The Golden Table

Jacob Chastain
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Weekly

Education is everywhere. So why are we still talking about it like it only happens in a classroom? The Golden Table is where education, culture, music, books, art, technology, philosophy, and the world around us collide. Hosted by educator, author, and longtime podcaster Jacob Chastain, creator and host of Teach Me, Teacher, The Golden Table brings a decade of experience asking better questions—and takes those questions far beyond school. What are we listening to? What are we reading? What are we becoming? And what does any of it have to do with how we learn, think, create, disagree, and live together? Everything is connected. The Golden Table is where we talk about it. Pull up a chair. Bring your curiosity. Stay for the conversation.

  1. 5d ago

    #14 What Does Going Blue Mean for Educators?

    Hello everyone! Surely by now you have experienced the energy shift that has happened since the midterm election season has come to close. Blue is back and bigger than ever—but what does this actually mean for educators?  It's easy to say the bad policies (and there were many) presented by a republican majority were the reason for the woes of educators across America, but this is a biased and misinformed take. Bad educational policy has existed on both sides for decades.  And yet... educators are hopeful. For the first time in years, educators and those who support education are optimistic about what's to come.  Is the blue wave a new frontier for schools, or is it just a different color of the same issues?  Call me naive, but I do think this is a shift worth being excited about for education. I have reservations, however, and you should too. I detail why in this episode.  I also take a moment to highlight the book Permutation City as something absolutely worth your time if you're interested in the future of tech and consciousness.  Pull up a chair.

  2. Nov 2

    #13 Surviving Political Seasons

    Hello everyone! Midterms are upon us and this means everyone is subscribing to their brand of moralist philosophy for a few weeks — posting on socials how "X" group is bad for thinking or voting for "X" person who said or did "X" thing.  If you're reading this, then you are probably someone who is very tired of the cycle of mentioned above. You probably see it for what it is — a desire to do the right thing in the wrong way.  Being informed is important. Caring about who you vote for and why is important, but it's not the moral choice so many want you to believe. Logically, it can't be. Politicians are not arbiters of moral stances or choices. They are people who want power to achieve what ever it is that they feel like should be achieved, and who are often compromised by other interests in the name of making deals to achieve their desires.  Those of us outside of the "room where it happens," are left trying to decipher what is truth and what is propaganda. Sometimes it's obvious, like the flyers that made their way to Texans a few weeks ago, and sometimes propaganda is more insidious.  In any case, it's imperative we don't lose sight of what matters as midterms come to a close and the presidential election inevitably starts ratcheting up. We must hold our beliefs and advocate for what we trust to be right, yes, but we can't descend continuously into demonizing and moralizing every stance we disagree with or agree with.  Not if we have any hope of staying sane, that is...  Pull up a chair. There's a lot to discuss.

  3. Oct 26

    #12 Why Are We Offloading Our Humanity to AI?

    Hello everyone! Discussions about AI are in full force in most corners of the internet these days. If you're an educator, you're probably getting it from all ends: Curriculum writers using it, asking you to alter assignments or use it for grading, students overusing it or cheating with it...and so forth.  Personally, and this is a change of mind for me—I am increasingly growing tired of how reliant we are becoming on AI when we are talking about aspects of life that are better when we humanize them.  Specifically, education, grading, feedback, etc.  AI is cool at times, and can be useful, but people are awesome. being human is awesome. Why are we offloading our humanity to AI?  I argue in this podcast that we shouldn't be.  Why should you care about anything anyone says if it was crafted by an AI?  This question, among others, are addressed in this episode. I also briefly talk about my time at Sick New World here in Texas over the weekend, which inspired the entire episode.  Agree? Disagree?  Pull up a chair. Support the show here and get bonus episodes.  You can catch the full videos of episodes here on Youtube.

  4. Oct 19

    #11 What Makes You So Certain?

    Hello everyone! Welcome to the Golden Table. Here, we gather around ideas that matter. Why?  Well... what else is there to really do but come to 'know.'  In any case, today, we are wondering if there really is a way to be CERTAIN about knowing at all.  What is certainty? How do we arrive at the feeling of being certain? And truthfully, can we trust what others say is certain? Ourselves?  There's a lot here. Pull up a chair.  If you'd like to support the show, do so here.

