Meyer podcasts offer candid insights

Now in its second month, Gov. Matt Meyer’s podcast series continues to feature newsmakers and local leaders to provide new insight on changemakers in the state.

“From high-profile coaches to senior government leaders to friends and neighbors, these are the voices shaping Delaware’s future,” Meyer writes as an intro to his biweekly Matt Chats podcast. “Their stories may not always make the headlines, but they’re the ones driving real change for our families and our communities.”

Through candid conversations, Meyer billed the show as taking listeners behind the scenes of public service and leadership. He and his guests share insights, uncover common ground and highlight the people and ideas that are moving Delaware forward.

“Our state is full of people who dedicate their time and talent to making life better for all Delawareans,” Meyer said. “Matt Chats gives us a chance to share their stories, shine a light on their work and have some fun with guests who represent the best of Delaware and what makes us such a special state of neighbors.”

The latest episode ran Nov. 18 with Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Greg Patterson. The Nov. 4 episode featured new Delaware Veterans Affairs Secretary Karen Berry, and Meyer’s second podcast featured football coaches – and former Philadelphia Eagles – DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick, joining previous episodes that now live on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Substack. 

In the first episode, which aired Oct. 21, Meyer sat down with Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten to talk about teaching and the future of education.

Coming from San Diego Unified School District before taking a federal position as deputy secretary of education, Marten said she started out as a teacher, a position Meyer had also held earlier in his career.

With more money coming into school districts from recent property reassessments, Marten said the focus must be on making sure all students learn.

“Where there’s greater need, there has to be greater investment,” she said.

Meyer said leadership from the top is important in having successful schools, pointing out past education mandates failed to produce results.

“What I find interesting is we had ‘No Child Left Behind,’ and it left children behind. And we had ‘Race to the Top,’ and very few students, classrooms, schools, districts made it to the top,” Meyer said. “I think it ultimately comes down to whatever we name it or the program is, the teachers have to have the highest-quality classroom management and instruction, and we’ve got to get the right principals in the right places. Because you’re not going to see a terrible school with a great principal, and you’re not going to see a great school with a terrible principal.”    

Delaware commonly ranks among the poorest-performing states in education, and solving Delaware’s literacy crisis was one of the talking points during the podcast.

“I want all of Delaware to be part of addressing this literacy emergency; this isn’t only the teachers,” Marten said. “You’re infusing a love for reading. You’re making sure students actually fall in love with reading, choose to read, want to read.”

She said perfunctory reading with no joy – known as aliteracy – has become too common in modern society.

“Literacy happens, of course, in the classroom,” she said. “The teachers teach kids how to read, develop the print sound code, read and write, and interact with text, but if there are no other literate lives in their house, if their homes are book deserts, and they’re not going to the library … how are we modeling our own literate lives?”

Future podcast interviews with a variety of guests will be announced.

“Each episode, we sit down to hear their journeys, their challenges and their vision for building a better Delaware – together,” Meyer said.