. Well, let's switch gears now
Speaker 1: from a course that challenges students to look outward at
Speaker 1: the people they share the world with, too, one that
Speaker 1: does the exact opposite. So I'm guessing you're talking about
Speaker 1: that selfie class you were telling me about earlier. Is
Speaker 1: indeed that one? All right? So this course falls into
Speaker 1: one of the broad categories I looked into, and that
Speaker 1: these were classes that examine the use of social media
Speaker 1: and digital technologies. And the first one is commonly referred
Speaker 1: to as the selfie class, but it's more formally known
Speaker 1: as Writing and Critical Reasoning Identity and diversity, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's part social studies, part writing workshop, and
Speaker 1: one of the courses assignments challenges students to take five
Speaker 1: selfies of themselves and then write an essay on how
Speaker 1: the selfies produced or obscured a sense of their identities.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a pretty thoughtful course actually, Like the
Speaker 1: students are encouraged to consider every aspect of their pictures,
Speaker 1: whether it's how they're posing their clothing, their facial expression,
Speaker 1: the lighting and background, even the gaze and the camera angle,
Speaker 1: and so actually here a few questions. The students were
Speaker 1: asked to think about what in your selfies is accurate?
Speaker 1: What is obscured or ambiguous? Does the image portray one
Speaker 1: identity trait more than others? How is the viewer addressed
Speaker 1: in the image? What is the apparent context of this image?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's so philosophical. Can you imagine if
Speaker 1: Instagram or Snapchat made this the assignment that before you
Speaker 1: hit the published button, that everyone has to write an
Speaker 1: essay exactly. I love it and and I also love
Speaker 1: things that don't sound that smart on the service and
Speaker 1: then end up being so much deeper, and taking selfies
Speaker 1: is like perfect. It's like the simple act of vanity.
Speaker 1: But but it's fun to think about what it actually
Speaker 1: says about ourselves, right, right, And it's a crazy phenomenon.
Speaker 1: So Google reports that more than twenty four billion selfies
Speaker 1: were uploaded in two thousand and fifteen, and that number
Speaker 1: only seems to be growing every single year. So did
Speaker 1: you come across any other courses that do this, you know,
Speaker 1: look at some of our questionable digital habits. Well, there's
Speaker 1: an interesting course at a pits or college called Learning
Speaker 1: from YouTube, and it was designed to evaluate what YouTube
Speaker 1: can teach us, you know, given that so many of
Speaker 1: its videos or someone educational and it's in their nature
Speaker 1: and you know, how to videos or video essays about
Speaker 1: the philosophy of popular movies or TV shows. And one
Speaker 1: of the weirdest things about it, though, is that all
Speaker 1: of the coursework was not only about YouTube, it was
Speaker 1: actually on YouTube. So the classes were all recorded and
Speaker 1: posted on the site, and all the students essays were
Speaker 1: done in the form of videos and the comments on
Speaker 1: those videos. That sounds super fun. Like when I was
Speaker 1: in school, I always tried to do the project to
Speaker 1: get out of doing the right But is there an
Speaker 1: advantage to that style of learning? Well maybe. Unsurprisingly, students
Speaker 1: determine that YouTube isn't all that great for learning, or
Speaker 1: at least not in the big classroom way that we're
Speaker 1: used to. It was. It was daunting for them to
Speaker 1: have all their classes and homework on public display where
Speaker 1: commoners and trolls could ridicule them, and they basically concluded
Speaker 1: that YouTube can be a decent educational tool on an
Speaker 1: individual basis, but it's much less useful in a communal
Speaker 1: setting and probably works best just as a means of entertainment.
Speaker 1: That's fascinating. So I actually remember visiting one of my
Speaker 1: best friends who I thought was pretty handy, but then
Speaker 1: he suddenly put a whole new roof on his house
Speaker 1: by himself, and I asked her, like, how did you
Speaker 1: do that? How do you know what to do? And
Speaker 1: he said YouTube, he learned how to. I hope the
Speaker 1: roof is still work. It was follow up on that,
Speaker 1: but it's amazing all the information that's out there and
Speaker 1: like all this step by step instruction, but also you know,
Speaker 1: to know where YouTube's failings are really interesting to think
Speaker 1: about it too. Did you find a new media classes
Speaker 1: that seemed, I don't know, a little more practical. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's stuff like there's one called smartphone photography
Speaker 1: at Portland Community College, and I'm sure there are other
Speaker 1: colleges that that teach this as well, and you know,
Speaker 1: basically teaches about the composition and lighting for the cameras
Speaker 1: that we're all carrying around in our pockets. And and
Speaker 1: I suppose that's useful at least the kind of skill.
