Educating to Be Human Podcast
Lisa Petrides
Recent Episodes
In the season finale of Educating to Be Human, we turn our attention to rural education and the transformative power of community-centered learning. Host Lisa Petrides is joined by Kassi Talbot, educator, social justice advocate, and principal of Pescadero Elementary School, a small rural school on California's coastside. Born and raised in the same community she now leads, Kassi shares how participatory and community-based education, and a deep commitment to equitable, open education can drive lasting positive outcomes — not just in remote or non-urban schools, but across all systems of learning. This episode explores what it means to center humanity, care, and connection in education, reminding us that the lessons from small schools and rural communities often hold the keys to building a more inclusive and transformative future for all learners.
Kassandra "Kassi" Talbot, EdD, is an educator and principal dedicated to her local rural schools. With nearly a decade of classroom experience teaching middle school social studies and high school Spanish, Kassi centers her work on antiracist and equitable practices. Her doctoral research, "Reclaiming the Story: YPAR in the Rural Social Studies Classroom," explored how youth can (re)claim history and stories through participatory action research. Kassi serves her community through local leadership, human rights training, and youth mentorship. She lives on the California coast with her dogs, and extended family — where she's working to build the kind of community her students will one day lead.
LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/kassandratalbot
Today, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from Educating to Be Human — and much has changed since we first recorded it. Back in September 2024, Lisa sat down with Ruth Mostern, Professor of History and founder of the World Historical Gazetteer, to explore how our sense of place influences the way we understand our past and our identities.
Through her groundbreaking project, the World Historical Gazetteer, Ruth enables historians and the public alike to visualize and contextualize historical events and relationships geographically, transforming static history into dynamic, place-based storytelling.
Since that conversation, we've seen how place names and their meanings continue to shift - and spark debate - reminding us just how deeply history is woven into geography. This year, Ruth and her team also launched something brand new: the Institute for Spatial History Innovation, or ISHI, at the University of Pittsburgh. https://ishi.pitt.edu/ - now the new home for the World Historical Gazetteer.
Resources:
The Institute for Spatial History Innovation: ishi.pitt.edu
Ruth Mostern at University of Pittsburgh: www.history.pitt.edu/people/ruth-mostern
We're bringing back the show that started it all - Monsters! In this rerun of our premiere episode of Educating to be Human, Lisa Petrides speaks with Erin O'Connell, a university classics professor, who has used her expertise over the years as a teacher of Ancient Greek and Ancient Greek culture to delve into the world of Monsters, how we define them, where we can find them, not just under our beds, and the perspective they bring us in thinking about being human in today's world. Erin O'Connell's academic background is in Classics and Comparative Literature, teaching Greek and Latin languages and literature as well as a broad range of Humanities courses to all ages.
Erin earned a PhD at UC-Santa Cruz, taught at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City for 20 years where she was a tenured professor, and has come full circle by returning to California to teach at UC-Santa Cruz and Cabrillo Community College. As a scholar and teacher Erin is keen on integrating her scholarly expertise with the interests and needs of all learners in the contemporary educational and cultural context.
Educating to be Human is hosted by Lisa Petrides, produced by Helene Theros, recorded by Nathan Sherman, edited by Ty Mayer, with music by Orestes Koletsos.
Please subscribe and listen to Educating to Be Human on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts, leave a review, tell your friends and share our episodes on social media. And don't forget to follow @edutobehuman on Instagram and on X/Twitter @edutobehuman
In this episode of Educating to Be Human, Lisa Petrides is joined by Maha Bali, a leading voice in digital pedagogy and open education. Maha invites us to see digital literacy not just as learning how to use tools, but as something deeply tied to identity, power, and relationships. As AI increasingly becomes part of the fabric of our daily lives, Maha challenges us to ask: what values are built into the tools we use, and how do they shape the way we connect with one another?
Maha Bali is a professor of practice at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the American University in Cairo and co-founder of Equity Unbound, an equity-focused, open, connected intercultural learning curriculum, which has also branched into academic community activities – Continuity with Care, Socially Just Academia, and MYFest, an innovative 3-month professional learning journey. In 2023, Maha was named among 30 higher education IT influencers by EdTech Magazine. She writes and speaks frequently about social justice, critical pedagogy, and open and online education. She blogs regularly at https://blog.mahabali.me and tweets @bali_maha.
Resources:
Equity Unbound - https://equityunbound.org/
MyFest - https://myfest.equityunbound.org/
Socially Just Academia - https://equityunbound.org/category/imaginingasociallyjustacademia/
Mays Imad - Trauma Informed Pedagogy - https://tll.mit.edu/trauma-informed-teaching/
Chris Gilliard - https://just-tech.ssrc.org/our-network/chris-gilliard/
Adrienne Maree Brown - https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html
Audry Waters blog - https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/
Asao Inoue - Labor-based grading - https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/labor/
