Introducing Those Who Can’t Teach Anymore

This Changes Everything Season 3 was all about public education. So we wanted to share an episode from another podcast that you might be interested in.

This spring, This Changes Everything won a first place award in Audio Storytelling from the Best of the West journalism contest — specifically for the second episode of Season 3,  The Kids Are Not All Right, which was about the mental health crisis facing young people today, its relationship to the pandemic and the effect that all this is having on teachers, too.

Because of that award, a high school teacher from Wyoming named Charles Fournier asked us to do an episode swap with his podcast, Those Who Can’t Teach Anymore. His podcast also won a first place award: a Top of the Rockies award from the Society of Professional Journalists. It explores why teachers are leaving education right now and what can be done to stop the exodus.

We wanted to share the first episode of that podcast right here. It’s called “Fight, Flight, or Apathy.” It chronicles this mass exodus of teachers, one of whom includes Charles’ wife, Jennie. Jennie and two other teachers who recently left the profession talk about why they left, offering some key insight into what’s going on — and going wrong — for teachers in public schools right now.

And if you want to hear more podcasts from the Crosscut newsroom, check out Crosscut Reports, which comes out a lot more frequently, and showcases reporting from our colleagues here. Topics range from efforts to change the culture inside Washington’s prisons to how reproductive health care has changed in Washington after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.