Podcasts about Los Angeles Unified School District

This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff delivers updates on the tentative agreement reached by the unionized portion (85%) of the staff at the Los Angeles Unified School District (400,000 students, 83,300 workers), the three separate labor unions that unified to win major improvements in wages and working conditions,  how capitalist versus socialist enterprises would install AI, and how progressive mayors like Mamdani of New York could counter billionaires' threats to evade taxes by moving their businesses if any political leader taxed the rich (or moved to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes). The second half of the show features an interview with Dr. Harriet Fraad, a practicing psychotherapist in New York City, on the global movement to not have children, its social causes, and its social consequences.

In this episode, Sharona and Boz are joined by Teresa Focarile, Director of Educational Development at Boise State University, to discuss her first semester implementing an alternative grading system in an Introduction to Theater course. Teresa shares how moving away from weighted averages toward a blend of specifications and mastery-based grading transformed not only the clarity of her course, but also the way students engaged with learning itself. Through transparent grade pathways, co-created rubrics, opportunities for revision, and clearly articulated learning levels like “informed audience member” and “theater artist,” students reported feeling more empowered, less anxious, and more focused on genuine learning rather than point accumulation. The conversation explores everything from the challenges of tracking systems and feedback loops to the realities of implementing alternative grading as an adjunct faculty member, while also highlighting how arts education naturally raises important questions about what grades should actually communicate. Throughout the episode, a central theme emerges: when grading systems become more transparent and human-centered, students are more likely to see the classroom as a place designed to support learning rather than simply sort performance.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Intro to Theater Syllabus, by Teresa FocarileResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this episode, Sharona and Boz explore what assessment might look like in a world increasingly shaped by AI. Starting with a recent article from faculty at Middlebury College challenging institutions to recenter learning rather than ranking students, the conversation moves into a provocative discussion of oral exams, authentic assessment, and the growing limitations of traditional testing. The hosts unpack a history professor's experiment with 71 oral final exams in 12 days, reflecting on the power of conversation-based assessment to deepen feedback, strengthen trust, and reveal genuine student understanding in ways that written exams often cannot. Along the way, they connect these ideas to their own classroom experiences, the challenges AI poses for validating student work, and the need for assessments that emphasize creativity, revision, human interaction, and meaningful thinking over rote production. Ultimately, the episode argues that the future of grading reform may depend not only on changing how we grade, but on fundamentally reimagining how we assess learning itself. LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Recentering learning when we talk about gradesWhat I learned from giving 71 oral exams in 12 daysFinding Meaningful Moments in a MergerResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Immigration enforcement is affecting recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Since 2012, the program has allowed people brought to the United States as children to stay in the US and work, go to school, and buy property. But one Sacramento woman's life unraveled within days of learning that her immigration case was being reopened. Reporter: Gerardo Zavala, CapRadio The U.S. Department of Education is investigating how the Los Angeles Unified School District handles allegations of sexual misconduct involving teachers and students. Governor Gavin Newsom is asking California election officials to speed up their vote count in the June primary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Sharona and Boz take a deep dive into a recent research study on specifications grading in a large-enrollment chemistry course, uncovering a story that is both encouraging and complicated. While the data shows clear gains—grades increased across all student groups, including those historically underserved—the hoped-for closure of opportunity gaps proved far more elusive. Using both the study's findings and their own long-term course redesign experience, the hosts explore what this tension reveals: grading reform can raise outcomes broadly, but it is not a silver bullet for equity. The conversation highlights the importance of implementation details, support structures, and ongoing iteration, as well as the need to look beyond grades to fully understand student experiences. Ultimately, this episode underscores a central truth of grading reform work—real change is possible, but it requires sustained, nuanced effort and a willingness to engage with complexity rather than simple narratives.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Specifications Grading and Equity, by M. Stains, L. Morkowchuk and B. Yik on the Grading for Growth BlogBalancing Equity in General Chemistry Laboratory Courses: The Complex Impact of Specifications Grading on Student Success and Opportunity Gaps, by B. Yik, et al, published in the Journal of the American Chemical SocietySpring 2026 Community of PracticeFall 2026 MAA OPEN Math Faculty Learning CommunityResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this episode, Sharona and Boz preview the upcoming 2026 Grading Conference while also diving into one of the most urgent emerging issues in education: the role of AI in grading and feedback. After highlighting exciting conference sessions—from new research studies and faculty learning communities to sessions on large-scale implementation, student agency, and ungrading—the conversation pivots to the ethical, practical, and philosophical implications of AI-assisted assessment. Sharona and Boz explore whether AI can improve consistency, speed, and scalability in grading—especially in large classes—while wrestling with concerns about bias, depersonalization, and the erosion of student-instructor relationships. Rather than offering easy answers, the episode frames AI as a powerful but potentially dangerous tool that educators must approach intentionally, asking not just whether AI can grade, but whether its use strengthens or weakens the fundamentally human purpose of education.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Schedule for the 2026 Grading ConferenceSpring 2026 Faculty Learning Community on Alt Grading - Hosted by Drew Lewis and Melanie LenahanMAA OPEN Math Fall Faculty Learning Community on Alt Grading - Registration and Information - Hosted by Sharona Krinsky and Robert BosleyHow AI-Powered Essay Grading Is Transforming Modern Education SystemsIs It Ethical to Use AI to Grade?ResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

City life can often feel frantic, loud, and cut off from natural beauty. It's not often we slow down and take in all there is to experience. But even in urban areas, if you pay attention, you can hear the call of a bird, notice your favorite color in shop windows, and look up at the vast sky above.  In this guided meditation, we slow our roll and take in the beauty of our surroundings, no matter where we find ourselves. Kazumi Igus is a Los Angeles native, science teacher, and trained meditation facilitator through UCLA's Mindful Awareness Center. She currently serves as a WholeSchool Mindfulness Director at one of the few predominantly Black high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her mission is to transform education into a system that is inherently responsive to students' social and emotional needs, explicitly fosters focus, and empowers students to develop emotional resilience in an increasingly challenging world.  The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Kazumi Igus here. If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build essential skills to meet a changing and uncertain world with a core of inner strength, join Melli O'Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at www.mindfulness.com/the-seven-strengths.  Go Deeper Looking for more reasons to head outside? Here are some additional Mindful.org resources to help you build a stronger relationship with Mama Nature:  The Nature Remedy: Find Freedom from Tech Overload  Nature-Based Mindfulness Practices for Families  We're Hard-Wired to Crave Nature  Why Is Nature So Good for Your Mental Health?  What Nature Teaches Us About Well-Being  For more practice being intentionally mindful outside, try A 12-Minute Meditation to Rest in the Movement of Nature.  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute MeditationLet us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

In this mini-episode of Scrolling 2 Death, Nicki brought in Lila Byock to break down a major victory: the Los Angeles Unified School District has unanimously passed a sweeping new technology policy that limits screen use for students. After months of relentless advocacy from parents and teachers, the district is eliminating devices for its youngest learners, restricting platforms like YouTube, and setting clear screen time boundaries. They discuss what passed and how this moment could spark a nationwide shift in how schools use technology—and how you can bring these changes to your own district.LAUSD's new policy linked hereSign up at Schools Beyond Screens

In this episode, Sharona and Boz are joined by electrical engineering professor Tim Monk to tackle a surprisingly thorny piece of grading design: how to combine multiple types of assessment into a final course grade. Starting from a listener email that initially raised skepticism, the conversation unpacks Tim's approach to blending standards-based grading for learning targets with specifications grading for projects—using a carefully designed weighted system at the final “wrap-up” stage. Rather than relying on averages throughout the course, Tim uses them intentionally at the end as a communication tool, avoiding common pitfalls like masking learning gaps or penalizing early mistakes. The discussion surfaces key tensions around grading philosophy, clarity for students, and the trade-offs between precision and flexibility, ultimately reinforcing a central theme of the podcast: there is no single “right” system—only intentional design aligned to what grades are meant to communicate about student learning.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring, by Benjamin BloomWikipedia Entry on Bloom's 2 Sigma ProblemResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Lisa Mosko Barros is the founder of SpEducational, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering families of students with disabilities to effect positive systems change in special education. Lisa is known for her highly detailed knowledge of educational policy, her fierce advocacy through community organizing, and her ability to collaborate and build consensus. Among other positions, she has served as Chairperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District's Community Advisory Committee for Special Education. Lisa is also the mother of two incredible twice exceptional kids. #neurodiversity #neurodivergent #autism #disabilities #podcast #podcasts #specialeducation #specialedadvocacy #IEPs #educationreform #educationpolicy #advocacy #publiceducation #college #highereduction #empowerment www.autismresourceproject.org/podcast 

LAUSD Schools will not shut down after all. So, what happened? Georgia Flowers-Lee has been an educator with the Los Angeles Unified School District for 22 years. She was appointed West Area Chair before being elected UTLA NEA Vice President in 2023. On this podcast we unbox the three possible strikes that were narrowly avoided by last minute tentative contract agreements. For teachers, principals and other school workers like bus drivers and cafeteria workers who stood together for the first time this represents a major victory - what happened? What was won? And what is next?https://www.instagram.com/utlanow/ https://www.instagram.com/seiulocal99/ https://www.instagram.com/teamsters/ https://www.instagram.com/diprimaradio/

LAUSD Schools will not shut down after all. So, what happened? Georgia Flowers-Lee has been an educator with the Los Angeles Unified School District for 22 years. She was appointed West Area Chair before being elected UTLA NEA Vice President in 2023. On this podcast we unbox the three possible strikes that were narrowly avoided by last minute tentative contract agreements. For teachers, principals and other school workers like bus drivers and cafeteria workers who stood together for the first time this represents a major victory - what happened? What was won? And what is next? https://www.instagram.com/utlanow/ https://www.instagram.com/seiulocal99/ https://www.instagram.com/teamsters/ https://www.instagram.com/diprimaradio/

In this episode, Sharona and Boz welcome back Matt Townsley to dig into a critical—and often overlooked—truth about grading reform: if leaders don't understand and support it, it simply won't scale. Drawing on both research and real-world experience, Matt explains why grading reform is a “second-order change” that requires deep philosophical commitment from administrators, not just technical adjustments from teachers. The conversation explores the upcoming Iowa based leadership-focused standards-based grading conference, the role of systems-level support, and emerging frameworks like multi-tiered support for teacher implementation. Along the way, the trio connects these ideas to broader challenges in both K–12 and higher education, from structural barriers to the growing urgency of reform in the age of AI. The takeaway is clear: isolated classroom innovation isn't enough—lasting change requires aligned leadership, intentional systems, and a shared purpose for what grades are meant to communicate.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Standards-Based Grading Conference: The 3rd Annual Collaborative Assessment Conference for Leadership TeamsAll Things Standards-Based Grading, by Matt TownsleyGrading Reform Isn't Options Anymore - Here's Why, with Matt TownsleyTop 5 standards-based grading articles for 2025, by Matt TownsleyWhen standards-based grading feels dark…and reassessments become the flashlight everyone reaches for later, by Matt TownsleyWalking the talk: Embedding standards-based grading in an educational leadership course The 4 Common Myths about Grading Reform, Debunked, by Matt Townsley and Sarah MorrissPrevious Episodes MentionedEpisode 18 - Sportscaster of Alternative GradingEpisode 46 – Extinguishing the Fires within Assessment and Grading Reform: Welcoming Back Dr. Matt TownsleyEpisode 48 - Implementation Challenges and Opportunities: A Conversation with Becky Peppler and Don Smith on Working with K-12 School Districts to implement Alternative GradingEpisode 59 - Leaning Into ROI and Communication in Leading Grading Reform: An Interview with Dr. Chad LangEpisode 74 - Exploring Alt Grading in Physical Education (in more detail) with Josh OgilvieResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has reached a tentative deal with United Teachers Los Angeles. California Republicans meet in San Diego today to vote on their endorsement for governor. A self-proclaimed pet psychic makes a stop in L.A. on her national tour. Plus, more. Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.com Visit www.preppi.com/LAist to receive a FREE Preppi Emergency Kit (with any purchase over $100) and be prepared for the next wildfire, earthquake or emergency!Support the show: https://laist.com

Editors Jimmy Lovaas and Awais Ahmad discuss the deadly flooding in Afghanistan and Pakistan, plus more on elections in Peru and Benin, meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and a major strike impacting the Los Angeles Unified School District.Subscribe to the show: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many more. These stories and others are also available in our free weekly Forecast newsletter.This episode includes work from Factal editors Awais Ahmad, Vivian Wang, Clara Ip Wai Nam, Jess Fino, and Theresa Seiger. Produced and edited by Jimmy Lovaas. Music courtesy of Andrew Gospe. Have feedback, suggestions, or events we've missed? Drop us a note: hello@factal.comWhat's Factal? Created by the founders of Breaking News, Factal alerts companies to global incidents that pose an immediate risk to their people or business operations. We provide trusted verification, precise incident mapping, and a collaboration platform for corporate security, travel safety, and emergency management teams. If you're a company interested in a trial, please email sales@factal.com. To learn more, visit Factal.com, browse the Factal blog, or email us at hello@factal.com.Read the full episode description and transcript on Factal's blog.Copyright © 2026 Factal. All rights reserved.

