The Paper Plane Podcast

In today’s episode, Colin sits down with his a dear friend and Mentor that he met over a decade ago, in the University of San Francisco’s 'Teaching: Urban Education & Social Justice' Master’s Program. Whether schlepping him across the Bay Bridge to graduate seminars or connecting him with brilliant veteran Educators like Amy Crawford and Dana Moran at Berkeley High School’s Communication Arts & Sciences small school, where Colin cut his teeth student teaching, today’s guest is someone he lovingly refers to as “Uncle" and "Sensei," due to his profound wisdom, patience, support, perpetual reflection, and contagious courageous.   

Dr. Rick Ayers is an associate professor of education focusing on English language arts and secondary education, and a faculty member of the urban education and social justice cohort at the University of San Francisco. Professor Ayers received his MA from Mills College, his Ph.D from UC Berkeley, and focuses on language and literacy as well as curriculum and pedagogy, with particular emphasis on equity, social justice, and decolonial approaches to education. His writing, in blogs as well as publications, is on community-engaged scholarship and community organizing. Rick was an anti-war and anti-racist activist in the 1960s and 70s, and a cadre in the Weather Underground. 

Rick lives in Oakland, California with his wife Ilene. He spends time with his three children and three grandchildren as much as possible. He taught in the Communication Arts and Sciences small school at Berkeley High School, where he pioneered innovative and effective strategies for academic and social success for a diverse range of students. Rick was a core team member of the Berkeley High School Diversity Project. He is the co-author, with his brother Bill Ayers, of Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom (now in its second edition); is co-author with Amy Crawford of Great Books for High School Kids: A Teacher’s Guide to Books That Can Change Teens’ Lives; and is author of Studs Terkel’s Working: A Teaching Guide; as well as numerous chapters and journal articles. He has worked with Youth Radio, Youth Speaks, Voice of Witness, and other community and arts organizations and currently teaches a poetry seminar at San Quentin prison.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

Today’s guest is someone Colin had the very fortunate privilege of meeting at San Francisco State University over 15 years ago, when both were pursuing Master’s Degrees in the College of Ethnic Studies. As Teaching Assistants in Dr. Jeff Duncan-Andrade’s "Raza 580: Educational Equity" course and the East Oakland Step to College Program at Fremont High School with Jeff and Dr. Patrick “Cam” Camangian, Colin was taken aback by this brother’s deep sensitivity, thoughtfulness, and humility as it pertained to the work of supporting young people emerging from historically dispossessed communities, but also by the ways he balanced these things with an unshakeable confidence and tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. More than a decade later, today's guest played a pivotal role in supporting Colin as he transitioned into teaching at the community college level, and for this and many other reasons, Colin will forever be grateful to know and walk beside him in the deeply important and challenging work of critical, liberatory, and humanizing education, here in the East Bay on unceded Bay and Plains Miwok, Confederated Villages of Lijan, and Muwekma Ohlone Territory.  

Dr. Dani Ahuicapahtzin Cornejo (Ópata/Xicano/Picunche/Chileno) is a husband, father, son, brother, uncle and community member. He is also an Assistant Professor and chair of Ethnic Studies at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Native American Studies at UC Davis. His work is focused on the study of Indigenous holistic pedagogical strategies from a hemispheric perspective as well as the application of these strategies in the service of urban Native youth and other underserved communities in the Bay Area. He has designed and taught courses in the fields of Native American Studies, Urban Education, and Comparative Ethnic Studies, at the University of San Francisco, The University of California Davis, San Francisco State University, Chabot College and Diablo Valley College.  He has also published on topics such as Indigenous cultural reclamation and educational equity.   

Dr. Cornejo has also worked as a public school K-12 educator serving second language learners in Denver Colorado and high school students as the assistant director of the East Oakland Step to College Program. Dani has been a practitioner of the Mexicayotl tradition through Danza Azteca and the Temescalli (Sweat Lodge) since 2004 and has facilitated Nahuatl language courses for beginning speakers situated within Mexicayotl epistemologies taught through the oral traditions of Flor y Canto and Danza Azteca. 

Finally, since 2004 he has served as the co-musical director and co-producer for the Hip-Hop and World Music collective Debajo del Agua, an experience that has opened opportunities for teaching world music ensembles centered in the Indigenous and African diasporas of the Americas.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

As a now middle-aged Dad with chronic back pain, today’s distinguished guest is someone Colin has known, in the words of the poet and philosopher, Earl “E-40” Stevens, since he "was knee-high to a caterpillar’s toenail.” This interviewee is someone Colin met as an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz in Oakes College (OAKES!), and has been inspired by up close when organizing with People’s Education Movement - Bay Area and at Ed. Conferences or Professional Development Trainings…and from afar via Social Media, over the last two decades. Today’s guest continues to grow her powerful family, grow powerful communities, and grows–and glows–powerfully, herself. Hailing from Richmond’s sibling city, the indomitable Vallejo, CA, this incredible Educator, Leader, Mentor, Scholar, Mother, sibling, friend, comrade, community member, and Golden State of Mind (and heart) Warrior, is someone Colin is absolutely honored to have on The Paper Plane , to discuss Trevor Noah's brilliant and complex memoir, "Born a Crime".   

