Paul Tough: Whatever It Takes

Audio of my interview with the CBC Radio program “Dispatches” is now posted on the show’s website. Right-click here to download the podcast version (my interview starts at about 30 minutes in, after the story on the cheese bank), or click here and scroll down to listen to the interview alone. The “Dispatches” site summarizes the interview, conducted by host Rick MacInnes-Rae:

What’s the story on this Harlem Children’s Zone that’s captured the imagination of a president?

After all, for the longest time, the corner of 125th and Madison in Harlem was the intersection of poverty and failure.

But these days, for 97 blocks around, you’re in The Zone, a great big social experiment in education and hope.

More than 7,000 kids and their parents are being taught that just because they’re broke or living in public housing, it doesn’t mean they can’t succeed.

The program isn’t just trying to solve problems in education. It’s trying to bust poverty in America, according to journalist Paul Tough.

He’s the author of the new book Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest To Change Harlem And America.

Attention Canadians: Next Monday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m., I’ll be on “Dispatches,” on CBC Radio One, talking with the host, Rick MacInnes-Rae, about Whatever It Takes and the Harlem Children’s Zone. A few days after that, audio should be posted here.