Speaker 1: And for me, you know, the most compelling course in
Speaker 1: this category was definitely Kenneth Goldsmith's Wasting Time on the Internet.
Speaker 1: And we actually have him here to talk with us today.
Speaker 1: What do you say we get him on the line.
Speaker 1: I love No, let's do it. Our guest today is
Speaker 1: a poet and in fact the first poet Laureate of
Speaker 1: the Museum of Modern Art. He's an author of several books,
Speaker 1: but the one we're focused on today is called Wasting
Speaker 1: Time on the Internet, and it's based on a course
Speaker 1: he's taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Kenneth Goldsmith, Welcome
Speaker 1: to part time genius. I'm glad to be here. So, Kenneth,
Speaker 1: I was reading the first part of your of your
Speaker 1: book Wasting Time on the Internet, and I saw that
Speaker 1: you were talking about this tweet that you you put
Speaker 1: out in the Fall of tooth Ius and fourteen were
Speaker 1: you announced this new course and the tweet said, my
Speaker 1: class called Wasting Time on the Internet will be offered
Speaker 1: at pen next semester. And apparently this tweet just kind
Speaker 1: of blew up. Tell us what happened after you sent
Speaker 1: this tweet out well, you know, I mostly got a
Speaker 1: return tweet saying, you know, I've got a PhD in that.
Speaker 1: You know, it kind of went slightly viral, and you
Speaker 1: know the way things go on Twitter. I got a
Speaker 1: request from uh, the Washington Post for an interview, which
Speaker 1: I gave UH and it was published shortly thereafter, and
Speaker 1: then I think maybe another one for Vice. And I
Speaker 1: didn't give too many other interviews about it. But what
Speaker 1: starts to happen is that these UH news sources get
Speaker 1: cannibalized by lesser fish and they go down the food chain. UH.
Speaker 1: And each time it's like a giant game of telephone.
Speaker 1: My facts get more and more twisted. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, a lot of people were simply cutting and
Speaker 1: pasting what had been written before slapping a new headline
Speaker 1: on it, changing the first sentence, and then posting it
Speaker 1: as their own original content. Finally, at the end of
Speaker 1: the chain of telephone, about a month later, evidently a
Speaker 1: professor named Kevin Goldberg at Penn State was giving away
Speaker 1: PhDs in wasting time on the Internet. That's pretty funny,
Speaker 1: So would you tell us a little bit about the
Speaker 1: class and what actually takes place in it? The promise
Speaker 1: the classes. This fIF team people get together in a
Speaker 1: room with all the technology that they can possibly muster,
Speaker 1: and we waste time together. And that's the only thing
Speaker 1: that I require from the students. There's no papers being written,
Speaker 1: there's no nothing other than to actually be together in
Speaker 1: this room, wasting time on the Internet together. And what
Speaker 1: do you discover from that? I discovered the contrary to
Speaker 1: the popular idea that technology separates us, in fact, when
Speaker 1: we put technology in the room with us as a group,
Speaker 1: technology tends to act as amplifiers of emotion and affect. Uh.
Speaker 1: It becomes a hyper emotional space driven by technology. So
Speaker 1: when we waste time on the Internet, we normally waste time,
Speaker 1: you know, at a Starbucks or library, and we're alone
Speaker 1: and we're feeling lonely. But once you begin to put
Speaker 1: those machines into a room with people who can actually
Speaker 1: talk to each other, some real magic happens. Now. I
Speaker 1: saw some of the assignments that you gave up made
Speaker 1: students a bit nervous at first. You know, one of
Speaker 1: them was you know that they could um basically take
Speaker 1: the laptop of another class member and look up anything
Speaker 1: that they wanted to on that person's computer. Any files,
Speaker 1: any documents, anything like that, and then they passed the
Speaker 1: laptop along to the next person and looked at another laptop.
