Point of Learning

Point of Learning episodes:

• 04.05.2024

  MOSTLY MAJOR CHORDS with SHAYFER JAMES

  Shayfer James discusses his songwriting process. And, you know, lots of other things.

  
• 03.08.2024

  UNPACKING WHITE PRIVILEGE with PEGGY McINTOSH (2019)

  On 5 March 2024, Peggy McIntosh was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In honor of this momentous occasion, I’m re-sharing our 2019 conversation.

  
• 12.19.2023

  Dickens Lessons and Carols (2001)

  One hundred and eighty years ago, on 19 December 1843, the first edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published. To celebrate, I’m releasing a special version of the story produced in 2001 with William R. Mathews and The...

  
• 12.04.2023

  "Of surpassing worth" —Marcus Foster (1923-1973)

  The heart of this special episode is the Back-to-School Address to Oakland, CA faculty and staff by Superintendent Dr. Marcus A. Foster, given in the fall of 1973. You will hear a singular voice in U.S. education urging teachers, administrators,...

  
• 10.18.2023

  EXCELLENCE UNDER PRESSURE with John Havlik

  Capt. John Havlik knows a thing or two about stress. He retired in 2014 after more than 30 years of distinguished military service, nearly all of them as a Navy SEAL. He graduated from West Virginia University as the first...

  
• 08.10.2023

  9 Ways to Engage Students as Citizens

  My remarks from the Winter Institute of the New York State Council of School Superintendents in March 2023.

  
• 06.03.2023

  Dancing Badly with Rinde Eckert

  Rinde Eckert is a celebrated writer, composer, librettist, musician, performer and director, but I'm not sure even this list of roles captures his extraordinary versatility. This episode focuses on his recent project of rebuilding his piano technique from the ground...

  
• 03.31.2023

  BATTER DOWN THE WALLS with JONATHAN KOZOL

  For nearly 60 years Jonathan Kozol has been one of the most widely read and highly honored education writers in the nation. Ready for a sneak preview of his next book?

  
• 01.24.2023

  Dad's Last Sermon (1998)

  My dad’s last—and maybe best—sermon, preached the day he died, 25 years ago this week.

  
• 12.19.2022

  A Graycliff Christmas Carol (classic episode)

  Created in 2020 as a benefit for the Graycliff Conservancy, this very condensed performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was filmed in various locations on the spectacular Graycliff Estate designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

  
• 11.24.2022

  How to Write the College Essay

  A departure from the usual Point of Learning format, this episode is basically the audio version of one segment from a new video series for high school English teachers that I’m putting together with Greg Jackson. Here’s 22 minutes about...

  
• 10.08.2022

  ANCIENT GREEKS on WAR with ELLEN McLAUGHLIN

  As a playwright, Ellen McLaughlin has breathed new life into ancient Greek texts. Today we focus on her versions of classic plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, exploring the questions they once raised for ancient audiences, and still raise for...

  
• 09.03.2022

  Leading with Mind and Heart: Errick L. Greene (classic episode)

  In this classic episode (recorded 11 August 2020 and released 2 September 2020), I talk with Dr. Errick L. Greene, Superintendent of Jackson [MS] Public Schools about contending with a public health crisis, systemic racism, and effective organizational leadership: it’s...

  
• 07.29.2022

  Baby, Unplugged with Sophie Brickman

  Sophie Brickman focuses on the intersection of parenting and technology in her book Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age (HarperOne, 2021), which we’ll be discussing on this episode. Brickman is a writer,...

  
• 04.30.2022

  SUPERVISION, POETRY, and FEMINISM with PAULA ROY (classic episode)

  I believe this conversation with Paula Roy from July 2017 is well worth revisiting in this moment where book-banning seems to be edging out baseball as the national pastime here in the Home of the Free, and too many legislators...

  
• 03.31.2022

  Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality with Ward Ewing

  The Very Reverend Ward B. Ewing is former Dean and President of The General Theological Seminary in New York City. Dr. Ewing has met in and with Alcoholics Anonymous groups as a non-alcoholic for more than four decades, also serving...

  
• 02.28.2022

  Leading in Sync with Jill Harrison Berg (classic episode)

  A January 2022 survey conducted with over 3600 teachers who belong to the National Education Association found that 90% believe teacher burnout is a serious issue. Fifty-five percent indicated that they are more likely to leave or retire from education...

