Podcasts

Across the U.S., educators are being censored for broaching controversial topics. Since January 2021, researcher Jeffrey Sachs says that 35 different states have introduced 137 bills limiting what schools can teach with regard to race, American history, politics, sexual orientation and gender identity. One proposed law in South Carolina, for instance, prohibits teachers from discussing any topic that creates "discomfort, guilt or anguish" on the basis of political belief. We talk about these bills and laws and their implications.

Guest host is joined by NPR senior editor and , host of The Stacks podcast, to talk about banned books. They talk about why it's important for kids to discover books freely, even if that means starting a hard conversation with them. They also discuss their favorite — and least favorite — books that often show up on banned book lists.

The “suburbs” have become a hot constituency in recent years. But has the term enveloped the full range of their residents? R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy joins Kimberly Atkins Stohr.

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 five-part series from the makers of Serial and The New York Times. Hosted by Chana Joffe-Walt.

Banning books in schools is on the rise. Around the country, parents are lobbying to banish from libraries and curriculums any work they deem to be “graphic” or “offensive,” often sweeping up books centered on queer or POC experiences in the process. Some authors say that’s no coincidence - nor is it surprising that this is happening just as the publishing industry is remaking itself to tell more diverse stories. The question is, what’s the best way to respond to the outrage?



Guest: , author of three YA novels, including , and professor of literature at Ohio State University.

Southlake, Texas, seems to have it all: stately homes, intense civic pride, and above all, terrific schools. So when a video surfaced in 2018 showing Southlake high school students chanting the N-word—and when Black residents came forward to share stories of racist harassment and bullying—the school board vowed to make changes. But the unveiling of the Cultural Competence Action Plan set off a backlash that’s consumed Southlake, fueled by a growing national crusade against critical race theory. Hosted by NBC News national reporter Mike Hixenbaugh (host of the hit podcast Do No Harm) and NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton, Southlake tells the story of how one idyllic city became the test case for a new political strategy with national repercussions.

In Loudoun County, Va., a fierce debate has been raging for months inside normally sleepy school board meetings.

At the heart of this anger is critical race theory, a once obscure academic framework for understanding racism in the United States.

How, exactly, did critical race theory enter American public life, and what does this debate look like on the ground?

This episode contains strong language.

A new battleground has emerged in American politics: school boards. In these meetings, parents increasingly engage in heated — sometimes violent — fights over hot-button issues such as mask mandates and critical race theory.

Suddenly, the question of who sits on a school board has become a question about which version of America will prevail.

We visit the school board meeting in Central Bucks, Pa., an important county in national politics, where the meetings have been particularly wild.

Guest: , a national correspondent for The New York Times.

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Since the spring, a steady tide of school board members across the country have they have received from enraged local parents.
Republicans are heading into the 2022 midterm elections with what they believe will be a highly effective political strategy still reeling from the devastating fallout of pandemic-era schooling.

This episode contains strong language.

In Bucks County, Pa., what started out as a group of frustrated parents pushing for schools to reopen devolved over the course of a year and half into partisan disputes about America’s most divisive cultural issues.

But those arguments have caused many to overlook a central role of the Central Bucks School District’s board: providing quality education.

In Part 2 of our series on school board wars in the U.S., we look beyond the fighting and examine the pandemic’s harsh effects on teachers and pupils.

Guest: , a national correspondent for The New York Times.

to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, .

Background reading:

Republicans are heading into the 2022 midterm elections aiming to still reeling from the devastating fallout of pandemic-era schooling.
The F.B.I. has against school administrators, teachers and board members to assess the extent of the problem.

Some Republican lawmakers have branded the efforts to teach about the effects of racism as "critical race theory." They have introduced legislation in statehouses around the country hoping to ban it.

School boards are the latest frontier in the culture wars, as incensed community members and right-wing activists protest mask mandates and anti-racist curricula.

Think back to two summers ago, the summer of 2020, when a series of violent, highly-publicized killings of Black Americans sparked outrage and a national movement to eradicate racism and its evils. That movement gave way to a newer, reactionary one, a backlash that is playing out in schools and school board meetings across America. Host Emanuele Berry shares stories about Black people who got tangled up in this current backlash in both extreme and very personal ways.