  5. Oct 12

    #10 54% of Adults Read Below a 6th Grade Level

    Hello everyone, and welcome to the Golden Table podcast. Here we talk about the intersections of knowledge, from pop culture, to personal experiences, to history and research. It's all a part of the table, but it's on us to pull up a chair.  Today we are broadly discussing reading—but if I am being honest, we are truly analyzing what contributes to creating readers or fostering a reading life in people.  Literacy is often touted as being in crisis—and for good reason. 54% of US adults are cited as reading at or below a 6th grade level. If this is true, then we are perhaps in a literacy crisis...  But is it that simple?  How are these numbers created? Who does the research? What does it mean to be literate vs proficient in literacy?  And more specifically, how do schools, parents, and socio-economic factors play into how literate a life someone lives?  I use my life as its own example for part of this episode, and then open it up to broader questions. Did I connect the dots? Do we solve the literacy crisis in under an hour of the podcast? I suppose you'll have to listen to find out.  Whatever your thoughts, write in and let me know. Join the discussion.

  6. Oct 5

    #9 As a Creative Mind, You May Need to Hear This

    Being creative can feel exhilarating—but it can also be frustrating, lonely, and downright exhausting. Sometimes the thing you care most about creating feels impossible to make. Sometimes you wonder whether anyone is listening. And sometimes the hardest part is continuing to create when the work isn't being recognized, appreciated, or even understood. In this episode of The Golden Table, Jacob Chastain gets honest about the struggle of finding a creative outlet, trusting the creative process when it feels broken, and pushing through the resistance that inevitably comes with making something that matters. Drawing on Steven Pressfield's The War of Art, he explores the invisible forces that keep creative people from doing their best work—and why resistance might actually be evidence that the work is worth doing. Because not every creative idea will be heard. Not every creative person will be appreciated. And not every piece of work will immediately find its audience. But that doesn't mean you should stop creating. Gather around the table for a conversation about creativity, resistance, frustration, and the courage to keep making the thing only you can make. Support the show on Patreon for $1 and get bonus "after hours" podcasts to supplement the weekly podcast. Click here to join the table.

  7. Sep 28

    #8 How Did Print Books Survive?

    The book was supposed to be dead by now. Kindle. Nook. iPad. E-books. Amazon. The collapse of Borders. Around 2010, the future seemed obvious: physical books were disappearing, bookstores were doomed, and digital reading was going to replace print. Except it didn't. E-books won a place at the table. Audiobooks won a place at the table. And somehow, the physical book stayed. So what happened? And more importantly: what does that tell us about the future of education? Today we're making many of the same predictions about schools. Online learning. Digital classrooms. AI. Virtual education. The idea that technology can make the traditional school obsolete. But maybe we've confused replacing a tool with replacing the thing the tool was built to serve. The Kindle didn't kill the book because a book was never just information printed on paper. And maybe technology won't kill school because school was never just information delivered by a teacher. This week on The Golden Table, we're talking about the death of the book that never happened—and what its survival might teach us about technology, education, teachers, classrooms, and what school is actually for.

  8. Sep 21

    #7 Consuming vs Discovering

    Is it really a teacher's job to engage a student who has decided education has no value? We start with a clip from last week's episode and a question that probably makes some educators uncomfortable: Where does a teacher's responsibility for student engagement actually end? Then we take the conversation somewhere bigger: growth requires risk. We say we want to grow, but how often do we keep consuming the same things, choosing the familiar, and staying comfortably inside what we already know? That matters in education. It matters in our careers. And it matters in our lives. Sometimes growth means trying something you might hate, failing at something you might love, or simply stepping outside the world you've built for yourself. This week at the Golden Table: engagement, risk, boredom, education, and the danger of consuming the same old thing. Pull up a chair.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Education is everywhere. So why are we still talking about it like it only happens in a classroom? The Golden Table is where education, culture, music, books, art, technology, philosophy, and the world around us collide. Hosted by educator, author, and longtime podcaster Jacob Chastain, creator and host of Teach Me, Teacher, The Golden Table brings a decade of experience asking better questions—and takes those questions far beyond school. What are we listening to? What are we reading? What are we becoming? And what does any of it have to do with how we learn, think, create, disagree, and live together? Everything is connected. The Golden Table is where we talk about it. Pull up a chair. Bring your curiosity. Stay for the conversation.

Information

  • Creator
    Jacob Chastain
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    The Golden Table

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