00:00.00 archpodnet Hey guys Carlton here if you are listening to this episode on the archeology podcast network all shows feed please consider subscribing to the life and ruins podcast channel to support our show listening to and downloading our episodes on the life and ruins channel helps our podcast grow so please subscribe to the life and ruins podcast hosted by the archeology podcast network. Whichever platform you're using to listen to us on the all shows feed support our show by following our channel now onto the episode welcome to episode 95 of a life and ruins podcast reinvestigate the careers of those living a life in ruins I am your host Carlton go and I am joined by my co-host Connor Johnn and David Howe tonight's guest is Isaac Russell aka Zeke Darwin he's an eighth grade science teacher and Tiktok personality isaac. It is a pleasure having you on this evening. How are you doing. 00:49.10 Isaac Russell I'm doing great. Super busy. This is my first kind of little hour or two with my wife and newborn being gone since we got home a week ago. So it's kind of quiet around here. 00:56.90 David Yeah Congrats on the baby man that's like a I guess an accomplishment I don't know what the word would be but like that's a good thing for you? Yeah I hate. Yeah yeah. 01:06.39 Isaac Russell I appreciate it. Dana. 01:09.60 connor You You got you can. It's like achievement on Ixbox You know you just. 01:16.62 David Baby born. Um I heard it's a handful, especially like that first 2 weeks like once you get home because it's just such a new thing. You know. 01:25.80 Isaac Russell It's just like night and day difference. You go to bed one night and then the next day it's like there are no more chances where you can just like run an air and with no responsibilities like for the rest of the next eighteen years you've got you got someone else, you're in charge of that goes first. 01:33.89 David Wow. 01:42.70 David That's ah yeah, that scares me but props to you man? Um, yeah, so I guess I found you on Instagram or Tiktok I'm sorry via my mom and she was like hey look at this guy you should talk more like him. And it's like I probably should you have a good personality like you just are direct and then lo and behold I found out you're a teacher. So therefore it makes sense. Um, and yeah I really liked your videos. So I guess before we get into that how like. What got you into science and like history and all that. 02:18.70 Isaac Russell So what got me into science I mean you going back a long time like as a kid I was obsessed with science dinosaurs that was like my first fascination like go to the museum and know all the dinosaurs but like still don't know the order of the months um 02:28.35 David Nice, nice. 02:38.70 Isaac Russell But then I kind of lost that fascination for science and it wasn't actually which this sounds really weird until after I had became a science teacher because like I wanted to be a teacher and science was the topic I went with because I always liked science as a kid and I liked animals. But. Once I actually became a science teacher and realized like I needed to learn what I was talking about and I started kind of diving into it more than I ever did in school and I was like I don't know I just like fell in love with it all over again. So it was really kind of a late bloomer when I came back to science. Um. I don't know. It's not your typical story when it comes to that and I think that's a lot of the reason why I'm a teacher people always ask me like why I didn't go into some more specific field and it's like if I if I did it all over again. I probably would. But. Didn't realize there were so many opportunities in the sciences still today and so now it's kind of cool to be the teacher that's trying to get these other kids to realize like you can specialize in a specific animal if you really want to and like go study it like these opportunities are still out. There. 03:44.73 David As he said specific animal a cat just walked across his desk That's really funny to be. Um, oh I bet that was a nightmare. Yeah um so I think. 03:48.76 Isaac Russell It takes me back to the zoom teaching days this would happen nonstop. Yeah. 03:54.64 archpodnet Ah, oh. 04:04.30 David Remember Mr Mills in Seventh grade and Miss Carbo in Eighth grade. Of course that was a joke. Um, but like the science teachers that really care and they really like know there's a kid that you know is. Kid smart or interested in in the subject they take time to show you cool stuff like with the Bunsen Burner and all that. So um, it's definitely like such a cool thing I bet to be a science teacher. Um, because like I I am the way I am because of mine I would say. 04:29.14 Isaac Russell Yeah. Yeah, you definitely have ah an influence where you can kind of I don't know like for 1 example, there was 1 kid who was just like obsessed with reptiles and apetology and wasn't like a straight day student or anything but he had that genuine interest and. I was interested in some of