The Origin Story

Since he was a kid, Mr. H has heard the same thing: “You are too stubborn over the stupidest stuff”. He likes to tell people that he’s “open-minded on important things but not so much on the small things”.

He hasn’t had an ice cream cone in nearly thirty years (“I don’t want to have to lick my food”), refuses to watch a movie in a movie theater (“Why do I want to have sit and watch something in the dark with strangers and be silent?”) or even watch a movie in a single sitting (“I don’t want to think and talk about it after I watched it, I want to while I am”). Friends and family learned long ago to roll their eyes and be annoyed by his intransigence while simultaneously ignoring it but he discovered a group who was more than ready to engage: His classroom full of students.

At their request, he came in every Tuesday armed with a new “hot take” they wanted to argue with him over and “Hot Take Tuesdays” was born.

At first, it was a match made in heaven. A captive audience more than willing to argue with him on why he refuses to wear sweatpants for him and kids who thought they were putting off a book discussion for as long as possible. But it became a problem. If he ever forgot, the students were ready to revolt and Tuesday mornings became a stressful ordeal while he frantically tried to mine the depths of his hot takes while also planning a lesson. So he did what anyone would do in that situation and called a comedy podcast.

Jake Johnson, Gareth Reynolds and the crew at “We’re Here to Help” saved him. The guys encouraged him to pass the baton, make the kids present their hot takes to him. And it worked! Mr. H. still got to argue with his students, they got to argue back and along the way, he noticed their public presentation, their argument skills and their confidence grew. So much so, they wanted to put on a festival and invite the school to argue with them. And they did and the tradition grew to new heights and now they all think you should be doing this too.