MindShift Podcast

Flag football has seen a recent rise in popularity. The California Interscholastic Federation added girls flag football as a varsity sport to high schools across the state just three years ago. It's often seen as a less violent alternative to tackle football however flag football, like most sports, still carries some risk of injury. And research is lacking when it comes to injuries faced by female athletes and how best to treat them. For the athletes at Oakland Technical High School, girls flag football is more than a sport with some injury risk, it's an opportunity to find belonging.<...

KQED is distributing a new podcast called Life, Automated from our partners at the Ryan Institute on Complexity that explores what it means to live, work, and make decisions in a rapidly automating world.

In this episode , MIT education researcher Justin Reich walks host and science writer Dr. Jess Love through different technical innovations of the last century to show what actually changed in classrooms, and what didn’t. 

As confidence in higher education shifts and economic pressures intensify, young people are navigating increasingly complex decisions about life after high school. In this episode, college students share their financial realities and experts examine the tension between cultural expectations around college and emerging conversations about economic mobility, dignity of work, and long-term stability.

As skepticism about the cost of college grows, Career and Technical Education (CTE) is gaining renewed attention. But is CTE a shortcut around higher education or a bridge into it?

In this episode, we follow a group of high school students earning a phlebotomy certification and hear researchers and school leaders unpack how modern CTE programs are evolving beyond outdated stigma toward stackable credentials, college alignment, and career mobility.

When a middle schooler started bringing home his worst grades ever, his parents were stunned. His teachers said he understood the material. The problem? He couldn’t stay off his school-issued iPad. In classrooms across the country, districts have banned phones, but the screens haven’t disappeared. They’ve just shifted to Chromebooks and tablets that students are required to use all day long. And for some families and educators, those devices are raising uncomfortable questions.

On this episode of MindShift, we dig into the promises of education technology and whether they’ve actually paid off. This episode...

More than a decade after Rita Pierson stepped onto the TED stage and declared, “Every child deserves a champion,” her words still echo through schools, teacher prep programs, and staff meetings across the country. But what does it actually take to live out that message in today’s classrooms when teachers are stretched thin, burnout is high, and the emotional demands of the job can feel relentless?

In this episode, we go beyond the viral talk to meet the people who knew Rita best, the educators who carry her philosophy forward, and the researcher studying what happens to our...

At Redwood Heights Elementary in Oakland California, educators participate in workshops with the Teaching Well, a professional support organization focused on teacher sustainability and emotional resilience.

This episode explores how supporting teacher well-being directly impacts classroom culture and student outcomes to show how teacher sustainability is foundational rather than a “nice-to-have.”

Inspired by Finland’s student-first approach, Copper Island Academy in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula prioritizes inclusion, early intervention, and teacher autonomy to create a learning environment where support is built into the classroom rather than siloed in separate rooms.

This episode explores how Copper Island blends Finnish pedagogy with local culture, showing what’s possible when schools design systems around people, not paperwork.

This season we explore the ecosystems of support that shape student success. At a time when schools are facing staffing shortages, disruptions to the Department of Education, and shifting public trust, this season asks: who sustains the people responsible for sustaining students?

Across six episodes, we'll move from teacher support and relationship-centered learning to technology, workforce preparation, and postsecondary pathways.

Follow MindShift wherever you get your podcasts or visit https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/mindshift

Subscribe to receive new episodes starting July 14.

KQED’s Ki Sung talks to health educator Shafia Zaloom about her book Getting Real About Sex Ed: What Today's Students Need. Zaloom shares advice for parents and educators wondering how to navigate authentic conversions with young people.

KQED's Ki Sung talks with clinical psychologist and author Ross Greene about why traditional discipline strategies often fail students, and what educators can do instead. Greene explains his Collaborative & Proactive Solutions model, which shifts the focus away from rewards and punishments and toward identifying the unmet needs and unsolved problems behind student behavior.

KQED’s Marlena Jackson-Retondo reports from Bellevue Elementary in Santa Rosa. Abrupt cuts to AmeriCorps funding last year impacted the school-based tutoring there. Principal Nina Craig explains how the loss of tutors affected instruction and student relationships, while new AmeriCorps members, Maya Nurse and Elena Zeoli, describe stepping into classrooms with limited time and resources. This episode explores how even a few missed months of literacy support reduces how many students can be served.