Speaker 1: And whether it was that or another assignment, I think
Speaker 1: I saw was that the class together was us to
Speaker 1: start some sort of rumor and then spread that rumor.
Speaker 1: So with these sorts of assignments, which do sound really interesting,
Speaker 1: did did you ever run into any trouble that did
Speaker 1: ever get ugly? No, it never got really ugly, because basically,
Speaker 1: what I have on my computer is pretty much what
Speaker 1: you have on your computer. And it was kind of
Speaker 1: like we, you know, we think all of this data
Speaker 1: is so precious, but in fact it is precious to
Speaker 1: us um but in fact there's not much revelation. I
Speaker 1: remember when I tasked my computer around, no sort of
Speaker 1: what what came up. I made everybody leave the windows
Speaker 1: open that had that they had been open, so everybody
Speaker 1: could see exactly what you would looked at. And you know,
Speaker 1: my photos were open, and somebody went in for a
Speaker 1: bank statement, and you know, there were a couple of
Speaker 1: searches for porn, and maybe somebody cracked in the book
Speaker 1: of mine that was in progress. You know, first of all,
Speaker 1: there wasn't enough time to really dig down on it.
Speaker 1: And second of all, you weren't really allowed to alter, delete,
Speaker 1: or share anything on that. You could just simply look. Now,
Speaker 1: I've done this in in in groups of up to
Speaker 1: four people, were four hundred people put their laptops out,
Speaker 1: and all four hundred people, for twenty minutes could go
Speaker 1: around and see what was on everybody else's computer. I
Speaker 1: mean it's really intimate. I mean, it's really it's a
Speaker 1: way of breaking down the you know, the kind of
Speaker 1: social neurosis that does happen in a class. We all think,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody feels they're surprivate and so preserved. It
Speaker 1: was really a way of sharing, almost like meat space
Speaker 1: social media over sharing, which is really fascinating. Um, I'm curious,
Speaker 1: what's your hope for students takeaway from the class. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't have any hope. It's not really it's not
Speaker 1: really achievement oriented. It's more immersive. I mean, it feels
Speaker 1: like a yoga session or something, you know, it feels
Speaker 1: like it feels like a psychotherapy encounter group. The digital
Speaker 1: tide sweep us into these incredible emotional directions and we
Speaker 1: really can't tell where we're going and in the end
Speaker 1: of the day, Um, it gets uncomfortable, but that's sort
Speaker 1: of part of it because if it's on the internet,
Speaker 1: it's part of the class. Well, we can't wait to
Speaker 1: post this episode under the title Kenny Goldstone gives away
Speaker 1: PhDs to everyone. But thanks was Kevin Goldberg at Penn State.
Speaker 1: Now this is our own headline. So, yeah, we really
Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Thanks so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. You're listening to Part Time Genius and
Speaker 1: we're talking about the weirdest things you can study at college.
Speaker 1: Somno I mentioned before how YouTube has become a place
Speaker 1: where armchair philosophers can think their way through the deeper
Speaker 1: aspects of pop culture, and you know, then we checked
Speaker 1: out how this phenomenon is playing out in the classroom
Speaker 1: as well. So what are some of the strangest pop
Speaker 1: culture centric courses you found? Yeah, so their classes like
Speaker 1: this for just about any movie or TV show or
Speaker 1: music act that you can think of, including at least
Speaker 1: four different ones in the world of Harry Potter. I mean,
Speaker 1: there was a symposium on Jersey Shore. But the one
Speaker 1: that really caught my eye is this class at UC
Speaker 1: Berkeley called arguing with Judge Judy popular logic on TV
Speaker 1: Judge shows, there is no arguing with Judge Judy. But
Speaker 1: I think I do have a couple of older relatives
Speaker 1: who would probably ace this course. Yeah. So what I
Speaker 1: love is that the class doesn't take aim at Judge
Speaker 1: Judy herself, who is actually an important judge in New
Speaker 1: York City before she became this like sassy TV Justice.
Speaker 1: But instead the class focuses on dissecting the illogical arguments
Speaker 1: that the people use. So the example given in the
Speaker 1: course description is that when someone is asked did you
Speaker 1: hit the plantiff, respondents will often say something like if
Speaker 1: I would have hit him, he'd be dead. You know
Speaker 1: that that's a kind of response that avoids answering yes
Speaker 1: or no and instead presents a perversion of standard logic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean those kinds of shows aren't exactly known for
Speaker 1: their strong legal defenses though. Yeah, that's true, But it
Speaker 1: also isn't billed as a class on law or legal reasoning.
