Podcast Summary

Conspirituality – Episode 271: "The Miseducation of PragerU"

Date: August 21, 2025
Hosts: Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Episode Overview

This episode of Conspirituality critically explores the rise and mainstreaming of PragerU, examining its funding, ideology, educational influence—particularly on children—and contrasting it with the tradition of public educational programming exemplified by PBS and Sesame Street. The hosts analyze how PragerU's content, now entering public school curricula and potentially serving as right-wing state media under a Trump administration, advances a coherent but deeply regressive social and political agenda under the guise of "education."

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Political Takeover of Public Education Resources

• Context Set (02:03): Julian Walker introduces the episode by noting the defunding and closing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the conservative political maneuvering to replace PBS with PragerU materials in schools.

  • “The Right has waged a war on woke Sesame Street for generations… That bill stripped $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, greatly damaging NPR, PBS and mostly their member stations.” (02:03, Julian Walker)

• PragerU’s Ideological Position: PragerU is presented as an online, ideologically driven alternative to what the right terms “woke educational indoctrination.”

  • “…teaches kids to hate DEI, love paying taxes, and recognize that the Bible offers the only salvation on this planet. Could it replace Sesame Street, however?” (02:41, Julian Walker)

2. Origins, Funding, and Agenda of PragerU

• Founders and Funders:

  • Dennis Prager (right-wing broadcaster) co-founded PragerU with funding from billionaire fracking magnates, the Wilkes brothers, who are also connected to religious extremism and other major right-wing media.
    • “…the Wilkes father… is also the founder of an ultra conservative Jews for Jesus style church called the Assemblies of Yahweh… The Wilkes brothers also funded Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire. Other PragerU funders include Sheldon Adelson, the National Christian foundation, the DeVos Family foundation, and Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus.” (04:18, Julian Walker)

• Ideological Core & Tactics:

  • PragerU’s message: Anti-DEI, anti-LGBTQ, pro-Christian, anti-secular, pro-Israel, anti-immigration, and anti-climate science.

  • PragerU operates as a 501(c)3 "nonprofit" but functions as an advocacy and propaganda network employing slick animated videos and algorithmic savvy.

  • “PragerU has no campus, employs no professors, and offers no courses or diplomas. It's an online propaganda platform built around a YouTube channel.” (03:52, Julian Walker)

• Direct-to-Classroom Influence:

  • PragerU is now a vendor in several state education departments (Florida, New Hampshire, Montana, etc.), with lesson plans for K-6 and virtual "Founders Museum" content (AI-generated historical figures reciting right-wing catchphrases).

  • “Since then, New Hampshire, Montana, Oklahoma, Arizona, South Carolina, Idaho and Louisiana have followed suit… this could be material passed off as educational on a national government endorsed level very soon.” (09:31, Julian Walker; 19:27, Derek Barris)

3. PragerU Content Review & Critique

• Token Diversity & Aesthetic Appropriation:

  • PragerU deploys diverse hosts and characters, mirroring corporate diversity and PBS kids' style, while pushing a conservative/traditionalist message.
    • “…all the shit that the right has said that sitcom TV shouldn't be doing, they very much do… they might be anti-DEI, but they're making sure to include equal numbers of women, black people and Latinos.” (18:11, Derek Barris)
    • “Black folks are overrepresented in all of their branding. There's a lot of tokenism going on… they've deliberately adopted these corporate multicultural style optics as well as a PBS kids style of graphics.” (18:33, Julian Walker)

• Spin on Economic and Social Policy:

  • Cash Course: “Redistribution: Does It Work?” (26:07–31:26)
    Critiques the narrative that government redistribution is wasteful, demotivates work, and causes social unrest—delivered to kids through breezy animation and child-friendly music.

    • “Unfortunately, government redistribution comes at a high cost and it rarely changes the distribution of income in any lasting way…And the government tends to be slower, more wasteful, and less efficient.” (26:57, Julian Walker)
    • Hosts refute this by citing UBI research and the hypocrisy of labeling basic tax justice as “theft.” (31:26, Matthew Rimsky & Julian Walker)

  • Multiculturalism as a “Bad Idea” (33:34–39:41)
    PragerU video hosted by Konstantin Kisin frames multiculturalism as divisive, encourages pure assimilation, and pathologizes immigrant communities who retain cultural memory, missing the realities of generational assimilation and community formation.

    • “Multiculturalism is about people coming to the west and forming their own communities with their own rules and practices…The onus should be on the immigrant, not the host country.” (34:02, Julian Walker)
    • Discussion highlights how these takes flatten or dehumanize the lived experiences of immigrant integration. (38:08, Derek Barris)

  • Animated Columbus Video: Minimizing Slavery (39:44–40:17)
    The hosts play and mock a kids’ video where a cartoon Columbus shrugs off slavery as universal and just “how things were,” accusing PragerU of flattening atrocities into historical inevitabilities.

