Teachers are Burning Out. Can Former Educators Help?

Flag football has seen a recent rise in popularity. The California Interscholastic Federation added girls flag football as a varsity sport to high schools across the state just three years ago. It's often seen as a less violent alternative to tackle football however flag football, like most sports, still carries some risk of injury. And research is lacking when it comes to injuries faced by female athletes and how best to treat them. For the athletes at Oakland Technical High School, girls flag football is more than a sport with some injury risk, it's an opportunity to find belonging.

KQED is distributing a new podcast called Life, Automated from our partners at the Ryan Institute on Complexity that explores what it means to live, work, and make decisions in a rapidly automating world. In this episode , MIT education researcher Justin Reich walks host and science writer Dr. Jess Love through different technical innovations of the last century to show what actually changed in classrooms, and what didn’t. 

As confidence in higher education shifts and economic pressures intensify, young people are navigating increasingly complex decisions about life after high school. In this episode, college students share their financial realities and experts examine the tension between cultural expectations around college and emerging conversations about economic mobility, dignity of work, and long-term stability.

As skepticism about the cost of college grows, Career and Technical Education (CTE) is gaining renewed attention. But is CTE a shortcut around higher education or a bridge into it? In this episode, we follow a group of high school students earning a phlebotomy certification and hear researchers and school leaders unpack how modern CTE programs are evolving beyond outdated stigma toward stackable credentials, college alignment, and career mobility.

When a middle schooler started bringing home his worst grades ever, his parents were stunned. His teachers said he understood the material. The problem? He couldn’t stay off his school-issued iPad. In classrooms across the country, districts have banned phones, but the screens haven’t disappeared. They’ve just shifted to Chromebooks and tablets that students are required to use all day long. And for some families and educators, those devices are raising uncomfortable questions. On this episode of MindShift, we dig into the promises of education technology and whether they’ve actually paid off. This episode features voices ranging from parents and ed-tech researchers to school leaders redesigning students' reliance on tech.

More than a decade after Rita Pierson stepped onto the TED stage and declared, “Every child deserves a champion,” her words still echo through schools, teacher prep programs, and staff meetings across the country. But what does it actually take to live out that message in today’s classrooms when teachers are stretched thin, burnout is high, and the emotional demands of the job can feel relentless? In this episode, we go beyond the viral talk to meet the people who knew Rita best, the educators who carry her philosophy forward, and the researcher studying what happens to our bodies and minds when we lead with love.

At Redwood Heights Elementary in Oakland California, educators participate in workshops with the Teaching Well, a professional support organization focused on teacher sustainability and emotional resilience. This episode explores how supporting teacher well-being directly impacts classroom culture and student outcomes to show how teacher sustainability is foundational rather than a “nice-to-have.”

Inspired by Finland’s student-first approach, Copper Island Academy in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula prioritizes inclusion, early intervention, and teacher autonomy to create a learning environment where support is built into the classroom rather than siloed in separate rooms. This episode explores how Copper Island blends Finnish pedagogy with local culture, showing what’s possible when schools design systems around people, not paperwork.

This season we explore the ecosystems of support that shape student success. At a time when schools are facing staffing shortages, disruptions to the Department of Education, and shifting public trust, this season asks: who sustains the people responsible for sustaining students? Across six episodes, we'll move from teacher support and relationship-centered learning to technology, workforce preparation, and postsecondary pathways. Follow MindShift wherever you get your podcasts or visit https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/mindshift Subscribe to receive new episodes starting July 14.

KQED’s Ki Sung talks to health educator Shafia Zaloom about her book Getting Real About Sex Ed: What Today's Students Need. Zaloom shares advice for parents and educators wondering how to navigate authentic conversions with young people.