Faculty Off The Clock - Featuring Kate Owens

What happens when faculty step away from the classroom and the lab? In this episode of Faculty Off the Clock, we sit down with Professor Kate Owens to explore the passions, pursuits, and pastimes that shape their life beyond academia. From unexpected hobbies to meaningful side projects, discover a different side of the faculty you thought you knew. 

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🎙️ Produced by Michael Overholt

📍 Recorded in Podcast Studio #1, Addlestone Library

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

We welcome you to this episode of Faculty Off the Clock, a podcast series hosted by the College of Charleston's Office of the Provost that highlights the personal and lighter sides of our campus's professors. I'm Mark Del Mastro.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

And I'm Chris Corey, Associate Provost, and your host of Faculty Off the Clock. For this episode, we welcome Professor Kate Owens, Senior Instructor and Associate Chair of the Department of Mathematics. So before we get into your life off the clock, we always ask our guests, how did you end up here at the C of C?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

How did I end up here at C of C? Well, my husband is also a mathematician. We met in the same PhD program, and we actually came here for his job in industry.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

And where was that?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Uh University of South Carolina. Okay. And so we were there, and then he had a postdoc at Texas AM University for a year, and then eventually got a job here at a finance firm. And so I came here without a job and then was sort of riding the adjunct circuit before uh visiting assistant professor position became available in the math department here. And I jumped on that opportunity and tried to make myself like mildew on the wall. So once I'm there, you can't get rid of me.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

But you you also have a little bit of a history at the Citadel.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Like, yeah, I I spent a year as a full-time adjunct at the Citadel, which is a term, a phrase that seems to be an antonym. But anyway, I did that for a year before coming to CFC.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

How'd you like that experience?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

It was great. I mean, I I really enjoyed it. My dad was in the military, and so I was maybe more accustomed to that type of culture and uniforms and saluting and all of that. Um it was a fun place to do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Did you get to know Dr. Mei Chen?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

I did know her, yes. Okay. Yes, she was still around and and helping around that department. And I was extremely pregnant at the time, so it was fun to watch 18-year-old cadets get very nervous that I was going to give birth at any moment right in front of them. They were squirming in their seats.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

Waiting to be called to duty.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 2:18

So before we get into your off-campus diversions, um, tell us a little bit about your life. Where are you originally from, born and raised?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Uh yeah, my dad, like I mentioned, my dad was in the military, and so he did 31 years in the Navy. And so when I graduated high school, I'd been to 13 schools in eight states. So when somebody asks where I'm from, it's always a little complicated of a question. At some point I started averaging my zip codes like one does. Do you know your average zip code?

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Uh no. No. No, that would not be something. No, no, I'm not. Non-mathematician, something I've never thought about. I didn't know that was a thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

No, I know it's it's a problematic because you can come up with an average that doesn't yet have a place affiliated with it. So then eventually you realize you have to average your longitude and latitude because that actually is a place. So my average longitude and latitude is somewhere in Louisiana right now.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

What was your favorite place?

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Obviously, Charleston. I've been in Charleston longer than anywhere else, but my undergraduate degree is from UC San Diego, and I have no objections to living in San Diego at some point in my discipline. It's a beautiful place.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

So um you're you're moving around a lot. Did you have a favorite interest or activity as a kid? And a location?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

No, I moved around a ton. I mean, I played the piano for many, many years. I haven't done that in a very long time.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

Now you don't play anymore?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I just, you know, I'm running around like a crazy person with three small children. It's not like I have a lot of time for Kate's hobbies.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

Yeah, yeah. Understood. Okay. I mean, you did move a lot around a lot, so you certainly oriented with a lot of different uh locations across the U.S. But did you have a favorite vacation spot growing up, assuming you managed to have a vacation?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Aaron Ross Powell My grandparents always lived in Augusta, and that's where my dad retired to. So I think it would have to be grandma and grandpa's house, which is outside of Augusta, because that was sort of where the family lived for a long time, and they had about a hundred acres of woods, and so it was a great place to just go running around. And they were sort of far away, and you know, they can order pizza and there was no cable TV, and so it was a nice relaxing place to be.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

So our next question is about a summer job, but we've noticed a trend. Have you ever been a paper boy, paper girl in life? No. Okay. Then what was your favorite? It seemed like almost You seem a bit startled by that question, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Well, now I feel like I'm I'm missing a club. There's some club I can't join.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Everyone we've asked is then that is what they have done.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

