Take Back Our Schools

Jamie Reed is a gay woman, a parent of five children and is married to a transgender man. So, what led her to publicly pull back the curtain on what was happening at the Pediatric Transgender Center at Washington University in St. Louis, MO and to talk of the immense harms being done to children, especially young girls?

We discuss the reasons for the explosion of transgender cases we’ve seen in America over recent years, including the role of schools, social media, and healthcare economics. Reed also talks about how being a whistleblower has impacted her own life, and her current advocacy work on behalf of children.

Jamie Reed is currently an organizer with the LGBT Courage Coalition, working to end medical transition in children and adolescents.

Beth and Andrew speak with author Alexandra Hudson about her recently published book, The Soul of Civility. She discusses the difference between politeness and civility, and shares her opinion on where today’s uncivil society stands in relation to other eras in history. We talk about the role that social media plays in modeling uncivil behavior and Hudson shares tips for how both parents and children can create a more civil world.

Alexandra Hudson is a writer, popular speaker, and the founder of Civic Renaissance, a publication and intellectual community dedicated to beauty, goodness, and truth. She was named the 2020 Novak Journalism Fellow and contributes to Fox News, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, TIME Magazine, POLITICO Magazine, and Newsweek.

She earned a master's degree in public policy from the London School of Economics as a Rotary Scholar and is an adjunct professor at the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy. She is also the creator of a series for The Teaching Company called "Storytelling and The Human Condition."

On this episode, Andrew and Beth speak with Dr. Brandy Shufutinsky of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values. Shufutinsky shares her views on the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and on the antisemitism we are seeing in the United States. We discuss the roots of that antisemitism on college campuses and in K-12 schools.

Ethnic Studies curricula first developed in the state of California, says Shufutinsky, has led to a generation of anti-Israel and antisemitic students. We also discuss whether or not recent events will be a wake-up call for American Jews to reconsider their allegiance to the Democratic party.

Dr. Brandy Shufutinsky is Director of Education and Community Engagement for the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values. She is also a social worker, writer, researcher, and advocate. She has worked towards advancing the rights of victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault through her practice, education, and research.

Andrew speaks with author, filmmaker and former gymnast, Jennifer Sey, who tells her story of being forced out of her very prominent position at Levi Strauss & Co. for her outspoken advocacy of children during the Covid pandemic. We discuss the damage that society inflicted on children due to oppressive restrictions, and how those restrictions have led to mental health issues and unprecedented learning loss, and her upcoming documentary film on the subject, “Generation Covid.”

Once a proud progressive, Sey talks about how the last few years have changed her politics and about her disillusionment with progressivism, and how progressive policies have helped destroy her longtime hometown of San Franciso. She also shares stories about her gymnastic career and reveals if she has any regrets about the physical and mental toll that world-class gymnastics took on her.

Jennifer Sey is an American author, filmmaker, business executive and retired artistic gymnast. She was the 1986 USA Gymnastics National Champion, and a 7-time member of the U.S. Women’s National Team. Sey’s first memoir, "Chalked Up," was released in 2008 and detailed the coaching cruelty inflicted on children in the sport of gymnastics. She also produced the 2020 Emmy award-winning documentary film, "Athlete A," which connected the crimes of Larry Nassar to broader abuses in the Olympic movement. Sey began working at Levi Strauss & Co. in 1999, rising to Chief Marketing Officer and then Global Brand President. In January 2022, she was asked to resign because of her public opposition to the extended closure of San Francisco’s public schools. Her most recent memoir, “Levi’s Unbuttoned,” tells the inspirational story of her corporate career, search for authenticity, and ultimate refusal to bow to the mob who sought to silence her. She is a mother of four, and now resides in Denver with her family.

On this episode Andrew and Beth speak with author Peachy Keenan about her book, Domestic Extremist – A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War.

Keenan speaks of her own conversion from “secular nothingness” and liberal feminism as a young woman to Catholicism and traditional values as a mother and wife. We talk about the role of feminism in our culture and the difference between boys and girls and she shares some of her tips for other parents for raising children with traditional values and for winning back the culture war.

"Peachy Keenan" is the pseudonym for a writer and mother who lives in Southern California. She gave up a career writing for corporate behemoths so she could devote herself to her family, post on Twitter, and write. She is a contributing editor and regular essayist for The American Mind, a publication of The Claremont Institute.