Dr. Katrina Traylor is a National Board Certified Teacher with nearly 20 years of teaching experience in urban secondary classrooms. She began her teaching career at June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco, where she also worked as an administrator. Katrina then worked at her former high school, Jesse M. Bethel High School, in Vallejo, where she spent eight years as the Lead Teacher of the Law Academy. Under her leadership, the Law Academy earned the Diversity Champion Award from California LAW Pathways Advisory Council. Katrina is currently the Coordinator for Teacher Residency which is a partnership between Alder Graduate School of Equity and the Vallejo City Unified School District to recruit and train teachers specifically to work in Vallejo schools. Prior to this role, Katrina also worked as Alder’s Whole Child Initiative Manager, organizing many of the core components of Alder’s approach to whole child teaching and learning.

Katrina has taught high school English and history at all grade levels and loves teaching students to become engaged readers of history, literature, and the world around them. Katrina is deeply passionate about creating healing-centered classrooms through trauma-informed care practices including restorative justice, mindfulness, and culturally relevant curriculum.

Katrina holds a BA from UC Santa Cruz in American Studies, an MA in Education from Stanford’s Teacher Education Program, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from UC Davis where she researched how Black students define and experience joy within the context of school. When she’s not shaking things up in the world of education, she can be found reading historical fiction, conquering Beyonce’s dance moves, or delighting at the world with her four young children.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

In this episode, Colin sits down with his former student/mentee, current colleague, fellow Richmond-CA-raised-May-Gemini, BDay twin of his first-born child, someone he considers family, and whom he lovingly refers to as his “Young Mentor.” Janet Muro Vera, M.Ed discusses the anthology, "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color" (1981), edited by 3rd Wave Feminist Scholars, Cherie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, and the powerful roles it has played in her life as a Chicana, Zacatecana, Mexican American, and Woman of Color Educator, from the Bay Area. Though he an elder millennial and she an elder Gen Z’er, Colin would argue that in the last decade, they–in different and similar ways–”grew up together,” in their careers as Educators. They dedicate this episode to their beloved former student, Kelin "KJ" Sissoko (2005-2025), whose life was tragically taken on January 10th of this year, whose May 22nd birthday was shared with Janet and Colin's first-born daughter, and whose funeral service they attended the same week this was recorded.

Janet Muro Vera is an SF-born, Richmond-raised Chicana. As the first in her family to pursue higher education, Janet earned her Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a Minor in Health Education from San Francisco State University. During her time at SF State, she studied abroad at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Melbourne, Australia, where she advanced her studies in Adolescent and Developmental Psychology. After returning home, she worked as an after-school educator at her former high school, where she discovered a love for education and decided to pursue a career in teaching. Coincidentally, her teacher residency program paired her with her former English teacher, Mr. Colin Ehara, who became her lifelong mentor and chosen family. Shortly after, she earned a Master's in Education from the University of the Pacific. Since then, she has served in various roles, including English/ELD Teacher, Lead Teacher, Interim Dean of Students, Advisor, and her personal favorite, Psychology Teacher. Janet created and implemented her school's first A-G-approved Psychology course, combining her two greatest passions: education and psychology. During her summers, she teaches Middle school Psychology through SummerSpringboard at UC Berkeley. Janet is a proud Zacatecana, the daughter of immigrant parents, and the sister of three brothers whom she affectionately calls both her greatest challenges and her biggest blessings. A fun fact about her: she had the unique experience of being her younger brother Sergio’s high school teacher, a role she considers one of the most memorable and rewarding moments of her life. Outside the classroom, you’ll often find her browsing the Google Flights Explore tab, planning her next adventure. She has a deep passion for travel, learning through experiences, and connecting with new people.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

In today's episode, Colin sits down with his dear colleague, comrade, friend, and Pedagogical Sibling, Professor Lisa Ang, to discuss two groundbreaking novels in the realm of Asian American and post-colonial literature. Tess Uriza Holthe's novel, When the Elephants Dance (2002) is a powerful encounter with the forces ofJapanese and U.S. imperialism--and resistance to them--in the Philippines during WWII, expressed via the lenses of multiple dynamic narrators. Martyr! (2024) by poet and writer, Kaveh Akbar, follows the journey of a queer, Muslim, Iranian American artist, searching for meaning and possibility in the paths of living and/or dying. Colin and Lisa met last summer when he taught multiple 'Intro to Ethnic Studies' Courses at Diablo Valley College, and this veteran Community College Educator played a powerful role in having his back as he stumbled into making a tough transition from secondary/HS, into post-secondary and higher education. As someone who taught high school English for a decade, Colin is excited to welcome his first guest who is an Instructor of English Composition and Literature to The Paper Plane: a podcast that centers the act of reading, studying others’ writing, and making meaning in community, as we do so. 