So I've made income from two places in my life. One of them is explaining mathematics to other people. I seem to have, you know, some experience in that realm. And then the other thing was I worked at Baskin Robbins for six weeks or so when I was in high school, and that was enough to convince me that math was a better route than ice cream.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

Obviously, that was pretty short-lived six weeks.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

It's pretty short-lived, man. I mean, the thing is that there's a lot of people that are really excited to get ice cream, but then there are a lot of people that are very critical about how many nuts you put on there, and you know, it's too many cherries and not enough cherry juice, and uh man, I'm not good at customer. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

I've always thought Baskin Robbins was a little overrated. I mean, there's a lot of they seem to have a pretty loyal following, but I I mean I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Uh it's great ice cream. I mean they let me as much as I wanted, and I ate a lifetime supply of ice cream. What was your favorite Baskin Robbins flavor? I mean, I'm kind of like into like a butter pecan, but I'll take a mint chocolate chip.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

Okay. Do do you have a limit on the number of times you would let someone get a taste? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

No, I was way above my pay grade. I was just I was just there to help the customer. What was the worst? Could I try that one? Could I try that one? Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

What's the most number of requests for tastings that you ever got from one customer?

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Maybe like three or four. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

So there wasn't any abuse going on. I don't think there was any abuse like that. Also, you were only there six weeks, so it's not like you had a shitable opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Um you like pets?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

I do like pets.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

I did you have them growing up?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

I did have pets growing up, and right now we have two indoor cats at my house and one outdoor cat. And they the indoor ones don't like the outdoor one, and the outdoor one doesn't like the indoor one, so it's always sort of fun when you open the door to see who who will hiss first.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

What are their names?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Uh the outdoor one, her name is Sydney, like Australia. Yeah. And the two indoor ones, they are from the same litter, and um the rescue organization named all of the litter, and so we got Flash and we got Sky. But we missed Thunder and Rain and some of the other ones.

SPEAKER_04 6:37

What was your first pet? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

My first pet was a cat. Yeah. Okay. My first cat, my first pet was.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

So you really like cats?

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Uh I think yes, I think I would love to have a dog as well. We do a lot of traveling at my house, and so I think it would be very complicated. So it's at least good that the cats, you know, they don't really care if we go away from a couple days.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Yeah. Although they get very vengeful if you're away for a while and um they can do bad things. I know this from experience from my prior cat ownership. Have you experienced that as well? I haven't yet. That's something I look forward to. My wish is that you never do.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

So um either growing up with your family, you always asked, Do you have a favorite board game, game, cards, things you like to do?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Oh goodness. We have a lot of board games in my house. We um we're just packing up to travel soon, and we um packed the game Camel Up. Have you ever played Camel Up? Nope.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

I'd like to go.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

It's kind of a big board game. I'm surprised. You've never heard of Camel Up, Dr. Corn? Tell us, tell us.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah, no, no, Camel Up is great. It's sort of it's it's a uh you're racing camels around a little track and then they can get stacked on top of each other, and it's a it's the right little level of competitive for the parents in the camels.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

How do the camels move?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

There's like, I think they're carts, maybe there's dice, I don't know. I haven't we haven't played in a little while.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Oh, that's gonna look it up. And it's a decent competition.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah. It's it's super fun. We have Azul. Have you ever played Azul?

unknown 8:22

No.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

The tileing game.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

And the anti-board game.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, Blue Moon City. Also Dragon. I don't know. How are you asking me this question?

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Shoots and ladders, old school.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Oh, no. Checkers. That's never gonna work. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Well, we'll uh we'll switch gears a little bit and and move to your childhood grammar school period. If you could tell us what fun fact about yourself from your childhood grammar school years that you think might be of interest or amusing to our listeners.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I I think that I've probably moved around more than any any other faculty member. I would I would challenge them to sort of see. So probably the fact that uh just bouncing around.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

Was that hard moving so often? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

I mean for me it was sort of normal. I think that now I'm I'm grateful for the experience because um my husband comes from this tiny little town in Canada, and everyone he's ever known or lives there with their parents who've always lived there, and they'll never be able to live move. Whereas I can kind of feel like I could go anywhere.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Travel anywhere, meet anyone.

