RABBITHOLE

We're hard at work down in the burren, preparing our next interview in the 'Is School Good?' series, but we'll need just a bit more time to have that episode edited.In the meantime, Sparky has recorded Alfred North Whitehead's essay, 'The Aims of Education,' originally delivered as delivered as an address in 1916, and first published in the 1929 book 'The Aims of Education and Other Essays.'This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Pete and Sparky welcome Kevin Mattson, author, educator, and Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History in the Department of History at Ohio University, down the rabbithole to discuss punk rock, the progressive movement, and his newest book, "We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America."Buy "We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America" from Oxford University Press or at your local bookseller.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Editor's note - apologies for any audio dropouts on yesterday's upload! We've gone over everything and it should be all fixed now. Sparky and Pete speak with Jewish educator and Talmud scholar Xava De Cordova, co-host of the Xai, How Are You? Podcast, to discuss the pedagogical possibilities of a queer reading of Talmud.Listen to Xai, How Are You? on Soundcloud, support them on their Patreon, and follow them on Instagram and Twitter.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Pete and Sparky have a chat with Peter Gray, research professor of psychology at Boston College and author of the book "Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life," about the importance of unstructured, adult-free activity in children's social and intellectual development.You can learn more about Professor Gray's books, and read his blog posts, at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/peter-gray-phdThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

Pete and Sparky welcome Dan Walden (@dwaldenwrites), freelance writer, educator, and Ph.D candidate in classical philology at the University of Michigan, to discuss his experience as a student at educationally-progressive private primary schools and universities, the positives and negatives of educational canons, and what features his ideal school has in common with a monastery.You can support Dan by buying him a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/danwalden. Music in the Catholicism drop is "GREGORIAN CHANT DUBSTEP REMIX" by Andrea Falaschi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgHclJGCOPYMusic in the Roberto Unger drop is “Ex/DNBD” by techtheist; the song was released under a Creative Commons attribution license.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon. 

Pete and Sparky sit down to discuss the first few interviews from the Is School Good? series - what has stuck with them, what questions are left unanswered, and what their experiences as new parents have taught them so far about learning and teaching. Featuring the Rabbithole debut of the Roberto Unger drop.Music in the Roberto Unger drop is “Ex/DNBD” by techtheist; the song was released under a Creative Commons attribution license.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

In today's episode, Sparky is joined by the writer Bertrand Cooper (@_BlackTrash) to talk about his background as both a former unschooler and a graduate student of education policy, and about the advantages of disadvantages of nontraditional forms of education like unschooling compared to the current public school system.Read Bertrand's essay "Who Actually Gets to Create Black Pop Culture?", published in Current Affairs' May/June 2021 issue, here.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

We've hit some technical difficulties in the process of editing our next Is School Good? interview, and that episode will appear late this week. In the meantime, here's Sparky reading Emma Goldman's 1906 essay, "The Child and its Enemies."This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In today's extra-long episode, Sparky and Pete discuss pedagogy, martial arts, and the respective values of tradition and freeform learning with Sam (@LiberationistMA) from the leftist martial arts podcast Southpaw (@Southpawpod). How can instructors express anti-heirarchical and liberatory values in their teaching? How can understanding activities like martial arts instruction - a common after-school activity for children in America and across the globe - provide insight into other forms of education?Find Sam on Twitter at @LiberationistMA and subscribe to Southpaw (@Southpawpod) wherever you get your podcasts.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.

We're burrowing back down the MMT rabbithole for a conversation between Sparky and Sam Bell (@samuelwbell), Rhode Island state senator and self-proclaimed 'Vulgar MMTer,' where Sam explains how the principles of MMT can inform state-level government policy, and how states can increase the federal money supply despite not being able to directly print money.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigations on our Patreon.Find Sparky on Twitter at @sparkyabraham