In this episode, Sharona and Boz are joined by Deb Carney to explore the complex role of course coordination in the adoption of alternative grading practices. What emerges is a nuanced tension: coordination can act as a barrier when individual instructors lack autonomy, but it also offers one of the most powerful levers for large-scale change when coordinators embrace reform. Deb shares her journey into outcomes-based grading and reflects on how collaboration, community, and shared structures made that shift possible. The conversation highlights the importance of communities of practice, either through formal coordination or PLC-like structures, as essential spaces for sustained instructional change. Ultimately, the episode argues that meaningful grading reform is not just about individual instructors making different choices, but about building systems, support, and collective momentum to make those choices viable and scalable.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Mastery-Based Testing in Linear Algebra: An Entry Point to Alternative Grading, by R. Swanson, A. Bingham, M. Sanders and C. MoultonResearch in Undergraduate Mathematics Education ConferenceProject EMBER: Eliminating Mathematics Barriers through Evidence-based ReformsJoin EMBER on ZulipCourse Coordinator Orientations Toward Their Work, by A. Martinez, J. Gehrtz, C. Rasmussen, T. Latona-Tequida and K. VroomTPSE: Transforming Post-Secondary Education in MathematicsResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Visa scammers aren't just taking advantage of the H-1B program — they're also using the H-4 loophole to scam the system. A former Los Angeles Unified School District employee and a tech company owner with a history of H-1B sponsorships were accused of carrying out a $22 million money laundering scheme in Los Angeles. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) can't find the time to vote for the SAVE America Act but has plenty of time to skip town for a trip to Disney World. Kristi Noem's husband got exposed for allegedly being a cross-dresser. The Supreme Court sides with a Christian counselor in an 8-1 decision and rejects Colorado's ban on conversion therapy. Former Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R) joins the show to discuss the Department of Labor's new proposal that would remove restrictions on alternative 401(k) investments.  ► Watch my latest H-1B visa scam video: https://youtu.be/iIsYhVSQCM0?si=_AQ6zoM3v72was-k ► Email me at saratips@blazemedia.com if you have uncovered potential fraud in your area. ► Subscribe to my second YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SaraGonzalesTX?sub_confirmation=1 ► BlazeTV You can go to https://www.faucicoverup.com/SARA and use code SARA for $40 off a full subscription. Timestamps: 00:00 – I Exposed More Visa Scammers 15:30 – L.A. Money Laundering Scheme 20:48 – Lindsey Graham: Disney Adult 26:54 – Noem's Crossdressing Husband 32:00 – SCOTUS Win on Conversion Therapy 36:11 – New 401(k) Proposal Connect with Sara on Social Media: https://twitter.com/saragonzalestx https://www.instagram.com/saragonzalestx http://facebook.com/SaraGonzalesTX ► Subscribe on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sara-gonzales-unfiltered/id1408958605 ► Shop American Beauty by Sara: http://americanbeautybysara.com Sara Gonzales is the host of Sara Gonzales Unfiltered, a daily news program on Blaze TV. Joined by frequent contributors & guests such as Chad Prather, Eric July, John Doyle, Jaco Booyens, Sara breaks down the latest news in politics and culture. She previously hosted "The News and Why It Matters," featuring notable guests such as Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, Michael Knowles, Candace Owens, Michael Malice, and more. As a conservative commentator, Sara frequently calls out the Democrats for their hypocrisy, the mainstream media for their misinformation, feminists for their toxicity, and also focuses on pro-life issues, culture, gender issues, health care, the Second Amendment, and passing conservative values to the next generation. Sara also appears as a recurring guest on the Megyn Kelly Show, The Sean Spicer Show, Tim Pool, and with Jesse Kelly on The First TV. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gavin Newsom's “Elderly Parole Program” is paving the way for two convicted pedophiles to be released early. Former Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert joins the show to discuss the monsters who could soon be back on California's streets, and the specific reforms needed to protect the public. Also on today's show: with the DHS shutdown disrupting travel plans for millions of Americans, Steve calls out congressional Democrats for their failure to act, as well as their opposition to the SAVE Act and other voter ID laws. And finally, Jennifer Horn joins us with a roundup of California headlines—including another corruption scandal in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the California Teachers Association's endorsement of Eric Swalwell, Southern California's massive population decline, and the violence that erupted during last week's “No Kings” protest.

In this follow-up to their earlier conversation about Harvard and “too many A's,” Sharona and Boz welcome back Dr. Stephanie Valentine to unpack Harvard's proposed new grading policy, which would cap the number of A grades in each class and layer course-based ranking on top of an already troubled system. Drawing on Stephanie's powerful “Points Are Insidious” manifesto and her experience teaching high-achieving, perfectionistic students, the episode explores how policies built to force distinction can intensify anxiety, undermine risk-taking, discourage collaboration, and ultimately work against the very innovation and intellectual curiosity elite institutions claim to value. Together, the three of them critique the mathematical and ethical flaws of ranking students against one another, examine the gap between top-down policy and classroom reality, and wrestle with what it would mean for faculty to live with integrity under a policy like this—while also reaffirming that the real alternative is not inflated or meaningless grades, but grading systems genuinely grounded in learning, growth, and student wellbeing.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Grade-inflation panel says updated plan focuses on reining in A's, restoring integrity of system, freeing students to follow curiosityThe “Points Are Insidious” Manifesto, Part 3: Perfectionism Is Not Excellence, by Dr. Stephanie ValentineGrade Caps Fail the Game Theory Exam, from The Crimson Tide (Harvard Newspapr)The “Points are Insidious” Manifesto (Part I), by Dr. Stephanie ValentineThe “Points Are Insidious” Manifesto, Part II: Assessing at the Boiling Point, by Dr. Stephanie ValentineYes, Grade Inflation is Real. But Is It a Real Problem?, from NEA TodayAdvice To Our Students, from the University of Texas - AustinEpisode 127 - An LMS Designed from the Ground Up for Alt Grading? Tell Me More! With Stephanie ValentineEpisode 138 - Too Many A's Or Too Much Confusion?Shameless Outside Plug for Sharona's Theater Production CompanyChalomot ProductionsResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Los Angeles Unified School District could face an open-ended strike if multiple labor deals are not made by April 14. The potential strike comes at a time when the district faces significant challenges, including a budget deficit and a superintendent under FBI investigation. LAist K-12 Education Senior Reporter Mariana Dale breaks down how we got here and the consequences for the district's 400,000 students, their families, teachers, and staff. Read Mariana’s full report at LAist.com. Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.

Los Angeles Unified School District could face an open-ended strike if multiple labor deals are not made by April 14. The potential strike comes at a time when the district faces significant challenges, including a budget deficit and a superintendent under FBI investigation. LAist K-12 Education Senior Reporter Mariana Dale breaks down how we got here and the consequences for the district's 400,000 students, their families, teachers, and staff. Read Mariana’s full report at LAist.com. Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.

Los Angeles Unified School District could face an open-ended strike if multiple labor deals are not made by April 14. The potential strike comes at a time when the district faces significant challenges, including a budget deficit and a superintendent under FBI investigation. LAist K-12 Education Senior Reporter Mariana Dale breaks down how we got here and the consequences for the district's 400,000 students, their families, teachers, and staff. Read Mariana’s full report at LAist.com. Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.

Los Angeles Unified School District could face an open-ended strike if multiple labor deals are not made by April 14. The potential strike comes at a time when the district faces significant challenges, including a budget deficit and a superintendent under FBI investigation. LAist K-12 Education Senior Reporter Mariana Dale breaks down how we got here and the consequences for the district's 400,000 students, their families, teachers, and staff. Read Mariana’s full report at LAist.com. Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.Support LAist Today: https://LAist.com/join

Los Angeles Unified School District could face an open-ended strike if multiple labor deals are not made by April 14. The potential strike comes at a time when the district faces significant challenges, including a budget deficit and a superintendent under FBI investigation. LAist K-12 Education Senior Reporter Mariana Dale breaks down how we got here and the consequences for the district's 400,000 students, their families, teachers, and staff. Read Mariana’s full report at LAist.com. Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.

Los Angeles Unified School District could face an open-ended strike if multiple labor deals are not made by April 14. The potential strike comes at a time when the district faces significant challenges, including a budget deficit and a superintendent under FBI investigation. LAist K-12 Education Senior Reporter Mariana Dale breaks down how we got here and the consequences for the district's 400,000 students, their families, teachers, and staff. Read Mariana’s full report at LAist.com. Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.

In this episode, Sharona and Boz welcome back Chris Sarkonak to explore his powerful concept of the ungrading spectrum—a framework that maps the evolution of grading mindsets from traditional, compliance-driven systems to collaborative, student-centered approaches. Drawing on his classroom experience and professional journey, Chris unpacks how educators move from “this is how it's always been done” toward systems that prioritize student agency, reflection, and ownership of learning. The conversation dives into the hidden inconsistencies of grading (including how the same student can receive vastly different results depending on grading structures), the role of student voice in creating more valid assessment systems, and the real-world constraints educators face when trying to shift practices. Along the way, the hosts wrestle with their own tensions around student input, rigor, and readiness, ultimately highlighting that while no system is perfect, rethinking grading through a lens of collaboration and purpose can dramatically expand who succeeds in our classrooms.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!The Ungrading Spectrum, by Chris SarkonakLearning INSPIRed: Student Power SummitEpisode 136 - Grading for Physicists, Not Point Collectors – with Chris SarkonakReliability of the Grading of High-School Work in English, by Daniel Starch and Edward C. Elliott (Published September 1912)ResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sharona and Boz are joined by Dr. Adriana Streifer, Associate Professor and Associate Director at the University of Virginia's Center for Teaching Excellence, to explore how specifications grading, course design, and institutional culture intersect with the broader movement to rethink grading in higher education. Adriana shares how her early experiences teaching writing led her to question the fairness and meaning of traditional grading and ultimately adopt specifications grading as a way to better represent the complex, process-based nature of learning.The conversation dives into the practical differences between specifications and standards-based grading, lessons learned from facilitating the Alternative Grading Institute, and how instructors can assess their readiness for grading innovation in light of institutional constraints and professional risk. Along the way, the discussion examines the difference between procedural and conceptual rigor, the ways grading systems shape pedagogy, and how identity and institutional culture influence the pushback instructors may experience when they change grading practices. The conversation wraps up with a look toward the future: designing grading systems that align with values, support real learning, and perhaps eventually move beyond grades entirely.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!From Expectations to Experiences: Students' Perceptions of Specifications Grading in Higher EducationIs Specifications Grading Right for Me?: A Readiness Assessment to Help Instructors DecideRethinking Grading: An In-Progress Experience, by Jason MittellWhen Is A Number Not A Number, Grading for Growth BlogResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Judith Larson's daughter was in sixth grade in Los Angeles Unified School District. The family waited months for a school computer and internet access, so that she could join classes online. As her daughter fell further and further behind, Judith decided to take action. She is one of the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed against LAUSD alleging that students were denied “basic educational equality" during the pandemic. A settlement was recently reached in the case, requiring the district to offer intensive "high-dose" tutoring to 100,000 students for three years. Guests: Judith Larson, mother, Los Angeles Unified School District Mallika Seshadri, reporter, EdSource Read more from EdSource: LAUSD is now accountable for high-dosage tutoring as settlement is approved Parents, LAUSD settle suit; 100,000 students get 45 tutoring hours for three years Districts still have learning recovery money: Why not spend it on tutoring? Podcast: Why aren't more districts investing in tutoring? Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource's Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald. Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

In this episode, Sharona and Boz talk with Dr. Lindsay Masland about how meaningful grading reform starts not with a particular system, but with intentional choices grounded in values, context, and care for students. Lindsay shares her path from questioning her teaching practices through universal design and course redesign work to fully rethinking grades after a powerful experience with a student in crisis. Together, they explore how alternative grading can open the door to deeper conversations about what we actually want students to learn, how we want them to feel in our classes, and whether our current practices align with those goals. The conversation also highlights the Alternative Grading Institute, the role of context in shaping what is possible, and why examining the assumptions behind traditional grading can create the productive dissonance needed for real change.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!ResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

TDS started a joke, but Trump Derangement is real. How else do such large groups of people work secretly together to steal an election? Or to unleash a virus? Or to push for its dangerous "antidote?" Democrats slow walk the corruption investigations in Minneapolis as Los Angeles taxpayers are getting slapped with a $1 billion tax increase. Why? To pay the sexual abuse and molestation lawsuits against Los Angeles Unified School District teachers.

