Code,500045
Subject,Jearl Walker
Date,10/1/14
Interviewer,Joseph Wickens
Abstract," Jearl Walker is a professor in the physics department at Cleveland State University, joining the faculty in 1973. Walker is originally from Fort Worth, Texas and attended MIT in Boston for his undergraduate studies. After graduation he enrolled at the University of Maryland where he earned his PhD and landed a book deal for his technical report titled, The Flying Circus of Physics. Walker became well known for his unorthodox teaching techniques that have involved walking on hot coals, dipping his hand in molten lead, and lying on a bed of nails. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was featured in the Smithsonian Magazine. He was a long time writer for Scientific American and currently is in charge of editing the most widely used physics textbook in the United States, Fundamentals of Physics. In this interview Walker chronicles his time at Cleveland State including both his personal life aside from teaching and his experiences in teaching Physics 201. Of particular note is his discussion of appearing on The Tonight Show and his perspective on the major events in Cleveland StateÕs history including the unionization of the faculty in the early 1990s and the split of the College of Arts and Sciences in the early 2000s. "
Special Notes,
Minutes,
0,"Introduction. Grew up in Fort Worth, TX. Went to MIT in Boston. Went to grad school at Maryland. ""I was na¥ve as a HS student."" "
1,"""I applied to MIT on a lark and was accepted, the token Texan perhaps."" Hated going to MIT. Terrible for an education but great for research. Attracted to Maryland by an experiment dealing with the detection of gravitational waves. "
2,"The project ended up being a failure. Glad he didnÍt go into gravitational waves. During his second year they were short of TA's because of the the Vietnam War. TA's were given faculty status. Called ""Junior Fellows."" Had to teach full time and go to school full time."
3,"Grades went up because he had a purpose. During grad school he wrote a technical report called ""The Flying Circus of Physics"" and had a book contract for it. People at CSU had heard about the contract and offered him a job based on that alone. A very rare thing for grad students to have a book contract. "
4,Was very lucky because most of his fellow students look for a job for 3+ years and are hopeful to land even a temporary job. Prior to visiting CSU he interviewed somewhere in North Carolina. The weather was beautiful and the faculty was really nice.
5,"The next week he came to Cleveland and snow was still on the ground. Rode the train in from the airport. ""There was still snow on the ground. It was dirty snow. It was gray snow. It was depressing as everything."" Many of the faculty was opposed to him even being considered and were even openly hostile. Faculty vote was 11-3 against him but the dean had the final say and wanted him. ""Didnt feel warm and fuzzy about coming here but it worked out."" "
6,"""There was no one lying around on the grass at CSU because we have concrete."" Values the decision to come to CSU. They promised to leave him alone. Probably would have been fired at a big school like Ohio State. "
7,First office may have been his current office. Has moved around a lot over the years though. Discussion of class sizes and locations early on. Had to radically change the way that he taught.
8,"Discussion of characters that he would assume while teaching. Specific mention of ""Julia Grown-up."" Modeled after Julia Childs. Would show videos during class to spark students interest. ""Erma the Cheerleader"" was done live in class. "
9,"Erma was used to teach diffraction of sound using her megaphone. Would dress like a cheerleader and talk in a high frequency, squeaky voice. Describes what the megaphone does to her voice."
10,"""It was outrageous."" Would intentionally choose shirts that were too small so his hairy belly would stick out. ""As one student says, ""itÍs the grossest thing I have ever seen"" but itÍs a lesson she will not forget."" Talks about the Lieden-Frost Affect."
11,"Briefly describes the Leiden-Frost Affect. Wrote about the Affect in ""The Flying Circus"" Read about people sticking a finger in molten lead and realized this was the Leiden-Frost Affect in action. Tried it in the department first before doing it in front of the class. "
12,Melted down some lead to try it but his brain would not let him put his finger in and he kept missing the lead. When he finally pulled it off there was no sensation of heat. Mentions some of the outlets that he wrote about the stunt in. 
13,Has been hurt many times performing the stunt. His finger is fine but sometimes it would splash onto his arms. Relates a story about being tricked by the National Inquirer into doing to stunt. Took his glasses off because the reporter said he was getting a glare from them and molten lead splashed into his eye socket. 