SPEAKER_04 9:29

How about uh your high school years? Same fun fact question.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yeah, so the fun fact about my high school years is we ended up in Pensacola, Florida. My dad was stationed there, and I was about a mile and a half from the runway where the blue angels take off. I don't know if you've ever seen the blue angels.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Every year.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Oh, and you say heaven, right? Great for you. So the thing is they practice Tuesday mornings at 8 a.m. year round. And they're very loud. And I don't know if you remember high school, but it didn't involve a lot of being up at Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. during the summer for me. And so those stupid planes would fly over my house and everything would shake and you know. I mean, no, no. Maybe at first, but you know, after like the 100th time you've seen them fly over, you're like, could you just go and bother somebody else?

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Wow. Go fly over the Corey household.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Oh well, so then from there, bef before we lived there, we lived in Coronado, um, outside of San Diego, right across from uh a runway. And so there was an S3 squadron. Now, S3s are these planes where they practice doing touch and goes, which is like when you want to land on an aircraft carrier and you gotta take off right away in case you don't clip the cord that stops you. So they just fly around in circles, and then as they go to land, they start reving their engine so it goes womp, womp, womp, and then they like take off again. So they just fly around in circles and make that noise for eight hours a day. But my experience with military runways is I can identify, you know, S3 or F-14 or C 130 or B 52 by the sound that they make as they fly over.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Kind of like a naturalist with birds.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Yeah. Yes, it's like we've loved it. Interesting. Yeah, we're a big plane family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Maybe I would have been, but not anymore.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

So you you stayed in San Diego then for undergrad? Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

So I started in San Diego for ninth grade, and then we moved to Pensacola, and I decided that the heat and the mosquitoes and the whole situation was too much. So I went back to California for undergrad and I was there and I loved it, and then I realized that I was going to graduate and my parents weren't going to pay for my life anymore, and I realized that California is too expensive. So South Carolina is the place to be.

SPEAKER_04 11:30

So what about a fun fact from the undergraduate years? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

What was nice about San Diego? Surf? Hang out with Navy SEAL?

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Anything that might surprise us about caves.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yes, there were Navy SEALs and there were surfing. I think that I was kind of a math geek. I don't think that I ever went surfing or even saw the Navy SEALs that were there. I think I was mostly just hanging out around the math department. At some point, I guess the one one cool thing that we did was that um the Navy employs some dolphins who uh are not captive dolphins that just live in the San Diego Harbor and they train them to do all of these things, and the dolphins just show up because they get fed fish and then they don't have to show up tomorrow. And so I got to I got to meet some dolphins who were there showing up for fish.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

What's your impression of dolphins?

SPEAKER_00 12:10

They're so cool. They're so amazing. But I'm but uh are you are you pro-dolphin? Is it not?

SPEAKER_04 12:16

I no, I I'm I'm kind of you know indifferent. I mean I when I see a dolphin, I I like a dolphin, but I you know in some ways they're way smarter than us, you know. Well, I'm not that's not surprising.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Um so you you came here for graduate school?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I came to University of South Carolina in Columbia for graduate school, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

But other than then your your time as a math graduate student, um escapades in in Columbia, South Carolina?

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Yeah, I think the b one of my favorite things about grad school is we had um uh a very socially active crew of of math PhD and master's degree students who were always hanging out together. We had a weekly poker game for Texas Hold'em poker. So we played poker every week for like five years. And I don't know if you've ever played poker with a group of mathematicians before. It's wild. I bet. How'd you do? I I'm up for my career. I'm up. So I'm in a couple of years.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Can you can you count cards with poker? Or is that really more of like a not really?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

I think I think it's much more poker's much more about reading your opponent. You definitely have to compute the pot odds, which is the chance that you're you know, the the balance between what card you need to come up versus you know what amount of monetary risk you're gonna have to pay. So there's some pot odds calculations, but it's much more about knowing the person that's sitting across from you than it is about the statistics, so maybe it's more psychology than that.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

Do you play anymore?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

I I don't. I would love to. That would be great.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

That's another one of those things that you'd like to maybe be a family thing when you're at the cabin.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

I mean, it yes, it absolutely could be. We have we have taught the kids to play Texas Hold'em. So maybe maybe we'll come back to it. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 13:47

Dr. Corey, do you ever play Texas Hold'em?

SPEAKER_03 13:49

I have not played a lot of poker.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

My my dad would you like to play? You could come over to my house. It's a $10 buy-in. We'll play this out again.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Oh, yes. I would love to learn just so you know I'm all about wagering. Yes. That's okay. Have fun. We can start something on campus.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Well, the other thing about grad school is that you were doing like a $5 buy-in, and you know, the winner would get $45. And in graduate school, you know, $45 was like a life-changing amount of money that was like and just the excitement about that that's start affordable. That's right. This is the thing that the magic of that, you know, maybe has passed a little bit in my world that it would mean the same thing as it used to. This ain't Texas.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Ain't no hold them. They are cut down, down, down, down. Stick around, round, round, round, round. Stick around. And I'll be digging.

