Anne Lutz Fernandez is a former marketer, investment banker, and recently retired English teacher. Her 2015 book Schooled, is a collection of stories from teachers across the US about their experiences and challenges in US...

Nerd Farmer Podcast

The Right Wing War on History and Speech in Schools — Anne Lutz Fernandez, author of “Schooled” — #142

Claudia Rowe is a long-time journalist, currently writing opinion pieces for our friends at Crosscut. She recently published a piece detailing how Seattle Public Schools has shed 2000 students during the pandemic to private schools,...

How Seattle Public Schools Managed to Lose 2000 Students — Claudia Rowe, Crosscut — #141

This conversation is the final of a series of episodes we will be releasing along with the ladies from IWL in preparation for what will likely be another very weird school year. This time we’re...

Back-to-School Perspectives — Silong and Harlem Chhun — #140

This conversation is part of a series of episodes we will be releasing along with the ladies from IWL in preparation for what will likely be another very weird school year.  Robin Lake is the...

Back-to-School Perspectives — Robin Lake, Center on Reinventing Public Education — #139

This conversation is part of a series of episodes we will be releasing along with the ladies from IWL in preparation for what will likely be another very weird school year. Bill Hanawalt is the...

Back-to-School Perspectives — Bill Hanawalt, Degrees of Change and Candidate for Tacoma School Board — #138

Last week Pierce County held its August primary. Turnout was weak and progressive candidates struggled locally and across the state. This is a familiar pattern in odd-year elections in Washington: turnout is low, but the...

Getting to the Root of and Fixing Low Voter Turnout — Sharlett Mena and Darryl Crews, Voter TurnUP — #137

In my Government & Politics classes, I have taught students about debt and deficits in a doctrinal way for nearly a decade. But recently I have started to question what I (and likely you) learned...

Getting to Know Modern Monetary Theory (MMT): Nerd Farmer Academy — Dr. Fadhel Kaboub, Denison University — #136

Everywhere you look, there is an endless parade of stories warning us about the dangers of inflation. This is a familiar song, for most of my adult life, in particular online, inflation hawks have been...

Understanding Inflation and Lessons from the 70s Oil Shocks — Bill Dickens, BJNJ — #135

Andrew Ujifusa is an assistant editor at Ed Week. He recently reported on the Critical Race Theory (CRT) moral panic sweeping much of the country and the teacher censorship bills that are being proposed in...

On the Critical Race Theory Moral Panic — Andrew Ujifusa, Ed Week — #134 

Dr. Amy Young is a professor of media studies at Pacific Lutheran University. She specializes in rhetoric and is working on a forthcoming book examining the evolution of conservative rhetoric. Her manuscript takes us back...

Understanding Conservative Rhetoric: Nerd Farmer Academy — Amy Young, Pacific Lutheran University — #133

Reggie Middleton is an investor and expert in the fields of DeFi (decentralized finance) and cryptocurrency. He made his name by investing in the real estate market in the early 2000s and then shorting much...

On the Power and Potential of Blockchain — Reggie Middleton, Founder Veritaseum

On the evening of March 3, 2020, Manuel Ellis, a thirty three year-old Black man, was murdered by police in South Tacoma. For the last year, local police via the media and official statements have...

On the Charging Documents in the Murder of Manuel Ellis, Kari Plog — KNKX 88.5 FM — #131

Dr. Tiffany Smith is a former K-12 educator, podcaster, and story collector. While working overseas she taught in Morocco and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Her graduate dissertation is about the push and...

On Black American Teachers Plying their Trade Overseas, Dr. Tiffany Lachelle Smith, University of Minnesota – #130

On April 23, 2021, Derek Chauvin, the police officer that murdered George Floyd, was convicted in a Minnesota court. Two months prior to Floyd’s killing, in March of 2020, another Black man named Manuel Ellis...

Justice for Manuel Ellis and Accountability for Police, Jamika Scott – #129

Covid has disrupted every aspect of our society, but its impact on education may be its most long lasting. Pierce County is blessed with a wealth of higher ed institutions: UWT, Evergreen Tacoma, University of...

Revisioning Higher Ed in a Post-Pandemic World – Allan Belton, PLU and Ivan Harrell, Tacoma Community College – #128

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