Hello, everyone, and welcome to Talk Nerdy. Today is Monday, April 28th, 2025, and I'm the host of the show, Dr. Kara, Santa Maria.

And as always, like the broken record I am, I want to thank those of you who make talk nerdy possible week after week.

Remember, talk nerdyism will always be 100% free to download.

And the way that we keep this in production is by relying on the support of individuals just like you. If you'd like to pledge your

support on an episodic basis, all you've got to do is visit patreon.com, that's p-at-r-e-on-com,

slash talk nerdy. This week's top patrons include Anu Barabage, Daniel Lang, David J.E. Smith,

Mary Neva, Brian Holden, David Compton,

Gabriel F. Harmiro, Joe Wilkinson, Joseph Lamore, Pascuali Jalati, Rika Maharaj, and Ulrika

Hagman. Thank you all so, so much. So this week I had the honor of speaking with Dr. John B. King, Jr. He served in President Barack Obama's

cabinet as the 10th U.S. Secretary of Education. He has also worked kind of across so many

different aspects of public education, including as a high school social studies teacher,

a middle school principal.

He was the first African American and Puerto Rican individual to serve as New York State Education Commissioner.

He's also been a college professor and the president and CEO of the Education Trust,

which is a national education civil rights organization.

Currently, Dr. King is the chancellor of the State University of New York, also known as SUNY, which is, of course, the nation's largest comprehensive

system of public higher education. And he wrote a wonderful book called Teacher by Teacher,

the people who change our lives. So without any further ado,

here he is the former U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. John B. King, Jr. Well, John, thank you so

much for joining me today. Thank you. I'm excited to talk with you. I am too. I'm really excited

about your new book, Teacher by Teacher, the people who change our lives. So before we even get

into the book, you know, and the reasons for writing the book, I want to talk a little bit about

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