Above the Noise

Is there an upside to virtual school? We teamed up with PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs at Black River Falls in Wisconsin to learn how students have been dealing with the pandemic and online learning.

People are turning to flexitarianism for many reasons. Producing a lot of meat and dairy has a big effect on climate change. Eating a lot of meat and dairy is also problematic for animal welfare, our health, and food security. Learn more about the pros and cons of eating meat and dairy and follow Myles, a self-proclaimed meat lover, on his 7-day vegan journey.

The stock market is a game, and you gotta play it to have any chance of making money. But it’s, like, complicated and stuff. So, I made this video and now I get it. Sorta. Follow me on my journey as I pull back the curtain on the stock market!

I've been seeing growing momentum on Reddit and TikTok from teens who want to get vaccinated with or without parental consent. This has me wondering: Should teens be able to get vaccines without their parents' permission?

The pandemic has created what scientists call the anthropause, which is a large slowdown in human activity. That’s allowed all sorts of wild animals to get comfortable in and around cities, from boar in Rome to turkeys in my own hometown of Oakland, CA. As we humans keep expanding and taking up more space, sharing our cities with wild animals might be our best chance to protect them. So, can we learn to coexist with animals in an urban world?

Whether you want to admit it or not, racism is a problem in schools across the country.

Unpaid internships can be a touchy subject for a lot of people. For some, it’s a temporary sacrifice to get one step closer to a paying job. For others, it’s just a tool companies can use to exploit people for free labor. So, the question for today is, should we abolish unpaid internships?

This year in 2021 alone over 20 states have introduced bills that would ban trans girls from competing in girls' sports in middle and high school-- some bans even apply to elementary school and college. And these bills are controversial. So in this video we are asking, what’s the debate about trans girls in sports all about?

Do you ever get that feeling that you just don’t belong? That you’re a fake who might be found at any minute? There’s a term for that -- imposter syndrome. In this video, we explore why this feeling exists and what you can do to fight against it.

What’s in a name? That’s a loaded question when it comes to the names of public schools in the U.S., which are commonly named after historical figures. But what if the person your school is named after did something problematic: like owning slaves, being a eugenicist, or an advocate for segregation? Well, some students across the country are leading the charge to rename schools that are named after people who they think do not reflect the values they want in their school’s namesake. So in this video journalist and host, Myles Bess asks how do you decide if, when, and how to rename a school?

Looking woke online can seem pretty selfish and empty, but can it ever become real activism?

The thrifting industry has grown over the last few years and Gen-Z gets a lot of the credit. However, critics worry that this growth has made thrifting less accessible to low-income families and those that need it.

Why is each generation lonelier than the one that came before it?

Learn how to win an argument online, when to bow out, and how to respectfully engage people you don’t agree with.

Students are leading #metoo movements around the world in their high schools, demanding an end to sexual assault and harassment. But can this activism actually change rape culture?

Recently, the bodies of Indigenous children were discovered lying in unmarked graves at former Residential School sites in Canada. How are Indigenous youth of today healing from this history and demanding accountability?

How will billionaires in space benefit us, the regular, NON-millionaires-and-billionaires stuck on this planet for the foreseeable future?