Oct 6, 2026 · 42 min · 8 segments
In this episode, Kristi and Christina tackle the school board culture wars greatest hits: curriculum fights, book bans, and religion in public schools. These culture war issues are on the ballot as…
Christina GagnierHostKristi HirstHostFar-right groups did a very good job of convincing parents that things were being taught in public schools that simply aren't.
And, like, this is probably, you know, the most visible place where we are seeing battles over public education, is what should be taught in our public schools.
Um, and, and some just questions that have come up in these culture war debates.
Uh, for example, I think probably number one is what children should learn about American history.
Uh, we'll talk a little bit about, like, what these groups are trying to do and push in public schools.
Should students learn about slavery? I, it bewilders me that we are having a conversation of whether or not we should be covering, uh, something that is so pivotal in American history, but here we are.
Whether we should teach about the civil rights movement, Native American history-
I mean, there's things like immigration, uh, labor history, labor movement, and, uh, obviously this is not an administration that values organized labor, so you can imagine what that would do to what they want taught.
The history of, like, LGBTQ Americans is under, you know, a huge attack right now.
Uh, the role of race in society, and this is, like, things, big education questions of what we want our kids to know and how we move forward as a society, even.
I mean, I have even seen in Southern California, a school board president upset that somebody was teaching about Brown versus the Board of Ed.
So, I mean, that's where we are right now with how controversial curriculum has become and the desire to control the curriculum.
And I think it's funny because they don't wanna teach about a lawsuit, but they have no problem spending taxpayer dollars on lawsuits.
Again, I, I use the word irony so many times on this podcast, it's, it's not lost on me.
But the Trump administration has, you know, and we talked about this last podcast, like, they're really trying to shape what is taught day to day in public schools, even though they say the exact opposite.
Far-right groups did a very good job of convincing parents that things were being taught in public schools that simply aren't.
And, like, this is probably, you know, the most visible place where we are seeing battles over public education, is what should be taught in our public schools.
Um, and, and some just questions that have come up in these culture war debates.
Uh, for example, I think probably number one is what children should learn about American history.
Uh, we'll talk a little bit about, like, what these groups are trying to do and push in public schools.
Should students learn about slavery? I, it bewilders me that we are having a conversation of whether or not we should be covering, uh, something that is so pivotal in American history, but here we are.
Whether we should teach about the civil rights movement, Native American history-
I mean, there's things like immigration, uh, labor history, labor movement, and, uh, obviously this is not an administration that values organized labor, so you can imagine what that would do to what they want taught.
The history of, like, LGBTQ Americans is under, you know, a huge attack right now.
Uh, the role of race in society, and this is, like, things, big education questions of what we want our kids to know and how we move forward as a society, even.
I mean, I have even seen in Southern California, a school board president upset that somebody was teaching about Brown versus the Board of Ed.
So, I mean, that's where we are right now with how controversial curriculum has become and the desire to control the curriculum.
And I think it's funny because they don't wanna teach about a lawsuit, but they have no problem spending taxpayer dollars on lawsuits.
Again, I, I use the word irony so many times on this podcast, it's, it's not lost on me.
But the Trump administration has, you know, and we talked about this last podcast, like, they're really trying to shape what is taught day to day in public schools, even though they say the exact opposite.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
