Every episode,
in one place.

S4 · E1 · Oct 21, 2026

In January 1970, the University of Ife in Nigeria began teaching a group of primary children in Yoruba for all six years of school, with English as a subject. In 2022, Nigeria made home-language instruction national policy for the early grades. In November 2025, the next government cancelled it and restored English, citing exam results. The Nigerian Academy of Education said the evidence showed the opposite. This episode follows that decision around the world. UNESCO estimates that about forty percent of the world's people are not taught in a language they understand well. Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya answered the question three different ways. Brazil, Morocco, Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Aotearoa New Zealand wrote a people, or a language, into the lesson, and found that a law takes a year and teachers take a generation. In the United States the question was answered in court, in Lau v. Nichols, 1974, unanimously. The episode closes with the season's recurring question: would it take root?

S4 · E0 · Oct 14, 2026

Season 4 of The Cultural Context of Knowledge follows one question around the world: who teaches whom, in whose language, and who decided. Eight episodes, with the United States in every one of them as one case among many. The trailer opens in four classrooms at eight in the morning, on the coast of Kenya, in central India, in Barcelona, and in San Francisco in 1970. In each, the language of the lesson is not the language of the children's homes. UNESCO estimates that about forty percent of the world's people are not taught in a language they understand well. The trailer also explains why the research season promised at the end of Season 3 is now Season 5, and closes with three questions to try before Episode 1.