Nerd Farmer Podcast

In late January, I happened to be in Shanghai at a Model UN Conference when the Corona Outbreak began in Wuhan Province. Since then I have been watching events unfold in China and elsewhere. Throughout the last two months, I’ve been struck by two things:

• The comprehensive nature of the response in China: tens of millions of people were literally cut off from the world — imposed social distancing, mass in home quarantine, large scale deployment of chemical disinfectants, etc.
• The immediate closure of schools in China and how teachers were continuing to meet the needs of their students.

I’ve tweeted a bit about the former and I took careful notes on the latter, knowing that sooner or later our time would (likely) come. On Thursday, March 4, while we were out of the country on spring break, we were notified that school would not reopen and would remain closed — for at least four weeks. Moreover, we were told that we’d commence teaching online the following Monday… WOOF. That was a three day turnaround and I was ten hours away over in Indonesia… WOOF x2.

In a matter of days, our school leadership spun up a schedule based on learnings from elsewhere and we dug into the work of teaching online. We are now in week two and I decided to sit down with a couple of colleagues and share our thoughts and learnings so far. This episode is about the whats and hows of our online teaching experiences. The IWL Podcast will have an episode about equity issues related to online teaching this Thursday.

Cast of Characters

Jordan Moog, US History and Global Studies, Lute

Michele Curley, French, tri-lingual Canadian: English, French, and Swahili (yeah, she’s that dude)

Going Further

I’ve been cataloguing my experience teaching online thus far in this thread

Socials

Jordan Moog – Twitter

Michele Curley – Twitter

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??? NEW Theme Music from Producer Doug ???

The Rundown

She describes herself as a “Dreamer, Blerd, Educator, Disruptor of Ridiculousness, STEM & Digital Access Advocate.” Rafranz is a former math teacher, former district director of professional and digital learning, and the author of “The Missing Voices in EdTech: Bringing Diversity Into EdTech.” She came on the pod to talk about the use of technology in today’s classrooms and all the ways teachers and school systems drop the ball when it comes to implementing educational technology in an effective and equitable manner.

The Wind Down

Rafranz is a BTS aficionado; she recommends you cop their latest album: Map of the Soul: 7

Going Further

Rafranz’s 2018 CUE Keyonte

The Socials

Rafranz on Medium

@RafranzDavis

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Two-time show guest Claudia Rowe is the author of Time Out, an e-book about Willard Jimerson. Jimerson was a young black man for South Seattle who was charged as an adult, convicted of murder, and sentenced to 23 years in prison in 1994 at the age of 13. 

The Rundown

5:00: What was life like for Jimerson at Maple Lane Juvenile Detention Center. What is it like for children in juvenile detention?

10:00: Adolescent brains aren’t fully formed yet, why do we prosecute them as adults? Who does this serve? How much time is “enough?” Is race a contributing factor in sentencing? (spoiler, yes)

16:00: Day to day life in lockup…

“We send more foster children to prison than to college.”

29:00: Seattle as the second most important character in Claudia’s book, how has it changed?

36:00: Real numbers about OUR children who are in the system.

40:00: Claudia’s current projects

The Wind Down

48:00 Who should we listen to?

Going Further

Time Out (Missing Collection) by Claudia Rowe

Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett by Jennifer Gonnerman 

The Socials

@RoweReport (Twitter)  

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play and is brought to you by Alaska Airlines

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Joy Turner is a podcaster, activist, US Army Veteran, and Louisiana native, who currently works in data for Seattle Public Schools, this interview, however, is in a personal capacity. We had her on the show to share her views about the upcoming 2020 election, reparations, and a pro-black agenda for US politics. 

The Rundown

9:00: What are your priorities for 2020?

17:00: Looking into the Wealth Gap and Black Home Ownership.

21:00: What do we do with a Plurality/Winner-Take-All 2 Party system?

30:00: The Mitch McConnell Question: How do we deal with a political climate in which a senate will never do what’s best for us?

40:00: Thoughts on Buttigieg’s Douglass Plan

45:00: What are the electoral consequences of what we’re talking about here? 

The Wind Down

49:00: Who should we listen to?

This is the image of ADOS co-founder Yvette Carnell, discussed in the Wind Down

Going Further

The Douglas Plan

House Bill 40, a Congressional study on reparations

Nate on Joy’s podcast, Speak Freely

The Socials

@joy_g_turner 

@Spk_Freely 

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Currently a journalist for Daily Kos, David is an American freelance journalist and blogger. He received the National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism in 2000 for a domestic terrorism series he produced for MSNBC.com. In a previous episode, we learned that Matt Shea, a veteran member of the Washington statehouse, reportedly participated in acts of Domestic Terrorism by engaging in and helping coordinate several standoffs between federal officials and members of far-right militia and patriot movements in the Northwest. This is the second installment of the Matt Shea interviews. If you haven’t listened to episode 84, we suggest you listen to that first.

The Rundown

5:00 De-wonking “Militia” and ‘Patriot Movement’ and what it means.

