Learn about the remarkable partnerships that produced more than 2,500 Carnegie‑funded libraries across the United States and the complex, negotiated process that made these institutions enduring pillars of public knowledge. Drawing on contemporary scholarship, the conversation illuminates how local communities, librarians, and decision makers harnessed Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic energy to shape America’s public library system.

00:30 Intro

03:00 Andrew Carnegie: Immigrant to Titan of American Industry

11:30 Carnegie Libraries Spread Across the Country

24:40 Library Design and Enduring Legacy

30:00 Carnegie’s Vision of Citizenship & the Gospel of Wealth

39:45 What We Learned This Week

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.

What does it look like when a community builds critical infrastructure before established institutions recognize the need? In this episode, we examine a short-lived but transformative ambulance program that helped define modern emergency medical response at a time when most U.S. emergency calls were handled by minimally trained personnel. At the intersection of medical research, workforce development, and community trust, this effort, known as the Freedom House Ambulance Service, reframed first responders as field clinicians and demonstrated how on-the-job education can function as public health infrastructure. Learn about the researchers and educators who helped shape early resuscitation science, the culture of embedded learning that accelerated community care, and the institutional shifts that rippled across the country in the wake of the program’s success.

00:30 Intro + Ohio’s changing kindergarten enrollment cutoffs; school & family impact

06:00 Freedom House Ambulance Service: Community-driven transformation in Pittsburgh’s Hill District

13:20 Learning under fire: education and training in the field

17:05 Writing the textbook for emergency medical care

18:30 Building effective learning community in a crisis context

23:20 Rules, restrictions, and mavericks; pushing boundaries to further medical research

25:50 Education as public infrastructure, not credentialing pipeline; the relative value of expertise

27:00 The structure of schools & workplaces for community empowerment

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.

Freedom House Ambulance Service - Wikipedia

Nancy Caroline - Wikipedia

Peter Safar - Wikipedia

Emergency Medical Services - Wikipedia

America's First Paramedics Were Black. Their Achievements Were Overlooked for Decades

Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders | America's First EMT Service

How to see Dublin’s secret painting | The Doyle Collection

Freedom House Ambulance Service – EMS Museum

About Us - Freedom House Doc

These Trailblazing Black Paramedics Are the Reason You Don't Have to Ride a Hearse or a Police Van to the Hospital

Send Freedom House! | Pitt Med | University of Pittsburgh

Nancy Caroline Award | Safar Center for Resuscitation Research

The Jewish Woman who Revolutionized Emergency Medicine | Aish

Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs by Frederic William Burton | National Gallery of Ireland

'There's no telescope this large ever built. It's not like we have a precedent for how to do these things,' Giant Magellan Telescope engineers on why they used the Unreal Engine to build an unprecedented telescope simulator | TechRadar

We’re back to kick off our “third” season (and sixth year!) with learning strategist, National Board certified science educator, and special education teacher Tina Heineke-Kurtz. Tina is a delightful and adventurous human being with a strong passion for inclusive education, and her career in teaching and advocacy has touched the lives of countless students. We spoke with Tina about life in Oconomowoc, co-teaching in an inclusive classroom, and the challenges of meeting the needs of all learners. Welcome back, listeners, and enjoy the chaos of a gaggle of Midwesterners.

00:00 Ice Fishing with the Stomach Bomb

08:40 Teaching Journey and Career Path

13:20 Middle School and Mentorship

21:00 Co-Teaching In Inclusive Classrooms

27:40 COVID and Social/Emotional Displacement

34:40 Making Chicken Soup

37:20 Inclusive Practices and Stakeholder Perspectives

47:00 Professional Development and Personal Growth

49:20 MARBLES, MARBLES, MARBLES!

56:50 The One Who Cared

1:00:00 What We Learned

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.

