💥 This week on the Non-Professional Development Podcast, we start with a question that sounds simple but quickly becomes deeply humbling: could you still make it across the monkey bars as an adult?

The answer is apparently… probably not.

From there, we spiral into a full conversation about playground trauma, 90s metal slides, roller slides, injured knees, burned legs, and the realization that childhood playground equipment was basically built like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Then things take a turn when Dave discovers an Instagram post about CIA brain control techniques and realizes almost every single one sounds exactly like classroom management. Eye contact? Proximity? Reading the room? Congratulations — teachers may have been undercover agents this whole time.

Naturally, this leads to the important question: would teachers make good spies?

We also get a wholesome and hilarious Ted’s Time Machine moment as Ted reveals his first published work: a first-grade baseball book called The Baseball Game. There are illustrations. There is drama. There is a child named Chuck. And somehow, this all leads to Dave firing up the typewriter again to write a letter to the CIA.

So yes — monkey bars, childhood injuries, teacher spies, first-grade literature, and one very suspicious letter.

Classic NPD.

🎧 What to Expect:

– The brutal truth about doing monkey bars as an adult

– Why playground equipment from the 90s was basically a death trap

– Metal slides, roller slides, burned legs, and possible workers’ comp

– Teachers realizing CIA “brain control” is just classroom management

– Eye contact, proximity, and other suspiciously teacher-like spy tactics

– The question: would teachers make good CIA agents?

– Ted’s first published book: The Baseball Game

– A dramatic reading of first-grade baseball literature

– Dave bringing back the typewriter for a letter to the CIA

– One of the weirdest combinations of nostalgia, teaching, and espionage yet

🙌 Why Tune In?

Because only this podcast can start with monkey bars, detour through childhood playground injuries, uncover a possible connection between teacher training and spy tactics, and end with a first-grade book being treated like classic American literature.

This episode is hilarious, nostalgic, weirdly thoughtful, and packed with the kind of teacher chaos that makes Non-Professional Development exactly what it is.

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👇 We Want Your Stories!

- Could you still make it across the monkey bars today?

- What was the most dangerous playground equipment from your childhood?

- Did you ever write a “published” book in elementary school?

Drop it in the comments — we might feature it next episode!

✅ Next Week’s Teaser:

Episode 35 is coming… and based on this episode, we may already be under surveillance.

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