  
• 01.20.2022

  This Is Radio (Dammit!) with Bill Siemering

  Bill Siemering is a radio visionary. Sixty years ago, he was hired to transform WBFO from a student-run college radio club into a professional station. Because of the experiments in radio that he led at WBFO throughout the 1960s, Siemering...

  
• 12.20.2021

  A Christmas Carol 2017 (classic episode)

  Originally podcast in December 2017 as the holiday special for the first season of Point of Learning, this 75-minute version of the Dickens tale was recorded before a live audience at First Baptist Church in Westfield, NJ.

  
• 12.01.2021

  On Photography with John Opera

  Assistant professor and head of the photography program at the State University of New York at Buffalo, John Opera has exhibited his critically acclaimed photographs for over two decades in dozens of galleries, from New York to LA, from Mexico...

  
• 09.23.2021

  REPORT FROM CENTRAL ASIA with Duane Lacey and Faryal Haidary

  Point of Learning presents a special double episode: 1) a philosophy professor who in August 2021 became the unofficial liaison for Afghan students at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Kyrgyzstan amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, and 2)...

  
• 05.03.2021

  No Bad Food with Britt Schuman-Humbert

  How is a nutritionist better than a diet book? What are signs that your not-yet-10-year-old may be developing an eating disorder? How does drinking the night before affect a morning workout? To answer these and many more questions, I met...

  
• 04.01.2021

  Civil Discourse 101 with Peter Horn

  This bonus episode is a departure from my usual format in several ways. First, I answer more questions than I ask. Second, I’m the guest. Third, I didn’t really make the show—or at least, not the way I usually do!...

  
• 03.01.2021

  Crystallizing Coronavirus with Sarah Bowman

  Dr. Sarah EJ Bowman is Director of the High-Throughput Crystallization Screening Center at the Hauptman-Woodward Institute in Buffalo, New York. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S., Sarah’s lab has been studying key components that make up the novel...

  
• 12.21.2020

  A Graycliff Christmas Carol

  A very special version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, set in Frank Lloyd Wright’s magnificent Graycliff Estate (Derby, New York)

  
• 10.29.2020

  Maestro JoAnn Falletta

  JoAnn Falletta is a Grammy Award-winning artist who has been compared to some of the greatest conductors of the 20th century—legends like Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, and (one of her former teachers at Juilliard) Leonard Bernstein. In this...

  
• 09.03.2020

  Leading with Mind and Heart: Errick L. Greene

  Dr. Errick L. Greene is Superintendent of Jackson (MS) Public Schools. My conversation with him on 11 August 2020 afforded the rich opportunity to produce three episodes in one: a look at some of the complications of starting the school...

  
• 07.04.2020

  US + THEM with Jonathan Haidt

  Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Haidt’s research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultures—including the cultures of progressives, conservatives, and...

  
• 05.30.2020

  Shakti Yoga 2.0 with Michelle Gigante

  Master teacher Michelle Gigante has been guiding people toward energetic openings through a blend of yoga, breathing, and mindfulness techniques for nearly 25 years. The founder and director of Shakti Yoga in Buffalo, Michelle has an extensive background in theatre...

  
• 04.13.2020

  The Case for Contention with Jonathan Zimmerman

  Jonathan Zimmerman is one of the foremost education historians working today. His work examines how education practices and policies have developed over time, and the myths that often cloud our understanding of teaching and learning. We sat down in his...

  
• 02.03.2020

  S.E.E.D. Folk

  On today’s show, the National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project. For over 30 years, this unique teacher-led professional development program has cultivated multicultural teaching and learning across the globe and around the U.S.

  
• 10.10.2019

  Love's Labour's Lit

  Forty-four seasons in, Shakespeare in Delaware Park is one of Buffalo, New York’s great public art traditions. As a little kid, some of my first memories of my hometown were family outings seeing old plays in this beautiful green space....

  
• 07.09.2019

  Windows and Mirrors with Emily Style

  Emily Jane Style is a “relational scholar.” She appreciates the intellectual dimension of ideas, but also knows that ideas matter relationally, because there are real flesh-and-blood people in any given room, people with real and complex life stories involved in...

  
• 05.24.2019

  Unpacking White Privilege with Peggy McIntosh

  The U.S. cultivates a belief in meritocracy: People get what they deserve. Whatever we have, we earned. The problem, of course, is that it’s not true. In this episode, I talk with with Dr. Peggy McIntosh, the scholar who has done more...

