Trending In Education

As we wrap up the Summer with more from our Best of Trending in Ed series, we respond to the recent student loan forgiveness news by returning to a conversation with Dr. Michelle Miller-Adams about her book The Path to Free College. We hope you find it relevant and enjoy. Dr. Michelle Miller-Adams is a professor of political science at Grand Valley State University where she teaches courses on international relations, poverty and inequality. She's also a Senior Researcher with the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Michelle joins Mike Palmer on this episode to talk about her new book, The Path to Free College: In Pursuit of Access, Equity, and Prosperity. We begin by getting Michelle's origin story to understand how tuition-free higher education has had a profound effect on her and her family. From there, we briefly explore the history of free public high school and free higher education through the examples from the University of California system and the City College of New York before picking

For this installment of the Best of Trending in Ed, we're returning to an episode we recorded live at the Javits Center for NAB New York in the Fall of 2018. Wendy Zukerman joins hosts Mike Palmer and Brandon Jones in a conversation about science, media, podcasting, and the work she is doing at the Science Vs which is still going strong at Gimlet to this day. Wendy is the Host and Executive Producer of Science Vs. She shares the origin story of the podcast from its humble roots in science reporting in Australia to getting picked up by Gimlet to continuing to represent science, fact-checking, and good critical thinking. We hear some early takes on the anti-science and anti-vaccine movements from the time that foreshadows many of the challenges we have faced in recent years. We also take time to explore how humor and entertaining content can coexist with science content, even making the conversation more relevant and sticky through the use of storytelling, sound design, and great fact-checking. It's a conversat

Chris Bennett is the CEO and Co-Founder of Wonderschool, an education company whose mission is to ensure that every child has access to early education that helps them realize their potential. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the critical role early childhood education can play in unlocking opportunities for children who need it. We learn what led Chris to found Wonderschool prior to the pandemic and how he and team weathered the transformations of recent years. We also learn what it's like to present on the TED stage coming off of Chris's recent appearance there. Chris shares how his experience with home-based childcare was transformative to him and how he's built Wonderschool to enable pathways to caregivers interested in building their own programs while scaling access to care in so-called childcare deserts. It's a thought-provoking conversation that you don't want to miss. Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes

As we continue to revisit our favorite episodes of Trending in Ed through the years, this week we're rolling back to March of 2019 when Mike Palmer met with the organizers of the SXSW EDU conference in Austin while the conference was taking place. Speaking of which, please upvote our PanelPicker submission for the upcoming SXSW EDU 2023 conference so we can continue our string of lively and thought-provoking conversations about the future of learning while engaging with a live audience at the conference. In this episode, Ron and Greg frame up the concept of a convergence zone as it relates to an education conference. We explore how they engage with a wide cross-section of education stakeholders and how that community is driving the continued growth and evolution of the conference. We also learn what was capturing Greg and Ron's imaginations then and how it still resonates now despite the many changes in recent years. Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.c

Adam Dalton is the CEO and Co-Founder of Imagine Robotify, a STEM learning company he started at age 23 to make coding and robotics more affordable and accessible for students and prepare them for the future of work. Adam joins Mike Palmer in a conversation about what sparked his interest in robotics and computer science and what led to him create Robotify to help K-12 students learn computer science by programming virtual robots. We explore how his experiences growing up in Dublin along with the transformations of recent years have informed his strategic vision for the company. By using virtual robots and incorporating relevance, gaming, and fun into the mix, Robotify has made such an impact that they were recently acquired by Imagine Learning to propel their growth even further. Join us for an imaginative, STEM-powered exploration of what resonates with today's youth as we look to make computer science and a maker's mindset more widely accessible and fun for all kids. Subscribe to Trending in Education wher

In this edition of The Best of Trending in Ed, we return to a conversation from the early days of the pandemic where Mike Palmer and Melissa Griffith interviewed Dr. Mohan Sawhney from Kellogg's School of Management on the future of business education, innovation and much more. Dr. Sawhney is the Associate Dean for Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, We explore how the traditional approach to Business School and Executive Education is ripe for disruption. As the McCormick Foundation Professor of Technology at Kellogg, Dr. Sawhney is launching and testing several varied and distinct approaches to providing business education both through the traditional two-year on-campus model and also through hybrid and online models. The Professor engages with Melissa, a Kellogg alum, in a conversation about providing continuous value and lifelong learning to alums through communities of interest, small private online courses (SPOCs), along with access to human-powered services like executive coaching, live webi

