Title: Navigating Interracial Friendships with Some Of My Best Friends Are

Description: Here's a preview of another podcast we're enjoying, Some of My Best Friends Are, from Pushkin Industries. Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and journalist Ben Austen are friends, one Black and one white, who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago. On Some of My Best Friends Are, Khalil and Ben, along with their guests, have critical conversations that are at once personal, political, and playful, about the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. In this preview, Khalil and Ben talk with author Saladin Ambar about his new book, Stars and Shadows: The Politics of Interracial Friendship from Jefferson to Obama. Through famous bonds ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, they explore the dynamics, benefits, and difficulties of cultivating interracial friendships. Hear the full episode, and more from Some of My Best Friends Are, at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/sbfs2?sid=america.

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A new Gallup poll shows that half of US workers say they are quiet quitting, a phenomenon in which employees do the bare minimum at work. The key term here is employee engagement which measures involvement at work and enthusiasm employees have about work. Since 2021, employee engagement has fallen as workers feel unfulfilled with their jobs and are now being asked to return to the office. Ray Smith, reporter on the Careers Team at the Wall Street Journal, joins Oscar Ramirez for more on quiet quitting.

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Schools are back but they are still dealing with the setbacks and learning loss all due to the pandemic.  Recently we saw Department of Education data showing 9-year-olds are behind in reading and math, the sharpest decline we’ve seen since 1990.  The learning loss was generally worse in districts that kept classes remote longer.  To combat this, states are spending billions on tutoring, expanded summer school, and more individual attention for students.  Scott Calvert, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more on what schools are doing and how they are tracking progress.

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