Niggle - hosted by Don Allen

Niggle is a hard-hitting, intellectually sharp podcast hosted by Don Allen, a nuanced leader, researcher, educator, and unapologetic truth-teller. The show takes its name from the word niggle , a term meaning a persistent irritation, an itch in the mind that won’t go away . That’s exactly what this podcast confronts: the uncomfortable questions and overlooked realities that quietly—but constantly—signal that something in our systems is fundamentally wrong. In every episode, Allen tackles the issues that “stick in the back of the mind”- the policies that don’t add up, the politics that bypass our communities, the education reforms that promise equity but deliver excuses, and the corporate decisions that attempt to pacify rather than empower. Whether the focus is public schools, charter-school leadership, corporate DEI retreats, community organizing, or the economics of Black political power, Niggle refuses to massage the truth.