Just as Early Learning Nation showcases the ways families, researchers and grassroots nonprofits and organizations are building an early learning nationâone community at a timeâour Community Cultivators series highlights how innovators across all sectors build and sustain global communities from the ground up. We hope the series inspires your own early childhood work.
In the episode of Baratunde Thurstonâs How to Citizen podcast featuring Xiaowei Wang, the guest reads the hostâs tarot cards. Flipping over the Knight of Swords, they (Wang prefers they/them pronouns) detect âsomeone who just has this energy thatâs like, âOh, thereâs a problem? Letâs do something about it! How can we fix this immediately?ââ
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âThis is so me,â Thurston responds to Wang, an author and technology entrepreneur. âI love to fix things. I literally fixed computers to help pay for college, and Iâm always jumping to solutions in the face of almost any problem, even when the people around me donât want me to come up with a solution.â
How to Citizen is all about how to fix democracy, something that many Americans feel is deeply if not permanently broken. Early Learning Nation magazine interviewed Thurston, who also hosts America Outdoors on PBS, and gained insight into how he thinks about interpersonal and global issues alike. Hereâs what we learned:
Humor is a tool. Thurston started his career with The Onion and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, as well as performing standup. âIn comedy,â he says, âThereâs this language of punching up and punching downâwhich, if you really examine it, is very violent. Why is anybody getting punched? Maybe it could be tickling up or tickling down.â
He finds a range of purposes for different kinds of comedy. When it comes to children, learning to make fun of yourself is an important developmental stage that comes later or never for some people. An inside joke, or comedy within a trusted circle, is another. When in doubt about what to make fun of, Thurston recommends animals, a topic that allows the imagination to run wild. âThere are so many ways to explore the what-ifs,â he says, âand you can train young people to flex that muscle, practicing it on themselves. Mash-ups and remixes are natural fodder. What would happen if you drank a banana?â
Change requires risk. In the chapter of Thurstonâs 2012 book How to Be Black called âHow to Be the Angry Negro,â Thurston addresses the reader:
You are compelled to say what others wonât. They remain quiet, not because they doubt the truth of their perceptions but because they lack the courage to risk being ostracizedâŠ. Rage is your cape. Self-confidence is your mask. Truth is your sword.
While Thurstonâs humor rarely comes across as out-and-out angry, there is often an edge so sharp you donât immediately feel the laceration. âComedy challenges established narratives and surprises us,â he says. âIn surprise, in challenge, there is risk, and risk doesnât always pay off positivelyâwhether itâs an investment risk or a career risk or even a food risk.â
The riskiness of stand-up comedy isnât for everyone, but Thurston sees a unique thrill in telling jokes to strangers, saying, âYou try to emotionally connect with them so deeply that you trigger an involuntary physiological response known as laughter. Itâs like one of the most confident things a person without confidence could do.â
Nature helps us heal from history. Thurston credits his mother for nurturing his love of the outdoors. âWhoever said Black folk donât go camping forgot to tell Arnita Thurston,â he writes in How to Be Black. His enthusiasm for America and the outdoors is on full display in America Outdoors.
âI remember being wrapped up like a burrito in a blanket very early morning to go with my dad to a construction site where he was working, and it was dark. I remember being carried out from the house down the stairs into a pickup truck and thinking, âThis is the coolest thing ever.â (I didnât know what a burrito was at the time. Thatâs a future me word imposed on the past.) But yeah, that being carried, the coldness of the air, the massiveness of the pickup truck and the darkness of the sky. Itâs not what I thought of as morning. It felt like the middle of the night, but it was probably just before sunrise. To my little brain, it felt like nighttime. Now, I love burritos.â
Asked which parts of the country have surprised him most, he seizes upon the terrain of Arkansas as well as certain outdoor recreational pursuits. âUltra-marathons, for example, are just more marathon than a marathon,â he laughs, âand thatâs already too much for me. Without being conscripted into it, people are signing up to run 100 miles!â
He also mentions the rich and vibrant indigenous culture. âWe read a lot about Native Americans in a historical context,â he says, âbut theyâre still here, and theyâre not all the same, with a range of ecologies and ways of living.â
Another surprise: sharks. âTheyâre not out to get us. Theyâve been shamed in the media. The deeper surprise is how often theyâre right next to us and we donât even know it.â
Finally, he notes his surprise at how emotional the show is for him, in terms of peopleâs struggles individually, as well as our collective national struggles with our history and how the outdoors has played a part in the struggle, and also in the healing from it.
One episode uses brain science to explore the power of nature to bring us back into equilibrium. âFor his experiment,â he recalls, âthey got me really riled up and then had me walk in a park and measured my brain during the process. I not only recovered from the stress; I was in a better place than before the stress started, so I was higher than baseline. It was a supercharge, not just a recharge.â

Applying this insight to early educators, Thurston says, âTeachers are not only dealing with their littles, but with the bigs who created them. The parents can often be more challenging than the students. So, if youâve got some parent all up in your business, have that parent-teacher conference while walking through a park. Itâs a naturally soothing environment. Scientists are looking at how nature affects our ability to recover from stress and help us heal. The short answer is, spoiler alert, massively.
Invest in your relationship with yourself. Thurstonâs podcast and his TV show both address the eternal, yet increasingly relevant, themes of how to get along with others and the planet around us, which both tie back to the same place. âRelationship with yourself is such an underappreciated concept,â he reflects. âWe need to ask ourselves how we feel, not just what we think. We need to develop a vocabulary for our emotions as well as our physical feelings.â
The maxim You are what you eat, he says, also applies to what we take in through our eyes and ears. âThe stories that we eat,â he explains, âtell us that weâre capable or incapable, that weâre smart or dumb, so itâs important to consume stories that remind us of our power.â
We all have power. Each episode of How to Citizen explores power dynamics in one way or another, and while some of the topics it covers are too complex for young listeners, he is so interested in how children develop ideas about power that educational spinoffs are a possibility. âEven a very small person can be sensitive to whoâs got influence,â he says.âEven in this tiny body, I have the power of my attention. (Will I listen to the teacher or not?) The power of my smile, who will I give that to? The power of my presence, the power of gathering with other people, the power of sharing ideas and information, whether good or bad.â
He encourages adults to ask children where they have power. âThey might answer, âI refused to eat the pasta last night. It made my mom really upset. I guess I have the power to make my mom upset.â I think itâs really good for people to recognize that.â
From individual power, itâs a short jump to collective power. âYou and your best friend are a unit,â he imagines explaining to a child. âWhen have you thought about you and your friend, not just yourself? When have you thought about you and this whole classroom or this whole school or your whole family? Have you ever done anything for we and not just for me?â
Power can arise from formally establishing systems in our communities, but there are other ways of practicing power together. âWe are all very powerful,â he asserts. âWe all have the ability to gain and lose power. Itâs this ebbing and flowing thing, and it increases when we work with others.â

Mark Swartz
Mark Swartz writes about efforts to improve early care and education as well as developments in the U.S. care economy. He lives in Maryland.