Oxygen for Educators™

Sometimes we don't feel like ourselves — but nothing dramatic has happened. In this episode, we explore the quiet losses that shape us, the grief that hides beneath burnout and moral tension, and how resilience grows when we make space for what feels heavy. This isn't about getting over it. It's about letting what hurts deepen you without hardening you.   Opt in  HERE  for a complimentary subscrip...

In this episode, we sit down with Alejandra Barbosa, CEO of The Educator Collective, to explore leadership, complexity, and why supporting the human behind the title may be the most important investment we can make in our schools. Educatorcollective.org   Opt in  HERE  for a complimentary subscription to the magazine,  or  copy and paste this link:  https://oxygenforeducators.com/#read-the-magazin...

Self-care steadies us, but it was never meant to carry the whole load. In this episode, we explore community care, distributed strain, and how strengthening your web of support makes resilience sustainable.   Opt in  HERE  for a complimentary subscription to the magazine,  or  copy and paste this link:  https://oxygenforeducators.com/#read-the-magazine     Visit the  Oxygen for Educators  website...

Join us for a conversation with 22-year-old Zara Jones, who brings an intergenerational lens to self-care, resilience, and how educator regulation shapes classroom culture. Visit Blossom With Zara HERE , or copy and paste this link:  https://www.blossomwithzara.com/   Michelle's Reflective Questions to hold accountability: Where have you fused your worth with your output? What would it mean to sep...

Self-care matters — and it has limits. In this episode, we explore co-regulation, the science of shared safety, and why nervous systems were never meant to regulate in isolation.     Opt in  HERE  for a complimentary subscription to the magazine,  or  copy and paste this link:  https://oxygenforeducators.com/#read-the-magazine     Visit the  Oxygen for Educators  website to learn more. https://oxy...

What happens when school leadership jobs become impossible to do, well, no matter how capable the people holding them are? In this conversation, Michelle sits down with Lindsay Whorton, president of the Holdsworth Center and author of A New School Leadership Architecture , to explore why educators are burning out and how rethinking leadership structures, not just individual effort, can create more...

In this episode, Chris and Michelle share personal news and plans for 2026. Opt in  HERE to receive your gifted print magazine at the mailing address of your choice. or Copy and Paste this link: https://forms.gle/V7YBXvHNmRNonpCw7 ------------------------ Visit the Oxygen for Educators website to learn more. https://oxygenforeducators.com/

In this episode, Michelle Kinder and Chris Kent Phelps interview mindfulness-based stress management consultant Amanda Muhammad, exploring preventative self-care, psychological safety, nervous system regulation, and practical mindfulness tools that help educators shift perspective, honor boundaries, and cultivate meaning, well-being, and presence through breath, grounding, and intentional being.  ...

This episode offers a practical conversation with Dr. Laura Lockhart about how educators can manage stress, understand their triggers, and show up with more self-awareness and compassion in hard moments.       ************************************************************************************************ Follow on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/oxygen-for-educators/id1775510846 Foll...

SUMMARY In this episode of Oxygen for Educators , Michelle Kinder sits down with Nicholas Ditto, founder and CEO of Fort Worth STEAM Academy, for an honest conversation about the unseen weight educators carry every day. Nicholas shares his journey into education, the thousands of decisions teachers make daily, and how leadership, culture, and community directly shape student outcomes. After the co...

Opt in HERE  for your gifted copy of the Oxygen for Educators magazine!  (  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdj3tz0r6L2KIAJJ5dTnzx3CfXka2fqTHfUqHDlqtqo_96cCg/viewform?usp=header )   SUMMARY In part two of our conversation with filmmaker and logotherapist Alex Vesely, grandson of Viktor Frankl, we explore what it really means to live a life of meaning as an educator. Alex unpacks burnout t...

Don't forget to opt in HERE for your gifted copy of the Oxygen for Educators magazine!  ( https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdj3tz0r6L2KIAJJ5dTnzx3CfXka2fqTHfUqHDlqtqo_96cCg/viewform?usp=header )   SUMMARY   We're re-releasing this conversation with Alex Vesely because it has never felt more needed. In a moment when so many educators are exhausted and searching for steadiness, Alex brings a...

SUMMARY  Jose "Joe" Villaseñor has one of the most unexpected paths into education you'll ever hear: TV production, seminary, bail bonds, school counseling, and now leading Employee Wellness at Irving ISD. In this conversation, he shares how those turns shaped his deep empathy for people in hard places and how that shows up in real, practical supports for educators today, from yoga and fitness cla...

