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Grey Matters with Leah Mermelstein

by GreyMatters

I started this podcast because I've spent years chasing the same question: what actually makes a practice best for learners? The honest answer I keep arriving at? It depends. But that answer isn't a dodge. It's the beginning of the real conversation. I'm Leah Mermelstein — a literacy consultant, coach and author of several books on the teaching of literacy. I work directly with students, teachers, schools, and districts. And the question I keep returning to isn't just what should teachers do differently in their classrooms. It's what does it actually take to change a system — to shift the conditions inside schools and districts so that real learning becomes possible for every child. That question belongs to everyone in the building. Teachers. Coaches. Consultants. Principals. Superintendents. Curriculum directors. Anyone who has ever sat with the gap between what they know works and what the system actually makes possible. Grey Matters is for those people. Each season I invite guests who are genuinely still inside their own questions — willing to be in the uncertainty with me and to keep going after the recording stops. We don't resolve the hard questions here. We stay in them long enough to understand them better. Teaching and learning don't live at the extremes. They live in the grey. That's why this podcast is called Grey Matters.

Chart trend

Position in the How To chart (US), last 90 days.

#129
all-time peak
6
days in the top 200 since Mar 2026

Latest episodes

Showing 12 · updated from the feed

The Grey Space Within: Shame, Agency, and How We Grow as Educators

Leah and Angela reunite for the season finale to debrief episodes 9–11 and weave together the month's biggest ideas. They reflect on Stella Villalba's concept of kid watc

May 25
33 min

Stretching Our Thinking — From Idea to Real Dialogue

In this solo episode, Leah Mermelstein builds on insights from Stella Villalba (Episode 9) and Angela Stockman (Episode 10) to explore a question that feels simple but is

May 18
10 min

Watching Ourselves Grow: Building Identity Capital in Circumstances We Didn't Choose

If you're following us here on Grey Matters, then you're likely a teacher who watches learners closely. You pay attention, and you lean in to listen. You've likely built

May 11
16 min

Following the Child: Kid Watching, Listening, and the Art of Going Slow

What if slowing down wasn't a luxury — but the very thing that lets you go deeper, faster? In this episode, Leah and Angela sit down with Stella Villalba, educator, writ

May 4
30 min

Leah and Angela Talk Documentation, Dibels, and Dignifying Learners

What does it actually mean to dignify learning — for the learner and for the teacher, too? In this episode, Angela and Leah return to questions that stayed with them in t

Apr 20
27 min

Documentation as a Dignifying Practice

What if documentation wasn't about compliance, but instead, an act of dignity? In this episode, Angela reflects on the conversation with Melinda Karshner and follows Leah

Apr 13
23 min

Living with Dignity: Stories, Questions, and Reflection for Educators

What if keeping student dignity front and center could actually guide your daily decisions in teaching and learning? In this episode, Leah reflects on the conversation wi

Apr 6
17 min

Navigating Paradoxes: Trust, Dignity, and the Gray Spaces of Teaching

What if the most powerful learning happens not in perfectly planned lessons, but in the spaces between when teachers and students wrestle with paradox, wrestle with uncer

Mar 30
30 min

Embracing Coincident Opposites as a Cure for Much That Ails Us

Grey Matters podcast explores the complexities of teaching and literacy, emphasizing the importance of intentional and discriminating teaching, navigating paradoxes in ed

Mar 23
28 min

Lightening the Lift by Carrying the Weight of Things: More on the Power of Coincident Opposites

This week Angela reflects on living with coincident opposites in her own context as a professional learning facilitator. This is the concept Rod Naquin introduced in Epis

Mar 16
22 min

Embracing Paradox: The Power of Coincident Opposites

In this episode of Grey Matters, Leah reflects on a powerful idea from our first guest, high school ELA teacher Rod Naquin: coincident opposites , the idea that seemingly

Mar 8
20 min

Rod Naquin on Why Teaching Requires Managing Paradox

For our inaugural episode, we're diving deep into Rod J. Naquin's November 2025 Substack post, The Science of Dialogue: Why teaching requires managing paradox. If you've

Feb 25
29 min

Chart positions

Where Grey Matters with Leah Mermelstein ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 6, 2026).

#163 ▲ 6 How To US

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