This is America: A Conversation with Dr. Terence Lester

The PoliticsGirl Podcast

MeidasTouch Network, Leigh McGowan

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.9 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s back to school, and while school shootings are a given, actual education is not. It’s September 2025 and the Department of Education is being systematically dismantled while the policy impacts of the Trump administration are only set to make things worse. From food insecurity for children who get fed at school, to school closures, to policy decisions that tell us what we can and cannot teach. Nothing is as it should be. As today’s guest, Dr. Lester is the author of the upcoming book From Dropout to Doctorate: Breaking the Chains of Educational Injustice. Dr. Lester writes: education inequality isn’t theoretical, it’s real. Behind every data point about dropout rates, underfunded schools, or academic failures there real people with potential who were left behind. Why are we abandoning the very people we’ll need in the future to make our world a safer and smarter place? As always, if you find worth in what we do, please consider SUBSCRIBING to PoliticsGirl Premium. You’ll get this podcast ad free and it, and the the rants delivered directly to your inbox so even if we’re shut out of social media, you’ll still get access to the most highly researched, factual information available. Independent media needs your support now more than ever. Go to https://www.politicsgirl.com/premium and subscribe today!! Thank you so much! xoPG Guest social: https://terencelester.com/ https://www.instagram.com/imterencelester/ https://x.com/imTerenceLester https://www.facebook.com/imterencelester https://www.linkedin.com/in/imterencelester/ https://www.youtube.com/@imterencelester Please RATE and SUBSCRIBE so we can grow the show, open the dialogue, and inspire change moving forward! All show links here!: https://linktr.ee/politicsgirl This episode is sponsored by… https://laundrysauce.com code: PoliticsGirl20 https://iRestore.com code: PoliticsGirl https://calm.com/politicsgirl IQBar: TEXT PG to 64000

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	When you think about the student who may be the future doctor, maybe the future lawyer, maybe the future
0:06.1	principal, maybe the future inventor that creates the next cure for a disease that we've been
0:12.4	wrestling with for decades, and they are halted. They're running up against barriers because
0:18.7	there's not enough supports while they are a child,
0:22.4	how dare we not be disturbed or move to the point where we say enough is enough and we
0:28.7	need to create more resources for them? Hello, and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host Lee McGowan. Let's get into it.
0:46.5	Well, it's back to school. And while school shootings seem to be a given in America,
0:51.0	actual education is not. Here we are in September 2025 with the Department of Education
0:56.5	that is being systematically dismantled, while the policy impacts of the Trump administration on
1:01.3	education is only set to make things worse. From food insecurity for children who are used to getting
1:06.8	fed at school, to school closures, to policy decisions that tell us what we can and cannot teach.
1:12.6	Now we have states taking right-wing Christian talking points as part of the public school curriculum,
1:17.7	and even using videos from organizations like Pregg or You to teach our children.
1:22.1	To teach our children things like slavery wasn't so bad. It was better than death, after all. Why would we teach our children
1:30.5	that those were the only two options, death or slavery? Aren't we supposed to be a land of freedom?
1:36.4	What are we even doing here? This is a complete departure of how we teach our children and what they
1:42.0	will be learning. So to talk about education in modern-day
1:45.2	America, I have invited Dr. Terrence Lester to join us. Dr. Lester is the author of the upcoming book
1:51.2	from dropout to doctorate, breaking the chains of educational injustice. Dr. Lester writes about
1:56.6	how education inequality isn't theoretical, it's real, that behind every data point you hear about
2:02.0	dropout rates or underfunded schools or academic failures, there is a story of real people with
2:07.2	potential who more often than not got left behind. Dr. Lester tells his own personal story of going
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MeidasTouch Network, Leigh McGowan, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of MeidasTouch Network, Leigh McGowan and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.