In this episode, KQED’s Marlena Jackson-Retondo visits the band room at Roosevelt Middle School in Oakland and speaks with longtime music teacher Randy Porter, who is retiring after 40 years in Oakland Unified schools. Porter shares how introducing students to experimental jazz, including the music of Sun Ra, helps young musicians explore creativity and possibility.

In this episode KQED’s Marlena Jackson-Retondo speaks with Scott R. Levy, adjunct lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and a former school board member, about why school boards matter more than ever. Levy’s new book, Why School Boards Matter: Reclaiming the Heart of American Education and Democracy,  explains how school boards function, how their power has shifted over time and how school boards can serve as a rare space for civic engagement and democratic participation.

Lillian Zhang is a financial and career educator. Her book, "The New Money Rules: The GenZ Guide to Personal Finance" covers how to eliminate debt and offers non-judgmental advice on saving and investing. Zhang talks to KQED's Marlena Jackson-Retondo about the tips she gives to young people managing their own finances for the first time.

This month MindShift is sharing an episode from MIT's TeachLab podcast. Hosts Jessie Dukes and Justin Reich have interviewed teachers, school leaders, and students about how the debut of ChatGPT and Generative AI is actually playing out in schools. 

They’ve compiled their learnings into a mini series called the Homework Machine.

Listen to more episodes here: https://www.teachlabpodcast.com/

KQED's Ki Sung talks to longtime MindShift contributor and child development expert Deborah Farmer Kris. In her book "Raising Awe-Seekers: How the Science of Wonder Helps Our Kids Thrive," she shares how exploring the emotion awe can help students engage with classwork and also open us all up to connecting more with our communities.

This month MindShift is sharing an episode from our friends at KQED's Close All Tabs. Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor. 

Host Morgan Sung talks to Max Spero, founder of the AI detection company Pangram Labs, MindShift reporter Marlena Jackson Retondo and educator Jeremy Na about three different approaches educators are adopting to deal with AI in their classrooms.
Listen to more episodes here: https://www.kqed.org/news/program/close-all-tabs

Host Ki Sung takes listeners inside some of the public libraries that have made significant transformations to better serve community needs. Inspired by Chicago’s pioneering YOUmedia model, similar teen-centered library programs are now thriving in cities like New York and San Francisco.  These teen spaces support not just digital learning and creativity, but also emotional well-being and community-building after the isolation of the pandemic. Listeners will hear directly from students, and librarians about how these innovative programs are helping teens flourish, proving that libraries can be much more than just places for books—they can be places to belon...

Interacting with people from different generations has been shown to accelerate students’ social skills, improve literacy, and provide valuable lessons about history and culture.

However, many students have limited opportunities to engage with older generations. And when these interactions do happen, they often remain one-sided or surface-level. In this episode, MindShift explores intergenerational programs at two schools, highlighting their benefits and uncovering research-backed strategies for creating impactful and enriching experiences for all involved.

Do you remember the sting of not being invited to a birthday party or watching your friend sit at a different lunch table? Most adults can recall a falling out with a friend—also known as a friendship breakup. While romantic relationships and their endings get plenty of attention, friendship breakups are often overlooked, despite being just as painful and impactful.

For adolescents, whose brains are wired for social connection, these rifts can feel world-ending. Parents and counselors play a crucial role in helping students navigate these experiences while also teaching them what it takes to build he...

There is a common perception that Asian Americans don’t get involved with civic life, but a closer read of AAPI history proves that to be false.

When you think of debate, you might picture presidential candidates interrupting each other, pointing fingers, and undermining their opponents. It often feels like a reflection of today’s fractured and tense civic discourse.

But in high school debate clubs, students are learning a different approach. These clubs provide a rare space where young people can engage with current events, articulate their ideas, and—perhaps most importantly—practice active listening. At a time when algorithms often reinforce a single perspective and fewer young people engage with the news, that’s no small thing.

A 2022 RAND report f...

Teacher Jess Lifshitz noticed that her students were more enthusiastic when they told her about their everyday life than when they wrote stories for their writing unit prompts. While listening to The Moth Radio Hour, she got the idea to use that format of spoken storytelling to an audience in her classroom. She tells you, our audience, about why she wanted to help energize her students in this way.

Mindshift returns with Season 10.

We’re exploring how to help kids find their voice, balance their identity, and just be kids. Hear practical tips and expert insights on how to better show up for young people in the classroom and beyond.

Follow Mindshift wherever you get your podcasts or visit https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/mindshift .

