Fictional teachers we wish we had

It’s back to school season, which has us thinking about our favorite teachers. The ones who really saw us, changed our points of view, or set us on new paths. But of all the teachers we've seen in TV and movies, which of them do we wish we'd had to educate us in real life? Today we’re talking about fictional on-screen teachers from My Girl, My So-Called Life, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and Dune: Part One. If you like want more episodes like this one, check out: The reality TV show I'd like to judge https://www.npr.org/2025/10/22/nx-s1-5580512/the-reality-tv-show-id-like-to-judge The TV show I'd like to live in https://www.npr.org/2025/05/01/1248444369/the-tv-show-id-like-to-live-in The American dream according to ‘The Wire,’ ‘Apollo 13’ and more https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5872268/the-american-dream-according-to-the-wire-apollo-13-and-more Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour: Letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/ / Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pchh Our weekly newsletter https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org http://plus.npr.org/. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:15Speaker 01

  But I think of Luke as having gone to Yoda for an advanced class in Get Over Yourself, which he needs. He needs at that point.

• 0:24Speaker 02

  And can I just say, do or do not, there is no try. Patently false. There is try.

• 0:28Speaker 01

  That's absolutely true.

• 0:29Speaker 02

  That's not a thing. Trying and failing is a thing.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  We all had favorite teachers growing up, the ones who really saw us, changed our points of view, set us on new paths. Fictional teachers do the same thing for their students. So we asked ourselves, of all the teachers we've seen in TV and movies, which of them do we wish we'd had to educate us in real life? I'm Linda Holmes. Joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour are my fellow hosts, Aisha Harris. Hello, Ayesha.

• 1:00Speaker 03

  Hello, Linda.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  And Glen Weldon. Hi, Glenn. Hey, Linda. And also with us delightfully is BA Parker. She's one of the hosts of NPR's Code Switch podcast. Hello, Parker.

• 1:09Speaker 04

  Hello, thanks for having me.

• 1:11Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Well, Ayesha, I'm going to start with you. When we think about fictional teachers we would most like to have had, who did you choose?

• 1:19Speaker 03

  Oh, man. This is hard. Once I was staring down, you know, the barrel of, okay, now I have to answer this question, I wound up realizing there's been a lot of great fictional TV and movie and pop culture teachers. But the one that I wound up landing on is none other than Sister Mary Clarence from Sister Act 2.

• 1:37Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  Also known as lounge singer Dolores Wilson Van Cartier. Look, Sister Act 2, I'm not sure. It's one of those movies that I think is very, very much rooted, my love of it is rooted in nostalgia. It is not necessarily a great movie, but Whoopi Goldberg is great. Ooh, Parker.

• 1:55Speaker 04

  It's a phenomenal movie. Keep going, keep going.

• 1:58Speaker 03

  It's a phenomenal movie. It's a, okay, we will talk about that in a second. But you may remember that in the first movie, Sister Act 1, Whoopi Goldberg is playing a lounge singer, Dolores Wilson Van Cartier. And she has to go into witness protection after witnessing a mob execution. So she joins a convent under the alias Sister Mary Clarence. And then she helps revitalize the nuns choir. But then in Sister Act 2, she's back to lounge singing in Vegas at the beginning of the movie, but the same nuns who she worked with in the first movie recruit her to return to the San Francisco Catholic school she attended when she was a kid. The school's like in disarray. It's under threat of all the kids not having any education.

• 2:39Speaker 03

  So she becomes the music teacher to a group of bright but ragtag bunch of high schoolers, which includes Lauryn Hill, a young Lauryn Hill, right around the time of the Fugees. And she's playing Rita. And Rita is kind of the, she's the sassy, like, I don't want this woman here. The other kids are kind of like, oh, maybe we'll deal with her. But Rita's like, no, this woman, she's not coming. She's not going to make us do work. Music class is supposed to be where we just like, we just fool around and we don't do anything. This has all the tropes of, you know, droopy, self-serious movies about teacher saviors who change their troubled students' lives, you know? Just Serve With Love, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  This is that movie in a way, and it's also loosely based on a true story, which is something I just recently learned. I had no idea, but it's based on a actual.

• 3:28Speaker 04

  Play one?

