Code Burst

This podcast investigates Mined Minds, a coding bootcamps that received a huge amount of community support and federal and state tax dollars to re-educate out-of-work coal miners and others in Appalachia for jobs in the tech industry. Last week, we heard about the experiences of Susan Graves, whose experience as a CPA lent her a unique perspective as she learned and then worked with the organization. The week before, we heard from Billyjack Buzzard. Due to his background as a seventh generation coal miner, he served as an effective and charismatic spokesperson for Mined Minds. Like almost everyone else who went through the program, both were fired without warning and for dubious reasons. This week, we hear that narrative repeated again, but with its own twists and details from Michael Moore. Mike, as you will hear, is a busy professional, and he was not able to get in touch for an interview. Instead, he sat down and recorded his experiences with Mined Minds on his own. I have done little more than edit hi

Just a brief recap: the ongoing class action lawsuit filed against Mined Minds has been dismissed. I went over how things have gone forward in the last episode, and i also interviewed Billyjack Buzzard about his experience with the organization. Since posting, someone has made me aware of the fact that, in the tweet in which Jonathan Graham announced that the lawsuit has been dismissed, Stephen New, a lawyer who represented Ty, Tori, and others, has responded with a few choice tweets. If anyone is looking for a more nuanced legal explanation of what has gone down, I suggest you start there. (Here: https://twitter.com/graham_jp/status/1161700954783342594) For this episode, I got in touch with Susan Graves. She went through the Mine Minds program in West Virginia. When Amanda and Jonathan started out, they said they could teach anyone to code, even out of work coal miners. In the last episode, we heard how Billyjack, an out of work coal miner, went above and beyond as a student in the program. Even after

This is the fifth episode in a series covering the story of Mined Minds, a coding bootcamp that set out to retrain out-of-work coal miners for work in the tech industry. First episode: https://soundcloud.com/user-630857765/episode-1-conflicting-coverage Over a year ago, in the early weeks of 2018, a colleague shared with me a story about a coding bootcamp that was looking to train out-of-work coal miners for jobs in the tech industry. Mined Minds was launched in southwestern Pennsylvania by Amanda Laucher, who comes from a family of coal miners, along with her husband, Jonathan Graham. Their organization had received a lot of positive media coverage from outlets like NPR, CNN, and CBS. They, along with other workforce development organizations, had a received a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission of $1.5 million, and they had begun training dozens of future coders. Their model seemed really promising. They would train people for free, and then employ them as apprentices for a time with an affi

This podcast has focused on Mined Minds, a fairly unique coding bootcamp. This episode takes a look at programming educators that could be considered 'more traditional.' Decode MTL is a for-profit institution located in Montreal. I got in touch with Kevin Khoury, the co-founder, along with several students to explore the similarities and differences between the two.

Laucher and Graham have long said that they don’t receive federal or state grants, but they have subcontracted with others that do. This episode looks into the money Mined Minds takes in on the non-profit side. It includes an interview with Ami Gatts, the president of a local workforce development board that administered a federal grant to Mined Minds, and goes over Mined Minds’ most recent tax documents.

Using information that has been confirmed by multiple sources or has not been directly contradicted by others, Henry Kronk describes how Mined Minds came to be. He interviews Joseph McKenzie, who participated in the first run of the coding bootcamp and has gone on to lead a successful career in tech. McKenzie's experience stands in stark contrast with later students who say that Mined Minds over-promised and under-delivered.

In the practice of coal mining, there’s something known as rock burst. It happens in deep mines and tunnels around the world. Deep drilling causes the rock to shift and buckle. Shards can unexpectedly burst from the tunnel walls, injuring or killing miners. Code Burst is a story about a violent, unexpected shift in the structure of the global economy. It involves the growing skills gap, the growing tech industry, the growing obsolescence of higher education, and one married couple who either tried to make a difference, or tried to make a buck. This is a story about trust.