Jesse HagopianEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

What if the same government that can find billions for a war in a matter of months insists there's never enough money to feed a hungry kid or keep a school library stocked? Marcus and Nora sit down with Jesse Hagopian — Seattle educator, Rethinking Schools editor, and author of Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education — to follow the money from the Pentagon to the classroom. Jesse traces the fight against book bans and "anti-CRT" laws sweeping the country, and grounds it in his own history: teaching in an underfunded DC classroom, then at his alma mater, Garfield High, where keeping snacks in a desk drawer became part of the job. He connects Seattle's fight for universal school meals to the legacy of the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast for Children Program, and James Baldwin's claim that "the children are all ours." On the heels of an all-too-tough fight for school meals in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, Hagopian shows us that "there's no money" has always been a ruse, not a fact. In the middle of recording this episode, Seattle's fight for universal school meals actually won. Jesse walks through how that happened: years of students, parents, and teachers showing up, organizing, and refusing to accept austerity as the final word. It's a blueprint for hope in tough times. Mentioned in the episode : Guest Rant: Seattle Can't Afford Not to Feed Every Child | Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education | July 21 City Council Meeting | More from Jesse Hagopian : https://iamaneducator.com/ Support the pod : Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us : Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books : Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

In which Dan chats with Jesse Hagopian about the urgent need to teach truthful history in America's classrooms. Jesse is the author of the excellent book Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education and he's an eloquent speaker on the need to push back against right-wing whitewashing. Jesse and Dan talk about the return of colorblindness, the gentrification of history, and why grassroots action is the only way out. As always I welcome comments and questions on BlueSky @dankearney and on Instagram @_dankearney_ If you're in or near Los Angeles this summer, check out Learning Adventures Workshop with Dr. Gary Stager on June 30. New podcast alert! Tune into But I Won't Do That , an irreverent look at the music, lyrics, and videos of some favorite pop hits. Mentioned in the episode: Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education by Jesse Hagopian "Oklahoma education standards say students must identify 2020 election 'discrepancies'" , NPR, May 14, 2025 Zinn Education Project -- lots of incredible resources and lessons for teaching truth Music: "Sunflower" by Soyb (Youtube Audio Library)

In this episode on Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with activist and educator Jesse Hagopian about his new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education . They talk about the assault on public education that takes the form of criminalizing the truth itself. They note both the powerful corporate forces behind this movement and what they are afraid of, and also discuss the many instances of people fighting back to name, amplify, and mobilize the truth together. Jesse Hagopian’s African ancestors survived the middle passage and enslavement on plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. Jesse is a Seattle educator and author of the new book, Teach Truth: The Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Antiracist Education . He is editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, a founding steering committee member of Black Lives Matter at School, and is the Director the Teaching for Black Lives Campaign of the Zinn Education Project. Jesse is the editor of of the book, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing , and the co-editor of the books, Teaching Palestine , Teaching for Black Lives , Black Lives Matter at School , and Teachers Unions and Social Justice . Jesse’s writing has appeared in The Seattle Times , The Nation , The Progressive , Truthout, and The Washington Post . You can connect with Jesse on IG ( @jessehagopian ), Bluesky (@jessehagopian.bsky.social) or his website, www.IAmAnEductor.com . www.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.com Bluesky @ palumboliu.bsky.social Instagram @ speaking_out_of_place

In this episode on Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with activist and educator Jesse Hagopian about his new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education . They talk about the assault on public education that takes the form of criminalizing the truth itself. They note both the powerful corporate forces behind this movement and what they are afraid of, and also discuss the many instances of people fighting back to name, amplify, and mobilize the truth together. Jesse Hagopian’s African ancestors survived the middle passage and enslavement on plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. Jesse is a Seattle educator and author of the new book, Teach Truth: The Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Antiracist Education . He is editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, a founding steering committee member of Black Lives Matter at School, and is the Director the Teaching for Black Lives Campaign of the Zinn Education Project. Jesse is the editor of of the book, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing , and the co-editor of the books, Teaching Palestine , Teaching for Black Lives , Black Lives Matter at School , and Teachers Unions and Social Justice . Jesse’s writing has appeared in The Seattle Times , The Nation , The Progressive , Truthout, and The Washington Post . You can connect with Jesse on IG ( @jessehagopian ), Bluesky (@jessehagopian.bsky.social) or his website, www.IAmAnEductor.com . www.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.com Bluesky @ palumboliu.bsky.social Instagram @ speaking_out_of_place

