The Best Student Podcasts of 2021

Kentucky middle schoolers and a Chicago teen won this year's Student Podcast Challenge

View this email online (Top) Eighth-graders Braeden Collett (left), Bo Porter, Brennan Williams and Dominique Jannat  Arden Barnes for NPR (Bottom) NPR Student Podcast Challenge winner Kriti Sarav  Olivia Obineme for NPR "How many people do you think take care of our campus?" A chorus of young voices shout guesses from the Sayre School's playground in Lexington, Ky. "15? 50? 20?" The independent, pre-K-12 school has 10 buildings and about 500 students, so those guesses, albeit high, are understandable. The truth: The school has a maintenance staff of five. And now, the unsung heroes who make up that staff are the subject of a podcast that's won the middle school top prize in NPR's Student Podcast Challenge. Six hours away, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, our high school grand prize winner, sophomore Kriti Sarav, made her podcast in a cramped bedroom closet. Kriti’s “My Very Own Bully” deals with her struggle to come to terms with Indian-American identity. Kriti says the hyphen in Indian-American is important: Her podcast is all about growing up between cultures and how, at times, she resented the parts of herself that didn't seem to fit the mold she saw around her. "My honey-brown skin contrasted greatly with the peachy whites and olives of my friends," Kriti says, early in the episode. "My parents called me raja and beta, not munchkin or cutie-pie. When I opened up my lunchbox, I had a thermos full of daal and rice and chapati and roti — not mac n' cheese or PB&J." Read more about Kriti’s story and the Sayre School’s podcast. Listen Here Editor’s Note: Last week we goofed and included the wrong link for Elissa Nadworny’s conversation with Nicole Lynn Lewis, author of Pregnant Girl. You can listen here. Newsletter continues after sponsor message On to the news… New research from the CDC reinforces an old message: COVID-19 spreads less in schools where teachers and staff wear masks. Yet the study arrives as states and school districts across the country have begun scaling back or simply dropping their masking requirements for staff and students alike. Read more here. — Cory Turner, NPR Ed Correspondent & Senior Editor American families will start receiving expanded, monthly child tax credit payments in July, the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department announced on Monday. The expanded benefit is part of the Biden administration's $1.9 trillion economic aid package passed in March. Under the new program, eligible families qualify for up to $300 per month for each child younger than 6 and up to $250 for each child aged 6 to 17. Read more here. — Vanessa Romo, NPR Reporter Mental health researchers describe an increasingly clear correlation between poor mental health outcomes in teens and social media use. And they worry that Facebook (which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp) in particular may be muddying the waters on that connection to protect its public image. Read more here. — Miles Parks, NPR Reporter Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed a bill to allow public schools to offer yoga, ending a ban that stood for nearly 30 years. Christian conservatives who back the ban said yoga would open the door for people to be converted to Hinduism. The new law allows yoga to be offered as an elective, for grades K-12. While it erases a ban that, over the years, some schools had not realized existed, it also imposes restrictions on how yoga should be taught. Students won't be allowed to say "Namaste," for instance. Meditation is not allowed. Read more here.   —Bill Chappell, NPR Reporter & Editor And before you go, something to make you smile. WHAS11 Students at the Swallowtail Forest School in Louisville, Ky., welcomed some new guests to their outdoor classroom this week. "We started noticing them yesterday morning and ever since then the kids have just been enthralled," Bridget Taylor, the school’s director, told WHAS11 News. The guests are Brood X cicadas, and the students are doing their best to make them feel at home. “They made a welcome sign for them yesterday," said Rebecca Minnick, of the Louisville Nature Center, where the school is based. "They love bugs and it's so cute to see how tender and empathetic they are with the bugs." Read more here. See you next week. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: npred@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Education emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy