MindShift Podcast

MindShift Podcast

It’s easy to see a child’s education as a path determined by grades, test scores and extra curricular activities. But genuine learning is about so much more than the points schools tally. MindShift explores the future of learning and how we raise our kids. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us @MindShiftKQED or visit us at MindShift.KQED.org. Take our audience survey! https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7297739/b0436be7b132

Episodes

MIT's TeachLab Presents The Homework Machine

December 9, 2025 • 35 mins
This month MindShift is sharing an episode from MIT's TeachLab podcast. Hosts Jessie Dukes and Justin Reich have interviewed teachers, school leaders, and students about how the debut of ChatGPT and Generative AI is actually playing out in schools.  They’ve compiled their learnings into a mini series called the Homework Machine. Listen to more episodes here: https://www.teachlabpodcast.com/
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Deborah Farmer Kris: How Awe Helps Us Flourish

November 11, 2025 • 30 mins
KQED's Ki Sung talks to longtime MindShift contributor and child development expert Deborah Farmer Kris. In her book "Raising Awe-Seekers: How the Science of Wonder Helps Our Kids Thrive," she shares how exploring the emotion awe can help students engage with classwork and also open us all up to connecting more with our communities.
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What Can Teachers Do About AI? Three Approaches in the Classroom

October 14, 2025 • 30 mins
This month MindShift is sharing an episode from our friends at KQED's Close All Tabs. Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.  Host Morgan Sung talks to Max Spero, founder of the AI detection company Pangram Labs, MindShift reporter Marlena Jackson Retondo and educator Jeremy Na about three different approaches educators are adopting to deal with AI in their...
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Why Teens Love to Hang Out at the Library

September 23, 2025 • 14 mins
Host Ki Sung takes listeners inside some of the public libraries that have made significant transformations to better serve community needs. Inspired by Chicago’s pioneering YOUmedia model, similar teen-centered library programs are now thriving in cities like New York and San Francisco.  These teen spaces support not just digital learning and creativity, but also emotional well-being and community-building after the isolation of t...
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Can Talking to Older Adults Make Students Better Citizens?

September 9, 2025 • 22 mins
Interacting with people from different generations has been shown to accelerate students’ social skills, improve literacy, and provide valuable lessons about history and culture. However, many students have limited opportunities to engage with older generations. And when these interactions do happen, they often remain one-sided or surface-level. In this episode, MindShift explores intergenerational programs at two schools, highli...
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How to Help Kids Through Friendship Breakups Without Making Things Worse

August 26, 2025 • 21 mins
Do you remember the sting of not being invited to a birthday party or watching your friend sit at a different lunch table? Most adults can recall a falling out with a friend—also known as a friendship breakup. While romantic relationships and their endings get plenty of attention, friendship breakups are often overlooked, despite being just as painful and impactful. For adolescents, whose brains are wired for social connection, th...
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When Teachers Learn All of AAPI History, Students Benefit

August 12, 2025 • 21 mins
There is a common perception that Asian Americans don’t get involved with civic life, but a closer read of AAPI history proves that to be false.
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Why Are These High School Students Having Better Debates Than Grown-Ups?

July 29, 2025 • 22 mins
When you think of debate, you might picture presidential candidates interrupting each other, pointing fingers, and undermining their opponents. It often feels like a reflection of today’s fractured and tense civic discourse. But in high school debate clubs, students are learning a different approach. These clubs provide a rare space where young people can engage with current events, articulate their ideas, and—perhaps most importa...
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Finding Your Voice Isn't Just For Kids, It's For Teachers Too

July 15, 2025 • 14 mins
Teacher Jess Lifshitz noticed that her students were more enthusiastic when they told her about their everyday life than when they wrote stories for their writing unit prompts. While listening to The Moth Radio Hour, she got the idea to use that format of spoken storytelling to an audience in her classroom. She tells you, our audience, about why she wanted to help energize her students in this way.
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Mindshift Celebrates Season 10!

July 8, 2025 • 4 mins
Mindshift returns with Season 10. We’re exploring how to help kids find their voice, balance their identity, and just be kids. Hear practical tips and expert insights on how to better show up for young people in the classroom and beyond. Follow Mindshift wherever you get your podcasts or visit https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/mindshift .
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What Our First and Last Words Can Tell Us About Our Humanity

June 10, 2025 • 16 mins
This month MindShift is sharing an excerpt of an episode from our friends at KQED's Forum. Forum tells remarkable and true stories about who we are and where we live. KQED's Grace Won talks to linguist and author Michael Erard.  In his new book, Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words, Erard compiles stories from medical archives and ancient texts as well as first-hand accounts by doctors and doulas to examine w...
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Can Better Conversations Fight Misinformation and Build Media Literacy?

May 13, 2025 • 32 mins
Host Nimah Gobir moderates the MindShift KQED: Can Better Conversations Improve Media Literacy Among Students? panel at the 2025 SXSW EDU conference.
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Minnie Phan: A Young Girl and the Power of Art

April 8, 2025 • 21 mins
Vietnamese children’s book illustrator Minnie Phan talks to KQED's Ki Sung about using art to process events and heal wounds in the Vietnamese diaspora.
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Why Handwriting Still Matters in the Age of Screens

March 11, 2025 • 14 mins
KQED's Nimah Gobir talks to educator and language therapist, Dr. Nancy Cushen White about why handwriting is such a powerful tool for literacy learning.
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Disengaged Teens: What to Know and How to Help Them Find Their Spark

February 11, 2025 • 29 mins
KQED's Ki Sung talks to Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop, authors of "The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better." They discuss the different modes of engagement and how to support teens at home and in school.
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How to Help Boys Thrive in a Changing World

January 14, 2025 • 16 mins
Ruth Whippman, author of "Boy Mom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity" talks to KQED's Nimah Gobir about the biggest challenges facing boys today, and actionable steps parents and educators can take to make a difference for the boys in their lives.
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Book Reading Goals for Young Readers with Traci Thomas

December 10, 2024 • 23 mins
KQED's Ki Sung talks to host of The Stacks podcast, Traci Thomas, about rereading books she loved as a child with her own children, what's on her reading list as they grow and what she's learned about reading from all of her author interviews.
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The Lasting Impact of Full-Length Reading

November 12, 2024 • 15 mins
Journalist Rose Horowitch and Author Danielle Bayard Jackson join KQED's Nimah Gobir in conversation to explore the problem of reading stamina in college students.
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How the Mentor Mindset Can Help Adults Show Up Better for Tweens and Teens

October 8, 2024 • 24 mins
David Yeager is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an expert in behavioral science. He just published a book titled “10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People.” He joins KQED's Ki Sung in conversation to share strategies adults can use to get into the best mindset for helping adolescents be their best selves.
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Why Poetry Is Making a Comeback in Schools

September 24, 2024 • 26 mins
Hanif Abduraqqib. Sarah Kay. Elizabeth Acevedo. Clint Smith. Do any of these names sound familiar? How about Amanda Gorman? All of these writers are part of America’s thriving contemporary poetry scene. But you won’t find them in many text books, because high school poetry units tend to focus on dead poets, like Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe. North Carolina teacher Melissa Smith is working to change that. For the l...
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