barklife on the road: adventurecast parts 1 and 2

we did an experiment this week with the recording—and it was largely successful-ish!

some background: way back in december i (jahnna) won a contest at school by knitting my own ugly holiday sweater, and the prize was a day off from school. it’s not been a good year for being able to get a sub and take a day off from school, nor was there anywhere to go until recently. with jefferson county finally making it to the green for covid levels, the weather finally accepting that it’s probably going to stay spring, and happening to have lunch with one of our regular subs one day and asking her availability for april, we settled on taking a day out in barren county, ky.

why barren county? because i went on a field trip to mammoth cave when i was in fifth grade (thanks again, dad, for chaperoning), and it was really interesting, and josh had never been but also because DINOSAUR WORLD is in barren county. if you’ve ever driven on the stretch of i-65 down around cave city and bowling green, ky, you have seen photosaurus out by the highway. we have been driving this stretch of highway to visit my dad since we moved to chicago, and after 10 years, it was time to take the plunge. 

what does all of this have to do with the podcast? we have some of our most wide-ranging conversations in the car, and we recorded this one for you. we’ll release it as four special edition adventure episodes in the coming weeks. 

the first 2 episodes were from the drive to mammoth cave. we talk about (among other things): 

  • why train travel is great and there should be a train between louisville and nashville
  • our trip to montreal in 2019 and how clean their public transit was
  • wren’s recent surgery and why the surgi-snuggli is great
  • herb alpert & the tijuana brass
  • that our house is a mess, we may need to check in with our mental health professionals about it, and we definitely need the skilled labor of a housekeeper
  • the value in faking it until you make it, saying i’m sorry, and admitting you don’t know things (and also the downside to faking it well)
  • how i’m taxing all of my fifth graders for paper, but they’re actually learning something about american history as well as the value of service to their community in time rather than in treasure
  • how the pandemic killed the development of empathy which was already on its last legs for the age group i teach because of the anonymity of the internet

some links:

josh mentions mammothcaveblueberries.com which, unfortunately, is no longer a valid url, but you can find wild blueberries and blackberries in barren county, and blueberries will grow in kentucky (see this article from the UK extension office on growing highbush blueberries)

stay tuned for adventure episodes 3 & 4 where you can find out how our tour of mammoth cave went and what we thought about dinosaur world as well as listen to us eat crunchy things from sonic.

barklife episode 9: team human or, much ado about olympics

right. so i (jahnna) have taken over the show notes. at least for now. 

so this week, josh told me that i oughtn’t envision a more just and equitable world because that’s a big ask, so i started smaller by envisioning a more just and equitable olympics. we discussed the inequities in some money for medals programs (particularly canada’s), and it turned out that josh didn’t know money for medals was a thing at all. maybe you didn’t either.

further reading on money for medals and disparity between olympics and paralympics can be found here→ forbes: these 12 countries will pay their olympians six-figure bonuses for winning gold medals
bloomberg equality: prizes for paralympic gold medalists reflect inequality for many

and here is an article about canada’s paralympians in particular.

we also discussed the recent settlement in the soccer where the women’s team was compensated for lost pay compared to the men. the settlement is contingent on the resolution of a new collective bargaining agreement to address some other disparities related to working conditions. you can read more below: 

espn: uswmnt, us soccer federation settle equal pay lawsuit for $24 million

books mentioned this week:
much ado about mothing
atlas of extinct countries
magic: a history
how rory thorne destroyed the multiverse and how the multiverse got its revenge*

in our next episode, we’ll be discussing how the battlebots tournament is going so far and how far into the tournament we made it without having to rework our brackets. we’ll also give you an update on which of us is in the lead on points.

*from josh: i mistitled these books in the audio. i said metaverse, but multiverse is correct.

otis watching para cross country skiing
otis watching para biathlon for the vision impaired
here’s all three boys crammed in the backseat of our car. otis is not quite four months old in this photo, and was still small enough to wear his baby harness. they don’t fit back there together now really at all.

new barklife episode! “…except for the mongols”

once again, i (josh) intended to put better show notes in here. perhaps, someday, i will. guess you’ll just have to listen if you want to know what we talked about. it definitely involved mongols somehow. kind of. and some general life updates from casa harvey-groft.

jahnna: i’d like to add a special thank you to john green and all the folks at crash course world history for the idea for the episode title.

i’d also like to clarify that i think modern russian history is more helpful than general russian history because russia otherwise follows a similar arc to other european monarchies albeit with a longer-running interest in strongman politics and the cult of personality.

also, in addition to mongols we discuss bowling for soup, and i didn’t mention my enormous love for the song “critically disdained,” and i should have. so now you know.

you also now know that maybe i should write the show notes and not josh.