• 3:29Speaker 03

  Yes. Parker? Okay, it's not just me. I had no idea. It's like, like many of those other movies, like Dangerous Minds, whatever, it's based on a true story, very, very loosely, of an academic named Iris Stevenson. They basically retrofitted Iris Stevenson's life into the sequel. There's a whole backstory, but anyway.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Not originally in witness protection.

• 3:50Speaker 03

  No, she, no, that, that part was not true. Her story came in here. Yeah, like I said, this movie, it's very, very trope-y. Are the kids sassy and undisciplined? Yes. Does Dolores/Mary decide early on that they're helpless and she threatens to tap out on teaching? Of course that moment happens. Does she quickly recommit to teaching and then win them over with her stern but whimsical and emotionally attentive instruction? You bet your butt she does. And it's amazing. I love it. Whoopi Goldberg/Sister Mary Clarence is so good at like tapping into what you would want from a teacher. She is someone who approaches these kids as if they are human beings who deserve respect.

• 4:34Speaker 03

  She doesn't look down on them. She doesn't patronize them. She has, I think, what the best kind of teachers have, which is like this ability to interact with them as equals. There's a great scene, and I want to play just a moment of it. She's asking everyone, all the students, to like come up with their own ways to sing Mary Had A Little Lamb. And one of her students, Maria, doesn't actually know Mary Had A Little Lamb. The other kids start teasing her, and Sister Mary Clarence says this.

• 4:59Speaker 05

  Because maybe, maybe where Maria came from, Mary had a dog. Or a little kitty cat. Or a little bald-headed brother named Bart. It is not her fault that she doesn't know it, and we're not going to hold that against her. No, we are not.

• 5:16Speaker 03

  Compassion. She can give it to the kids. She can go back and forth. She can sass them right back. But she also is like a safe place. She is a safe home. And I loved that about the best of my teachers. They were teachers who I felt like they were talking to me as if I was a human being, as if I, I may not have been as mature and old as they were and experienced and wise, but they understood that I could be and they set me on the path. And I think that's what makes Sister Mary Clarence just like the perfect teacher, like the ideal kind of teacher you want. And she's fun. And she has a pass. Like, I love a teacher who has a pass. Like, she was a lounge singer. That's cool. She had to go into witness protection. She's lived a life.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  She's lived a life.

• 5:58Speaker 03

  She's lived a life.

• 5:59Speaker 01

  Has lived a life. Parker, I get the feeling you are also a Sister Mary Clarence fan.

• 6:04Speaker 04

  100%. She's phenomenal. She's the reason why I sought out Letters to a Young Poet, but like, really good, like, because of Sister Act 2. She's like, if you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention. Nothing but like guidance and wisdom from Sister Mary Clarence.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 6:23Speaker 04

  The woman could do no wrong.

• 6:24Speaker 02

  Also, the subtitle, let's not sleep on the subtitle, which is, of course.

• 6:27Speaker 03

  Back in the habit.

• 6:28Speaker 02

  Back in the habit.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Very, very good. Yeah. I enjoy those movies as well. You're making me want to go back and watch those movies again, Ayesha. And that's all I can really ask.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  They're so fun.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  Of you. I went back to one of the most influential shows to me of kind of my early career caring about good television, which was My So-Called Life, which aired in 1994 and 1995. And I chose this character named Mr. Katsimsky, who was played by Jeff Perry, who later played the very, very evil Cyrus on Scandal for a number of years. And is an incredibly versatile, wonderful actor. And Mr. Katsimsky on My So-Called Life sort of comes in as this somewhat discombobulated teacher in the middle of the school year, who has to come in and kind of pick up as

• 7:19Speaker 01

  the English teacher and starts to take an interest in the different students. And one of the students that he gets to know really well is Ricky Vasquez, who is a young gay kid who is still sort of working all of that out. Remember, this is the mid 90s. And eventually Ricky becomes unhoused. And Mr. Katsimsky sort of figures out that Ricky is unhoused because he's been kicked out of his home. He's been abused and kicked out of his house. And there's a wonderful episode called Resolutions, in which Mr. Katsimsky gradually figures out that what he needs to do is give this kid a place to stay for a while. And what I love about it, it turns out that Mr. Katsimsky is himself gay and lives with his partner.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  And there's a wonderful scene in which he speaks to his partner about two things, one of which is he knows exactly how this potentially is going to look to people and be taken by people if people find out, you know, it doesn't appear that everybody necessarily knows that he's gay at the school.

