Trending In Ed with Mike Palmer

How can higher education rebuild its relationship with the public in an era of heightened political polarization, shifting financial models, and rapid technological disruption? In this episode of Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer welcomes back Jeremy C. Young, Senior Advisor at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), to discuss the foundational new report: Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education: The Trust Agenda. As part of our ongoing Trending in Higher Ed series—featuring insights from leaders like Eddie Watson (AI & pedagogy), Brian Rosenberg (Whatever It Is, I'm Against It), and Elliot Felix (The Connected College)—this episode explores how campus leaders can move past reactive crisis management and actively cultivate trustworthy relationships across their communities. Jeremy breaks down AAC&U’s five-point framework, offering actionable, practical strategies for institutional leaders, faculty, and advocates. Featured Reference & Key Highlights: 📄 Featured Reference: AAC&U's Report, Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education (The Trust Agenda)—the core blueprint for this conversation, outlining actionable solutions to restore institutional trust. 🚀 Accelerate Innovation: Overcoming institutional inertia to streamline shared governance, adapt to the rapid emergence of AI, and adopt flexible academic pathways like universal transfer and "College in Three". 🤝 Prioritize Community Engagement: Drawing inspiration from trusted community colleges and regional publics to act as true anchor institutions—leveraging local procurement and public-facing research (echoing Dr. Kenneth Carter’s work in public scholarship). 🎓 Recommit to Inclusive Excellence: Centering student success, expanding support for food/housing security, and fostering genuine civil dialogue that welcomes conservative students and diverse viewpoints (referencing Lara Schwartz’s Try to Love the Questions). 📢 Tell a Clearer Story: Shift away from the media's hyper-fixation on elite Ivy League universities and reframe higher ed around shared public values like freedom, fairness, and opportunity directly through campus-level communications. 🛡️ Coordinate a Mission-Centered Defense: Protecting university autonomy and academic freedom through collaborative cross-institutional defense networks—building a proactive trust foundation before crisis management (as discussed with Legend Labs' Jeff Hunt) becomes necessary. Episode Timestamps: ⏱️ 00:00 – Welcome back Jeremy C. Young & transition from PEN America to AAC&U ⏱️ 00:03:00 – Introducing the featured reference: AAC&U's Trust Agenda report ⏱️ 00:09:00 – Pillar 1: Accelerating innovation, AI adaptation, & shared governance reform ⏱️ 00:12:30 – Pillar 2: Community engagement, anchor institution strategy, & local impact ⏱️ 00:19:00 – Pillar 3: Inclusive excellence, student support, & engaging political difference ⏱️ 00:26:30 – Pillar 4: Reframing higher ed narratives & empowering local messengers ⏱️ 00:33:30 – Pillar 5: Collaborative defense, institutional autonomy, & cross-sector alignment ⏱️ 00:39:30 – Implementation: AAC&U's upcoming Leadership Institute & long-term outlook Catch the full video episode now on YouTube and Spotify! 🔔 Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com to dive into our full archive of higher ed conversations, show notes, and resources!

Mike Palmer reconnects with old colleague Don Gregori, COO of First Factory, to unpack core insights from Don’s book, The Emergent Leader: A Guide to Brand Building, Leadership, and Self-Mastery. Drawing from a non-linear career path—ranging from theater major and aerial stunt coordinator to an 18-year tenure at Kaplan and scaling tech teams—Don shares practical strategies for authentic leadership, proactive stress management, and navigating AI workplace disruption. Key Takeaways 🎭 Unconventional Paths Build Strong Leaders: Creative backgrounds like theater teach team vision, feedback loops, and real-time collaboration far better than standard business classrooms. 🏷️ Authentic Brand Building: Standing out requires standing alone; authentic leaders drop polished posturing, embrace their flaws, and focus on human connection. 🧩 Self-Mastery Precedes Leadership: Mindset functions as an operating system. True self-mastery requires proactive stress preparation and ruthless prioritization rather than reactive recovery. 🤖 AI Shifts Value to Generalists: As AI commoditizes routine execution, critical thinking, problem-solving, and cross-functional synthesis become an employee's most essential assets. 💼 Delegation Drives Growth: Effective leadership requires simplifying or delegating your current tasks so you remain open to new growth and strategic opportunities. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction & Reconnecting 30 Years Later 01:45 - Theater, Aerial Stunts, and Unconventional Business Prep 03:30 - Digital Transformation & Career Progression at Kaplan 05:45 - Near-Shore Software Development at FirstFactory 07:15 - Why Write The Emergent Leader? 11:00 - Leg 1: Brand Building, Culture, and Authentic Leadership 20:00 - Leg 2: Leadership Development, Vulnerability, and Prioritization 25:30 - Leg 3: Self-Mastery, Mindset, and Proactive Stress Management 31:45 - How AI is Reshaping Tech, Developers, and Critical Thinking 35:45 - Early-Career Advice and Reskilling for the Future 39:00 - Parting Thoughts & Wrap-Up Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode!

What if everything we know about teaching reading is upside down? In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with tech entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and innovator David Chalk to unpack a remarkable story of literacy, neurodiversity, trauma, and redemption. Key Highlights & Discussion Points: 🧠 Trauma and the Literacy Crisis: David recounts his early school trauma starting on day one of first grade, highlighting how unrecognized dyslexia and ADHD left him functionally illiterate for decades. ✈️ Building Success Beyond Reading: Despite reading at a fourth-grade level, David built multi-hundred-million-dollar businesses and became an airline jet pilot by leaning into creativity and oral vocabulary. 📖 Unlocking Reading in 11 Hours: Featured in the documentary The Truth About Reading, David reversed standard instruction methods to jump from a 4th-grade reading level to post-university proficiency in just 11 hours at age 62. 🤖 AI as a Pattern-Based Learning Ally: AI language models process language through pattern training—mirroring how human brains naturally acquire spoken words—offering a powerful tool to tutor neurodiverse learners without cognitive strain. 🗣️ Vocabulary and the Future of Work: As technology evolves, rich oral communication skills, deep vocabulary, and expressive clarity will serve as critical differentiators in an AI-driven workforce. ❤️ The Role of Emotional Resilience: David emphasizes why unconditional parental support and self-esteem are essential safeguards for children struggling through academic friction. About the Guest David Chalk is a technology entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and neurodiversity advocate who has founded ten successful companies. After mastering fluid reading at age 62, David now applies his background in artificial intelligence and pattern recognition to transform reading instruction for struggling learners everywhere. Subscribe & Connect Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode! Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for show notes, resources, and more sharp takes on the future of learning.

How do we move beyond baseline AI literacy to true AI fluency, agency, and self-efficacy for the next generation? In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Dr. Taniya Mishra, Founder and CEO of SureStart, to explore how hands-on, mentor-led AI education is empowering youth globally to shift from passive users to confident creators. Drawing from her 12+ years as an industrial AI researcher, Dr. Mishra shares how SureStart demystifies technology through near-peer mentorship, modular curriculum, and a layered approach to AI learning—from middle school vocabulary to vibe coding and building small language models. KEY INSIGHTS & DISCUSSION POINTS 💡 The Heart of SureStart—Near-Peer Mentorship: How pairing middle/high school students with near-peer mentors (graduate and undergraduate students) demystifies AI, creates psychological safety, and normalizes making mistakes as a core part of the coding process. 💡 A Layered Framework for AI Education: Understanding AI through a tiered mental model (DIYer, electrician, electrical engineer, researcher) to meet students where they are—building confidence through foundational vocabulary, conceptual clarity, and practical execution. 💡 Navigating Vibe Coding & Emergent Tech: Why rapid advancements like vibe coding require students to look beneath the surface code, balancing prompt engineering efficiency with direct coding precision. 💡 Overcoming "Cautious Clickers" & Risk Aversion: Strategies to build self-efficacy among underrepresented students by prioritizing representative role modeling (50%+ female mentors) and praising questions in the learning environment. 💡 Responsible AI Across the Curriculum: Why ethics should not be an isolated module, but woven throughout every project (e.g., addressing authorship and bias in generative tools) to cultivate critical evaluation skills. 💡 Operationalizing AI in K-12 Education: Integrating flexible, modular lessons (ranging from 15-hour blocks to 60-hour semester courses) into packed public school schedules through teacher training and district partnerships. 💡 New Economy Skills & Human + AI Synergy: Preparing youth for a changing workforce by pairing AI tools with core human competencies: critical reasoning, executive functioning, data literacy, financial literacy, and an entrepreneurial mindset. CHAPTERS & TIMESTAMPS ⏱️ 00:00 – Welcome & Introduction: Dr. Taniya Mishra and SureStart ⏱️ 01:00 – Taniya’s Journey: From PhD AI Researcher to EdTech Founder ⏱️ 04:00 – Overcoming "I'm Not a Tech Person" & Demystifying STEM ⏱️ 06:30 – The Core of SureStart: Near-Peer Mentorship in Action ⏱️ 09:50 – Keeping Up with Fast-Moving Trends & Vibe Coding ⏱️ 12:50 – The Layered Model: DIYers to AI Researchers ⏱️ 18:20 – Addressing "Cautious Clickers" & Creating Safe Failure Spaces ⏱️ 24:40 – Integrating AI Fluency into Busy K-12 Schedules ⏱️ 29:30 – Parallel Processing: Upskilling Teachers & Engaging Parents ⏱️ 34:40 – Responsible AI Frameworks & Verification Skills ⏱️ 42:30 – New Economy Skills: Data Literacy, Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship ⏱️ 45:30 – Final Thoughts: Humans Plus AI SUBSCRIBE & CONNECT 🎧 Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to podcasts to stay ahead of the curve in learning, media, AI, and the future of work. 🌐 Website: https://trendingineducation.com 📩 Follow Mike Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelppalmer/

In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer is joined by Dr. Ozgur Bolat, associate professor of educational science and author of The Reward Trap: Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids. Dr. Bolat shares his journey from seeking external validation to decoding the science of intrinsic motivation, offering practical strategies for parents and educators looking to move away from quick-fix rewards and build lasting resilience and internal drive in children. Key topics discussed include: 🧠 The Pitfalls of External Validation: How relying on rewards, praise, and criticism creates an external locus of control and undermines intrinsic motivation. 🕊️ The PEACE Model: A framework (Perspective, Emotion & Cognition, Need, Commitment, Engagement) to address behavior and resistance without relying on bribes or threats. 📱 Modern Parenting & Mental Health: How overprotective parenting and digital distractions prevent kids from learning how to handle hardship and negative emotions. 🤖 Assessment in the Age of AI: Why generative AI exposes the limits of memorization-based testing and forces a shift toward assessing critical thinking, original reasoning, and conceptual understanding. 👨‍🏫 Evolving the Role of the Educator: Shifting teachers away from being mere "information transmitters" and into roles as mentors, coaches, and learning architects. 🤝 Parent and Teacher Dynamics: Research-backed insights on why warm, respectful relationships far outperform control mechanisms, anxiety, and high-pressure tactics. About the Guest: Dr. Ozgur Bolat is an associate professor in educational science, Fulbright scholar, Harvard Graduate School of Education graduate, Cambridge PhD, and former MIT Sloan researcher. He is the founder of parenting and teacher training initiatives dedicated to raising internally validated children. His book, The Reward Trap, features a foreword by Nobel Laureate Professor Aziz Sancar. Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to podcasts for more conversations on the future of learning, parenting, and human agency. Visit https://www.trendingined.com for show notes and past episodes.

In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Mike Peng, Founder and Managing Partner of Weatherstone Capital Partners, to explore the evolving intersection of education, technology, and capital markets. After missing a meeting at ASU+GSV in San Diego, Mike and Mike reconnect to unpack what it takes to scale educational ventures past the startup phase and navigate the broader macroeconomic shift from venture capital to private equity in EdTech. Drawing from his unique career journey—from engineering at UT Austin and strategy consulting at McKinsey to leading rapid growth at Block Renovation and earning an MBA at Stanford—Peng shares why Weatherstone focuses on partnering with operators in the 1-to-10 scale stage ($1M to $10M EBITDA range). Together, they examine the real "moats" in the age of AI (data ownership and customer relationships over UI), why corporate L&D and continuing certification are outperforming traditional K-12/Higher Ed models for private equity, and how simulation tools and micro-learning are reshaping workforce upskilling. Peng also offers vital advice for founders assessing whether they are the "limiting factor" in their company's growth and how to navigate tight capital markets. KEY INSIGHTS: 0-to-1 vs. 1-to-10 Leadership: Building a product from scratch requires a scrappy, zero-to-one mindset, whereas scaling from 1 to 10 demands processes, enterprise workflows, and founders willing to look in the mirror to ensure they aren't becoming their company's limiting factor. The Capital Shift from VC to PE: With EdTech valuations down ~60% from 2021 peaks and market maturity kicking in, 2024 marked a pivot where private equity outpaced venture capital in EdTech funding—shifting the focus from hyper-growth to unit economics, profitability, and sustainable scale. Redefining AI Moats: User interface (UI) and simple API connections to large language models are no longer defensible differentiators. True AI moats reside in owning proprietary data, maintaining deep customer trust, and controlling end-to-end customer relationships. Corporate L&D and Reskilling Demand: While K-12 and Higher Ed present longer sales cycles and risk aversion, Corporate L&D—particularly recurring certification, micro-training in daily workflows, and AI simulation (e.g., bedside manner nursing)—presents massive opportunity as 85% of employers seek to reskill their workforce by 2030. Founder Discipline in Tight Markets: Bootstrapping and pivoting quickly are more viable than ever thanks to AI MVP acceleration. Founders must plan capital runway at least a year in advance and regularly "come up for air" so market evolution doesn't leave their business behind. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Introduction & Connecting Post-ASU+GSV 01:00 – Mike Peng's Journey: UT Austin, McKinsey, Block Renovation, & Stanford MBA 02:30 – Inside Weatherstone Capital Partners: Long-Term Platform Investing 03:30 – 0-to-1 vs. 1-to-10: Passing the Founder "Mirror Test" 05:30 – Takeaways from ASU+GSV: AI Undercurrents & Modern Moats 07:30 – Career Readiness, CTE, & The 1,400-Tool EdTech Stack 09:30 – Data is the New Oil, AI is the New Electricity 11:30 – Managing Hallucination Risk & Trust in Classroom Tech 13:30 – Segmenting EdTech: Why Capital is Moving from VC to PE 18:00 – The Future of Work: LXP, Micro-Learning, & AI Simulations 23:30 – Personal AI Tutors, Spatial Hardware, & Final Advice for Founders 26:00 – Wrap Up & How to Connect with Weatherstone Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve in learning, media, and the future of work.

