The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

What if school could be reimagined from the ground up? This week, Mike sits down with entrepreneur and education innovator MacKenzie Price, the founder of Alpha School, a model that's attracting global attention for helping students learn twice as much in half the time. Using artificial intelligence, personalized learning, and an unconventional approach to education, MacKenzie is challenging nearly every assumption about how kids should be taught. She also makes the case that meaningful change in education won't come from top-down mandates, but from bottom-up solutions created by parents, teachers, and entrepreneurs willing to rethink the status quo. From test scores to life skills, she explains why some believe the future of education has already arrived—and why the world's most talked-about school may be just getting started. Learn more about Alpha School at: https://bit.ly/4xGuTNU Big thanks to our awesome sponsors PureTalk.com/Rowe Pure Talk is matching donations dollar for dollar until they hit two hundred fifty THOUSAND DOLLARS for America's Warrior Partnership, who is on the frontlines of supporting our veterans. ZipRecruiter.com/Rowe to post a job for FREE. NormalFolks.org/Podcast to check out Army of Normal Folks, the podcast making service easier for all of us. Digs.com Less rework. Less confusion. And a much smoother build experience for homeowners.

Why do so many of the things that make us stronger, healthier, and happier require doing things the hard way? Mike sits down with bestselling author, journalist, and researcher Michael Easter to explore the surprising benefits of discomfort, challenge, and voluntary hardship in a world engineered for convenience. Easter, whose work has appeared in Men's Health, Outside, Esquire, and Scientific American, discusses the ideas behind his bestselling books The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain, along with his newest release, Walk with Weight: The Definitive Guide to Rucking. From carrying heavy loads to carrying life's burdens, Michael explains why the easiest path is rarely the most rewarding—and why embracing difficulty might be the key to a better life. Tip o' the hat to our excellent sponsors GoodRanchers.com Purchase any Father's Day Gift Box and get FREE Wagyu Burgers. Pestie.com/Mike to get an extra 10% off your order. K12.com/Rowe See what's possible for your child with K12's Career and College Prep NetSuite.AI/Mike to try NetSuite Next for FREE!

Mike Rowe sits down with Blake Scholl, the former Amazon software engineer turned aerospace entrepreneur who walked away from Silicon Valley to revive supersonic passenger travel. As the founder of Boom Supersonic, Blake explains the century-long pursuit of faster flight. From the Cold War race to break the sound barrier to the rise—and fall—of the Concorde, Blake explains why supersonic travel disappeared just as it seemed destined to change aviation forever. He also shares how Boom Supersonic is working to make high-speed passenger flight practical again, and what it will take to shrink a 12-hour flight into just a few hours. Along the way, Mike and Blake discuss innovation, risk, engineering breakthroughs, and why some people refuse to accept that getting somewhere faster is a problem already solved. Shout out to our great sponsors GoodRanchers.com Purchase any Father's Day Gift Box and get FREE Wagyu Burgers. American-Giant.com/MIKE Use code MIKE to get 20% off your order. Digs.com Less rework. Less confusion. And a much smoother build experience for homeowners.

Founder and president of Montana Knife Company Josh Smith sits down with Mike to discuss his unlikely path from working as a lineman to becoming one of America's premier master bladesmiths. The conversation dives into the grit, craftsmanship, and obsession with quality that helped turn a small operation into one of the fastest-growing knife manufacturers in the country. The two also talk about the grand opening of MKC's brand-new 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Missoula, where Josh explains why controlling his supply chain matters now more than ever—and what "Made in America" actually requires behind the scenes. Along the way, Josh gives Mike an exclusive look at a brand-new blade that hasn't been released to the public yet. It's a conversation about work ethic, American manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and the sharp edge between tradition and innovation. Tip o' the hat to our excellent sponsors ZipRecruiter.com/Rowe to post a job for FREE. GoodRanchers.com Use code MIKE to get $40 off your first order and free meat for life. SkillsUSA.org/mike Join the skilled trade movement!

In this special LIVE edition of Coffee with Mome, Mike heads home for Mother's Day and sits down with the woman who taught him everything worth knowing — his mom, Peggy Rowe. Recorded in front of a live audience at the place Peggy refers to as The Home, this episode is filled with the warmth, wit, and wonderfully sharp observations fans have come to expect from America's Grandmother. From family stories and hard-earned wisdom to laughter that only comes from decades of shared history, Mike and Peggy talk about motherhood, growing older disgracefully, and the strange adventure of becoming a beloved public figure later in life. It's funny, heartfelt, occasionally mischievous, and exactly the kind of conversation you'd hope to overhear around the kitchen table on Mother's Day. Many thanks to our excellent sponsors American-Giant.com/MIKE Use code MIKE to get 20% off your order. PureTalk.com/Rowe Get UNLIMITED hi-speed data for just $34.99 per month! KnobelSpirits.com Spend $100, use code CARL and get bitters-infused sugar cubes FREE.

Mike talks with comedy legend David Zucker, the creative force behind the movie Airplane! Zucker shares what it took to make Airplane!—pitching a spoof no one quite understood, casting serious actors to deliver absurd lines with a straight face, and why making his co-writers laugh was the secret sauce to pleasing the audience. He also discusses his new "Master Crash" course, where Zucker teaches the dos and don'ts of spoof comedy writing. Along the way, we learn how John Landis landed National Lampoon's Animal House, helping ignite a new era of irreverent filmmaking. It's a fast, funny conversation about risk, rebellion, and earning your parking space the hard way.

Mike sits down with West Virginia Congressman Riley Moore, whose path to Capitol Hill began with a welding torch. Moore shares why he chose the skilled trades early in life, what that work taught him about dignity and opportunity, and how those lessons now shape his approach to policy. The discussion centers on Moore's new legislation, the Jumpstart Savings Act, a proposal designed to remove financial barriers to apprenticeships, tools, and certifications—and to breathe new life into America's skilled trades by treating them with the same respect long afforded to four-year degrees.

After a six-month hiatus from TWIHI and on the occasion of her 88th birthday, multiple New York Times bestselling author Peggy Rowe (a.k.a. Mike's mom, a.k.a. America's grandmother) drops by to tell us where she's been, what she's working on next, and the groin-intruding procedure that took away her double vision. Who says "you can't get there from here!?"