Class is back in session—and this time, the Gen X kids are grading the system that graded us.

In DWO EP138: School Daze, Jimmy, Jeremy, and Kane (Josh was at a Soccer festival for World Cup26) examine the American education system from its earliest foundations through the classrooms of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. What was public education originally created to accomplish? Was it designed to produce informed citizens, capable workers, obedient rule-followers—or some strange combination of all three?

The guys revisit the unforgettable Gen X school experience: chalkboards, filmstrips, overhead projectors, Scantron sheets, Trapper Keepers, Apple II computer labs, The Oregon Trail, D.A.R.E., the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, cafeteria pizza, shop class, home economics, card catalogs, paddling, principal’s offices, cliques, bullies, bells, permission slips, and teachers who either changed our lives or made every school day feel six hours longer than it already was.

Beyond the nostalgia, DWO explores what schools actually taught us—and what they somehow forgot. Reading, writing, arithmetic, history, civics, typing, research, teamwork, rule-following, boredom tolerance, and social survival all entered the curriculum in one form or another. Meanwhile, financial literacy, taxes, credit, emotional regulation, media literacy, entrepreneurship, conflict resolution, and basic adult administration were often left for us to figure out after graduation.

The conversation expands into the history and purpose of private schools, religious and independent education, college as both an educational experience and credentialing machine, the explosion of student debt, and the evolution of homeschooling from an unusual alternative into a major American education lane.

Then the co-hosts face a dangerous academic challenge:

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? — DWO Edition.

Ten supposedly elementary-level questions. Four grown men. No phones, no Google, and no credit for saying, “I used to know this.”

Finally, the class ends with the perfect Auditory Ecstasy outro: “What If It’s Flat.” The high-energy, three-minute blast of musical skepticism asks the kind of question that captures the finest lesson Jimmy carried away from school:

Never stop questioning what somebody confidently writes on the board.

Question everything—but be prepared to explain your answer.

So sharpen your No. 2 pencil, clear your desk, keep your eyes on your own paper, and join us as DWO asks:

Are we smarter than the schools that raised us—or did we simply survive them?

#DWO #DancingWithOurselves #GenX #GenXPodcast #SchoolDaze #80sNostalgia #PublicSchool #Homeschool #Education #AreYouSmarterThanA5thGrader #AuditoryEcstasy #WhatIfItsFlat

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DWO Ep137 welcomes guest Tom Hippler, creator and host of Fanacek and author of Boxed In - Trapped in 80s Television!

This week, the DWO crew climb straight into the glowing CRT and get trapped in the beautiful madness of 70s and 80s television. Tom brings the Fanacek energy with deep TV knowledge, comedy, acting-world perspective, Navy life experience, and a massive love for the shows, actors, forgotten gems, bizarre spin-offs, rerun comfort food, and network decisions that helped shape Gen X memory.

We talk 80s TV as a cultural time machine: ALF, Magnum P.I., Dallas, Three’s Company, The Ropers, TV Guide, latchkey afternoons, strange pilots, shows that should have lasted longer, shows that somehow lasted too long, and the comfort of sitting in front of the television when the television was basically raising half the neighborhood.

Tom’s book, Boxed In - Trapped in 80s Television!, is built for anyone who remembers aluminum foil antennas, Sunday TV Guides, primetime lineups, forgotten actors, weird plot holes, and the unexplainable joy of watching whatever happened to be on.

Find Tom Hippler / Fanacek:

Podcast: https://fanacekpodcast.podbean.com/

Facebook: Real Fanacek

X: @fanacekpodcast

Email: fanacekpodcast@gmail.com

Book: Boxed In - Trapped in 80s Television!

Amazon: https://a.co/d/024MkB8q

This episode closes with an unreleased Auditory Ecstasy track, Cookie Dough, as of 10 July 2026. Cookie Dough is a Glitch Hop x NeuroWave fusion.

Follow Dancing With Ourselves: A Totally RAD 80s Podcast for more Gen X nostalgia, 80s movies, 80s music, vintage TV, comedy, pop culture, and gloriously unhinged memory-lane conversations.

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We had a plan.

The DWO crew was going to do a Zoom-recorded Uncle Buck watch party. Movie on silent. Crew talking over it. Sound bites ready. Big pancakes. Big 80s energy. Big John Candy love.

Then Paramount+, Zoom, the internet, and the black-box goblin said: Nope.

So we did what DWO does best.

We adapted and overcame.

What started as a watch party for the 1989 John Hughes classic Uncle Buck turned into a full DWO conversation and breakdown of the movie, the late great John Candy, Buck Russell’s chaotic uncle energy, Gen-X family dysfunction, latchkey kid memories, weird 80s parenting, John Hughes suburbia, and every gloriously unrelated tangent the crew managed to drag into the room.

At the heart of the episode is John Candy, whose performance as Buck still works because he made chaos feel safe. Buck is crude, messy, inappropriate, hilarious, and somehow exactly the adult those kids needed. He is not polished. He is not modern. He is not qualified on paper. But he shows up. And sometimes that is the whole mission.

This episode was supposed to be a watch party.

It became a Buck Russell rescue mission.

And honestly? That might be more DWO anyway.

The episode closes with Auditory Ecstasy’s “Here To Stay,” a high-energy AE track that fits the episode’s accidental thesis perfectly: the screen went black, the plan changed, but DWO is still here, still adapting, and still totally rad.

Explicit — because this episode has peak DWO “fuckin black boxed us” energy.

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