How can higher education equip Gen Z to navigate rapid AI disruption, political polarization, and shifting workplace expectations? In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer connects with Francesca Schuler, Executive Director of Dialogue Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt University. Drawing from her executive career as a COO and CEO in private-sector consumer and fitness industries, Francesca brings a fresh, operational lens to solving higher education's civil discourse challenge. Together, Mike and Francesca explore why modern communication frequently breaks down and why developing constructive dialogue habits—such as listening with curiosity, managing emotional reactivity, and asking thoughtful questions—is critical for modern leadership and citizenship. From creating tech-free conversational spaces like the "Vandy Speakeasy" to building nationwide partnerships through the Dialogue CoLab, Francesca shares actionable strategies to cultivate emotional intelligence (EQ), foster psychological flexibility, and empower students to thrive in a complex world. KEY INSIGHTS & DISCUSSION POINTS Habits Over Skills in Moments of Crisis: While functional skills are vital, leaders and students ultimately fall back on ingrained habits during high-pressure situations. Practicing daily habits like asking with curiosity, showing up without rigid certainty, and listening to learn builds long-term emotional intelligence (EQ) and resilience. Unlearning Technology's Bad Habits: Social media platforms and instant messaging reward hot takes, rigid positions, and immediate reactivity over thoughtful engagement. Treating AI as a supportive tool rather than the final answer preserves human judgment, nuance, and critical thinking. Tactical Campus Programs for Practice: Dialogue Vanderbilt creates low-stakes practice environments—such as the phone-free "Vandy Speakeasy"—and hands-on workshops like "Switch Sides" and "From Every Angle" to rehearse respectful debate and open inquiry. Institutional Neutrality and Citizenship: Rooted in Vanderbilt’s historical unifying mission, maintaining institutional neutrality provides faculty and students space to explore complex ideas while learning how to agree—and disagree—more constructively. Busting Career & Personal Growth Myths: Re-evaluating pervasive narratives around imposter syndrome and work-life balance encourages individuals to embrace agency, navigate trade-offs, and prioritize core success traits: curiosity, humor, and getting things done (GSD). Scaling Civil Discourse Across Higher Education: Through initiatives like the Dialogue CoLab, over 30 higher education institutions—ranging from community colleges to state schools and private universities—are sharing best practices to foster constructive campus cultures nationwide. SUBSCRIBE & CONNECT Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve in learning, media, AI, and the future of work.

What if the safest career path in an era of rapid AI disruption is actually doing something entrepreneurial or mission-driven? In this episode of Trending in Education, Mike Palmer is joined by Arun Gupta, CEO of NobleReach Foundation and author of The Mission Generation: Reclaim Your Purpose, Rewrite Success, Rebuild Our Future. Drawing from his background as a venture capitalist, Georgetown and Stanford instructor, and public service advocate, Arun breaks down why traditional stability is becoming the new risk and how emerging generations—and professionals at all career stages—can align personal ambition with civic purpose. They discuss why fewer than 7% of government tech workers are under the age of 30, how to modernize public service pathways beyond outdated hiring portals, and why AI will elevate human-centric strengths like curiosity, judgment, and cross-domain experience. Arun also introduces a framework for rethinking individual net worth around five "hidden capitals"—trust, learning, experiential, mission, and health capital—that compound over a 60-year career horizon. KEY INSIGHTS: Stability as the New Risk: Relying strictly on traditional prestige markers (where you work) over purpose markers (the problems you solve) leaves professionals vulnerable to rapid technological and economic shifts. The Five Hidden Capitals: Career value extends far beyond financial metrics, compounding over time through trust, curiosity, diverse experience, mission impact, and sustained health. Public Service as a Career Accelerator: Short-term civic stints should be framed as resume-enhancing accelerators rather than lifetime commitments, making public service more accessible for tech and business talent. Inverting the Risk Equation: A venture capital mindset shifts the focus from "what if it goes wrong?" to "what if it goes right?"—encouraging transformative, mission-oriented bets over incremental safety. From Independence to Interdependence: Solving large-scale modern challenges requires building cross-sector pathways between public, private, and social institutions. Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve in learning, media, and the future of work. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Introduction: Arun Gupta and The Mission Generation 01:00 – From VC Bets to Public Service: Teaching "Valley Meets Mission" at Stanford & Georgetown 03:30 – The Tech Talent Gap: Why Under 7% of Government Tech Workers Are Under 30 06:00 – An Intergenerational Quest: Finding Purpose Across Every Stage of Life 07:00 – Purpose Markers vs. Prestige Markers: Why Stability is the New Risk 10:00 – Advice for Graduates: Service Stints, Entrepreneurial Mindsets, and Action-First Clarity 14:40 – The 4 Barriers to Mission Work & How AI Crosswalks Sector Silos 18:00 – Redefining Net Worth: Investing in the 5 Hidden Capitals 21:00 – Rebuilding Civic Pathways: Framing Public Service as a Career Enhancer 25:40 – Mid-Career Civic Sabbaticals & Purpose as a Longevity Driver 28:30 – From Independence to Interdependence: Designing Systems for Complex Problems 31:20 – The VC Risk Model: Reframing Decisions around "What If It Goes Right?" 38:00 – Silo Busting & Final Takeaways

Host Mike Palmer connects with Monica Marquez, founder of ⁠FlipWork⁠ and founding director of the ⁠TIDE Center at UNT Dallas⁠, to explore how humans can navigate the rapid disruption of AI in the workplace. Drawing from her deep background in human capital, diversity, and leadership development at industry giants like Goldman Sachs, Google, and Bank of America, Monica brings a deeply human-centered approach to the AI revolution.  Mike and Monica skip the standard AI hype to discuss why simply rolling out AI tools isn't enough to drive real adoption. They dive into the psychology of AI integration, unpacking what Monica calls the "identity bottleneck" - the challenge workers face when shifting from a traditional mindset where "effort equals success" to a modern reality where "impact equals success." Monica also introduces her "long division" analogy for AI, explaining why we shouldn't ban the tool in classrooms or boardrooms, but instead require users to show their work and actively interrogate the AI's logic.  Key Discussion Topics:  * The Identity Bottleneck: Why our traditional conditioning to reward "grit and elbow grease" is causing resistance to AI's effortless outputs, and how to overcome the feeling of "cheating."  * Measuring AI Fluency: A look at FlipWork's psychometric diagnostic, which assesses "agentic velocity" (individual adoption) and "enterprise symbiosis" (organizational support).  * The Calculator Analogy: How educators and leaders can demand the "long division" of AI prompting to combat passive consumption ("work slop") and prevent cognitive atrophy.  * Agentic Teams: Why AI isn't a one-size-fits-all solution and how to orchestrate specialized models (like Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini) just like human team members.  * Democratizing Expertise: How everyday users can use AI as an accessible thinking partner to overcome biases, expand diversity of thought, and level the playing field.  Whether you're an educator, an enterprise leader, or an individual trying to disrupt yourself before you get disrupted, this episode offers a practical blueprint for multiplying human genius in the AI age. Subscribe to Trending in Education on your preferred podcast platform, leave a review, and share this episode with your network. Visit ⁠TrendinginEd.com⁠ for more episodes and conversations on the future of learning and work. Timestamps: 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 01:05 Monica’s Career Journey 03:57 Why FlipWork and AI 07:41 Enterprise Adoption Reality 13:45 Measuring AI Fluency 17:13 Identity Bottleneck Shift 21:56 Teaching Critical Thinking 26:08 Bias Trust and Agency 30:31 Guardrails and AI Teams 33:41 Final Takeaways

Host Mike Palmer connects with behavioral neuroscience expert and executive coach Dr. D. Ivan Young to discuss his book, Leading from the Heart. They analyze the balance between artificial intelligence and human emotion, detailing how self-empathy, compassion, and psychological safety impact leadership. Dr. Young also shares practical insights on managing emotional signals, navigating media-driven dopamine loops, and using metacognition to reset negative thought patterns. Key Discussion Topics: Self-Empathy First: Leaders cannot effectively provide empathy or compassion to others if they do not first possess it within themselves. Thermostats vs. Thermometers: Effective leaders actively regulate the energy and psychological safety of an environment rather than merely reflecting the existing temperature. Weaponized Empathy: Modern social media algorithms and political messaging exploit emotional triggers to divide populations, requiring individuals to consciously choose harmony instead. The Thought Map: A tactile, metacognitive exercise using physical writing shifts activity across brain regions to halt an amygdala hijack. Ethical AI & "Uriel": A clinical, patient-centered AI designed to eliminate programming bias and promote user self-efficacy and resilience. Authentic Human Connection: Addressing the loneliness epidemic requires disconnecting from curated online personas and grounding oneself in nature. Subscribe to Trending in Education on your preferred podcast platform, leave a review, and share this episode with your network. Visit TrendinginEd.com for more episodes. Learn more about Dr. D. Ivan Young and pick up Leading from the Heart: The Essential Guide to Self-Empathy and Self-Compassion in Coaching and Clinical Practice

How do we shift the role of teachers from passive curriculum implementers to active classroom architects? This week on Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer is joined by K-12 math teacher and author Jim Gaona Ellis on the day his new book drops: Educators as Designers: The Hidden Architecture of Learning. Drawing from his unique background transitioning from an architecture student to a global educator across Phoenix, Madrid, and Vienna, Jim brings a fresh, human-centered lens to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). We dive deep into the real-world application of design thinking in the classroom, moving past rigid checklists to focus heavily on the actual problems students face. Key Insights: Deconstructing "Hostile Design" in Schools: Jim explains how hostile urban architecture (like park benches built to deter the unhoused) mirrors common school punishments—such as stripping away a student's lunch period for missing homework. We discuss how these reactions merely mask symptoms rather than addressing root causes like student confusion or forgetfulness. High-Tech vs. No-Tech Classroom Tools: We look at how Jim pairs digital platforms like Desmos to illustrate the immense scale of scientific notation with his absolute favorite tool: a massive, double-page whiteboard that fosters democratic, collaborative learning. AI and the "Illusion of Learning": Recording in 2026, we tackle the double-edged sword of the AI revolution. Jim envisions a massive upside where backend AI instantly identifies learning differences like dyslexia and dynamically adjusts workloads on a slider scale. However, we weigh this against the front-end risk of cognitive offloading, which can rob students of critical thinking and create a false sense of academic progress. Rejecting "Solution Salesmanship": Rather than treating educators as a passive market for pre-packaged tech tools, we advocate for an industry-wide return to respecting teachers as creative thought partners who co-design learning experiences directly with their students. Embracing the Constraints: From navigating shifting cultural norms to managing the industrial "cells and bells" physical structure of school buildings, Jim shares how treating systemic limitations as design puzzles is the ultimate key to teacher longevity and instructional growth. Subscribe to Trending in Ed on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite RSS player so you never miss a forward-thinking conversation like this one! Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction and welcoming Jim Gaona Ellis 01:30 - Jim's global journey: Transitioning from architecture to teaching in Phoenix, Madrid, and Vienna 03:30 - What inspired the book and expanding on traditional UDL frameworks 06:30 - Understanding "hostile design" in urban spaces and its parallels in modern classrooms 11:00 - The state of AI in 2026: Automatic backend accommodations vs. the front-end "illusion of learning" 16:30 - Moving past educational "solution salesmanship" to truly respect and empower teachers 20:00 - Classrooms in action: Visualizing data with Desmos vs. the democratic power of whiteboards 22:30 - Overcoming the industrial "cells and bells" model through thoughtful classroom experimentation 30:30 - Final takeaways: How to embrace systemic constraints as a learning designer

This week on Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer is joined by Trending in Ed all-star Beth Rudden, CEO of Bast AI. From her roots digging in the dirt as an archaeologist to managing a $34 billion division as the Chief Data Officer of IBM Managed Services, Beth brings a deeply grounded, technical perspective to the artificial intelligence conversation. In this wide-ranging and insightful conversation, Mike and Beth skip the typical AI hype to explore what it actually takes to build explainable, trustworthy technology. Beth shares how Bast AI acts as an LLM-agnostic explainability layer—using a unique drinking chocolate analogy to demonstrate how they verify AI data rather than letting models hallucinate plausible narratives. They explore the practical application of using small language models (SLMs) for data enrichment, highlighted by Bast AI's meaningful work with Craig Hospital to translate complex neuro-spine outpatient procedures into accessible languages and analogies. KEY INSIGHTS: • Inverting the Chatbot Approach: Why defining what an AI can talk about is far more effective than building restrictive guardrails. • The Myth of "Human in the Loop": How shifting accountability to overworked humans can become a form of liability laundering. • Microservices vs. Agentic Harnesses: Looking at the risks of natural language agentic systems like Claude Code versus discrete, self-healing tasks. • Cognitive Offloading & Math Education: Why future technical skills should prioritize differential equations and the diversity prediction theorem over simple calculation. • Pattern Recognition vs. Choice: Defining true intelligence through the ability to choose wisely, rather than just matching mathematical patterns. They also cross paths with the Cynefin framework, explain how the human brain conserves energy by only holding two paradoxes at once, and unpack the cultural shifts reshaping modern engineering ethics. Stay ahead of the curve in education and technology! Please like and share this episode with your network, and follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite player so you never miss an episode like this one. LINKS: Learn more about Bast AI: https://www.bast.ai Subscribe to Beth's Substack: https://substack.com/@bethrudden TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction and welcoming Beth Rudden back to the show 01:00 - The drinking chocolate analogy for Explainable AI 03:00 - Beth’s lightning-round background: Archaeology to Chief Data Officer at IBM 05:00 - Getting "catfished by AI" and verifying facts with databases 07:00 - Mike on Gemini, RAG applications, and checking AI confabulation 09:00 - Enriched data and Small Language Models (SLMs) at Craig Hospital 12:00 - Epistemic security and inverting conversational technology 14:30 - Liability laundering and the illusion of "human in the loop" 15:30 - Agentic harnesses vs. self-healing microservices 20:00 - Understanding as labor and Conrad Wolfram's three-step math process 22:30 - Future human skills: Differential equations and jelly bean statistics 26:30 - Pattern recognition vs. true intelligence as the ability to choose 29:30 - Neurosymbolic systems and subjectivity in data science 34:30 - Shunting energy: The Cynefin framework and holding paradoxes 38:30 - Healthcare AI scribes and doctor burnout 44:30 - Trust architectures and building tech for the Maintenance Era 47:30 - Cultural devastation and the teleological suspension of ethics 49:00 - Final thoughts and wrapping up with Beth Rudden

