Episodes

In Episode 142, Kasey and Brian sit down with Mr. Rupp, a high school English teacher and creator known for his sharp, funny, and thoughtful videos about rhetoric, fallacies, and how we think. The conversation moves from logical fallacies to grading, leadership, parent communication, and the complicated realities of teaching. Mr. Rupp breaks down ideas like the bike shed effect, the Nirvana fallacy, and hostile attribution bias, while pushing educators to think more clearly about the systems, a...

In Episode 141, Kasey and Brian sit down with John Dini, author of Hunting in a Farmer’s World, for a conversation about entrepreneurs, systems, leadership, education, and the students who do not always fit neatly into the routines of school. Together, they explore the difference between “hunters” and “farmers,” what happens when visionary people are placed inside highly managed systems, and how this applies to business owners, school leaders, teachers, and students. The conversation moves from...

Why do smart leaders make things more complicated than they need to be? In Episode 140, Kasey and Brian sit down with Casey Watts, author of The Craft of Clarity, for a conversation about leadership, initiative fatigue, and the kind of clarity that goes beyond simply communicating more. Casey reminds us that hard work cannot overcome a lack of clarity. Sometimes the work that creates the most clarity is slower, more reflective, and more uncomfortable than simply adding another program, person,...

What happens when educational leadership starts looking more like social media performance than authentic service?In this episode of the Schurtz & Ties podcast, Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller are joined once again by educator and consultant Jed Hafer for a candid, funny, and deeply honest conversation about the rise of the “celebrity principal.” Together, they wrestle with an important question:When does sharing great school leadership become more about the leader than the students?The conver...

Psychologist, researcher, and author known for her work on gender, social norms, and the myths that shape how we understand boys, girls, men, and women. In this conversation, Cordelia Fine joins Schurtz & Ties for a careful discussion about gender in schools, the assumptions educators make about boys and girls, and why treating students as individuals matters more than leaning on stereotypes. The conversation moves through classroom expectations, masculinity, boys and purpose, gender roles, econ...

Show Notes Educator, author, and speaker known for challenging traditional thinking about motivation, rewards, punishment, homework, grading, and the role of power in schools. In this conversation, Alfie Kohn pushes on some of education’s most familiar assumptions: why control often replaces trust, how compliance can diminish curiosity, why democratic classrooms matter, and what it means for educators to serve as a buffer between students and harmful systems. The discussion moves through parent...

In this episode, we sit down with psychologist and writer Adam Mastroianni to explore why so much of what feels obviously true about people often turns out to be wrong. We talk about why people across generations believe society is in moral decline, even when evidence suggests otherwise, why schools often rely on interventions that sound right but fail in practice, and how human beings are wired to notice the negative more than the good. Adam shares why psychology still behaves more like an ad...

What happens when behavioral leadership is not treated as a program, but as part of a school’s culture? In this special Schurtz & Ties Presents conversation, Kasey Schurtz joins Tony DeRose on Collab Lab Live for a deep discussion about what behavioral leadership looks like inside a junior high school, why secondary educators sometimes hesitate to embrace it, and why simple practices like noticing often do the heaviest instructional lifting. Built around ideas from Ervin Educational Consulting...

In Episode 140 of Schurtz & Ties, we welcome back literacy expert Mary Jo Fresch to talk about what teachers really need to understand about reading, vocabulary, and language. Mary Jo has spent decades helping educators make sense of the English language and build the background knowledge needed to confidently teach literacy. In this conversation, we explore the realities of the Science of Reading, the role of phonics across all subjects, and how teachers in any content area can support student...

What if uncertainty isn’t weakness—but the doorway to deeper thinking? In this episode of Schurtz & Ties, we sit down with journalist and author Maggie Jackson, whose books Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure and Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention challenge some of our deepest assumptions about attention, expertise, and learning. Schools often reward speed, correctness, and certainty. But Maggie argues that the ability to pause, question, and remain open...

Teachers carry more than lesson plans. They carry fear that isn’t theirs. They carry responsibility no one trained them for. They carry the weight of holding stability when everything else feels uncertain. In this first episode of a two-part series on the unseen burdens teachers carry, we speak with Minnesota educator and Teacher of the Year finalist Sean Padden about what happens when national politics enters school hallways. Sean describes a reality many Americans never see: Students afrai...

Teachers carry more than lesson plans. They carry the knowledge that one moment—one decision, one sentence, one misunderstood action—can change everything. They carry the quiet awareness that the work they love can also make them vulnerable. In Part 2 of this special two-episode series on the unseen burdens teachers carry, we speak with educator and former principal Toby Price, whose career was abruptly ended after reading a children’s book to students. No parents complained. No students wer...

