Stay ConnectedOn Teach the Babies with Dr. David J. Johns, we’re examining the intersection of education, access, race, and how government impacts the teaching of our babies.
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Copyright: © Dr. David J. Johns
Dr. Christina Grant returns to Teach the Babies with an urgent message: the decline of learning in America should be considered a national emergency. From her work leading the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard to serving on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Dr. Grant breaks down what's actually working in education recovery—and what we're missing in the chaos. She challenges us to rethink everything from AI in the classroom to how we assess our children, and reminds us why her first love has always been teaching. This conversation is about being fearless, being smart, and refusing to let our babies be used by the tools instead of trained to build them. If you missed her first visit (June 23, 2024: "Systems Work Exactly As Designed"), catch up—and then listen to this one twice.
SHOW NOTES & RESOURCESResources Mentioned:
What happens when the process meant to deliver justice becomes part of the problem?
Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, author of Radical Reparations and professor at UCLA, was denied even the chance to compete for Washington State's groundbreaking reparations study—not because his proposal wasn't strong enough, but because it allegedly got lost in malware. No portal. No receipt. No accountability. And when he pushed back, he was denied a required debriefing—twice.
Dr. Hunter breaks down what went wrong in Washington, why it matters for every state considering reparations, and what we all need to do right now. They discuss the Department of Commerce's troubling patterns, the role of Attorney General Nick Brown, and why legendary economist Dr. William Darity was also shut out.
"Reparations is sacred work," Dr. Hunter reminds us, "and if the process is not governed with integrity, the repair cannot and will not be trusted."
This episode is a call to action. Not on our watch.
RESOURCES & TAKE ACTION:Read the Documents:
What does leadership look like when your city is under federal occupation? When ICE agents are killing civilians in your streets? When thousands of your neighbors are being hunted, arrested, and deported—and you're the one people are looking to for answers?In this urgent conversation, Dr. David Johns sits down with Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley, the council's Minority Leader and the first Democratic Socialist to hold leadership on the council. Robin represents Ward 2, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the country, and she's been on the front lines of what's been called the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history: Operation Metro Surge.
Robin doesn't just talk about what happened in Minneapolis—she was there. She was at the scene when Renée Good was killed by federal agents. She's been organizing eviction moratoriums, securing rental assistance, calling for ICE to be abolished, and building communities of care in the middle of a crisis designed to break people.
Most importantly, Robin teaches us about revolutionary love—how Minneapolis chose to lean into care and compassion instead of bitterness when faced with state-sanctioned terror. She shows us what a politics of care looks like: starting with your neighbors, your workplace, your school, your faith community. Building the networks that sustain us when institutions fail us.
Class is in session. And this lesson is for everyone.
CONNECT WITH ROBIN WONSLEY:
On January 7, 2026, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and poet, in Minneapolis. One week earlier, an off-duty ICE agent killed Keith Porter Jr., a Black father of two, on New Year's Eve in Los Angeles. No charges have been filed in either case.
Dr. Jason Johnson—professor, MSNBC contributor, and political analyst—argues that Democrats should make abolishing ICE central to their 2026 midterm campaigns. His case isn't just moral—it's political. Polling shows 46% of Americans support abolishing ICE, higher than support for abolishing the IRS. Yet Democratic leadership remains silent.
In this urgent conversation, Jason breaks down why ICE's absence from pop culture creates a unique political opportunity, how ICE spending is an economic justice issue, why this agency operates as a secret police force, and what it means for Democrats to actually be an opposition party. The question now: will Democrats have the courage to act?
RESOURCES & REFERENCES
Dr. Jason Johnson's Work:
In this urgent conversation, immigration attorney Allen Orr—the first Black president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and founder of Orr Immigration Law Firm—breaks down what's really happening with ICE enforcement across the country.
We discuss:
Dr. Chris Pernell joins the class for a conversation that is equal parts urgent and tender. As a public health physician, strategist, and NAACP Fellow, Dr. Pernell breaks down the Black maternal health crisis with unflinching clarity: racism kills. She unpacks how the medical industrial complex fails Black mothers, offers practical advocacy tools for birthing people and their loved ones, and navigates the dangerous terrain of vaccine misinformation in the current political climate.
But this conversation doesn't stop at systems—it goes to the soul. Dr. Pernell shares the lessons her parents taught her: a mother with "a PhD in love" who taught her how to protect her core, and a father who was "a fighter's fighter" who cultivated in her "a sense of self that racism can't touch." This is about survival, yes—but it's also about joy, freedom, and the ancestral wisdom that keeps us fighting.
IN THIS EPISODE:
Preston Mitchum returns fresh from a wedding that was equal parts celebration and declaration. He opens up about the revolutionary act of Black men loving Black men, what it means to center abundance and joy, and how chosen family showed up in full force.
As a policy advocate working at the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender, Preston also breaks down what's at stake in the 2026 midterms—voting rights, trans liberation, Title IX. He shares where he finds inspiration, how mutual aid sustains the work, and what it means to build a life with his partner that honors both togetherness and individual freedom.
This is a conversation about love as resistance, joy as defiance, and showing up for our people even when we don't have all the answers.
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What does healthy love look like for Black people navigating a world that doesn't always welcome our relationships? In this powerful conversation, Prince Amari—the first certified Black gay matchmaker in the love industry—breaks down the four essential components of lasting love and why representation in relationships matters just as much as representation in media. From his journey as a dancer at Howard to becoming a matchmaker, dating coach, and hypnotherapist, Amari shares why community is essential to sustaining love and how queer folks can build relationships that affirm who we are.
Show Notes:
This isn't just a podcast. This is us doing the work of protecting our babies—their minds, their futures, their right to learn truth and to live free.”The stakes are high. But so is our resolve. We're not done. We're just getting started.
This year, we're going to keep building. Keep learning. Keep pushing. Keep getting free.
#TeachTheBabies #TeachTheBabies Podcast. Listen. Like. Subscribe. Share
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"We Were Short on Cash, Not on Love: Liberation Psychology for the Holidays"Dr. Raquel Martin returns to the class to break down how families can resist capitalism's grip on the holiday season while building real community care. As a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in liberation psychology, Dr. Martin doesn't just help people cope—she helps them fight back.
In this conversation, she gets brutally honest about raising Black boys in the South, why "I prescribed activism as much as I prescribed coping skills," and the difference between protective versus proactive parenting. She shares how growing up "short on cash, not on love" taught her that traditions don't require money—they require energy and intention. And she explains why there's no such thing as individual wellness when we're all operating in oppressive systems.
Dr. Martin offers concrete strategies: how to talk to children about why the president is terrorizing communities, how to find your 15 minutes for joy even when exhausted, and why following the right people on social media is a survival tool. She also shares her favorite parenting resources and reminds us that apologizing to our children means changed behavior, not Roblox cards.
This isn't therapy. This is liberation psychology. This is how we build the communities that will sustain us through whatever comes next.
Show notes/resources: Books & AuthorsParenting Resources:
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