ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗
Over more than a third of a century, Alfie Kohn has offered a multifaceted defense of progressive education as well as research-based critiques of rewards and punishments, grades, standardized testing, homework, competition, and other aspects of traditional schooling (and parenting). Each episode of Kohn’s Zone will offer 20-30 minutes of provocative reflections on a topic having to do with teaching and learning — or with human behavior more generally; occasional longer segments will feature conversations with leading experts in education. Watch this space for new episodes, which will appear as if by magic every two weeks or so. You can listen here, or, better yet, on the podcast’s home, AlfieKohn.org/podcasts, which offers other resources. And to support us, please visit https://coff.ee/kohnszone. PRODUCTION SUPPORT: Ultraviolet Audio. ART: Abi Kohn.
Update frequency:
biweekly
Average audio length:
37 minutes
Guest interviews
English
United States
32 episodes
since July 1, 2025
episodic
IN THIS PODCAST 🔗
LATEST EPISODE 🔗
October 1, 2026
Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools
More than a quarter-century after “No Child Left Behind” deliberately left millions of children behind by imposing nationwide punitive high-stakes testing, U.S. students are still tested constantly, starting early…
PREVIOUS EPISODES 🔗
September 15, 2026
Caution: Contents Under Pressure
The psychological consequences of pressuring children to perform well academically (and, worse, to outperform their peers) are distressingly obvious. But some adults rationalize their actions by claiming that pressure can be prod…
September 1, 2026
How Not to Deal with Bullying
The amount of bullying that goes on in schools is as sobering as the psychological impact it has on its victims, sometimes lasting into adulthood. Alas, common strategies for dealing with this problem are often ineffective and even c…
August 15, 2026
Teaching Kindness
How can schools help children to become not only good learners but also good people? What’s involved in cultivating a genuine concern about others, an enduring commitment to helping and caring? Here we consider several strategies, which requ…
August 1, 2026
The Pseudoscience of Reading
What the real science of reading shows is that there isn’t a single method for learning how to read that’s ideal for all children. Moreover, reading is not just about letter-sound relationships; it’s about making meanin…
July 15, 2026
The Remarkable Benefits of Diversity
Even if you aren’t ideologically opposed to segregation in schools, research shows that it doesn’t make sense for practical reasons — and that goes not only for segregation by race but also segregation by gender,…
July 1, 2026
Raising Reflective Rebels
We’re faced with a silent epidemic of obedience, a pervasive failure to become outraged by outrageous things. Adults whose highest accolade for a child is “well-behaved” often themselves suffer from a crisis of moral courage…
June 15, 2026
Fun Without Winning or Losing
We have been raised – and, in turn, raise our children – to take on faith that recreation requires competition, that half the people playing a game must try to defeat the other half. (They “cooperate” only with th…
June 1, 2026
“PROGRESSIVE HIGH SCHOOL” IS NOT AN OXYMORON
In theory, the fact that all but a handful of states have eliminated do-or-die exit exams allows high schools to finally do right by teenagers, to help them become engaged intellectuals and caring people. A lead…
May 15, 2026
Grade Inflation Is Not the Problem
When you look at student transcripts (rather than at self-reports), it’s less clear that average grades are rising over time. And even if some grades are higher, that doesn’t mean they’re “inflated” (i.e…
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alfie Kohn, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
PODCAST SEARCH ENGINE
You can use our website to search 3,822,630 podcasts and 195,560,864 episodes by people, places, or topics.
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest, so I listen to podcasts.
‐ Benjamin "Llamacorn" Franklin
PODCAST IS CLAIMED
This podcast page is claimed and managed by
@p6172
EDIT
Thank you for helping to keep the podcast database up to date.
