LaDonna sets out to understand how this place is run. (23 minutes)
More in Work
Act Two: Music of the Night after Night after Night
The musicians in the orchestra for Phantom of the Opera tell reporter Jay Caspian Kang about what it’s like to play the exact same music every single night—for decades—and how they’ve learned to make their peace with it. (22 minutes)
Act One: A Policeman Burns Down the Firehouse
A strongman gets hired to take over the Amsterdam Fire Department.
Act One: All the Caffeine in the World Doesn’t Make You Woke
Kelefa Sanneh sits in on one of Starbucks’ anti-racial bias classes.
More by Chana Joffe-Walt
Act Four: Quarantweening
Producer Chana Joffe-Walt talks to a seventh grader who doesn’t have a seventh grade, or an eighth grade. (11 minutes)
Act Two
As the school year moved forward, the fundraising committee planned a gala at the French Embassy.
Act One
In just one year, everything in one ordinary public middle school changed.