Speaker 1: The aims really to discuss why these kind of logical
Speaker 1: fallacies are so widespread. And as a side note, do
Speaker 1: you remember that article matt Sonia Act did a mental class?
Speaker 1: I think it was titled what legal authority does Judge
Speaker 1: Judy actually have? Oh, I definitely remember that was one
Speaker 1: of my favorites. And and I remember being blown away.
Speaker 1: He had mentioned how much Judge Judy reportedly makes and
Speaker 1: it's something like forty six or forty seven million dollars
Speaker 1: every year. And this is all without really being in
Speaker 1: a court room. It's crazy. None of those Judge shows
Speaker 1: take place in real courtrooms. And they aren't real trials either, right, No,
Speaker 1: but they're often based on real cases. And and the
Speaker 1: show approach the two sides about coming on TV and
Speaker 1: having Judge duty service the arbitrator. So the people signed
Speaker 1: contracts that bind them to whatever her decision is. But
Speaker 1: all that robe wearing and gattle pounding, that's that's complutely
Speaker 1: for show. Yeah, yeah, it's it's very bizarre. Well, how
Speaker 1: about some pop culture classes that skeow a little younger
Speaker 1: in terms of audience? Did you, uh, do you find
Speaker 1: some weird ones there on? Maybe on modern music or something?
Speaker 1: So just about any popular artists from the last four
Speaker 1: years or so has at least one class devoted to them.
Speaker 1: I mean I was looking at I found things from
Speaker 1: Abba to Frank's Appa. There's even this one class at
Speaker 1: University of Missouri that looks at Jay Z and Kanye
Speaker 1: West and makes this argument that their polymats, since their
Speaker 1: work mixes all this visual and performance, are into the wrap.
Speaker 1: But I mean, if you're looking for more controversial topics,
Speaker 1: one of the most popular and most divisive classes I
Speaker 1: came across was from Skidmore College. They have a class
Speaker 1: called Sociology of Miley Cyrus and the aim of the
Speaker 1: classes to examine deeper ideas about identity and the interplay
Speaker 1: among race and class and gender, all by looking at
Speaker 1: the performers music as well as her public image. And
Speaker 1: you said it was divisive, though I'm guessing people disagreed
Speaker 1: about I don't know the academic rigors of a class
Speaker 1: like this. Yeah, I mean, the college was kind of
Speaker 1: accused of green lighting the course is a way to
Speaker 1: get more admissions numbers and and lure a certain type
Speaker 1: of less serious student. But uh, but I don't believe that.
Speaker 1: And then the school totally refuted it, and places like
Speaker 1: Time Magazine came to the courses defense as well, Like
Speaker 1: they pointed out that classes that deal with primary sources
Speaker 1: are actually a cornerstone of good academic practice then, And
Speaker 1: just because Miley's impact is fairly new, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: there isn't value in studying her. And I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if you remember this, but we're coming up on the
Speaker 1: tenth anniversary of Stephen Baldwin getting a hand um Montana tattoos.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't want to answer why I know that,
Speaker 1: but maybe it's the right time to be teaching this class. Exactly,
Speaker 1: I got anything less polarizing, well, I mean, in a
Speaker 1: similar vein Rutgers has a course called Politicizing Beyonce, which
Speaker 1: is part of the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Rutgers,
Speaker 1: and and the idea is really to look at Beyonce
Speaker 1: as this asian of social change rather than just this
Speaker 1: successful performer. And according to lecture Kevin alread it quote
Speaker 1: really ends up being a class much more about black
Speaker 1: feminism and the current political realities of black women as
Speaker 1: opposed to just being a class on Beyonce. But our
Speaker 1: music is a nice way for students to enter the discussion. So,
Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense, right, like the music is
Speaker 1: the hook, but the class also covers all these like
Speaker 1: black feminist authors like Alice Walker and bell hooks and stuff.
