Math For Folks Who Don't Like Math, How to Help Black Students, Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy (Get Political), Decorating Your Apartment on a Budget

From numerical digits, to mysterious graphs and equations, to abstractions like imaginary numbers, math can feel inaccessible, confounding and even like a foreign language to many. Math teacher Ben Orlin, self-proclaimed “math apologist” and bestselling author of Math with Bad Drawings, shares insights from his new book, Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language, and takes calls from listeners looking to demystify math for themselves or the kids in their lives.
 

Brian Rashad Fuller is an educator and associate provost at The New School who believes that education in America needs reform to better serve its black students. That is based on his experience as a child growing in South Carolina public schools, and as an administrator in public school systems. As the school year begins this week, Fuller discusses his ideas for reforming our education system for black students, detailed in his new book, Being Black in America's Schools: A Student-Educator-Reformer's Call for Change.

 

Today we are launching our series, Get Political, where we'll read political history books in the leadup to the election. We start with The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It, by author Corey Brettschneider, professor of political science at Brown University, who tells us about his research and the lessons for our politics today.

 

We are coming towards the end of the busy season in New York's rental market. Lots of new leases have just been signed, which means important apartment decorating choices are now to be made. But what are some tips to not only agree on the aesthetic of your apartment design with a roommate or partner, but doing so on a budget? Lauren Phillips, Better Homes and Gardens associate editorial director, provides some tips on apartment decorating and we take your calls.