  Educators, we're gifting you the  Oxygen for Educators  keepsake magazine. Opt in here:   https://forms.gle/AmdrpsnP1GNKXEag8   SUMMARY After losing her 16-year-old son David to suicide following relentless cyberbullying, Maurine Molak turned her grief into advocacy. She has led the passage of groundbreaking laws protecting children from online harm and now champions federal reform through the K...

Educators, we're gifting you the  Oxygen for Educators  keepsake magazine. Opt in here:   https://forms.gle/AmdrpsnP1GNKXEag8   Before Radical Hope resumes in the new year, Michelle offers a moment of reflection and gratitude. Drawing from The Small Work in the Great Work by Victoria Safford, she honors educators who keep showing up with heart and humanity, even when things are uncertain, and remi...

Coming early 2026 :  Get your FREE copy of  Oxygen for Educators  magazine — radical hope delivered straight to your home, no strings attached. Opt in  here . https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdj3tz0r6L2KIAJJ5dTnzx3CfXka2fqTHfUqHDlqtqo_96cCg/viewform?usp=header     SUMMARY   What if the secret to transforming a school isn't a new program, but a new perspective? In this re-released conversa...

  Coming early 2026 : Get your FREE copy of Oxygen for Educators magazine — radical hope delivered straight to your home, no strings attached. Opt in here . https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdj3tz0r6L2KIAJJ5dTnzx3CfXka2fqTHfUqHDlqtqo_96cCg/viewform?usp=header     SUMMARY   We're zooming out for a big-picture view of the Radical Hope series so far, what patterns are emerging, what ideas kee...

SUMMARY We are re-releasing this conversation with Rockwall ISD leader Dr. Shanon Zais because late October can feel like a grind for educators. This is the moment when stamina dips, the calendar is packed, and a reset matters. Shanon offers embodied, practical wisdom on rest, boundaries, and community care that lands differently right now. On re-listen, we also reflect on why this message is urge...

Coming early 2026 : Get your FREE copy of Oxygen for Educators magazine — radical hope delivered straight to your home, no strings attached. Opt in here.   SUMMARY   What would it look like for your calendar to reflect your deepest values, not just your obligations? In this powerful follow-up to Part 1, Michelle Kinder shares 10 practical attention management practices that support mental health a...

    SUMMARY This one feels like a deep breath. Sharon Bradley lets us into the story that made her an educator, teaching her brother what school hadn't, and how that love widened into a career of pulling kids  in instead of pushing them out. She shows us why "take care of the big people so they can take care of the little people" isn't a slogan; it's a strategy. We talk about practical care for ad...

  SUMMARY In Radical Hope: Attention Management for Mental Health (Part 1) , Michelle Kinder explores how the way we direct our attention shapes not only our inner world but also our relationships, choices, and sense of meaning. Drawing from research, lived practice, and the book Indistractable , Michelle reframes attention management away from productivity hacks and toward well-being. Through pow...

SUMMARY: The way you see students today can change a trajectory tomorrow. In this episode of  Oxygen for Educators , 2023 National Teacher of the Year Rebecka Peterson sits down with Michelle to talk about choosing the good without slipping into toxic positivity. Rebecka shares how listening to understand, not to be understood, changed her teaching and her students' outcomes. She tells the story o...

SUMMARY : In this Oxygen for Educators Radical Hope episode, Michelle Kinder gets practical about "coping flexibility," the everyday skill of noticing when your go-to strategy is no longer serving you, then choosing a better fit for this moment. Educators already live flexibly in classrooms, yet many of us go rigid with our own wellbeing. Michelle names the two big lanes of coping, problem focused...

SUMMARY In this episode of Oxygen for Educators , Claudia Vega, former Dallas principal and founder of Whose Books and ARCO, walks us through building a true reading culture in Oak Cliff. She connects book deserts to historic redlining, then shows what access, representation, and a welcoming space can unlock for families. We talk gatekeeping, community surveys, and curation that lets people feel s...

SUMMARY   Educators are carrying more than ever, and in the middle of all that noise, the inner critic often shouts the loudest. In this episode of the Radical Hope Series , Michelle Kinder offers practical, light-lift ways to quiet that critic and tune into a steadier guide, the  inner mentor . With relatable stories, examples pulled straight from the classroom, and strategies from Tara Mohr ( Pl...