Towards a Kinder Public

By Kinderpublic

Towards a Kinder Public is the podcast of Kinderpublic, an interdisciplinary design consultancy. We are working to create kinder public space: more inclusive, accessible, equitable, and sustainable

... more

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about Towards a Kinder Public:

How many episodes does Towards a Kinder Public have?

The podcast currently has 38 episodes available.

Towards a Kinder Public episodes:

March 27, 2024 S4 Ep_037 The Impact of the Down Syndrome Inclusive Education Guidelines, with Emily Mondschein, GiGi’s Playhouse Buffalo, NY Pt.4
Emily Mondschein, Executive Director at GiGi’s Playhouse Buffalo, and member of the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) and Down Syndrome Education International (DSEI) inclusive education working group, explains the application and impact of an educational profile and creating a disability category for Down syndrome:
-Some benefits of and motivations to use the Down Syndrome: Guidelines for Inclusive Education document;
-How inclusion for children with Down syndrome can help with differentiation and learning achievement for all students;
-The critical importance of using evidence-based, research-based information to form educational and life expectations for individuals with Down syndrome;
-How the exclusion of disabled individuals from the earliest stages of education may be related to other instances of exclusion in our communities.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
27min
March 19, 2024 S4 Ep_036 Creating the Down Syndrome Inclusive Education Guidelines, with Emily Mondschein of GiGi’s Playhouse, Buffalo NY, Pt.3
What does inclusion mean, in the education setting? Is there data that supports inclusive education for individuals with Down syndrome? Emily Mondschein, Executive Director at GiGi’s Playhouse Buffalo, and member of the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) and Down Syndrome Education International (DSEI) inclusive education working group, explains the story behind the first inclusive education document for Down syndrome in the United States, which she also presented to the United States Congress. We discuss:
-Why inclusion in the education setting is particularly important and powerful for learners with Down syndrome;
-How Emily became acquainted with Professor Sue Buckley (UK), the foremost international expert on learning, literacy, and language for individuals with Down syndrome;
-The NDSS and DSEI working group’s adaptation of the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Down Syndrome (APPDSG 2012) inclusion guidelines for the United States;
-How the Down Syndrome: Guidelines for Inclusive Education document can be used on the federal, state, county, school district, classroom, and family levels;
-The profound and measurable ways that inclusion benefits typically developing students and the entire community.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
32min
March 12, 2024 S4 Ep_035 Steps to Inclusion for Individuals with Down Syndrome, with Emily Mondschein, Executive Director, GiGi’s Playhouse Buffalo NY, Pt.2
Down syndrome is the most common of the chromosomal disorders, and yet, it is often the subject of misinformation and openly discriminatory policies. Our discussion with Emily Mondschein, Executive Director at GiGi’s Playhouse Buffalo, continues as she shares more strategies for disability inclusion. We discuss:
-How medical practitioners can play a significant role in changing discriminatory attitudes towards individuals with Down syndrome;
-The crucial role that early and elementary education can perform to radically improve inclusion for all disabled and neurodiverse individuals;
-Why updated guidance on the needs of individuals with Down syndrome is an essential component of inclusion;
-A call to doctors, teachers, administrators, and parents to help achieve equitable access of public space for disabled individuals.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
30min
March 05, 2024 S4 Ep_034 How Down Syndrome is Excluded from Disability Inclusion, with Emily Mondschein, Executive Director, Gigi’s Playhouse Buffalo,Pt.1
Emily Mondschein, Executive Director at Gigi’s Playhouse Buffalo, joins us to talk about her urgent and trailblazing work in disability inclusion. She shares how her experiences as a special education teacher, and later, parent of a child with Down syndrome, led to her national advocacy work for equitable access to education for the Down syndrome community. In Part 1 of our 4-part interview, we discuss:
-How the fight against disability exclusion and misinformation begins during pregnancy, and what this reveals about the culture of obstetrics and women’s medicine;
-The ways that our limited understanding of multiple disabilities prevents us from providing effective supports to individuals with Down syndrome;
-Why access to education and literacy for the disability community is limited by a lack of educational models for true inclusion;
-Why discrimination against the Down syndrome community is also discrimination against the Autism, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Blind and Low Vision, and other disability communities;
-How Gigi’s Playhouse, a dedicated space for the Down syndrome community, works as a bridge for improved community inclusion and disability awareness.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
30min
February 27, 2024 S4 Ep_033 Advocacy How-To When Cultural Short-Sightedness is Built into the Architecture & Operations of Public Space, with Cultural ReProducers Christa Donner & Selina Trepp, Pt.3
In this final episode of our interview with US-based artists Christa Donner and Selina Trepp of Cultural ReProducers, we discuss if cultural short-sightedness is a factor in architectural design and the operation of public space?