    • “‘Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world…before you judge, you must ask yourself what did the culture and society at the time treat as no big deal?’” (39:44, Julian Walker as Columbus)

4. Contrast with PBS/Sesame Street & the Threat to Public Education

• The Legacy of Sesame Street (46:43–59:02)

  • Matthew recounts the social function and production care behind the “Farewell Mr. Hooper” episode, emphasizing its honesty, inclusivity, and emotional educative value—qualities the hosts frame as intolerable to right-wing sensibility.
    • “They had to do what the best adults always do, which is they had to engage with honesty and vulnerability… because the one thing they knew that they wanted to be was honest.” (46:46, Matthew Rimsky)
    • “I don't think there's a more perfect moment in children's media, maybe television, ever… All of it is anathema to right wing politics based in anxiety and resentment and which simmers towards fascism.” (51:00, Matthew Rimsky)

• The Decades-Long Attack on Public Broadcasting
  Tracing the conservative project to defund and destroy PBS—from Nixon, Reagan, Bush, to Trump—hosts show the systematic effort to replace education-as-public-good with privatized, ideological content. - “Conservatives, I think, have always known that public broadcasting means public education. It means inclusivity… a potentially radical increase in democracy and equality.” (54:32, Matthew Rimsky)

• Sesame Street as Cultural Battleground

  • Iconically progressive moments—like Jesse Jackson’s “I Am Somebody” poetry with children—are described as epitomizing what the right wants erased.

    • (57:46–58:52, Jesse Jackson leads kids in affirmation)

  • Hosts argue that while PBS sometimes fell prey to "both-sidesism," its overall impact was unique, egalitarian, and world-defining—unlike anything PragerU supplies.

5. Reflections and Prophetic Satire

• Citing a 1994 Sesame Street parody of Donald Trump ("Ronald Grump") as predictive satire, they illustrate the cultural and political battle over the soul of American childhood. (59:33–61:00)
• Despite the onslaught, the hosts are not entirely pessimistic, citing new progressive uses of Sesame Street-style aesthetics and the persistent memory of what public goods once represented.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On PragerU’s Diversity Optics:
  “They might be anti-DEI, but they're making sure to include equal numbers of women, black people and Latinos.” (18:11, Derek Barris)

• On Propagandizing Childhood:
  “What a mess. That music, like the attempt to shove through this propaganda in oversimplified language while using that music…” (28:38, Julian Walker) “It makes propaganda age appropriate is what it does.” (30:21, Matthew Rimsky)

• On Slavery Minimization:
  “Slavery is as old as time… before you judge, you must ask yourself what did the culture and society at the time treat as no big deal?” (39:44, Animated Columbus [quoted by Julian Walker])

• On the True Meaning of Public Education (PBS):
  “They had to do what the best adults always do, which is they had to engage with honesty and vulnerability.” (46:46, Matthew Rimsky) “I don't think there's a more perfect moment in children's media… All of it is anathema to right wing politics based in anxiety and resentment and which simmers towards fascism.” (51:00, Matthew Rimsky)

• On the attacks on PBS:
  “Conservatives, I think, have always known that public broadcasting means public education. It means inclusivity. It has to. It means a potentially radical increase in democracy and equality.” (54:32, Matthew Rimsky)

Key Timestamps

• [02:03] – Introduction to the CPB defunding, PragerU’s growing influence
• [03:37] – Overview of PragerU’s origins, funding, ideological structure
• [09:23] – PragerU’s content samples and school partnerships
• [18:11] – Discussion of tokenism and diversity optics in PragerU’s branding
• [26:07] – Dissection of PragerU Kids' “Cash Course: Redistribution” video
• [33:34] – Multiculturalism as “a bad idea”: PragerU’s assimilationist indoctrination
• [39:44] – PragerU’s minimization of slavery through Columbus cartoon
• [46:43] – Tribute to Sesame Street’s Mr. Hooper and PBS’s public value
• [54:32] – History of attacks on public broadcasting; PBS’s political context
• [57:46] – Jesse Jackson’s “I Am Somebody” on Sesame Street
• [59:33] – 1994 “Ronald Grump” Sesame Street skit satirizing Trumpism

Takeaways

• PragerU’s rise is not merely about content but about institutional displacement: replacing generations of public good with private ideology, often by stealth.
• The tradition of public programming (Sesame Street, PBS) offered inclusivity, honesty, and universal values for children—now directly in the crosshairs of political revanchism.
• The right’s dual strategy: starve public education of funding, then fill the vacuum with ideologically weaponized content masquerading as apolitical “values.”
• Hosts urge listeners to remember, mourn, and resist the loss of these public goods—and to see through the tokenism and surface appeal of the replacement materials.

Closing Reflection

The hosts end on a note of both elegy and solidarity, suggesting that while the battle over educational media is fierce and ongoing, the spirit of public-minded, inclusive programming cannot be erased from memory—or future possibilities.

Summary by Conspirituality Podcast Summarizer. Episode available ad-free and with bonus content via their Patreon.