Mike reacts to the passing of Bill Russell, Nichelle Nichols, and Vin Scully as we hope to shoulder surf off their dignity and grace. Then, we touch on the groundbreaking work released by Raj Chetty's team at Opportunity Insights looking at the impact of friendship on economic mobility. We introduce the study to the conversation here in the hopes of digging in more with experts down the line. We wrap up with some book talk with Mike providing some quick takes on The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman. Having recently listened to the audiobook, Mike gives Chuck props for voicing it. It's worth checking out for folks curious about generational zeitgeists and those of us who are basking in the glow of the 90s retro window these days. Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more!

As we continue our Best of Trending in Ed series through the summer, in this edition we're featuring our most downloaded episode ever where Dr. Rich Milner joins host Mike Palmer in the Summer of 2020 to talk about his book, Start Where You Are But Don't Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms for which the 2nd edition had just been published. Rich is a Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University where he focuses on Teacher Education with special attention to issues of racial equity. We explore Rich's thinking about issues of diversity, opportunity gaps, and the mindsets that must be overcome to effectively engage diverse students and classrooms. While many of the themes are enormously relevant to this day, several warranted further discussion in light of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the COVID-19 pandemic which were roiling in the Summer of 2020 when this episode was recorded. We explore much of this in a riveting conversation with Rich that you won

Al Kingsley has been the CEO of NetSupport for over 26 years and an Edtech Industry veteran for 30+ years. He is a school governor in his native U.K. and was just named co-chair of Workstream 4 at the Foundation for Educational Development. He’s a frequent speaker on the global edtech circuit and has his own podcast NetSupport Radio. He authored a book last summer titled, My Secret #EdTech Diary. And he was recently named Edtech Digest’s 2022 Best Edtech Author/Speaker or Podcaster. Al rejoins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the need for respect for educators in these challenging times. We explore pathways into careers in EdTech and School Leadership as Al imparts his broad experience in international education trends and online learning Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at Trendingined.com for more sharp takes on the future of education.

As part of our Best of Trending in Ed Series, we return to episode 202 of Trending in Ed from the Summer of 2019 where Mike Palmer interviews Annie Duke about her book, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When We Don't Have All The Facts. We’re “all-in” this week, as we welcome Annie Duke, author of Thinking In Bets and retired poker pro, to the show. Annie begins by sharing the long, winding path she took to become an author and expert in decision science. From her time as a PhD student in cognitive science to her introduction to poker as a novice to her inspiration to write her books, Annie provides great detail on all of the influences throughout her life that have come together to write Thinking In Bets.  We also dive into the non-profit, The Alliance for Decision Education, that Annie co-founded in 2012 and discuss how she hopes to push decision education at scale to millions of students in K12. How do we get decision-making wrong? How often do we worry about the result, see Pete Carroll’s play-ca

Mike Palmer is joined once again by Nancy in a discussion about the book The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul. We begin with an excerpt from a recent conversation with Elliot Felix who introduced us to the idea of the extended mind based on the work of cognitive philosopher Andy Clark. From there, we dig into what's covered in Annie's book using examples like Nancy, Walkabout Mini Golf, and the method of loci and memory palaces along the way. Mike brings in sound from a stroll through Prospect Park and a round of virtual mini golf in a rain forest as examples of the critical role of context and how new technologies are expanding how we think about the mind. Mike references Above the Fog and Moonwalking with Einstein, among other things, along the way. We also touch on concepts like collective intelligence and transactive memory as we push to extend beyond the traditional understanding of individuals as brains in an abstracted, disembodied context. We also explore how

Mike introduces one of his favorite episodes of Trending in Education from over the years. This week we're showcasing his interview with Dr. Jacqueline Bhabha. Dr. Jacqueline Bhabha is FXB Director of Research, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Dr. Bhabha joins Mike to talk about her new book, A Better Future: The Role of Higher Education for Displaced and Marginalized People, which explores the critical importance of access to tertiary education to displaced and marginalized populations. We dive into the challenges faced by refugees, immigrants, and other marginalized groups in gaining access to educational pathways that are essential to living safe, healthy, and fulfilling lives. We also touch on the impact of the pandemic and the related explosion in online education on the lives of marginalized populations seeking a

