What keeps educators going when the system feels overwhelming? How do we balance creativity, critique, and care in classrooms where students face everything from initiative fatigue to gun violence?

In this episode, Ashanti sits down with sam seidel, educator, author, and Director of Strategy & Research at the Stanford d.school. sam has spent more than 20 years designing schools, launching youth programs, and writing about the intersections of education, identity, creativity, and justice. His most recent book, From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood (with Dr. Christopher Emdin), explores how white educators can engage in classrooms with honesty, humility, and impact.

Together, Ashanti and sam dive deep into:

• The masks educators wear: curiosity, critique, and hidden vulnerabilities

• School safety and Sam’s eye-opening experience shadowing a student during an active shooter drill

• The toll of initiative fatigue on teachers and students

• What Sam’s father (also an educator) taught him about anger as fuel for change

• Why belonging, empathy, and critical reflection matter just as much as curriculum
• How the Stanford d.school’s School Safety Net is helping schools strengthen community connection

• Sam’s reflections push us to ask: What’s our learning edge as educators? And how do we keep interrogating the parts of ourselves we often keep hidden?

  Timestamps
  (0:00) Welcome & Introduction
  (1:12) Sam on trust, connection, and why safe conversations matter
  (3:25) Sam introduces himself and his work at the Stanford d.school
  (8:31) Sam’s mask: curious, critical, creative
  (12:18) Vulnerability: cynicism, Jewish identity, and what he hides
  (19:17) Challenges in education today: repression, book bans, and teacher fatigue
  (23:44) AI, initiative overload, and why teachers feel burned out
  (25:14) Sam’s experience with active shooter drills and school safety
  (33:08) Why student connection isn’t “extra”, it’s life-saving
  (44:30) Lessons from his father: anger as fuel for teaching
  (47:15) Sam shares his books & resources

  
  

  Connect with sam seidel

  Website: samseidel.isBooks: From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood, Hip Hop Genius 2.0, Creative Hustle, and more

  Join/Contribute to our Young Men’s Conference: https://everforwardclub.org/global-young-mens-conference-2025

  Join our Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/efc-young-mens-advocates-2345

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