Color Commentary with Dr. Cole is where the news meets perspective. Each episode begins in black and white—straight facts, clearly laid out, no spin—before shifting into full color, where Dr. Charles Cole III brings his voice, expertise, and lived experience to unpack what it all really means. From courtroom battles to cultural flashpoints, from education to entrepreneurship, this show gives you both the record and the reflection. Sometimes it’s just Dr. Cole, sometimes it’s with guests, but always it’s about learning, questioning, and seeing the deeper connections others miss. Color Commentary isn’t just about what happened—it’s about why it matters and what comes next.
Ep 51 | Losing Ground?: Black Wealth, Student Debt, Lost Cities, and What We Can Do
New Federal Reserve data shows Black household wealth fell by a quarter between 2022 and 2025, while every other major group gained. The federal government is reportedly preparing to send private collectors after nearly ten million borrowers in default on federal student loans, with wage garnishment of up to 15 percent on the table. And new Census estimates show Chicago, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New Orleans, and New York leading the country in Black population loss since 2020. Dr. Charles Cole III lays out the facts, then gets into what happens when the house, the degree, and the block start slipping at the same time, and what families can do about it right now.
Find the show at EdPost's YouTube page: youtube.com/@EdPostVideo
We'd love to hear from you! Email Charles at colorcommentarypod@gmail.com (mailto:colorcommentarypod@gmail.com)
7 Oct 2026
Ep 50 | The Country That Changed Its Mind: France, Tracking, and the Lie We Tell Our Kids
France just did something the United States never has. It ran a national experiment sorting middle schoolers into ability groups, the Choc des savoirs, watched its own inspectors, courts, and teachers reject it, and killed the policy in about two years. Dr. Charles Cole III lays out exactly what happened in France (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx-sbd3F96I), then holds it up to the mirror: the US has sorted children by measured ability for generations under the name tracking, and the harm falls hardest on Black kids, with an estimated 771,000 missing from gifted programs in a single year. In the color, Dr. Cole gets into how serious countries respond when education harms kids, why we have to revisit the standard itself, and the line he will not move off of: you can feel however you want about tracking, but schools have to be honest, and in America we are lying to our students.
Find the show at EdPost's YouTube page: youtube.com/@EdPostVideo
We'd love to hear from you! Email Charles at colorcommentarypod@gmail.com (mailto:colorcommentarypod@gmail.com)
And check out our merch here: charlescoleiii.com
30 Sept 2026
Ep 49 | The Hannah-Jones Reckoning: The Article, the Fallout, and Where I Land
Nikole Hannah-Jones's new essay on the school she chose for her daughter has become one of the biggest education stories of the year, and the reactions are still coming. In a different kind of episode, Dr. Charles Cole III gets put in the hot seat by his director. First a straight recap of the whole arc, the 2016 essay, the 2026 reckoning, and a fallout that pulled in the school-choice right, defenders, and a sharp response inside Black communities. Then the conversation: where Dr. Cole agrees, where he pushes back on parent choice, what his own Substack, Read Out Loud Day, argues about grit, agency, and the safety net most of our kids never had, and why he believes this article marks a turn in education policy. Honest, personal, and unfinished on purpose.
Find the show at EdPost's YouTube page: youtube.com/@EdPostVideo
We'd love to hear from you! Email Charles at colorcommentarypod@gmail.com (mailto:colorcommentarypod@gmail.com)
And check out our merch here: charlescoleiii.com
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2 ratings
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