Description of icon above: A digital icon with a black accordion graphic surrounded by 6 music notes above 12 people of all ages, some people have canes, crutches, or a wheelchair. A graphic of a semi-Earth is faded in the yellow background overarching the image. At the bottom of the icon, the podcast title, “The Disability, Education, and Society Podcast,” appears in all black capitals.
The Disability, Education, and Society Podcast
A podcast for collective (un)learning in the struggle for intersectional liberation. We focus on educational realms, expanding to other societal areas. We share our stories as academics as well as those of our featured guests, including disability activists involved with multifaceted dimensions of system’s equity, self-determination efforts, anti-ableist and antiracist liberation. Join us as co-conspirators. This podcast is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DES_podcast
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Dr. Alexis Padilla
Host
Dr. Alexis Padilla is a blind brown Latinx scholar/activist and a lawyer who holds a PhD in sociology and another PhD from the Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies department at the University of New Mexico, USA. Currently an independent researcher affiliated with Phillips Theological Seminary. Dr. Padilla is the author of Disability, Intersectional Agency and Latinx Identity, an interdisciplinary book published by Routledge in 2021. As well as the Co-Author of a volume titled Humanizing Disability, published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2019. His publications explore emancipatory learning, radical agency and intersectional disability justice/theology in the context of decolonial Latinx theorizing and critical disability studies, emphasizing the activist/disability advocacy vantage point combined with actionable dimensions of inclusive equity research and practice.
Image Description: A color photo of Dr. Alexis Pallida in a light blue shirt and tie sitting straight and in front of a grey, marbled background.
Dr. Paulo Tan
Host
Dr. Paulo Tan (he/him) identifies as Chinese-American, cisgender male, and non-disabled. He is an Assistant Professor of Elementary Mathematics Education at the University of California Santa Cruz, USA. His research interests include advancing intersectional justice in and through mathematics education centering issues of disability. Prior to his career as teacher educator and scholar, he served as a public school middle-secondary mathematics teacher for ten years in culturally and linguistically diverse settings in Kansas and Indiana. His lived experiences with his son led Dr. Tan to pursue a doctorate in special education with an emphasis in mathematics education and has been reckoning and challenging educational inequities ever since. He is the lead author of the book Humanizing Disability in Mathematics Education: Forging New Paths published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). He is regularly invited to give presentations to universities and STEM organizations.
Image Description: A black and white photo of Dr. Paulo Tan looking to the side of the camera in front of a solid black background.
Mia Wang
UCSC Student/Editor
Mia Wang (she/her) identifies herself as a Chinese-American. She is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is earning her degree in Education, Democracy, and Justice, and graduating in 2026. She has worked as an elementary school teacher''s assistant for 3 years. This year 2025, Mia has obtained her certification in behavior therapy, while working with children on the autism-spectrum. She hopes to become an elementary school teacher, to further her studies and research in education.
Image Description: A color photo of Mia Wang in a black tank-top, grinning at the camera.
Episodes
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
In this episode of the DES podcast, we sit down with Dr. Rachel Lambert, associate professor at UC Santa Barbara, to discuss her groundbreaking book Rethinking Disability in Mathematics: A UDL Math Classroom Guide for Grades K-8. Dr. Lambert shares powerful stories about disability, inclusion, and the need to reimagine math education as a space of accessibility, creativity, and equity. We explore the systemic barriers that disable students in math, the power of time and collaboration, and the importance of challenging deficit narratives. Tune in for an insightful conversation that pushes the boundaries of how we think about mathematics and disability.
Transcript link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1khVmTMVCPXkYndjkYDuhvLSEr3VHWhszjdpAmgkWVrU/edit?usp=sharing
Link to Dr. Rachel Lambert's book: https://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Disability-Mathematics-Classroom-Grades/dp/1071926039
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
In this episode of the DES, co-hosts Paulo and Alexis return after a long break to discuss their latest academic work, activism, and the evolving political landscape. They explore the power of rejected scholarship as a catalyst for new ideas, the intersections of disability justice with broader social movements, and the urgent need for cross-coalitional solidarity in the face of rising authoritarianism. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation on resilience, writing, and the ongoing fight for liberation.
Transcript link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kxvDROW3002856wPVzveWDIM4lzULtCv_sux_Gp4Kgo/edit?usp=sharing
Tuesday May 07, 2024
Tuesday May 07, 2024
In this episode, DES co-host Paulo Tan shares a practical application of abolitionist mathematics practices. This episode is a companion to episode #13 where Paulo laid out the groundwork for abolitionist mathematics practices. It is helpful but not necessary to first engage with episode #13 before engaging with this current episode. The practical application Paulo shares is one of infinite possibilities of abolitionist mathematics practices. Paulo shares this practical idea in the context of elementary mathematics teacher education.