• 8:21Speaker 06

  You realize what people could make of it? I'd lose my job. Be crucified. I didn't say anything. What am I supposed to do?

• 8:29Speaker 01

  Which is very realistic. He's very worried about how this will look. They don't pretend that that wouldn't be on his mind and that it wouldn't prevent him from potentially taking this kid in. But he also says, it feels so egotistical for me to pretend that I am the answer to all the problems that this kid is having, right? And in the end, he does let Ricky come and stay. But Jeff Perry in that episode, to me, gives one of the best performances. I think across that entire show, he is so kind and sort of quirky and odd. And what I love about Mr. Katsimsky is that there is in him such genuine exasperation with students.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  Sometimes he just, he would kind of come into classrooms and be like, why are you all like this? Answer me when I talk to you. What's going on? But also deeply, deeply compassionate, but also with the humility to understand it's not a great idea for me to be taking in kids, right? That's not what you would want to happen because there are several multiple pitfalls for the kid and for you. You know, one of the great things that my so-called life always did is they incorporated the idea that one piece of growing up is coming to appreciate the good adults that you know. It happens very much with Angela's mother, Patty, played by Bess Armstrong. That's also one of the big pieces of it.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  And I think Mr. Katsimsky is one of those people who many years later, students will be like, oh, my gosh, Mr. Katsimsky, he was so great. I thought he was such a dork at the time. I didn't, I, I thought he was so weird and like, kind of obnoxious, but in retrospect, I love him. So I love Mr. Katsimsky. Every time I go back and watch my so-called life, I'm blown away again by how good it is. Delightful, delightful. And I, and I love Jeff Perry in this part.

• 10:21Speaker 04

  There's always like this, like subtropes that's always on these TV shows of like the substitute teacher that comes in and like changes the protagonist's life for an episode and then you never see him again. It's always like on Saved by the Bell or like-

• 10:35Speaker 02

  Mr. Bergstrom on The Simpsons, yeah.

• 10:37Speaker 04

  Yeah. And then they like, it's very Dead Poets Society propped up in these like moments. And I'm always appreciative of it, but also I'm like, now the kids are gonna like, go back to being who they were before. And that's a shame.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. And he's, the, the good thing is he does come and stay for the rest of that season, you know? So he does kind of become their teacher and get to know the kids over the course of the second part of the season. And the other thing, you know, when you mentioned the substitute teachers, there isn't a also wonderful episode of my so-called life about a sort of very charismatic, cool teacher played by Roger Reese, who was Robin Colecord on Cheers. Yeah. And unlike Mr. Katsimsky, who's a very dorky teacher who really cares about you, he's a very kind of ego-forward, charismatic, I'm going to be the cool guy. They're all going to love me and they all do. And they're all like, oh, he's so cool. He's so wonderful.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  And then at the end, he turns out to really be a bum and they all learn that he is essentially running from child support obligations. So it's, it's kind of a turn on that thing where like the kids are all fascinated by this really cool teacher. And then it turns out that he's kind of a dirtbag. So I always liked that because it's kind of self-conscious about that trope of cool charismatic teacher versus actually caring teacher.

• 11:57Speaker 04

  Never trust a teacher that like sits backwards in the chair on the first day of school.

• 12:02Speaker 03

  I do think that was parodied on Community too, at one point.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  You know, one of my college teachers told me once, good teachers want students, not disciples.

• 12:12Speaker 04

  A word.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. All right, class, we are going to take a quick break. You can get a drink of water or get up and stretch your legs. We'll be talking about more of our favorite fictional teachers when we come back.

• 12:22Speaker 07

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• 13:42Speaker 01

  Okay, we're back, we're ready. I'm going to call on Parker here in the front row. Parker, who did you pick?

• 13:48Speaker 04

  Oh boy. I mean, there's so many to choose from. I was going to choose Sister Mary Clarence, but I was like, that's probably going to get selected.

• 13:54Speaker 03

  Really?