In this episode on Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with activist and educator Jesse Hagopian about his new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education . They talk about the assault on public education that takes the form of criminalizing the truth itself. They note both the powerful corporate forces behind this movement and what they are afraid of, and also discuss the many instances of people fighting back to name, amplify, and mobilize the truth together. Jesse Hagopian’s African ancestors survived the middle passage and enslavement on plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. Jesse is a Seattle educator and author of the new book, Teach Truth: The Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Antiracist Education . He is editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, a founding steering committee member of Black Lives Matter at School, and is the Director the Teaching for Black Lives Campaign of the Zinn Education Project. Jesse is the editor of of the book, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing , and the co-editor of the books, Teaching Palestine , Teaching for Black Lives , Black Lives Matter at School , and Teachers Unions and Social Justice . Jesse’s writing has appeared in The Seattle Times , The Nation , The Progressive , Truthout, and The Washington Post . You can connect with Jesse on IG ( @jessehagopian ), Bluesky (@jessehagopian.bsky.social) or his website, www.IAmAnEductor.com . www.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.com Bluesky @ palumboliu.bsky.social Instagram @ speaking_out_of_place

In this podcast, Jesse Hagopian discusses his recent book, ““Teaching Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education,” a powerful call to action to defend honest education in the face of increasing censorship, attacks on teachers, the destructive Project 2025 playbook, and constant pressures to dismantle our public education system. Hagopian argues that the struggle for a liberatory education is crucial for democracy and challenges the status quo by highlighting the importance of teaching truth and resisting efforts to regulate knowledge Jesse Hagopian is an award-winning educator and a prominent voice on educational equity, social justice unionism, and the school-to-prison pipeline. He teaches Ethnic Studies at Seattle's Garfield High School and is known for his activism against standardized testing. Order the books: “Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education” https://www.kingsbookstore.com/book/9798888902516 Jesse Hagopian Social Media: Website: https://iamaneducator.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessedHagopian Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessehagopian Rethinking School Magazine : https://rethinkingschools.org/magazine/ Black Lives Matter at School : https://www.blacklivesmatteratschool.com/ Teaching for Black Lives : https://rethinkingschools.org/books/teaching-for-black-lives/ Zinn Education Project : https://www.zinnedproject.org/ Greg’s Blog : http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/ Pat’s Substack : https://patcummings.substack.com/about TeachTruth#LindaMcMahon#ChristopherRufo#JesseHagopia#DemocracyNow#AntiracistEducation#RacialJustice#EducationalEquity#CriticalRaceTheory#SocialJustice#BlackLivesMatter#BLM#ZinnProject##EthnicStudies#PublicEducation#Censorship#EducationalActivism#SystemicRacism#TeachingforLiberation#HistoricalAccuracy#DemocracyinEducation#UncritialRaceTheory#howardZinn#MelissaTemple#Rainbowland##BlackHistoryMonth#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

In this podcast, Jesse Hagopian discusses his recent book, ““Teaching Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education,” a powerful call to action to defend honest education in the face of increasing censorship, attacks on teachers, the destructive Project 2025 playbook, and constant pressures to dismantle our public education system. Hagopian argues that the struggle for a liberatory education is crucial for democracy and challenges the status quo by highlighting the importance of teaching truth and resisting efforts to regulate knowledge Jesse Hagopian is an award-winning educator and a prominent voice on educational equity, social justice unionism, and the school-to-prison pipeline. He teaches Ethnic Studies at Seattle's Garfield High School and is known for his activism against standardized testing. Order the books: “Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education” https://www.kingsbookstore.com/book/9798888902516 Jesse Hagopian Social Media: Website: https://iamaneducator.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessedHagopian Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessehagopian Rethinking School Magazine : https://rethinkingschools.org/magazine/ Black Lives Matter at School : https://www.blacklivesmatteratschool.com/ Teaching for Black Lives : https://rethinkingschools.org/books/teaching-for-black-lives/ Zinn Education Project : https://www.zinnedproject.org/ Greg’s Blog : http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/ Pat’s Substack : https://patcummings.substack.com/about TeachTruth#LindaMcMahon#ChristopherRufo#JesseHagopia#DemocracyNow#AntiracistEducation#RacialJustice#EducationalEquity#CriticalRaceTheory#SocialJustice#BlackLivesMatter#BLM#ZinnProject##EthnicStudies#PublicEducation#Censorship#EducationalActivism#SystemicRacism#TeachingforLiberation#HistoricalAccuracy#DemocracyinEducation#UncritialRaceTheory#howardZinn#MelissaTemple#Rainbowland##BlackHistoryMonth#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