In Episode 132, we are joined by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, an internationally recognized researcher and author whose work sits at the intersection of mind, brain, and education science. This conversation explores what neuroscience actually tells us about learning — and just as importantly, what it doesn’t. We dig into how research is often misapplied in classrooms, how teacher actions shape learning environments in ways we don’t always see, and what it means to design instruction that honors bo...

A true barstool conversation with brewer Jeremiah Johnson In this episode, Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller step outside the education silo and sit down with Jeremiah Johnson, founder and owner of Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company. What starts as a light “barstool episode” quickly turns into a deeply relevant conversation about leadership, clarity, iteration, trust, and what it actually takes to build something that lasts. Jeremiah shares the story of rebranding an existing brewery under his o...

🎙️ Episode 130: Barry Schwartz Choice, Structure, and the Cost of Getting Education Wrong In Episode 130 of Schurtz & Ties, we are joined by Barry Schwartz, renowned psychologist and author whose work has shaped how we think about motivation, choice, and meaning for decades. This conversation moves well beyond soundbites. We dig into why incentives often undermine learning, how too much choice fuels anxiety rather than freedom, and why structure is not the enemy of autonomy but its prerequisit...

Schurtz Short: What’s Our Guiding Light? In this Schurtz Short, Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller wrestle with a deceptively simple question schools often rush past: What is our guiding light when we make decisions? As schools begin planning for the next year—staffing, policies, handbooks—this short conversation pushes beyond slogans and into something more concrete. If intellectual engagement is the non-negotiable task of schooling, what does that actually mean in practice? How do we avoid abs...

🎙️ Schurtz & Ties Dr. Douglas Fuchs on Inclusion, IDEA, and the Limits of the General Classroom In this episode of Schurtz & Ties, Kasey Schurtz sits down with Dr. Douglas Fuchs, one of the most influential scholars in special education, to explore one of the most pressing and emotionally charged questions in schools today: When is inclusion truly least restrictive—and when does it stop being instructionally responsible? Drawing on decades of research, classroom experience, and policy work, D...

What if the key to better classrooms isn’t more compliance—but more fire? In this episode of Schurtz & Ties, Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller sit down with Coach Tony Holler—creator of the Feed the Cats philosophy, longtime chemistry teacher, and nationally recognized coach—to explore what schools can learn from athletics, competition, and joy. Tony brings decades of experience from both the classroom and the track to challenge some of education’s most common assumptions: bell-to-bell instruc...

In this episode of Schurtz & Ties, Kasey Schurtz and Brian Miller welcome back therapist, former educator, and author Charle Peck, LCSW, M.Ed. for a candid conversation about student anxiety, adult stress, and the communication breakdowns happening in schools right now. Together, they unpack why anxiety is genuinely increasing—not just being labeled more often—how social media, rapid societal change, and outdated systems are colliding in classrooms, and why many conflicts stem from students and...

In this conversation, Kasey and Brian sit down with Dr. Katie Lohmiller and Halley Gruber, co-founders of the Educational Access Group, to explore what it really means to build trauma-responsive, brain-based schools. They unpack how stress and adversity shape student behavior, why many traditional discipline systems miss the mark. Grounded in the work of Dr. Bruce D. Perry, the discussion highlights practical ways educators can support regulation, safety, and learning while creating sustainable ...

Pete Hall

n this Christmas Special episode of Schurtz and Ties, hosts Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller engage in a lively discussion with their friends and fellow educators, Matt and Eric. They reflect on their shared experiences in education, the importance of community, and the impact of having supportive colleagues. The conversation touches on the challenges and joys of teaching, the significance of maintaining a sense of humor, and the value of creating a positive school culture. The episode is fille...

American educators are in urgent need of meaningful behavioral support. Too often, punishment and consequences are conflated, while accountability gets lost in the noise. In this episode, Brian and Kasey unpack what accountability really means: doing what is reasonably expected and ensuring behaviors and expectations are met. They explore how true accountability places responsibility on both students and adults—requiring teachers to clearly teach, reteach, and support expectations. Grounded in g...

In this Schurtz Short, Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller unpack the difference between accountability, punishment, and consequences, and why conflating them creates confusion for both students and staff. They explore how clarity, consistency, and patience build a culture where accountability supports learning instead of shutting it down. The conversation highlights the importance of modeling expectations, partnering with families, and closing the loop so accountability leads to growth—not resent...