Missoula father-daughter team flips learning with podcast
MISSOULA, Mont. — The school year hasn’t felt normal for most of 2020, but one Missoula family made lemonade out of COVID-19 lemons.
Have you ever wondered if kittens dream? Or how about how many people fit a socially distanced 6-feet apart in Montana? It’s 113 billion, and you can thank Jeremy and Rasa Smith for that answer.
They researched it as part of their father-daughter podcast they started in April. The idea was born from a list Jeremy started when Rasa was a baby -- a list of things he thought she should know.
“So he started sharing them with me,” Rasa explained. “Then he thought, ‘I have things to teach him, and he has things to teach me, so what if we made a podcast of it?’ And we had a lot of time since I was doing remote learning.”
The duo releases two episodes of “You Must Know Everything” each week, starting with a personal theory or lesson, like how to leave a note. They then discuss a poem and answer a vexing question they research. Each episode is about 10 minutes, and they trade off who teaches.
“I changed her mind about scratch paper, she changed my mind about slime,” Jeremy said.
It’s become a family affair, with mom helping with audio sometimes. Montana Public Radio picked up the podcast in May, airing it on Pea Green Boat Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“It’s just such a special thing between us,” Rasa said, smiling at her dad. “I didn’t know whether it would go on for a year or two weeks.”
For now, they say the podcast will go on until we return to normal or until they know everything -- whichever comes first.
The 50th episode of “You Must Know Everything” drops Sept. 24. You can stream it for free through your app store or find it here.
