On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and guest co-host Lydia Picotte interview Franciska Coleman, an Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at UW-Madison's Law School. They talk about what free speech is, the dialogue around free speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, an insightful political-divide crossing conversation Professor Coleman once had with a man who helped her move, UW-Madison's recent "Expressive Activity Policy," and former UW-Lacrosse Chancellor Joe Gow.

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb have a dynamic conversation with Eric Wilcots, the Dean of UW-Madison's College of Letters & Sciences and its 25,000+ students. On one hand, they discuss where Wilcots' interest in astronomy originates, what he misses about teaching, and technical advancements in the field of Astronomy. To the point of discussing being the Dean, they discuss how the University got ahead of itself with enrollment growth, Dean Wilcots' involvement with the construction of Morgridge Hall and Levy Hall, and the ways that the current political moment is placing stress on the College of Letters & Science.

Part of series of brief interviews with competitors in the 2025 Moth GrandSLAM, in this episode Oliver and Jeb talk to Alice Pauser, a prolific storyteller who was once the first guest on the show in early 2024. They discuss Alice's decades as a writer and humorist, her love of storytelling, and what has changed since she was featured on Episode 2 of You Seem Exceptional. The GrandSLAM will be at the Barrymore Theater the night of October 24th.

Part of series of brief interviews with competitors in the 2025 Moth GrandSLAM, in this episode Oliver talks to Eli Schmidt, a student who sits next to him in Professor Adam Schrager's Social Impact Storytelling class. Oliver realized that the upcoming GrandSLAM competitor was his classmate just an hour before they recorded this conversation about being young journalism majors. The GrandSLAM will be at the Barrymore Theater the night of October 24th.

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb talk to Men's Rowing Coach Beau Hoopman, who tells the story of how he walked on to the men's Rowing Team in 1999 having never rowed before, won two Olympic medals over the next decade, and then came back to UW-Madison as an assistant coach before being promoted to Head Coach recently. We talk about the struggles of being an Olympic athlete, how playing golf in high school prepared Beau to row, what it was like to get a "PhD in Rowing" after college, and what it takes to get someone from nothing to something in the sport of rowing.

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb talk to Oliver's Roommate Ranvir. They discuss in-depth where Ranvir is from, going through what it means to say you are from India, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and San Diego. They also talk about immigration, green cards, citizenship and being a Boy Scout in all of those places. Ranvir also ends the episode by telling the listeners to do what they love to do.

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb talk to Brent Plisch, the Chief of UW-Madison's Police Department. Chief Plisch talks about UWPD policy on underage drinking and smoking on campus, the change in public perception of his job over 20 years at UWPD and the struggle to connect UWPD to the campus community. However, they also discuss about the path he has taken from a child mauled by a dog being comforted by his local police to a K-9 officer meeting the Dalai Lama to the police chief at the only triply-accredited police department in the state.

This week our guest is Mariel Barnes, an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs at UW-Madison. We dive into her research into the highly online group of hypermasculine sexists called the Manosphere and look at her work in housing policy for victims of domestic abuse.