One of the things I love best about Momentum is that we invite special guests from the nonprofit, media and communications fields to talk to us about their work and concerns of the moment. Over the years, we’ve welcomed all kinds of wonderful professionals to our ongoing “Momentum Meets:” reporters, producers, editors, elected officials, lobbyists, policy analysts, professors, fundraisers, consultants…the list goes on.

Our most recent guest sparked a particularly engaging conversation. Jackie Mader, who covers early childhood as a senior reporter for The Hechinger Report, spent an hour with us in early November talking about education in America. A former special education teacher with a degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, Jackie’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic and numerous others, and won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and The New York Press Club.

Our wide-ranging conversation touched on the shocking number of childcare workers living in poverty, people’s fascination with the science of play, the connection between social-emotional learning and better academic outcomes, and reports of increasing behavioral issues in schools across the country —and the dubious practice of taking away recess as a consequence for disruptive behavior.

We also touched on the state of journalism in today’s fractured media landscape. Jackie’s advice for people entering the field today: Be well-versed in related skills like design, video and social media. We also talked about the exploding popularity of newsletters and how readers want a more personal, human touch from newsletter authors. We wrapped on the question of how much longer we’re all going to keep saying “post-pandemic” to define our current era — and what the alternative might be.

I’m so grateful to Jackie Mader and all our guests for submitting to our avalanche of questions. Their answers and the dialogue that ensues has provided fascinating context that informs not only our client work but our larger understanding of the world we live in.