Jean Oliveras worked at USAID for 15 years, but after Trump put a pause on foreign assistance, she got an email from DOGE (The Department of Government Efficiency) asking her to report any office, position, program, contract, or grant with any ties to "DEIA or similar ideologies." Within the year, she and her husband had lost their jobs. Join Jean, Oliver, and guest co-host Ted Hyngstrom in a discussion of soft power and foreign affairs through the lens of defense, diplomacy, and development, how Elon Musk's team shut it all down, and what Jean has done since.

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and guest co-host Allie Hoffert interview three fisherman on the ice of Lake Monona Bay. Tune in to hear about why these men are interested in ice fishing, what equipment helps, and about the time one of them fell in.

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.

Part of series of brief interviews with competitors in the 2025 Moth GrandSLAM, in this episode Oliver and Jeb talk to Danielle Hairston-Green, a storyteller and host at the Moth. They discuss how Danielle learned about storytelling from her mother and how she in turn passed that knowledge down to her children and grandchildren, and Danielle shares their stories. 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.