  
• 04.04.2019

  Learning from Cuba

  According to the April 8, 2019 edition of The Nation, U.S. college students who graduated in 2017 averaged $28,700 in student loan debt. According to this podcast, Cuban college students averaged 0. But that’s just the beginning of what we...

  
• 02.18.2019

  Epic Citizens with Melissa Friedman (019)

  Epic Theatre Ensemble a collaborative of teaching artists and students in New York City who believe that participation in theatre is essential to a healthy democracy, and that this kind of engaging theatre experience should be a hallmark of U.S....

  
• 01.12.2019

  Listening Room with Jonathan Hiam (018)

  Listening matters for every relationship, from loved ones at home to civil discourse in community and country. This new year’s episode honors a very cool experiment in listening undertaken at the Library for the Performing Arts in New York City...

  
• 11.22.2018

  On Moose River Farm with Anne Phinney (017)

  For 25 years, Anne Phinney was a teacher who believed firmly in the power of connecting with animals to influence kids' empathy, compassion, and ideas about teamwork. For all her life, she's been crazy about horses! She now spends full...

  
• 10.27.2018

  Leading in Sync with Jill Harrison Berg (016)

  Jill Harrison Berg is an educator with nearly 30 years of experience working in all kinds of schools. Her new book Leading in Sync: Teacher Leaders and Principals Working Together for Student Learning (2018, ASCD) is the richest resource I’ve encountered...

  
• 10.02.2018

  Resolving Contradictions with Brent Farrand (015)

  This episode probes the value of mathematics and debate for students—and everyone else. Brent Farrand is an award-winning math teacher and kingmaker debate coach who established the debate team at Science High in Newark, NJ in 1979. [Thumbnail portrait of...

  
• 07.24.2018

  Learning in Stories with Jake Halpern (014)

  Jake Halpern has written about fame junkies, freegans, and die-hards who won’t leave their home under any circumstances. Also ice fortresses, enchanted forests, and twins switched at birth. One through-line for this award-winning journalist and author is storytelling; another is...

  
• 06.04.2018

  Mother's Day with Gretchen (013)

  Mom taught me how to braid bread, play fiddle, and disagree with others respectfully--and so much else. We discuss the value of praise in teaching and child-rearing, my grandmother Miriam George Meister, and a method of talent education that aims...

  
• 05.01.2018

  ALL THIS: Poets Aja Monet & Meghann Plunkett (012)

  Recorded at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, a conversation about poems and poetry with two rising stars who are also talented teachers. Featuring Aja’s “What I’ve Learned” (excerpt) and Meghann’s “In Which I Name My Abuser Publicly.”

  
• 03.31.2018

  Drama, Democracy & Hamilton with Oskar Eustis (011)

  Oskar Eustis founded his first theatre company at the age of 16. From Tony Kushner's Angels in America to Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, Eustis has been intimately involved in the creation and development of many of the greatest works of American...

  
• 02.28.2018

  Better Alt Ed (010)

  Named for the year of its founding, Project '79 has been supporting and reclaiming high school students as learners for four decades. The oldest continuously running alternative education program I know about, it's also--for my money--just about the best way...

  
• 01.31.2018

  Master Class with Thomas Halpin (009)

  Today I’m talking with Thomas Halpin, a master violinist and teacher. Halpin has concertized throughout the U.S. and abroad—yet for more than four decades he has focused on teaching.

  
• 12.24.2017

  "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (008)

  Recorded live at First Baptist Church (Westfield, NJ) on 12/16/17. With music by Michael Rosin and the Westfield HS Concert Choir.

  
• 11.30.2017

  My Brothers, Teachers (007)

  Talking learning and music with my older brothers John and Gregory. We discuss the role of relevance in motivation, parenting high school students, and how learning music is or is not like learning other things.

  
• 10.31.2017

  How to Connect with Teens (006)

  Advice about connecting with teens from a counselor with decades of experience. Geared towards parents, teachers, counselors, therapists, employers, and adult friends of teens.

  
• 09.30.2017

  6 Ideas About Writing I Want to Live Forever (005)

  I share some of what I've figured out about student voice, designing assignments, the artist vs. the editor, and standardized tests in our fastest format yet!