MFM Minisode 504

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

In this special back-to-school minisode of My Favorite Murder, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark celebrate educators with a mix of heartfelt stories and

Key takeaways

• The episode highlights the often-overlooked sacrifices of teachers, especially those in underfunded schools.

Main topics

• Teacher appreciation
• Back-to-school themes

Notable quotes

"When you're in third grade or like eight years old, that's an adult. It's completely an adult."

Conclusion

The episode closes with a heartfelt call to action, urging listeners t

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:01) This is exactly right. Speaker 7 (0:06) When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that. Trust your girlfriends. Listen to The Girlfriends, Trust Me Babe, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (0:38) Why do some women yearn for Shakira's black hair to make a comeback? And whatever happened to the power couple of my dreams, Mariah Carey and Luis Miguel? I'm Maria Garcia. You may remember me from my podcast, Anything for Selena or My Divo. And now I'm back to unpack more stories from the present and the past. Listen to Muy Excited with Maria Garcia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:07) If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (1:55) Hello and welcome to my favorite murder. The back to school mini-sode. The back to school, very special Speaker 2 (2:02) episode of the mini-sode. We're going to do just teacher adjacent stories, right? School stories, teacher stories. Yes. But because we're doing this. Speaker 8 (2:12) We're also going to have a little fun with it. Speaker 3 (2:15) Last year, we reposted a bunch of teachers' wish lists so that other people could help and clear them. And everybody responded. Of course, it's the murderino community. So they showed up and they showed out and they cleared a ton Speaker 8 (2:27) of wish lists. So this year, we are going Speaker 2 (2:29) to join in and like double down on that. We're going to clear as many wish lists as possible by donating $10,000 to Kids in Need Foundation in the name of all our teachers. teacher murderinos, teacherinos. And Speaker 3 (2:43) Kids in Need Foundation is really great because it actually focuses on under-resourced classrooms. So Speaker 2 (2:48) that Speaker 3 (2:49) feels even better. Speaker 2 (2:49) Totally. So if you'd like to help and give a little as well and clear a teacher's wish list, we're going to be reposting them on Instagram, teacher's wish lists. Right. Speaker 3 (2:58) And so you can jump in. Our donation is like covering it so that we're not picking a favorite school. And so you can join in. If you're a teacher, you can retweet your wish list. And then murderinos who did it last year have an opportunity to help out. Speaker 2 (3:12) Totally. So teachers, post your Instagram story with a link to your wish list and then tag us at My Favorite Murder. And let's have some fun with this. And we can help you out. We can help out and do something good in this fucked up world. Think of the children. Speaker 3 (3:27) Think of the children. All right. Okay, let's get to... Okay, the subject line of this one is most unqualified substitute teacher ever. Hello, you wonderful ladies. Sometime back, you asked for hometowns about inappropriate jobs for children. Mine dates back to the early 70s, a feral time of massive discrimination, unchecked pollution, and corporate disregard of safety, and absolutely amazing music. That's basically it in Speaker 2 (3:54) a nutshell. There's real Speaker 3 (3:55) bad lows, and then there's a couple highs. I grew up in a very small West Texas town of 5,000 people, and then in parentheses, do not recommend, which at the time had two elementary schools. My father was the principal of one, and the other principal was a man I'll call Mr. Taylor because that was his name, and I'm done protecting incompetent men. Yeah. All of a sudden, the email's blowing up. Love Speaker 2 (4:18) it. Speaker 3 (4:19) One morning, Mr. Taylor, claiming he could not find a substitute teacher, called my high school office and asked them to send me over to his elementary school for the day to fill in. Without asking any questions, the high school principal pulled me out of class and told me to go to the elementary school. Important point here. I was 16 years old. Wow. Also important point, I did not ask any questions because I had it drilled into me from birth that