The Best Paragraph I've Read:

"Is it still cool to memorize a lot of stuff? Is there even a reason to memorize anything? Having a lot of information in your head was maybe never cool in the sexy-cool sense, more in the geeky-cool or class-brainiac sense. But people respected the ability to rattle off the names of all the state capitals, or to recite the periodic table. It was like the ability to dunk, or to play the piano by ear—something the average person can’t do. It was a harmless show of superiority, and it gave people a kind of species pride."

This paragraph comes from a New Yorker article titled: "Wikipedia, "Jeopardy!," and the Fate Of The Fact."  The article is written by Louis Menand.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/23/wikipedia-jeopardy-and-the-fate-of-the-fact

Zac and Don discuss whether it is important to know any facts anymore.  They talk about from the perspectives of Wikipedia, Jeopardy, and their own experiences as educators.  

Zac and Don also reference the following quotes and books during their discussion.

Book: The Dumbest Generation

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future(Or, Don 't Trust Anyone Under 30): Bauerlein, Mark: 9781585427123: Amazon.com: Books

Book: Amusing Ourselves to Death

Amazon.com: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (Audible Audio Edition): Neil Postman, Jeff Riggenbach, Blackstone Audio, Inc.: Audible Audiobooks

Socrates Quote About Writing

Socrates on the Forgetfulness that Comes with Writing - New Learning Online

The Best Paragraph I've Read:

"When Justin Posey was 11, he became obsessed with the Victorio Peak treasure, a hoard of perhaps thousands of gold bars supposedly found by a hunter named Milton Noss in a hilltop cavern in New Mexico in 1937. Before Noss was able to recover most of the gold he had seen, the shaft leading to it caved in; after World War II, the U.S. government seized the whole area, adding it to the White Sands Missile Range. “This concept that there could be, around the corner, a vast fortune with an unimaginable historical context was just enthralling,” Posey says. He learned everything he could about it, even attending a summit held by descendants of Noss. He joined tours of the missile range, cooking up schemes to peel off from the group and sneak away to the treasure site. “That was the agonizing part,” he recalls. “I felt I could do this, but the physical barriers made it all the worse. It consumed the majority of my childhood.”

Years later, in 2012, when Posey was 29, his wife, Jennie, emailed him a Newsweekarticle about a different treasure. Hidden in “the mountains north of Santa Fe,” the treasure sounded almost fantastical — diamonds, rubies, and sapphires; gold coins, gold nuggets, a 17th-century Spanish ring. The key to finding the treasure lay in a 24-line poem in a self-published memoir, The Thrill of the Chase, by Forrest Fenn, the wealthy 82-year-old eccentric who had hidden it. Fenn, who estimated the treasure to be worth more than $1 million, said he hid it to motivate people to put down their digital devices and get out into nature. He was still alive and willing to engage with searchers. The hunt was free; the purse was big. The poem’s puzzle could theoretically be solved by anyone."

This paragraph comes from an article in New York Magazine titled: "The Great 21st Century Treasure Hunt."  The article is written by Benjamin Wallace.  The article can be read here:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/11/the-great-hunt-for-forrest-fenns-hidden-treasure.html

Zac and Don talk about the great modern treasure hunt.  They talk about whether this is a good or bad idea.  They also talk about why people have a fascination with treasure hunts.

Zac and Don also reference an article in the New Yorker titled: "The Curse of the Buried Treasure."  The article is written by Rebecca Mead.  You can read the article here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/16/the-curse-of-the-buried-treasure?source=search_google_dsa_paid&gclid=CjwKCAiA8Jf-BRB-EiwAWDtEGr70H-SZrrhWt2ZMoNeshhlKwkXVIaowni7LJwsyDCqVZQoUEmvMMxoCSawQAvD_BwE

Zac and Don also talk about the following book:

The Lost City of Z

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession-Amazon/dp/1400078458/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=lost+city+of+z&qid=1606836184&sr=8-3

The Best Paragraph I've Read:

"WASHINGTON, D.C., United States—On Wednesday morning, this normally bustling capital city became a ghost town as most of its residents embarked on the long journey to their home villages for an annual festival of family, food, and questionable historical facts. Experts say the day is vital for understanding American society and economists are increasingly taking note of its impact on the world economy.

The annual holiday, known as Thanksgiving, celebrates a mythologized moment of peace between America’s early foreign settlers and its native groups—a day that by Americans’ own admission preceded a near genocide of those groups. Despite its murky origins, the holiday remains a rare institution celebrated almost universally in this ethnically diverse society."

This paragraph comes from a 2013 Slate.com article titled: "If It Happened There... America's Annual Festival Pilgrimage Begins"  The article is written by Joshua Keating.  

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/11/if-it-happened-there-how-the-u-s-media-would-cover-thanksgiving-if-it-were-in-another-country.html

Zac and Don talk about the Thanksgiving Holiday and all of its traditions.  

Another Paragraph I've Read:

"Well yes and no.  So first of all, I'm at least semi-serious about it and let me explain what I mean.  The question is, are we in the US getting $70 billion worth of satisfaction out of the items that we're choosing for others?  My answer is no."

This paragraph comes from a PBS.org interview with economist Joel Waldfogel.  The interview centers around whether Christmas is an event with too much deadweight loss.  You can read the full interview here:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/the-economics-of-wasteful-spending-the-dead-weight-loss-of-christmas

Zac and Don discuss the thinking about Christmas being one big deadweight loss.  

Here is a link to Dr. Waldfogel's full economics article on the deadweight loss of Christmas:

https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/104699/original/christmas.pdf

The Best Paragraph I've Read:

Politicians lie to get us into wars; generals lie about how well things are going; soldiers lie about what they did during their service. In 1782, when George Washington awarded ribbons and badges to valorous Revolutionary War troops, he was already worrying about pretenders. “Should any who are not entitled to these honors have the insolence to assume the badges of them they shall be severely punished,” he wrote. When Walter Washington Williams, thought to be the last surviving veteran of the Confederate Army, died, in 1959, President Eisenhower called for a national day of mourning. It turned out that Williams had fabricated his service, and that the second-longest-surviving Confederate soldier probably had, too. In fact, according to the Civil War historian William Marvel, “every one of the last dozen recognized Confederates was bogus.” But it’s only recently that lying about military service has been considered a particularly heinous form of lying, one with its own name: stolen valor.

This paragraph is from an article in the New Yorker titled: "How to Spot A Military Imposter."  The article is written by Rachel Monroe.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/how-to-spot-a-military-impostor

Zac and Don discuss the topic of people who lie about their military service.  Zac and Don also discuss lying in society and how it impacts us.

Zac and Don also discuss the following books:

Everybody Life: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Lies-Internet-About-Really/dp/0062390856  

Catch Me If You Can

https://www.amazon.com/Catch-Me-If-You-Can/dp/0767905385/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1605738687&sr=1-2

1984

https://www.amazon.com/Nineteen-Eighty-Four-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0198829191/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1605738746&sr=1-2