Speaker 1: But it does seem like a great example of the
Speaker 1: strengths of some of these unusual course is. I mean,
Speaker 1: they do make for topical gateways and the conversations that
Speaker 1: might otherwise seem daunting or maybe even irrelevant to these
Speaker 1: new students. And if you think about it, we're used
Speaker 1: to seeing novels and plays used as jumping off points
Speaker 1: for educational inquiry. But like Keneth was saying earlier, our
Speaker 1: current culture allows for so many ways of reading and
Speaker 1: writing and expressing our thoughts, it makes sense to use
Speaker 1: those in the classroom, right. So so even though of
Speaker 1: courses like the Science of Superheroes that you see irvine
Speaker 1: or what if Harry Potter is real? Which is this
Speaker 1: course that appellation state you, um, they sound frivolous at
Speaker 1: first glance, but there's a case to be made for
Speaker 1: using them as a way to like frame and investigate
Speaker 1: all these age old questions in a modern way well,
Speaker 1: and keeping students engaged has always been a challenge for educators.
Speaker 1: So while it wouldn't be smart to stop studying Shakespeare,
Speaker 1: for instance, I don't think it's a bad idea to
Speaker 1: look to newer stories and artists as well, so as
Speaker 1: long as there's still some substance there beneath the pop
Speaker 1: culture trap. Well, speaking of substance, how about we break
Speaker 1: for a quiz. So, our guest today is a PhD
Speaker 1: researcher and the Education Department at the University of Cambridge,
Speaker 1: and it's also a contributor to Lego and Philosophy, a
Speaker 1: really fun new book. Tyler Shore is welcome to Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Honored to
Speaker 1: be on the show with you guys. Well, Tyler, tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about this new book, Lego and Philosophy,
Speaker 1: and your your chapter in the book. Yeah, the So,
Speaker 1: the general premise of the book is that we know
Speaker 1: that Lego is the largest toy company in the world,
Speaker 1: and the idea is sort of like, oh, we wanted
Speaker 1: to use Lego as an example in my chapter. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I use the idea that you know, like, when we
Speaker 1: think about Legos, we can use it as a way
Speaker 1: to uh, Lego can be a helpful analogy for how
Speaker 1: philosophical thinking complete us towards new connections between thoughts and ideas,
Speaker 1: And Lego and Philosophy invites us to question the idea
Speaker 1: of the nature of play. We can also think of
Speaker 1: Lego not just as a toy, but as a meetium
Speaker 1: through which ideas can be expressed. And that's one of
Speaker 1: the things I talked about in the book. Speaking of
Speaker 1: of Lego. I saw in the news recently there's now
Speaker 1: a professor of play at the University of Cambridge. Is
Speaker 1: that right there? Is? It's it's the world's first Lego
Speaker 1: professor And um, yeah, it's uh because it is through
Speaker 1: the Education department. We Uh, one of the things that
Speaker 1: we study is the idea of play and playfulness and uh,
Speaker 1: there are Legos in our departments that were allowed to
Speaker 1: play with two And the idea is that he'll be starting,
Speaker 1: Paul will be starting in January and he'll take up
Speaker 1: the position. It's kind of like the Lego Research Center
Speaker 1: here at Cambridge. That's that's very awesome. This is totally different.
Speaker 1: But I was curious, you know, as Lego creates more
Speaker 1: and more of these sets that are specific for kids, like,
Speaker 1: do you still see that open endedness with Lego and
Speaker 1: does that plan to your philosophy at all a little bit? Um,
Speaker 1: do you talk about that, because that's been a big
Speaker 1: thing at least since like I was a kider we
Speaker 1: were kids. Um this idea that like originally there were
Speaker 1: a lot more builder sets right where it was kind
Speaker 1: of like the big box of bricks and you just
Speaker 1: sort of like free builds and these sort of things.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of fin as ship, especially because like
Speaker 1: it has become this sort of like trans media empire
Speaker 1: where it's connected with all these different corporate and entertainment franchises.
Speaker 1: It has like move towards the kind of like that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. And I think it's not necessarily it's
Speaker 1: not that one type of play is like better or worse.
Speaker 1: I think it's a different sort of imagination driven building
Speaker 1: versus more like storytelling and narrative play that sends to
Speaker 1: happen with the playsets. All right, well, we know that
Speaker 1: you're used to giving test to your students, but we're
Speaker 1: going to flip this one on you, and we're going
Speaker 1: to put you to the test. Mango, what game are
Speaker 1: we playing with Tyler today? It's a little game called
Speaker 1: is that really a scholarship? Okay, so this is a
Speaker 1: super simple idea. We'll give you a scholarship name and
Speaker 1: a quick description, and you tell us whether it's real
Speaker 1: or something. We made up. You ready to play Tyler?