the lizards nearby because they're italian wall lizards they're from italy I'm in topeka Kansas they're not supposed to be here. They've been here like 60 years because they got loose from some pet store. Um, but nobody's ever studied them. So I kind of got on a. 05:04.97 David Um, wow. 05:10.87 Isaac Russell Little study type thing with him and we were just kind of doing population Surveys and then came up with a hypo like we just came with a hypothesis and tried to do some actual science and like that kid he still emails me every once in a while but I think he'll probably go into some kind of Herpetology Field. So It's cool to know that like. I Don't know like we can influence them so much and kind of help them thrive whereas they probably wouldn't have if they didn't run into somebody who was randomly interested in these Italian wall Lizards already. 05:43.66 connor I Yeah I had a very similar experience and I think I've said this on the podcast before but my fourth grade teacher. She wasn't I don't think she was really into dinosaurs but she had understood how to get me close to people and meet people who were interested in Dinosaurs. So I got. She really set my career in motion by just like taking an interest in what I was doing and putting in that extra effort and I am definitely here now as an archaeologist because of her. So yeah, thank you for your work. It's much appreciated. 06:19.93 Isaac Russell Yeah I think no no I was gonna I was just gonna say like I think we all have teachers that kind of like influenced us in some way. Um, and it's not always even with like the the edge the subject matter like I was. 06:20.11 archpodnet So yeah man So oh sorry, go ahead. 06:36.59 Isaac Russell It was ah it was a movie honestly. But what got me into teaching a hallmark movie I watched it my sophomore year and I had always struggled with Tourette's and it was about this guy named Brad Cohen and he went on to be like the Georgia teacher of the year um and he had tourette's really bad and it was just kind of a really cool story and like. When I think back to like a teacher that influenced me it. It wasn't even a teacher I honestly knew it was just kind of seeing how much he could help people like me and then seeing how much I could help people like me kind of based on those experiences so like yeah i. I guess I was just going to say we all have a teacher at some point that really guided us. 07:13.20 David That's that's cool man. 07:13.93 archpodnet Yeah, 100% kind of like bringing it back? Um, so you're currently in Kansas were you are you originally from Kansas or did you move there like for work. 07:22.97 Isaac Russell Now I am originally from Kansas I'm from a small town sabeha Kansas we have like 2000 people there. Um the town I almost went to go to school at where my dad went burn kansas the population's probably like less than 100 there were like four kids in my class. So i'm. Born and raised in really small town Kansas and then moved to topeka and now I'm in Kansas City and that was just more college type age started moving around. 07:52.62 archpodnet I Got you. 07:53.68 David I hear it's flat. There. Um, and I don't hear that I've actually driven through Kansas many times. Um, and yeah I'm sure like in the cities. It's probably like a lot different because my impression of Nebraska was like there's nothing here but corn. Ah, but then when I went to Lincoln I was like oh this is like a cool like little hip little city. So like what's Kansas City I've been to Kansas City on the the other side. What's it like there. 08:19.19 Isaac Russell Um, I mean I've only been here for like a week a week and a half now um and I am like the least extroverted person I will stay and side and play call of duty or whatever as much as possible. So I'm not the best person to ask that kind of question to um. 08:24.10 David Um, ah. 08:38.86 Isaac Russell But I don't know it's It's nice. It's still you still kind of get that small town feel wherever you're at around here like I'll still drive to the local caseies just because like it reminds me a home So I don't know I'm not a city person but you can kind of still get that small town feel out here. 08:52.40 archpodnet You got you? Um, so going to ah topeka right? You went to K U Oh okay, right right? right? Got you and so. 08:57.35 Isaac Russell So I went to Washburn University so half hour away from k u. 09:07.98 archpodnet Did you originally start off pursuing a degree in Science Education or did you start off with something else and kind of wander yourself into the science education program. So. 09:15.72 Isaac Russell So I first went juco actually and I knew I wanted to do education I knew I wanted to do science because like I wanted classroom pets and I like animals like I said but honestly like back then my dreams were all being a baseball player. So the whole college experience at first for me I just moved to a little tiny juco to go play baseball and I started with the education classes and did that