SPEAKER_04 14:43

But we're gonna switch to the present now and ask you about a current pastime hobby or activity that you enjoy regularly and when that first started.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yeah, so I think I'm uh I've become a runner. I am a runner. I wasn't a runner ten years ago, but I do a lot of running.

SPEAKER_04 15:00

If you come to buy So you've been doing it consistently for the past ten years?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

No, uh no, no, no. I would say I've I've been doing it consistently for maybe like five years. Okay. Ten years ago, I couldn't have run from here to the fire exit, I don't think.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

But I've done a couple of half marathons now. So I've you know, I've worked my way up. And if you come by my office, my the door to my office is all my race bibs that I've been taping to my office door every time I do one. So um that's sort of fun. But the reason I got into running was uh about nine years ago, I broke my patella, my kneecap, into a bunch of pieces. It's why'd you do that? It I fell on it and it's not good. I was carrying I was carrying I was carrying my baby, right? And I like stepped it the wrong way, and I twisted my ankles, I threw my weight the other way, and then we were falling, and it was, you know, parental instinct to like save the babysit. So we both fell and like landed on my kneecaps. I shattered it into a bunch of pieces. It was terrible.

SPEAKER_04 15:49

Well, recovery.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Well, yeah. So this is the thing. I was gone from COC for 12 weeks and went through two surgeries and everything, and then I was totally immobilized for three months, and something about being unable to move for three months definitely got it in my head that like I I no longer want to feel that sense of being trapped. And so since then I've sort of evolved and got, you know, through physical therapy and then was doing a lot of biking just as sort of a rehab and then got into running. So I've been a pretty serious runner for the last five or six years.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

That's fantastic. Do you have a favorite race you've done?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I mean, I last January I was devastated when we had that big snowstorm in January 2025 and the Charleston half marathon was canceled because they canceled it, you know, like two days before, and I had just finished up my 48th training run. And so wow. Once you've trained for 48 training runs, it's a bit of a bummer when they cancel it. And so I was devastated, and then I was looking at what what's the next closest half marathon, both in terms of the calendar, but also in terms of the geography. So Asheville had their half marathon in March. So I thought, well, they're close enough, and it's basically March because it was the end of January, I'll just do that one. So I signed up for the Asheville half marathon, which I think was my favorite race, uh, which was a little bit scary because they have like mountains and hills. Sure, yeah. What are you doing about hill training? Are you running on Ravenel Bridge? And my hill training, um, most of my running is done at the James Island County Park, and there are two speed bumps that I run over regularly.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

There's a couple little like bridges. They kind of count, they kind of count.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Exactly. So, you know, I did some 12-mile laps and included three speed bumps. I felt totally prepared for Asheville, and it was great.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

But you did well.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

I mean, I survived it. It was it was really great. Uh, the cool thing about running a half marathon is you end up hanging out with these people for two hours that you'll never meet again, you don't know who they are, but like they're in it with you, and so you know, it's like instant family, and then you have this great time together, and then you never see each other again. And then the other thing about the Asheville was that it's a half marathon and full marathon. So I was running in this little gaggle of of folks together around all these people that were doing the full marathon, and I never really thought that I would ever think about doing this, but then I'm running past, you know, running around all these guys, like I could keep up with her. Like, maybe I could do the full I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 18:00

So is that a goal now? The full marathon? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Oh, yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Yeah, maybe even the seed, the seed's been planted.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

The seed's there, man.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

For me, a 10K is so long. I mean, the the the thought of doing a half marathon is like might as well die. There's no way I could do it.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Uh yeah, it's just you just have to run slower. I just find that like I really like running super slowly, and I could do it for three days and it would be totally. Right. I'd rather do a slow half marathon than like a fast mile.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

Oh, interesting. Gotcha. Okay. Well, what is the one activity off the clock that you still would like to tackle but haven't managed to do so?

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Oh gosh. I feel like that list is really quite long. Well with top one.

SPEAKER_04 18:46

You give us top five.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

I mean, okay, top five. I would be great to have the time to go back and and go back and play the piano again. I used to I used to do that sort of soon. Absolutely. It's not too late. It's just like there's only so many minutes in the day.