In “Too Many A's,” Sharona and Boz revisit a popular media narrative about “grade inflation,” starting with a Harvard-focused story that treats “too many A's” as a crisis—while quietly mixing two incompatible purposes of grading: ranking/sorting and communicating learning. They argue that if grades are meant to report mastery, “more A's” isn't a scandal—it's the goal (with the important caveat that the bar still matters). From there, they dissect a recent viral article claiming “easy A's” harm students' long-term outcomes, and they do what they teach: go to the original research, separate correlation from causation, and interrogate definitions—especially a math-heavy “lenient grader” metric that depends on standardized tests and other inputs that may be misaligned, inequitable, or just plain bad proxies. Along the way, they call out how quickly commentary slides into storytelling (“the mechanism is not difficult to imagine”) and how often alternative grading gets blamed without evidence—ending with a clear takeaway: we can't evaluate “too many A's” until we're honest about what grades are for, what evidence they should represent, and what data we're willing to treat as trustworthy.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!One Solution for Too Many A's? Harvard Considers Giving A+ Grades. (NY Times Gift Link)Easy A's, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation, Denning Et Al (Not Yet Peer Reviewed)Easy A's, lower pay: Grade inflation's hidden damage, New Article referencing the above articleThe True Cost of Grade Inflation at Harvard, article in Harvard MagazineEpisode 88 – Unearned Grades: Remaking the Conversation about Grade “Inflation”, The Grading PodcastResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

He‑Man creator Roger Sweet, now 91, is battling dementia and has been moved to a memory‑care facility after a fall left him with two brain bleeds, according to his wife Marlene. She has launched a GoFundMe to help cover the $10,200‑per‑month care cost, with fans and even the Mattel Foundation contributing support. The FBI served search warrants at the San Pedro home and the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters office of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday morning. An additional raid at a home in Miami, Florida, is also tied to the investigation. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Philip Teresi on KMJ' on all platforms: --- Philip Teresi on KMJ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. -- Philip Teresi on KMJ Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Podcast | Amazon | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nathan Pierce begins the episode by walking through Psalm 111, highlighting the importance of remembering God's works, fearing the Lord, and trusting His faithfulness in uncertain times. He then turns to the start of California's legislative session, explaining the sheer volume of bills introduced and breaking down how the legislative process actually works in its earliest stages. Nathan clarifies why bill numbers can be misleading, how amendments can completely change a bill's intent, and why Family Protection Ministries tracks legislation long before it reaches committee hearings or public attention. Toward the end of the episode, Nathan addresses recent news of the FBI raid on the Los Angeles Unified School District, explaining what is currently known, what remains unclear, and why this development raises serious questions about government accountability and public trust. He closes by encouraging families to remain watchful, biblically grounded, and confident in God's provision as these issues continue to unfold.Life Cycle of Legislation:https://fpmca.org/advocacy/bill-tracker/the-life-cycle-of-legislation/Critical Bill Tracker: https://fpmca.org/advocacy/bill-tracker/FPM Website:fpmca.org

He‑Man creator Roger Sweet, now 91, is battling dementia and has been moved to a memory‑care facility after a fall left him with two brain bleeds, according to his wife Marlene. She has launched a GoFundMe to help cover the $10,200‑per‑month care cost, with fans and even the Mattel Foundation contributing support. The FBI served search warrants at the San Pedro home and the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters office of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday morning. An additional raid at a home in Miami, Florida, is also tied to the investigation. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Philip Teresi on KMJ' on all platforms: --- Philip Teresi on KMJ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. -- Philip Teresi on KMJ Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Podcast | Amazon | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/Todd Your journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit https://Renue.Healthcare/Todd Bulwark Capital https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.com Be confident in your portfolio with Bulwark! Schedule your free Know Your Risk Portfolio review. Go to KnowYourRiskPodcast.com today. Alan's Soaps https://www.AlansArtisanSoaps.com Use coupon code TODD to save an additional 10% off the bundle price.Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/Todd Get the new limited release, The Sisterhood, created to honor the extraordinary women behind the heroes. Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE at:The Todd Herman Show - Podcast - Apple PodcastsThe Todd Herman Show | Podcast on SpotifyWATCH and SUBSCRIBE at: Todd Herman - The Todd Herman Show - YouTubeThe day after the State of the Union, we are still left with an ineffective Attorney General and many victimized, abused kids.Episode links:The Los Angeles Unified School District is borrowing $250 million to settle sexual misconduct claims.21 children removed from California home amid abuse investigation and claims of surrogate mothers being misledFormer CIA officer and founder of the Marine Corps Intelligence Command, Robert David Steele, testified before the International Tribunal for Natural Justice on the systemic exploitation of children by powerful satanic elites.Thank you Attorney General @KenPaxtonTX. The Davis school district @DJUSD has been secretly providing girls with free chest binders through the schools' Wellness Centers. Here I am demonstrating the damage these binders do to girls.  “Transitioning” a minor is child abuse.

Stay connected with us at americangroundradio.com, on Facebook, and Instagram. You're listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for February 19, 2026. 0:30 The United States Department of Justice has joined a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District over a policy that categorizes schools by race and ties funding, smaller class sizes, and enhanced programs to race. We break down what this “PHBAO” classification means, why attaching benefits based on race raises serious Equal Protection concerns, and how the 14th Amendment applies when government actors sort students by skin color. Is this equity… or is it government-sponsored discrimination under a new acronym? 9:30 Plus, we cover the Top 3 Things You Need to Know. The Department of Transportation is ordering 550 truck driving schools across the country to close. It looks like the Chicago Bears are leaving Illinois for Indiana. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew is being investigated for suspicion of misconduct in office. 12:30 Get Prodovite Plus from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20. 13:00 Representative Ilhan Omar is back in the headlines — sans apple cider viegar— but this time it’s what she said at a recent town hall that has people talking.Omar suggested Democrats don’t just want to abolish ICE — they’re prepared to dismantle the entire United States Department of Homeland Security. We unpack what that would actually mean, the political strategy behind it, and the bigger question: what does “law and order” mean in today’s America? 16:00 We got a question in for our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burelson. If you could rub a magic lamp and get just one wish for America — what would it be? From the days of three-network news to today’s explosion of social media platforms like X, the Mamas reflect on how information — and misinformation — shapes division in our country. They talk about the pandemic years, shadow bans, competing narratives, and the challenge of figuring out what’s actually true in a world where everyone has a microphone. But the conversation goes deeper than media. It’s about friendships strained over politics, assumptions made about neighbors, and how quickly labels replace relationships. When did who you vote for become more important than who you are? And how do we get back to a place where disagreement doesn’t mean disdain? It’s an honest, heartfelt discussion about truth, unity, and loving people even when you don’t share their politics — a reminder that restoring America might start with a little more light… and a lot more grace. If you'd like to ask our American Mamas a question, go to our website, AmericanGroundRadio.com/mamas and click on the Ask the Mamas button. 23:00 New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani built his campaign on a simple, viral promise: only the “uber wealthy” would pay more. Not you. Not your neighbor. Just the fat cats, the yacht crowd, the so-called one percent. But now? The Mamdani is floating a nearly 10% property tax hike — and that doesn’t just land on penthouse owners. It hits homeowners, retirees on fixed incomes, small landlords, and yes, renters, because higher property taxes don’t stay put. They trickle down into higher rents and higher costs for everyone. So what happened to “only the wealthy will pay”? We dig into how big spending promises — free programs, expanded benefits, sweeping commitments — eventually collide with math. When the tax base shrinks and high earners relocate, who makes up the difference? 26:00 Colorado just lost its largest corporation. Palantir Technologies — the $300+ billion AI firm that moved from Silicon Valley to Denver in 2020 citing cultural differences with Big Tech — has now packed up again, relocating its headquarters to Miami. The move follows months of protests outside its Denver offices over its contracts with the Israeli military and federal agencies like ICE, along with growing regulatory pressure from Colorado’s new AI law. So why leave? And why Florida? We break down whether this is about taxes, regulation, activist pressure, or a broader shift as companies seek business-friendly, right-to-work states. As America’s economy evolves, Palantir’s exit raises a bigger question: which vision of governance will win the future of growth? 32:00 Get TrimROX from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20. 32:30 A tragic shooting at a Rhode Island ice rink is raising disturbing questions. Authorities say the gunman, Robert Dorgan, allegedly targeted his ex-wife, their son, and members of her family during a high school hockey game — and that this was not random, but deliberate. Reports indicate there had been long-standing family conflict, including disputes over his transgender identity and a divorce that followed. As more details emerge, the story becomes even more heartbreaking: a fractured family, mental health concerns, and a violent act that devastated multiple lives in a single moment. We examine what’s known about the case, the role family estrangement may have played, and the broader cultural tensions surrounding gender identity, media coverage, and mental health. Most importantly, we ask the difficult question: how do we recognize warning signs and prevent tragedies like this before they happen? 35:30 Sometimes the left tries so hard to make a point… that they end up making the conservative argument for us. Case in point: columnist Jill Filipovic recently argued that if gender-affirming surgeries for minors are banned, then all cosmetic surgeries for minors — nose jobs, breast augmentations, and the like — should be banned too (with exceptions for true medical necessity). Well… yes. We unpack how that statement actually reinforces a broader concern many conservatives have been raising: maybe we shouldn’t be encouraging cosmetic alterations for children at all. Maybe we shouldn’t be over-sexualizing teenagers. Maybe we shouldn’t be permanently altering bodies that haven’t fully developed. We also look at the cultural pressure to “fix” perfectly healthy bodies — from Hollywood cautionary tales like Jennifer Grey to today’s social media-driven beauty standards — and ask whether our society is sending young people the wrong message about identity and self-worth. At the heart of it all is a bigger question: instead of telling kids there’s something wrong with their bodies, should we be teaching them they were created with purpose and value just as they are? 39:30 Kansas lawmakers have drawn a clear line. After the legislature passed a bill defining sex in state law as biological sex at birth, Democratic Governor Laura Kelly vetoed it. Lawmakers responded by overriding her veto — and now the measure is officially the law in Kansas. To wrap up today's show we unpack the political showdown, the cultural debate behind it, and the broader question of identity in today’s America. We also reflect on a simple but powerful idea echoed by voices like Sophia Loren and Oscar Wilde: real confidence comes from being comfortable in your own skin. At the end of the day, the conversation turns to purpose, design, and the belief that we are not accidents — that we are created intentionally and with value. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy. Articles Police asking Andrew's protection officers what 'they saw or heard' as part of Epstein files review AI giant Palantir moves its headquarters to Florida as tech company exodus continues Palantir, controversial data company tied to ICE, CIA, multiple countries' militaries, leaving Denver for Miami Goodbye, and Good Riddance: Palantir Technologies Has Left Denver INGERSOLL: No ‘Boob Jobs’ For 16-Year-Olds: The Latest Absurd Argument In Support Of Child Sex Changes See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack Reed - The Next Evolution https://www.communityplanet.org/ The Next Evolution by Jack Reed Jack Reed is a man who genuinely cares about the planet—as a whole, not just the separate aspects of it. He has the courage to stand up and say what is becoming increasingly obvious yet is industriously being ignored: that our planet is in serious trouble, we are the cause of it, and we can fix it.He has spent over four decades studying, examining, considering and experimenting with ways to make this planet a better place, not just for the powerful few, but for everyone. Jack's studies have taken him far beyond the theoretical; for fifteen years he lived in an urban cooperative community, where he took on various aspects of the active leadership. With this hands-on experience, he, as part of the visionary Community Planet group, developed a concept of Community that is generations apart from the commonly accepted process where individual power so often drives the outcomes. To support the evolved Community, Jack established, tested, and refined a consensus process that is practical and actually produces outcomes that are for the “Highest Good” of all concerned. He has taken that process on the road, nationally and internationally, in the form of classes and workshops, and for a number of years has been consulting with corporations and non-profit organizations in the area of team building. In order to give people a direct experience of cooperative living, Jack designed and implemented a class in consensus decision-making, which he has facilitated in a variety of settings. Finally, he co-founded the Community Planet Foundation, a non-profit organization whose purpose is the creation and demonstration of planned cooperative communities that will enable people to live in greater harmony with themselves, each other, and their environments. The vision of CPF was established in their 45 page Community description document which provided the foundation for Jack's book, The Next Evolution. Among his clients are The Educare Foundation, True North Leadership, The Wilderness Institute, The University of Southern California, Loyola-Mary mount University, California State University at Northridge, California State Dept. of Rehabilitation, The Peace Theological Seminary, The Institute of Individual and World Peace, The Los Angeles Unified School District, and Amgen. Jack is truly a visionary who sees the world as an interconnected whole. His first book, The Next Evolution: A Blueprint For Transforming The Planet is a practical manual for creating Community and saving this planet, our home. CPF's vision is: A world that works for everyone created by people living and working together in thriving, cooperative, sustainable Communities based on the Highest Good of all life. CPF's mission is: To educate and mobilize people to create a model large-scale cooperative Community demonstrating a happier, healthier, more fulfilling and abundant way of living that will inspire replication and lead to a world that works for everyone. A cooperative Community enables people to see what is possible Imagine a more abundant lifestyle in Community. Imagine living in a Community of loving, nurturing friends who live and work together in harmony with themselves, each other, and all life. Nature flourishes on hundreds of beautiful acres, and food is grown organically, using modern growing techniques and edible landscaping. This retreat-like setting provides easy access to walk the land and play and enjoy the outdoors. When residents are finished doing meaningful and fulfilling work, they still have an abundance of time to participate in the full array of growth, creative, and recreational opportunities. Organized sports, music, movies, good conversation, and other fun and relaxing activities are freely available, and the residents enjoy them with friends within walking distance.

