Best Class Ever

Episode 27 – Dear Future Me

By shaundmcmillan February 22, 2021PodcastNo Comments

Want a clever way to time travel and cheat death? Play your favorite music from when you were a teenager and take a look at some old photos or journal entries. Write an email or letter to your future self and write your own eulogy to be read at your funeral. But if you are going to go on this adventure, there is one critical ingredient you will need...

Episode 26 – How to Get Critical Work Done: The Eisenhower Decision Matrix

By shaundmcmillan February 14, 2021PodcastNo Comments

Transcript: We would all love to be people who really get big things done. But so much of our day is spent procrastinating and avoiding the work we really need…

Episode 25 – When Is it Right to Be Angry?

By shaundmcmillan February 10, 2021PodcastNo Comments

Even Jesus the Messiah of Christianity and the ultimate archetype of all that is good got angry and publicly denounced the religious leaders of his time period. Obviously those benefiting from the status quo are not going to agree with these revolutionary thinkers and will find such self-righteousness to be condescending. So who can judge between these opposing factions?

Episode 24 – Ideologies & Morality

By shaundmcmillan January 31, 2021PodcastNo Comments

In the last lesson we spoke about the two leading political ideologies, liberalism and conservatism, and how they might be related to differences in common personality traits. Today let’s talk about how we talk about politics.

Episode 23 – Dueling Ideologies – The Left & the Right

By shaundmcmillan January 24, 2021PodcastNo Comments

Which do you value? Equality or Patriotism? Compassion or Societal Order? Do you prefer, dogs or cats? Through personality tests we can often tell which side of the political spectrum people fall into. Do you lean left also known as liberal, or to the right, also known as conservative?

Episode 22 – Aliens & Angels

By shaundmcmillan January 17, 2021PodcastNo Comments

Whether in a galaxy far far away like Star Wars, or in the very near, very possible future like Black Mirror, science fiction deals with issues that we face in the here and now. Issues like race, politics, and religion might be too hot to discuss directly for a lot of us, but fictional realities allow us to take a step back and talk about what ifs. So let’s explore today’s world by looking at stories about tomorrow.

Episode 21 – Science Fiction Messiah Stories

By shaundmcmillan January 10, 2021PodcastNo Comments

What does the third Star Wars film also known as Episode 6, the third Lord of the Rings, the Matrix trilogy, and the Lion King have in common?

Episode 20 – Great Science Fiction & Fantasy

By shaundmcmillan January 3, 2021PodcastNo Comments

In 1936 J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Luis flipped a coin to see which of them should write a space-travel story, and which should write a time-travel story. C.S. Luis went on to write the Chronicles of Narnia, and J.R.R. Tolkien went on to write the single most influential fantasy fiction trilogy, Lord of the Rings. Today let's look at Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and the Hunger Games.

Episode 19 – Quick & Easy Game Based Learning

By shaundmcmillan December 27, 2020Game Based Learning, PodcastNo Comments

Developing games is fun but it takes a long time and a lot of work. But recently I found an easy way to take any great story from history or literature and make it into a simple game. My name is Shaun McMillan, and this is the Best Class Ever.

Episode 18: The King’s Dilemma

By shaundmcmillan December 20, 2020Game Based Learning, PodcastNo Comments

Have you ever had to make a life and death decision that could determine the fate of your nation? No? Well today you are King Henry V, and you are outnumbered five to one. What will you do?