In this episode Karen speaks with Jesse Hagopian, director of the Teaching for Black Lives campaign and author of 'Teach Truth.' They discuss the ongoing struggle for honest education in the face of laws that criminalize teaching about race, gender, and history. Jesse shares personal stories about his family's history with slavery, the importance of teaching the truth about America's past, and the need for grassroots organizing to combat censorship in schools. The conversation highlights the upcoming National Day of Action, 'Teach the Truth,' aimed at promoting anti-racist education and community engagement. Conversation Highlights: The term 'post-truth' reflects the current state of education. Truth crime laws are criminalizing honest education. Discomfort in learning about history is necessary and should not be banned. Germany's approach to teaching about the Holocaust serves as a model for the U.S. Personal connections to history can inspire activism and remembrance. The book 'Teach Truth' aims to empower educators and students. Historical context shows a long-standing struggle for educational equity. Current laws are causing self-censorship among educators. Grassroots organizing is essential for change in education. The upcoming National Day of Action is a call to mobilize communities. Resources From the Episode: Website : www.iamaneducator.com Link to Jesse's book: https://elliottbaybook.com/item/UfU8gx4LO9_0MKt_l7GyNw Information about Teach the Truth : https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/teach-truth-day-of-action-2025/ Book launch in Seattle : " Teach Truth — Unbanning Books in Public Schools " " The attack on antiracist education is at our front door, and there’s no clearer or more determined voice in this struggle than Jesse Hagopian's... This is a book that propels us forward. " —Bettina L. Love, author of Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children " Jesse Hagopian's Teach Truth is the book we need right now. It's the book we have always needed... Hagopian clears away the cobweb of lies that have obscured our national history for generations of students." —Diane Ravitch, author of Slaying Goliath Support the Defense of Democracy Nonprofit organization! For more information visit: Defense of Democracy.org Become a DofD Support Partner Simply by Texting: "SUPPORT" to 845-208-9846 Follow, Like and Get Involved! Connect with DofD on all the social platforms: Facebook Twitter TikTok Instagram

This Week: As we celebrate MLK Jr. weekend, we thought it would be apt to have a special re-release of our recent discussion with Jesse Hagopian about his new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education . Nearly half of our nation’s public school children are subject to laws that forbid honest education about the history of racism in this country. Two-thirds of US teachers report self-censoring discussions on race, gender, identity, and sexuality in their classrooms. How did we get here, and how can we collaboratively fight for the truth to be taught in our schools? Educator and activist Jesse Hagopian joins us this week to unpack his new book . Jesse is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, a founding member of Black Lives Matter at School, and the Director for the Zinn Education Project’s “Teaching for Black Lives" campaign. WAYS TO HELP WITH THE EATON FIRE IN ALTADENA/PASADENA -- Please consider giving what you can! Here are links to GoFundMe pages set up by Altadena families, links to GoFundMe pages supporting Black families devastated by the Eaton fire , and the Pasadena Educational Foundation . MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our latest content! Website: https://AOTAshow.com Stream all of our content at: linktr.ee/AOTA Watch at: YouTube.com/AlloftheAbove Listen at: apple.co/38QV7Bd and anchor.fm/AOTA Follow us at: Facebook.com/AOTAshow and Twitter.com/AOTAshow