In this milestone 750th episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer takes the podcast on the road to the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) for the Next Level Lab Spring Learning Summit. Centered on the future of work, workforce learning, and instructional design, this episode features a dynamic series of conversations with emerging researchers and educational innovators who are reimagining how humans learn, lead, and thrive alongside advancing technology. Mike kicks off the celebration by reflecting on the podcast’s 750-episode journey, giving a nod to the community, and sharing updates on his latest media projects before diving into a packed poster session at the summit. The episode features five insightful interviews that bridge the gap between human capability and technological innovation. Ruiz Clark from Digital Promise shares his research on the Digital Leadership Convergence Model. He outlines a strategic project working with a large California school district to establish a vision for AI literacy, explaining why educational systems must look past basic technical literacy to completely rethink the purpose of education in an automated world. Palak Chandak and Archana Chaudhary discuss their framework for Humanics Integrated Business Studies (HIBS). They detail an innovative curriculum designed to cultivate durable skills, like communication and critical thinking, highlighting a real-world pilot project that embedded business students within coastal surf schools in India to solve community-driven challenges. Chilean entrepreneur Felipe Vergara Iduya introduces Hestia, an AI-supported framework designed to capture unstructured community evidence—such as peer relationships, behavior patterns, and school climate data—to foster system-level wellbeing within school ecosystems. Beth Sapire examines the intersection of learning and healing. Drawing on adult development theories and constructive developmental psychology, she outlines the systemic conditions necessary for expansive, collective learning within complex organizations. Finally, Sean Snyder and Bill Wisser from the HGSE Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL) break down their design and development process. They discuss the creation of a university-wide data fluency initiative for Harvard staff and explain how they utilized AI voice generation and animation tools to optimize course assets for the Data-Wise Learning Institute. Show References: Running It Back Podcast: Mike's Lessons Learned From Sports podcast with Tarlin Ray. ⁠Palm Court Pod:⁠ Mike's New College of Florida podcast with Grant Balfour and Megan Citron. Here's the John Oliver piece chronicling the challenges faced by Mike's alma mater. New College Film Project: Learn more about the documentary First They Came For My College directed by Harry Hanbury at newcollegefilm.com. The Convergence Model: Download the paper and view the poster framework developed by Ruiz Clark at theconvergencemodel.com. HGSE Teaching and Learning Lab: Explore the resources, course design support, and institutional projects mentioned by Sean and Bill at tll.gse.harvard.edu. Innovation-ish: Read up on the book by summit host Tessa Forshaw and co-author Rich Braden, a frequent touchstone on the podcast regarding creative confidence. ElevenLabs: Explore the AI voice generation platform utilized by the TLL team to streamline production logistics for simulated learning environments. Adobe Character Animator: Discover the performance-based animation software used to bring the TLL team's simulated teaching avatars to life. Timestamps: 00:00 Milestone 750th Episode Celebration and Welcome 01:54 Introduction to the Next Level Lab Spring Summit at HGSE 05:53 Ruiz Clark on AI Literacy and the Digital Leadership Convergence Model 10:30 Palak Chandak and Archana Chaudhary on Humanics Integrated Business Studies 17:30 Felipe Vergara Iduya on the Hestia Wellbeing Framework 23:30 Beth Sapire on Expansive Learning, Adult Development, and Healing 29:00 Sean Snyder and Bill Wisser on Data Fluency and AI Workflow at the HGSE TLL 35:30 Post-Summit Reflections and Summer Preview Like, Share, and Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to stay updated on the latest trends in education. Bonus points for writing a review to help us run through the tape all the way to 1,000 episodes!

Big changes are coming to Trending in Ed. Next Tuesday, June 9th, we are hitting a historic milestone: Episode 750. To celebrate our upcoming 10th-anniversary season, we are completely reinventing the show's structure for a massive Summer 2026 Sprint. We are officially launching four dedicated summer tracks to follow the changing talent and learning landscape: K-12 Classroom Design AI & EdTech The Future of Work The Future of Higher Ed We have a powerhouse lineage of global experts, McKinsey-level operators, and national bestselling authors dropping all summer long—including folks like Arun Gupta, Beth Rudden, Jim Gaona Ellis, and Dr. Özgür Bolat. The sprint officially starts next Tuesday, June 9th, with an immersive, roving-report field documentary straight from the floor of the Harvard Next Level Lab Learning Summit in Cambridge. Core interviews drop every single Tuesday morning. Make sure you are subscribed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss a single drop. Trending in Ed dropping like its HOT all Summer long!

Commencement season is here, and while we all love the tradition, let’s be honest: a lot of graduation ceremonies are still operationally stuck in the 18th century. This week, Chase Rigby, CEO of Tassel, joins Mike Palmer to talk about what it actually takes to modernize the final milestone of the student lifecycle. Chase shares his path from teaching seventh-grade math and science with Teach For America to working as a product manager at Google, before ultimately using a search fund model to acquire Marching Order and evolve it into Tassel. We dig into why forward-thinking colleges are moving away from treating graduation as just a logistical headache and starting to view it as a strategic marketing and recruitment engine. Chase explains how Tassel is trying to upend the traditional business model by moving away from nickel-and-diming students with steep fees for their own achievement, and instead leveraging community gifting platforms that put money back in their pockets for rent or student debt. We also get into the tech side of things, discussing how they train AI models on a 20-year phonetic database to get broadcast-quality name pronunciations on stage, all while navigating the strict landscape of biometric privacy and user consent. It turns out getting that final touchpoint right pays massive dividends for lifelong alumni relations. Episode Timestamps: 00:00 - Chase's journey from Teach For America to product management at Google. 03:00 - Running a search fund and finding the graduation space with Marching Order. 05:30 - Shifting mindsets: Treating commencement as a strategic marketing and alumni recruitment tool. 09:00 - Turning graduation into a net-positive financial event for students via gifting. 12:30 - Blending digital software with real life to provide free graduation photos. 18:30 - How Tassel uses a 20-year phonetic database and AI to nail name pronunciation on stage. 21:30 - Tackling biometric privacy, user consent, and BIPA compliance. 28:30 - Scaling campus software point solutions and trends in the lower middle market. 32:30 - Final takeaways, looking out for Tassel at upcoming ceremonies, and closing shots. Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to podcasts to stay ahead of the curve on what's emerging across the changing landscape of education!

In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer welcomes Erika Kitzmiller, a research associate professor at the University of Chicago and author of the new book, Unchartered: How One Public High School Transformed First Generation College Success. Drawing on her own background as a former middle school teacher and a proud first-generation college graduate, Kitzmiller shares the insights gained from an intensive, multi-year case study of a public high school pseudonymously named Clayton. While the school boasted a near-100 percent college acceptance rate, only half of its alumni were successfully graduating from college. To address this gap, Kitzmiller and Clayton’s principal designed a unique practice-to-research partnership that centered student voices, incorporated alumni interviews, and directly empowered youth agency. The conversation explores pragmatic, on-the-ground structural changes implemented at Clayton that did not require massive budgets or flashy technology. Kitzmiller discusses how the school expanded elective choices, created a dedicated senior college seminar embedded directly into the school day, and shifted student supports from an opt-in model to an opt-out expectation. The duo also notes the tangible benefits of Advanced Placement classes, which allowed students from low-income backgrounds to gain academic confidence and bypass large university introductory courses that frequently act as academic hurdles. Beyond policy shifts, Kitzmiller highlights the vital role of building trust over long horizons and honoring the human stories of public school educators through detailed teacher portraits. This episode offers a grounded perspective on how K-12 institutions can actively prepare first-generation students for post-secondary endurance. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to Erika Kitzmiller and her new book; 01:00 - Erika's background as a first-generation college graduate and middle school teacher; 02:45 - Initiating the practice-to-research partnership at Clayton High School; 05:30 - Fostering student agency, course catalogs, and college options; 11:00 - Transitioning to opt-out support systems and embedded senior seminars; 12:30 - The pragmatic value of Advanced Placement (AP) classes for low-income student persistence; 18:00 - Bringing a first-generation college success mission into K-12 environments; 22:30 - Navigating research collaboration, school district permission, and funding levers; 30:30 - Humanizing public education through rich teacher portraits; 34:00 - Rebuilding community trust and relational connections within schools; 39:30 - Final thoughts and expressing gratitude to frontline educators. Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.

Cheryl Strauss Einhorn joins Mike Palmer to discuss her latest book, The Human Edge: Smarter Decisions in the Age of AI. As the founder of Decisive and a former investigative journalist for Barron's, Cheryl brings a unique perspective to the world of problem solving. Her career shift from reporting on corporate scandals to teaching at Columbia University stems from a desire to move beyond simple awareness of cognitive biases and toward a system that actively counters them. The conversation centers on the AREA method, a decision making framework designed to manage the mental shortcuts that often lead us astray. Cheryl explains how her method separates research into distinct phases: Absolute, Relative, Exploration, Exploitation, and Analysis. By slowing down to evaluate information from multiple perspectives, decision makers can gain the conviction needed to act in high stakes environments. The Human Edge focuses specifically on how humans can remain the chief deciders while using AI as a cognitive sidecar. Cheryl notes that while AI provides speed and vast amounts of data, it lacks personal context and an understanding of human consequences. She warns against AI sycophancy, where tools mirror our own preferences back to us and narrow our worldview. To combat this, she introduces the concept of the cheetah pause, a deliberate deceleration that allows for the agility and maneuverability required to navigate complex problems. Mike and Cheryl also explore the role of AI in education and the workplace. They discuss using AI for perspective taking through role play, conducting pre-mortems to identify potential failures, and the importance of teaching decision science as a core competency in schools. The episode concludes with a reminder that our decisions define our future, and maintaining human agency is essential as we integrate powerful new technologies into our lives. Time Stamps: 00:00 - Introduction and professional origin story 03:50 - Transitioning from journalism to decision science 05:30 - Overview of The Human Edge and making decisions with AI 08:20 - Breaking down the AREA method 12:30 - Pre-mortems and the analysis of failure 15:45 - The risks of AI framing and the lack of human context 18:45 - Navigating research fire hoses and AI sycophancy 23:15 - Credibility, hallucinations, and the ROI of AI training 26:30 - The Cheetah Pause: finding agility through deceleration 31:10 - Using AI for perspective taking and agentic workflows 35:30 - AI as a safe space for learning and post-mortems 38:40 - Integrating decision making into the education system 40:50 - Closing thoughts: becoming the chief decider Links: The Human Edge: Smarter Decisions in the Age of AI: https://www.amazon.com/Human-Edge-Smarter-Decisions-Age/dp/1119931313 Decisive: https://www.areamethod.com/ Problem-Solver Type Quiz: https://www.areamethod.com/quiz/ Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode like this one. Visit us at Trending in Ed for more.

Host Mike Palmer welcomes Kenan Sahin, the Founder and President of CAMX Power and author of American Educational Excellence: The Foundation of Our Values, Democracy, and Market Capitalism, to the podcast. We explore his educational roots as a product of California public schools and early career as an MIT professor, as well as his time leading Bell Labs as a Vice President of Technology. Kenan shares the story of the catalyst for his book, which began when he challenged an expert in the Hague who could not find enough bad words for the American system. He compares US-trained engineers to those from Europe, arguing that our system excels because it prioritizes what students do with their knowledge rather than just the depth of what they know. The conversation then shifts to examine the fundamental values that define Americans as change-oriented societal rebels who cherish independence and choice. Kenan traces the origins of American educational excellence back to 1636 and the founding of Harvard College, as well as the 1647 law requiring towns to fund schools to protect children from being tempted by Satan. He contrasts our decentralized, coordinated network of thousands of local school districts and private colleges with centralized, state-controlled models like that of France. He also addresses the resilience of the university business model, noting that while major corporations often last only twenty years, many universities endure for centuries. We then tackle modern challenges like rising tuition costs and look at how technology and AI are shifting the focus of learning away from facts and knowledge toward the art of asking the right questions. Kenan notes new MIT initiatives designed to train thousands of engineers at a lower cost and the role of technology in supporting special education teachers. We end with the insight that excellence requires daily improvement and that despite critiques, our system remains a global leader by preparing students for democracy and market capitalism. Subscribe, like, and share Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more. Timestamps 00:15 Intro to Kenan Sahin 01:20 Kenan's background and MIT history 02:15 Bell Labs and the legacy of Arthur D. Little 03:55 Challenging the expert in the Hague 05:40 US engineers vs European graduates 06:55 Knowledge vs action: What you do with what you know 10:10 American values: Societal rebels and innovation 11:55 Family dynamics and the rebellion against authority 15:20 The 1636 founding of Harvard 17:15 The 1647 Tempting Satan Act 19:15 Centralized French system vs US coordinated network 20:45 University longevity and business model resilience 23:40 Tuition costs and philanthropy examples at MIT and Princeton 29:15 Quality control in the American higher education factory 31:55 Education for a lifetime vs trade schools 34:45 MIT's new 10,000 dollar engineering initiative 36:20 AI and the importance of asking the right questions 40:40 Special education and technology assistance 43:00 Daily excellence and the spirit of philanthropy

Kumar Garg, President of Renaissance Philanthropy, rejoins host Mike Palmer for his third appearance on Trending in Ed, earning his highly coveted refrigerator magnet. Kumar discusses RenPhil's growth and its mission to help donors invest effectively in science and technology research areas like AI, climate, and education. Big If True: The conversation explores the concept of "Big If True" and the Big If True Science (BITS) accelerator. This framework focuses on transformative ideas that can have a tangible impact on a field within a three to five-year timeline. Rather than funding incremental research, BITS encourages researchers to identify the biggest goals that would make a real difference in the world if achieved. LEVI Literacy Initiative: A major focus of the episode is the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute (LEVI) Literacy Initiative. This $100 million program aims to cut the number of struggling early readers in half within the school districts where it operates. Kumar explains how improved AI diagnostics can identify speech impediments and learning disabilities much earlier than current methods, allowing for intervention before students fall behind in the third grade. A key technical challenge involves improving Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) for children. Current models are significantly less accurate for younger voices and noisy classrooms compared to adult speech. By building better datasets and benchmarks, researchers can create AI tools that serve as screeners to help speech pathologists and educators provide more tailored services early on, to ensure kids are on track by key 3rd grade literacy milestones. Learning Engineering: The episode also covers learning engineering, a field that treats the act of instruction as a systems-level challenge. Kumar highlights the dynamic dosing model from Carnegie Mellon, which combines human tutoring with digital AI tools to provide personalized learning. This hybrid approach allows students to advance at their own pace while keeping a human instructor available to manage motivation and technical hurdles. Time Stamps: 00:00 Welcome back to Kumar Garg and the refrigerator magnet 03:55 The Big If True Science accelerator framework 05:48 Launching the LEVI Literacy Initiative to help early readers 08:18 Fixing the speech recognition gap for young children 14:48 Applying learning engineering to system-level breakthroughs 22:15 Safety as an accelerant for technological innovation 30:23 Dynamic dosing and the future of human and AI tutoring Subscribe to Trending in Ed on your favorite podcast platform to stay updated on the future of learning. Visit Renaissance Philanthropy at renphil.org to learn more about their newly launched LEVI Literacy Fund and other initiatives.

