Extracurricular with Stephanie Vanos and Eddie Geller

Eddie and Steph welcome Liz Barker, School Board Member for Sarasota County Public Schools, to the pod. The topic of conversation is the sneakily named Schools of Hope: the latest rendition of privately owned and operated schools funded by our public tax dollars. Liz begins by defining Schools of Hope (20:17) and shares more information from her recent Opinion Piece in the Herald Tribune titled, Sarasota schools could become rent-f...

It’s our post-Yom Kippur edition of Extracurricular and Steph and Eddie are ready to atone (but mostly Eddie). 

Steph and Eddie welcome an activist, OCPS parent, and dear friend: Elly Kennedy (14:30). Elly has been supporting students in and out of the classroom since her now-high school daughter was in kindergarten. We begin by explaining the work Elly did to get her a Volunteer of the Year award and why it matters to find the stu...

It's Stephanie's birthday! We celebrate by complaining about food and a certain car manufacturer that shall not be named.  And if that wasn't enough to be excited for, we interview two folks from Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, Briana Rebello and Erika Spence to talk about food insecurity and the work Second Harvest does (11:11). We dig into why the work of feeding our neighbors is more important than ever (17:04), so...

What a week! Eddie and Steph recap their time in Washington, D.C., this week including Steph’s testimony at the Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee where she urged the members to invest in public schools, and Eddie’s unexpected sighting at Compass Coffee (3:40). They then discuss the controversy surrounding the discontinuation of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and implications to the First Amendment (18:30). Our...

This week, Steph and Eddie begin with some unusually substantive banter. Steph starts off by addressing a recent letter from the State Board of Education threatening teachers and calling into question their First Amendment rights in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination (4:15). Afterwards, Eddie rants about OCPS’s decision to join in the appeal with the Florida State of Board of Education. 

But then they get to the heart of the ...

In his solo podcast debut, Eddie asks Judi Hayes why she is suing Steph (13:02)! Judi Hayes, a public education advocate and mom of two OCPS students, is the Plaintiff in a lawsuit that sues the State Board of Education and the Orange County and Volusia County School Boards, which includes Steph in her official role (not in her unofficial role as a co-host of this podcast).

Judi provides some answers, discusses the importance of ha...

This week, Steph and Eddie bring on Orlando City Commissioner, Shan Rose. Shan was just elected in 2024 but has been working on making Orlando better for many years prior. As we like to do, we began by giving Commissioner Rose an opportunity to explain what she does for the city (13:20). Shan explained why safety is her number one priority but how that doesn't always look the same for every constituent (16:20). We then dove into th...

This week, Steph and Eddie had the pleasure of welcoming a dear friend: Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost. If you haven't heard of Rep. Frost, he's one of the most exciting up-and-coming Democrats in the entire nation, and he just so happens to be the Representative for District 10 where Eddie an Steph reside. We start by asking the big question: Are Democrats meeting the moment (16:28)? Rep. Frost then gives us an insight into w...

We did something wild this week—we took our podcast in front of a live audience at the Monday Scaries show at City Arts in Downtown Orlando. What it lacks in audio quality, it makes up for in charm! That said, if you want to skip the less-than-crisp audio, you can jump to 9:16.

This week, we sat down with Orange County Commissioner, Kelly Semrad. Kelly recently stood up to the DeSantis administration by voting AGAINST a transportat...

Extracurricular welcomes a dear friend—and Steph’s former campaign manager—Scott Hottenstein. Scott is a former teacher, former candidate, public education advocate and now campaign manager & consultant. With all those hats, we let Scott walk us through why public education matters (9:44). That leads into a deep discussion on public education funding, why it’s so paltry here in Florida, and why it matters so much (16:50). We th...

Eddie and Steph open the episode chatting about the entry into their video era. They then welcome local senior policy advisor, Rachael Kobb from Central Florida Public Affairs, to the pod. Rachael works with some of Orlando's great leaders, and she shares how she worked her way up from a secretary at Orlando Health to representing many clients in Orange County in a wide variety of ways (13:55). She talks about a lobbyist's relation...

In front of the camera lens for the first time during this show, Eddie and Steph open the pod talking about their week including their takes on the Netflix show, Adolescence (spoiler alert at 15:30-22:00). They get into the podcast and Steph shares her mid-season/mid-year progress report as a new School Board Member (22:00). They discuss highlights from the first few months (25:07) and Steph shares her perspectives on what she has ...

This week’s conversation brings aboard the founder of Statecraft Media, Chris Mitchell. Chris is a consultant and insider—words we successfully put in his mouth—who begins by telling what, exactly, a political consultant really does (10:55). But beyond that, Chris lays out how to be a successful candidate and why authenticity is such a huge part of that. Afterward, Chris gave us some unfiltered takes on the early front runner for t...

Eddie and Steph welcome FL Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith mere days after making national headlines when he and a handful of other Democratic lawmakers were denied entry to Florida's immigrant detention camp, "Alligator Alcatraz." Sen. Smith walks us through the myriad ways that this camp is a dangerous grift and what happened when he showed up at the camp (8:55). Afterwards, we take a brighter turn as Sen. Smith explains how he—a ...

Hope Adelson and Brady Warren Graham are two bright, young OCPS high schoolers who joined Steph and Eddie to discuss a wide rage of topics. They shared their excitement over Zohan Mamdani’s win in NYC and what Democrats need to replicate (15:45). We then delved into education issues, including what it’s like to lose a teacher, censorship, and the impact of taxpayer-funded vouchers (26:24). Hope and Brady also shared t...

The podcast welcomes an old friend but new podcast guest: Rep. Dr. Anna V. Eskamani (8:35). Anna gives us a debrief on this most recent legislative session--with an additional focus on education and a massive expansion of charter schools (27:07). Then, Anna talks about using her platform to do the most good (34:52). Finally, we round out by digging into what keeps Anna going during her downtime (41:35) and how she’s thinking about ...

Congrats OCPS grads! Steph gushes about the graduations she's had the privilege to attend, then we investigate whether Eddie is getting enough protein and the latest on the FL budget process. Next, we get a 101 on charter schools from Steph and why not is all as rosy as it appears (12:22). Then, Texas is on the march to bring the Christian Nationalism into the classroom (27:05), and finally, we delve into the age-old question: Abun...