What does it take to keep your voice—and your purpose—strong through every season of life? In this episode of Unstoppable Mindset, I sit down with my friend Bill Ratner, one of Hollywood's most recognized voice actors, best known as Flint from GI Joe. Bill's voice has carried him through radio, animation, and narration, but what stands out most is how he's used that same voice to serve others through storytelling, teaching, and grief counseling. Together, we explore the heart behind his work—from bringing animated heroes to life to standing on The Moth stage and helping people find healing through poetry. Bill shares lessons from his own journey, including losing both parents early, finding family in unexpected places, and discovering how creative expression can rebuild what life breaks down. We also reflect on 9/11, preparedness, and the quiet confidence that comes from trusting your training—whether you're a first responder, a performer, or just navigating the unknown. This conversation isn't just about performance; it's about presence. It's about using your story, your craft, and your compassion to keep moving forward—unstoppable, one voice at a time. Highlights: 00:31 – Hear the Flint voice and what it takes to bring animated characters to life. 06:57 – Learn why an uneven college path still led to a lifelong acting career. 11:50 – Understand how GI Joe became a team and a toy phenomenon that shaped culture. 15:58 – See how comics and cartoons boosted classroom literacy when used well. 17:06 – Pick up simple ways parents can spark reading through shared stories. 19:29 – Discover how early, honest conversations about death can model resilience. 24:09 – Learn to critique ads and media like a pro to sharpen your own performance. 36:19 – Follow the pivot from radio to voiceover and why specialization pays. 47:48 – Hear practical editing approaches and accessible tools that keep shows tight. 49:38 – Learn how The Moth builds storytelling chops through timed, judged practice. 55:21 – See how poetry—and poetry therapy—support grief work with students. 59:39 – Take notes on memoir writing, emotional management, and one-person shows. About the Guest: Bill Ratner is one of America's best known voice actors and author of poetry collections Lamenting While Doing Laps in the Lake (Slow Lightning Lit 2024,) Fear of Fish (Alien Buddha Press 2021,) To Decorate a Casket (Finishing Line Press 2021,) and the non-fiction book Parenting For The Digital Age: The Truth Behind Media's Effect On Children and What To Do About It (Familius Books 2014.) He is a 9-time winner of the Moth StorySLAM, 2-time winner of Best of The Hollywood Fringe Extension Award for Solo Performance, Best of the Net Poetry Nominee 2023 (Lascaux Review,) and New Millennium "America One Year From Now" Writing Award Finalist. His writing appears in Best Small Fictions 2021 (Sonder Press,) Missouri Review (audio,) Baltimore Review, Chiron Review, Feminine Collective, and other journals. He is the voice of "Flint" in the TV cartoon G.I. Joe, "Donnell Udina" in the computer game Mass Effect, the voice of Air Disasters on Smithsonian Channel, NewsNation, and network TV affiliates across the country. He is a committee chair for his union, SAG-AFTRA, teaches Voiceovers for SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Media Awareness for Los Angeles Unified School District, and is a trained grief counsellor. Member: Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA, National Storytelling Network • https://billratner.com • @billratner Ways to connect with Bill: https://soundcloud.com/bill-ratner https://www.instagram.com/billratner/ https://twitter.com/billratner https://www.threads.net/@billratner https://billratner.tumblr.com https://www.youtube.com/@billratner/videos https://www.facebook.com/billratner.voiceover.author https://bsky.app/profile/bilorat.bsky.social About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well on a gracious hello to you, wherever you may be, I am your host. Mike hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to have a voice actor, person, Bill Ratner, who you want to know who Bill Radnor is, go back and watch the old GI Joe cartoons and listen to the voice of Flint.   Bill Ratner ** 01:42 All right. Lady Jay, you better get your battle gear on, because Cobra is on their way. And I can't bring up the Lacher threat weapon system. We got to get out of here. Yo, Joe,   Michael Hingson ** 01:52 there you go. I rest my case Well, Bill, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Bill Ratner ** 02:00 We can't rest now. Michael, we've just begun. No, we've just begun.   Michael Hingson ** 02:04 We got to keep going here. Well, I'm really glad that you're here. Bill is another person who we inveigled to get on unstoppable mindset with the help of Walden Hughes. And so that means we can talk about Walden all we want today. Bill just saying, oh goodness. And I got a lot to say. Let me tell you perfect, perfect. Bring it on. So we are really grateful to Walden, although I hope he's not listening. We don't want to give him a big head. But no, seriously, we're really grateful. Ah, good point.   Bill Ratner ** 02:38 But his posture, oddly enough, is perfect.   Michael Hingson ** 02:40 Well, there you go. What do you do? He practiced. Well, anyway, we're glad you're here. Tell us about the early bill, growing up and all that stuff. It's always fun to start a good beginning.   Bill Ratner ** 02:54 Well, I was a very lucky little boy. I was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1947 to two lovely people, professionals, both with master's degree out at University of Chicago. My mother was a social worker. My father had an MBA in business. He was managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. So I had the joy of living in a better home and living in a garden.   Michael Hingson ** 03:21 My mother. How long were you in Des Moines?   Bill Ratner ** 03:24 Five and a half years left before my sixth birthday. My dad got a fancy job at an ad agency in Minneapolis, and had a big brother named Pete and big handsome, curly haired boy with green eyes. And moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was was brought up there.   Michael Hingson ** 03:45 Wow. So you went to school there and and chased the girls and all that stuff.   Bill Ratner ** 03:54 I went to school there at Blake School for Boys in Hopkins, Minnesota. Couldn't chase the girls day school, but the girls we are allowed to dance with certainly not chase. Michael was at woodhue dancing school, the Northrop girls from Northrop girls school and the Blake boys were put together in eighth grade and taught the Cha Cha Cha, the waltz, the Charleston, and we danced together, and the girls wore white gloves, and we sniffed their perfume, and we all learned how to be lovers when we were 45   Michael Hingson ** 04:37 There you are. Well, as long as you learned at some point, that's a good start.   Bill Ratner ** 04:44 It's a weird generation. Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 04:46 I've been to Des Moines before. I was born in Chicago, but moved out to California when I was five, but I did some work with the National Federation of the Blind in the mid 19. 1970s 1976 into 1978 so spent time at the Iowa Commission for the Blind in Des Moines, which became a top agency for the Blind in well, the late 50s into the to the 60s and so on. So   Bill Ratner ** 05:15 both my parents are from Chicago. My father from the south side of Chicago, 44th and Kenzie, which was a Irish, Polish, Italian, Jewish, Ukrainian neighborhood. And my mother from Glencoe, which was a middle class suburb above Northwestern University in Evanston.   Michael Hingson ** 05:34 I Where were you born? 57th and union, north, south side, no, South   Bill Ratner ** 05:42 57th union is that? Is that west of Kenzie?   Michael Hingson ** 05:46 You know, I don't remember the geography well enough to know, but I know that it was, I think, Mount Sinai Hospital where I was born. But it was, it's, it's, it's a pretty tough neighborhood today. So I understand,   Bill Ratner ** 06:00 yeah, yeah, my it was tough, then it's tough now,   Michael Hingson ** 06:03 yeah, I think it's tougher, supposedly, than it was. But we lived there for five years, and then we we moved to California, and I remember some things about Chicago. I remember walking down to the local candy store most days, and had no problem doing that. My parents were told they should shut me away at a home somewhere, because no blind child could ever grow up to amount to anything. And my parents said, You guys are you're totally wrong. And they brought me up with that attitude. So, you   Bill Ratner ** 06:32 know who said that the school says school so that   Michael Hingson ** 06:35 doctors doctors when they discovered I was blind with the   Bill Ratner ** 06:38 kid, goodness gracious, horrified.   Michael Hingson ** 06:44 Well, my parents said absolutely not, and they brought me up, and they actually worked with other parents of premature kids who became blind, and when kindergarten started in for us in in the age of four, they actually had a special kindergarten class for blind kids at the Perry School, which is where I went. And so I did that for a year, learn braille and some other things. Then we moved to California, but yeah, and I go back to Chicago every so often. And when I do nowadays, they I one of my favorite places to migrate in Chicago is Garrett Popcorn.   Bill Ratner ** 07:21 Ah, yes, with caramel corn, regular corn, the   Michael Hingson ** 07:25 Chicago blend, which is a mixture, yeah, the Chicago blend is cheese corn, well, as it is with caramel corn, and they put much other mozzarella on it as well. It's really good.   Bill Ratner ** 07:39 Yeah, so we're on the air. Michael, what do you call your what do you call your program? Here I am your new friend, and I can't even announce your program because I don't know   Michael Hingson ** 07:48 the name, unstoppable mindset. This   Bill Ratner ** 07:51 is unstoppable mindset.   Michael Hingson ** 07:56 We're back. Well, we're back already. We're fast. So you, you, you moved off elsewhere, out of Des Moines and all that. And where did you go to college?   Bill Ratner ** 08:09 Well, this is like, why did you this is, this is a bit like talking about the Vietnam War. Looking back on my college career is like looking back on the Vietnam War series, a series of delusions and defeats. By the time I the time i for college, by the time I was applying for college, I was an orphan, orphan, having been born to fabulous parents who died too young of natural causes. So my grades in high school were my mediocre. I couldn't get into the Ivy Leagues. I got into the big 10 schools. My stepmother said, you're going to Michigan State in East Lansing because your cousin Eddie became a successful realtor. And Michigan State was known as mu u it was the most successful, largest agriculture college and university in the country. Kids from South Asia, China, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, South America all over the world came to Michigan State to study agricultural sciences, children of rich farmers all over the world and middle class farmers all over the world, and a huge police science department. Part of the campus was fenced off, and the young cadets, 1819, 20 years old, would practice on the rest of the student body, uniformed with hats and all right, excuse me, young man, we're just going to get some pizza at eight o'clock on Friday night. Stand against your car. Hands in your car. I said, Are you guys practicing again? Shut up and spread your legs. So that was that was Michigan State, and even though both my parents had master's degrees, I just found all the diversions available in the 1960s to be too interesting, and was not invited. Return after my sophomore year, and in order to flunk out of a big 10 University, and they're fine universities, all of them, you have to be either really determined or not so smart, not really capable of doing that level of study in undergraduate school. And I'd like to think that I was determined. I used to show up for my exams with a little blue book, and the only thing I would write is due to lack of knowledge, I am unable to complete this exam, sign Bill ranter and get up early and hand it in and go off. And so what was, what was left for a young man like that was the theater I'd seen the great Zero Mostel when I was 14 years old and on stage live, he looked just like my father, and he was funny, and if I Were a rich man, and that's the grade zero must tell. Yeah, and it took about five, no, it took about six, seven years to percolate inside my bread and my brain. In high school, I didn't want to do theater. The cheerleaders and guys who I had didn't happen to be friends with or doing theater. I took my girlfriends to see plays, but when I was 21 I started acting, and I've been an actor ever since. I'm a committee chair on the screen actors guild in Hollywood and Screen Actors Guild AFTRA, and work as a voice actor and collect my pensions and God bless the union.   Michael Hingson ** 11:44 Well, hey, as long as it works and you're making progress, you know you're still with it, right?   Bill Ratner ** 11:53 That's the that's the point. There's no accounting for taste in my business. Michael, you work for a few different broadcast entities at my age. And it's, you know, it's younger people. It's 18 to 3418 years to 34 years old is the ideal demographic for advertisers, Ford, Motor Company, Dove soap, Betty, Crocker, cake mixes and cereals, every conceivable product that sold online or sold on television and radio. This is my this is my meat, and I don't work for religion. However, if a religious organization calls, I call and say, I I'm not, not qualified or not have my divinity degree in order to sell your church to the public?   Michael Hingson ** 12:46 Yeah, yeah. Well, I, I can understand that. But you, you obviously do a lot, and as we talked about, you were Flint and GI Joe, which is kind of cool.   Bill Ratner ** 13:01 Flynn GI Joe was very cool. Hasbro Corporation, which was based in Providence, Rhode Island, had a huge success with GI Joe, the figure. The figure was about 11 and a half inches tall, like a Barbie, and was at first, was introduced to the public after the Korean War. There is a comic book that was that was also published about GI Joe. He was an individual figure. He was a figure, a sort of mythic cartoon figure during World War Two, GI Joe, generic American soldier, fighting man and but the Vietnam war dragged on for a long time, and the American buying public or buying kids toys got tired of GI Joe, got tired of a military figure in their household and stopped buying. And when Nixon ended the Vietnam War, or allotted to finish in 1974 Hasbro was in the tank. It's got its stock was cheap, and executives are getting nervous. And then came the Great George Lucas in Star Wars, who shrank all these action figures down from 11 and a half inches to three and a half inches, and went to China and had Chinese game and toy makers make Star Wars toys, and began to earn billions and billions dollars. And so Hasbro said, let's turn GI Joe into into a team. And the team began with flint and Lady J and Scarlett and Duke and Destro and cover commander, and grew to 85 different characters, because Hasbro and the toy maker partners could create 85 different sets of toys and action figures. So I was actor in this show and had a good time, and also a purveyor of a billion dollar industry of American toys. And the good news about these toys is I was at a conference where we signed autographs the voice actors, and we have supper with fans and so on. And I was sitting next to a 30 year old kid and his parents. And this kid was so knowledgeable about pop culture and every conceivable children's show and animated show that had ever been on the screen or on television. I turned to his mother and sort of being a wise acre, said, So ma'am, how do you feel about your 30 year old still playing with GI Joe action figures? And she said, Well, he and I both teach English in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania school system, and last year, the literacy level of my ninth graders was 50% 50% of those kids could not read in ninth grade. So I asked the principal if I could borrow my son's GI Joe, action figures, comic books and VHS tapes, recordings of the shows from TV. And he said, Sure, whatever you want to try. And so she did, and she played the video tapes, and these kids were thrilled. They'd never seen a GI Joe cartoon in class before. Passed out the comic books, let him read comics. And then she said, Okay, you guys. And passed out notebooks and pens and pencils, and said, I want you guys to make up some some shows, some GI Joe shows. And so they said, Yeah, we're ready. All right, Cobra, you better get into the barber shop, because the barber bill is no longer there and the fire engines are in the way. And wait a minute, there's a dog in the street. And so they're making this up, using their imagination, doing their schoolwork, by coming up with scenarios, imaginary fam fan fiction for GI Joe and she raised the literacy level in her classroom by 50% that year, by the end of that year, so, so that was the only story that I've ever heard about the sort of the efficacy of GI Joe, other than, you know, kids play with them. Do they? Are they shooting each other all the time? I certainly hope not. I hope not. Are they using the action figures? Do they strip their guns off and put them in a little, you know, stub over by the side and and have them do physical battle with each other, or have them hump the woods, or have them climb the stairs, or have them search the trees. Who knows what kids do? Same with same with girls and and Barbies. Barbie has been a source of fun and creativity for lots of girls, and the source of of worry and bother to a lot of parents as   Michael Hingson ** 17:54 well. Well, at the same time, though, when kids start to react and relate to some of these things. It's, it's pretty cool. I mean, look what's happened with the whole Harry Potter movement and craze. Harry Potter has probably done more in the last 20 or 25 years to promote reading for kids than most anything else, and   Bill Ratner ** 18:17 that's because it's such a good series of books. I read them to my daughters, yeah. And the quality of writing. She was a brilliant writer, not only just the stories and the storytelling, which is fun to watch in the movies, and you know, it's great for a parent to read. If there are any parents listening, I don't care how old your kids are. I don't care if they're 15. Offer to read to them. The 15 year old might, of course, say mom, but anybody younger than that might say either, all right, fine, which is, which means you better do it or read, read a book. To me, sure, it's fun for the parent, fun for the kid, and it makes the child a completely different kind of thinker and worker and earner.   Michael Hingson ** 19:05 Well, also the people who they got to read the books for the recordings Stephen Fry and in the US here, Jim Dale did such an incredible job as well. I've, I've read the whole Harry Potter series more than once, because I just enjoy them, and I enjoy listening to the the voices. They do such a good job. Yeah. And of course, for me, one of the interesting stories that I know about Jim Dale reading Harry Potter was since it was published by Scholastic he was actually scheduled to do a reading from one of the Harry from the new Harry Potter book that was coming out in 2001 on September 11, he was going to be at Scholastic reading. And of course, that didn't happen because of of everything that did occur. So I don't know whether I'm. I'm assuming at some point a little bit later, he did, but still he was scheduled to be there and read. But it they are there. They've done so much to help promote reading, and a lot of those kinds of cartoons and so on. Have done some of that, which is, which is pretty good. So it's good to, you know, to see that continue to happen. Well, so you've written several books on poetry and so on, and I know that you you've mentioned more than once grief and loss. How come those words keep coming up?   