Showing results by author "Neal Pollack"

Ever get the feeling that not everything is cool with school? Best-selling author Neal Pollack is dissatisfied with what his teenage son, Elijah, is learning in his studies. Neal wants to fill in the gaps, while Elijah just wants him to chill out a little. Together, they embark on the father-son field trip of a lifetime, which includes stops in New York’s poetry-slam scene, a medical-marijuana dispensary, and a convention to discuss evolution with 1,700 biologists.

In their continuing father-son field trip to end all field trips, writer (and one-time Jeopardy! champ) Neal Pollack and his teenage son set out to explore the many topics not covered in his high school curriculum. Among them: what really constitutes a healthy lunch, why dress codes exist, and how the largely phased-out “home ec” class can be beneficial.

Labor history doesn’t exist in the Texas curriculum, so Neal decides to give Elijah a crash course in worker’s rights. Elijah lays a clover at the grave of the Haymarket Martyrs in Chicago, learns the lyrics to “Solidarity Forever,” and meets an actual union organizer and shop steward.

On a trip to Los Angeles, Neal tries to teach his nieces and Elijah the secrets of Texas Hold ‘Em with the help of a former professional poker player, leading to an epic showdown between Neal and Elijah for all the chips. But an even more sinister poker villain lurks.

Concerned that Elijah has no life skills, Neal sets off to teach him some. Together, they learn to use power tools, forge a sword, and operate a sewing machine. They also visit an eccentric friend of Elijah’s who built his own backyard forge.

As a dedicated yogi, Neal thinks Elijah would benefit from a little practice himself. They do a high-octane yoga workout, learn how to meditate, and hang from a rope wall. In Colorado, they visit Neal’s guru, who teaches Elijah how to chant and reveals several arcane mystical secrets.

Neal loves cheese more than anything. After a terrifying interview with a vegan doctor who warns them cheese is deadly, Neal decides to drag Elijah on a cross-country quest to prove the doctor wrong. In Vermont, they gorge at a cheese festival, learn the secrets of cheesemaking, and milk some very patient cows.

In Texas, Native Americans are people relegated to the history books. But in Phoenix, where Neal grew up, they’re very much a part of the present. To learn what it’s like to grow up native in America, Neal and Elijah interview Miss Indian Arizona. They also get a tour of a former Native American boarding school.

Schools often try to interest young people in the military, but they rarely teach what happens after service ends. Neal and Elijah visit Operation Phantom Support, a food pantry for veterans and their families, and Elijah also talks to his Opa about a mysterious Vietnam War ice-cream barge.

Elijah gets his first driving lesson from Neal, who is a professional automotive journalist. This comprehensive Driver's Ed curriculum includes talking to a vintage-car fanatic about classic Volkswagen Beetles, and learning about the car of the future from an electric-car advocate. If only they could teach Elijah how to steer. 

In writer Neal Pollack’s opinion, the sex ed curriculum at his son's school has…shortcomings. In this episode, Neal sends Elijah to a sex ed program offered by a local church--one that involves practice midnight condom purchases, and lots and lots of lube.

Through strange metaphysical circumstances, failed screenwriter Brad Cohen finds himself caught in an infinite time loop, forced to relive the first forty years of his life again and again. Each "repeat," Brad wakes up in the womb on what was supposed to be his fortieth birthday, with full knowledge of what's come before. In various timelines, he becomes a successful political pundit, a game-show champion, a playboy, and a master manipulator of the stock market, but none of them seems to lead him out of his predicament.

When a controversy erupts at the Texas State Board Of Education over a racist anti-Mexican textbook, Neal becomes determined to expose Elijah to as much Mexican culture as possible. They interview an undocumented valedictorian and a Mexican-American history professor. And Houston-based comedy rapper Chingo Bling calls in to teach Elijah some special vocabulary words. 

Kids in Texas, especially girls, find themselves in constant battle with administrators about what they can wear to school. Neal and Elijah talk to a dress-code historian, meet a seven-year-old girl who was 'dress-coded,' and interview a reporter who dared to go sleeveless in the hallowed halls of Congress.

Annoyed at the hopelessly dated anti-drug program at his 13-year-old son Elijah's Texas public school, writer Neal Pollack decides to take Elijah to Colorado, for a more modern drug education. There, Elijah meets a marijuana journalist and a family of medical-marijuana activists, who teach him that there's more to learn about drugs than "just say no."

On Extra Credit, writer Neal Pollack augments his son's public school education with his own, somewhat questionable, life lessons. In this episode, after learning that some Texas schoolbooks refer to African slaves as "migrant workers," Neal takes Elijah on a road trip to Lousiana, where they visit a slavery museum on a former plantation.

Elijah, a comic-book fan, interviews Sana Amanat, the creative director of Marvel Comics, about being a "Muslim-American super hero." And John Hodgman stops by to discuss his doomed plans to play a super villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

When his 13-year-old son decides not to have a Bar Mitzvah, writer Neal Pollack plans an emergency cultural trip to "The Jewish American Homeland" -- New York City -- with decidedly mixed results.

Neal and Elijah interview legendary British punk rockers Jon Langford and Sally Timms, meet the proprietors of Chicago’s Bloodshot Records, and learn about the punk-rock scene in Austin. Featuring original music by The Mekons, The Big Boys, and the greatest punk-rock band of all time—The Neal Pollack Invasion.

Alarmed by what passes for a poetry curriculum at Elijah's middle school, Neal takes Elijah to New York City to meet some actual working poets. Back in Texas, they visit a "Typewriter Rodeo," and along the way, Neal reveals the secrets of his own strange, poetic past.