PEER TALK at Willie Brown Middle School

Peer Talk Episode 15: Carolyn Tyler, journalist

From 1986 until her retirement in 2018, Carolyn Tyler was a household name in the Bay Area, as news anchor and reporter for KGO-TV/ABC7. During her tenure, Carolyn covered numerous breaking stories and hosted two Emmy-nominated series — including a series on the Civil Rights Movement and the impact that it had on Bay Area high school students. For covering the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Carolyn and her ABC7 news team received the Peabody Award. Currently, Carolyn serves on the San Francisco Film Commission, the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences representing Northern California, and the board of the Alonzo King Lines Ballet. In both her professional and personal life, Carolyn has amassed a treasure trove of experiences, which we were so excited to share with Mr. Mathews' Ethnic Studies class. Seeing a black anchorwoman on television news inspired Carolyn to professionally pursue journalism, and we hope that the students at Willie Brown will, in turn, be inspired by her and her stories.

Peer Talk Episode 14: Osagie Ero, software engineer at Amazon Music

The school year is ending as summer begins, but not to worry — Peer Talk will continue through the next few months until school starts back up again! Our guest for this episode is Osagie Ero, currently a software engineer at Amazon Music. Originally from Los Angeles, Osagie moved to San Francisco after graduating the University of Southern California. He began his professional career at Workday, where he helped to create a proprietary programming language for the company's Workday Student product. After a stint as a founding engineer at the blockchain startup Claim, Osagie later joined Astranis Space Technologies, where he undertook one of his most ambitious projects: developing a scheduling algorithm for Astranis's satellites to automatically communicate with Earth, which used to be a manual process. Now, at Amazon Music, Osagie combines his love of technology and engineering with his lifelong love of music. Since Willie Brown is a STEM-focused school, we were so grateful to have Osagie, a STEM professional, speak with the students of Mr. Jacobson's Computer Science class. The kids and Osagie almost instantly connected with each other, and we hope you'll enjoy their conversation as much as we did while recording.

Peer Talk Episode 13: J. K. Fowler, Executive Director of the Bay Area Book Festival

The 2026 Bay Area Book Festival heads to Downtown Berkeley from Friday, May 29 to Sunday, May 31, hosting over a hundred panels and special guests. It's an event where readers and writers of all sorts come together to hold meaningful conversations on both local and global interests. The Festival's rebellious, community-focused spirit is in part thanks to its current Executive Director, J. K. Fowler. J. K. is a prolific essayist whose body of work focuses on social justice and human connection. In 2011, J. K. founded Nomadic Press, a community-oriented publishing house in Oakland; Nomadic Press will return as Nomadic Bookshop in 2026, after a three-year hiatus. J. K. is also a Policy and Outreach Analyst with BAMBD, CDC (Black Arts Movement Business District Community Development Corporation of Oakland). He pushes people to think outside their comfort zone and open dialogues with others from all walks of life. We were lucky to have met J. K. just before the end of the school year — AND before the Book Festival — so we could have the students at Willie Brown Middle School interview him. Listen in as Mr. Mathews' Ethnic Studies class speaks to J. K. Fowler!

Peer Talk Episode 12: William May, doorman at the Fairmont Hotel

Since 1907, the Fairmont Hotel — located in the upscale neighborhood of Nob Hill — has been one of San Francisco's most esteemed and elegant institutions. For over 50 years, the first person to greet Fairmont guests upon their arrival has been the doorman, William May. May began working at the Fairmont in the mid-1970s, at a time when African-Americans had far-less-prominent roles in the hospitality industry. In his illustrious career as doorman and brand ambassador for the Fairmont, May has met famous historical figures like Thurgood Marshall and John Lewis, U.S. Presidents, other world leaders, entertainers, and more. All the while, he has proudly embraced his role in the history of the hospitality industry, and unwaveringly embodied the mission of the Fairmont Hotel and its brand. Listen in as Mr. Mathews' Ethnic Studies Class interviews the legendary William May!

Peer Talk Episode 11: William Shakespeare

In March of 2026, Peer Talk and the students of Willie Brown Middle School received a very special visitor from 400 years in the past: the Bard himself, William Shakespeare! Thanks to Kevin Patterson of Red Barn Productions, Peer Talk got in touch with Joseph Schmitz, an actor who has performed as Shakespeare at the Northern California Renaissance Faire for the past three decades. Schmitz is also a teacher of Shakespeare's Heartbeat — a performing arts program for neurodiverse students to engage with theatre through Shakespeare's iambic pentameter — as part of Eureka Street Learning in San Francisco. Schmitz joined our podcast in-character as William Shakespeare to answer questions from Ms. Vanessa Paiz's Eighth Grade English class, who had just studied and performed Twelfth Night. Join the students as they learn more about Shakespeare's life, the world of theatre in the 15th–16th Centuries, and how stage plays from hundreds of years ago can still resonate with audiences in the modern day.