In this special edition of Trending in Education, former colleagues reunite as Mike Palmer interviews Lorin Thomas-Tavel, the CEO of BrainPOP. We explore the evolution of a major brand in EdTech and discuss how it continues to simplify complex topics for students and teachers alike. We dive into the 27-year history of BrainPOP, which began when a doctor created animated content to help young patients understand their own bodies. Today, the platform serves as a trusted companion for teachers in K-8 classrooms, focusing on sense-making during complicated times. We discuss the unique parasocial bond children and adults share with iconic characters like Tim and Moby, and why human-led storytelling continues to power the magic of the product. We also celebrate AI Literacy Day by talking about BrainPOP’s work on AI literacy. Lorin explains how they partnered with Digital Promise to adopt a rigorous framework that focuses on understanding, evaluating, and using AI. We discuss why AI is an additive tool rather than a replacement for the human teacher in the classroom. The conversation touches on BrainPOP’s partnership with Kirkbi, the private holding and investment arm of LEGO, and how this collaboration energizes their mission of digital play and impact. Lorin also shares leadership insights on "even over" prioritization, the 10x power of cultural fit, and her recognition as an honoree with the Power of Women at the ASU+GSV conference. Time Stamps: 00:00: Intro and a Kaplan Reunion 03:00: The History and Mission of BrainPOP 04:45: Character Pedagogy and the Power of Moby 08:50: Launching the AI Literacy Collection with Digital Promise 13:45: The Lego Partnership and Digital Play 16:45: Integrating AI While Maximizing the Human Element 19:45: ASU+GSV and the Power of Women Recognition 21:40: Career Advice on Mentorship and the Courage to Ask 23:45: Building Culture and Using Even Overs for Focus 28:30: Final Takeaways on Curiosity and Community Like, follow, and subscribe to Trending in Ed with Mike Palmer wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode like this one.

LIVE! from the Harbor Terrace at ASU+GSV 2026 in San Diego, Mike Palmer sits down with Victoria Weinfeld, Vice President of Enrollment, Marketing, and Sales at Edconic. In this fast-paced environment of "drinking from a fire hose," Victoria shares the evolution of Edconic (formerly known as BrandED) and its unique mission to bridge the gap between traditional education and the future of work. Edconic specializes in creating industry-immersive programs alongside some of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Vogue, The New York Times, Sotheby’s, Manchester City, and their newest partner, Mayo Clinic. Victoria explains how these partnerships go beyond simple guest lectures; they involve co-designing curriculum with practitioners to ensure students gain the hands-on, practical skills that employers frequently find lacking in early-career workers . Whether it’s high school students touring the New York Times newsroom or master’s students graduating at a Sotheby’s auction house, the focus remains on experiential learning and building a tangible work-product portfolio . 🎓 The conversation also dives into the dominant themes of the 2026 conference, specifically the Power of Fusion and the unavoidable influence of AI. Victoria highlights how Edconic’s partners are now demanding AI exposure in curriculum to prepare students for day-one workplace expectations. We explore the strategic growth of Edconic’s portfolio and the potential for "white labeling" their expertise to help more organizations translate their brands into educational experiences. It’s a visionary look at how education and industry can deeply tie together to foster the next generation of talent 🚀. Want more? Check out Edconic CEO Brandon Busteed's previous appearance on Trending in Ed. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow, like, and subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts! Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction live from ASU+GSV in San Diego 01:54 - Victoria Weinfeld’s 10-year journey and the rebranding of Edconic 02:58 - Defining the Edconic model: Industry-immersive learning with iconic brands 03:52 - Highlighting powerhouse partners: Vogue, NYT, Mayo Clinic, and more 04:31 - Serving the learner lifecycle from pre-college to professionals 05:39 - The logistics of in-person, experiential access to industry facilities 06:55 - Bridging the "unprepared worker" gap and integrating AI exposure 08:52 - Strategic growth and deepening the existing brand portfolio 11:37 - The "Special Sauce": Co-designing curriculum with practitioners 14:14 - Advice for K-12 and Higher Ed on building closer industry ties 17:34 - The value of rotational "taster" experiences and portfolio building 19:12 - Alumni success stories: From summer courses to the Washington Post 20:46 - Exploring future models and "white label" educational services 21:55 - Final takeaways: AI, Fusion, and workforce development themes

Recorded LIVE! on the Harbor Terrace at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, Mike Palmer is joined by Dr. Steven Taylor, Policy Director and Senior Fellow for Economic Mobility at Stand Together Trust. Steve brings a unique perspective to the table, combining a national philanthropic lens with his roles on the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the National Advisory Committee for Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). The conversation captures the shifting energy of the summit, moving away from the peak of AI hype toward what Steve calls "optimistic skepticism" - a more mature look at how technology can practically transform learning while remaining grounded in the reality of its current limitations. The discussion explores the potential of AI to revolutionize the K-12 experience, using examples like Austin’s Alpha School to show how personalized learning can compress the school day, allowing students more time to pursue their passions. Steve and Mike tackle the difficult questions of equity and the "risk capital" required to bring high-cost innovations to scale. Then we pivot to the higher education landscape, where Steve emphasizes the need to dignify non-degree pathways. He shares insights from Virginia’s FastForward program, a pay-for-performance model that has successfully moved residents into high-demand fields through short-term credentials, proving that ROI isn't just a metric for four-year degrees. As the conversation turns to the future of work, Steve expresses concern over the potential displacement of entry-level roles—the "desk jockey" jobs that traditionally provide young people with essential social capital and early career experience. He argues that our labor laws are antiquated and must evolve to support a more flexible, AI-driven workforce that favors 1099 and gig-based contributions. From the necessity of correcting AI’s erroneous outputs to the complexities of AI-driven hiring and the debate over universal basic income, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the policy and philanthropic shifts needed to ensure everyone can contribute to a changing economy. Time Stamps 00:00 - Welcome to Trending in Ed Live from San Diego 01:00 - Steve Taylor’s roles at Stand Together, SCHEV, and NACIQI 02:00 - Moving from AI hype to "optimistic skepticism" 03:00 - Transforming K-12: The Alpha School model 05:00 - The role of risk capital and philanthropy in scaling tech 08:00 - Dignifying non-degree pathways and the ROI of trades 09:30 - Virginia’s "Fast Forward" and the success of short-term credentials 12:00 - Why states shouldn't let federal funding dictate workforce design 13:30 - AI skepticism: Correcting outputs and the "mid" floor 16:00 - The risk of losing entry-level career experiences 18:00 - Social capital and the "future of working" 20:30 - Why federal labor law must catch up to the 1099 economy 22:30 - Thoughts on AI adjustment assistance vs. UBI 23:30 - Closing thoughts and where to find Stand Together To keep up with the latest in the world of learning, make sure to Follow, Like, and Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts.

Mike Palmer catches up with Ruth Bauer, President of InsideTrack, amidst the sun and high-stakes energy of San Diego for the ASU+GSV conference. Ruth shares her transition from a first-generation college student and mall-employed English major to an e-learning "OG" (like Mike) to leading a powerhouse in student success at InsideTrack. The conversation dives into the "secret sauce" of Inside Track: a potent mix of technology and deep human connection. Ruth explains how coaching supports the entire student journey, from first-time enrollment to the critical "some college, no degree" population. With more than 40 million Americans in that category, the stakes for economic mobility never felt higher. They tackle the AI elephant in the room with a grounded perspective. While AI handles midnight brainstorming and routine "nudges," humans remain the essential partners for navigating the mountains of the student experience. Ruth argues that coaching doesn't just get a student through a semester—it teaches them to coach themselves through a shifting, tumultuous job market 🌊. The episode wraps with a look at student parents and the generational impact of quality childcare and flexible scheduling. Ruth and Mike trade thoughts on the "60-year curriculum" and why critical thinking remains the ultimate durable skill in an era of rapid automation. It is a refreshing, optimistic take on how education can still deliver on the promise of social mobility 🤖. Subscribe to Trending in Ed to never miss an episode like this one. Want to record pods at a conference? Contact Mike to learn more. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to San Diego and ASU+GSV 01:00 Ruth’s journey from English major to President 03:15 The mission and "secret sauce" of Inside Track 04:00 Re-enrolling the 40 million Americans with no degree 07:00 The evolution of coaching and academic advising 08:30 AI as a complementary tool for student success 11:00 The "invisible infrastructure" of community colleges 13:30 Helping Gen Z convert internships into careers 16:30 Why critical thinking beats specific job training 18:30 Supporting student parents for generational change 20:30 Final thoughts on hope and innovation in education

Coming to you live from the harbor terrace in sunny San Diego, Mike Palmer sits down with Karl Rectanus, the new CEO of Really Great Reading, amidst the buzz of the ASU+GSV Summit. Between views of sailboats and silver-lined clouds, the duo digs into why literacy remains the fundamental building block of the educational system and how we might finally be cracking the code on systemic improvement. Karl shares his unique path to leadership, which began with chasing a girl to Australia and starting a digital Q&A service for children museums during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This early taste of working through the system to help students sparked an entrepreneurial journey that led him to found LearnPlatform in 2014, where he pioneered rapid cycle evaluation to determine if EdTech tools actually work. Now, after LearnPlatform’s acquisition by Instructure, Karl is focusing his energy on a 20-year-old organization dedicated to the science of reading. The conversation highlights the "Mississippi Marathon," a state-level commitment to literacy that saw improvements in reading lead to even higher gains in math and science. Karl points out that while many schools of education have historically failed to teach the science of reading, organizations like RGR are filling that gap by giving teachers the confidence and tools to deliver results. A major theme of this live session is the shift toward outcomes-based contracting. Karl argues that instead of just selling books or assessments, providers should be held accountable for whether students actually learn to read. He also addresses the role of AI in the classroom, drawing on his experience chairing the Industry Council for EdSafe AI to discuss how technology can provide universal screeners and personalization without succumbing to "cognitive offloading". With the goal of taking schools from low proficiency to 75% in just two years, this episode is a call to action for the industry to prioritize literacy outcomes over mere tools. Stay tuned to the feed as we continue to ship more episodes from San Diego all week! Episode Time Stamps [00:00] Introduction to Karl Rectanus live at the harbor terrace [01:00] Chasing a girl to Australia and the origin of the entrepreneurial bug [02:00] Answering Olympic questions for kids museums at a fourth-grade level [03:00] Building LearnPlatform for rapid cycle evaluation of EdTech [04:00] Stepping into the CEO role at Really Great Reading [05:00] The "last infinite mile" of implementation and practice [06:00] Foundational skills building for pre-K through adolescence [07:00] Moving from the "Mississippi Miracle" to the "Mississippi Marathon" [08:00] Why many schools of education don't teach the Science of Reading [09:00] Literacy as the enabling factor for math and science success [10:00] Transitioning to a dedicated literacy outcomes organization [11:00] The "plumbing" of the system and procurement challenges [12:00] Playful learning and why students love RGR more than field trips [13:00] Safe and effective AI with the EdSafe AI Industry Council [14:00] Leveraging AI for operational efficiency and better execution [15:00] Using AI for universal screeners and real-time personalization [16:00] Addressing the crisis where two-thirds of students are below grade level [17:00] The boldness of holding providers accountable for reading results [18:00] Why the real work happens after the curriculum adoption [19:00] Managing complicated schools with high poverty and teacher shortages [20:00] Rapidly scaling reading proficiency in turnaround school districts [21:00] Prioritizing literacy to improve every facet of the system

LIVE! from the ASU+GSV Summit, Mike Palmer catches up with College Board President Jeremy Singer against the backdrop of the San Diego marina to dive into the launch of Jeremy's new podcast, The Education Equation. Produced by Mike, this new series aims to bring a much-needed level of scientific rigor to the education space, drawing inspiration from data-heavy health and fitness media to identify scalable, evidence-based practices that actually move the needle for students. Jeremy shares candid insights from his 13-year tenure, detailing how the College Board moved from a culture of slow stability to one of lean, COVID-tested responsiveness and agility. The two discuss the "seismic impact" of generative AI on assessment integrity, the dangers of AI slop in professional work, and highlights from Jeremy’s early conversations with heavy hitters like Sal Khan and Daniel Willingham. From the "last infinite mile" of implementation to the necessity of statistical literacy, this live conversation captures the high-stakes evolution of modern learning. 🔔 Subscribe to The Education Equation to hear Jeremy break down the data behind educational success with researchers and global leaders. 🎧 Subscribe to Trending in Education for more high-energy, on-the-ground insights from the biggest stages in edtech and the future of learning. 📩 Connect with Mike Palmer on LinkedIn if you want to harness this kind of live energy for your own professional podcast or media program. Timestamps: 🕙 00:00:00 — Introduction: Live energy from the Harbor Terrace at ASU+GSV. 🕙 00:01:13 — Jeremy Singer’s journey: 25 years at the intersection of tech and learning. 🕙 00:02:40 — Cultural Shift: How the College Board built a "muscle of speed" during the pandemic. 🕙 00:05:54 — The AI Seismic Impact: Navigating the future of content, teaching, and assessment. 🕙 00:09:05 — Organizational Innovation: Deploying LLMs to 2,000 employees to raise the floor. 🕙 00:11:55 — The Education Equation: Bringing scientific rigor to the "what works" database. 🕙 00:15:30 — Implementation Fidelity: Why the "last infinite mile" is where progress happens. 🕙 00:18:50 — Lightning Round: Ditching "learning styles" and the power of AP Statistics. 🕙 00:22:00 — Looking Ahead: Fighting for authenticity in the age of social media and AI.