I was to do whatever an adult told me to do. Totally, totally. Very dark times. Nonsense. The internet children don't understand. No. Dutifully, I showed up at Mr. Taylor's office and he took me to a third grade classroom. Speaker 8 (4:57) This is so against the law. How old are third graders? Speaker 3 (4:59) Like nine? Yeah, the oldest, I think. Oh, my God. They're still pretty young. Speaker 3 (5:06) told me the real teachers in other rooms would check on me throughout the day and left. The real teachers did not, in fact, check on me not even once. I never saw another adult all day except for lunch when one of them casually asked, how's it going? Jesus. And walked away without waiting for me to answer. Those third graders were treated to a day of coloring, a few math problems, and me reading aloud to them from whatever books I could find in the room. Luckily, I didn't lose any children and there was no bloodshed, so I considered the day a success. When I got home that afternoon, I discovered neither of my parents had known where I was or what I was doing and responded to my telling them that their 16-year-old daughter had spent the day as a substitute teacher of small children with, that's nice. Wow. So maybe there's an aroma of trash parents in this story also. There was never any mention of paying me for a day's work. I suspect Mr. Taylor could see that submitting a pay voucher for a minor who wasn't on the approved substitute teacher list and didn't have a social security number might raise some questions. Apparently, none of the third graders' parents raised any objections to whatever their children told them about their teenage substitute. But here's the thing. When you're in third grade or like eight years Speaker 8 (6:18) old. Speaker 3 (6:18) That's an adult. It's completely an adult. You'd be like, you run the bank. Oh, but you're here today. Because, dear listeners, this happened at least twice more during my high school years. It's Speaker 2 (6:29) like he thinks he's hiring a Speaker 3 (6:31) babysitter, not a teacher. And that's the problem. And that's the problem right there. Thank you for all you do in the world and the joy you bring to this cat-loving old broad. Stay sexy and maybe make a couple more phone calls before hiring a 16-year-old as a substitute teacher. Jana. Because Speaker 2 (6:48) even a babysitter would get paid for like 30 kids or whatever. That's a lot of fucking money you'd get paid for Speaker 3 (6:53) babysitting. You would get, if you got $20 to babysit a kid for the night. Do the math. Times that up and pay Jana retroactively. Speaker 6 (7:02) Can't do everything for you. State of Texas. Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. There's great food, comfortable chairs, and attentive stewardesses. The stewardesses were so beautiful. But in reality, the stewardess job is far less glamorous than it appears. It Speaker 5 (7:27) was the most sexist job I think you could have. Speaker 6 (7:35) In this era, the airlines told these stewardesses they have to be single. They had no good excuse for why they wouldn't let women be married. They have to be skinny. Speaker 7 (7:46) We were starving ourselves. Speaker 6 (7:49) And they have to be young. You would retire at age 32. But one day, a group of stewardesses said, This has got to stop. They risked it all, turning a fight for fairness into a revolution. Speaker 6 (8:05) Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you Speaker 2 (8:12) get your podcasts. Okay. I'm going to, this is a Montessori pen pal story. Oh. Best wishes, warm regards. It starts. Nice. My home of Danville, Iowa. I don't, why did I point to you? There's a Danville on the north. There's Danville in the East Bay, yeah. Okay, that's not this one. Danville, Iowa, is surrounded by cornfields, has students who regularly drive tractors to school during homecoming, and has about 900 citizens. Did that stop Speaker 8 (8:39) you cold because you're from Orange County? I Speaker 2 (8:41) don't Speaker 8 (8:41) get it. Yeah, you Speaker 3 (8:42) get on your dad's tractor and you drive to homecoming, and you're in your dress and he's in his tuxedo. Oh, Speaker 8 (8:47) it's like your Speaker 3 (8:47) special. It's like a Speaker 2 (8:48) little parade. Okay, got it. Got it. I always win the my town is smaller than your town game, but we do have an incredible story. Back in 1940, there was a teacher named Bertie Matthews who was known for being pretty strict, but she genuinely cared about her students and wanted to ensure they had