Tom McBride

A native Texan, I'm a sixty-something professor at a small liberal arts college in the Upper Midwest. During my nearly forty years of teaching I've inhaled about 22.7 pounds of chalk dust, taught everything from How to Avoid the Comma Splice to How to Read Shakespeare, and published articles on the aforementioned Shakespeare, plus Saul Bellow, Raymond Carver, and Sherlock Holmes (though the latter isn't an author, I once published a learned article on dogs in the Holmes stories). In 1998 I got involved with our then Public Information Director, Ron Nief, with something called The Annual Mindset List, a quick and dirty way to tell oldsters about the assumptions of entering college students. It was a hit. Within a year I was on the Today Show: I have been interviewed by Matt Laurer (who first called me "Tim"), hobnobbed in the green room with Katie Couric, and discussed trapper keepers with Al Roker. They all send their regards. Since then, we get more media attention that I've breathed chalk dust; our website gets over a million hits a year; and Ron and I have written "The Mindset Lists of American History," which applies our famed methods to American life since 1880 and moving forward to 2030. Brian Williams calls it "Indispensable" and the AP calls it "mesmerizing." We have a Facebook site with daily quizzes and have worked with high schools on how to teach history via the "Mindset List Method." We're now discussing apps and calendars and are trying to start a public radio series. As one of my students once said, "with your dress code you should definitely stay on the radio." I always try to learn from my students.

For more on me and my partner Ron Nief--everything you want to know about The Mindset List project--visit us on Facebook (The Mindset List) or at www.themindsetlist.com