SPEAKER_04 18:56

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

So that would be one. Uh it'd be great to I mean, I know how to crochet. I'd like to have more time to sort of crochet or something like that. I'm such an old lady all of a sudden. I just want to be with my cats and do some yarn.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Uh so um our our last question before we get to the lightning round is um if you weren't a faculty member, what would you be doing?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I I've thought about this, you know, that that sort of question and talking to my kids about what they want to be when they grow up in different sort of trajectories. Um when I started out in college, I wanted to do aerospace engineering. So I wanted to go work for a NASA. I was in high school, right when the Hubble was releasing all of their their photographs, everything, and I just thought that those were the coolest things ever. So I was gonna do aerospace engineering, go work for a NASA. Started I was a double major in aerospace engineering and astrophysics. So maybe I would go and like be an astronaut. Like that would be pretty cool. Maybe go work for NASA's.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

I always wanted to apply to be um like the astronaut scientist person rather than like the Navy pilot, but that was like these specialists that you could apply to be.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, that would be really good.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

So okay, you'd actually like to explore space. I mean, get out there.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yeah, uh, I would definitely would. I think that that would be just the thrill of exploration, and then you know, there are frustrations that I have with planet Earth and like humanity, and it'd be cool to see if they bothered me as much if I were on Mars and they were all here.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Maybe so you're signing up for Elon's first trip.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Sure. I mean, maybe not his. I don't know whose. Somebody else's. So maybe that's something I would do. And I think that the other thing now is uh what I was not at all interested in as an undergraduate were things that was really applied math, and I was not interested in statistics, but now being a parent and getting into my middle age and watching my parents, I really would like to know more about biostatistics, right? Like I want to know that, you know, when they give my dad this advice about his cholesterol, I would really like to know more about the biostatistics of what all those numbers really mean and how to assess that risk and how to assess the risk of the treatment or the you know the kind of medications they wanted to take. And so I think that that would be something I'd really like to know more about with infinite time.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

So for a lightning round and to conclude our faculty off the clock installments, we ask each guest some important standard questions. Again, about your life off the clock. We do want to clarify that we do know the difference between thunder and lightning, but since this is an audio podcast, we had to settle on the thunder sound effect to cue this important portion of the interview. So, Kate, what's your favorite carb?

SPEAKER_00 21:34

My favorite carb. Your favorite carb. Carbohydrate? Yes. Um beer.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Oh, the first time we've gotten that one nailed it. Yeah, I'm very satisfied. Can we conclude now, Dr. Cordon?

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Your favorite protein?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Also, beer. It has protein, right? No, not at all, no. You need a different beer cheese. Oh that works.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

Okay. Pizza or tacos?

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Uh tacos.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Tacos. Do you have a favorite taco place here in Charleston?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

My kitchen, I think.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Make a mean taco. Terrific. Well, you did work at Baskin Robbins, so frozen yogurt or ice cream?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Uh probably ice cream. Let's just go all in.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

Is your favorite Baskin Robbins brand?

SPEAKER_00 22:18

No, I don't even know if I have a favorite. To be honest, I don't eat that much frozen yogurt or that much ice cream anymore. When they said that I could eat as much as I wanted when I worked there, I I very much did, and I think I hit the lifetime maximum that a month.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

Wow. Okay. That seems difficult for ice cream. Oh, you should try it. You could do it, Mark. Mustard or ketchup on a hot dog?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Both, maybe some relish. And I would like some sauerkraut. Oh, both. Always both? No, but I just I'm not, you know. Yeah. A good sauerkraut.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

So it depends on your mood. Like if you're at a picnic or at a barbecue and they've got both out.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Okay. The last hot dog I had, I put buffalo sauce on.

SPEAKER_04 22:53

Wow. So again, based on your mood, maybe?

SPEAKER_03 22:59

You have your hot dog? Would you get hush puppies of french fries with it?

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Definitely french fries, like definitely a little salt. If there's some malt vinegar around, I'll take advantage of that.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

And is there a particular cut of French fry that you like?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

I like the more shoestring stuff. I don't like those steak fries that are like little pieces of potatoes.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

Yeah, to me like them.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

I know my wife hates those. The crunchier the better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:19

I kind of like them all. Quite frankly. I'll eat any potato. All right. Favorite soft drink?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Uh I don't drink that much soft drinks. Um so I guess my the one that I would go to is Diet Dr. Pepper.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

Oh. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Um other than running, currently you have a favorite other off-the-clock activity you just kind of do?

