{"podcast":{"title":"The Integrated Schools Podcast","slug":"the-integrated-schools-podcast-520165","podcast_index_feed_id":520165,"rss_url":"https://feeds.redcircle.com/49087ad7-aab0-44e2-a4ec-1d264cf4e86f","website_url":"https://redcircle.com/shows/the-integrated-schools-podcast","image_url":"https://media.redcircle.com/images/2025/4/22/17/1914f89f-e471-4e59-a566-34a221eed18b_cf-ca05-4c61-bfef-def91f03f01e_podcastlogo2022.jpg","author":"Andrew Lefkowits, Val Brown, Courtney Mykytyn","episode_count":169,"summary":"Hosts, Andrew, a White dad from Denver, and, Val, a Black mom from North Carolina, dig into topics about race, parenting, and school segregation. With a variety of guests ranging from parents to experts, these conversation strive to live in the nuance of a complicated topic.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-integrated-schools-podcast-520165"},"episode":{"title":"A Big Tent: Parent Voice for Public Educatiion","slug":"a-big-tent-parent-voice-for-public-educatiion","published_at":"2025-11-19T09:00:41+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-integrated-schools-podcast-520165/a-big-tent-parent-voice-for-public-educatiion","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-integrated-schools-podcast-520165","url":"https://integratedschools.org/podcast/s12e5-a-big-tent-parent-voice-for-public-education/","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/audio3.redcircle.com/episodes/80edd9ba-8eb8-469e-bff4-838c5c17880a/stream.mp3","summary":"In this episode, we’re stretching the boundaries of our “big tent”—the messy, hopeful space where we try to build a public education system worthy of all our kids. We sat down with Ms. Keri Rodrigues, President and co-founder of the National Parents Union, for a conversation recorded inside the U.S. Senate building (a first for us!). Ms. Rodrigues brings her whole self into this work: mother, organizer, daughter of immigrants, former student who didn’t always get what she needed from school, and fierce believer in the power of parents showing up together. While the methods of school improvement NPU has advocated for the in the past may not have felt fully aligned with our values, we share a commitment to the common good of public education—and in a moment when that institution feels increasingly under attack, widening the circle of who we can struggle with feels essential. In This Episode We Explore: Parent voice as expertise Why parents—especially those who’ve historically been pushed to the margins—carry knowledge that our systems often ignore, and what’s lost when family engagement is treated as transactional rather than transformational. The conditions that fuel fear-based parent movements Ms. Rodrigues offers a nuanced take on how groups like Moms for Liberty gained traction, and how a lack of authentic, respectful engagement with parents created space for bad actors to step in. Trust between families and schools What it means to leave “our hearts outside our bodies” every morning, and the very real fears that get activated when schools feel unwelcoming, dismissive, or unsafe—especially for Black, Brown, immigrant, and disabled students and their families. The broader crisis facing children From ICE raids to unregulated social media to defunding the Department of…","meta_description":"In this episode, we’re stretching the boundaries of our “big tent”—the messy, hopeful space where we try to build a public education system worthy of all…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3346,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-integrated-schools-podcast-520165/episodes/a-big-tent-parent-voice-for-public-educatiion/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-integrated-schools-podcast-520165/a-big-tent-parent-voice-for-public-educatiion.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}