-The greater significance and meaning of the perspective of parents;
-Why the inclusion of children is both a cultural and a political position that positively impacts everyone;
-Why archives are an important component in social change;
-Structural and architectural changes we should be prioritizing;
-Practical advice on effective advocacy in our own spaces and communities.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
36min
February 20, 2024 S4 Ep_032 Caregiving as Public Infrastructure: Improving Inclusion for Children & Families, with Cultural Reproducers Christa Donner & Selina Trepp, Pt.2
US-based artists Christa Donner and Selina Trepp share further insights on the improved inclusion of children and families. Through Cultural ReProducers, a creative platform initiated by Christa Donner, they devised a Childcare Supported Event Series that allowed artist-parents to maintain professional engagement in the art world. We discuss:
-Why the inclusion of children is a particularly complicated topic;
-Selina’s personal experience of workplace discrimination as a pregnant person in the art world;
-How the typical view of children in the U.S. diverges from the view held by many other parts of the world;
-Whether caregiving should be considered a personal responsibility or an element of public infrastructure.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
37min
February 13, 2024 S4 Ep_031 Parenthood, Gender Bias, & Maintaining Engagement in the Art World: with Cultural ReProducers Christa Donner & Selina Trepp, Pt.1
US-based artists Christa Donner and Selina Trepp discuss their collaborative work on the problem of professional inclusion for artists and cultural workers who are also parents. Through Cultural ReProducers, a creative platform initiated by Christa Donner, they experimented and devised a Childcare Supported Event Series that allowed artist-parents to maintain professional engagement in the art world. We learn:
-What challenges cultural workers face in continuing their professional engagement with the art world;
-How these challenges may be exacerbated by gendered expectations around caregiving and the labor of raising children;
-The experience that made Christa and Selina realize that a clear mission statement was a critical first step to introduce the project to cultural institutions;
-Key technical details about the model- including space requirements, timing, staffing, and programming info- that are necessary for improved professional inclusion of parents.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
35min
November 28, 2023 S3 Ep030 Walking the Land: the importance of small-scale and family farms with Reverend Peaches Gillette, Pt2
Walking the Land: A Loving Tribute to Family Farms is a new book of watercolor paintings, poetic reflections, and interviews with small and family farmers in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. In Part 2 of our interview, Reverend Gillette speaks further about her collaborative work with watercolorist Tommy Beers, their experiences in visiting the small-scale regional farms, and the lessons that she took away from their deeper look at the farms in the book. Reverend Gillette shares:
-How families and children can talk about food, to bring a deeper level of awareness and gratitude of its value;
-How Reverend Gillette’s friendship with a sunflower farmer changed her understanding of the many steps of producing flowers and seeds;
-How farms and food provide opportunities for growth of consciousness;
-A reading of two poems in Walking the Land, and their significance to the author.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
29min
November 21, 2023 S3 Ep029 Walking the Land: the importance of small-scale and family farms with Reverend Peaches Gillette, Pt1
Welcome to the Towards a Kinder Public Thanksgiving episode, Part 1 of 2. Walking the Land: A Loving Tribute to Family Farms is a new book of watercolor paintings, poetic reflections, and interviews with small and family farmers in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. Reverend Gillette speaks about the origins of this work in collaboration with watercolorist Tommy Beers, their experiences in visiting the small-scale regional farms, and why this type of farm is so crucial to preserve. We discuss:
-Her gratitude and admiration for the work of farming and its deeper meaning;
-What a children’s game can teach us about our unique contributions to collective wellbeing;
-The brilliance and determination of farmers;
-How small and family farms- not large agribusiness- connect us to our human origins.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
30min
November 14, 2023 S3 Ep028 Public Accommodations for Marginalized Groups: Designing for Neurodiversity and Disability with Han Malyn, Pt4
In the final segment of our interview (part 4 of 4), Han Malyn (they/them) speaks with Kinderpublic about the experience of neurodivergence in public and professional spaces, and examples of design and operational choices that can significantly improve accessibility. We discuss:
-How being more aware of sensory experiences can help us reshape our interior environments;
-Essential architectural elements in an inclusive space;
-Why inclusion does not always mean physically present;
-The self-learning project we can all undertake to help improve our shared spaces.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
About Us
Follow Us On Instagram
If you would like to share your thoughts with us, suggestions for future episodes or if you’re interested in joining us as a guest, please contact us as we would welcome your contributions.
Contact Us: [email protected]
...more
29min

FAQs about Towards a Kinder Public:

How many episodes does Towards a Kinder Public have?

The podcast currently has 38 episodes available.