When I started Teach Me, Teacher in 2016, I did so with the goal to talk to great educators in my building. Season 1 of the podcast was entirely made up of the teachers I knew, and a cheap USB mic I plugged into my Mac.
Today, we have featured some of the top minds in education, such as Donalyn Miller, Kelly Gallagher, Hamish Brewer, Todd Whitaker, and Kim Bearden (among others.)
To add to this list in a major way, and to celebrate 200 episodes, I had the privilege of sitting down with Eric Weinstein—one of the major voices in the intellectual spaces of the internet. Eric Weinstein is an American commentator, the managing director of Thiel Capital, and host of The Portal podcast.
His story, and his son’s story, about being constantly overlooked, punished, and mentally abused by a system that is supposed to educate everyone, is powerful. It is a story we can all learn from, use to inform our own practices, and advocate for a better tomorrow in our schools.
Drawing on the parallel between iatrogenic harm (the harm caused inadvertently by the process of treatment), and what happens when educators make wrong decisions that hurt students, Eric makes his case for looking at educational malpractice through a lens of edugenics (harm caused inadvertently in the process of teaching.)
At the heart of this talk, is an honest look at what the brightest kids suffer through in school, and how many schools do not serve the neurodiverse in meaningful ways. This 2 hour discussion goes into both our histories, how they look similar and different, and how the many problems in education today may be the driving force for meaningful change from those who care the most… TEACHERS.
This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and their professional book, Risk. Fail. Rise. A Teacher’s Guide to Learning From Mistakes by Colleen Cruz.
You’ve likely heard the adage, ‘Everyone makes mistakes.’ But knowing why we make mistakes can help us learn from them 
and improve situations once we’ve made them.
In Risk. Fail. Rise. teachers will learn how to address their own teaching mistakes, model with their own mistake-making, and improve their responses to others’ mistakes. Colleen Cruz shares what research says on mistakes as part of learning and what that means for teaching.
If we can create school cultures where we talk honestly about mistakes, then we can grow and create opportunities for children to grow in all the ways they deserve. And we deserve those opportunities too.
Risk. Fail. Rise. is available as a book and ebook. Look for the audiobook in early 2021. To learn more visit Heinemann.com.