for a couple of years and I only played baseball for like two weeks it wasn't for me at all the college athlete lifestyle is. 09:53.82 David Oh. 09:54.19 Isaac Russell Not the not the grind that I am meant for um but I kind of lost track there Honestly, Um, let's restart that one I got to redo that one. Ah. 10:01.22 David I get it. Yeah, um, yeah, wherever you want to start from? Um I thought it was pretty funny but. 10:12.79 Isaac Russell So we were doing the oh college like why I went there to go to college. Um, all right? Could you like read the question one more time just so I can. Okay. 10:22.28 archpodnet So yeah I could go for it and we can I can make it to the Juco first. So I can I can direct you into it. Absolutely So after high school you went to Community College I guess out there you guys call it Junior College or Juco for short. Um, so. 10:27.68 Isaac Russell Okay, okay, yeah. 10:40.64 archpodnet Originally why? um going to a community college first and. 10:42.89 Isaac Russell So the main drive for community college was just that I was still at a point where throughout high school I was big into baseball wanted to play college baseball wanted to play d one wanted to like have a life doing baseball which. Was not a realistic thing so I went kind of to juko to get a couple more years in it was another small town. It was actually a town that was smaller than my hometown. There were a thousand people in that town. So it was just kind of a nice little intermediate before I moved off to the city and university and and ah. It was. It was pretty cool. I would definitely recommend junior college or community college like I didn't end up sticking out with the baseball. Ah I lasted like two weeks there but it was a great opportunity to kind of start taking some of those education classes and general science classes and save a lot of money. While kind of staying close to home before I went off then to topeka. 11:38.17 David Yeah. 11:40.85 archpodnet I right? I did the somewhat similar I went to community college first I took a year off from school and because I was trying like I was not ready for a 4 year program and I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. So I can I can understand that and saving that money aspect and I learned a lot like I had a lot of fun at community college. Um, that's for sure like I highly recommend it because I don't think if I hadn't gone to ah a community college I don't think I would have found anthropology or archeology quite frankly like I would have gone probably to a 4 our-year degree done a history program and and. Never thought about archaeology ever and be coaching football for some team out in the middle of nowhere and teaching high school history. So. 12:26.58 David What what's the um like I didn't go to one of those schools but like what's the vibe like there because I've seen community but I imagine that's far from like what a community college is like but um, yeah, if you don't mind explaining. 12:26.59 Isaac Russell It's the life. 12:39.73 Isaac Russell Do I had so 2 different years and 2 completely different experiences my first year my cat is messing with my headphones. 12:44.78 David You? okay. 12:51.00 Isaac Russell My first year when I was still like trying to be on the baseball team I started out in what they called the overflow room so I had like 12 roommates in a room meant for 6 people. There were 3 rooms that shared kind of a living space and then bunk beds in each one so we had 12 people fitting in there. 13:07.11 David Well. 13:08.31 Isaac Russell And it was it was just a miserable experience for me I ended up moving back home. Um, and just commuted every day because it was like a half an hour drive but then the next year. Um, three of my friends which were like some of my best friends from my hometown they were all in the grade below me and so they all came out with me. And we got a little apartment together and they were all on the football team so they kind of like helped me meet other people and I loved it that year I mean really, it was like high school but everybody was living in these little apartments like really close to each other and it was just like you'd go to class. And then you were like a high schooler living in a town with other high schoolers for the rest of the time and it was a lot of fun. 13:52.12 connor I did did you have like a small ratio of like students to teachers or was there like big classes or were they generally like pretty tight knit. 14:04.80 Isaac Russell And it was it was more like high school classes. So it was more tight knit. Um, it wasn't even like when I went to Washburn you would be like put with people kind of with the same interest like education there. It was more like literally just kind of the small town experience like you would. To know people then you'd have classes with them and really most of the people you knew their names when you would see them. You didn't necessarily hang out with them all but like it was a cool feel where you just knew everybody. 