We’re back in Austin for the 2026 SXSW EDU "March Madness of Learning Trends" LIVE panel. Host Mike Palmer is joined by AJ Gutierrez (CEO of Equal Opportunity Schools), Jasmine Maze (Senior Managing Director at Teach for America’s Reinvention Lab), and Justin Serrano (CEO of Littera Education) to reveal a bracket of 16 trends shaping the future of education. The conversation moves past the usual AI hype to focus on human capital and accountability. Justin Serrano introduces the "outcomes economy," describing a shift in procurement where school districts move away from buying software and toward outcomes-based contracting that holds providers accountable for student results. AJ Gutierrez highlights the continued efficacy of high-impact tutoring, noting that regular personalization within the school day remains one of the most rigorously evaluated and successful approaches to K-12 recovery. Jasmine Maze provides a necessary critique of AI as a simple productivity engine. She argues for a focus on "teacher efficiency," which means using technology to remove administrative friction and "buy back" time for the relational, human work of mentoring and master design. Mike Palmer rounds out the discussion with a call for "strategic optimism" and the importance of "unplugging" to maintain internal dialogue in an age of digital distraction. Key Takeaways: The Outcomes Economy: State departments are increasingly adopting contracts where up to 40% of payment is tied to intended student outcomes. Redefining Efficiency: Efficiency in education should mean making more time for the masterwork of human connection rather than just pressuring teachers to do more with less. Productive Distrust: As "AI slop" and mediocre content become ubiquitous, learners must develop "productive distrust," a form of critical media literacy that uses skepticism to verify sources and cross-reference information. Interoperability Standards: Initiatives like Project Unicorn and the EdSafe Alliance are essential for creating ethical, secure, and evidence-based standards for AI implementation in schools. Why Listen?This episode offers a front-row seat to the debate over the purpose of K-12 education in an automated world. The panel discusses why "play" is a critical sandbox for solving complex problems and how global perspectives—from France to Ukraine—can help educators scale best practices across different contexts. Subscribe to Trending in Education to stay ahead of the curve for the future of learning. Time Stamps: [00:00] Intro: SXSW EDU 2026 and podcast history [03:11] Meet the Panelists: Littera, Reinvention Lab, and EOS [07:09] Justin's Trends: The Outcomes Economy and SaaS Disruption [10:04] Defining High-Impact Tutoring with AJ Gutierrez [15:54] Jasmine on AI: Teacher Efficiency vs. Automation Culture [18:48] Mike's Trends: Strategic Optimism and the Vibe of 2026 [25:56] Navigating "Productive Distrust" and AI Slop [32:41] Audience Q&A: Teaching AI Literacy and the Role of Play [43:08] Global Perspectives and the Importance of Manual Work [44:42] Closing: AI as a "Fifth Element" and Thinking Partner

When the house is on fire, you don't want to be reading the manual for the first time. On this episode of Trending in Education, Mike Palmer sits down with Jeff Hunt, the founder of Legend Labs and a professor at the University of Texas, to discuss the high-stakes world of crisis communication in higher education . Jeff brings a unique perspective shaped by 18 years at a global firm and a career spent managing issues across the world, from Seoul to London . His deep dive into higher education began with the reputational recovery of Penn State after the Jerry Sandusky crisis, a "trial by fire" that revealed how techniques from global world crises could be adapted to the university setting . In an era of hyper-connectivity and a "nanosecond news cycle," Jeff argues that the old ways of managing a narrative are gone . He breaks down his book, Brand Under Fire, and a new playbook centered on five core principles: Authenticity, Transparency, Speed, Agility, and Creativity . We explore how leaders can move from a reactive stance to a "culture of readiness" . Jeff explains the mechanics of modern crisis prep, including "issues heat maps" to track percolating risks like labor strikes or political protests and high-intensity simulations that use AI to recreate the pressure of a breaking news story . Beyond the technicalities, this conversation touches on the human element of leadership. Jeff shares why university presidents must sometimes step out of their administrative roles to communicate with the empathy of a parent, especially during campus tragedies . Using a "cockpit analogy" regarding flight delays, he illustrates how proactive, honest communication can build loyalty even when the news is bad . Finally, Jeff discusses his work in the classroom, where he brings the "boardroom into the classroom" to help students navigate an AI-reshaped landscape and combat the "chilling effect" on open dialogue . If you found this episode helpful, please like, follow, and share it wherever you get your podcasts to help us keep these critical conversations going. 📢🛡️🎓 Timestamps 🕰️ 00:00 — Welcome and Jeff Hunt's global origin story 🕰️ 02:03 — Lessons from the Penn State recovery 🕰️ 04:36 — How digital media changed the game 🕰️ 06:05 — The Five Principles: Authenticity and Transparency 🕰️ 07:45 — Speed, Agility, and filling the narrative vacuum 🕰️ 11:10 — The role of Creativity in crisis management 🕰️ 13:30 — Communicating during tragedy: The power of video and voice 🕰️ 16:20 — Vulnerability assessments and issues heat maps 🕰️ 20:10 — Simulations and Tabletops: Testing the team under pressure 🕰️ 24:10 — The Cockpit Analogy: Building loyalty through transparency 🕰️ 27:30 — AI and the future of open debate in the classroom

Mike Palmer and virtual co-host Nancy are back from the podcast stage at SXSW EDU in Austin, Texas. In this special update, we break down the Sweet 16 of Learning Trends and announce which four have fought their way into the Final Four. This episode explores the collective zeitgeist of the education world, from the challenges of chronic absenteeism to the futuristic potential of vibe coding and agentic intelligence. The conversation begins with a look at the trends submitted by AJ Gutierrez of Equal Opportunity Schools. AJ highlights the pressing issue of chronic absenteeism in K-12 and the need for work pathway alignment. He also makes a strong case for high-impact tutoring and the responsible integration of AI to keep humanity at the center of the classroom. Next, the duo dives into insights from Jasmine Maze and Sunanna Chand of Teach For America's Reinvention Lab. We discuss teacher efficiency not just as an operational goal, but as a relational unlock. This segment covers the rise of vibe coding, the creepy nature of the uncanny valley in AI slop, and why experimentation and play are essential for preparing learners for a rapidly changing future. Justin Serrano, CEO of Littera Education, contributes a clear-eyed look at the outcomes economy. He discusses the shift toward evidence-based contracting and the concept of human-AI interoperability, or the "Canny Centaur." Justin also warns of SaaS disruption in the EdTech space and advocates for a mindset of productive distrust. Finally, Mike shares his own trends, including strategic optimism and gentelligence. He warns of ensloppification across digital platforms and explains why unplugging is a vital restorative practice in an age of constant noise. The episode culminates in the big reveal of the Final Four trends that listeners can now vote on to determine the ultimate winner for 2026. TIME STAMPS 00:00 - Introduction and SXSW EDU history 03:00 - The future of knowledge work and human-AI collaboration 04:00 - AJ Gutierrez on absenteeism and high-impact tutoring 11:00 - Jasmine Maze and Sunanna Chand on vibe coding and teacher efficiency 21:00 - Justin Serrano on the outcomes economy and SaaS disruption 29:00 - Mike Palmer on strategic optimism, unplugging, and gentelligence 39:00 - The Big Reveal: Announcing the Final Four trends 45:00 - 750th episode milestone and closing remarks VOTE IN THE POLLS Help us name the winning trend for 2026! Follow Mike Palmer on LinkedIn to find the latest polls and cast your vote for the Final Four. https://www.linkedin.com/in/palmer-mike/ Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts or find us on YouTube to join the conversation and help us continue to make the future more evenly distributed.

How do we bridge the communication gap between schools and families in an increasingly fragmented digital world? In this episode of Trending in Education, Mike Palmer is joined by Anu Vaid, the founder of ParentSquare, to explore the evolution of school-home partnerships over the last 15 years. Anu shares her journey as a computer engineer and immigrant parent who was overwhelmed by the disjointed tools of the K-12 system, from papers stuffed in backpacks to disparate robocalls and long emails . Today, ParentSquare serves over 22 million student families, providing a unified platform where everyone from the principal and teachers to the nurse and the librarian can speak with one voice . We dive into how technology can foster authentic human connection rather than just "checking a box," moving toward a positive school climate that supports every student. Key Takeaways: 🏫 The Unification of Stakeholders: Why it is essential for every department—from transportation to the school office—to come together on one trusted source for families . 📉 Addressing Chronic Absenteeism: Moving away from punitive compliance letters toward catching issues early and building a human-level sense of belonging . 🤖 AI as a Bridge, Not a Barrier: Leveraging AI for context-aware translation, gender-neutrality, and helping teachers craft messages that feel personal and authentic . 📱 Navigating Cell Phone Bans: How schools can use school-issued devices and ParentSquare to keep families coordinated without the negative impact of social media . Anu concludes by emphasizing the importance of building a "circle of love" around every child. When parents and schools work together effectively, the student knows it and feels it, which is when they truly begin to prosper. Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve in the world of learning. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of education. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and Anu’s Origin Story 05:55 - The Evolution of School Communication Tools 10:52 - Addressing Chronic Absenteeism through Connection 17:35 - AI, Contextual Translation, and Authenticity 21:42 - Navigating Cell Phone Bans and Family Messaging 28:38 - The Future of AI and Human Connection

What if everything we’ve been told about math education is backwards? In this episode of Trending in Education, Mike Palmer is joined by Ted Dintersmith,venture capitalist, filmmaker, and author of the upcoming book Aftermath: The Life-Changing Math That Schools Won't Teach You to discuss why our schools are still teaching low-level math mechanics that phones and AI already do perfectly. You can learn more about Ted's work at What Schools Could Be. Ted shares his journey from the world of high-tech innovation to becoming a "code red" alarmed citizen advocate for radical school change. We dive into how high-stakes exams are inadvertently training students to compete with AI in areas where computers are unbeatable, while ignoring the creative and conceptual math, like probability, decision-making frameworks, and estimation, that actually shapes lives. From Moneyball statistics to the dangers of misinterpreting healthcare data, Ted explains why math should be a tool for empowerment rather than a metric for punishment. We also take a "lightning round" trip through Ted’s prolific career, including his work with the late Sir Ken Robinson and his influential documentaries Most Likely to Succeed and Multiple Choice. Whether you’re a parent trying to preserve your child’s curiosity or an educator looking for a more relevant curriculum, this conversation offers a refreshing and urgent blueprint for what school could be. 📉💡 Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve in the world of learning. 🔔 Time Stamps 00:00 - Introduction: Why Math Should Turn You On 🎙️ 00:41 - Ted’s Origin Story: From Carpentry to Venture Capital 02:18 - The Middle School Note That Changed Everything 04:02 - Making the Film "Most Likely to Succeed" 05:14 - Why AI Makes Most School Math Obsolete 07:03 - Previewing "Aftermath": Math for Decision Making 11:00 - The Dunning-Kruger Effect and Iraqi War Predictions 12:45 - Why 90% of Doctors Misunderstand Test Results 🏥 15:35 - Teaching High Schoolers Decision Frameworks 18:14 - The Art of Mathematical Modeling 21:30 - Math as a Tool for Ranking, Sorting, and Punishing 25:15 - Can We Trust Economic Numbers? (The Estimation Problem) 28:43 - Moneyball and the Power of Creative Statistics ⚾ 34:10 - Lightning Round: Sir Ken Robinson and New Documentaries 39:53 - Advice for Families: Preserving Curiosity and Audacity 41:43 - Closing Thoughts and Where to Find Ted’s Work

Is Abundance Inevitable? A 100-Year Vision with McKinsey’s Chris Bradley What if the "Black Mirror" version of the future is wrong? In this episode, Mike Palmer talks with Chris Bradley, Senior Partner at McKinsey and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), about his new book, A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come. Chris breaks down the "Machine of Progress" and explains why a "strategic optimism" mindset is essential for navigating the next century. We explore a future where global prosperity could reach Swiss standards, the radical shifts in our demographics, and why AI might actually make us more human. Key Takeaways: 🌟 The Power of Strategic Optimism: Why historical data shows that humanity’s "fingerprint" is progress, not scarcity. 🇨🇭 The Swiss Benchmark: A thought experiment on whether the global economy can grow 8.5x to ensure every person on Earth lives as well as the Swiss do today. 📉 The Demographic Cliff: How shrinking birth rates in countries like China and South Korea are making productivity growth a "do or die" necessity for our social systems. 🤖 AI as an Augmentation Tool: Why the highest employment growth is happening in the most AI-exposed fields and how "The O-Ring Theory" explains the rising value of human judgment. 🎓 Reimagining Education: A provocative look at why the education sector has seen high inflation but low innovation, and how AI tutors could ensure "no child is left behind". 🍎 The Non-Zero-Sum World: Moving past the "Petri dish" mindset to understand how resources like energy and capital can expand to meet global needs. Key Resources: 📘 Book: A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come. 📊 MGI Report: Agents, Robots, and Us. 🏒 Chris’s Previous Bestseller: Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick. Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Don't miss insightful conversations like this one.

Get the inside scoop on SXSW EDU 2026 as Mike Palmer sits down with Kayla Meyers from SXSW EDU to preview what’s heading to Austin this March. From a reimagined city-wide footprint to the biggest podcast stage lineup yet, we’re breaking down why this year is a must-attend for anyone in the education ecosystem. Kayla shares her journey from museum curator to the mastermind behind the conference's "impeccable vibes," offering a deep dive into the trends shaping the 2026 program. What we covered: 🌵 The Great Austin Reset: How the Convention Center renovation forced a move to a more grassroots, decentralized footprint that puts the city of Austin front and center. 🎙️ Podcast Stage Expansion: We’re growing to 16 podcasts this year—come catch Trending in Ed live to kick things off on Monday morning. 🎓 Elevating Student Voices: From student-led journalism to the "Student Changemakers Hub," the next generation is finally getting the mic. 🤖 Wading Through the AI Slop: A candid look at "AI fatigue," the impact of LLMs on human neurology, and why human curation matters more than ever. 🤝 Crossover Day: Everything you need to know about the historic convergence of SXSW EDU and the main SXSW conference on March 12th. Join us live at the podcast stage in Austin on March 9th at 9:00 AM Central to start the week right! Keep Trending with Us: If you want to stay ahead of the curve in the world of learning, make sure to subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Follow our YouTube channel for weekly deep dives into the future of education. Timestamps: 00:00 🎙️ Kicking off the SXSW EDU 2026 Preview 02:14 🏛️ From Museum Curator to Programming Manager 07:44 📻 The Evolution of the SXSW EDU Podcast Stage 12:51 🏙️ What’s New: A Decentralized Austin Footprint 17:45 ☕ Designing for Serendipity and "Clubhouses" 20:00 🗣️ Spotlighting Student Voice and Agency 22:38 🧠 AI Slop, Brain Rot, and Human-Centered Literacy 33:50 🛠️ Workforce Readiness and AI Implementation 43:24 🎸 Crossover Day: Where Education and Tech Meet 45:00 👋 See You in Austin on March 9th!