• 13:55Speaker 04

  I was like, that totally, someone of course is going to choose that or like maybe Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. I was like, I was always like a coach kid in those 90s movies, like a, like a Jeff Bridges in White Squall, like an Emilio Estevez, The Mighty Ducks, like that kind of, we can unpack that later. But for my selection, I chose Mr. Bixler from the movie My Girl, who was played by Griffin Dunn. So for those who have not watched My Girl in, I don't know, 30 years, it's a story about like an 11-year-old girl named Veda Sultanfuss, played by Anna Kalmsky, who is going through like every coming of age possible in one summer.

• 14:39Speaker 04

  Like she gets her first kiss, she gets her period, her dad gets his first girlfriend ever since her mom died. Grandma's got dementia. Spoiler, childhood best friend, played by Macaulay Culkin, dies from a swarm of bees. And like in the midst of all of this, she has a crush on this much older teacher, Mr. Bixler, played by Griffin Dunn, who is aware of this fact and most importantly, he is not a perv. This is also a thing that I had to unpack of trying to think of all the childhood media that I consumed that involved like a young female student and like a male teacher, something was, was wrong. Something inappropriate was happening. And this is just like a guy who's like, sees a girl having like a really tough time.

• 15:24Speaker 04

  And she wants to be a writer and during the summer, she does her whole, all of her summer reading. And he's like, I'm doing this like adults, a creative writing course. And she signs up for it. And he's like, well, this is for adults. She's like, well, I can do it. And he lets her participate. He doesn't patronize her. He's like, everyone, all the adults, including him, are welcoming to her. And her creativity in fact, like pushes her to be like, hey, I think you have more to say. And I want you to dig deep into your soul.

• 15:54Speaker 08

  You're not expressing to me what's in your soul. I want you to show me how you see the world, your fears, your desires, your innermost secrets.

• 16:06Speaker 04

  Because he's like, I believe in you, in an appropriate way for an English teacher at that time to like, help cultivate a student. And I think about the art that was created during that time. When it came to like coming of age for like a young girl, there wasn't a lot of these kind of movies. It was always like, how do we make these young men better? So I was like, oh, men can be creative. Who knew? So I remembered as a kid being really drawn to Mr. Bixler. Who does, like Griffin Dunn doesn't have a lot of time in that movie. He had to be like four scenes or something, but they were enough to kind of like shape her and make her become a better artist in the midst of all of this heavy stuff that is happening to her.

• 16:50Speaker 04

  And I was always appreciative of that because I think about like, my media brands, like there's always like, like Amy and Isabel or like Never Been Kissed or like even Mr. Holland's Opus, when it's like a young female student and like an adult teacher who crosses a line somewhere. And I've watched enough like Michael Hankey as a teenager to be like, this is going to go poorly. He was always like a breath of fresh air of just like a guy who knew like this little girl had a crush on him, but was still just going to be like, I want you to be the best that you can be. And, and how can I be of service to that? And I just always appreciated, he was just appreciative that like a kid did the summer reading. It was a soft place to land for a little girl going through a lot of stuff.

• 17:35Speaker 04

  And I was always appreciative of that, comparative to other things.

• 17:39Speaker 02

  I love this, Parker, because my only reference to this film is the one scene that has been heavily memed, the, the bee scene.

• 17:46Speaker 03

  The bees, yeah.

• 17:47Speaker 04

  The bees? He needs his glasses. He can't see without his glasses.

• 17:51Speaker 03

  And as soon as those glasses fall to the ground, you know, you know, it's done for her. I'm the same way, actually. I've seen this movie, but I saw it when I was a kid. And then I only remember being pretty traumatized by the bee scene, so I never returned to it. So I don't even remember this character, but I'm so with you, Parker, on like that sort of trope and always that unease that comes with so many of those shows and, and movies from the 90s where it was like, or even it could have been vice versa, where it's like female teacher and a male student. There's so many ways it can go wrong or get really, really creepy. And it's always nice when you can like imagine that a adult male teacher can have a student

• 18:33Speaker 03

  and there be no ill intention whatsoever. Yeah, I think this is a good pick too.