Speaker 1: All right? Okay, we got five of these for you.
Speaker 1: Number one the National Marvel Scholarship, since Marble shooters or
Speaker 1: mibsters as they're called, have competed for up to two
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in scholarship money and the chance to be
Speaker 1: king or Queen of Marvel's real or something we made up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's right, all right. One for one. Number two the
Speaker 1: Grape of Code Grapest Thing since Sliced Bread Scholarship. If
Speaker 1: you can convince the judges why you're the grapest, you
Speaker 1: could walk away with one thousand dollars and a mini
Speaker 1: fridge full of the beloved grape Soda reel or something
Speaker 1: we made up. That's tricky, they're getting into unknown territory
Speaker 1: because I've never heard of that. It is a delicious soda,
Speaker 1: but it's something we've made up. Delicious. This is soda
Speaker 1: popular in the South. I introduced it to Mango and
Speaker 1: he described it his tasting like carbonated diamond. Tap right,
Speaker 1: and a good one. Alright. So these two for two
Speaker 1: Number three Zombie Apocalypse Scholarship just convinced the panel that
Speaker 1: you have the best plan for surviving when zombies take
Speaker 1: over your school and you could walk away with a
Speaker 1: cool two thousand dollars reel or something we made up.
Speaker 1: If that isn't a real thing, it really should be
Speaker 1: a thing. I'm gonna say yes. I'm gonna say yeah.
Speaker 1: Scholarship three for three, it's amazing. Oh wow, Okay, here
Speaker 1: we go, all right. Number four, The Alice McCarver Ratford Scholarship.
Speaker 1: This special scholarship goes to unattached female undergrads who live
Speaker 1: on campus, don't have a car, and haven't gotten any
Speaker 1: other scholarships. Reel or something we made up. It's awfully
Speaker 1: big scholarship. Um, I'm oh, he's finally missed one. I
Speaker 1: thought he was too smart for us. It is reel
Speaker 1: and it goes exclusively to women enrolled at UNC Greensboro. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, last one here, the Tall Club International scholar
Speaker 1: Our Ship. This scholarship serves the financial needs of exceptionally
Speaker 1: tall people real or something we made up. That sounds real.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say real, all right. Yeah. The minimum height
Speaker 1: requirement is five ten for women and six two for men.
Speaker 1: That's terrific. All right, So how did Tyler do today? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So Tyler one an amazing four for five, and while
Speaker 1: we can't give him the sort of cash that's thrown
Speaker 1: out by the Michigan Lama Association or the Spurious Club,
Speaker 1: we can send a madonnut key chain, which is almost
Speaker 1: as good. Yeah, that is almost as good. We congratulations Tyler,
Speaker 1: and thanks so much for joining us on part time genius. Awesome.
Speaker 1: That's going on my Twitter when I get it. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we've gone back and forth on food classes, new
Speaker 1: media classes, and pop culture courses, and now it's time
Speaker 1: to tackle everything else. I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: I came across the like a whole bunch of weird
Speaker 1: college courses that didn't really fit into any sort of category. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I definitely came across some really really odd one So
Speaker 1: I'm game for this. I'll start us off with one
Speaker 1: called Dinosaurs and Other Failures. I love that title. It's
Speaker 1: a course offered at the University of Michigan, and according
Speaker 1: to the description, this Earth and Environmental Studies course quote
Speaker 1: looks at the fossil record and the ecological issues of
Speaker 1: diversification and extinction of the ruling reptiles. And it's pretty fun, right, No,
Speaker 1: and legit So here's a course that takes a much
Speaker 1: friendlier approach to animals, pet apparel, fashion and design. And
Speaker 1: so it's taught at f i T, which is the
Speaker 1: Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. And the course
Speaker 1: description touts that, you know, I'm going to quote it,
Speaker 1: from bulldogs to American bob Tales, pets are strutting designer stuff,
Speaker 1: and owners are vying for best Dressed awards for their
Speaker 1: four legged family members. This hands on workshop starts with
Speaker 1: an introduction to body forms, functional needs, and a seasonal
Speaker 1: fabric guide. Ease of dressing and safety tips are considered
Speaker 1: in really two T shirts, winter coats, and cochure ensembles.
