#NoSuchThingPodcast Back To School Playlist

Everyone in my house is desperately squeezing the final days of summer into a chaotic elixir of pool trips, screentime, and extra sleep. Truth is: about this time each year, I’m itching for school startup. There’s an order to my little bubble when I’m slathering alt-peanut butter onto sandwiches in the dark, wee hours of the morning. The heat subsides, the sunscreen dries up, and we all charge forward, stowing the recliners and leaning into what’s ahead.
No Such Thing celebrated its one-year anniversary in August, and there’s a lot to be grateful for in hindsight. Not least, the many collaborators who’ve made each episode an important step in the journey to make meaning in this space of learning and education reform for the digital age. In the spirit of a new school year. Here are five episodes of the No Such Thing Podcast from the vault that may work to jumpstart your re-entry.

Episode 19: The New Education
A live interview with Professor Cathy N. Davidson, Director of The Futures Initiative at City University of New York, and one of the country’s most respected scholars on the topic of higher education reform. We’re joined by Temitayo Fagbenle, a Queens College student and award winning youth journalist with WNYC’s Radio Rookies. In The New Education, Cathy N. Davidson reveals that we desperately need a revolution in higher learning if we want our students to succeed in our age of precarious work and technological disruption.
Episode 8: The Networking of Humanity
Chris Lawrence is the Vice President of Mozilla Foundation’s Leadership Network, and he’s joined by fellow web citizens, Iliana Lugo and Charles Canario, to discuss “Internet Health” and a host of issues related to learning and literacy in the digital age. Is information on the internet a public resource? Why should we care about issues of privacy on the web? What are the skills that all of us can support as learners of all ages grow with the culture of the web? Charles and Iliana share their perspectives about these issues and more, and we find out that one of us is considering an anonymous web identity to carry out their aspirations as a LARPER.Episode 11: Maker Ed in NYC Schools
Episode 11: Maker Ed in NYC Schools
After decades of experience in the NYC public school system, these three educators are hopeful that “Maker Education,” the field’s instantiation of the popular tinker movement re-constituted by the commercial Make Magazine and Maker Faire, holds promise for reforming aspects of how we teach and learn. Dr. Lou Lahana, Lori Stahl-VanBrackle, and Iliana Villegas don’t agree on every aspect of the present or future of Maker Ed, but together with thousands of educators nationally, are writing the playbook as they go. This conversation unpacks the specifics issues that educators face when working to infuse the values and methodology into their schools. The group cite examples of multi-disciplinary project work, and dig into the spaces where they happen.
Episode 26: Other Technologies, Part 1
“I needed to find a way to save them,” Cook told The Washington Post. “It really affected me having my kids killed.”
This is Part 1 of a 2-Part Episode. Akbar Cooke is the principal at West Side High School in Newark NJ, he’s one in nearly 1mm K12 administrators in the country, but at West Side he’s a giant. Kids call him “coach” or “Cooke” and straighten up when they see him. Not out of fear, but respect — the kind that if you’ve ever worked with teens, you know only comes when things are reciprocal, mutual — it’s clear that his heart is as intimidating, in a way, as his physical presence. Everyone should walk the halls with Akbar, if you don’t ask yourself “do I have the courage to love this much — to work this hard for the people around me?” then you’re not human.
Episode 18: Computer Science Education — The Time Is…Now?
I sit with Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez, Director of STEM Policy at the Afterschool Alliance, and Michael Preston, Executive Director of Computer Science, NYC (CSNYC), and Co-founder of the National CSForAll Consortium, to dig in on the momentum to build support for Computer Science Education. What is ‘the movement’? Is there new relevance, or more urgency now than ever? What outcomes do we hope to influence in the years to come? Who do we think will benefit?
