<p>As we head into the reopening of schools across our nation, I am speaking with educators, school employees, administrators, and more in order to get a full picture of the situation. Today&apos;s special episode features Howard Whitmore (Music, NJ), Nicole Perkins (Cafeteria Staff, Delaware), and Deb Brown (Professor, Oregon). We talked about our various re-opening plans and discussed the impact that COVID-19 is set to have on the strangest year of education in history. </p><p><a rel="payment" href="http://patreon.com/lightersidepodcast">Support the show</a> (http://patreon.com/lightersidepodcast)</p>

Hail Seitan with Omer Basatemur

It started as a weight loss podcast, which quickly became a mental health podcast, which somehow became a pandemic podcast.  Jay, your host  (anxiety/depression/OCD/childhood trauma/family addiction)  lost 185 lbs after having bariatric surgery.  Guests have ranged from actor Ken Marino to a woman you have never heard of who lost 250 lbs, to a recovering addict, to essential workers during COVID-19. In 2020, the show became daily and ran for 100 episodes in 100 days. The culmination of everything The Lighter Side strove to be, Jay created an oral history of the pandemic, as told through the voices of the people who lived through it. There's something for everyone on the Lighter Side.