In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer welcomes Tara Chklovski, the founder and CEO of Technovation, a global nonprofit that has been at the intersection of AI and education since 2016. Tara shares her journey from growing up in India to pursuing a PhD in aerospace engineering and eventually launching a mobile entrepreneurship program just two years after the iPhone debuted. The conversation dives into the Technovation accelerator model, a three-month program for girls and young women ages 8 to 24. Tara explains how the program empowers students to identify real-world problems in their communities and build tech-based startups to solve them. We discuss the importance of fostering a problem-solving mindset, the critical role of human mentorship in an AI-driven world, and why the "personalized learning" trend might be too narrow a lens for the future of education. Key Insights: 💡 Early Intervention: Why we shouldn’t underestimate children's ability to tackle complex community problems as early as age eight. 🤖 AI as a Teammate: How Technovation’s "AI in Action" curriculum uses artificial intelligence as a brainstorming partner and subject matter expert for student teams. 🌍 Global Innovation: Stories of impact from 120 countries, including an alumna whose AI startup was acquired at age 19 and a student in India tracking environmental health through bird songs. 🏗️ Resilient Skills: Shifting the focus from simple AI literacy to building durable skills like user research, business planning, and civic responsibility. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to Tara Chklovski and Technovation 01:00 - Tara’s origin story: From India to aerospace engineering 03:15 - The mission to unlock human potential through STEM 04:20 - Breaking down the Technovation accelerator model 07:15 - Why educators should be early adopters of new tech 10:45 - Addressing the gender gap in technical careers 15:30 - The "AI in Action" curriculum and free resources 21:30 - How AI elevates project-based learning in classrooms 24:30 - The three functions of modern schools 31:00 - Concerns regarding "personalized learning" bandwagons 35:45 - A call to action for the current Technovation season Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts—you don’t want to miss conversations like this one. To learn more about the program or access the free curriculum, visit technovation.org.

In a world of constant digital inundation, attention has become the new "scarce water in the desert". This episode explores how to reclaim that focus by looking at the intersection of high-stakes Hollywood storytelling and the science of optimal experience. Host Mike Palmer is joined by Steven Puri, founder and CEO of The Sukha Company. Before building tools for deep work, Puri was a senior executive at major motion picture studios, overseeing production on blockbusters like Independence Day and Braveheart, and managing franchises like Die Hard and Wolverine. He shares how the same rigorous focus required to produce massive films can be applied to modern productivity through the concept of Flow—a state popularized by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The conversation delves into the "tug of war" for our attention, where trillion-dollar companies utilize behavioral psychology to keep us distracted. Puri breaks down actionable strategies to push past "human slop" and rote activity, moving instead toward meaningful "deep work" that survives the rise of generative AI. Key Insights: 🎬 The Fellowship of Work: Why creators like Roland Emmerich and Steven Spielberg intentionally utilize specific physical environments—from luxury villas to hotel rooms—to trigger the mental states necessary for creativity. 📈 The Chronotype Hack: A simple, free technique for mapping your energy levels using a grid and a pencil to align your most difficult tasks with your brain's peak performance times. 🌊 Flow Conditions: Understanding why meaningful feedback, clear goals, and a balance of challenge and skill are essential for reaching "the zone". 🤖 AI and the Human Domain: Identifying why rote, algorithmic jobs are at risk of being replaced and how to cultivate the high-level strategy and visionary creativity that remains uniquely human. Don't go to your grave with your best work still inside you. Join us for a deep dive into the habits of high performers and the future of human output. 🚀 Time Stamps: 00:00 Welcome to Trending in Education 01:10 From Blockbusters to Startups: Steven Puri's Origin Story 05:15 The Digital Shift: When Hollywood Met Engineering 08:25 Lessons from the Studio: Managing Die Hard and Wolverine 11:00 The Sukha Company: Designing for Happiness and Focus 13:10 The War for Attention vs. Trillion-Dollar Companies 17:45 Defining the Flow State: The Legacy of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 22:50 Deep Work in the Age of Generative AI 28:45 Mental Hacks: The Relationship Between Place and Productivity 31:40 Chronotypes: Aligning Your Biological Clock with Your Career 36:00 Closing Thoughts: Getting the Greatness Out of You Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve.

K-12 leadership is currently navigating a "perma-crisis". From the lingering disruptions of a global pandemic to the sudden integration of generative AI, the demands on school principals and superintendents have evolved far beyond the traditional focus on "books, butts, and buses". In this episode of Trending in Ed, Mike Palmer sits down with Dr. Lisa Herring, the CEO of New Leaders and a veteran superintendent who led major districts like Atlanta Public Schools and Birmingham City Schools through some of the most turbulent years in recent memory. Dr. Herring shares her perspective on the "problem of practice" facing education today: the critical need for a leadership pipeline that can bridge the gap between traditional instruction and the rapidly shifting needs of the modern workforce. She discusses the "invisible culture" of leading remote districts, the importance of upskilling educators in the age of AI, and why she believes standardized testing is a relic of the past. This conversation is a call to action for "FIRE"—Fearless Innovation Reimagined Education—challenging leaders to stop being afraid of the future and start co-creating it alongside their students. Episode Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to leadership transformation in K-12 01:03 - Dr. Lisa Herring’s career journey from classroom teacher to CEO 03:52 - The mission and impact of New Leaders in developing school principals 06:17 - Addressing the leadership pipeline and teacher shortage crisis 08:50 - The evolution of the principalship: Moving beyond the "old school" model 10:48 - Leading Atlanta Public Schools through the 2020 pandemic 17:11 - Education as workforce development and the role of upskilling 22:24 - How generative AI is reshaping instruction and administrative work 26:47 - Rethinking school structures and mastery-based learning 28:38 - Rapid-fire takes on standardized testing and the four-day school week 30:37 - Closing thoughts on "FIRE": Fearless Innovation Reimagined Education Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss a conversation like this one.

On this episode of Trending in Ed with Mike Palmer, unlock the secrets of the reading brain and the future of educational technology in this deep dive with Dr. Ola Ozernov-Palchik. A researcher at Boston University's Wheelock College of Education and Human Development and MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Dr. Ola sits at the cutting edge of cognitive neuroscience and the science of reading. 🧠 We explore why 70% of students in the U.S. are not reading proficiently and how early identification of dyslexia—starting as early as kindergarten—can change the trajectory of a child’s life. We also explore the "last infinite mile" of education: the gap between groundbreaking research and actual classroom practice. The devil is in the details. Dr. Ola shares her journey from evaluating reading curricula to using fMRI and machine learning to predict learning difficulties. We also tackle the massive shift toward AI-driven tutoring and the evidence-based AI movement. Are we rushing into a multi-billion dollar tech bandwagon without proof of what actually works? Ola makes a compelling case for why we must demand rigorous evidence before putting new tools in the hands of students. Learn more about her work launching a Research-Based Accelerator here.📚 Whether you are a parent, educator, or an EdTech founder, this conversation is a must-listen to understand how we can leverage learning science, research, and emerging technology to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss out on a conversation like this one. 🔔 Time Stamps: 0:00 - Introduction to Dr. Ola Ozernov-Palchik 1:11 - Journey from Philosophy to Reading Research 2:22 - Looking "Under the Hood": Transitioning to Neuroscience 3:33 - How the Brain Learns to Read and the Reality of Neuroplasticity 4:42 - Pivoting to Online Research and Global Scalability 6:45 - The Power of Peer Tutoring and Data-Driven Support 8:33 - The Science of Reading and the Implementation Gap 10:46 - Early Identification: Screening for Dyslexia in Kindergarten 13:59 - Breaking Down Phonological Awareness vs. Comprehension 19:11 - Explicit Instruction: Why Reading Isn't a Natural Process 22:25 - Debunking Myths: Strength-Based Approaches vs. Literacy Support 27:32 - AI as the New Frontier: Promise and Pitfalls 31:30 - Building Speech-to-Speech Avatars for Early Learners 35:34 - The Evidence Crisis in Educational Technology 39:35 - BU’s Evidence-Based AI for Learning Initiative 44:12 - The Future of Literacy and Policy Guardrails 46:31 - Final Thoughts: Advocating for Science in Education

In this episode of Trending in Education, Mike Palmer welcomes Andrew Sliwinski, Global Head of Product Experience for LEGO Education, on the day of a major product launch. Together, they explore the intersection of physical play and artificial intelligence, revealing how LEGO is redefining AI literacy for the next generation. Andrew shares his winding career path from tutoring in Detroit to directing Scratch at MIT and serving on the board of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The conversation dives into LEGO Education’s new Computer Science and AI curriculum, a hands-on, privacy-first platform designed for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. 🧱 They discuss moving beyond screen-based learning to collaborative, physical experiences—like building a dancing robot owl to understand machine learning. Andrew explains why we should stop teaching kids to just tread water with AI tools and start helping them understand the "black box" through first principles like data, probability, and bias. 🤖 Whether you are an educator or a parent, this episode offers a unique look at how "learning through play" prepares children to be the architects of the future. 🎓 Time Stamps: 0:00 - Introduction: A Big Day for LEGO Education 1:15 - Andrew’s Journey: From Detroit Classrooms to MIT Scratch 2:55 - The Legacy of Mindstorms and the Genesis of AI at LEGO 4:45 - Launching the New K-8 Computer Science & AI Curriculum 6:10 - Learning Through Play: Only the Best is Good Enough 9:15 - Shifting AI Literacy from "Use" to "Understanding" 11:40 - Collaboration vs. "Maze Solvers": The Power of Hands-On Teams 14:30 - Children as Role Models: Learning from the Next Generation 17:30 - Vocational vs. Defensive Perspectives on AI Education 22:15 - Passing the "Substitute Teacher Test" 24:00 - Dancing Owls & Machine Learning: Cool Things You Can Build 25:50 - Screen-Free Tech: Starting AI Concepts in Kindergarten 29:20 - Solving the Privacy Puzzle: Local Data & No Accounts 36:30 - Durable Skills: Data, Statistics, and Probability 39:30 - Closing Thoughts: Handing Kids a Screwdriver for the Black Box Stay ahead of the curve in education! Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode of Trending in Ed. 🔔

Paul Fain, the founder of Work Shift and author of The Job newsletter, returns to Trending in Education for a look at the state of workforce development in 2026. He describes a challenging environment for early-career professionals where emerging technologies are driving significant shifts in hiring and job stability. While four-year degree holders often dominate the media discourse, Paul emphasizes the critical need to report on non-degree workers, particularly those in clerical and administrative roles who face high risks from automation. The episode also explores the rise of "Generation Tool Belt", characterized by a growing interest in skilled trades as young people seek paths that feel more insulated from the knowledge-economy's disruption. This surge in interest has led to waiting lists for community college trade programs, highlighting the importance of reinvesting in this often-overlooked localized infrastructure. In healthcare, the discussion focuses on the frontline workforce, such as certified nursing assistants, and the systemic challenges involved in providing these workers with clear career pathing and opportunities for growth. Looking forward into the 2026 midterm cycle, the conversation touches on high-stakes experiments like Bloomberg Philanthropies' healthcare high schools and the potential expansion of federal Pell Grants to cover short-term credentials. We also examine how massive federal investments in defense and infrastructure might be leveraged to expand job training across the country. Ultimately, we hit on the dignity of work as a rare point of bipartisan priority and the potential to reframe job training as essential infrastructure for economic development. Don't miss this deep dive into shifts in workforce development with the journalist with his finger on the pulse in the transformations in the sector. Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to Paul Fain and the origin of Work Shift. 03:30 - Education and the workforce as a high-profile issue for policymakers. 07:45 - The reporting gap for non-degree workers and non-college paths. 11:30 - Generation Tool Belt: Resurgence of interest in skilled trades. 16:00 - Evaluating the real impact of AI on the current labor market. 21:50 - Community colleges as the localized front lines of retraining. 28:40 - The frontline healthcare crisis and the role of certified nursing assistants. 34:45 - Bloomberg’s healthcare high schools and private sector innovation. 39:20 - 2026 Outlook: Short-term Pell grants and apprenticeship funding. 44:00 - Reframing job training as economic infrastructure and the dignity of work

How do we prepare Gen Z for a workforce being reshaped by Artificial Intelligence? Recorded live from the National Youth Apprenticeship Summit in Alexandria, Virginia, this episode explores the "Wild West" of the modern innovation economy and the vital role of youth apprenticeships in building future-ready career pathways. This special episode is made possible by our sponsors: CareerWise, a leader in high-quality modern youth apprenticeship systems, and PAYA (Partnership for the Advancement of Youth Apprenticeship), a collaborative initiative assisting partners in developing robust apprenticeship programs across the U.S.. Host Mike Palmer is joined by three experts to discuss the intersection of emerging technology, educational equity, and early career development: Shalin Jyotishi, Managing Director of the Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative at New America, explains how technology drives long-term economic growth and why strengthening the link between tech-based growth and economic security is essential. Gina Worthy, owner of Worthey Solutions International, provides deep insights into Gen Z—the "AI native" generation—and their unique needs for purpose-driven work and multi-generational interaction. Steve Jurch, lead of the Center for Policy and Practice at the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), highlights community colleges as an "innovation engine" that can rapidly respond to local industry needs and the AI revolution. Key Takeaways: AI Native vs. AI Fluent: Understanding how Gen Z's lifelong relationship with technology shifts their expectations of employers. The Experience Gap: How AI is changing entry-level work and why work-based learning is more critical than ever to bridge the gap between education and employment. Community Colleges as Catalysts: Why these institutions are becoming the primary choice for workforce development and short-term credentials in the innovation economy. The Future of Youth Apprenticeships: Exploring how these programs combine high school dual enrollment with structured apprenticeship to provide early career awareness and skill development. As we enter the AI "wild west," youth apprenticeships offer a vital bridge to purposeful, innovation-driven careers. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:00 Gen Z & Purpose 8:00 Innovation Economy 14:00 Community College Role 35:00 Audience Q&A

