{"podcast":{"title":"The Journal.","slug":"the-journal-547598","podcast_index_feed_id":547598,"rss_url":"https://video-api.wsj.com/podcast/rss/wsj/the-journal","website_url":"https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/b84f9932-8174-11e9-bbd8-7f261513f0c9/image/d84a4f4d55158df9d14f6f2d4b219a28.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Wall Street Journal","episode_count":300,"summary":"The most important stories about money, business and power. Hosted by Ryan Knutson and Jessica Mendoza. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Get show merch here: https://wsjshop.com/collections/clothing","last_synced_at":"2026-08-01T08:20:41.229944+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598"},"episode":{"title":"The Big Business of Holding Back Eighth-Graders","slug":"the-big-business-of-holding-back-eighth-graders","published_at":"2026-06-18T19:31:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598/the-big-business-of-holding-back-eighth-graders","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/WSJ8719222946.mp3","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/WSJ8719222946.mp3","summary":"Holding students back in school once came with a negative connotation. But with college athletes now able to earn endorsement deals, they are preparing younger and younger to be recruited and potentially get paid. WSJ's Harriet Ryan reports on the rise of special middle schools where students hold themselves back on purpose so they can grow, develop and mature before high school. Ryan Knutson hosts. Further Listening: - Inside the Black Market for High School Football Players- NCAA President on a New Era for College Sports - How Gamblers Are Rigging College Basketball Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"Holding students back in school once came with a negative connotation. But with college athletes now able to earn endorsement deals, they are preparing yo…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1417,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-journal-547598/episodes/the-big-business-of-holding-back-eighth-graders/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598/the-big-business-of-holding-back-eighth-graders.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}