Bill Ratner ** 20:40 Well, I had an unusual childhood. Again. I mentioned earlier how, what a lucky kid I was. My parents were happy, educated, good people, not abusers. You know, I don't have a I don't have horror stories to tell about my mother or my father, until my mother grew sick with breast cancer and and it took about a year and a half or two years to die when I was seven years old. The good news is, because she was a sensitive, educated social worker, as she was actually dying, she arranged a death counseling session with me and my older brother and the Unitarian minister who was also a death counselor, and whom she was seeing to talk about, you know, what it was like to be dying of breast cancer with two young kids. And at this session, which was sort of surprised me, I was second grade, came home from school. In the living room was my mother and my brother looking a little nervous, and Dr Carl storm from the Unitarian Church, and she said, you know, Dr storm from church, but he's also my therapist. And we talk about my illness and how I feel, and we talk about how much I love you boys, and talk about how I worry about Daddy. And this is what one does when one is in crisis. That was a moment that was not traumatic for me. It's a moment I recalled hundreds of times, and one that has been a guiding light through my life. My mother's death was very difficult for my older brother, who was 13 who grew up in World War Two without without my father, it was just him and my mother when he was off in the Pacific fighting in World War Two. And then I was born after the war. And the loss of a mother in a family is like the bottom dropping out of a family. But luckily, my dad met a woman he worked with a highly placed advertising executive, which was unusual for a female in the 1950s and she became our stepmother a year later, and we had some very lovely, warm family years with her extended family and our extended family and all of us together until my brother got sick, came down with kidney disease a couple of years before kidney dialysis was invented, and a couple of years before kidney transplants were done, died at 19. Had been the captain of the swimming team at our high school, but did a year in college out in California and died on Halloween of 1960 my father was 51 years old. His eldest son had died. He had lost his wife six years earlier. He was working too hard in the advertising industry, successful man and dropped out of a heart attack 14th birthday. Gosh, I found him unconscious on the floor of our master bathroom in our house. So my life changed. I My life has taught me many, many things. It's taught me how the defense system works in trauma. It's taught me the resilience of a child. It's taught me the kindness of strangers. It's taught me the sadness of loss.   Michael Hingson ** 24:09 Well, you, you seem to come through all of it pretty well. Well, thank you. A question behind that, just an observation, but, but you do seem to, you know, obviously, cope with all of it and do pretty well. So you, you've always liked to be involved in acting and so on. How did you actually end up deciding to be a voice actor?   Bill Ratner ** 24:39 Well, my dad, after he was managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Des Moines for Meredith publishing, got offered a fancy job as executive vice president of the flower and mix division for Campbell within advertising and later at General Mills Corporation. From Betty Crocker brand, and would bring me to work all the time, and would sit with me, and we'd watch the wonderful old westerns that were on prime time television, rawhide and Gunsmoke and the Virginian and sure   Michael Hingson ** 25:15 and all those. Yeah, during   Bill Ratner ** 25:17 the commercials, my father would make fun of the commercials. Oh, look at that guy. And number one, son, that's lousy acting. Number two, listen to that copy. It's the dumbest ad copy I've ever seen. The jingles and and then he would say, No, that's a good commercial, right there. And he wasn't always negative. He would he was just a good critic of advertising. So at a very young age, starting, you know, when we watch television, I think the first television ever, he bought us when I was five years old, I was around one of the most educated, active, funny, animated television critics I could hope to have in my life as a 56789, 1011, 12 year old. And so when I was 12, I became one of the founding members of the Brotherhood of radio stations with my friends John Waterhouse and John Barstow and Steve gray and Bill Connors in South Minneapolis. I named my five watt night kit am transmitter after my sixth grade teacher, Bob close this is wclo stereo radio. And when I was in sixth grade, I built myself a switch box, and I had a turntable and I had an intercom, and I wired my house for sound, as did all the other boys in the in the B, O, R, S, and that's brotherhood of radio stations. And we were guests on each other's shows, and we were obsessed, and we would go to the shopping malls whenever a local DJ was making an appearance and torture him and ask him dumb questions and listen obsessively to American am radio. And at the time for am radio, not FM like today, or internet on your little radio tuner, all the big old grandma and grandpa radios, the wooden ones, were AM, for amplitude modulated. You could get stations at night, once the sun went down and the later it got, the ionosphere would lift and the am radio signals would bounce higher and farther. And in Minneapolis, at age six and seven, I was able to to listen to stations out of Mexico and Texas and Chicago, and was absolutely fascinated with with what was being put out. And I would, I would switch my brother when I was about eight years old, gave me a transistor radio, which I hid under my bed covers. And at night, would turn on and listen for, who knows, hours at a time, and just tuning the dial and tuning the dial from country to rock and roll to hit parade to news to commercials to to agric agriculture reports to cow crossings in Kansas and grain harvesting and cheese making in Wisconsin, and on and on and on that made up the great medium of radio that was handing its power and its business over to television, just as I was growing As a child. Fast, fascinating transition   Michael Hingson ** 28:18 and well, but as it was transitioning, how did that affect you?   Bill Ratner ** 28:26 It made television the romantic, exciting, dynamic medium. It made radio seem a little limited and antiquated, and although I listened for environment and wasn't able to drag a television set under my covers. Yeah, and television became memorable with with everything from actual world war two battle footage being shown because there wasn't enough programming to 1930s Warner Brothers gangster movies with James Cagney, Edward G   Michael Hingson ** 29:01 Robinson and yeah   Bill Ratner ** 29:02 to all the sitcoms, Leave It to Beaver and television cartoons and on and on and on. And the most memorable elements to me were the personalities, and some of whom were invisible. Five years old, I was watching a Kids program after school, after kindergarten. We'll be back with more funny puppets, marionettes after this message and the first words that came on from an invisible voice of this D baritone voice, this commercial message will be 60 seconds long, Chrysler Dodge for 1954 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I watched hypnotized, hypnotized as a 1953 dodge drove across the screen with a happy family of four waving out the window. And at the end of the commercial, I ran into the kitchen said, Mom, mom, I know what a minute. Is, and it was said, it had suddenly come into my brain in one of those very rare and memorable moments in a person's life where your brain actually speaks to you in its own private language and says, Here is something very new and very true, that 60 seconds is in fact a minute. When someone says, See you in five minutes, they mean five times that, five times as long as that. Chrysler commercial, five times 60. That's 300 seconds. And she said, Did you learn it that that on T in kindergarten? And I said, No, I learned it from kangaroo Bob on TV, his announcer, oh, kangaroo Bob, no, but this guy was invisible. And so at five years of age, I was aware of the existence of the practice of the sound, of the magic of the seemingly unlimited access to facts, figures, products, brand names that these voices had and would say on the air in This sort of majestic, patriarchal way,   Michael Hingson ** 31:21 and just think 20 years later, then you had James Earl Jones,   Bill Ratner ** 31:26 the great dame. James Earl Jones, father was a star on stage at that time the 1950s James Earl Jones came of age in the 60s and became Broadway and off Broadway star.   Michael Hingson ** 31:38 I got to see him in Othello. He was playing Othello. What a powerful performance. It was   Bill Ratner ** 31:43 wonderful performer. Yeah, yeah. I got to see him as Big Daddy in Canada, Hot Tin Roof, ah, live and in person, he got front row seats for me and my family.   Michael Hingson ** 31:53 Yeah, we weren't in the front row, but we saw it. We saw it on on Broadway,   Bill Ratner ** 31:58 the closest I ever got to James Earl Jones. He and I had the same voice over agent, woman named Rita vinari of southern Barth and benare company. And I came into the agency to audition for Doritos, and I hear this magnificent voice coming from behind a closed voiceover booth, saying, with a with a Spanish accent, Doritos. I thought that's James Earl Jones. Why is he saying burritos? And he came out, and he bowed to me, nodded and smiled, and I said, hello and and the agent probably in the booth and shut the door. And she said, I said, that was James Earl Jones. What a voice. What she said, Oh, he's such a nice man. And she said, but I couldn't. I was too embarrassed. I was too afraid to stop him from saying, Doritos. And it turns out he didn't get the gig. So it is some other voice actor got it because he didn't say, had he said Doritos with the agent froze it froze up. That was as close as I ever got to did you get the gig? Oh goodness no,   Michael Hingson ** 33:01 no, you didn't, huh? Oh, well, well, yeah. I mean, it was a very, it was, it was wonderful. It was James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer played Iago. Oh, goodness, oh, I know. What a what a combination. Well, so you, you did a lot of voiceover stuff. What did you do regarding radio moving forward? Or did you just go completely out of that and you were in TV? Or did you have any opportunity   Bill Ratner ** 33:33 for me to go back at age 15, my brother and father, who were big supporters of my radio. My dad would read my W, C, l, o, newsletter and need an initial, an excellent journalism son and my brother would bring his teenage friends up. He'd play the elderly brothers, man, you got an Elvis record, and I did. And you know, they were, they were big supporters for me as a 13 year old, but when I turned 14, and had lost my brother and my father, I lost my enthusiasm and put all of my radio equipment in a box intended to play with it later. Never, ever, ever did again. And when I was about 30 years old and I'd done years of acting in the theater, having a great time doing fun plays and small theaters in Minneapolis and South Dakota and and Oakland, California and San Francisco. I needed money, so I looked in the want ads and saw a job for telephone sales, and I thought, Well, I used to love the telephone. I used to make phony phone calls to people all the time. Used to call funeral homes. Hi Carson, funeral I help you. Yes, I'm calling to tell you that you have a you have a dark green slate tile. Roof, isn't that correct? Yes. Well, there's, there's a corpse on your roof. Lady for goodness sake, bring it down and we laugh and we record it and and so I thought, Well, gee, I used to have a lot of fun with the phone. And so I called the number of telephone sales and got hired to sell magazine subscriptions and dinner tickets to Union dinners and all kinds of things. And then I saw a new job at a radio station, suburban radio station out in Walnut Creek, California, a lovely Metro BART train ride. And so I got on the BART train, rode out there and walked in for the interview, and was told I was going to be selling small advertising packages on radio for the station on the phone. And so I called barber shops and beauty shops and gas stations in the area, and one guy picked up the phone and said, Wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you on the radio right now? And I said, No, I'm just I'm in the sales room. Well, maybe you should be. And he slams the phone on me. He didn't want to talk to me anymore. It wasn't interested in buying advertising. I thought, gee. And I told somebody at the station, and they said, Well, you want to be in the radio? And he went, Yeah, I was on the radio when I was 13. And it just so happened that an older fellow was retiring from the 10am to 2pm slot. K I S King, kiss 99 and KD FM, Pittsburgh, California. And it was a beautiful music station. It was a music station. Remember, old enough will remember music that used to play in elevators that was like violin music, the Percy faith orchestra playing a Rolling Stone song here in the elevator. Yes, well, that's exactly what we played. And it would have been harder to get a job at the local rock stations because, you know, they were popular places. And so I applied for the job, and   Michael Hingson ** 37:06 could have lost your voice a lot sooner, and it would have been a lot harder if you had had to do Wolfman Jack. But that's another story.   Bill Ratner ** 37:13 Yeah, I used to listen to Wolf Man Jack. I worked in a studio in Hollywood. He became a studio. Yeah, big time.   Michael Hingson ** 37:22 Anyway, so you you got to work at the muzack station, got   Bill Ratner ** 37:27 to work at the muzack station, and I was moving to Los Angeles to go to a bigger market, to attempt to penetrate a bigger broadcast market. And one of the sales guys, a very nice guy named Ralph pizzella said, Well, when you get to La you should study with a friend of mine down to pie Troy, he teaches voiceovers. I said, What are voice overs? He said, You know that CVS Pharmacy commercial just carted up and did 75 tags, available in San Fernando, available in San Clemente, available in Los Angeles, available in Pasadena. And I said, Yeah. He said, Well, you didn't get paid any extra. You got paid your $165 a week. The guy who did that commercial for the ad agency got paid probably 300 bucks, plus extra for the tags, that's voiceovers. And I thought, why? There's an idea, what a concept. So he gave me the name and number of old friend acquaintance of his who he'd known in radio, named Don DiPietro, alias Johnny rabbit, who worked for the Dick Clark organization, had a big rock and roll station there. He'd come to LA was doing voiceovers and teaching voiceover classes in a little second story storefront out of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. So I signed up for his class, and he was an experienced guy, and he liked me, and we all had fun, and I realized I was beginning to study like an actor at 1818, who goes to New York or goes to Los Angeles or Chicago or Atlanta or St Louis to act in the big theaters, and starts acting classes and realizes, oh my goodness, these people are truly professionals. I don't know how to do what they do. And so for six years, I took voice over classes, probably 4050, nights a year, and from disc jockeys, from ex show hosts, from actors, from animated cartoon voices, and put enough time in to get a degree in neurology in medical school. And worked my way up in radio in Los Angeles and had a morning show, a lovely show with a wonderful news man named Phil Reed, and we talked about things and reviewed movies and and played a lot of music. And then I realized, wait a minute, I'm earning three times the money in voiceovers as I am on the radio, and I have to get up at 430 in the morning to be on the radio. Uh, and a wonderful guy who was Johnny Carson's staff announcer named Jack angel said, You're not still on radio, are you? And I said, Well, yeah, I'm working in the morning. And Ka big, get out of there. Man, quit. Quit. And I thought, well, how can I quit? I've always wanted to be a radio announcer. And then there was another wonderful guy on the old am station, kmpc, sweet Dick Whittington. Whittington, right? And he said at a seminar that I went to at a union voice over training class, when you wake up at four in the morning and you swing your legs over the bed and your shoes hit the floor, and you put your head in your hands, and you say to yourself, I don't want to do this anymore. That's when you quit radio. Well, that hadn't happened to me. I was just getting up early to write some comedy segments and on and on and on, and then I was driving around town all day doing auditions and rented an ex girlfriend's second bedroom so that I could nap by myself during the day, when I had an hour in and I would as I would fall asleep, I'd picture myself every single day I'm in a dark voiceover studio, a microphone Is before me, a music stand is before the microphone, and on it is a piece of paper with advertising copy on it. On the other side of the large piece of glass of the recording booth are three individuals, my employers, I begin to read, and somehow the text leaps off the page, streams into my eyes, letter for letter, word for word, into a part of my back brain that I don't understand and can't describe. It is processed in my semi conscious mind with the help of voice over training and hope and faith, and comes out my mouth, goes into the microphone, is recorded in the digital recorder, and those three men, like little monkeys, lean forward and say, Wow, how do you do that? That was my daily creative visualization. Michael, that was my daily fantasy. And I had learned that from from Dale Carnegie, and I had learned that from Olympic athletes on NBC TV in the 60s and 70s, when the announcer would say, this young man you're seeing practicing his high jump is actually standing there. He's standing stationary, and the bouncing of the head is he's actually rehearsing in his mind running and running and leaping over the seven feet two inch bar and falling into the sawdust. And now he's doing it again, and you could just barely see the man nodding his head on camera at the exact rhythm that he would be running the 25 yards toward the high bar and leaping, and he raised his head up during the imaginary lead that he was visualizing, and then he actually jumped the seven foot two inches. That's how I learned about creative visualization from NBC sports on TV.   Michael Hingson ** 43:23 Channel Four in Los Angeles. There you go. Well, so you you broke into voice over, and that's what you did.   Bill Ratner ** 43:38 That's what I did, darn it, I ain't stopping now, there's a wonderful old actor named Bill Irwin. There two Bill Irwin's one is a younger actor in his 50s or 60s, a brilliant actor from Broadway to film and TV. There's an older William Irwin. They also named Bill Irwin, who's probably in his 90s now. And I went to a premiere of a film, and he was always showing up in these films as The senile stock broker who answers the phone upside down, or the senile board member who always asks inappropriate questions. And I went up to him and I said, you know, I see you in everything, man. I'm 85 years old. Some friends and associates of mine tell me I should slow down. I only got cast in movies and TV when I was 65 I ain't slowing down. If I tried to slow down at 85 I'd have to stop That's my philosophy. My hero is the great Don Pardo, the late great   Michael Hingson ** 44:42 for Saturday Night Live and Jeopardy   Bill Ratner ** 44:45 lives starring Bill Murray, Gilder Radner, and   Michael Hingson ** 44:49 he died for Jeopardy before that,   Bill Ratner ** 44:52 yeah, died at 92 with I picture him, whether it probably not, with a microphone and. His hand in his in his soundproof booth, in his in his garage, and I believe he lived in Arizona, although the show was aired and taped in New York, New York, right where he worked for for decades as a successful announcer. So that's the story.   Michael Hingson ** 45:16 Michael. Well, you know, I miss, very frankly, some of the the the days of radio back in the 60s and 70s and so on. We had, in LA what you mentioned, Dick Whittington, Dick whittinghill on kmpc, Gary Owens, you know, so many people who were such wonderful announcers and doing some wonderful things, and radio just isn't the same anymore. It's gone. It's   Bill Ratner ** 45:47 gone to Tiktok and YouTube. And the truth is, I'm not gonna whine about Tiktok or YouTube, because some of the most creative moments on camera are being done on Tiktok and YouTube by young quote influencers who hire themselves out to advertisers, everything from lipstick. You know,   Speaker 1 ** 46:09 when I went to a party last night was just wild and but this makeup look, watch me apply this lip remover and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, no, I have no lip.   