Presentation slide
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To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
In this episode, DES co-host Paulo Tan shares a presentation he recently completed on abolitionist mathematics practices at Purdue University. Drawing on Black Feminist thought on prison abolition, Dr. Tan forwards three crucial tenets (i.e., imagining utopian futures, intersectional struggles, and immediate change making) to guide the fields of special and mathematics education. Dr. Tan argues that these tenets are necessary to eliminate harms disabled students encounter in special and mathematics education while collectively building more just futures. Situating this argument in elementary schooling contexts, Dr. Tan implicates mathematics education in its complicity and perpetuation of containment, a form of incarceration that denies opportunities to certain disabled students. As such, Dr. Tan calls on educational researchers and practitioners to take up leadership in this disability freedom struggle.
Link to view the slide deck
Books mentioned: Abolition. Feminism. Now.
Decarcerating Disability: Deinstutionalization and Prison Abolition
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To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
We turn inwards for today’s episode in a conversation with Dr. Alexis Padilla, this show’s cohost, about his upcoming book titled Decolonial Disability and Social Epistemologies. The first chapter of his book dives into the problems with how we think of productive struggle. We also engage in a brief reflection on the first few months after launching the Disability, Education, and Society podcast. Transcripts for this episode can be found here.
Mentioned in this episode: Dr. Padilla's first book titled Disability, Intersectional Agency, and Latinx Identity Theorizing LatDisCrit Counterstories
Dr. Padilla's email: apadilladiv@gmail.com
Subscribe to DES on YouTube for video of this episode. Find DES on Twitter (@DES_podcast), Instagram (@DES_podcast), and Facebook.
To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
Dr. Alison Mirin, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Mathematics Education at the University of Arizona, joins the DES podcast to discuss ableism and inaccessibility in mathematics education. We discuss the disconnect between how math is typically taught in schools and how students make their own meaning of math. Dr. Mirin shares her mathematics experiences as a researcher, a disabled student, and a former secondary classroom teacher. Transcripts can be found here.
Mentioned in the show: Academic Spoonies Facebook group, Dr. Mirin’s ResearchGate page, and Mathematics Educator Appreciation Day (MEAD), American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) press release on disparities in special education referrals, and Building Thinking Classrooms.
Subscribe to DES on YouTube for video of this episode. Find DES on Twitter (@DES_podcast), Instagram (@DES_podcast), and Facebook.
To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Tuesday Feb 27, 2024
Tuesday Feb 27, 2024
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Fernanda Malinosky who is a professor in the Mathematics Institute at Mato Grosso do Sul Federal University in Brazil. We discuss issues of education and clientelism, and inclusive educational perspectives in the Brazilian context. Transcripts can be found here.
Dr. Malinosky’s Mathematics Education, Diversity and Difference Research Group: https://sites.google.com/view/grupogedumat-ufms/about-us?authuser=0,Instagram @grupogedumad
Mentioned in the episode: Dr. Beatriz D'Ambrosio
Journal Article titled "Exclusion and inclusion processes in mathematics classrooms: Reflections on difference, normality and cultural issues within three different contexts"
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To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Anna Stetsenko who is a full Professor in the PhD Program in Psychology (and the chair of Developmental Psychology), with a joint appointment in Urban Education Program, both at The Graduate Center, the City University of New York. We discuss Dr. Stetsenko’s conception of Activist‑Transformative Methodology and its role in addressing social and environmental crisis in the context of education. Transcripts to this episode can be found here.
Subscribe to DES on YouTube for video of this episode. Find DES on Twitter (@DES_podcast), Instagram (@DES_podcast), and Facebook.
To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Dr. Stetenko's email: astetsenko@gc.cuny.edu
Sunday Jan 28, 2024
Sunday Jan 28, 2024
In this episode, we our joined by Dr. Lisette E. Torres-Gerald, a scientist and disabled scholar-activist and Senior Researcher at TERC, a non-profit made up of teams of mathematics and science education and research experts. We discuss Dr. Torres-Gerald's advocacy work with Latinx Disabilities within and beyond the United States as well as in formal and informal STEM educational contexts. Transcripts to this episode can be found here.
Subscribe to DES on YouTube for video of this episode. Find DES on Twitter (@DES_podcast), Instagram (@DES_podcast), and Facebook.
To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Dr. Torres-Gerald's website: https://www.informalscience.org/ ; Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisetteetorres3?lang=en; LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisette-torres-gerald-15721084
Sines of Disability: https://sinesofdisability.com/
Science for the People: https://scienceforthepeople.org/
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Offir Romero Castro joins the podcast to discuss his experiences living with a disability and his work in promoting inclusive mathematics education. Offir is currently a teaching and research assistant in the Mathematics Department at Western Michigan University, where he is also a Mathematics Education 2nd year-Ph.D. student. Transcripts to this episode can be found here.
Subscribe to DES on YouTube for video of this episode. Find DES on Twitter (@DES_podcast), Instagram (@DES_podcast), and Facebook.
To support the DES community please subscribe to the DES podcast and become a DES patron
Offir's ResearchGate page