Podcast Deep Dive

***I need you to listen to two of these podcasts in their entirety and respond to them following the guidelines below. I also need you to connect to at least four readings and three presentations, all of which I’ll send to you in a dropbox link. The connections don’t have to be so intricate, just make sure you do it for at least four readings and three presentations. The podcasts vary in length, but could both be listened to in less than an hour if you chose, for example, Food Fight and Into New Rules for School. I’ll let you decide what two podcasts you think would be the best for the essay, but just be aware some of the podcasts like Harper High School have three acts and you’d have to listen to all of them (still only about an hour-long podcast.) It should total 6-8 pages total with two individual reflections (~4 pages each) for each podcast, with a total of 7 connections between the two. Please use MLA format and create a citation page at the end, Thanks.***

You should listen to two of the following podcasts in their entirety (unless otherwise noted) and write a critical response reflection. That is, you will listen to two podcast episodes from the list and write two short reflections (3-5 pages) about each. In your response, you should engage the main ideas presented in the podcasts using the course texts and Book Club presentations as sources. Please don’t waste valuable space and time providing me with a podcast summary—I’ve listened to them all. Given the content of the podcasts and our course experience, I expect you to connect ideas from multiple course texts, films, and Book Club presentations. Your task here is to respond to the ideas presented in the podcasts critically while also clearly demonstrating your thorough understanding of the course material.Podcast List

1. ) Harper High School (pt. 1) (Links to an external site.) – This American Life Podcast

We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances.

2.) Harper High School (pt. 2) (Links to an external site.)– This American Life Podcast

We pick up where we left off last week (Links to an external site.) in our second hour from Harper High School in Chicago. We find out if a shooting in the neighborhood will derail the school’s Homecoming game and dance. We hear the origin story of one of Harper’s gangs. And we ask a group of teenagers: where do you get your guns?

3.) Struggling School or Sanctuary? (Links to an external site.) – Code Switch Podcast

Schools close for all kinds of complicated reasons, from demographic changes to the impact of federal laws like No Child Left Behind to sputtering state budgets. There are lots of arguments over who’s to blame and whether a school’s closure was a good thing or a bad thing. But here’s one simple fact: School closures disproportionately affect black children.

On the Code Switch podcast, we dig into the story of one such school, in Wilkinsburg, Pa., a tiny Pittsburgh suburb where the town’s only public joint middle and high school recently closed. Nearly all of Wilkinsburg Jr. and Sr. High’s students were black and eligible for free and reduced lunch. The school wasn’t meeting state performance standards and had been hemorrhaging students for years.

4.) Carlos Doesn’t Remember (Links to an external site.) – Revisionist History Podcast

Carlos is a brilliant student from South Los Angeles. He attends an exclusive private school on a academic scholarship. He is the kind of person the American meritocracy is supposed to reward. But in the hidden details of his life lies a cautionary tale about how hard it is to rise from the bottom to the top—and why the American school system, despite its best efforts, continues to leave an extraordinary amount of talent on the table.

5.) Food Fight (Links to an external site.) – Revisionist History Podcast

Bowdoin College in Maine and Vassar College in upstate New York are roughly the same size. They compete for the same students. Both have long traditions of academic excellence. But one of those schools is trying hard to close the gap between rich and poor in American society—and paying a high price for its effort. The other is making that problem worse—and reaping rewards as a result.

6.) Decolonizing the Mind (Links to an external site.) – To the Best of Our Knowledge Podcast

Colonization in Africa was much more than a land grab. It was a project to replace — and even erase — local cultures. To label them inferior. Music, arts, literature and of course language. In other words, it permeated everything. So how do you undo that? How do you unlearn what you’ve been forced to learn? In this hour, produced in partnership with the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (Links to an external site.) (CHCI) and Africa is a Country (Links to an external site.) — we learn what it means to decolonize the mind.

7.) Saving a Language You’re Learning to Speak (Links to an external site.) – Code Switch Podcast

Every two weeks, a language dies with its last speaker. That was almost the fate of the Hawaiian language — until a group of young people decided to create a strong community of Hawaiian speakers — as they were learning to speak it them themselves.

8.) “C” is for Culture War (Links to an external site.) – Today Explained Podcast

Big Bird got vaccinated, an Asian American Muppet moved in, and conservatives got really mad at Sesame Street. How has Sesame Street framed diversity and inclusion in its programming for kids? What challenges have they experienced from the Left and the Right? What does it all mean?

9.) Into New Rules for School (Links to an external site.) – Into America Podcast

When the coronavirus pushed school online, discipline went with it. Educators have been handing out Zoom suspensions and other remote consequences to keep the virtual class a safe and respectful learning environment. Some experts worry these types of disciplines will have a disproportionate impact on students of color. Before the pandemic, Black students were three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than white students. Overall, Black, Hispanic, and Native children are punished more harshly than white children for similar school infractions.

10.) The Culture Inside (Links to an external site.) – Invisibilia Podcast

Is there a part of ourselves that we don’t acknowledge, that we don’t even have access to and that might make us ashamed if we encountered it? We begin with a woman whose left hand takes instructions from a different part of her brain. It hits her, and knocks cigarettes out of her hand and makes her wonder: who is issuing the orders? Is there some other “me”in there I don’t know about? We then ask this question about one of the central problems of our time: racism. Scientific research has shown that even well meaning people operate with implicit bias – stereotypes and attitudes we are not fully aware of that nonetheless shape our behavior towards people of color. We examine the Implicit Association Test, a widely available psychological test that popularized the notion of implicit bias. And we talk to people who are tackling the question, critical to so much of our behavior: what does it take to change these deeply embedded concepts? Can it even be done?

11.) Curb Cuts (Links to an external site.) – 99% Invisible Podcast

If you live in an American city and you don’t personally use a wheelchair, it’s easy to overlook the small ramp at most intersections, between the sidewalk and the street. Today, these curb cuts (Links to an external site.) are everywhere, but fifty years ago — when an activist named Ed Roberts (Links to an external site.)was young — most urban corners featured a sharp drop-off, making it difficult for him and other wheelchair users to get between blocks without assistance…