Beth and Andrew speak with author and freedom advocate Connor Boyack.

Boyack talks about the need for parents to educate their children on the principles of freedom, a subject matter that children are not learning in their schools. We discuss his book series, The Tuttle Twins, and how it helps teach both children and their parents about free markets, liberty and American history. He also previews two upcoming additions to the series, including one detailing some of history’s most notorious villains.

Boyack also speaks about the story he recently broke that went viral about a 12 year old boy in Colorado who was removed from class for having a Gadsden (“Don’t Tread On Me”) flag patch on his backpack.

Connor Boyack is founder and president of Libertas Institute, an award-winning free market think tank. Named one of Utah's most politically influential people by The Salt Lake Tribune, Boyack's leadership has led to changing over 100 laws covering a wide range of areas such as privacy, government transparency, property rights, drug policy, education, personal freedom, and more.

Beth and Andrew speak with educator Donique Rolle on this week's episode. Rolle tells her story of what led her to become a teacher of African American history and how she realized that her our own college courses in African American studies were highly politicized. She explains the difference between African American history courses which focus on truth, facts and research, and African American studies courses which views history through a victim-based ideology.

She also shares her views about the recent controversy of the state of Florida rejecting the AP African American Studies curriculum for high school students.

Donique Rolle is an experienced educator in Florida with a 17-year career. For four years, she taught African American History in a predominantly Black public high school. Currently, Rolle teaches Learning Strategies and trains other educators on incorporating Black History into their curriculum and implementing effective teaching practices. Her commitment to empowering students and promoting inclusivity has made her a respected figure in education. Rolle is also the Executive Director of Putting the Pieces Together, a non-profit organization for special needs families.

On this episode Andrew speaks with Loudoun County (VA) parent activist Ian Prior about how his local school system became the epicenter of the national parent’s movement in 2021, leading to the surprise election of Glenn Youngkin as governor.

Prior shares stories from contentious school board meetings that got national media coverage, including the story of father Scott Smith, whose daughter was sexually assaulted in a school bathroom as a direct result of the Board’s transgender bathroom policies.

We also discuss why the movement is dominated by "Mama Bears" and why there aren’t more dads involved, and where the parent’s movement goes from here.

Ian Prior is senior advisor at America First Legal and founder and executive director of the organization, Fight for Schools. He is the author of the recently published, “Parents of the World Unite: How to Save Our Schools From the Left’s Radical Agenda.” Prior is featured often on Fox News and other media outlets.

Andrew and Beth speak with education analyst, Tom Kelly who talks about his work with the Jack Miller Center advocating for civics education in K-12 schools. We discuss the appalling results of the recently released assessment of eighth-grade students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) where only 14 percent of students scored proficient in US history and 22 percent in civics.

Kelly also explains the difference between traditional civics education focused on America’s founding documents and the structure of American government and “action civics” being taught in public schools and favored by the national teachers unions which focuses on civic engagement and social justice issues.

Thomas Kelly oversees all K-12 civic education efforts for the Jack Miller Center (JMC) through its Founding Civics Initiative. Since 2016, Tom has grown JMC’s K-12 civics programming from 2 to more than 130 programs in ten states with a network of nearly 2,000 teachers. Tom’s articles on civic education have appeared in Newsweek, The Hill, National Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and RealClear Public Affairs. He received an A.B. from the University of Chicago in international studies and a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame.

This week Beth and Andrew speak with journalist and author Lisa Selin Davis, who shares how she, as a self-described liberal, started being interested in writing about gender and social justice ideology. We talk about her recent expose in The Free Press, “How Therapists Became Social Justice Warriors” and Davis shares her research on how the fields of psychology and psychiatry have been co-opted by critical social justice, and the role that feminization has played in these trends.

Davis also talks about how her NY Times op-ed, “My daughter is not transgender: She’s a Tomboy” led to her prominent writing about the rise of transgenderism. We also discuss the state of the hyper-polarized media and the deterioration of journalist integrity in recent years.

Lisa Selin Davis is the author of the nonfiction books TOMBOY: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different, and the forthcoming HOUSEWIFE: Why Women Still Do It All (and What to Do Instead). She writes the Substack newsletter BROADview, and is at work on a book about the youth gender culture war.