Jesse Hagopian is a high school teacher in Seattle, a union organizer, co-author of several books, and a powerful force in pushing back against the "over-testing" of students. Jesse’s writing has appeared in publications like The Seattle Times, The Nation, The Progressive, and his commentary on education and politics has been featured in Time magazine, The New Yorker, The PBS News Hour with Gwen Ifill, The Dan Rather Report, and Democracy Now! Jesse’s website: https://iamaneducator.com/ Order the books More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing By Jesse Hagopian (Editor), Diane Ravitch (Preface by), Alfie Kohn (Foreword by) Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice By Jesse Hagopian, Denisha Jones, Opal Tometi (Foreword by) Support the documentary film project by Magnum Opus Films, “Help Us Tell The Story of Discovering Where Our Ancestors Were Enslaved-Where I Got My Name: A Story of Struggle and Self Discovery.” GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-tell-the-story-of-our-enslaved-ancestors Greg’s Blog (subscribe!): http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/ #JesseHogopain#MoreThanAScore#GarfieldHighSchool#BLM#BLMatschool#optoute#MAPboycott#TestBoycott#CriticalRaceTheory#CRT#ChristopherRufo#FairTest#DianeRavvitch#TeacherUnion#NEA#GeraldLenoir#EnslavedAncestors#MississippiSlave#HighstakesTesting#activist#SeattleSuit#culturewars#EducationPolicy#StandardizedTesting#MomsForLiberty#PatCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

Jesse Hagopian is a high school teacher in Seattle, a union organizer, co-author of several books, and a powerful force in pushing back against the "over-testing" of students. Jesse’s writing has appeared in such publications as The Seattle Times, The Nation, and The Progressive, and his commentary on education and politics has been featured in Time magazine, The New Yorker, The PBS News Hour with Gwen Ifill, The Dan Rather Report, and Democracy Now! Jesse’s website: https://iamaneducator.com/ Order the books More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing By Jesse Hagopian (Editor), Diane Ravitch (Preface by), Alfie Kohn (Foreword by) https://www.kingsbookstore.com/book/9781608463923 Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice By Jesse Hagopian, Denisha Jones, Opal Tometi (Foreword by) https://www.kingsbookstore.com/book/9781642592702 Support the documentary film project by Magnum Opus Films, “Help Us Tell The Story of Discovering Where Our Ancestors Were Enslaved-Where I Got My Name: A Story of Struggle and Self Discovery.” GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-tell-the-story-of-our-enslaved-ancestors Greg’s Blog (subscribe!): http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/ #JesseHogopain#MoreThanAScore#GarfieldHighSchool#BLM#BLMatschool#optoute#MAPboycott#TestBoycott#CriticalRaceTheory#CRT#ChristopherRufo#FairTest#DianeRavvitch#TeacherUnion#NEA#GeraldLenoir#EnslavedAncestors#MississippiSlave#HighstakesTesting#activist#SeattleSuit#culturewars#EducationPolicy#StandardizedTesting#MomsForLiberty#PatCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

For many people in the Emerald City, sports may be seen solely as entertainment. We watch the Kraken on the ice, climb the stands for the Seahawks and Sounders, and hold out hands out for a soaring Mariners ball. But what if something came along to challenge the idea of athletics as mere leisure? In his new book Heartbreak City: Seattle Sports and the Unmet Promise of Urban Progress , author Shaun Scott takes readers through 170 years of Seattle history, chronicling both well-known and long-forgotten events. Examples include the establishment of racially segregated golf courses in the 1920s or the 1987 Seahawks players' strike that galvanized organized labor. Scott explores how progressives in urban areas across the U.S. have used athletics to address persistent problems in city life: the fight for racial justice, workers' rights, equality for women and LGBTQ+ city dwellers, and environmental conservation. In Seattle specifically, sports initiatives have powered meaningful reforms, such as popular stadium projects that promoted investments in public housing and mass transit. At the same time, conservative forces also used sports to consolidate their power and mobilize against these initiatives. Heartbreak City seeks to uncover how sports have both united and divided Seattle, socially and politically. Deep archival research and analysis fill the pages, guiding us through this account of our city's quest to make a change, both on and off the field. Shaun Scott is a Seattle-based writer and organizer. He is the author of Millennials and the Moments That Made Us: A Cultural History of the U.S. from 1982-present. Jesse Hagopian has been an educator for over twenty years and taught for over a decade at Seattle's Garfield High School, the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test. Heartbreak City: Seattle Sports and the Unmet Promise of Urban Progress The Elliott Bay Book Company