14,"It hit the lid and not the eye. WasnÍt badly burned. Two weeks later he got a call from a Detroit radio show who said they heard about him from an article in the Inquirer. He was concerned about what they might have written. ""I saw my marriage dissolving, losing tenure and living on the streets."" Ran out to buy a copy of the Inquirer."
15,"""It was a solid article, I didnÍt like being lied to but it was a good article."" DidnÍt expect anything really to happen after Flying Circus was published. Really took off after being reviewed in Scientific American. "
16,"""Its probably the thing I'm most closely associated with."" ""Its been a lot of fun."" The book explains the science behind many everyday life phenomenon. Description of how he became a columnist for Scientific American."
17,"Story of becoming writer for Scientific American continued. First article was on how to see multiple rainbows from a single drop of water. ""It was really hard work to come up with 5000 words about a different topic every month."" Had around 2 million readers in the english language alone. ""I could not make a mistake."" "
18,Walker and Karl Kasper tried to write a textbook together at one point but it only lasted about a month. Kasper was the one who got the technical report for Flying Circus from Walker and suggested hiring him. WVIZ had seen Flying Circus and approached Walker about doing a 6-part series. 
19,"Filming the series was difficult. ""I had to work in front of a live audience. I had to time it to within 30 seconds of 28 minutes long with no clock in the room and had to be funny the whole time."" Also shot episodes at the Harbor Inn and from his bathtub at home. Got in trouble when filming the bathtub episode because he had a bottle of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. "
20,"""Some people thought that was a bit outrageous but I thought it was Saturday Night Live-type humor."" Reveiced a local emmy for the episode where he walked over hot coals, stuck his finger in molten lead, and poured liquid nitrogen into his mouth. This all involves vapor layers. Relates story of attending the emmy awards ceremony. Was up for the award against Kathy Brugette who he admired and who had at one point interviewed him. After he left the podium she came up to him and hugged him. ""That meant more than the award itself."" "
21,"Science II's completion did not affect the phsyics department because they donÍt have any offices over there. It did make things less cramped as other departments did move there. Mentions the old student center. ""That was nice because before it was like old Fenn College."" The campus was surrounded by slums. "
22,"""I remember looking out of the old cafeteria to the west and it was just the back end of slum apartments."" The Flying Circus of physics class, there 232 seats in MC 201 and he would receive 400-500 request. ""We would look for handicapped students because they would bring up thier own wheel chairs and wouldnt take up a seat."" ""That was the toughest class I ever taught and I teach calculus based physics to engineers right now."" "
23,"""You had to go in there and be really entertaining and cover a subject that not a lot of people want to learn about."" Lists some of the teaching aids he used. Still gets people coming back who were in his class who tell him how much they liked his class. Relates how those former students often times bring thier children and it makes him feel old."
24,"The people who wanted to bring him in in the first place liked what the popularity of the course was doing for enrollments. DoesnÍt think the others liked it so much. Mentions that ended up being the boss of the person who opposed his hiring the most when he was named chair of the department. He was nice to him though. He remembers at one meeting that the people who liked him and the people who didnt were actually yelling at each other at the tops of their voices. ""I was hiding in the corner. I wasnt going to participate in that."""
25,"They were arguing about his teaching techniques. The solution was to have those who opposed his methods teach the same course at the same time and when the students migrated to his class the argument was settled. ""They realized I was doing a good job."" ""Im trying to suppress my years as department chair."" Was chair for 4 years. States that it was one of the top three mistakes in his life and will not divulge the other two. Describes the job. "
26,"""It just was not fun at all."" Could have continued on as chair for 3 more years but wanted to go back to full-time teaching and has done that ever since. The physics department doesnÍt have TA's that help with courses, there are TA's that help with labs. "
27,Never questioned the decision to stay at CSU. Feels he could have gone to other schools but would have been saddled with traditional professor responsibilities. He wanted to write and teach and CSU left him alone to do that. 
28,"Discussion of article done about him in Smithsonian Magazine. ""It made me larger than life. It was just a fluke."" Got a call from a writer in Cleveland Heights who asked if he would come over and do the bed of nails stunt and allow him to write an article."
