Well, it would be offensive to Germans, but it was also offensive to me. I don’t take joking use of the phrase lightly.

I am concerned there could be more. Either in other older episodes or underlying/accepted but hidden. And there are other podcasts on the same general topic, so I will start looking for a different one.

This makes sense- it could be that they’ve become more sensitive to these issues since then - at least I hope so! And if it is still a “just kidding!” response, that would give me the impression that I really don’t want to listen to them.

Yes, though I didn’t want to cross the line on this board and I actually don’t even want to type it. Context was that there was an unrelated German word brought up by the podcast topic, as happens in some fields. There was nothing in the word itself or the specific topic that seemed connected to the Nazi era or ideology. They initially said they might not be pronouncing the word right, and then joked that it sounded more accurate if shouted, then called out H… H…..!…just kidding!

This was not one that I could see any adult stumble upon and not realize it. It named Hitler specifically. It wasn’t ambiguous. I would give someone the benefit of the doubt if it could have been a neutral phase.

This would give a better feel for whether they really think it’s no big deal, or whether it was a mistake. I will try this.

Yes, we all say inappropriate things sometimes, but what gives me pause more about a podcast is that usually they’re edited and the editor had to choose to leave that in, so it seems more accepting of the idea being funny.

I did google the name and came up with nothing. I wouldn’t say it’s a very well known person, though.

Yes, it probably will take some time to figure that out - souring is a good way to describe it.

Previously, I was wondering if this made sense given that the episode was a few years old. But you’re right that quietly boycotting doesn’t really achieve anything. It was the surprise of hearing a Nazi slogan out of the blue, most of all, because it suddenly swung my view of the host 180 degrees. I’m not sure that will easily return to neutral or better, even though the usual topic is interesting. I would expect some off comments from Joe Rogan, and maybe could overlook them? But actually, maybe I couldn’t overlook Nazi slogans from him either. ETA: more detail about the “joke”

I was listening to an older episode of my previously favourite podcast when one of the hosts made an off the cuff joke that I found deeply offensive, then followed up with “…just kidding!”This is a podcast with a usually thoughtful presentation of a fairly non-controversial academic topic, and the comment seemed so out of character (or what I assumed was their character) and shocking that I repeated that section to make sure I heard it correctly. Yep…they really said that. 😧 And left it in after editing. If you were me, would you give them another chance…or never listen to them again?

I can’t get past the third level either on the speed match. I have been having a lot of trouble with slow loading of everything, to the point where spoken excercises are often impossible because by the time it recognizes I should be talking, the time to submit an answer has expired. I’m finding the app really difficult and frustrating to use in the last 2-3 weeks.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a much better book than Anne of Green Gables.

I haven’t read Uncle Tom’s Cabin to compare, but I did Roll of Thunder as a read-aloud with my Gr. 9 student this autumn, and it worked really well, with good discussions. We’re currently reading The Night Diary, another YA book that is not difficult to read, but has a weighty theme (partition of India at independence).

B vitamins (B50 or B100), C, and zinc were what I found most helpful when I had it.

I find Much Ado more fun than Taming of the Shrew, so I would pick it based on that. You seem to have a good balance of comedy and tragedy. As an alternative, maybe a historical one, or a Roman one?

We did Hamlet this summer (which I picked because our local Shakespeare group was playing it) and it worked better than I expected, so maybe we’ll try MacBeth next. We enjoyed Twelfth Night and Midsummer Night’s Dream too.

What other plays have you done?

I found with my kids that they needed a slow transition from picture books to chapter books. I still read aloud with my kids (8, 11, 14) every day, and it works well for us but I don’t know how typical this is. We started young. I read both classics and recent books like the Vanderbeekers or Adventures with Waffles (also some non-fiction — Scientists in the Field books worked really well for this). I don’t read books that bore me, though, because they’ll be bored too. The pacing, vocabulary and sentence structure of classic stories are often different and takes some time to get used to. We used illustrated versions of Pinocchio, Wizard of Oz, Pippi, etc. as well as longer picture books during that transition to chapter books. Others that we read included Winnie the Pooh, Beatrix Potter stories, and Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge stories (highly recommend these). They all have more classic pacing and structure but also have illustrations. I sometimes do multiple versions of the same story to build up gradually. For example, for my oldest who’s 14, this summer we did Hamlet. I read an illustrated children’s adaptation of Hamlet (Adam McKeown), then we read the full play together taking turns with the parts, then we saw the play live at a local open-air Shakespeare company. I picked Hamlet because it was the one that was available live, but then since it’s a challenging one, we started with just the story, then the text, so she’d be familiar with it once she saw the play. If the goal is to become familiar with culturally significant stories, like the Iliad or Odyssey, Rosemary Sutcliff has really good illustrated versions. The D’Aulaires have good illustrated versions of Greek and Norse myths, and George O’Connor has a whole series of graphic novels on the Greek gods. In German, Snöfried aus dem Wiesental (Andreas Schmachtl) is a cute epic adventure story with some illustrations that I really enjoyed. I’ve found read-alouds to be effective and fun for my family, but I think there are lots of ways to approach literature appreciation and familiarity, and it takes some tailoring, both for each of them and for you.

For books for younger kids (I forget, @GoodnightMoogle, whether you have very small kids or no kids at the moment), Beatrix Potter stories, Winnie the Pooh are wonderful, and a bit older, Pippi Longstocking and The Moomins are also favourites here. Pippi needs some editing/discussion too, but really fun.

I have also taken the opportunity to read some classics I hadn’t read when I was a kid, as well as ones I loved. I really enjoyed the Narnia books, and Wind in the Wilows (but not too young, the vocabulary & sentence structure are not simple), and my kids found Pinocchio really memorable (I found it odd, not what I expected). Fog Magic and Black Beauty were favourites. I skipped Mary Poppins and Dr. Doolittle due to reports of racism. I love the Little House books, but I either edit or discuss (started out mostly editing and now I mostly discuss), and I read the Birchbark House books along with them for an Indigenous point of view of the same region and time period. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is not half as good as Anne of Green Gables in my opinion and I didn’t enjoy R of SF much, but we did have lots of discussions comparing the two books and characters. My other classic that really didn’t work was Oliver Twist- not a book for children or tweens. I take Ambleside recommendations with at least a grain of salt.

Thanks, I agree it doesn’t need to all be included right now. Reading books before there is the maturity to be interested in them seems like it would result in the ideas just going over their heads. Did you specifically plan out which books you would cover later, or a general plan that you would look at those themes later?

The Vanderbeekers of 141st St is really fun and about right for that age.

Your thematic groupings sound intriguing! I’ve done a time period so far because that’s what my partner requested, but one thing I’ve enjoyed so far is seeing references to previous books if we read chronologically. In Jane Eyre, it refers to both Gulliver’s Travels (which we read already) and Rasselas (maybe later?). The Gr. 12 reading list here is also not that long and the reporting requirements aren’t that onerous, so we also have a fair amount of flexibility. I’ve thought of doing more of the same kind of book like lots of Jane Austen but she says she wants some books with modern dialogue for a change. I enjoy reading books in clusters, so that’s a possibility for later too.