In the final episode of this season of 16:1, special guest Dr. Brandi De La Cruz, 2025–2026 Tennessee Teacher of the Year, joins us for an honest, grounded look at the teaching profession. Dr. De La Cruz’s nonlinear path into mathematics education has become a core part of her teaching identity, and she speaks candidly about trying new things, building community, and deepening connections between classroom learning and community impact. We also discuss graduation pressures, funding incentives, local workforce expectations, teacher retention, professional development, and the evolving realities of AI in the high school classroom.

16:1 returns January 2026 with a new season. Happy holidays!

00:30 Wrap up thoughts on teaching 1984

06:40 Dr. Brandi De La Cruz: An indirect path to the math classroom

11:20 Learning to connect with students through lived experience

20:00 Local industry and applied learning connections

24:00 Why teaching is worth choosing

27:30 Metrics, misaligned incentives, and honest accountability

36:30 Finding your people in your school

43:15 What makes for meaningful professional development?

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.

This week, we’re looking through our history to ground ourselves in a turbulent present. Tune in for our discussion of Septima Poinsette Clark, the Charleston-born educator and activist Martin Luther King Jr. once called “the mother of the movement.” Her story bridges the segregated classrooms of the early 20th century and the civil rights movement’s front lines. Through the establishment of hundreds of citizenship schools across the U.S., she helped thousands of Black Americans gain the literacy skills necessary to vote, transforming communities. We also consider her complex legacy as a woman who challenged not only racism but also sexism within social movements that she helped to shape.

02:24 Septima Poinsette Clark: Family History & Educational Empowerment

06:00 Teaching in segregated South Carolina and the fight for equal pay

09:00 Adult Literacy & Citizenship

12:20 Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, and the Politics of Reconstruction

14:00 Workshops at the Highlander Folk School

16:00 Citizenship Schools and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

21:40 Septima Poinsette’s Civil Rights Activism: Legacy and Lessons

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.

Two English teachers and a technologist come together for a lively discussion on George Orwell’s 1984 and teaching the text to high school students in the U.S. in 2025. Tackles complex topics (propaganda, surveillance, freedom of expression). Good for educators who are thinking of teaching the novel in their classrooms.

02:00 Framing & historical context, George Orwell

06:50 Making sense of Winston Smith

10:00 Misogyny and modernity

13:00 Memory, individuality, and the alteration of history

18:55 What is war in Oceania?

24:45 Newspeak, language, and narrative control

33:00 Art and entertainment in totalitarian Oceania

40:45 Student engagement with 1984

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.

This week, we’re covering one of the most explosive education controversies in American history, the 1974 Kanawha County, WV “Textbook Wars.” What began as a school board vote over new reading materials in West Virginia eventually escalated into boycotts, firebombings, and a national debate over who decides what children learn. From the cultural divides rooted in West Virginia’s founding to echoes of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial and the rise of outside agitators, this episode traces how faith and identity can collide in America’s public school classrooms.

02:10 Setting the stage: The Civil War and West Virginia’s history of division

04:15 The Scopes trial: How America’s first classroom media circus reshaped public discourse

08:44 Labor and identity: Kanawha County’s legacy of protest and class tension

09:40 Alice Moore & the textbook controversy

23:30 Outside influence: How extremist groups amplified local outrage

25:55 Aftermath & legacy: What this fight tells us about freedom, pluralism, and fear in public education

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.

Culturally responsive teaching begins with the recognition that learning doesn't happen in a vacuum. Teachers must carefully navigate curricular needs while building a foundation of trust and respect with students, each of whom carries unique stories and experiences into the classroom. In this episode, we explore the work of scholars who study those intersections: between school and family, the individual and their culture, classroom lessons and the many other concerns crowding a young learner’s mind.

00:00 Intro + Announcements

03:30 The US Education System: A Pressure Cooker

05:00 Revisiting Social Learning Theory; Lev Vygotsky, Albert Bandura

06:30 Dr Luis C Moll & Funds of Knowledge

08:30 Research Contributions from Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, Dr. Geneva Gay; culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy

11:20 Culturally responsive pedagogy and practical applications in rural classrooms

18:20 Culturally responsive teaching with varied student populations

21:30 Discussion Questions

31:10 What we learned

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website.