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A Short Story Podcast Series

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- Episodes vary in duration from 30 seconds to 8 minutes.
- All episodes are royalty free in their entirety—except for #509.
- If you have an idea for an episode, please reach out to our team and we’ll happily schedule the topic for a future recording.
- Priority is given to homeschooling parents, teachers, educators, and lifelong learning professionals.
- Select episodes now include free curriculum materials at the bottom of the episode page, designed to support open education initiatives, teachers, classrooms, and homeschool use. These materials are aligned to multiple educational standards globally.
- The podcast is currently in common carriage on the Podcast Radio Network.
- In London, you can listen to the Podcast Radio Network over the air on DAB+ and access its variety of podcasts and audio content directly through your DAB+ radio.
- In the USA, you can listen to "Interesting Things with JC" on Podcast Radio US over the air in various cities: in Detroit on 93.5 FM and WCSX-94.7 HD2, in Tampa on 1010 WHFS-AM, in Charlotte on 94.7 FM and WSOC-HD3, and in Ft. Myers/Naples on 96.5 FM, 101.5 FM, 105.1 FM, and WXKB-HD2.
Curriculum Summary for Educators, Homeschoolers, and Lifelong Learners
Interesting Things with JC now features free curriculum materials to go with select episodes, created for teachers, homeschool families, and curious learners of all ages.
Each episode includes a modular micro-lesson designed to support a 30 to 45 minute class. Curriculum content appears at the bottom of the episode page in easy-to-use expandable sections.
Each lesson includes:
- Lesson overview (title, grade level, subject area, learning objectives)
- Key vocabulary with phonetic spelling and plain-language definitions
- Core story content based on the Precise Storytelling Framework
- Full podcast transcript
- Student worksheet with comprehension and writing prompts
- Teacher guide with pacing, strategies, and discussion tools
- Quiz and assessment rubric
- Standards alignment across multiple global frameworks
We are currently piloting lesson alignment to:

Approved Standards – High-Level List
- NGSS – Next Generation Science Standards
- CCSS – Common Core State Standards (ELA and Math)
- C3 Framework – College, Career & Civic Life (Social Studies)
- ISTE Standards – Technology and Digital Literacy
- NCAS – National Core Arts Standards
- CTE Career Clusters – U.S. Career & Technical Education
- ACRL Framework – Higher Ed Information Literacy
- Bloom’s Taxonomy – Cognitive Learning Objectives
- UDL – Universal Design for Learning (Accessibility Support)
International Academic Equivalents (Content-Only)
- UK National Curriculum – Key Stages 3–5 (England)
- AQA / OCR / Edexcel – UK Exam Board Specifications
- IB (International Baccalaureate) – PYP, MYP, DP (academic subjects only)
- Cambridge International – IGCSE, AS/A-Level (non-political content areas)
All lessons are open educational resources (OER) and designed with homeschool flexibility in mind.
- To review examples, check out any episode from #1235 to today, just scroll down.
- Beginning with Episode #1307 we’re shifting to an open text format at the bottom of every MP3 page in the RSS. This should allow greater ease of access.
- If you are using the curriculum your feedback is greatly appreciated, that’s how iterations like this continue to drive changes in the layout, and useability.
- If you intend to feature the series on your podcast or use it in your broadcast feed as interstitial content, please tag us on social media and/or send us an email.

JC 7/15/25 JC 7/15/25

1345: "Flash Floods"

Interesting Things with JC #1345: "Flash Floods" – A few hours of rain. A 30-foot wall of water. How does that happen, and how do you survive it? This is not just weather. It's terrain. It's physics. It's personal.

JC 7/14/25 JC 7/14/25

1344: "The SnackWrap Guy of Hendersonville"

Interesting Things with JC #1344: "The SnackWrap Guy of Hendersonville" – One man, one missing menu item, and a TikTok campaign that turned craving into comeback. What started in a drive-thru became something no one expected.

JC 7/11/25 JC 7/11/25

1341: "The History of 7-Eleven"

Interesting Things with JC #1341: "The History of 7-Eleven" – Before Slurpees, it was just ice. What started as a Dallas ice dock transformed into a global empire redefining how, and when, we shop. From totems to Tokyo, convenience was engineered.

JC 6/28/25 JC 6/28/25

1328: "The Year Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, and Freud Were Neighbors"

Interesting Things with JC #1328: "The Year Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, and Freud Were Neighbors" – Vienna, 1913: four men, two miles apart. Before the war. Before the world changed.

