The Kids Are Not Alt Right

05/01/23 • 133 min

On this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave and Josh go back to school with Denis Prager’s enormous library of children’s educational content! The American right’s obsession with attacking teachers and public education in recent years has given us PragerU Kids, a streaming hub of “pro-America” kids programming intent on battling the evil woke agendas “infiltrating classrooms, culture, and social media.”

As a guest, the two brought in a real teacher: Betsy Long, a public school educator in Los Angeles who has written about education politics in Jacobin Magazine. As a union leader, Betsy led her school site in the recent teacher strike that won record-breaking wage increases.

The team discusses various “educational” PragerU Kids videos:

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To listen to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

The team discusses various “educational” PragerU Kids videos:

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Previous Episode

Conservative Race Theory

On this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave and Josh analyze an area of PragerU’s curriculum that will make your head spin: racism in America. For this precarious exercise, they brought in writer/commentator Aaron Thorpe of the Trillbilly Worker’s Party podcast. They dive deep into multiple PragerU videos from the likes of Candace Owens on topics such as critical race theory, slavery, and reparations, with a clearer understanding of the historical counternarratives that conservatives wish to spin around race. You can read more of Aaron Thorpe’s work at http://spacelight.substack.com

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here.

PragerU videos referenced this week:

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Next Episode

George Washington Was Tall and Brave

On this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave, Josh and their guest Jared Yates Sexton, explore PragerU's treatment of the founding fathers. From George Washington's wealth and questionable actions to PragerU’s obsession with the founding fathers' heights, they unpack the mythologies and oversimplifications that the American Right invests in these historical figures. Jared Yates Sexton is author of The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis and co-host of the Muckrake Podcast. He challenges the traditional narratives we've been told about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison, including their involvement with slavery and underlying concern with maintaining the power of the wealthy elite.

The episode opens with an excerpt from the documentary Dreams With Sharp Teeth, directed by Erik Nelson.

PragerU videos we discussed this week:

A transcript of this episode is available here.