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Could be I don't know. I don't think I have any time for any of that hobbies. I've got three kids. Fair enough. Hanging out with my children, of course, is my favorite activity.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Sure, yeah, that makes sense. What off-the-clock activity do you prefer to do alone?

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Oh, I definitely I definitely prefer running by myself. I like to sort of zone out. My whole goal for running is to reach some mental state where there's no more thoughts in my head and like no one's talking and you can do that.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Yeah. Once it once you once I run a couple of miles. Like the first couple of miles is me thinking about all of the stuff I have to do once I stop running. And then after a couple of miles, I'm just kind of zoned out and relaxed.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Gotcha. Did you uh listen to music podcasts?

SPEAKER_00 24:18

I always listen to music. I like singing along in my own head.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Um your favorite music band from your youth?

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Jeez.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Yeah. Have fun. Deep cut.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

I don't know. I mean, I went to the couple. I mean, I went to the Lilith Fair, I saw Bonnie Rae perform live and she was amazing. Maybe some Cheryl Crow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

Do you prefer cold or hot weather?

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Well, I think it's like 180 degrees outside right now. I'm gonna say cooler. My favorite running temperature is between 58 and 62 degrees Fahrenheit. So I'm looking forward to like October. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Well, yeah, you put you put it on your hot dog. So if you have a favorite um mustard, vinegar, tomato-based for barbecue or your hot dog?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

I'd probably go with like a vinegar-based barbecue sauce if I was going to do it. But I think that my go-to condiment for most things is like a buffalo sauce, and I think you can put it on anything. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

Interesting. Plane, train, or automobile?

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Gosh, I've done all three this summer. Uh I think probably train, because I like sort of looking out the window and seeing all of the stuff go by, although, you know, in South Carolina it's this is complicated to And does it matter what country or state that you take the train?

SPEAKER_04 25:37

You just like the train, wherever.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

I just prefer the train to the other modes of transportation, I suppose. The last train that I was on was somewhere through Spain, and it was delightful to look out the window. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

I think every single person has answered. Yeah. People like trains. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Last couple are very important. Um your toothpaste tube dispensing method. Yeah. How do you squeeze the toothpaste?

SPEAKER_00 26:01

From the bottom very carefully so that you get all of it out toward the You roll it or just push it with your fingers? Sometimes I do know I push it over the counter to like get the last one.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Well done, Dr. Owens. Well done.

SPEAKER_03 26:15

You got an A on that answer.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

Very good. Uh Popcorn, yes or no?

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

And how do you like to prepare it? And what do you like to put on it?

SPEAKER_00 26:23

I put tahen on it. You put Taheen?

SPEAKER_04 26:26

Tahen. Yeah. I am so fascinated by the answers to the question of popcorn top.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

What do you still put on popcorn?

SPEAKER_04 26:36

Well, with the I have been converted to the whirly pop by Dr. Corey as a mechanism for preparation. Yeah, and they have, which I actually enlightened, which was incredible because Dr. Corey knows these things about the whirly pop, but not this. There are pre-made whirly pop packets. And so they have all of the seasonings and butter in it already. Oh. And I'm not sure what's in it. I don't think I want to know exactly, but it really tastes good. And so I just leave the pre-established packet contents as is without anything additional. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Yeah. I think in my house we've got probably some like organic, has no flavor. It's made out of like avocados and like that kind of avocado oil popcorn that takes all the fun out of childhood. Um so I try and put like tahine or something that'll stick to it a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

You prefer making it at home as opposed to getting it at the movie theater.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

Oh, I can't I'm a state employee. I can't afford movie theater popcorn. It's like $20 a service. It is it is pricey. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

Okay. Um our last question. Um your entry song at a celebrity event that features you.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Oh gosh. This is this is super hard.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

Uh this is your grand entrance at advanced. Yeah, I mean it could be a famous running song. And here she is, Dr. Owens, and the music plays is I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Probably some imagined dragon song. I couldn't even couldn't even guess. Okay. All right. That's fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Yeah. Well, Dr. Owens, thanks so much for sharing today about your time off the clock and for giving listeners an alternate glimpse into your life outside the classroom. We really appreciate it. And as a personalized marketing tool, we'll ask that you display your bobblehead in your office uh to bring attention to the podcast, and we'll be presenting to that to you soon. Represent the lighter side as you reveal to us today. So thank you. Stay tuned for next month's installment when we learn more about life off the clock of another College of Charleston professor.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Thanks. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 28:37

And I think it's gonna be a long time.