Pioneer Institute
373 episodes listed below
Education policy with civic memory.
The Learning Curve treats education as a public question, not just a classroom issue. Episodes move from current stories into conversations on school choice, charter schools, higher education, cultural memory, art, and American history.
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The Learning Curve is an education-policy interview show with a broad civic reach. Its center of gravity is school reform, especially school choice, charter public schools, federal education tax credits, and the relationship between autonomy and accountability. The format is steady and familiar. Co-hosts open with a brief exchange, name the stories they are reading, and then use those stories to frame the main interview. Current events matter here, but they usually serve as a path into larger institutional questions. A discussion of Florida school choice becomes a conversation about competition, public-school response, and learning gains. A federal tax-credit episode turns into a practical debate over whether states should participate, send funds back to the federal government, or watch other states benefit. Charter-school research is treated through evidence, lottery studies, urban outcomes, and the limits of broad averages. The show is clearly comfortable with reform-minded arguments, but it tends to make them through explanation rather than volume. Its policy conversations often return to families, low-income students, minority students, state leadership, and the everyday consequences of rules that can sound abstract on paper. At the same time, The Learning Curve is not only a policy shop. Recent episodes move into architecture, Jewish cultural preservation, American modernist painting, founding-era political economy, and civil-rights memory. Guests discuss Gaudí and the Sagrada Família, Aaron Lansky and Yiddish books, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alexander Hamilton, and the Selma to Montgomery march. Those cultural episodes give the show a wider curriculum, as if education includes the civic and artistic inheritance adults keep learning from. The pacing is measured. Questions are usually framed with background before they land. Disagreement appears, but it is softened by recap, clarification, and a return to shared premises. The show is best for listeners who want education debates connected to history, institutions, and public purpose rather than treated as quick partisan combat. It rewards patience and curiosity.
Made for: For listeners interested in school choice, charter schools, higher education, public policy, and the cultural history surrounding civic education. It especially suits people who prefer guided conversations over quick debate clips.
What sets it apart: The show pairs reform-focused education policy with interviews on art, literature, religion, history, and civil rights. That range lets it treat schooling as part of a wider civic and cultural project.
Join The Learning Curve every Wednesday for insight and perspective on education, learning trends, school choice, and public policy. Our hosts and guests offer a mix of provocative commentary as they interview school leaders, innovators, bestselling authors, policymakers, and more. Send any suggestions, tips, and fan mail to [email protected] to all episodes of The Learning Curve at Ricochet.com.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · August 2026
The Learning Curve makes school choice and charter school debates concrete through policy, evidence, and institutional tradeoffs.
The Learning Curve belongs on the policy side of Education. Its episodes start from education news and move into longer interviews, with recurring attention to school choice, charter public schools, federal education tax credits, and education federalism.
School-choice curiosity gets you a side door into Yiddish books and Gaudi.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A school-choice discussion that stays anchored in concrete effects and policy incentives.
The episode keeps school choice tied to Florida, public schools, and the effects of competition on students who leave and those who stay. After a news-led opening, the guest's case is laid out around student gains, the incentives school choice creates, and the argument that…
A practical look at how a federal education tax credit could play out in a democratic state.
Jim Blew and Katie Everett keep the focus on what the policy would actually do: whether a democratic state takes part, sends the money back to the feds, or lets it flow to neighboring states. That gives the episode a clear spine.
A clear, appreciative look at Gaudi, faith, and the unfinished monument that still frames the story.
The Learning Curve spends time with Antoni Gaudi and the unfinished Sagrada Familia, treating the Barcelona landmark as a way into devotion, design, and the long patience behind a project that has stretched on for more than a century.
A steady case for Yiddish as a living language.
The episode makes a steady case for Yiddish as a language kept alive by use rather than sentiment. It moves from the postwar rebuilding of Jewish life to the communities that continued to speak it, from native speakers to Zionist Jews who adopted Hebrew in Israel and religious…
A steady charter-school discussion that ties research to the accountability question without overstating what the data can prove.
The episode frames charter schools as a tradeoff that never really goes away: more freedom for schools, more pressure to show results. Alicia Thomas-Searcy and Dr.
Oklahoma policy, framed as executive action.
Singapore markets, policy, and daily dilemmas.
Jewish ideas with cultural nerve.
School choice policy, close to the ground.
School policy through a parental-rights lens.
The Learning Curve opens with light banter between Albert Chang and Walter Blanks.
The hosts open with a quick check-in and a story of the week.
The Learning Curve opens with Albert Chang and Alicia Searcy setting up a conversation about Antoni Gaudí and the Sagrada Família.
The episode opens with guest-host banter and a new-stories check-in.
Alicia Thomas-Searcy and Dr.
Justice Barry Anderson discusses college closure trends and previews a segment on Alexander Hamilton.
The hosts discuss the legacy of Reverend Jesse Jackson and his contributions to civil rights and education access.
Host Albert Chang interviews Mary Tamer, executive director of Mass Potential, about education improvement and previews a discussion on artist Georgia O'Keeffe.
Co-hosts introduce a special episode featuring a history teacher and a professor discussing Benjamin Franklin's life and legacy.
Hosts discuss weather and then introduce a news segment about public school choice, leading into an interview about private school choice in Florida.
Hosts interview a guest about a literacy bill in Massachusetts and discuss K-12 educational improvement.
This episode discusses education news and a court case on school choice in Massachusetts.
Hosts discuss education news and preview an interview about higher education during the Spanish flu pandemic.
This episode of the Learning Curve podcast features an interview with Jay Tolson about Southern Catholic novelist Walker Percy during Catholic Schools Week, while also discussing education news like cursive writing making a comeback in New Jersey schools.
A special episode of The Learning Curve for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, featuring an interview with author Ruth Franklin about her book on Anne Frank.
Co-hosts discuss education news and interview an author about school choice and policy.
The hosts discuss education news and preview an interview with the president of the Arizona State Board of Education.
Hosts discuss school choice and charter school movement with guest Shaka Mitchell from American Federation for Children.
This episode discusses education news, including a Fordham Institute piece on literacy legislation, and features an interview about World War I for Veterans Day.
Hosts discuss education policy, school choice, and a recent charter school march in New York City.
Co-hosts Albert Chang and Andrea Silbert introduce an interview with Dr.
Hosts Albert Chang and Helen Baxendale introduce an episode featuring an interview about George Eliot, preceded by discussion of education news.
Hosts discuss school choice news and interview a veteran education reform advocate.
The hosts introduce an episode discussing the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Trial with guest Professor Edward Larson, framed within education news and policy.
Co-hosts Albert Chang and Helen Bexendale discuss back-to-school updates and preview an interview with Alicia Thomas-Searcy about her new Center for Strong, touching on liberal arts education.
Co-hosts Alicia and Tara discuss education news and preview an interview about school choice expansion in New Hampshire versus Massachusetts.
This episode of the Learning Curve Podcast features an upcoming interview with Dr.
This episode discusses recent education policy changes in Massachusetts, focusing on the elimination of high school graduation requirements and their potential impact on academic rankings and equity for struggling students.
This episode features an interview with Amanda McMullen, president and CEO of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, discussing her work and the museum's offerings, along with a segment on civics education news.
This episode features a discussion with Professor Wilfrid Prest on Sir William Blackstone's influence on Anglo-American common law, alongside analysis of recent Supreme Court rulings like the St.