Since 2018, the Human Restoration Project Podcast has reimagined education through critical, progressive, human-centered learning. Across nearly 200 episodes, and counting, we've explored every topic in education: ungrading and alternative assessment, interdisciplinary play-based and project-based learning, SEL, education reforms and systemic school change in society with students, teachers, leaders, researchers, and advocates around the world. Join us on our mission to restore humanity to education, together!
Latest episodes
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7 min
To Learn is to Be w/ Cassie Nastase
Earlier this summer we released audio narrations of pieces from our upcoming progressive education primer, the opening essay, We Are Worldbuilders, and Teaching in the Wreckage of…
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27 min
Building the Appalachia of the Future w/ Appalachian Futurism Project
"Appalachia has a history and culture worth preserving, and a future worth pursuing," reads The Big Idea on AFP's homepage. The Appalachian Futurism Project’s mission is to leverag…
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58 min
People-Based Learning w/ Dr. Jane Shore
In case you’re not familiar at all with the Katamari video game series. As the player, you navigate this ball that starts off small at first until everything in the environment sti…
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48 min
The Myth of the Unmotivated Student w/ Dr. Erika Patall
At some point every exasperated teacher has thrown up their hands and repeated some version of "these kids just aren't motivated." Yet schools respond to unmotivated kids with the…
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57 min
Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It w/ Dr. GInie Servant-Miklos
On Friday, July 31st, we hosted Dr. Ginie Servant-Miklos for a Q&A about her book Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It. This was the c…
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52 min
The Power of Critical Play w/ Dr. Mary Flanagan
We all grew up playing games — I fondly remember playing Go Fish with my grandma and her next door neighbor, as a 90s kid who grew up with an NES, it felt like every console genera…
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1 h 08
Restoring Humanity to "Special Education": Global Perspectives on Inclusion w/ Dr. Sarah K Benson
Hey there, Nick here at Human Restoration Project. We took the longest break in our podcast’s history last month, and I hope you were able to take a break, too. We’re back for biwe…
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27 min
Teaching in the Wreckage of the Real: A Narration
This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It, by Ginie Servant-Miklos, and we’re inviting you to join us. Visit hu…
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15 min
We Are Worldbuilders: A Narration
Progressive education is a world-building project rooted in the radical hope that schools can become something fit for human beings.This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collap…
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57 min
The Future of Public Education is a Community School feat. Kelly McMahon, Jitu Brown, Angelia Ebner, and Dave…
This conversation started 2 years ago, when I ran into Kelly McMahon at a summer conference. Kelly’s a kindergarten teacher at Hoover Community School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I…
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1 h 07
The Promise (and Persistent Myths) of Montessori Education w/ Andrew Faulstich, Dr. Ayize Sabater, and Kelly J…
Montessori schools are some of the few that wear their pedagogy on their signage: Cottontail Creek Montessori School. Montessori Children’s House. Acappella Montessori. (just to na…
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5 min
Spring Break 2026: HRP Summer Book Club & Montessori Mythbusting
This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It, by Ginie Servant-Miklos, and we’re inviting you to join us. Visit hu…
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1 h 28
Reanimating the Art of Teaching w/ Gary Stager
There’s a quote from the great conservationist John Muir that goes, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." My guest to…
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44 min
What Prison Can Teach Us About School w/ Jennifer Berkshire
Tomorrow, I’ll be trading Iowa for a couple days in Los Angeles, where the HRP team will be presenting for the third year at LearningInspirEd’s Student Power Summit. It’s in LA thi…
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43 min
Making School Meaningful w/ Lauren Porosoff
Whether it was during her nearly two decades as a middle school humanities teacher or as diversity coordinator or grade-level team leader, my guest today kept returning to the same…
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42 min
From Meritocracy to Human Interdependence: Redefining the Purpose of Education w/ Yong Zhao
In a 2021 interview, Michael Sandel, author of the book The Tyranny of Merit argues that if merit can be understood as competence, a good thing to be clear, “The principle of merit…
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57 min
Changing My Mind About Schools (and Everything Else) w/ Diane Ravitch
“This is a book about my life, about admitting ‘I was wrong,’ and about how important it is to say it out loud,” is how our guest today, Diane Ravitch, begins her 2025 memoir, An E…
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27 min
Why Fascists Fear Teachers w/ Randi Weingarten
HRP is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3), and the views expressed by our guests are their own and do not constitute an endorsement.“Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairm…
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1 h 39
Crash Course Social Studies Education w/ Raoul Meyer
If you’ve taught or attended a high school course in the last decade, you’ve probably watched a Crash Course video. Their dozens of playlists on topics from Biology and Environment…
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1 h 00
Cultivating Creativity and Connection in the Classroom w/ Tom Rendon & Zachary Stier
How do you define creativity?Would you be able to spot creativity in the wild?What about creativity in the classroom?This endless human quest to define the seemingly undefinable, a…