Teaching Through Emotions Podcast Launches "Valentineʼs Day Advent"
ALSO...History Extra Podcast: Historians on History
Teaching through Emotions (TTE) is an award-winning podcast created and hosted by Betsy Burris, a teacher educator and psychotherapist, and co-hosted by Joe Johnson, a veteran Spanish teacher. The podcast offers a psychodynamic perspective on education, helping teachers build resilience and succeed by sharing familiar stories and practical insights. The show is produced by Jullian Androkae, with audience development by Andreea Coscai, and music by Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout.
Creator/host Betsy Burris is releasing a Valentine’s Day advent calendar on Substack to help listeners get practical tools to work on their relationships every day, not just on “love day.”
The Teaching Through Emotions (TTE) podcast is challenging the status quo of Valentine’s Day with a new initiative designed to cultivate lasting connection: The Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar.
Starting February 2nd, TTE will roll out the red carpet for healthy relationships. Instead of focusing on chocolates and flowers, this 10-part series focuses on the “work, wherewithal, and wisdom” required to maintain genuine connection.
The advent poses a vital question: Shouldn’t every day be Valentineʼs Day? To answer this, TTE is publishing a new post every weekday leading up to the holiday.
“We want to celebrate the coming of the day by committing to being in healthy relationships,” says Betsy Burris, creator and host of Teaching Through Emotions. “Each post will give readers food for thought as well as a specific skill to practice. If you practice these skills with your partner, your Valentine’s Day will be truly meaningful, the way it should be.”
The series will educate on essential tools of emotional intelligence. One of the highlighted skills will be “Staying in Your Garden,” a foundational TTE concept focused on boundaries and personal responsibility.
This initiative represents the evolution of the Teaching Through Emotions podcast, fostering a direct and authentic relationship with listeners. It transforms the passive experience of listening into an active practice, providing the community with practical tools to do the real work of love.
On February 2nd, the first three posts of the series will be free to all subscribers. The final seven posts will be exclusive to paid subscribers.
TTE is encouraging readers to view a subscription as the ultimate Valentine’s gift to themselves or their partners:
A one-month upgrade costs roughly the price of a beer.
The “Staying in Your Garden” print or mug as the perfect companion to the lessons.
Teaching Through Emotions is a reader-supported publication and podcast. The newsletter offers free and subscriber-only lessons on emotional skills that go beyond the classroom.
Teaching through Emotions is a Women Who Podcast award-winning podcast that provides a rare form of relief for educators. Rare because it looks at bad feelings and bad behavior as *meaningful* and *useful.*
Betsy says: “We share stories of real-life terrible teaching moments, sprinkled with commentary and a ton of empathy, then
show you how to transform those moments into happy endings. You also get to hear interviews with remarkable people about their unique takes on education.”
To join the countdown and start building healthier relationships, visit Teaching Through Emotions.
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History Extra Podcast: Historians on History
History podcasting is another genre dominated by independent podcasts. Why is that? First, how many celebrities do you know who have expertise in History? Second, large podcast networks focus on celebrity interview shows, true-crime shows, and comedy shows.
The History Extra podcast is not exactly an indie podcast because it’s from the BBC, but at least in the U.K., the government doesn’t launch an attack on the public news and information service like NPR and PBS that the present administration has.
The History Extra podcast brings you gripping stories from the past and fascinating historical conversations with the world’s leading historical experts.
The History Extra podcast is from the makers of BBC History Magazine, which is the best-selling magazine in the U.K. The History Extra podcast offers engaging conversations with leading historians about global history, featuring deep dives into famous figures (like Cleopatra, Churchill), significant events (Waterloo, D-Day), lesser-known aspects of the past, and the real stories behind popular historical films and TV shows. It covers diverse eras, from ancient Rome and Vikings to Tudors, Victorians, and modern history, providing fresh perspectives and exploring topics like conspiracies, social history, and historical myths
The show features renowned historians such as Mary Beard, Dan Jones, James Holland, and Tracy Borman, and has a broad scope, covering global history, from medieval times and ancient civilizations to World Wars and the Cold War. Topics can vary from military, social, political history, myths, legends, and the history behind modern headlines.
The show also has specific series and formats, including specific series like Everything You Wanted to Know, History’s Greatest Cities, and Historical Conspiracies.
The main hosts of the History Extra podcast are Ellie Cawthorne, Rhiannon Davies, and Rob Attar, though different series feature various expert hosts like Matt Elton, who hosts the “Life Lessons from History” episodes, with other contributors like Emily Briffett and Elinor Evans also involved in producing and hosting various segments.
Some of my favorite episodes include In Ghosts, gods & sea monsters: a supernatural history of the Atlantic, where the podcast delves into ghostly historical tales. For centuries, sailors crossing the Atlantic believed they were not alone — haunted by ghost ships, watched by mermaids, and stalked by sea monsters. Historian Karl Bell talked to Jon Bauckham about the stories that dominated the maritime imagination, and what role these fishy tales might play in our understanding of the ocean today. Karl Bell is the author of The Perilous Deep: A Supernatural History of the Atlantic.
The December 18th, 2025 epidote tells a hidden story about WWII. In September 1939, an unlikely assortment of journalists, politicians, novelists, and spies assembled in a Bedfordshire village and set about waging a covert propaganda war on Hitler’s Germany. In a fascinating conversation with Spencer Mizen, Terry Stiastny reveals how the Political War Executive deployed everything from fake news and pornography to bogus killings to spread fear and confusion in Nazi-occupied Europe. Terry Stiastny is the author of Believable Lies: The Misfits Who Fought Churchill’s Secret Propaganda War.
In a neglected critical part of WWII campaigns, military historian Saul David — in his new book, Tunisgrad — seeks to redress the balance, arguing that this North African campaign was one of the three biggest turning points of the entire war. In conversation with Rob Attar, he explains why. Saul David questions why the battle for Tunisia is barely mentioned in popular accounts of the Second World War, having been totally eclipsed by the iconic clashes in Europe and the Pacific.
The History Extra podcast is ideal for history fans who want the widest breadth that history has to offer — from military, social, and political history, myths, legends, and the history behind modern headlines. I personally enjoy hearing from the authors of History books, and the hosts of the show are solid journalists who know their stuff.
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Check out the Best Independent Podcasts of 2026
For more podcast reporting, check out Ear Worthy on Forbes magazine.
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