podcasts about education

Podcasts are to radio what blogs are to newspapers. The democratization of modern media has meant that the barriers to becoming a writer or radio host have been drastically lowered. As the members of this blog know, this medium allows participants to reach a wider audience than one classroom or even one institution.

This month, I would like to try an experiment to integrate these two not-so-new-anymore formats. Below you will find a collection of podcasts on science, language, and education. Choose one, or find your own, and write a response to it as your next post. Be sure to include a link to the episode you listened to, and perhaps a related picture to make the post relevant for a wider audience.

Some potential questions you could address in your post:

What is the episode about? What was the gist? Can you highlight the main ideas?
Are the creators trying to inform, entertain, or persuade you? How do you know?
How does the episode incorporate arguments, reasons, and evidence to achieve its purpose(s)?
Did you learn anything new? Would you recommend this episode to a friend?
How do the ideas presented in the episode correspond with your own thoughts, experiences, or prior knowledge about the topic?

Each show name is followed by episode links and a couple words about the episode.

Freakonomics

Capture — “Host Stephen J. Dubner has surprising conversations that explore the riddles of everyday life and the weird wrinkles of human nature — from cheating and crime to parenting and sports. Dubner talks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, social scientists and entrepreneurs — and his *Freakonomics* co-author Steve Levitt.” From the website

Is Learning a Foreign Language Really Worth It? The economic costs and benefits of learning a foreign language.
Who Needs Handwriting? The future of handwriting in the world of digital natives.
Does “Early Education” Come Way Too Late? The important role of a child’s home learning environment in contributing to the achievement gap.
The Harvard President Will See You Now. An interview with the first female president of Harvard University, highlighting the issue of gender in academia.
Why Don’t We All Speak the Same Language? If we re-imagined the world using economic principles, would we want to have 7,000 different languages?
What Would Be the Best Universal Language? Leading scientists and researchers debate a hypothetical question about the costs and benefits of different languages.
Why Learn Esperanto? A special episode building off of the previous one.

Radiolab

Capture2 — “Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.” From the website

Truth Warriors The scientific method at work in the world.
Words Three stories about a man learning language at 27 years old, the effect of losing language completely after suffering a stroke, and the recent creation of a completely new language.
Fate and Fortune A story about choices and consequences, with a special section on the controversial practice of labeling certain children as “gifted” as early at 8 years old.
Translation An investigation of the gap between experience and language, and how people try to bridge it.

This American Life

The Problem We All Live With A story about how desegregation could be used to minimize the racial divide in American schools.
Harper High School, Part I (Part II here) An in-depth story about one school with 29 recent deaths from gun violence.
Is This Working? What are the best ways to deal with misbehaving school kids? An investigation of how punishments may further hurt kids instead of helping them in the long term.

A Whole List of Exclusively Education-Related Podcasts from NPR

3 Linguistics Podcasts Every Language Lover Should Listen To

Philosophy Now: Philosophy in Education