29,"After he published the article the photographer for the Smithsonian Magazine saw it and wanted to do an article of their own. They came out and did a two-day shoot ""It was very strenuous effort."" The article got him a lot of attention. The producer for the producer for The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson saw it and asked if he would be on the show. He declined. "
30,"She called three more times. The fifth time she called he was so embarrassed about going on that he agreed. He practiced the scene in his basement what Carson would say and what he would say. ""I of course had no idea what he would actually say."" They went out to the show and they were extremely nice. He had to do the molten lead trick and they had trouble keeping the lead molten. ""If I go into lead and its not quite molten I could lose my fingers."" There was a strong breeze blowing across the stage that kept blowing the flame to one side. "
31,"He had a handheld blowtorch on the lead to keep it molten. ""As Ed McMahon was saying my name I handed the torch to a stage hand and told him to keep the torch on the lead or I could lose my hand on camera."" ""I was nervous for about 5 seconds."" Relates his experience of being on the show. Didnt know if the lead was really molten but he took a chance and it worked."
32,There were two other guests. One of the guests was Patrick Duffy. Duffy came out after Walker and things went so well with Walker that he stayed on longer than expected. They were supposed to bring out a comedian but they had to bump him because they didnt have the time. 
33,"Duffy had seen the segment backstage and walked out with bandages on his hands. Regrets not accepting an invitation to be on Hollywood Squares. Alf the TV show puppet was positioned in the middle square at the time. ""I could have sat next to Alf and that would have been great."""
34,"The David Letterman Show called the next week but when he told them he had already been on Carson they lost interest. Five years later they called again but Walker had heard bad things about how they treated their guests. ""Im kinda glad I didnÍt go on Letterman."""
35,"Interviewer sets up question about faculty situation in the early 1990s. ""I didnÍt really pay much attention to the administration, still donÍt."" Relates that the administration had done some things that really upset the faculty and they finally decided to unionize. Walker never joined the union. Understand why they had to become a body to oppose the administration though."
36,Feels Michael Schwart's tenure was a golden era. Feels if Schwartz had been in charge at that time the faculty would never have unionized. Walker got a phone call in 1989. He had used Fundamentals of Physics to learn during his first year at MIT. The book wasnt assigned but its what he used.
37,"The phone call was a proposal to take over editing Fundamentals of Physics. He resigned from Scientific American and took on the text book. ""I went from the frying pan to the fire so to speak."" Writing a textbook is even more work than writing for Scientific American."
38,"Relates how well received the book has been. ""I guess Im glad I said okay when he called."" "
39,"People call him about everyday questions. Newspaper columnists would call him regularly. Used to do a radio show in Canada called ""Querks and Quarks."" Describes the format of that show. "
40,"""We had a disasterous situation with the dean of Arts and Sciences. I think she was eventually let go, I donÍt think you can say she was fired."" The college was too large and faculty within the sciences were calling for their own college to be formed. The division has been great. Walker gives praise to the first dean of the college of science, Mary Jane Saunders. "
41,Descriptions of the impact Saunders had. Relates story about the dean that was let go. The department chair has to give an annual report to the dean and the physics chair mentioned that Walker had the #1 text book in the world. Her response was to increase his courseload as punishment.
42,"He wrote her a letter saying that he didnÍt feel it was right to punish him and she told him not to think of it as punishment, think of it as opportunity. ""At that moment I realized I must be reading Animal Farm where the words take on their opposite meaning."" Didnt mind it because he enjoyed teaching. This continued for two years when he went on sabbatical. When he returned she must have forgotten and he went back to a normal teaching load. She at one point became upset with her staff and showed up to a meeting with waterguns and repeatedly shot people. She only stopped when someone threw a blanket over her and lowered her to the sofa."
43,The next day she was relieved of her duties by Schwartz. In 2005 the Outstanding Teaching Award was established and Saunders informed Walker that he was going to be the first recipient and that it would be named for him. He didnÍt not want the award. She told him the reason it was named for him is that she knew it was the only way to get him to show up and Walker agrees because he admitedly felt obligated to show up because of that and wouldnt have otherwise.
44,"There was large number of people there. ""It was very gratifying."" Walker doesnÍt think of his teaching as anything special. The first year his publisher paid for the luncheon and since than Walker has paid for it. He compares it to a company owning the naming rights to a stadium, thats why his name is still associated with the award."
45,*END OF INTERVIEW*