This month MindShift is sharing an excerpt of an episode from our friends at KQED's Forum. Forum tells remarkable and true stories about who we are and where we live.

KQED's Grace Won talks to linguist and author Michael Erard.  In his new book, Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words, Erard compiles stories from medical archives and ancient texts as well as first-hand accounts by doctors and doulas to examine why these particular words mean so much to us.

Listen to the full episode here: https://www.kqed.o...

Host Nimah Gobir moderates the MindShift KQED: Can Better Conversations Improve Media Literacy Among Students? panel at the 2025 SXSW EDU conference.

Vietnamese children’s book illustrator Minnie Phan talks to KQED's Ki Sung about using art to process events and heal wounds in the Vietnamese diaspora.

KQED's Nimah Gobir talks to educator and language therapist, Dr. Nancy Cushen White about why handwriting is such a powerful tool for literacy learning.

KQED's Ki Sung talks to Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop, authors of "The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better." They discuss the different modes of engagement and how to support teens at home and in school.

Ruth Whippman, author of "Boy Mom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity" talks to KQED's Nimah Gobir about the biggest challenges facing boys today, and actionable steps parents and educators can take to make a difference for the boys in their lives.

KQED's Ki Sung talks to host of The Stacks podcast, Traci Thomas, about rereading books she loved as a child with her own children, what's on her reading list as they grow and what she's learned about reading from all of her author interviews.

Journalist Rose Horowitch and Author Danielle Bayard Jackson join KQED's Nimah Gobir in conversation to explore the problem of reading stamina in college students.

David Yeager is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an expert in behavioral science. He just published a book titled “10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People.” He joins KQED's Ki Sung in conversation to share strategies adults can use to get into the best mindset for helping adolescents be their best selves.

Hanif Abduraqqib. Sarah Kay. Elizabeth Acevedo. Clint Smith. Do any of these names sound familiar? How about Amanda Gorman? All of these writers are part of America’s thriving contemporary poetry scene. But you won’t find them in many text books, because high school poetry units tend to focus on dead poets, like Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe. North Carolina teacher Melissa Smith is working to change that. For the last seven years, she’s been diversifying the canon in her classroom, and encouraging other teachers to do the same with the hashtag #teachlivingpoets. The shift...

 If you think of social studies as a dry, dusty march of names and dates to memorize, think again. In the last two decades, as historical records have been digitized and made accessible to the public, teachers have begun using primary sources as portals for students to connect with the real people and places that came before them. At Rockingham County Public Schools in Virginia, fourth graders learn about the Civil Rights Movement by studying photos of segregated schools in Virginia and reading diary entries of a local Black high schooler who became one of the plaintiffs in the B...

From book bans to chronic absenteeism to phone distractions, it’s a hard time to be a teacher. But amidst all the challenges, there’s something surprising happening among math teachers. Some of them say they’re more excited to go to work than ever before. Why? Because of a new approach to teaching math called “thinking classrooms” that has students up out of their seats and engaged in problem-solving. In this episode, MindShift listeners will hear a thinking classroom in action and reflections from the teacher and her students. Listeners also will learn about this model from the researcher...

MindShift revisits the pioneering initiatives of the Black Panthers, who used a community school approach when they opened a first-of-its-kind school in East Oakland in 1973. Then we focus on Oakland Unified School District's ambitious journey to become a community school district. We’ll take a closer look at Oakland International High School (OIHS), a public high school established in 2007 that serves 100% English language learners and how they’ve successfully used the community school model to support their students.

This podcast episode explores Monarch School, a public school in San Diego County dedicated to serving unhoused students and their families. Highlighting the growing issue of homelessness among students and its adverse impact on education, we showcase Monarch School's community school model. By providing holistic support, including professionals and services co-located on the school grounds, this model has the capacity to disrupt patterns of homelessness. From addressing basic needs to offering specialized academic programs, Monarch School exemplifies the transformative power of community-driven approaches to education, offering hope and opportunity to vulnerable students.

Not all students returned to school after the pandemic. Research shows that chronic absenteeism surged around the country. Niki Espinoza, a community school coordinator at Maple Elementary, discovered a strategy informed by Harvard research that centered collaboration with families. Using mail-based “nudges” and a social media campaign caused chronic absenteeism to decline. This episode presents an exploration of community schools, emphasizing the significance of partnerships with parents and detailing Maple Elementary's journey in overcoming attendance challenges.