BHS teacher Chris Cavanaugh loves two things: history and helping students. He combines his passions with a YouTube channel. 

On Monday nights, after teaching global studies and AP United States history, Cavanaugh records a YouTube-video style podcast with three close friends. 

Cavanaugh, alongside Tim Moore, Dave Richmond and Mike Williams, discuss weekly the unit questions from the We the People program. 

“I got invited by those guys because we’ve all been involved with the Center for Civic Education for a number of years,” Cavanaugh said. “But it was also the idea that we can provide insights into these different questions that students around the country and their teachers will be wrestling with, without necessarily answering the questions for them.” 

The We the People program is an extracurricular competition that students across the country participate in. Cavanaughs podcast aims to help these students better prepare for the set of questions they are asked. 

“The students around the country who participate in this program are given a series of questions based upon their unit of study, sort of like a mock congressional hearing,” Cavanugh said. “They have to come up with a four minute prepared response that addresses every point asked within the question, and then answer a series of follow-up questions from judges without notes.” 

Cavanaugh previously taught the program in Indiana, where two of his teams placed top 10 at the national competition. Now, he continues to stay involved and helps students by recording the podcasts.

“The questions that Dave comes up with for our podcasts are ones that will walk us through the series of questions, without answering the questions directly for students.”

The podcast, The Constitution in American Life, has over 100 videos and has just under 500 subscribers.

“This is a really small niche, it’s a really small group of folks,” Cavanaugh said. “But it’s really important because students go through this program and dive into these discussions.”

When discussing the questions, the four men give resources and insights to potentially help students answer the given questions.

“There aren’t right and wrong answers and this drives kids crazy,” Cavanaugh said. “There aren’t right and wrong answers, there are just better arguments.”

The podcast has connected the four friends by their passion for history. On Monday nights, the men in California, Wisconsin and North Dakota all come together and press record on a Zoom call.

“Really, it was an excuse for us to get together over Zoom, hang out and talk smack about baseball. But we love each other, we’re good friends and we really just want to continue to have fun with it.”

The friends have not only strengthened their friendship, but have also become a popular photo-op at competitions. 

“Last year at nationals we were kind of like rock stars. People came up to us so we took pictures with kids because they learn from us.”

By connecting with teachers and students from around the country, the podcast continues to help students within the program.

“We’ve had our moment in the sun, but we can still provide a service using the knowledge that we have, and the wealth of knowledge that we have, to help the next generations.”