If You Want to Change Schools, Listen to These 17 Podcasts.
Powerful stories about the complexities of changing education systems — from desegregation, race & equity, to white parents & philanthropy.
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I am a self proclaimed Podcast Addict and truly cannot imagine the last few years without pods. While I realize that there are many educational podcasts by scholars, I tend to prefer those made by “regular” people because I find them to be more engaging. It is also part of my ethos of learning outside the walls of academia.
With that in mind, here are my favorite podcasts episodes related to education, that are also intimately tied to race. (Descriptions from publishers are in quotes). Although they are all about the United States, they offer useful knowledge for anyone working in education across the world. Happy listening!
NPR’S THIS AMERICAN LIFE
1 — “The Problem We All Live With”
“Right now, all sorts of people are trying to rethink and reinvent education, to get poor minority kids performing as well as white kids. But there’s one thing nobody tries anymore, despite lots of evidence that it works: desegregation. Nikole Hannah-Jones looks at a district that, not long ago, accidentally launched a desegregation program.”
This is definitely placed first because it is incredibly powerful. Nikole Hannah-Jones is a powerhouse, so check out the 1619 Project and this article she wrote as she contemplated choosing a school for her daughter.
2 — “Three Miles”
“There’s a program that brings together kids from two schools. One school is public and in the country’s poorest congressional district. The other is private and costs $43,000/year. They are three miles apart. The hope is that kids connect, but some of the public school kids just can’t get over the divide. We hear what happens when you get to see the other side and it looks a lot better.”
3 — “Essay B”
“In 1967, the first two black students were enrolled at an all-white private boarding school in Virginia. The main reason they were there? To benefit the white kids. This week: stories about being enlisted to benefit another person’s educational experience.”
SERIAL & THE NEW YORK TIMES
4 — “Nice White Parents”
“If you want to understand what’s wrong with our public schools, you have to look at what is arguably the most powerful force in shaping them: white parents.”
A new five-part series, hosted by Chana Joffe-Walt, that dropped this summer. (Chana also collaborated with Nikole Hannah-Jones on Three Miles and The Problem We All Live With).
NPR’S CODE SWITCH
5 — “The Passing of A ‘Failing’ School”
“When a school shuts down, students lose more than a place of learning; they lose friends, mentors and a community. This is an experience that disproportionately affects black students in the U.S. Shereen Marisol Meraji looks at what it’s like when a predominantly black suburb outside Pittsburgh loses its only public high school.”
6 — “Black Parents Take Control, Teachers Strike Back”
“In 1968, a vicious battle went down between white teachers and black and Puerto Rican parents in a Brooklyn school district. Many say the conflict brought up issues that have yet to be resolved more than fifty years later.”
7 — “A Tale Of Two School Districts”
“In many parts of the U.S., public school districts are just minutes apart, but have vastly different racial demographics — and receive vastly different funding. That’s in part due to Milliken v. Bradley, a 1974 Supreme Court case that limited a powerful tool for school integration.”
8 — “Dispatches From The Schoolyard”
“In middle school and high school, we’re figuring out how to fit in and realizing that there are things about ourselves that we can’t change — whether or not we want to. This week, we’re turning the mic over to student podcasters, who told us about the big issues shaping their nascent identities.”
9 — “Love & Walkouts”
“In 1968, thousands of students participated in a series of protests for equity in education that sparked the Chicano Movement. But for two of the students at one struggling high school, that civil unrest — which became known as East L.A. Walkouts — also marked the beginning of a 50-year romance. This week, Code Switch is cosigning that love story, brought to us by our play-cousins at Latino USA.”
10 — “Ask Code Switch: School Daze”
“For better or worse, classrooms have always been a site where our country’s racial issues get worked out — whether its integration, busing, learning about this country’s sordid racial history. On today’s Ask Code Switch, we’re talking about fitting in, standing out, and standing up for what you believe in.”
11 — “Audie and the Not-So-Magic School Bus”
“NPR’s Audie Cornish was bused to an affluent suburban school outside Boston in a voluntary integration program. She reflects on her experiences with Gene Demby and talks about stories she recently reported on kids using the program today. Matthew Delmont joins the conversation. He teaches history at Arizona State University and wrote the book ‘Why Busing Failed.’ ”
TED’S SINCERELY, X
12 — “Episode 10: Gifted Kid”
“A gifted child. A rough neighborhood. A teacher who knows how to break the cycle.”
Powerful first-person story from a teacher, shared anonymously.
NPR & EDUCATION WEEK
13 — “Raising Kings: A Year of Love and Struggle at Ron Brown College Prep”
“When this new boys-only, public school in Washington, D.C., opened its doors in August 2016 to a class of roughly 100 freshmen of color, NPR and Education Week were there. All. Year.”
Four episode series about a visionary new high school. Covers its journey of weighing academic success with restorative justice, and navigating whether to lower or raise standards. In the 4th episode, the team reflects on their reporting.
14 — “Is Ron Brown High School Working?”
One year after the podcast came out, the team goes back to check in on the school’s progress.
MALCOLM GLADWELL’S REVISIONIST HISTORY
15 — “Episode 4: Carlos Doesn’t Remember”
“Carlos is a brilliant student from South Los Angeles. He attends an exclusive private school on an academic scholarship. He is the kind of person the American meritocracy is supposed to reward. But in the hidden details of his life lies a cautionary tale about how hard it is to rise from the bottom to the top — and why the American school system, despite its best efforts, continues to leave an extraordinary amount of talent on the table.”
16 — “Episode 5: Food Fight”
“Bowdoin College in Maine and Vassar College in upstate New York are roughly the same size. They compete for the same students. Both have long traditions of academic excellence. But one of those schools is trying hard to close the gap between rich and poor in American society — and paying a high price for its effort. The other is making that problem worse — and reaping rewards as a result. ‘Food Fight,’ the second of the three-part Revisionist History miniseries on opening up college to poor kids, focuses on a seemingly unlikely target: how the food each school serves in its cafeteria can improve or distort the educational system.”
17 — “Episode 6: My Little Hundred Million”
“In the early ’90s, Hank Rowan gave $100 million to a university in New Jersey, an act of extraordinary generosity that helped launch the greatest explosion in educational philanthropy since the days of Andrew Carnegie and the Rockefellers. But Rowan gave his money to Glassboro State University, a tiny, almost bankrupt school in South Jersey, while almost all of the philanthropists who followed his lead made their donations to elite schools such as Harvard and Yale. Why did no one follow Rowan’s example? ‘My Little Hundred Million’ is the third part of Revisionist History’s educational miniseries. It looks at the hidden ideologies behind giving and how a strange set of ideas has hijacked educational philanthropy.”
Dr. Molade Osibodu is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at York University in Toronto, Canada. A proud Nigerian and pan-Africanist, her research focuses on the intersection of mathematics and social justice, with a focus on Sub-Saharan African youth. Prior to academia, Dr. Osibodu was a Mathematics Faculty member at African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. To read more of her writing, follow her on Academia or Twitter. BLACK LIVES MATTER!