​​Li Sumpter: So welcome back to another episode of Future Memory. My guest today is Jesse Hagopian. He is a Seattle-based educator and the author of the upcoming Teach Truth: The Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Antiracist Education. Hagopian is an organizer with the Zinn Education Project and co-editor of the books Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice and Teaching for Black Lives. Welcome, Jesse. Jesse Hagopian: Oh, thanks so much for having me. Good to be with you. Li: Thank you for joining us. Well, I want to get started with some questions about your own education and how you got started. I was curious about what your own early education and high school experiences were like. As a youth, what ways did you relate to or even resist to your own classroom curricula? Jesse: I was very alienated from school growing up. I felt like it didn't really speak to me. I didn't feel like I was intelligent. I can remember very clearly a parent-teacher conference in third grade where the teacher brought us out into the hallway with me and my mom, and she took out my standardized testing scores and there was a blue line that ran through the middle that was the average, and then there was the dot far below that line that represented my reading scores. And I knew from that day forward until about halfway through college, I knew that I was not smart, and I had the test scores to prove it to you. And school just felt like a place that reinforced over and over again that I was not worthy, that I was not intelligent. And there was very little that we studied that was about helping me understand myself, my identity, my place in the world as a Black, mixed-race kid. And really, it was just a fraught experience, and I took quite a bit to get over that. I was sure I was going to fail out of college, that I wasn't smart enough to go to college. And I think that it was finally the experience of a couple of professors in college that showed that education could be more than just eliminating wrong answer choices at faster rates than other children, that it could be about understanding the problems in our world and how we can collectively solve those problems. And then I realized I did have something to contribute. Then I realized that I did have some perspectives on what oppression looks like and how it feels and what we might need to do to get out of it, and I was hungry to learn about the systems that are set up in our society to reproduce inequality. And that was a real change for me. But growing up, my mom would tell me, "You're good with kids. I think you're going to be a teacher." And I said, "That's the last thing I'm going to be." Li: Oh, really? Jesse: School is just so arduous, and why would I want to come back? And then she was right. I came back to my own high school. I came back to Garfield High School, where I graduated, and I taught there for over a decade now. Li: I think that's an amazing story, coming full circle to teach back where you got your first experiences in the classroom. And going back to that, I was wondering if you had any standout memories, like I did, with the actual content. You were saying you didn't relate to it so much, but I remember very clearly a moment with my mother coming to the school when I had a moment in the classroom around Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, things like that. Do you have any standout memories of content that really either made you feel excluded or exploited or any of these things that really stuck with you? Jesse: For sure. I mean, there are many experiences that I think shaped my approach to education throughout the years. I mean, one of my firsts is from

[contentblock id=belabored-info-ck] Teachers around the country are under pressure⁠—not just the continued stress of teaching in a pandemic, but now a new right-wing campaign to ban “critical race theory” in schools aims to crack down on teachers who teach honestly about racism. Jesse Hagopian, a Seattle teacher, writer, and editor of books including Black Lives Matter at School , joins us to discuss this latest backlash, and what teachers and their unions can do to protect themselves and their students. We also look at the new just cause provisions in New York City, the conditions for union—and nonunion—retail workers, the potential inclusion of PRO Act provisions in the budget, the end of a major Steelworker strike, and fast food workers who went viral with a sign of frustration. For Argh, we consider the union movement in journalism, and how work from home is sometimes more work for women. Thank you for listening to our 226th episode! If you like the show, you can support us on Patreon with a monthly contribution, at the level that best suits you. If you’re interested in advertising on the show, please email ads@dissentmagazine.org . And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or tips, email us at belabored@dissentmagazine.org News Josh Eidelson, Most Americans Can Be Fired for No Reason at Any Time, But a New Law in New York Could Change That , Bloomberg Richa Naidu, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-workers-unions-reap-higher-wages-even-us-organizers-suffer-setbacks-2021-07-09" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/b