{"podcast":{"title":"Human Restoration Project","slug":"human-restoration-project-331008","podcast_index_feed_id":331008,"rss_url":"https://feeds.zencastr.com/f/iQ46Dvpc.rss","website_url":"https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/","image_url":"https://media.zencastr.com/image-files/5c7838c8f83db700141c53b1/b24349c9-37e4-46c6-9882-ecd44bd1caf1.png","author":"chris@humanrestorationproject.org","episode_count":190,"summary":"Since 2018, the Human Restoration Project Podcast has reimaged 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!","last_synced_at":"2026-07-19T12:17:44.713235+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/human-restoration-project-331008"},"episode":{"title":"Making School Meaningful w/ Lauren Porosoff","slug":"making-school-meaningful-w-lauren-porosoff","published_at":"2026-02-21T12:25:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/human-restoration-project-331008/making-school-meaningful-w-lauren-porosoff","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/human-restoration-project-331008","url":"https://zencastr.com/z/JaGRHeAN","audio_url":"https://redirect.zencastr.com/r/episode/6999101f7c66e63545b9b902/size/62242852/audio-files/5c7838c8f83db700141c53b1/5c602255-a8a2-4478-a80a-e26689f13c8f.mp3","summary":"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 question: why does school so often feel like the opposite of learning? Lauren Porosoff's answer isn't a new program or a new curriculum, instead she offers a holistic way of thinking about how systems are connected to outcomes. And Lauren joins me today to talk about compensatory programs: the wellness kits, the diversity posters, the one-off professional development workshops that schools layer one on top of the other to signal that they value belonging, creativity, or student wellbeing, without ever changing the underlying framework for how students and teachers actually spend their time. In this episode, we talk about why schools reach for these fixes, why they backfire, and why they may be especially vulnerable to attack precisely because they're so superficial. Lauren's website is theteachernerd.com [http://theteachernerd.com/], and her book (one of many!), Teach for Authentic Engagement, is available from ASCD. Jailbreak Your PD [https://kappanonline.org/jailbreak-professional-development-pd-educators-porosoff/] The Trouble with Compensatory Programs [https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-trouble-with-compensatory-programs] The Grammar of Inclusive Instructional Design [https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-grammar-of-inclusive-instructional-design] Teach for Authentic Engagement [https://www.ascd.org/books/teach-for-authentic-engagement?variant=123045]","meta_description":"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…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2593,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/human-restoration-project-331008/episodes/making-school-meaningful-w-lauren-porosoff/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/human-restoration-project-331008/making-school-meaningful-w-lauren-porosoff.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}