Show Notes
Here’s a preview of another podcast, 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 more from Some of My Best Friends Are at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/sbfs2?sid=colors.
More from School Colors
It's been called "the most polarizing parenting essay ever." On September 20, 2026, The New York Times Magazine published a story by Nikole Hannah-Jones with the eye-popping headline, "In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?" This was a surprise sequel to her blockbuster essay from 2016, "Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City." Nikole and her husband Faraji played an important role in School Colors Season 1, and her ideas deeply shaped our reporting. So after four years of radio silence, we convened to discuss her latest dispatch, and the public's response to it.
This is the second of two bonus episodes recorded live at the Queens Public Library on December 15, 2022. After interviewing New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, Mark and Max reflected on the Chancellor’s remarks and took questions about the making of School Colors, why they chose District 28, and what they learned.
This is the first of two bonus episodes recorded live at the Queens Public Library on December 15, 2022. Mark and Max interviewed New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. Banks was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams and is just finishing his first year on the job.
Over the course of this season, we've explored a rich history and complicated present — but what about the future?
"I know this work can take you under if you let it, so I try not to let it take me."