14:34.78 David I I'd never really thought of it like that I didn't know there were dorms I guess it was apartment later but hu yeah. 14:40.20 archpodnet Mine didn't mine did not have dorms like there was no way. No, it was strictly like there was apartments that you could do. But I mean like the Northern Virginia community college systems like 12 campuses spread out across 3 counties and you just you just commuted I think like my my home. Ah, campus was in Manassas like ten miles away but I went to the loud one because that had a more of a history and archeology focus so you kind of like each 1 focused on something like first lady Jill Biden taught english at the prince William County 1 so she was doing that when she was second lady is that what the vice president's wife is called. That's what she was doing the entire time. But so but yeah man I have no idea what the. 15:21.33 connor And she first she first vice lady. 15:25.82 David Second lady seems kind of like a demeaning term I don't know it's a good question. Um, anyway, moving on from that. Ah. 15:28.49 connor Um. 15:39.28 David So you shifted from that to like an actual university after that right. 15:42.37 Isaac Russell Right? So once I got my 2 years done there had my associates I ended up going to Washburn and there was no real reason for it honestly like like genuinely I was just your typical kid going to school and like knew I was going to be a teacher like. 15:59.33 David And. 16:01.24 Isaac Russell Anywhere I could get in was fine with me so that was the closest 1 um, so yeah I moved down there and then it was a bit different than Highland because then you're really only with kind of your cohort like the education majors is who I was spending all of my time with and that was cool because then we kind of. Grew as a class for the next few years together um so it was a lot different than Highland but at the same time that was kind of the point where I was like all right. It's time to actually settle down and start putting school first. So it was kind of the perfect little I don't know. Perfect transition in there from like the juco having a little bit more fun to settling down at a university and starting to think more about my future. 16:48.32 David Yeah. 16:48.43 connor So yeah, it's really interesting to me so I did I think I did the same as David just straight into ah a 4 year university and it was a state university Colorado state so I had classes of like 150 to like 200 folks like my first couple years and those are not that was not really good for me and how I wanted to learn and whatnot. So I always was thought that taking the like a junior college or like getting associates or something would have been better for my first couple years I think but also then. You're in the dorms on campus and you meet a lot of people so there's this like it's a double-edged sword kind of thing I can't I can't say one is better. The other. 17:30.58 Isaac Russell That yeah, I would definitely say that is a downside to the Juco Route is that once you then get to the 4 year university you haven't like met other people. So like you're just kind of thrown into it and some people deal with that really well. And are going to be meeting people but I'm not the person who's going to go out of my way to meet people. So I honestly went like probably 3 years at topeka and I could like the number of friends I've met probably 1 hand which they're all good friends. It's just like I don't know Highland was ah. 18:02.73 David Ah. 18:07.52 Isaac Russell Island was good for me to a lot of people but it also had that downside because then you move on and those other people don't go with you. 18:12.43 David Yeah I think like I went to college with several high school friends like we're still like really best friends now and I was with them and like we had they would bring a friend over from class and I had like 2 archeology friends and that's about it and like I had like my college friends. Like they were my college friends which is funny to me. But yeah when when you said you could count it on your hand I I literally couldn't think like if I met that many people in college either I think that might be pretty common. 18:40.63 Isaac Russell Yeah, and the person who I actually lived with in topeka I met him at Highland because he was on the baseball team and I would go sleep on his floor as opposed to sleeping in that overflow room because. 18:54.22 David Nice. 18:56.23 Isaac Russell It was a shady situation and you could get busted. You'd get busted with anybody had anything and like being in that room. It was a risk so I would just go sleep on their floor like every night and then I moved to topeka and we moved in together and stayed living together for a few years. 19:12.23 David Nice, Well um I Want to ask you about how to get a science Ed degree and like how like that whole process. But let's move on to the next segment and we can do that there because I would love to know so.