Stay ConnectedTake Back Our Schools puts you on the front lines of the culture wars as Andrew Gutmann and Beth Feeley explore the increasing politicalization of our schools and universities and just what to do about it.
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This week Beth and Andrew speak with geophysicist Dorian Abbot, an outspoken activist for academic freedom. Abbot discusses his views on the state of free speech and academic freedom in elite universities in the United States and talks about his own high profile experience of being cancelled from a speech he was supposed to give at MIT because of his outspoken activism against the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) regime.
Abbot also shares his scientific views on climate change and whether there is life on other planets.
Dorian Abbot is an associate professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago.Dorian is also a member of the Council of the Faculty Senate at the University of Chicago, a co-founder of the faculty group UChicago Free, a foundingmember of the Academic Freedom Alliance, and a co-founder and moderator of The Heterodox Academy STEM Community (HxSTEM). He has written and spoken publicly extensively on issues related to academic freedom and was awarded the 2021 Hero of Intellectual FreedomAward by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and the 2022 Courage Award by the Heterodox Academy.
On this episode Beth and Andrew speak with Chicago radio host and former Illinois gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft.
Proft shares his views on the polarized media environment and how radio has changed in the decade plus that he's been a talk show host. Moreover, Proft also talks about how the parent’s movement has used media to get the story out on the insanity that is happening in our nation’s schools.
Proft gives his take on the recent Chicago mayoral election, what it means for the city and the public school system in the Windy City.
On the episode, Andrew and Beth also talk about Andrew’s recent announcement to run for Congress in his new home state of Florida.
Links: The Morning Answer, Andrew Gutmann for Congress
This week Beth and Andrew speak with Pastor and community leader, Corey B. Brooks of Chicago. Pastor Brooks discusses the fight against violence gripping the city's poorest neighborhoods. He talks about how progressive policies over the past 60 years have led to a deterioration of black neighborhoods and the destruction of the traditional family.
Moreover, Pastor Brooks explains how the loss of religion and the deterioration of schools has impacted the community and how that adds to the allure of gangs to young black males. We also discuss Pastor Brook’s efforts to mentor at risk children and his vision for a new Christian charter school for boys, which he hopes to open in 2025.
Pastor Corey B. Brooks, founder and Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and founder and CEO of Project H.O.O.D. Communities Development Corporation has become a leading voice and presence in the fight against the violence gripping Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. Pastor Brook’s efforts received national acclaim when he spent 94 days living on the roof of a rundown motel located across the street from the church.
This week Beth and Andrew speak with attorney and activist Will Estrada, who explains what is meant by the term “parental rights” and gives a history of legislation and the important court cases that have impacted the rights of parents.
Estrada also discusses his organization’s work fighting for curriculum transparency in our nation’s public schools and the importance of fighting for parental rights at all three levels of government: local school boards, state legislatures and at the federal level. We also touch on how the issues of gender and trans ideology, and mental health is affecting the movement.
Will Estrada is a husband, dad, attorney, and the President of ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation, two nationwide nonprofits headquartered in Loudoun County, Virginia that have advocated at the local, state, and federal levels for the last sixteen years to protect children by empowering parents.
Links: ParentalRights.org
How Woke Took Over America by Andrew Gutmann
On this episode, Andrew and Beth speak with journalist and author Karol Markowicz, who discusses her brand new book, Stolen Youth, which details how our nation’s children have been under siege from Covid restrictions and the left’s political indoctrination in schools. She also shares her view on what parents must do to raise their own children given today’s political climate and how they can help the fight within their kids’ schools.
Karol talks about her own upbringing in the Soviet Union and her experiences as an immigrant to the United States living the American Dream. She also talks about the motivations behind her own family’s move from New York City to Florida.
Markowicz is a weekly Columnist at the New York Post and Fox News, Contributing Editor at The Spectator and a Contributing Writer to Washington Examiner magazine. She now lives in South Florida with her husband and three children.
On this episode, Beth and Andrew speak with evolutionary biologist Colin Wright. Wright walks us through the controversies around gender and trans ideology from the perspective of an evolutionary biologist and discusses the difference between sex and gender and explains why there are only two sexes: male and female.
He shares his views on why so few scientists and doctors are willing to speak up on these issues. That leaves it to the parents and we talk about what they need to know about gender and sex in order to understand the ideologies being pushed on their children in our nation’s schools.
Colin Wright is an evolutionary biologist, Manhattan Institute Fellow, and an Academic Advisor at the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM). He received his PhD in evolutionary biology from UC Santa Barbara in 2018, and was an Eberly Research Fellow at Penn State from 2018 to 2020. Wright began writing publicly about issues of sex and gender in late 2018. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, the New York Post, Newsweek, Quillette, and other major news outlets and peer-reviewed journals.
This week Andrew and Beth speak with Eric Cohen, author and founder of The Lobel Center for Jewish Classical Education where we discuss the importance of classical education for the Jewish community, the differences between classical and progressive schooling and the relationship between classical education and academic rigor. Cohen shares some of the initiatives of his new organization, including partnerships to train Jewish classical teachers and launching a Jewish version of Teach for America. He also talks about his collaborative experiences working with organizations and individuals affiliated with the Christian classical school community. Eric Cohen is the Executive Director of the Tikvah Fund and remains editor-at-large of the New Atlantis, serves as the publisher of the Jewish Review of Books and Mosaic, and serves on the board of directors of several prominent organizations. His writing have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Commentary, The New Republic, and First Things. He is the author of In the Shadow of Progress: Being Human in the Age of Technology (2008) and co-editor of The Future is Now: America Confronts the New Genetics (2002). He was previously managing editor of the Public Interest and served as a senior consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On this episode, Andrew and Beth speak with author and education expert Lance Izumi about his new book, The Great Parent Revolt, which highlights the stories of ordinary people that stood up to the against critical race theory and woke indoctrination in their children’s schools. We discuss how these new American heroes come from all walks of life, geographically, politically and socioeconomically. Lance talks about how many of the parents he profiles share one thing in common – an immigrant story. Lance also shares the story of a student in California who describes what political indoctrination is like from the student’s prospective. Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the former two-term president of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the largest system of higher education in the nation, and co-author of The Great Parent Revolt: How Parents and Grassroots Leaders Are Fighting Critical Race Theory in America's Schools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On this episode Andrew and Beth interview professor Eric Kaufmann on his new Manhattan Institute report, “School Choice Is Not Enough: The Impact of Critical Social Justice Ideology in American Education." Eric shares the findings of his comprehensive report and details how critical race theory and radical gender ideology are rampant in American schools, including public, private and religious schools. Eric discusses how this ideology in schools is influencing political beliefs and how it is associated with a fear of speaking one’s mind. Eric also shares his policy recommendations for Republicans in both blue and red states and we discuss whether or not school choice is the solution the problem of social justice indoctrination. Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London and an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is the author of Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities (Penguin/Abrams, 2018/19.) He has also written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Newsweek, National Review, New Statesman, Financial Times and other outlets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On this episode Beth and Andrew speak with philosophy professor and author Jason D. Hill. Jason talks about his life as an American immigrant from Jamaica, what led him to the study of philosophy, and his rejection of leftist social justice ideology. He discusses the state of today’s woke college campus, including what is motivating impressionable students, and why most professors are so reluctant to speak up against illiberal trends. We talk about whether higher ed is savable and Jason shares his views on the growing chorus and power of the reparations movement. Jason D. Hill is professor of philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago specializing in ethics, social and political philosophy, American politics and moral psychology. He is the author of several books, including What Do White Americans Owe Black People: Racial Justice in the Age of Post-Oppression. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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