Speaker 1: That's actually you remember those leather red track suits that
Speaker 1: the fashion designers made for chickens Lava. I love those
Speaker 1: so much. I feel like they made all the chickens
Speaker 1: look like Eddie Murphy and delirious. That's a good point.
Speaker 1: I didn't think about that all right. Well, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: shift gears to to a bunch of classes devoted to
Speaker 1: some pretty basic activities. Now, these are things that you'd
Speaker 1: really think need no explanation, much less an entire college core. So,
Speaker 1: for example, Center College and Daniel Kentucky has a class
Speaker 1: called the Art of Walking, and it encourages students to
Speaker 1: quote stop focusing on constantly doing and concentrate more on
Speaker 1: simply experiencing, which I mean, I guess that's a little
Speaker 1: of what the basket weaving guy was saying in the beginning,
Speaker 1: but I know this is different. But but this is
Speaker 1: indie video game company in New York called Baby Castles,
Speaker 1: and they only make art video games. And one of
Speaker 1: them was like all these levers and things that you
Speaker 1: have to pull just to get a person to walk.
Speaker 1: I mean like they're like hundreds of these things, and
Speaker 1: it's nearly well, just to get your character to take
Speaker 1: a few steps forward. But the whole idea is to
Speaker 1: understand and appreciate, like just how incredible your body mechanics
Speaker 1: are and everything it takes to get you to move,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. All right, Well, here's another life
Speaker 1: skill that you might not think you need to go
Speaker 1: to college for. Cornell University has a class called tree climbing,
Speaker 1: and it's a course that teaches students, you'll be surprised
Speaker 1: by this, how to climb any tree and even how
Speaker 1: to move from tree to tree without returning to the ground.
Speaker 1: That's the that's only offered in the spring, during the
Speaker 1: peak tree climbing season. It says, I love that, like,
Speaker 1: just in case you're tired of the ground, you don't
Speaker 1: want to return, right. So I came across one of
Speaker 1: these basic activities classes too, and this one's from Princeton.
Speaker 1: It's a freshman seminar called getting Dressed. Oh give me
Speaker 1: a break. I mean, that's what I thought, too, But
Speaker 1: after reading the instructor's course description, it does seem like
Speaker 1: there's a little more to it than just tree climbing.
Speaker 1: Apparently it's meant to be an examination of social significance
Speaker 1: of clothing and the relationship between clothing and identity. And
Speaker 1: in America, you know, these course names are meant to
Speaker 1: hook people's interests. But but some of them do seem
Speaker 1: to be a disservice to the actual content if you
Speaker 1: look at them. Yeah, tell me about it. So I
Speaker 1: found a course on at Occidental College. It's it's just
Speaker 1: called stupidity, which sounds great. But then in the course
Speaker 1: catalog gets described as quote a philosophical examination of the
Speaker 1: operations and technologies that we conduct in order to render
Speaker 1: ourselves uncomprehending, uncomprehending, I'm not sure quite follow us. So
Speaker 1: it's basically a class about how stupidity is distinct from ignorance,
Speaker 1: and it uses all these heavy readings from like Nietzsche
Speaker 1: and and whatever. But so so there's nothing stupid about it.
Speaker 1: But if I signed up, I'd be so upset that
Speaker 1: we weren't just watching like dumb and dumber or exactly.