In this episode, host Mike Palmer welcomes back Dr. Eddie Watson to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in higher education. Following the release of the second edition of his book, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning, Eddie shares insights from working with nearly 200 campus teams on transitioning from AI-resistant assignments to AI-integrated pedagogy. Here's the link to Eddie's first appearance. Key Takeaways: Beyond Academic Integrity: While cheating remains a concern, the conversation is shifting toward AI literacy as an essential learning outcome to prepare students for an AI-integrated workforce. The "Calculus" of Cheating: In high-stakes environments, students often feel a competitive disadvantage if they don't use AI. Pedagogical Transparency: If faculty ban AI for specific assignments, they must explain the "why" (e.g., building foundational skills) to encourage student compliance Backward Design: Eddie advocates for starting with the desired learning outcome and engineering assignments and instruction from there. Learning to Write vs. Writing to Learn: AI’s role should differ based on whether the goal is mastering writing mechanics or using writing to process course content. Durable Skills: While technical skills like prompt engineering may change quickly, mindsets like metacognition and critical thinking remain essential. "Ground Truth" Bots: Using tools like NotebookLM or Small Language Models (SLMs) allows students to interrogate specific, vetted data sets like OER textbooks. Efficiency vs Engagement: The episode concludes with a look at the "Efficiency vs. Engagement" binary. While institutions may use AI to automate grading and increase class sizes, the real opportunity lies in reinvesting saved time into "signature pedagogies"—mentoring and fostering a sense of student belonging, which are the greatest predictors of student success. Quotes: "The one who does the work is the one who does the learning. How do we make sure our students are doing the work, because that's where the learning occurs?" — Eddie Watson Time Stamps: 00:00 - Introduction & Welcome Back 00:55 - The Innovation Cycle: Second Edition of "Teaching with AI" 01:41 - Eddie Watson’s Background & Role at AAC&U 03:32 - The Shift: From Academic Integrity to the World of Work 05:10 - Complexity of Academic Integrity & Student Pressures 07:42 - Evolving Assessment Strategies & Motivation to Cheat 10:55 - Backward Design: Aligning AI with Learning Outcomes 12:54 - Writing to Learn vs. Learning to Write 14:43 - Agentic AI & Modernizing Assessments 18:50 - Creating "AI-Resistant" vs. AI-Transparent Assignments 24:43 - Developing a Meta AI Literacy Model 28:00 - Durable Skills: Metacognition & Managing AI 33:50 - Custom Chatbots, SLMs, and Ground Truths 46:40 - The Future: Efficiency vs. Engagement 49:00 - The Human Element: Mentorship & Student Belonging 51:00 - Closing Remarks Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an insight-filled conversation like this one.

In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Sunanna Chand, Executive Director of the Reinvention Lab at Teach For America (TFA). As the leader of TFA’s future-of-learning R&D engine, Chand is tasked with a formidable challenge: bridging the gap between a 19th-century education system and the demands of the 21st-century world. The conversation explores the Lab’s "Radical Departures" framework, a mental model designed to shift the paradigm of how we define the why, what, where, and how of learning. Chand challenges the false dichotomy between academic rigor and student engagement, arguing for a "both/and" approach that prioritizes community achievement over individualized test scores. From exploring "credit flexibility" policies that allow students to learn outside school walls to reimagining the role of the educator in an AI-driven landscape, Chand offers a hopeful vision for a profession rooted in human connection and the "care economy". Key Takeaways Moving Beyond the "Banking Theory": Why the traditional model of a teacher delivering information to passive students is insufficient for a world where information is ubiquitous. Reimagining Chronic Absenteeism: How "present to learning by being absent from school" models allow students to gain graduation credit for interests pursued in their communities. The AI-Proof Profession: Why teaching remains a "smart bet" for the next generation, as neurobiological learning depends on human belonging and relational intelligence. The Educator as Orchestrator: A vision for the future where educators manage ecosystems of human support and AI agents rather than just delivering a curriculum. Why You Should Listen: If you are concerned about the current state of teacher burnout and student disengagement, this episode provides more than just a critique; it offers a roadmap for structural change. Sunanna Chand explains how the Reinvention Lab uses research and development to find the "future educator" and why the most valuable skills in an automated world—judgment, ethics, and care—are precisely those honed in the classroom. It is a deep dive into how we can use technology to reinvent rather than merely optimize an outdated system. Subscribe to ⁠Trending in Education⁠ wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve on the future of learning. Time Stamps 00:00 - Intro and Sunanna’s background in Cleveland and Pittsburgh 05:45 - The Mission of the Reinvention Lab at Teach For America 07:55 - Radical Departures: Redefining the "Why" and "What" of learning 12:45 - Credit Flexibility: Learning outside the four walls of the classroom 15:35 - Breaking the false dichotomy of rigor vs. relevance 19:40 - The "With Whom": Reimagining the role of the educator in the age of AI 24:30 - Why teaching is a smart career bet for Gen Z 27:45 - Combatting burnout through human connection and "Ignite" tutoring 31:45 - Closing thoughts: Building an ecosystem of reinvention

Host Mike Palmer interviews Joshua Jones, CEO and Founder of QuantHub, an AI company focused on education and skills development. Jones, who previously co-founded the data science consulting firm StrategyWise, explains that QuantHub originated as an internal tool before spinning out to focus on delivering micro-learning chunks that target individual learners' specific needs. Jones offers sharp insights into the AI revolution: he argues that the focus has shifted from data science to tech literacy, including AI literacy, and understanding the "art of the possible." He emphasizes that successful AI implementation requires human factors and change management, noting that smart models will fail without proper "boots in the ground" support. Delving into the accelerating pace of change, Jones cites World Economic Forum data showing that critical thinking and creativity are increasing in importance for employers, while foundational skills like reading, writing, and math are decreasing. This suggests that understanding why you're using a tool is more critical than knowing the tool itself. The report also indicates that the structural job churn rate has jumped from an estimated 1% to about 4.5% per year, making continuous learning a necessity. Jones also tracks emerging technologies like quantum computing and robotics, predicting a significant market impact from 3D environment technologies around 2028. Here are the slides Josh references during the episode. Key Takeaways: - Skills Evolution: Critical thinking and tech literacy (including AI literacy) are becoming more valuable than specific technology skills as tools constantly change. - AI Implementation: Successful AI integration requires human support and change management; smart models can fail if people feeding them data don't understand the value of the technology. - Pace of Change: The speed of change in industry is quickening. The structural job churn rate has jumped from about 1% to about 4.5% per year, making continuous learning a necessity to keep up. - Learning Progression: Foundational data skills should be introduced in middle school, creating a path that extends through K-12, higher education, and professional development. Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an insightful conversation like this one. Time Stamps: 00:00 - Introduction to Josh Jones, CEO of QuantHub 07:54 - Leading QuantHub through Disruption and the Importance of Human Factors 16:40 - World Economic Forum: Shifting Importance of Skills 27:48 - Emerging Technologies: Quantum Computing and Robotics 38:00 - Closing Thoughts: The Compounding Effect of Continuous Learning

AI permeates K-12 education, but the rush to adopt new tools often bypasses critical questions about equity, bias, and human connection. On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Stephanie Smith Budhai and Marie K. Heath, co-authors of the new book Critical AI in K-12 Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Cultivating Justice and Joy. Together, they dismantle the "myth of inevitability" surrounding EdTech and explore how educators can reclaim agency in the face of rapid technological change with AI. From the historical resistance of Sojourner Truth to the concept of the classroom as a "Home Place," the conversation offers a refreshing, techno-skeptical framework that prioritizes student flourishing over big tech's framing. Key Takeaways: - Reframing the Narrative: Why "Justice and Joy" must remain central to education, ensuring schools are spaces of affirmation rather than just sites of data extraction. - The "Home Place" Concept: How bell hooks’ notion of a "Home Place" helps teachers create safe harbors where students can critically interrogate harmful AI outputs and resist standardized bias. - Sojourner Truth as Metaphor: A look at how Sojourner Truth co-opted and subverted the cartes de visites photography of her day to fund abolition—and how modern students and educators can similarly "sell the shadow to support the substance". - Pedagogies of Resistance: An overview of culturally sustaining, fugitive, and abolitionist pedagogies that equip teachers to challenge oppressive structures within AI and educational technology. - The Four Ps of Action: Practical steps for moving forward through Personal, Professional, Pedagogical, and Participatory action. Why You Should Listen: This conversation moves beyond the basic "how-to" of generative AI tools. Instead, it tackles the moral and ethical dimensions of bringing powerful, often biased technologies into the classroom. If you are an educator, administrator, or parent looking for a way to navigate the AI hype with your values intact, this episode provides the historical context and practical strategies needed to foster true digital agency. Like, Share, and Follow wherever you get your podcasts to stay ahead of the curve on the future of learning. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more. Time Stamps: [00:00] Intro: Criticality in the Age of AI [01:58] Stephanie’s Origin Story: From Nursing to EdTech [04:58] Marie’s Origin Story: Reluctant Teacher to Critical Scholar [09:25] Writing the Book: Centering Justice in Tech [11:20] Why Justice and Joy Matter [16:00] Bell Hooks and the Classroom as "Home Place" [20:30] Confronting AI Bias: The "High School Boy" Example [23:00] Sojourner Truth and Co-opting Biased Tech [29:00] The Myth of Inevitability: Do We Have to Use AI? [33:00] Culturally Sustaining, Fugitive, and Abolitionist Pedagogies [41:40] The 4 Ps: Taking Action Towards Just AI [44:00] Conclusion

Dr. Adam Gamwell returns to Trending in Education to explore the evolving collision of anthropology, artificial intelligence, and the human experience. Since his last appearance in 2019, the technological landscape has seen seismic transformations—from the pandemic to the explosion of generative AI. Host Mike Palmer and Adam discuss why the anthropological imagination is more critical than ever for navigating these changes. Adam details his transition from predicting trends to actively building AI tools with his organizations, Anthrocurious and Clueful. He argues that anthropologists must move beyond critique and become makers to ensure human context remains central to technological development. The conversation spans the fragmentation of modern culture, the "Prometheus moment" of AI adoption, and the challenge of maintaining epistemic security in an era of digital exhaust and "AI slop." Mike and Adam also tackle the personal side of the equation: parenting and education. They discuss the atrophy of critical thinking skills, the insights Western parents can learn from Maya and Inuit child-rearing practices, and the importance of designing "socio-petal" technologies that bring people together rather than driving them apart. Key Takeaways: - Anthropologists as Builders: Adam emphasizes the need for social scientists to get their hands dirty with code. By moving from pure critique to "vibe coding" and software development, anthropologists can bake human context and ethics into AI tools from the ground up. - The Fragmentation of Culture: The internet and algorithmic feeds have fractured the monoculture into isolated microcultures. Understanding this landscape requires using the very tools—AI and large-scale data analysis—that helped create the fragmentation in the first place. - Critical Thinking as Muscle Memory: Just as language acquisition changes after age five, critical thinking is a skill that can atrophy without practice. Over-reliance on generative AI in education risks weakening the cognitive muscles students need to evaluate truth and context. - Ancient Wisdom for Modern Parenting: Adam and Mike discuss the book Hunt, Gather, Parent and how indigenous practices of patience and autonomy offer a counter-narrative to the high-control, high-anxiety style of Western parenting in a digital age. Why You Should Listen: This episode offers a refreshing departure from the standard "robots will take our jobs" narrative. Instead, it provides a grounded, human-centric framework for understanding how we co-evolve with our tools. Whether you are an educator worried about AI plagiarism, a parent navigating screen time, or a tech enthusiast interested in how "thick data" can improve large language models, Adam’s insights bridge the gap between high-level academic theory and the practical realities of daily life. If you enjoy this conversation, please like, follow, and share Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Timestamps: [00:00] Intro and welcome back to Dr. Adam Gamwell. [02:40] From predicting the future to building software: Anthropology meets AI. [07:45] Robots, agentic AI, and keeping humans in the loop. [11:00] Taste, community, and the human elements AI cannot automate. [13:30] Cultural fragmentation and the challenge of sensemaking. [21:10] The atrophy of critical thinking and the "training wheels" problem. [27:00] Parenting in the digital age: Lessons from Hunt, Gather, Parent. [34:00] "Socio-petal" vs. "Socio-fugal" technologies: Designing for connection. [36:00] Mindshare and Klu: Making academic research accessible to business. [41:00] Conclusion and takeaways.

In this special on-location episode, Mike Palmer visits the headquarters of The Urban Assembly (UA) in New York City’s Financial District to sit down with David Adams, CEO of The Urban Assembly and host of the Innovations in Education podcast. We explore how David and his team have evolved from designing 22 high-performing schools in NYC to "designing tools" that solve critical constraints in public education. David breaks down his "Theory of Constraints"—analyzing how barriers like time, knowledge, and resources limit school outcomes—and how UA is using Artificial Intelligence to dismantle them. The centerpiece of this innovation is Project CAFE (Classroom Automated Feedback Environment). David explains how this AI-powered tool acts as an "instant replay" for educators, allowing them to view 10-second clips of their own practice—such as questioning techniques or student talk time—without the high cost or pressure of traditional observation. By reducing the cost of feedback to roughly $150 per teacher, CAFE is flipping the script on professional development, moving from an "avalanche of evaluation" to a "drip, drip, drip of professional development". We also touch on the Urban Assembly’s impressive results, including a record-breaking 92.4% graduation rate, and how their focus on social-emotional learning (SEL) and workforce readiness is reshaping economic mobility for students. Key Takeaways: - From Schools to Tools: How UA supports its network of 22 schools while building scalable solutions for the broader education system. - Project CAFE: An inside look at the AI tool that automates observation, offering private, low-stakes feedback for teachers to improve their "game tape". - The Theory of Constraints: Using AI to reduce the "time tax" on learning outcomes and instructional coaching. - Workforce Readiness: How "CounselorGPT" and Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways are moving students from "guessing to guidance" regarding the labor market. - Record-Breaking Outcomes: Discussing the 92.4% graduation rate and the 100% success rate at the Urban Assembly Institute for Math and Science for Young Women. Next Step for You: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more.