Bill Ratner ** 46:20 You know, these are the people with the voices. These are the new voices. And then, of course, the faces. And so I would really advise before, before people who, in fact, use the internet. If you use the internet, you can't complain if you use the internet, if you go to Facebook or Instagram, or you get collect your email or Google, this or that, which most of us do, it's handy. You can't complain about tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. You can't complain about tick tock or YouTube, because it's what the younger generation is using, and it's what the younger generation advertisers and advertising executives and creators and musicians and actors are using to parade before us, as Gary Owens did, as Marlon Brando did, as Sarah Bernhardt did in the 19 so as all as you do, Michael, you're a parader. You're the head of the parade. You've been in on your own float for years. I read your your bio. I don't even know why you want to waste a minute talking to me for goodness sakes.   Michael Hingson ** 47:26 You know, the one thing about podcasts that I like over radio, and I did radio at kuci for seven years when I was in school, what I really like about podcasts is they're not and this is also would be true for Tiktok and YouTube. Primarily Tiktok, I would would say it isn't as structured. So if we don't finish in 60 minutes, and we finish in 61 minutes, no one's gonna shoot us.   Bill Ratner ** 47:53 Well, I beg to differ with you. Now. I'm gonna start a fight with you. Michael, yeah, we need conflict in this script. Is that it The Tick Tock is very structured. Six. No,   Michael Hingson ** 48:03 no, I understand that. I'm talking about podcasts,   Bill Ratner ** 48:07 though, but there's a problem. We gotta Tone It Up. We gotta pick it up. We gotta there's a lot of and I listen to what are otherwise really bright, wonderful personalities on screen, celebrities who have podcasts and the car sucks, and then I had meatballs for dinner, haha. And you know what my wife said? Why? You know? And there's just too much of that. And,   Michael Hingson ** 48:32 oh, I understand, yeah. I mean, it's like, like anything, but I'm just saying that's one of the reasons I love podcasting. So it's my way of continuing what I used to do in radio and having a lot of fun doing it   Bill Ratner ** 48:43 all right, let me ask you. Let me ask you a technical and editorial question. Let me ask you an artistic question. An artist, can you edit this podcast? Yeah. Are you? Do you plan to Nope.   Michael Hingson ** 48:56 I think conversations are conversations, but there is a but, I mean,   Bill Ratner ** 49:01 there have been starts and stops and I answer a question, and there's a long pause, and then, yeah, we can do you edit that stuff   Michael Hingson ** 49:08 out. We do, we do, edit some of that out. And I have somebody that that that does a lot of it, because I'm doing more podcasts, and also I travel and speak, but I can edit. There's a program called Reaper, which is really a very sophisticated   Bill Ratner ** 49:26 close up spaces. You   Michael Hingson ** 49:28 can close up spaces with it, yes, but the neat thing about Reaper is that somebody has written scripts to make it incredibly accessible for blind people using screen readers.   Bill Ratner ** 49:40 What does it do? What does it do? Give me the elevator pitch.   Michael Hingson ** 49:46 You've seen some of the the programs that people use, like computer vision and other things to do editing of videos and so on. Yeah.   Bill Ratner ** 49:55 Yeah. Even Apple. Apple edit. What is it called? Apple? Garage Band. No, that's audio. What's that   Michael Hingson ** 50:03 audio? Oh,   Bill Ratner ** 50:06 quick time is quick   Michael Hingson ** 50:07 time. But whether it's video or audio, the point is that Reaper allows me to do all of that. I can edit audio. I can insert, I can remove pauses. I can do anything with Reaper that anyone else can do editing audio, because it's been made completely accessible.   Bill Ratner ** 50:27 That's great. That's good. That's nice. Oh, it is. It's cool.   Michael Hingson ** 50:31 So so if I want, I can edit this and just have my questions and then silence when you're talking.   Bill Ratner ** 50:38 That might be best. Ladies and gentlemen, here's Bill Ratner,   Michael Hingson ** 50:46 yep, exactly, exactly. Now you have won the moth stories. Slam, what? Tell me about my story. Slam, you've won it nine times.   Bill Ratner ** 51:00 The Moth was started by a writer, a novelist who had lived in the South and moved to New York City, successful novelist named George Dawes green. And the inception of the moth, which many people listening are familiar with from the Moth Radio Hour. It was, I believe, either late 90s or early 2000s when he'd been in New York for a while and was was publishing as a fiction writer, and threw a party, and decided, instead of going to one of these dumb, boring parties or the same drinks being served and same cigarettes being smoked out in the veranda and the same orders. I'm going to ask people to bring a five minute story, a personal story, nature, a true story. You don't have to have one to get into the party, but I encourage you to. And so you know, the 3040, 50 people showed up, many of whom had stories, and they had a few drinks, and they had hors d'oeuvres. And then he said, Okay, ladies and gentlemen, take your seats. It's time for and then I picked names out of a hat, and person after person after person stood up in a very unusual setting, which was almost never done at parties. You How often do you see that happen? Suddenly, the room falls silent, and someone with permission being having been asked by the host to tell a personal story, some funny, some tragic, some complex, some embarrassing, some racy, some wild, some action filled. And afterward, the feedback he got from his friends was, this is the most amazing experience I've ever had in my life. And someone said, you need to do this. And he said, Well, you people left a lot of cigarette butts and beer cans around my apartment. And they said, well, let's do it at a coffee shop. Let's do it at a church basement. So slowly but surely, the moth storytelling, story slams, which were designed after the old poetry slams in the 50s and 60s, where they were judged contests like, like a dance contest. Everybody's familiar with dance contests? Well, there were, then came poetry contests with people singing and, you know, and singing and really energetically, really reading. There then came storytelling contests with people standing on a stage before a silent audience, telling a hopefully interesting, riveting story, beginning middle, end in five minutes. And so a coffee house was found. A monthly calendar was set up. Then came the internet. Then it was so popular standing room only that they had to open yet another and another, and today, some 20 years later, 20 some years later, from Austin, Texas to San Francisco, California to Minneapolis, Minnesota to New York City to Los Angeles. There are moth story slams available on online for you to schedule yourself to go live and in person at the moth.org as in the moth with wings. Friend of mine, I was in New York. He said, You can't believe it. This writer guy, a writer friend of mine who I had read, kind of an avant garde, strange, funny writer was was hosting something called the moth in New York, and we were texting each other. He said, Well, I want to go. The theme was show business. I was going to talk to my Uncle Bobby, who was the bell boy. And I Love Lucy. I'll tell a story. And I texted him that day. He said, Oh man, I'm so sorry. I had the day wrong. It's next week. Next week, I'm going to be back home. And so he said, Well, I think there's a moth in Los Angeles. So about 15 years ago, I searched it down and what? Went to a small Korean barbecue that had a tiny little stage that originally was for Korean musicians, and it was now being used for everything from stand up comedy to evenings of rock and roll to now moth storytelling once a month. And I think the theme was first time. And so I got up and told a silly story and didn't win first prize. They have judges that volunteer judges a table of three judges scoring, you like, at a swim meet or a track beat or, you know, and our gymnastics meet. So this is all sort of familiar territory for everybody, except it's storytelling and not high jumping or pull ups. And I kept going back. I was addicted to it. I would write a story and I'd memorize it, and I'd show up and try to make it four minutes and 50 seconds and try to make it sound like I was really telling a story and not reading from a script. And wish I wasn't, because I would throw the script away, and I knew the stories well enough. And then they created a radio show. And then I began to win slams and compete in the grand slams. And then I started submitting these 750 word, you know, two and a half page stories. Literary magazines got a few published and found a whole new way to spend my time and not make much   Michael Hingson ** 56:25 money. Then you went into poetry.   Bill Ratner ** 56:29 Then I got so bored with my prose writing that I took a poetry course from a wonderful guy in LA called Jack grapes, who had been an actor and a football player and come to Hollywood and did some TV, episodics and and some some episodic TV, and taught poetry. It was a poet in the schools, and I took his class of adults and got a poem published. And thought, wait a minute, these aren't even 750 words. They're like 75 words. I mean, you could write a 10,000 word poem if you want, but some people have, yeah, and it was complex, and there was so much to read and so much to learn and so much that was interesting and odd. And a daughter of a friend of mine is a poet, said, Mommy, are you going to read me one of those little word movies before I go to sleep?   Michael Hingson ** 57:23 A little word movie, word movie out of the   Bill Ratner ** 57:27 mouths of babes. Yeah, and so, so and I perform. You know, last night, I was in Orange County at a organization called ugly mug Cafe, and a bunch of us poets read from an anthology that was published, and we sold our books, and heard other young poets who were absolutely marvelous and and it's, you know, it's not for everybody, but it's one of the things I do.   Michael Hingson ** 57:54 Well, you sent me pictures of book covers, so they're going to be in the show notes. And I hope people will will go out and get them   Bill Ratner ** 58:01 cool. One of the one of the things that I did with poetry, in addition to wanting to get published and wanting to read before people, is wanting to see if there is a way. Because poetry was, was very satisfying, emotionally to me, intellectually very challenging and satisfying at times. And emotionally challenging and very satisfying at times, writing about things personal, writing about nature, writing about friends, writing about stories that I received some training from the National Association for poetry therapy. Poetry therapy is being used like art therapy, right? And have conducted some sessions and and participated in many and ended up working with eighth graders of kids who had lost someone to death in the past year of their lives. This is before covid in the public schools in Los Angeles. And so there's a lot of that kind of work that is being done by constable people, by writers, by poets, by playwrights,   Michael Hingson ** 59:09 and you became a grief counselor,   Bill Ratner ** 59:13 yes, and don't do that full time, because I do voiceovers full time, right? Write poetry and a grand. Am an active grandparent, but I do the occasional poetry session around around grief poetry.   Michael Hingson ** 59:31 So you're a grandparent, so you've had kids and all that. Yes, sir, well, that's is your wife still with us? Yes?   Bill Ratner ** 59:40 Oh, great, yeah, she's an artist and an art educator. Well, that   Michael Hingson ** 59:46 so the two of you can criticize each other's works, then, just   Bill Ratner ** 59:52 saying, we're actually pretty kind to each other. I Yeah, we have a lot of we have a lot of outside criticism. Them. So, yeah, you don't need to do it internally. We don't rely on it. What do you think of this although, although, more than occasionally, each of us will say, What do you think of this poem, honey? Or what do you think of this painting, honey? And my the favorite, favorite thing that my wife says that always thrills me and makes me very happy to be with her is, I'll come down and she's beginning a new work of a new piece of art for an exhibition somewhere. I'll say, what? Tell me about what's, what's going on with that, and she'll go, you know, I have no idea, but it'll tell me what to do.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:33 Yeah, it's, it's like a lot of authors talk about the fact that their characters write the stories right, which, which makes a lot of sense. So with all that you've done, are you writing a memoir? By any chance, I   Bill Ratner ** 1:00:46 am writing a memoir, and writing has been interesting. I've been doing it for many years. I got it was my graduate thesis from University of California Riverside Palm Desert.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:57 My wife was a UC Riverside graduate. Oh, hi. Well, they   Bill Ratner ** 1:01:01 have a low residency program where you go for 10 days in January, 10 days in June. The rest of it's online, which a lot of universities are doing, low residency programs for people who work and I got an MFA in creative writing nonfiction, had a book called parenting for the digital age, the truth about media's effect on children. And was halfway through it, the publisher liked it, but they said you got to double the length. So I went back to school to try to figure out how to double the length. And was was able to do it, and decided to move on to personal memoir and personal storytelling, such as goes on at the moth but a little more personal than that. Some of the material that I was reading in the memoir section of a bookstore was very, very personal and was very helpful to read about people who've gone through particular issues in their childhood. Mine not being physical abuse or sexual abuse, mine being death and loss, which is different. And so that became a focus of my graduate thesis, and many people were urging me to write a memoir. Someone said, you need to do a one man show. So I entered the Hollywood fringe and did a one man show and got good reviews and had a good time and did another one man show the next year and and so on. So But writing memoir as anybody knows, and they're probably listeners who are either taking memoir courses online or who may be actively writing memoirs or short memoir pieces, as everybody knows it, can put you through moods from absolutely ecstatic, oh my gosh, I got this done. I got this story told, and someone liked it, to oh my gosh, I'm so depressed I don't understand why. Oh, wait a minute, I was writing about such and such today. Yeah. So that's the challenge for the memoir is for the personal storyteller, it's also, you know, and it's more of a challenge than it is for the reader, unless it's bad writing and the reader can't stand that. For me as a reader, I'm fascinated by people's difficult stories, if they're well   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:24 told well, I know that when in 2002 I was advised to write a book about the World Trade Center experiences and all, and it took eight years to kind of pull it all together. And then I met a woman who actually I collaborated with, Susie Florey, and we wrote thunder dog. And her agent became my agent, who loved the proposal that we sent and actually got a contract within a week. So thunder dog came out in 2011 was a New York Times bestseller, and very blessed by that, and we're working toward the day that it will become a movie still, but it'll happen. And then I wrote a children's version of it, well, not a children's version of the book, but a children's book about me growing up in Roselle, growing up the guide dog who was with me in the World Trade Center, and that's been on Amazon. We self published it. Then last year, we published a new book called Live like a guide dog, which is all about controlling fear and teaching people lessons that I learned prior to September 11. That helped me focus and remain calm.   Bill Ratner ** 1:04:23 What happened to you on September 11,   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:27 I was in the World Trade Center. I worked on the 78th floor of Tower One.   Bill Ratner ** 1:04:32 And what happened? I mean, what happened to you?   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:36 Um, nothing that day. I mean, well, I got out. How did you get out? Down the stairs? That was the only way to go. So, so the real story is not doing it, but why it worked. And the real issue is that I spent a lot of time when I first went into the World Trade Center, learning all I could about what to do in an emergency, talking to police, port authorities. Security people, emergency preparedness people, and also just walking around the world trade center and learning the whole place, because I ran an office for a company, and I wasn't going to rely on someone else to, like, lead me around if we're going to go to lunch somewhere and take people out before we negotiated contracts. So I needed to know all of that, and I learned all I could, also realizing that if there ever was an emergency, I might be the only one in the office, or we might be in an area where people couldn't read the signs to know what to do anyway. And so I had to take the responsibility of learning all that, which I did. And then when the planes hit 18 floors above us on the other side of the building, we get we had some guests in the office. Got them out, and then another colleague, who was in from our corporate office, and I and my guide dog, Roselle, went to the stairs, and we started down. And   Bill Ratner ** 1:05:54 so, so what floor did the plane strike?   Michael Hingson ** 1:05:58 It struck and the NOR and the North Tower, between floors 93 and 99 so I just say 96 okay, and you were 20 floors down, 78 floors 78 so we were 18 floors below, and   Bill Ratner ** 1:06:09 at the moment of impact, what did you think?   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:13 Had no idea we heard a muffled kind of explosion, because the plane hit on the other side of the building, 18 floors above us. There was no way to know what was going on. Did you feel? Did you feel? Oh, the building literally tipped, probably about 20 feet. It kept tipping. And then we actually said goodbye to each other, and then the building came back upright. And then we went,   Bill Ratner ** 1:06:34 really you so you thought you were going to die?   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:38 David, my colleague who was with me, as I said, he was from our California office, and he was there to help with some seminars we were going to be doing. We actually were saying goodbye to each other because we thought we were about to take a 78 floor plunge to the street, when the building stopped tipping and it came back. Designed to do that by the architect. It was designed to do that, which is the point, the point.   Bill Ratner ** 1:07:02 Goodness, gracious. And then did you know how to get to the stairway?   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:04 Oh, absolutely. And did you do it with your friend? Yeah, the first thing we did, the first thing we did is I got him to get we had some guests, and I said, get him to the stairs. Don't let him take the elevators, because I knew he had seen fire above us, but that's all we knew. And but I said, don't take the elevators. Don't let them take elevators. Get them to the stairs and then come back and we'll leave. So he did all that, and then he came back, and we went to the stairs and started down.   Bill Ratner ** 1:07:33 Wow. Could you smell anything?   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:36 We smelled burning jet fuel fumes on the way down. And that's how we figured out an airplane must have hit the building, but we had no idea what happened. We didn't know what happened until the until both towers had collapsed, and I actually talked to my wife, and she's the one who told us how to aircraft have been crashed into the towers, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth, at that time, was still missing over Pennsylvania. Wow. So you'll have to go pick up a copy of thunder dog. Goodness. Good. Thunder dog. The name of the book is Thunder dog, and the book I wrote last year is called Live like a guide dog. It's le

