If you listen to one episode of one podcast this year, this should be it: This American Life's July 31 episode "The Problem We All Live With," reported by Nikole Hannah-Jones.

It's about school segregation, which is an issue across the country now that forced busing is widely considered to be a failed strategy.

But how did forced integration fail? In Seattle, as in other places, a large part of the problem was white flight—both to the suburbs, and to private schools.

In 2008, a lawsuit that started at Ballard High and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court ended with Chief Justice John G. Roberts proclaiming, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." That decision enforced legal color blindness.

But meanwhile, the achievement gap stubbornly persists (that's a link to a piece about a piece of legislation its critics dubbed "the Apartheid bill" when it was proposed earlier this year). Seattle schools are straight-up segregated. Here is the Seattle Times's very comprehensive 2008 report on the matter.

The fact that Seattle schools are segregated may come as disturbing news to you; I know it did to me.

Hannah-Jones helped me understand why school segregation persists, and what I can do about it. Her reporting and her insights deserve the largest possible audience.

There's even more on what we can do about it in yesterday's episode, Part 2 of "The Problem We All Live With," which is a portrait of a city in Connecticut that's running headlong toward integration rather than away from it. It's a place where one man—and his incredible protege, a woman you are going to love—have changed lives and need more support from white folks.

There are more links to writings by Hannah-Jones and others on these subjects here and here.