Lisa Ang (she/her/siya) is a Pilipinx-American writer, scholar, and professor from the East Bay. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in English, she worked at the Mayor’s Office of San Francisco for eight years, first as liaison to the APA community, then as Deputy Communications Director. She earned her M.A. in English Literature from SF State and taught writing there, as well as at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg. Since 2017, she has taught Asian American Literature, African American Literature, The Graphic Novel as Literature, Poetry Writing, Critical Thinking, and other writing and literature classes at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. Professor Ang is currently on sabbatical to conduct research on Asian American literature and media and to write her first formal poetry collection.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

In today's episode, Colin discusses the Hernandez Brothers’ groundbreaking comic book series, "Love & Rockets" with his dear friend, chosen family, and someone whose wedding he was honored to officiate (despite being given insufficient information as to what it should entail), veteran Educator, student advocate, dark humor/dog-lover, and jack-of-all-trades, Mr. David Galvez. 

David Galvez is the proud son of Mexican immigrants and spent most of his childhood growing up in the eastern LA County communities of El Monte and Baldwin Park in the San Gabriel Valley. He credits his early love of independent comics, science fiction, and punk music as being the lifelines that got him through the dogma and propaganda of conformity and standardized testing experienced during his early educational journey. After dropping out and proudly attaining his GED, David’s next steps led him to stops across California, Arizona and Texas, where he held a wide array of jobs, including photographing karate students, stripping down cars, and working as a cook, waiter, and bartender at numerous two-star restaurants and dive-bars. His search for a decent dental care plan led him back to the classroom where he eventually received his BA in English from UC Berkeley and a M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from UT Austin. He’s since carved out a career as an educator for over 15 years, where he’s served as a substitute teacher, non-profit educator, counselor, professor and higher education administrator at The University of Texas, UC San Diego and Ventura College. He currently serves as the Director of Equity at the College of San Mateo where he continues to center, support and lend compassion, humor and love towards a student’s academic and career journey and search for intellectual freedom. David currently lives in Pacifica, California with his partner and wife, Marley, and their Fur Baby, Fela Cutie.

"Love and Rockets" (often abbreviated L&R) is a comic book series by the Hernandez brothers: Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario. It was one of the first comic books in the alternative comics movement of the 1980s. In 1982, Fantagraphics Books published the first issue of Love and Rockets by the Hernandez brothers (Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario), and the series has since gone on to become the publisher’s flagship title, a monumental work of graphic fiction. Collected under the umbrella of L&R, the series is comprised of two separate ongoing stories: Gilbert chronicles the colorful inhabitants of the fictional Latin American town of Palomar, while Jaime follows Latinx friends and sometime lovers Maggie and Hopey and their circle of friends in the punk scene of the fictional Californian town Hoppers. Over the course of L&R’s multi-decade run, its characters have aged in real time, lending these stories a depth and weight that few literary works achieve. The Hernandez brothers continue to release new issues of "Love and Rockets."

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

In this episode, Colin sits down with his dear Sactown/Bay Area sibling, (who goes by the pen name) YD Hawkins, to discuss "Capital" by Karl Marx, and it's impacts on his life and identity as an Artist, former Labor Organizer, and Social Worker. 

YD Hawkins is a bay area social worker, thinker, and poet.  Over the years he has served as a union organizer, youth trauma response specialist, mental health case manager for adults with co-occurring disorders.  His debut poetry collection “Years Like Fevers” is a document of the labor movement, love, and murder during the great recession.  It has been described as “you did it” by three of the five people who have purchased it.  His forthcoming book, “Totem” will investigate the commoditized self – “You” and “Me” – as ontological categories needing exorcism.  More than anything YD is a husband to a beautiful wife, and father to a daughter who has expanded his life with boundless meaning.  He looks forward to the arrival of another this coming May, perfectly named Adelasoul.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

In today's episode, Colin sits down with his inaugural guest and cherished partner/spouse/co-Parent, Artist and Educator, Emalyn de la Rama Lopez (she/her/siya), to discuss Palestinian Author/Essayist, Adania Shibli's novel, "Minor Detail." 

Centering this short (105 pages) yet tremendously powerful novel that Em chose to have our discussion on today, we discuss the following themes...

1. The Power of Silence and Ambiguity
2. Themes of Trauma and Memory
3. Narrative Structure and Dual Perspectives
4. The Politics of Space and Place
5. Gender and Violence
6. The Unspoken and the Unseen
7. The Role of Empathy in Art & Storytelling

CW: Sexual violence, violence against women, settler-colonialism, militarization, war, imperialism.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Educator and Artist, Colin Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, to ask them about a books that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to imperfectly/humanly operate as a counter-narrative. 

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.  

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...