Mike Palmer returns to the Thanksgiving table to serve up a side of applied neuroscience. Powered by the recently released Gemini 3, he examines the "gratitude cocktail," a potent neurochemical mix of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin that mimics the effects of antidepressants and strengthens social bonds. Beyond the chemistry, Mike explores the psychological framework of The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. He explains how measuring progress against an ideal future creates unhappiness, while measuring against the past generates resilience and satisfaction. The conversation shifts from theory to practice, detailing why gratitude stories are more effective than rote lists and how specific "Notice, Think, Feel, Do" protocols rewire the brain. Mike also debunks the tryptophan myth, explaining how carbohydrates and compelling narratives—like football—actually drive the post-meal nap. Finally, he reflects on the origins of Trending in Education, shares updates on the new Trending in Higher Ed feed, and previews upcoming live events from SXSW EDU to Alexandria, Virginia. Key Takeaways - The Gratitude Cocktail: Gratitude activates the brain’s reward centers. Dopamine drives motivation, serotonin stabilizes mood similar to SSRIs, and oxytocin fosters trust and bonding. - Mindset Shift: "Gap thinking" focuses on the distance between your actual self and an unreachable ideal, leading to burnout. "Gain thinking" measures your actual self against your past self, highlighting progress and abundance. - Stories Over Lists: Rote gratitude lists often lead to mechanical habituation. Constructing gratitude narratives creates stronger neural pathways and emotional connections. - The Science of the Nap: It isn't just the turkey. Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin and melatonin, but the heavy carbohydrate load and the relief of social bonding are the real drivers of sleepiness. - Podcast Expansion: Trending in Education is expanding its network with a dedicated Trending in Higher Ed feed to allow listeners to dive deeper into specific verticals. Why You Should Listen This episode moves beyond the platitudes of "giving thanks" to reveal the biological mechanisms that make gratitude a high-performance tool. If you find yourself doomscrolling or fixating on what you haven't achieved, the "Gap and The Gain" framework offers a practical method to reset your cognitive baseline. Mike connects these mental models to tangible brain health, offering a compelling argument for why gratitude is essential fuel for resilience and innovation. Like, follow, and subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more. Here's the link to the Horacio Sanchez episode on Applied Neuroscience. And this is the link to our first Don't Be A Turkey, Learn to Be Grateful episode. The Education Equation with Jeremy Singer Innovations in Education with David Adams Time Stamps: 00:00 Introduction to the Neuroscience of Gratitude 00:49 The Science Behind Gratitude 02:01 Neurochemistry and Brain Health 04:01 The Gap and the Gain Framework 07:05 Practical Applications of Gratitude 09:18 Gratitude in Daily Life 13:48 Personal Stories and Reflections 19:49 Upcoming Projects and Gratitude 25:49 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In this special episode, we welcome back Lindsay Whorton, President of the Holdsworth Center, to discuss her new book, A New School Leadership Architecture: A Four-Level Framework for Reimagining Roles. We dive into why the current model for school leadership is unsustainable and explore a new framework for building capacity and driving results in Texas public schools and beyond. The Holdsworth Center is a nonprofit focused on building and strengthening leaders for Texas public schools. Texas educates 10% of the nation's children, and the challenges faced there—like high teacher turnover and the increased complexity of the principal and superintendent roles—reflect national trends. Lindsay explains that we have created leadership roles that are "pretty close to impossible" for an average person. A core mistake is the assumption that if educators simply work harder and build the right skills, everything will be fine. We argue that the old model of the principal as the single "hero" responsible for the development of all 30-40 teachers must evolve. Lindsay's framework offers a way to diagnose and restructure leadership roles to create shared leadership and meaningful stepping stones for development. It's about getting clear on the different leadership jobs and how they relate, moving away from an unhelpful hierarchy and toward an ethos of sharing power. Key Takeaways: - The Impossible Job: The current principal role, where one person is the primary developer for an entire staff of 30-40+ teachers, is unsustainable, especially with new teachers entering the profession with limited preparation. - The Four-Level Framework: The book outlines a four-level architecture—Team Member, Team Leader, Bridge Leader, and School Leader (Principal)—each with a unique leadership mission for building capacity and delivering results . - The Bridge Leader: This key middle layer is vital for coaching Team Leaders, ensuring coherence, and connecting the different levels of the school. It also creates meaningful, smaller-jump development opportunities for future principals. - A Shift in Identity: Moving into new leadership roles requires not just new skills and time allocation but a fundamental shift in professional identity, often requiring leaders to "release control" and trust their colleagues. - AI and the Human Core: As technology changes the future of work, cultivating the "most human" skills—like recognizing the beautiful, feeling confident, and building relational capacity—becomes even more critical in education. Why You Should Listen: If you work in education, you understand the increasing pressure on school leaders and teachers. This conversation offers a practical, thoughtful, and evidence-based way to rethink your school's operating structure, unlock the untapped leadership potential (the "stranded brilliance" we discuss) in your building, and create a system where success doesn't depend on "superheroes". We provide a blueprint for supporting your current staff while developing the next generation of resilient school leaders. Subscribe, like, and follow Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Time Stamps: 00:00 Welcome Back to Trending in Education 00:16 Introducing Lindsay Whorton and Her New Book 01:18 The Holdsworth Center's Mission and Impact 03:03 Challenges in Leadership Development 07:52 The Importance of School Culture 11:45 Reimagining School Leadership Roles 15:44 Developing Leadership Capacity 17:58 Transitioning from Teacher to Coach 19:26 The Player-Coach Experience 20:39 Challenges in Professional Development 21:29 Introducing the Four-Level Leadership Framework 22:18 Exploring the Four Levels of Leadership 24:20 The Role of the Bridge Leader 28:12 Leadership and Control 29:50 The Impact of AI on Education 33:02 Final Thoughts and Appreciation

Matt Dalio, founder and CEO of Endless Studios, joins host Mike Palmer to explore the profound connection between games, technology, and workforce development. Matt, who grew up with an early global perspective—including a transformative year in China at age 11—brings his philanthropic drive to the world of scalable tech solutions . We dive into how Matt's company, Endless, initially focused on providing computers in emerging markets, realized that skills are what truly pay the bills. A simple math game, Tux Math, engaged students in a way traditional instruction could not, with classrooms full of kids shouting multiplication tables . The even bigger revelation? Many top tech entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, started by hacking their games . Matt asserts that the goal is to transform kids from consumers to creators. We discuss how game creation, using tools like Unity and GitHub, develops five core, high-value disciplines: coding, design, digital art, management (product/project), and marketing/business analysis . These skills translate directly into a modern, AI-augmented workforce, where the ability to architect and validate production software is crucial. Key Takeaways: - From Consumption to Creation: We need to move young people from passively using smartphones (consumption devices) to actively creating with devices that have a keyboard and mouse (creation devices), fostering a "lean forward" mindset . - The Power of Hacking and Games: Learning starts when it becomes more fun to hack your games than to play them, leading to the development of deep, technical understanding. - Five Core Disciplines: Game design is a launchpad for learning highly employable, durable skills in coding, design, digital art, management, and go-to-market business analysis . - A New Model for Learning: The future of education involves immersing students in real projects on collaborative platforms like GitHub, replicating the workforce environment to teach mindsets like autonomy, agency, and teamwork . - AI and the Future Developer: AI is a powerful tool, but it demands new skills: prompt engineering, chaining agent tools, and knowing how to architect, read, and debug production-level code to avoid technical "slop" and security issues. Why You Should Listen: The gap between traditional education and the demands of the AI-driven workforce is wider than ever. You'll hear Matt's global perspective on the rising number of high school students choosing not to pursue costly college degrees and the hunger for education in emerging markets. We discuss how the allure of video games—where the average kid spends 10,000 hours by graduation—can be channeled into productive, skills-building creation time . Matt shares an example of a Peruvian student who used his new skills to build a video game for rural communities to preserve their local language, illustrating the real-world, positive impact of this new educational approach . Listen to understand the model that could prepare the next generation to be "superhumans empowered by AI" . If you liked this conversation, be sure to like, follow, and share Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Ray Dalio's books referenced in the conversation: Principles: Life and Work and How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle Timestamps 00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome 00:57 Matt Dalio's Early Life and Influences 02:58 Journey into Technology and Philanthropy 04:07 The Power of Games in Education 06:39 Skills vs. Mindsets in the Workforce 11:10 Preparing for the Future Workforce 13:58 Global Challenges and the Future of Jobs 15:51 The Declining Value of Education 17:01 Global Perspectives on Education 18:52 The Power of Community and Mentorship 20:47 Learning Through Game Development 24:50 AI and the Future of Work 28:47 Encouraging a Maker's Mindset 31:29 Concluding Thoughts and Takeaways

On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer talks with Halley Bowman, who focuses on curriculum and tutor training at Saga Education, and Katherine Huete, founder of the consultancy Estelita and a leader in scaling language support at Saga. We explore the powerful resurgence of high-impact tutoring, especially its critical role in supporting emergent multilingual learners (EMLs) in secondary math. Halley shares Saga's unique model, which integrates dedicated, small-group tutoring into the school day, making this high-impact intervention accessible to all students and leading to astounding results, including the closure of up to 50% of the opportunity gap. She highlights the importance of the individualized, caring relationship between a student and their dedicated adult tutor. Katherine, a former newcomer student who became a bilingual special education teacher, defines the shift to the more asset-based term, "emergent multilingual learner" (EML), which values all a student's languages rather than ranking them. We discuss the misconception that math is a universal language, needing no language support. We delve into the concrete, "bite-sized" strategies SAGA uses to train its diverse workforce of tutors—from recent college graduates to career changers—to effectively support EMLs without needing a deep education background. These effective, implementable strategies include using visual aids to provide context and reduce language barriers , and offering sentence frames to help students articulate their mathematical understanding. The conversation also emphasizes the value of translanguaging, where tutors encourage students to use all the languages in their linguistic repertoire to better cement knowledge. Finally, we address the role of AI in quickly generating translations and customized strategies, while emphasizing that the crucial human element of cultural responsiveness and building trust remains paramount. Key Takeaways: - High-Impact Tutoring is a Proven Solution: SAGA's in-school model closes up to 50% of the opportunity gap. - Math is Not Language-Proof: Math contains complex language, and even differences in punctuation (like using a comma instead of a decimal) can pose barriers for EMLs. - Small, Actionable Strategies Work: Tutors are trained using micro-learnings on implementable skills like providing visuals and sentence frames, which benefit all students, not just EMLs. - Translanguaging is Empowering: Encouraging students to use all their languages (e.g., Spanglish) helps them grasp and transfer mathematical concepts more effectively. - The Human Connection is Essential: Cultural responsiveness, including pronouncing a student's name correctly, builds the trust and respect that is fundamental to high-impact tutoring. Why You Should Listen: If you care about equity in education and the future of the teaching workforce, this episode provides a clear, evidence-based look at one of the most effective interventions available today. We offer practical, actionable insights into supporting multilingual learners in subjects often presumed to be language-independent. Like, follow, and share Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome 01:02 Meet Halley Bowman and Katherine Huete 03:00 The Evolution and Impact of Saga Education and High Impact Tutoring 06:16 Defining Multilingual Learners 08:06 Tutoring Strategies for Multilingual Learners 19:46 The Role of AI in Tutoring 23:26 Cultural Responsiveness in Education 25:04 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Mike Palmer welcomes Carlo Rotella, a professor at Boston College and author of the book What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics. Rotella, who has an academic specialty in the cultures of cities and also writes for magazines like The New York Times Magazine, approaches his classroom as a "scene" much like a boxing gym or a music club, where people practice a craft and hone their "chops". We dive into the book, which captures the spring semester of 2020 and presents a narrative-style look at Rotella's required freshman literature course. He shares his mission: to change his students' initial question from "Can I get out of this?" to "What can I get out of this?" by treating the interpretation of literature as a learnable craft, not "sorcery or bullshit". Rotella explains how this approach requires us to build a strong classroom community, including policies like banning devices and expecting every student to speak at every class meeting. He reveals the effort required to get quiet students to participate, sometimes using techniques like rehearsing answers in office hours—just as a team practices a play. Rotella argues that in a world of AI and "endless number of talking heads" , the classroom remains a vital "haven" where students can build critical skills and practice analytical response to the world. 🔑 Key Takeaways - Teaching as a Craft: Rotella treats teaching the interpretation of literature as a practical, learnable craft, focusing on skills like pattern recognition and extracting meaning from the world. - Building Community: A core philosophy involves making the classroom a community where every student must "ante up" and contribute, often facilitated by a no-devices policy and the expectation that everyone speaks in class. - The Power of Face-to-Face: The pandemic and the rise of AI have made the physical classroom more valuable and "cutting edge" than ever as a unique human experience. - The Loneliness of the Modern Student: Today’s college students are highly accomplished but are also more anxious, isolated, and less comfortable with trial-and-error than previous generations. - Reading as Resistance: Reading is framed as an "athletic" exercise that builds mental "muscles in your core" like critical skills, attentional fortitude, and the ability to assess reliability—skills essential for navigating an AI-driven world. 🎧 Why You Should Listen If you're an educator, writer, or just curious about how humans truly learn in a time of radical change, listen in as Rotella shows us that the most memorable and lasting impact of a class often comes from the experience of working together—not just the content. We discuss how to use students' "violent reaction against a work of art as the way in" and why we need to show people how to move beyond outrage and into analysis. We close with Rotella's belief that a liberal arts education offers durable tools for life, reminding us of the enduring power of a shared intellectual experience—like the unforgettable image of a guy in an elephant suit. Do you want to hear more conversations on the future of learning? Subscribe, like, and follow Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Time Stamps: 00:00 Introduction to Carlo Rotella and His Book 01:04 Carlo's Professional Journey and Writing Career 02:15 Exploring the Classroom as a Scene 06:23 The Impact of the Pandemic on Teaching 08:39 Building Community and Engagement in the Classroom 12:21 The Value of Face-to-Face Learning 17:02 The Lasting Impact of Classroom Experiences 19:13 Understanding Reactions to Art 20:04 Insights into Gen Z's College Experience 21:31 Challenges and Changes in Modern Education 22:58 The Importance of Reading and Critical Thinking 25:28 AI's Impact on Education and Society 29:44 Teaching Strategies for the Modern Classroom 36:04 Final Thoughts and Takeaways