School board meetings have been getting unruly lately, with parents decrying lessons on race and gender that sometimes aren’t even taught. The outrage may be manufactured, but the frustration it echoes is real, historian Natalia Petrzela says: Genuine shifts in public education have met pandemic fatigue.

Sally Hudson brings an economist’s eye to her work as a lawmaker. Maybe that’s one reason the math on ranked-choice voting makes so much sense to her. With Hudson’s help, we revisit the state of democracy in our home state and assess the new governor’s first month in office.

It’s a grad-school reunion this time for Siva and guest-host Allison Wright, as they speak with two pals who are Texas historians about what the heck is going on in the Lone State. Plus, we hear from a teacher in Dallas about some controversial education reforms.

Last summer, young people were at the forefront of demonstrations for racial justice in America. In many ways, they were modeling democratic values for their educators. But can their teachers learn from them? UVA president Jim Ryan offers some insight on this and other tough questions.