• 18:37Speaker 04

  I want to say Thomas J. McCullogh, he dies so late in the movie. Like it's a short movie. It doesn't even, it's a blip. And then like immediately after like the funeral, she runs to Mr. Bixler for like comfort and she sees that like his girlfriend's moving in. And he's like, well, yeah, I'm like, I'm 35 years old. There's a woman gonna live with me. But she's heartbroken. I'm like, you're 11. It's OK. But it's like, there's too many coming of ages for an 11 year old that summer.

• 19:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 19:07Speaker 04

  But it's like, I don't know. I just, he was like a really, it's like a good teacher who wanted her to be her best and like be around other adults who encourage that. Like, it's supposed to be funny that these adults are like welcoming her into the fold in this writing course, like this like a juxtaposition. But it's actually really sweet and like encouraging. And I just, I love that.

• 19:32Speaker 01

  I love it, too. I haven't seen this movie in a long time, but I do remember that storyline. I wouldn't have been able to call it to mind, but when you mentioned it, I do remember her joining the writing group and that it's a really lovely part of that movie. So that is Mr. Bixler from My Girl. Thank you, Parker. I see somebody going ooh, ooh, ooh with their hand up. I'm gonna call on Glenn.

• 19:54Speaker 02

  Sitting in the back, troublemaker. That's me, baby.

• 19:57Speaker 01

  Uh huh, troublemaker.

• 19:58Speaker 02

  I'm glad that we all, it sounds like some of you struggled with this. I struggled with this in a big way. I mean, Linda, it seemed like you had this guy in your back pocket, right?

• 20:05Speaker 03

  A little bit, a little bit.

• 20:06Speaker 02

  OK, because I really, I was sifting through the Rolodex here, and I was like, so many teachers in fiction, they're either romanticized, idealized, certainly sentimentalized in a big way, or they are just terrible people. And I was originally gonna go with Miss Jean Brody from the book, play and movie, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody. Muriel Spark wrote the novel. There's a 1969 movie starring Maggie Smith, which is probably why I wanted to go with her, because, you know, she's a schoolteacher in Edinburgh in the 1930s at an all-girls school, and Maggie Smith is just jumping into that Scottish bar with both brugs. And I just watch clips online of this movie just to hear her talk and say things like, my favorite painter is Jotun. Like, I just love it.

• 20:49Speaker 02

  I decided against her because funny thing about Miss Jean Brody is she's a fascist. She loves Franco and Mussolini. She's a snob, and she favors certain students and encourages them to think of themselves as above everybody else. And she's also kind of a procurer. She hooks up her very young students with members of faculty. So it's dark. But what I like about that story is that it's honest, it's grappling with something that we've already mentioned, this notion of disciples, like this notion of teachers who create little cults around themselves as being a potentially hugely manipulative and destructive kind of force. It's the kind of thing that a movie like Dead Poets Society kind of glorifies, and I, one of the reasons I hate that movie.

• 21:28Speaker 02

  So in the end, I decided to go with a much healthier, or at least more me, choice, which is the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohaim from the books and films Dune by Frank Herbert. Let's acknowledge, look, I see it, guys, the Bene Gesserit are a kind of sinister political force in the universe, and they conduct genetic manipulation over many generations, and they seed planets with religious propaganda to further their interests. I mean, they're also probably fascist, they're stealth fascist.

• 22:03Speaker 03

  I was gonna say, this is, we're circling around fascism again here.

• 22:06Speaker 02

  Yeah. And now that I say it out loud, a stealth fascist is probably worse. But.

• 22:11Speaker 03

  Maybe. It's OK. Commit to the bit.

• 22:15Speaker 02

  I'm sure there's some listeners out there thinking, she's not a teacher. She doesn't teach classes. She's a politician. She's a religious figure. I would argue, I would put it to you, the very first thing we see her doing in Dune is famously she comes to Polatradis planet to administer a test. That's a teacher, baby. And the test she administers is to young Polatradis. She has him put his hand in a pain box, which is just what it says on the tin. And then she puts a poisoned needle at his throat, her gum jabar. The test is, can he control his impulses? As the pain increases, if he pulls his hand out, she will stab him, and he gonna die. Let's stipulate her methods, pedagogically suspect, but effective. Can't argue with results.

