Episode 7: Interviewing an Old Friend w/ Jeremiah

July 20, 2020·47 min·3 clips

Jeremiah's dad pushes college hard, but both older brothers dropped out and are now running successful home businesses.

The episode opens with hosts Erica and Emily introducing their guest Jeremiah, a 17-year-old rising senior who is also known among classmates for a YouTube channel that once had a video played in a biology class. The central premise is that Jeremiah's high school experience is shaped more by out-of-school involvement than by school activities, in contrast to the hosts. Jeremiah describes attending church every day after school — Sundays, Wednesdays, and weekday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. — for choir, worship groups, Bible study, and a Friday youth group. He explains that this schedule means most of his close friends are from church rather than school, since he sees those people daily. The hosts and Jeremiah reconstruct how they know each other, tracing shared classes in ninth and tenth grade including environmental management and global studies, and noting that by junior year they had no classes together. A significant portion of the conversation revisits a sophomore biology class that Erica dropped after panicking about its difficulty, which Jeremiah says contributed to him and Erica drifting apart. Jeremiah describes a specific incident in that biology class where the teacher publicly berated him and a classmate named Kendra after Jeremiah laughed at the teacher giving wrong answers during a practice exam review, and notes someone recorded it. The group also recalls a math teacher in tenth grade who frequently came in late, stared silently at students, and talked about Cherry Garcia ice cream. Jeremiah's math ability comes up as a notable strength — he placed in the top ten at a middle school math competition with roughly 150 students. He is currently taking dual enrollment classes and plans to take AP Calculus as a DE course senior year. On future plans, Jeremiah says he is considering becoming an anesthesiology nurse rather than a full physician to avoid the longer schooling, while also keeping open the possibility of building income through social media or marketing. He describes a pattern of getting excited about making YouTube videos, overthinking before recording, and never posting. His father, who works in construction, strongly encourages college and has offered to pay, but both of Jeremiah's older brothers left college and are now running home businesses successfully, which Jeremiah finds both motivating and conflicting. Emily shares that she plans to pursue orthopedics and play college soccer, and Erica mentions interest in government and journalism, including potentially running for office. The group discusses the demands of high school soccer season, including Jeremiah studying chemistry notes on a bus while teammates held a dance party, and a regional playoff trip to Tampa where Jeremiah fainted mid-game from exhaustion and stress. The episode ends with a brief discussion of hospital volunteering experiences and community service hours.

As heard by us

A loose friend interview that keeps high school pressure and future plans easy to follow.

Erica and Emily have a good spark here, especially when Jeremiah talks about his YouTube channel and how teachers and classmates respond to it. That part feels easy and specific without trying too hard.

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Why you'd press play

You want a friendly high school catch-up with teasing, interruptions, and real back-and-forth.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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