School Board Member Stephanie Vanos and Eddie Geller break down the news of the week and give an inside perspective from their world in Orange County Florida. Extracurricular regularly features interviews that focus on education, politics, and the arts. With there be humor and comedy? Sometimes!
EP 58: Florida’s Book Bans Are Back! Plus How A School Board Member Lobbies In D.C.
Steph and Eddie return to discuss Steph’s education-related travels. But first Steph delves into news of layoffs at OCPS and the unfortunate reality behind them. (3:42). Then book banning is back, and we walk through the latest letter from the FL Board of Education trying to upend the rules, yet again, to get their desired outcome: more books off school shelves (12:55). However, Eddie and Steph have praise for the state board when it comes to another issue: Artificial Intelligence in schools (23:58). Then Steph talks about her trip to meet with the Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards down in Miami and how they’re setting school board legislative priorities (28:07). Finally, Steph walks through her first lobbying trip to Washington D.C. as a school board member and how the Florida School Board Association made some positive progress at the Department of Education (yes, that one) (35:00).
Extracurricular Podcast
Stephanie Vanos
Eddie Geller
8 Sept 2026
Working For Constituents, Not Customers: Rep Leonard Spencer On Bringing His Business Background To Tallahassee
Eddie opens old wounds by bringing up Steph’s rejection from The Orlando Economic Partnership's PLI (Public Leadership Institute) back in the day. Once recovered, they discuss the ed tech roundtables that occurred this week at Steph’s schools, and the news about the $8.5 million reduction at OCPS due to a lower than expected enrollment. They then welcome Rep. Leonard Spencer to the episode (13:23) and discuss Florida House District 45 and what it’s like representing a district with very diverse constituencies. Rep Spencer shares how he brings his business background to his public service work and how his perspective helps him be a more effective representative (20:04). He opens up about his decision to run for office (30:51) and work/life “harmony.” Steph asks about his views on education (40:32) and they discuss some common sense steps to cleaning up the taxpayer funded voucher system. They discuss Amendment 3, and how this proposed increase on property owners’ homestead exemption will impact local governments and services (59:08). They end the episode asking how Rep. Spencer unwinds (1:09:54).
https://leonardspencerfl.com/
Rep. Leonard Spencer (Instagram)
Extracurricular Podcast
Stephanie Vanos
Eddie Geller
31 Aug 2026
Life Before And After An Education: The Story Of EDUVOTER With Crystal Etienne
This week, Steph and Eddie begin by recapping Steph’s experience at the EDUVOTER conference and then diving into a recently released study: “Bullied, Threatened, and Exhausted: Florida School Board Members’ Struggle to Defend Public Education.” Afterwards, they welcome the head of EDUVOTER, Crystal Etienne. Crystal opens up and shares her background in teaching and why protecting public education is so important for her (14:15). We dig into the reasons why teacher unions are attacked so vociferously (22:01) and the impact of the culture wars on the fight for public education (30:17). Crystal weighs in on whether people are paying more attention lately and the role Schools of Hope played in getting the public’s attention (44:14). Finally, Crystal shares what voters should be asking of candidates (1:02:20) and how folks can support EDUVOTER (1:20:12).
Study mentioned at the top of the show: Bullied, Threatened, and Exhausted: Florida School Board Members’ Struggle to Defend Public Education
EDUVOTER (website)
EDUVOTER (Instagram)
Extracurricular Podcast
Stephanie Vanos
Eddie Geller
Who has been a guest on TBD with Stephanie Vanos and Eddie Geller
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Carlos Guillermo Smith
Hope Adelson
Brady Warren Graham
Anna V Eskamani
Sean Shaw
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
17 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 63 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
87
Social presence
94
YouTube
0
Engagement
51
Contact TBD with Stephanie Vanos and Eddie Geller
Guest appearances
Books guests
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