Summer Friday: AI & Education; 1963; 100 Years of Flying; Helping Hands

For this "Summer Friday" we've put together some of our favorite conversations this year:

• Hua Hsu, New Yorker staff writer, professor of English at Bard College and author of the memoir Stay True (September 2022), discusses what college students lose when ChatGPT writes their essays for them and what that says about our evolving understanding of the purpose of higher education.
• Jessica Gould, education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, shares her reporting on the deal struck between Big Tech and The American Federation of Teachers which offers artificial intelligence training and software to teachers in New York City public schools.
• Peniel Joseph, professor of history and public affairs and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution (Basic Books, 2025), talks about his new book, an examination of the impact of events in 1963 on the struggle for civil rights -- from MLK's “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to the assassination of JFK.
• From our centennial series, Bob van der Linden, commercial aviation curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, looks at the past 100 years of civilian air travel.
• Listeners share the best, maybe even most surprising, times they've been helped or helped others, inspired by an article for The Atlantic titled "A Wedding Reveals How Much Help Is Really Available to You," by Julie Beck.

These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity and the original web versions are available here:

What Students Lose When ChatGPT Writes Their Essays (July 8, 2025)

NYC Teachers' Union Embraces AI (July 28, 2025)

How 1963 Defined the Civil Rights Movement (June 12, 2025)

100 Years of 100 Things: Commercial Aviation (May 6, 2025)

How Helping Can Feel Good (July 9, 2025)