Speaker 1: That's great, start our own class with that, all right. Well,
Speaker 1: probably my favorite course, whose name isn't doing it any favor,
Speaker 1: is called Oh look a chicken. Wait, so that's really
Speaker 1: the name? Yeah, yeah, And actually that's kind of a point. So,
Speaker 1: just like with stupidity or getting dressed, this is one
Speaker 1: of those offbeat classes that really only makes sense once
Speaker 1: you read the course description. And this one's a real jim,
Speaker 1: so I'll just go ahead and read it. It says,
Speaker 1: oh look a chicken will pursue ways of knowing through
Speaker 1: embracing what it means to be a distracted I could
Speaker 1: sure enjoy a peanut butter sandwich right now, learner, as
Speaker 1: well as Oh my god, I get to go to
Speaker 1: the beach this summer. Developing awareness, I need to trim
Speaker 1: my fingernails of one sentence. So you get the idea here.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not even sure what the what you
Speaker 1: get with it from the description while I read an
Speaker 1: interview with the courses instructor. This is at Belmont University,
Speaker 1: and it seems to be about how distracted we are
Speaker 1: as a culture and about the ways of dealing with that,
Speaker 1: including knowing when to embrace the distractions and you know,
Speaker 1: how to push them aside so we can get back
Speaker 1: to whatever it was we were doing in the first place. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean to tell you the truth, I was only
Speaker 1: half listening because I'm thinking about all the weird stuff
Speaker 1: I've got to prepare for today's back. All right, Well
Speaker 1: let's see what you got. M So you know what
Speaker 1: all the crazies is happening in the world today, I
Speaker 1: might want to take this course from Michigan State. It's
Speaker 1: called Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse. And uh, the subtitle
Speaker 1: is Disasters, Catastrophes and Human Behavior. That's pretty heavy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds terrific because it's it's actually this look at
Speaker 1: how humans behave during disaster times. And as the course
Speaker 1: catalog explains, quote, students and survival groups will face multiple
Speaker 1: challenges and tasks as they attempt to survive the catastrophic event,
Speaker 1: escape debt, and preserve the future of civilization. For the
Speaker 1: ability to survive ultimately rests not with individual but with
Speaker 1: the group. So that does sound pretty interesting, But I
Speaker 1: have to admit I'm surprised you didn't start with a
Speaker 1: class that seems to be made for you. It's an
Speaker 1: Overlin College and it's just called Calvin and Hahabs. Here's
Speaker 1: what the description reads. It says, modern cartoonists consider Calvin
Speaker 1: and Hobbs to be incredibly influential, and any fan will
Speaker 1: attest to its quality and reliability. But what makes it
Speaker 1: such a great strip? I think you could answer that.
Speaker 1: I know, and I'm totally envious of anyone who gets
Speaker 1: to take that class and just read Calvin Halls. But
Speaker 1: here here's another one that's fascinating from Overlin. It's called
Speaker 1: how to Win a Beauty Pageant, Race, Gender, Culture, and
Speaker 1: US Identity. And according to the course description, you actually
Speaker 1: get to take a field trip to a pageant in Ohio.
Speaker 1: I love that includes the field trip. Actually, this episode
Speaker 1: is maybe you can done to just turn into this
Speaker 1: ad for Overlin because I have yet one more from there.
Speaker 1: It's called Magic, Witchcraft and Religion from Stonehenge to Harry Potter,
Speaker 1: and it's taught in London. So the quote from the
Speaker 1: course catalog is through readings, discussions, site visits and materials
Speaker 1: from the British Museum and elsewhere, the course will move
Speaker 1: through six major periods, from Stonehenge and the Druids to
Speaker 1: Tolkien and Harry Potter field trips require that's awesome. I
Speaker 1: feel like Overland's turning in that like that school that
Speaker 1: everyone's dad says, I'm not paying fifty thousand a year
Speaker 1: for you to learn about beauty pageants and Harry Potter
Speaker 1: actually can't wait to be you that out a few years.
Speaker 1: Well before you start worrying, then maybe we chose the
Speaker 1: wrong school. I want to let you know that you
Speaker 1: should be proud of our alma mater because it offers
Speaker 1: a course called California. Here we come the o C
Speaker 1: and self aware culture of twenty one century America. And
Speaker 1: actually Time magazine defended this one too. They wrote, the
Speaker 1: course was this exploration of the hyper self awareness unique
Speaker 1: to the Oh wow, I can't decide if I want
Speaker 1: to cheer bury my head in the sands. But for
Speaker 1: the purposes of this episode, I think you've redeemed our university.
Speaker 1: So even though I was going to counter with a
Speaker 1: fact about a tough class called demystifying the Hipsture, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you this week's trophy and I will take it.
Speaker 1: And uh and and listeners, don't forget to send us
Speaker 1: the name of your weirdest college class you took or
Speaker 1: heard about. We can't wait to choose the top three
Speaker 1: and you can send those to part Time Genius at
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com, or you can call our
Speaker 1: fact plotline one, eight or four pt genius. So thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening to Yeah, thanks again for listening.
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