• 22:59Speaker 02

  You talk about taking this Montessori, learn by doing thing, a little extreme, but here's why I want her as my teacher in both the David Lynch Dune from 1984 and the Denis Villeneuve more recent Dunes. This character is the best thing in the movie on skates. I mean, like, not coincidentally, the queerest thing in these movies. She is a diva. She is mother. She's an icon. She's a legend. She is the moment. Now come on, now she gets the best lines, is the thing. She's basically kind of Lady Bracknell in space, and that means, because of all that, she gets to be played by amazing women. Sean Phillips in the David Lynch film and Charlotte freaking Rampling in the Denis Villeneuve films.

• 23:43Speaker 02

  And in both cases, the fits are on point. You know, Rampling is wearing this very thick veil, but you can still see those eyes. You can still see those Charlotte Rampling eyes. And the thing I hate most in fiction is the sentimental portrayal of teachers. This character is where sentimentality goes to die. It is the heat death of sentimentality.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, sounds like it.

• 24:04Speaker 09

  Why are you doing this? An animal caught in a trap will gnaw off its own leg to escape. What will you do?

• 24:11Speaker 02

  Is she a villain? Or does she just know what she wants? You know what I'm saying?

• 24:15Speaker 04

  It could be both.

• 24:15Speaker 03

  Hmm. See, I thought you were gonna go with like Yoda.

• 24:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:19Speaker 01

  Yoda, Gandalf.

• 24:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, I guess that's too on the nose.

• 24:23Speaker 04

  Josh Brolin in the Dune?

• 24:24Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think this is a good choice for you, Glenn. I think like, from what I remember of Dune, I have seen both movies, the ones that have come out so far. She is the most memorable part of that movie.

• 24:37Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  And I think there is something to be said for the teachers who may be teaching evil, but are still teaching nonetheless. There is some skill involved with that, I guess, maybe. Someone else, someone else jump in here.

• 24:53Speaker 04

  You are getting a girl, I guess, from me.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I thought you were gonna pick, yeah, like Yoda or Gandalf. I feel like fantasy is full of characters who, who teach, I mean, if you think about the whole idea of the chosen one type of character, you know, they're very often taught by someone, they're very often guided by someone. It doesn't have to be someone evil. I figured you might pick one of those people or.

• 25:22Speaker 04

  Evil is a choice.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  One of the other like classics, like Mr. Miyagi, you know, one of the ones I thought about.

• 25:28Speaker 02

  But with the chosen one narrative, like Luke didn't need Yoda. Luda abandons Yoda. Like Luke just, you know, he pieces out. He gets these homilies, these little.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  I disagree that he did not need Yoda.

• 25:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, because isn't the point that you teach as much as the student needs to know? And then the whole point is that if you teach them well, then they don't actually need you. Or like, they can go out on their own and use those tools.

• 25:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  But I think of Luke as having gone to Yoda for an advanced class in Get Over Yourself, which he needs, he needs at that point.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  And can I just say, do or do not, there is no try. Patently false, there is try.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  That's absolutely true.

• 26:08Speaker 02

  That's not a thing. Trying and failing is a thing.

• 26:11Speaker 04

  Does Paul need this lady?

• 26:12Speaker 03

  Does Polatradis need this lady?

• 26:14Speaker 01

  That's true. Does Paul need this teacher?

• 26:16Speaker 02

  You know, he needs to learn to control his impulses, and then he doesn't really. As the story goes on.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  You know what Polatradis needed? Yoda.

• 26:26Speaker 04

  Ooh.

• 26:27Speaker 01

  Get over yourself. That whole movie to me screams, this kid needs to get over himself. He needed Yoda.

• 26:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, but the Reverend Mother dresses better, so.

• 26:35Speaker 01

  That's fair, that's fair. All right. We have had a wonderful time talking about our favorite fictional teachers. That brings us to the end of our show. BA Parker, Aisha Harris, Glen Weldon, thank you so much for being here. You're all a delight to have in class.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  Aw, thank you.

• 26:49Speaker 03

  Aw, thank you.

• 26:50Speaker 04

  Thanks.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Hafsa Pathama, and Mike Katsif, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Audio engineering was performed by Sina Lo Fredo. And Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all next time.

• 27:13Speaker 07

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Google Workspace with Gemini. One subscription that does it all. Personalized AI and premium business versions of Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, and more. Try it free for 14 days at g o o dot g l e slash Workspace with Gemini.

• 27:35Speaker 00

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