PODCAST · education
Please Speak Freely
by Eric Gurna
Honest Conversations About Youth Development & Education
Episodes
-
Episode 42: Dorothy Jungels of Everett Stage Company School
When I met Dorothy Jungels, I knew immediately that I wanted to spend more time with her. As the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Everett Company Stage School, Dorothy is part of an amazing “mom and pop” nonprofit community arts organization, along with many members of her family and…
more -
Episode 41: Dr. Nancy Rappaport, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist!
For a long time, I have been concerned about how young children are given drugs like Ritalin and Adderal. So when I saw Nancy Rappaport‘s recent Washington Post article, “We Are Overmedicating America’s Poorest Kids,” it caught my eye. In this episode, I talk to Dr. Rappaport about many issues...
-
Episode 40: Carla Sanger of LA’s BEST Afterschool Enrichment Program
One of the great things about doing this podcast is that I get to meet awesome new people. The other great thing is that I get to sit down with some of my favorite people and talk to them for an hour or so, and this is one of those episodes. Carla Sanger, the President and CEO of LA’s BEST is...
-
Episode 39: A Memorial to theGreat Richard Murphy
This is a very special episode of Please Speak Freely, a memorial to the great Richard Murphy. Murphy was a friend and a mentor to me and countless others, and he passed away on Valentine’s Day, 2013. He was a true lion in the field of youth development. Among many other accomplishments, he…
more -
Episode 38: Jaime Casap, Google’s Global Education Evangelist
Thanks to support from the National AfterSchool Association (NAA), I got a chance to interview Jaime Casap at the 2014 NAA National Convention where he was the keynote speaker. Jaime is the Global Education Evangelist at Google, a company you may have heard of. In his role, he is responsible for...
-
Episode 37: Baratunde Thurston, Comedian, Entrepreneur and Author of How to Be Black!
Baratunde Thurston is the CEO and co-founder of Cultivated Wit, a design, media, and technology company. I came across Baratunde’s book, How to Be Black, in a used bookstore last summer. It caught my eye because the title is so funny, and because I recognized his name, probably from his days as...
-
Episode 36: Pasi Sahlberg, Author of Finnish Lessons and Visiting Professor at Harvard!
If you’ve been following the national or international news about education policy over the past few years, you’ve probably heard that Finland is a big educational success story. What’s amazing about the Finnish story is that the Finnish have basically done everything the opposite of the current...
-
Episode 35: Selma James, Activist and Founder of International Wages for Housework Campaign!
Selma James is a freedom fighter, fighting against racism, and fighting for human rights for all, especially women. She is best known for the International Wages for Housework Campaign, launched in 1972. She has continued her fierce activism all these years, and her most recent book, Sex, Race…
more -
Episode 34: Jesse Hagopian, Teacher & Co-Organizer of Garfield High School Test Boycott
Last year, people across the country were inspired by the solidarity of the faculty, students, and parents at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. The teachers there were tired of being forced to give a test they didn’t believe in, and they decided to do something about it. They boycotted...
-
Episode 33: Aaron Regunberg of the Providence Student Union
If you love zombies, you’re going to love this episode! I talked with Aaron Regunberg, Executive Director of the Providence Student Union (PSU). PSU became well known nationally last year when they led a zombie marchthrough the downtown of Providence, RI to call attention to the “zombification”…
more -
Episode 32: Kevin Coval and Jamila Woods
Just in time for this week’s 16th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival (held in Chicago this year), I spoke with the founder of Louder Than a Bomb: the Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, Kevin Coval, Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors, as well as Jamila Woods, a poet,...
-
Episode 31: Midwest Afterschool Science Academy
We are pleased to present this special episode of Please Speak Freely, sponsored by Project Liftoff and recorded live at the Midwest Afterschool Science Academy, on March 12-14, 2013 in Kansas City. This episode is hosted by my colleague Jennifer Brady, and features conversations with Jeff…
more -
Episode 30: Kristin Wartman, Journalist & Author of NY Times Op-Ed, “Pay People to Cook At Home”
On May 10, 2013, I read an Op-Ed in the New York Times that really struck a chord. The article was titled, “Pay People to Cook at Home,” and in the piece my guest Kristin Wartman argues that the government should provide compensation to parents of young children to support parents in providing...