It's Friday, October 24th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Spanish priest acquitted on hate crime charges for criticizing radical Islam A Spanish Catholic priest who was facing three years in prison for making critical remarks about radical Islam nearly a decade ago has been acquitted, reports The Christian Post. The advocacy organization Abogados Cristianos announced in an X post last Friday that “The Malaga Court [acquitted] Pastor Custodio [Ballester], prosecuted for criticizing Islam: there is no hate crime.” In 2016, Ballester was charged with saying, “Islam does not allow for dialogue. You either believe or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another.” The Rev. Franklin Graham praised Ballester's acquittal as “good news” in an X post on Monday.  A report published last month by the Spanish Observatory for Religious Freedom and Conscience found that 69% of the attacks were directed at Christians, while instances of antisemitism grew by 38% compared to 2023 and had increased by 867% since 2022. Senator Schumer's shutdown flip flop, afraid of an AOC challenge Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate, has historically opposed government shutdowns. He opposed a shutdown on October 16, 2013. SCHUMER: “What if I persuaded my caucus to say I'm going to shut the government down. I'm going to not pay our bills unless I get my way. It's a politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis.” Then, Senator Schumer opposed a government shutdown on January 25, 2019. SCHUMER: “Shutting down government over a policy difference is self-defeating. We can never hold American workers hostage again.” And, as recently as March 13th of this year, Senator Schumer opposed a government shutdown then. SCHUMER:  “While the [Continuing Resolution] bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.” But now, Democratic Senator Schumer is leading the fight for the government shutdown, driven by the AOC/Sanders wing of his party. Listen to CNN's John Berman's introduction of his recent appearance. BERMAN: “Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who joins us now from Capitol Hill. Senator, I was saying that every Republican who's gone on TV the last, what nine hours or so, has called this the ‘Schumer Shutdown.” Later, Berman said this. BERMAN: “Everyone in Congress right now, on the Republican side, is really pointing the finger squarely at you personally. And one of the things they're saying is, this is about politics in New York, that you might face a primary from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.” In fact, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said as much. KENNEDY: “Senator Schumer, his relationship with the truth is very casual. The truth is that this is a political shutdown. Senator Schumer is nervous as a pregnant nun about losing his re-election to the socialist wing of his party led by Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, which is in control. “Now, we will eventually come out of this shutdown. Here's how I think it will happen. Senator Schumer is a smart man. He's been around a long time. His first car was a chariot. Washington is all he's ever known his entire life. He knows he's on shaky ground here in terms of policy. “So, here's how I think it'll end. Schumer will go to six or eight of his colleagues, Democrats of course, and say, ‘I want you to vote to lift the shutdown.' He'll say, ‘I can't vote with you. I've got to appear to be tough. I may even have to criticize you, but' -- wink wink, nod nod – ‘I'm trying to make the loon wing of the party love me, but you bail me out here.' But he's got to be careful with that, because he doesn't want it to look like a mutiny, because then he looks even weaker.” CA teacher to ICE: “They are not the only ones with guns in this city.” The Department of Homeland Security will refer a California teacher for a possible criminal probe after he made threatening comments toward immigration officials, reports WorldNetDaily.com. Listen to Los Angeles Unified School District history teacher Ron Gochez. GOCHEZ: “Don't forget where you're standing. This is South Central Los Angeles. They are not the only ones with guns in this city. They're not the only ones that don't forget that. And I don't say that because we're calling it for violence. I'm saying that because the people have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen with AR-15s and other military rifles.” Gochez founded the Los Angeles chapter of Union del Barrio—a revolutionary socialist movement that demands an end to capitalism and open borders from Alaska to Chile. The group sees communist dictators like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Che Guevara as heroes. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said that the teacher's comments endanger ICE agents' lives. New Bible story book injects sexual perversion, gender confusion, and woke ideology And finally, a new children's book of Bible stories claims that the Bible has "made-up" stories and events in its pages, drawing criticism from Focus on the Family, reports The Christian Post. The Just Love Story Bible, authored by Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis and Rev. Dr. Shannon Harris, reimagines 52 stories from the Old and New Testaments, weaving in sexual perversion, gender confusion, and woke ideology. For them, the Bible is not authoritative; they are. In the book's introduction to Genesis, the woke authors, who are part of the leftist Presbyterian Church (USA), write, "Some of the stories had made-up characters and events. Others were about real people and things that really happened." Harris, an associate dean at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City, explained her motivation behind the project at a Q&A event for the book in September. HARRIS: “I wanted to do this project with Jackie, because when my kids were little, it was really hard to find a children's Bible that I didn't feel like I had to change some of the words. Like there might be stories that talked about God, like God was a boy (laughing) and only used kind of male language for God. Or they might tell a story, but they wouldn't tell enough about the story to understand whether it was about a made-up character or a real person.” Later, to the audience of parents and young children, she read an excerpt from her woke Just Love Story Bible in which she reinterpreted the plagues and other punishments that God had sent to get Pharoah's attention or the attention of His chosen people, the Jews. HARRIS: “Four natural disasters, one after the other. Well, the prophet and the people thought they were to blame. They thought that the disasters were God's way of punishing them. They didn't know that when bad things happen, like swarms of bugs, floods, earthquakes or tornadoes, it's not God's punishment, but it's easy to worry when bad things happen, to feel like God's angry at you, even when that's not true.” Inspired by the Joel 2:28 passage, Harris also imagined what a young person might envision. HARRIS: “So what did the young people prophesy back then? Perhaps one of them bravely announced to the prophets, priests and people: ‘I don't believe that our loving God sends terrible things to teach us a lesson.'” In an op-ed published by Focus on the Family's news arm, Daily Citizen, Paul Batura warned families about The Just Love Story Bible. He said, "[T]he motives of the authors appear broader and far more dangerous than merely trumpeting diversity. They also want to sow seeds of doubt in children's minds that the events depicted in the Bible are literally true, including the Resurrection.” He added, "Questioning the accuracy and authority of the Bible is hardly a new exercise, but so blatantly and openly selling such a heretical interpretation of God's Word to children undermines God's sacred Word in a particularly dangerous and destructive way." Indeed, 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says, “For a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."  Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, October 24th, in the year of our Lord 2025. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