7:00 Why Matt Shea and his far-right ideology is so dangerous 

16:00 How have Matt Shea and folks like him infiltrated our government?

20:00 The Three Percenters

The Wind Down

35:00 Who should we be listening to?

The Socials

@DavidNeiwert 

Going Further

Episode 84: On Matt Shea with Melissa Santos 

Matt Shea Piece

The Informant Newsletter by Nick Martin  

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play and is brought to you by Alaska Airlines

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Melissa Santos is a writer for Crosscut on the State Government beat. She is a three-time guest of the pod and on December 19 she created national news with her reporting on the activities of Representative Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley). Shea, a veteran member of the statehouse, reportedly participated in acts of Domestic Terrorism by engaging in and helping coordinate several standoffs between federal officials and members of far-right militia and patriot movements in the Northwest. 

Santos came back on the show to talk about her findings and to walk us through the details of the 108 page, near year-long investigation — which coincidentally was touched off by reporting from past show guest Jason Wilson in the Guardian.

This is a must-listen.

Related Readings

Jason Wilson in the Guardian on Shea’s leaked chats logs

Full text of the State Legislature’s investigation into Matt Shea

Santos’ December 19 article: WA Rep. Matt Shea engaged in ‘domestic terrorism,’ helped plan Malheur standoff, investigation finds

Bundyville Podcast: Season 2, The Politician

The Socials

@MelissaSantos1

@Crosscut 

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play and is brought to you by Alaska Airlines

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In December, we spoke to Seattle Times beat writer Jayda Evans, at the conclusion of her first season covering the team. She’s a long-time sports writer at the Times and new to the soccer beat. Her laugh is infectious and delightful.

We discussed her learning the soccer ropes, her Moment of the Year, Player of the Year, and Story of the Year. She also took a bathroom break during a monologue about her colleague Matt Calkins’ unfortunate opinion piece connecting Seattle Soccer fans to the attacks on “journalist” Andy Ngo. We won’t be linking to it because it’s slop, although we will link to this instead.

It was pointed out in the interview and worth pointing out here that this is an hour of two US born, black Gen Xers talking soccer together — we need more of that.

The Socials

Twitter @JaydaEvans

Going Further

Jayda at the Times

Soccer Study: A Series from Jayda

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play and is brought to you by Alaska Airlines

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Last Sunday we recorded the first-ever Nerd Farmer Live episode at the Swiss in downtown Tacoma–if you didn’t make it you missed out. In the conversation, we focused on the most important stories facing the city and the state in the coming year. A special shout out to all the Channel 253 Members that came through.

Cast of Characters:

• Will James, KNKX on homelessness in Tacoma
• Laurie Jinkins, Speaker of the House, on the 2020 State Legislative Session

Speaker Jinkins broke some news that evening, stating one of her first actions this session is going to be to address the situation over Rep. Matt Shea and his involvement with violent, far-right organizations. We’ll have more on that story in the coming year.

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play and is brought to you by Alaska Airlines

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Yesterday, Channel 253 attended the press conference announcing the sale of Reign FC to Olympique Lyonnais (OL). After the press conference, we huddled in the Mauro Rosales Suite at Estadio Cheney to digest the day’s news.

Disclaimer: I think it’s important that men engage seriously with women’s sports, that said we realize this podcast is three dudes talking about women’s soccer, but we didn’t feel like going “Hey, Megan (Oyster or Rapinoe) you wanna go talk soccer in a suite with us…” like a bunch of creeps.

Cast of Characters:

• Andrew Hammond, Tacoma News Tribune, Flounder B-Team
• Steve Ketelsen, Flounders B-Team

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play and is brought to you by Alaska Airlines.

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Zahava Stadler is the Director of Policy for EdBuild. Zahava believes that child poverty and community economic health are at the root of the largest problems facing American public education, and she is excited that EdBuild is refocusing the policy conversation on these fundamental issues.

Zahava leads policy research and analysis at EdBuild. Before joining EdBuild, she worked with the School District of Philadelphia on its strategic planning process, completed an Education Pioneers fellowship at TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project), and conducted graduate research on issues of educational equity, student disadvantage, and school finance. She began her career in education at Innovative Schools, a nonprofit organization in Wilmington, Delaware, working with school districts and charter schools on human capital issues.

Zahava holds master’s degrees in public administration and education policy from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University.

The Rundown

4:00 What are the borders of school districts and what do they mean for school funding.

7:30 Where does the money come from in different districts?

13:00 How is Vermont doing so well?

21:30 Student Based vs Resourced Based Systems

26:00 School District Secession

28:30 The Memphis Story

The Wind Down

46:30 Watching, Listening, Reading

49:00 Katie Downs Question

The Socials

Twitter @ZahavaEdBuild

Twitter: @EdBuild

Going Further

Fractured: The Accelerating Breakdown of America’s School Districts

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

EdBuild.org

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play and is brought to you by Alaska Airlines.

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member.

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