JC 6/27/25 JC 6/27/25

1327: "The Impossible Coin Flip"

Interesting Things with JC #1327: "The Impossible Coin Flip" – You’re blindfolded, facing 100 coins. Ten are heads-up. Your task? Split them into two piles with equal heads...without knowing which is which. A puzzle that tests logic, not luck.

JC 6/14/25 JC 6/14/25

1314: "Could a Hidden Parasite Make You a Mosquito Target?"

Interesting Things with JC #1314: "Could a Hidden Parasite Make You a Mosquito Target?" – You feel fine. No symptoms. But to a mosquito, you suddenly smell irresistible. Could a silent parasite be changing your scent, and turning you into the perfect host?

JC 6/13/25 JC 6/13/25

1313: "Brian Wilson"

Interesting Things with JC #1313: "Brian Wilson" – He heard the world in one ear and imagined the rest. From Pet Sounds to silence, this is a life built on fragile brilliance and lasting sound.

JC 6/12/25 JC 6/12/25

1312: "Sly Stone"

Interesting Things with JC #1312: "Sly Stone" – He vanished from fame and lived in silence. Not because he was forgotten...but because he couldn’t bear being seen. A prophet of funk who chose exile over encore.

JC 6/11/25 JC 6/11/25

1311: "Not Broken, But Injured"

Interesting Things with JC #1311: "Not Broken, But Injured" – A girl gets detention. What doesn’t get recorded? The trauma behind her behavior. A landmark study rewired how we ask: not what's wrong...but what happened?

JC 6/8/25 JC 6/8/25

1308: "Hyperion"

Interesting Things with JC #1308: "Hyperion" – Deep in a fog-drenched forest, a 379-foot redwood reaches the edge of biology’s limits. But getting close could destroy it forever.

JC 6/3/25 JC 6/3/25

1303: "Clock It"

Interesting Things with JC #1303: "Clock It" – A phrase that started on the stopwatch now signals everything from impact to instinct. What does it really mean to clock something?

JC 6/2/25 JC 6/2/25

1302: "The Man Who Controlled a Computer with His Mind"

Interesting Things with JC #1302: "The Man Who Controlled a Computer with His Mind" – A man paralyzed from the neck down typed with thought alone. What began as science fiction became proof that the mind can still move the world.

JC 5/31/25 JC 5/31/25

1300: "When the F5 Came to Pennsylvania"

Interesting Things with JC #1300: "When the F5 Came to Pennsylvania" – The funnel dropped fast. The roar came faster. Pennsylvania’s only F5 tornado left a scar on towns, science, and silence itself.

JC 5/26/25 JC 5/26/25

1295: "Get Out and Move"

Interesting Things with JC #1295: "Get Out and Move" – A simple walk does more than stretch your legs. It grows your brain, lowers your stress, and resets your rhythm. The science is moving.

JC 5/25/25 JC 5/25/25

1294: "5/25/25"

Interesting Things with JC #1294: "5/25/25" – It’s a once-in-a-century number stack, where day, month, and year align. Not a palindrome, not a mirror, but something deeper. A date that won’t come again.

JC 5/13/25 JC 5/13/25

1282: "May 13, 1981 – The Attempted Assassination of Pope John Paul II"

Interesting Things with JC #1282: "May 13, 1981 – The Attempted Assassination of Pope John Paul II" – A gentle gesture saved his life. A bullet reshaped a continent. In the heart of the Cold War, one unarmed man became too dangerous to ignore.

JC 5/10/25 JC 5/10/25

1279: "The World’s Smallest Army"

Interesting Things with JC #1279: "The World’s Smallest Army" – They wear Renaissance colors, they carry halberds, but behind the pageantry is something real, a small, sworn force that once saved a Pope, and still might.

JC 5/4/25 JC 5/4/25

1273: "What are Organoids?"

Interesting Things with JC #1273: "What are Organoids?" – They pulse, they grow, they even send signals. But they’re not fully human. Organoids are reshaping medicine, ethics, and our sense of what biology can do, on its own.

JC 5/3/25 JC 5/3/25

1272: "Steve’s Lava Chicken – Guinness Book Record for Shortest Charting Song"

Interesting Things with JC #1272: "Steve’s Lava Chicken – Guinness Book Record for Shortest Charting Song" - An 11-second Minecraft chant just broke the rules of music charts, streaming metrics, and what counts as a song. It wasn't polished. It was viral. And now, it's immortal.

JC 4/29/25 JC 4/29/25

1268: "Murder on the High Seas – The Case of the Mignonette"

Interesting Things with JC #1268: "Murder on the High Seas – The Case of the Mignonette" – When survival demanded a terrible choice, four men faced a decision that would echo through legal history. How far can desperation bend the rules of life and death?