-
Episode 29: Marty Blank of Institute for Educational Leadership and Coalition for Community Schools
Almost fifty years go, the Institute for Educational Leadership was formed to bring together leaders from diverse sectors to focus on building partnerships for educational success. Around that same time, Marty Blank was a VISTA volunteer in the Missouri Bootheel, and began his lifelong mission…
more -
Episode 28: Michelle Yanche of Good Shepherd Services
First, let me apologize for the extra long delay between episodes of Please Speak Freely! While I have intentionally ignored the good advice I get to put the podcast on a set schedule in order to keep it from becoming a chore with an arbitrary deadline, I do intend to release a new episode at…
more -
Episode 27: Tony Smith, Superintendent of Oakland Unified School District
I sat down with Tony Smith, Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District at the School’s Out Washington Bridge Conference in Seattle, WA on October 9, 2012. Before we talked, Dr. Smith copresented a keynote for the conference with Jakada Imani, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center...
-
Episode 26: Empowering Youth Voice, Live From the Bridge Conference 2012
Communities in Schools of Spokane County Site Coordinator Sheri Frantilla discusses how to put youth in the lead as youth participant Keni Beebe and Please Speak Freely Host Eric Gurna listen. This episode was recorded live at the School’s Out Washington Bridge Conference in Seattle, WA on…
more -
Episode 25: Raffi, Children’s Troubadour and Founder of the Centre for Child Honouring
Children’s Troubadour Raffi is famous worldwide for his beautiful songs, including, “Baby Beluga,” “Bananaphone,” “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” and so many more. While I only really got to know his music when I became a father, millions of people who grew up with his music now have children of their...
-
Episode 24: Lenore Skenazy, “America’s Worst Mom” and Author of Free-Range Kids
You may know Lenore Skenazy as the woman who let her nine-year old son ride the subway alone, and was then the subject of much controversy, including this episode of the Today Show. She is now the host of the TV show, World’s Worst Mom and author of the book Free-Range Kids, where she advocates…
more -
Episode 23: Terry Peterson of the Afterschool and Community Learning Network
Many years ago when I was Director of Staff Development at LA’s BEST After School Enrichment Program in Los Angeles, we were very excited to receive a visit from the office of the U.S. Secretary of Education. That visitor was to become known by many as the Godfather of Afterschool, Dr. Terry...
-
Episode 22: Jason Yoon and Sarah Meyer of New Urban Arts
One of my favorite youth programs in the country is New Urban Arts, based in Providence, RI. This community-based program is located in a storefront, and it is one of those rare places where the practice matches the rhetoric. For this episode I interviewed Jason Yoon, Executive Director and Sarah...
-
Episode 21: Holly Delany Cole, Co-Director of Community Resource Exchange
It was a pleasure to sit down with Holly Delany Cole, Co-Director of Community Resource Exchange, a New York nonprofit consulting firm that provides strategic advice and technical services every year to more than 300 community-based nonprofit organizations confronting social issues such as…
more -
Episode 20: Jakada Imani, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
“I grew up as one of those kids who came from an ‘at risk’ background. And what made a difference for me was that I had a youth program that wasn’t just about providing me services, but that was about investing in me as a leader.” – Jakada Imani I’m happy to announce that this is the twentieth...
-
Episode 18: Will Power, Performer, Playwright and Educator
“A lot of times you come into a place and you’re going to have an influence on that school and on that institution and better the community, but your child may or may not see the fruits of that.” – Will Power This episode features a free-ranging conversation with Will Power, award-winning...
-
Episode 17: Jane Quinn, Children’s Aid Society
“We know from lots of research and from lots of experience that the work of helping young people get to productive adulthood is bigger than any one institution can take on.” – Jane Quinn This episode features Jane Quinn, Vice President and Director of National Center for Community Schools for...
