Be a Better Ally: Critical Conversations for K12 Educators

What does real allyship look like in a classroom, a staff room, a school community? Be a Better Ally helps K-12 teachers and school leaders build inclusive classrooms where every student feels they belong — without slogans, scripts, or shame. Host Tricia Friedman (Director of Shifting Schools) sits down with the authors, researchers, and educators shaping these conversations to explore student identity, belonging, school culture, media literacy, and the digital lives of young people. Each episode leaves you with something to try, question, or read next. 280+ episodes of critical conversations for anyone who believes schools should be places where everyone gets to become themselves.

Be a Better Ally: Critical Conversations for K12 Educators is a education podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 296 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Be a Better Ally: Critical Conversations for K12 Educators, a education show with 296 episodes published.

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  Episode #378

  Be Curious, Not Judgmental: Cristo Fernández on Joy, Teamwork, and Trying Again

  Jul 8, 202621 minS0

  <p>You may know Cristo Fernandez as Danny Rojas from Ted Lasso, but this conversation reaches far beyond one beloved role.</p> <p>In this episode, Cristo talks with Tricia about dreaming big, trying again after failure, staying generous, and remembering that we all have something powerful to bring to the table. From his early life in Guadalajara to his years in football, acting, storytelling, and now children's books, Cristo reflects on the people, setbacks, and second chances that shaped his path.</p> <p>For educators and school leaders, this conversation is a reminder that culture is built in small...

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  Episode #377

  A better understanding of who we are with Katie Kennedy

  Jul 2, 202623 minS0

  What does it mean to teach the Declaration of Independence as more than a document students memorize? In this episode, Tricia speaks with historian and author Katie Kennedy about her new book on the Declaration of Independence, the world that produced it, and why young people need more than dates, vocabulary, and simplified civic narratives. Kennedy invites readers to see the Declaration as a living historical text: political, philosophical, literary, flawed, hopeful, and deeply human. Together, Tricia and Katie discuss how educators can help students slow down with primary sources, ask better questions about evidence, and understand history as something...

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  Be a Better Ally: Critical Conversations for K12 Educators

  Beyond Polarization: Helping Students Make Sense of America with Colin Woodard

  Jun 25, 202619 minS0

  <p >In this episode, we explore what it means to educate young people in a time of deep civic division. Students are growing up surrounded by polarization, yet schools remain one of the few places where people are still asked to learn and engage across differences.</p> <p >Joining the conversation is Colin Woodard, Director of Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University's Pell Center and a New York Times best-selling author. Nationhood Lab examines the stories Americans tell about identity, belonging, and what holds the country together—and how those stories shape the health of our democracy.</p> <p >We di...

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  Episode #375

  Why Trivia Isn't Trivial: Brian Boone on Curiosity, Connection, and a Great Father's Day Gift

  Jun 18, 202622 minS0

  <p>If creativity, curiosity, and connection matter to you, this episode is a good one to queue up for Father's Day weekend.</p> <p>This week, we welcome back writer and researcher Brian Boone for a conversation about trivia, fandom, and why the facts we collect are often connected to the people, places, stories, and memories we care about most.</p> <p>Brian writes across genres, but his work has a throughline: he knows how to make research feel playful, surprising, and deeply human. In this episode, he shares why "trivia is not trivial," how curiosity can become a bridge...

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  Episode #374

  Aida Salazar on Stream, Story as Technology, and the Self Beyond the Feed

  Jun 4, 202635 minS0

  <p>Award-winning author Aida Salazar joins us to discuss Stream, her new middle grade novel in verse featuring Celi and Elio, two teens sent to rural Mexico after a viral catfishing incident exposes how much of their lives has been shaped by screens.</p> <p>Salazar describes Stream as part of an unintended loose trilogy that began with The Moon Within and continued with Ultraviolet. In this new standalone story, she brings Celi and Elio together for a summer without internet, electricity, or running water. What begins as exile becomes something more complicated: a return to land, body, culture, family...

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