This week we are reminding you that this is the best of all possible podcasts. We talk Candide by Voltaire! Keep on reviewing and subscribing so we can continue doing this! or perhaps, this is our last episode and we will go to tend our gardens.

Host: Dr. Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Mike Burns and Mike Carroll Here from us!

"The Last Time I Rewound: VHS, Star Wars, and the Freedom to Remember" by Nic Hoffmann

"Shifting My Thinking about AI in the Classroom: Was I helping kids become critical thinkers or just assisting in the dumbing down of society?" by Mike Burns

Michael Carroll

Candide is Voltaire's 1759 satirical masterpiece, wreaking havoc on the excesses of 18th century French Enlightenment culture. The story begins with our protagonist Candide, a young man living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. This idyllic life is abruptly interrupted, however, by a series of painfully disillusioning events that set him off on a wide-ranging journey. This edition is based on the unattributed 1918 translation published in the U.S. by Boni & Liveright in 1918.

François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit and his advocacy for freedom of speech and religion.

This week we get the energy up by having Mike Carroll talk about Beowulf again! We plan on coming out with an episode every first and third Friday of the Month for the rest of the school year and hopefully you come along for the ride with us! We are starting out with Grendel by John Gardner a deceptively short book for the complex magnitudes it contains. So sit back and enjoy our conversation about the Grendel in Grendel.

Host: Dr. Nic Hoffmann, Mike Burns, and Mike Carroll.

This elegantly haunting retelling of the Beowulf saga turns the tables: instead of the heroic warrior, the monstrous Grendel narrates the tale—from his vantage point, with his blend of bitter irony, existential rumination, and lonely longing.

Grendel, the original “monster” of ancient legend, voices his own story in a world he finds bewildering and violent. He and his mute mother dwell in a cave, shaded from human society yet tormented by their encroachment. When a blind harpist—known as the Shaper—arrives at the Danish mead‑hall, Hart, his forged myths and stirring songs both enchant and horrify Grendel, setting in motion a philosophical struggle between storytelling’s awakening magic and the stark, chaotic truths he senses beneath it.

We are back, baby! This week we are joined by graphic novelist Rebecca Michaud as we talk about the DC Elseworld comic, Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, and Killian Plunkett; Superman the pinko, classic!

Host: Dr. Nic Hoffmann, Mike Burns, and Mike Carroll.

Guest: Rebecca Michaud

Imagine a reality where the world’s most powerful super-being does not grow up in Smallville, Kansas—or even America, for that matter… Superman: Red Son is a vivid tale of Cold War paranoia, that reveals how the ship carrying the infant who would later be known as Superman lands in the midst of the 1950s Soviet Union. Raised on a collective, the infant grows up and becomes a symbol to the Soviet people, and the world changes drastically from what we know - bringing Superman into conflict with Batman, Lex Luthor and many others.