Because we simply didn’t have enough Tims around here, Dr. Tim invited another one. Class, welcome our newest Pencil Buster, Tim Novikoff! Tim N taught high school before becoming an entrepreneur and selling his company to Google, developing AI at Google, and eventually leaving to be an entrepreneur once more. This time, he wanted to […]

Guest: Tim Novikoff

Dec 14, 2024

45:38

As we continue to name this moment, conversing with Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, Bill Ayers, and Dr. Jonathan Gyurko, we turn to expert Pencil Buster, President of AFT, Randi Weingarten. We last spoke with Randi on July 19th of this year (episode available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts). So much has changed since then. When we […]

Guest: Randi Weingarten

Dec 11, 2024

23:30

Welcome to another week of pencil busting, let’s get started! Tim’s current home state of Ohio is now the 14th state to institute a bigoted bathroom bill that prevents trans people from using the correct restroom for their identity. Nationally, the Supreme Court appears ready to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender affirming care for transgender […]

Dec 9, 2024

21:16

Returning Pencil Buster and champion of the best quality public education for all ages Dr. Jonathan Gyurko joins Dr. Tim and Dr. Johnny to talk about meeting the needs of the moment. We first brought Jonathan into our Pencil Busting family six months ago to talk about his book Publicization (find the June 5th episode […]

Guest: Dr. Jonathan Gyurko

Dec 7, 2024

45:36

Pencil Busters, we made it to another Friday- thank goodness! Welcome to our revamped Friday podcast, Free Throws and Face-Offs, where we’ll follow the winter ESSENTIAL curricular activities in Wisconsin high schools. Civic Media host and sports broadcaster Chad Holmes joins us this week to preview the hockey, basketball, and wrestling seasons. We’ve got so […]

Guest: Chad Holmes

Dec 6, 2024

21:20

Returning Pencil Buster and longtime social justice educator-activist Bill Ayers joins Dr. Tim and Dr. Johnny to continue the work of naming this strange moment. Building on our conversations with Dr. Kevin Kumashiro and with David Pepper, Bill helps us reckon with where we are. It’s a moment of contradiction, as American voters chose both […]

Guest: Bill Ayers

Dec 4, 2024

25:32

Join the BustED Pencils team as we continue to digest our Thanksgiving meals and conversations. This Homeroom has no trending news beyond our full bellies and full hearts. Instead, listen as Dr. Tim throws a classic “Tim Bomb” at Johnny and Jess (no Pencil Busters were hurt in the making of this podcast) taking us […]

Dec 2, 2024

20:52

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! We have so much to be thankful for, and we take time to acknowledge that in this episode. We also have much to work towards, reminiscing on our interview with David Pepper. How could so many people choose both their public schools and Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of […]

Nov 30, 2024

45:36

We’ve been following Wisconsin’s high school football teams, both 11-player AND 8-player, since September. Here at the end of First Downs and Friday Night Lights, we check in with a brand new Pencil Buster. Travis Wilson is the general manager of the Wisconsin Sports Network (WSN). WisSports covers all of our state’s high school athletics, […]

Guest: Travis Wilson

Nov 29, 2024

20:05

Class, welcome our newest Pencil Buster, David Pepper! In addition to being a lawyer, a political fiction author, and former Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, David is an educated educator, teaching election and voting rights law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. David joins Dr. Tim and Dr. Johnny to talk about […]

Guest: David Pepper

Nov 27, 2024

23:20