-
Episode 16: Afterschool for All Challenge 2012
11th Annual Afterschool for All Challenge – from left to right: Afterschool Champions Dr. Paul Sereno and Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Texas Afterschool Youth Ambassador Yovanna Ortiz, Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant and Actor Kevin Sorbo at the “Breakfast of Champions”, May 9, 2012.…
more -
Episode 15: Marc Mannella, CEO of KIPP Philadelphia Schools
“We are trying to teach the kids that there is a way that KIPPsters act. There is a curiosity that they bring to the classroom; there is a respect that they bring to their interactions with their peers and with their teachers. We are going to be pragmatic about that approach, and we’re going to…
more -
Episode 14: Jennifer Davis | National Center on Time and Learning
Jennifer Davis, Co-Founder and President of the National Center on Time and Learning, leads a campaign to get educators and others to re-think how time is used in schools. In this episode, she describes the Expanded Learning Time (ELT) movement and responds to some of the concerns raised by…
more -
Episode 13: Hanaa Arafat of the YWCA of the City of New York
Hanaa Arafat spearheaded an appeal effort that had a big statewide impact in New York, by gently but rigorously insisting that the State maintain standards of fairness in how they dole out grants for afterschool programs “The self-reporting mechanism to document poverty [is] discriminatory…
more -
Episode 12: Brad Lupien, Co-Founder and Co-President of ARC
Brad Lupien, Co-Founder and Co-President of ARC (formerly Champions) has a million ideas for how to improve education and the lives of young people, and in this episode we got to discuss a few. “You’ve got to try lots and lots of different things and think about lots of crazy ideas and you have…
more -
Episode 10: Michael Edwards
“I’m very worried that the move towards the business is best approach, right throughout society, is eroding older traditions of solidarity and working together, and cooperation and community in the public spirit, which are the things we are going to need to get us out of the mess that we’re in.”…
more -
Episode 11: The PASEsetter Awards Celebrates Afterschool
The 2012 PASEsetter Award Winners (from right to left): Sadie Mahoney, Fabyiene Miranda, Deena Hellman, Mi Jung You, and Patrick Pinchinat.
-
Episode 8: Crystal FitzSimons
This episode of Please Speak Freely is all about food. I sat down with Crystal FitzSimons of the Food Research Action Center at the Bridge Conference in Seattle last October, and learned a lot about how school lunches, snacks and suppers are funded and provided, and the efforts being made to…
more -
Episode 9: Alfie Kohn
Alfie Kohn is a busy man, and I had to be pretty pushy to get him to agree to be a guest on Please Speak Freely. As the author of bestselling books Punished By Rewards, The Schools Our Children Deserve, Beyond Discipline and more, Mr. Kohn pretty much embodies the title of the podcast, and his…
more -
Episode 8: Blog – Let’s Focus on Healthy Food Solutions
By Rhys Powell, Founder & President, RedRabbit When I listen to these types of interviews, I cannot help but think how this is mostly a community issue and that we all need to work together to create a systemic change. I believe we can have an impact on the issues facing our society in this area…
more -
Episode 7: Rich Berlin
As a youth development organization, Rich Berlin and his team did an audacious thing – they started their own school. What began as a notion to revive baseball in the inner city grew, until Harlem RBI was a major resource to the East Harlem community, and then they founded DREAM Charter School. I...
-
Episode 6: Dr. Paul Heckman
I’ve known Dr. Paul Heckman, Associate Dean at the University of California School of Education for a long time – thirteen years ago, when I was Director of Staff Development for LA’s BEST Afterschool Enrichment Program, Paul was a consultant for LA’s BEST, and a mentor for me. I’ve learned so…
more -
Episode 5: Live from the Bridge Conference in Seattle, WA with Zach Wilson and Others
This is a special episode of Please Speak Freely, recorded live at the Bridge from School to Afterschool and Back Conference in Seattle, WA! While I have recently recorded a few more interviews that still need to be edited and put online, I wanted to get this episode up while the conference is...
-
Episode 4: Karen Pittman
I got to sit down with Karen Pittman, President and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment and a national leader and advocate for positive youth development. Ms. Pittman has received many awards and has advised the top levels of government, foundations and nonprofits on how to create programs and...
-
Episode 3: Dr. Pedro Noguera
I was pleased to speak with Dr. Pedro Noguera of New York University, who has been a leader and advocate for holistic and equitable education. Pedro Noguera has been a consistent and strong advocate for the role of community organizations and the importance of afterschool and summer learning...
-
Episode 2: Earl Martin Phalen
In this episode, I had a chance to talk with Earl Martin Phalen, who founded BELL andSummer Advantage and is the President and CEO of Reach Out and Read. BELL, which Earl founded when he was a law student, has grown to become one of the leading afterschool providers in the country, and Summer...
-
Episode 1: Alexis Menten
In our premier episode, I had a very interesting conversation with Alexis Menten, Assistant Director for Education of Asia Society. Asia Society has been leading the way in the out-of-school time field in the area of global learning and global competence. Alexis and I discussed what those terms...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Honest Conversations About Youth Development & Education
HOSTED BY
Eric Gurna
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Please Speak Freely have?
Please Speak Freely currently has 42 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Please Speak Freely about?
Honest Conversations About Youth Development & Education
How often does Please Speak Freely release new episodes?
Please Speak Freely has 42 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Please Speak Freely?
You can listen to Please Speak Freely on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Please Speak Freely?
Please Speak Freely is created and hosted by Eric Gurna.
URL copied to clipboard!