Teach the Babies w/ Dr. David J. Johns

A three-year-old Black boy named Nevada went to a park named for Dr. King to play soccer, and before the morning was over, police were on the sideline. In this solo episode, Dr. David J. Johns walks through what we know and what we don't, then asks what Nevada's story reveals about race, about who gets managed and who gets accused in sports, about the youth sports industry, and about a child's right to a private childhood. No homework this time. Just questions worth staying with.

Show Notes
Update: since this episode was recorded, Eddie Johnson's EJE7 Soccer Academy says Nevada is set to begin training there in January. Roc Nation Sports has publicly backed Nevada on Instagram but has not formally announced the reported trip to Spain.
World Athletics regulations for athletes with differences of sex development (adopted 2018)
Semenya v. Switzerland, European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber (July 10, 2025): found Switzerland violated Caster Semenya's right to a fair hearing
K.G.M. v. Meta and YouTube (March 25, 2026): Los Angeles jury found the companies negligent in designing platforms that harmed a young user
References
Mom of 3-year-old speaks out after police called over dispute at youth soccer game, ABC News, October 27, 2026
Florida police called to youth soccer game after alleged dispute involving 3-year-old player, NBC News
911 call reveals hurried request for police, People via Yahoo Sports
Social media says the police were called on a 3-year-old. Police say otherwise., KTLA
Toddler soccer playing-time dispute results in 911 call, Orlando Shine
Ex-USMNT star Eddie Johnson to train 3-year-old removed from Florida soccer game, ESPN
Former U.S. soccer star steps in to train 3-year-old Nevada Pierre, TheGrio, October 28, 2026
Jay-Z's Roc Nation backs Nevada Pierre after MLK Park row, Rolling Out, October 28, 2026
After a girl beat their daughters in sports, Utah parents triggered investigation, Deseret News, August 2022
Semenya's right to a fair hearing violated, European Court of Human Rights rules, Daily Maverick, July 10, 2025
Two Namibian Olympic medal contenders ruled ineligible for women's 400m, CNN via KVIA, 2021
Serena and Venus called the "Williams brothers", New York Amsterdam News, October 30, 2014
Supreme Court Decides West Virginia v. B.P.J., Faegre Drinker, June 30, 2026
Family spending on youth sports rises 46% over five years, Aspen Institute Project Play
Pediatricians say children shouldn't specialize in a single sport until age 15–16, MinnPost, September 2016
Byron Allen could become the first Black majority owner in NFL history, Front Office Sports, September 2026
Jury in Los Angeles finds Meta, YouTube negligent in social media addiction trial, CNBC, March 25, 2026
Behind the Screen: Legal Gaps Leave Kidfluencers Unprotected, New Jersey State Bar Foundation, January 2026

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Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama opened and closed his address to the 81st UN General Assembly with one idea: belonging. In between, he named the human carnage in Gaza, condemned Hamas in the same breath, made the case for reparations, and called for Africa's permanent seat on the Security Council. Dr. David J. Johns walks through how President Mahama built one of the most politically sophisticated speeches of the year, and what the speech asks of us at home, including through Chapter 26 of the Black Papers, the reparations chapter he wrote with Dreisen Heath and Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter.Watch the full address on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLMEt08wVsI [
Read the full text (3News): https://3news.com/news/full-text-president-mahamas-address-to-81st-un-general-assembly
The Black Papers: A Policy Agenda for Black Liberation in the 21st Century, edited by Dr. David J. Johns (Routledge). Publishes October 30, 2026.

Preorder for $27.99 with code ADC26. All proceeds go to State of the People: https://www.routledge.com/The-Black-Papers-A-Policy-Agenda-for-Black-Liberation-in-the-21st-Century/Johns/p/book/9781041270904

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Title IX is one sentence long, and for more than fifty years that sentence has protected students far beyond the playing field. In this solo episode, Dr. David J. Johns traces Title IX from the women who wrote it and the ten-year-old girl in Georgia whose case made schools answerable for harassment, to the deliberate dismantling underway now: the 2020 rules written back into federal regulations, a gutted Office for Civil Rights, and a narrowing of who the law protects. Dr. Johns names what is at stake for Black girls and women, survivors of sexual violence, pregnant and parenting students, and Black LGBTQ+ and trans students, and connects the fight to the State of the People Black Papers.

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Most of the coverage of Nikole Hannah-Jones's New York Times Magazine essay asks whether a mother chose wrong. In this follow-up to What It Cost Us, Dr. David J. Johns asks the questions the coverage keeps skipping: who gets blamed, who gets punished, who designed the choice, and who gets left off the map. He names how the blame for a decision two parents made landed on one, and traces how Black mothers with the least have been criminalized for crossing district lines. He breaks down the new federal voucher program launching January 1, 2027, and why your governor's opt-in decision matters. He widens the map to the rural South and Appalachia, where property-tax funding fails Black and white children alike. And he lifts up what works, from the Rosenwald schools to the Oakland Community School, Marva Collins, and the Department of Defense schools.

Related classesWhat It Cost Us  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/teach-the-babies-w-dr-david-j-johns/id1745797318?i=1000792173861 
How Vouchers Are Destroying Public Schools, with Fred Jones https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/teach-the-babies-w-dr-david-j-johns/id1745797318?i=1000760021242  
The essay and the responseNikole Hannah-Jones, "In fighting for every Black child, did I betray my own?" The New York Times Magazine: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html
Mayor Zohran Mamdani's response (Education Week): https://www.edweek.org/leadership/mamdani-says-nyc-public-schools-failed-nikole-hannah-joness-daughter/2026/09
Najya Hannah-Jones and Nikole Hannah-Jones on This American Life (Fox News coverage): https://www.foxnews.com/media/nikole-hannah-jones-daughter-asks-why-her-education-sacrificed-ideology-says-it-makes-no-sense
Ronell Smith on the limited menu of options, including Roland Fryer's Wall Street Journal argument (The Dallas Morning News): https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/nikole-hannah-jones-daughter-school-black-families-22458642.php

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Dr. Tiffany Crutcher joins the class ten years after a Tulsa police officer killed her twin brother, Terence. She is a descendant of Black Wall Street and the founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation. She talks about the mother who taught her quiet strength and about the brother the news never showed. She shares her freedom dreams for the next generation and her plans for Greenwood North, a 65,000-square-foot home for rebuilding Black Wall Street. She also answers the hardest question: who takes care of Tiffany?

NOTES

Terence Crutcher Foundation: terencecrutcherfoundation.org 
Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, held each year around May 31 in Greenwood
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the destruction of Black Wall Street in the Greenwood District
Former officer Betty Shelby was acquitted of manslaughter in 2017.
Terence Crutcher's estate filed its civil suit in June 2017.

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