A whistleblower inside the Los Angeles Unified School District has come forward with shocking evidence — stacks of left-wing flyers, posters, and propaganda pulled straight from teachers’ lounges across the district. These weren’t lesson plans or student materials… they were political rally cries — “No Kings,” “Workers Unite,” “Protest!” — the kind of radical messaging you’d expect from activist groups, not classrooms. Grant Stinchfield exposes how these angry liberal educators are using taxpayer-funded schools to push their ideology, not teach America’s kids. This is a deep dive into the political indoctrination hiding behind classroom doors — and why parents must take back control of what’s being taught in our schools. GrantLovesGold.com Get20Now.com www.EnergizedHealth.com/Grant www.PatriotMobile.com/Grant TWC.Health/Grant Use "Grant" for 10% Off See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following Trump's second term in office, the Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to uphold their student and community protections while also adding new resources such as legal advice and support hotlines to their plan. LA plans to put their students' education and protection first. KCSB's Fiona Anderson has the story.

Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District., joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how the district has worked to turn around lower performing schools.

In this week's episode, Sharona and Boz sit down with Marc Aronson, Dean of Students at Cheshire Academy in Cheshire, CT. This fascinating conversations begins with grading what matters but goes into innovation ways of approaching honors classes, using authentic assessments in the form of final demonstrations of learning, and finding ways to use the external motivations of grades to grade things beyond discipline content and practices. LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Cheshire AcademyResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite...

A push to expand publicly-funded school choice programs across the country is gaining steam. In only three decades, the practice has grown dramatically and President Trump is supportive of the idea. But what effect do school choice policies have on the K-12 education system as a whole? And where do charter schools fit in this debate? In this discussion from the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, three education experts from various perspectives report on what the data is telling us and highlight the nuances we should be considering. Alberto Carvalho is the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest district in the country. Education journalist Cara Fitzpatrick reports for Chalkbeat and is the author of “The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America.” And Tommy Schultz is the CEO of the American Federation for Children, which advocates for school choice. CBS co-anchor John Dickerson moderates the conversation, which was recorded in June.

(Tuesday Aug 12,2025)Amy King & Neil Saavedra join Bill for Handel on the News. Trump declared federal control of DC police and deployed the National Guard. Los Angeles Unified School District plans new bus routes, safe zones to keep students safe from immigration raids. Judge won't unseal Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts. Trump extends China tariff truce by three months.

Sharona sits down with MathFest 2025 attendees Drew Lewis, Jennifer Moorehouse, Lipika Deka, Jennifer Narang, and Cory Wilson to discuss what we heard on the ground at this year's conference. From people presenting their experiences to a variety of data and forward looking opportunities, Alt Grading is making the switch to mainstream!LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!21 – Alt Grading in Large Chemistry Classes: An Interview with Dr. Eden TannerResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock...

ICYMI: Hour One of ‘Later, with Mo'Kelly' Presents – Updates on the LADWP service outage…PLUS – A look at the top stolen vehicles in the United States AND the Los Angeles Unified School District's fleet of all-electric buses, complete with Wi-Fi - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app & YouTube @MrMoKelly

In this episode, Sharona and Boz explore a recent article from EdWeek in which a middle school principal shares the motivations behind a switch to standards-based grading as well as the initial failures and eventual successes of that move. Join us as we talk about the tension between short term and long term results, the "why" of the switch to alternative grading practices, and the challenges with proper measurement both inside the classroom and outside of it.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!ResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelFollow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.MusicCountry Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a

In Episode 2 of our series on Admission Nutrients, Ethan is joined by Raissa Diamante, the Director  of Admission at Harvey Mudd College, to do a deep dive into collaboration — why is it important to colleges and where does it show up in the application process? Ethan and Raissa get into, among other things: What does the admission review process look like at Harvey Mudd? Why is collaboration particularly important (spoiler: it's one of the main things they look for)? Tips for the supplemental essay (side note: it's a prompt they've kept some version of over the past 15 years) via a brief analysis of a real essay from a past student What does Raissa think about students using Chat-GPT / generative AI for their essays? What do students miss or get wrong about the college admission process? Can students write about race in their college application essays? And more!   Raissa Diamante is the Executive Director of Admission at Harvey Mudd College (HMC) in Claremont, CA. She grew up in a mixed immigration status home and is a proud product of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Raissa believes in the power of data in storytelling as a means to operationalizing change. She takes pride in developing and implementing strategies that help make institutions more representative of our society. Prior to HMC, Raissa was the Director of Multicultural Recruitment at Swarthmore College and worked at the Office for Multicultural Affairs at Barnard College. She earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley and her Master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. In her spare time, she enjoys playing with her child, working on puzzles, and being an introvert.   We hope you enjoy!   Play-by-Play 2:50 – What are some of Raissa's roles and identities?  9:02 – What goes on behind-the-scenes in Raissa's office at Harvey Mudd?  16:50 – Why is collaboration important, from Harvey Mudd's perspective? 21:24 – Where do collaborative qualities show up in the application?  23:18 – What are some qualities of collaboration that students might not think of? 31:28 – Analyzing a past supplemental essay prompt for Harvey Mudd   41:07 – What does Raissa think about students using Chat-GPT / generative AI for their essays? 48:35 – What do students miss or get wrong about the college admission process? 50:56 – What are some ways that Harvey Mudd is approaching access and equity?  54:32 – Can students write about race in their college application essays? 58:31 – Wrap up and closing thoughts     Resources: CEG Podcast Episode 605 - Navigating College Applications with AI (Part 1): How High School Teachers and Students Use Tools Like ChatGPT Navigating College Applications with AI  | foundry10 College Essay Guy's Personal Statement Resources College Essay Guy's College Application Hub  

The Los Angeles Unified School District created its own 457(b) plan, and it's excellent. It has won not one, but two awards. We speak with two members of the LAUSD Retirement Investment Advisory Committee who were and are instrumental to its success.   LAUSD 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan Fund Lineup Learned by Being Burned (short pod series about K-12 403(b) issues) 403bwise.org Meridian Wealth Management Nothing presented or discussed is to be construed as investment or tax advice. This can be secured from a vetted Certified Financial Planner (CFP®).