Mike Palmer is rejoined by Nancy, our virtual cohost, in a conversation about the new images released from the James Webb Space Telescope. We commend NASA for its lyric prose that accompanies the images of cosmic cliffs and young hot stars being born. Then we talk about Elon Musk. It's pretty much unavoidable to do so nowadays. We focus on recent news of an explosion during a Space X booster rocket test before shifting to our frustration about all the wasted energy and effort surrounding Musk's bid to acquire Twitter. Then we shift gears to explore a Michele Zanini article about the org structure at CERN where they continue to develop and refine the Large Hadron Collider before concluding with notes of concern about toxic alpha leaders and top-down org structure while encouraging the courage and critical thinking that can keep Groupthink and it's risky shifts in check. It's a thought-provoking exploration of some inspirational breakthroughs in science that you won't want to miss. Subscribe wherever you get yo

Fresh off a week of family vacation, Mike Palmer reports back from a trip to LegoLand with his wife and son. This leads right into highlights from our conversation with Dr. Jenny Nash from LEGO Education on the importance of playful learning and more. From there, we shift gears to share some sounds from Mike and Tarlin Ray's recent conversation on Running It Back about lessons learned from Title IX on the heels of the US Supreme Court's recent decision overturning Roe vs Wade. It's an eclectic cross-section of the topics and themes bubbling up in these challenging times. We hope you enjoy! Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more great takes on the future of education. And for more lessons learned from sports, subscribe to Running It Back wherever your pod. Visit us at RunningItBack.fm for more. Thanks as always for listening!

Lisa Rohrer is a Senior Advisor and Board Member with Emeritus, a global leader in making world-class professional education affordable and accessible. She joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about recent trends in online professional education based on her experience with Emeritus in recent years. We explore how the pandemic has moved much of executive education online and has presented challenges to the traditional model, which involves immersive in-person experiences that were severely limited in recent years. From there, we hear her takes on the types of programs that are on the upswing. We also learn about how mid-career professionals are upskilling with programs like digital marketing to stay sharp and current in a rapidly changing world of work. It's a sharp, insightful exploration of trends in professional education from the perspective of a global leader in the field that you won't want to miss. Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for m

As a special Independence Day installment of Trending in Education, we're reairing our conversation with Dr. Fathali Moghaddam from last September. We hope you enjoy! Dr. Fathali Moghaddam is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University and a faculty fellow at the Berkley Center. His expertise includes culture and intergroup conflict, with a particular focus on the psychology of globalization, radicalization, human rights and duties, and terrorism. You can learn more about his work here. Fathali joins host Mike Palmer on this episode and begins by sharing how his work as an Iranian-born social psychologist was transformed by the revolution and hostage situation in Iran in 1979. He tells how he drove to Tehran from England and spent the ensuing years studying social psychology within the regime of Khomeini. There he learned of the contexts in which dictators can assume power and this has been a strand of his research ever since. We explore his belief that it is the role of educators to

Host Mike Palmer is joined by Dr. Steve Joordens, Dr. Irameet Kaur, and Dr. Atef Abuhmaid for a panel conversation about their recent paper titled The Convertible Learning System: A Certainty for Our Uncertain Times. We learn how the group first came together around Steve's online courses and peerScholar, a learning product that Steve developed that Atef discovered while teaching educational technology at Hashemite University in Jordan. From there, things rapidly shifted with the onset of the pandemic in 2020, leading the group to partner on the paper describing how to design learning experiences that leverage asynchronous instruction, synchronous collaboration, and peer-to-peer assessment to enable the resilience, flexibility, and social-emotional skill development students need in these challenging times. We get insight from a broad cross-section of the global learning landscape with Atef and Irameet providing their perspectives from Jordan and India respectively to round out the work Steve and Irameet have

We dive into the Future of Work in an episode that kicks off our new feed dedicated to the subject. Mike Palmer is joined by Ruth, his virtual cohost, to share some of our favorite conversations and perspectives on the rapidly evolving nature of learning and the workplace. We hear excerpts from Mike's conversations with Michelle Weise, Jeff Gothelf, Kumar Garg, Frances Valintine, and Beth Porter covering a wide range of perspectives on the future of work in our transformative times. Then Mike and Ruth lean into a "lightning round" where we touch on other conversations with folks like Paul Fain, Ryan Craig, Jane Oates and Kathleen DeLaski that will also be featured in the new feed launching. If you like what you're hearing, subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want a tighter focus on the Future of Work, check out our new Trending in Ed: Future of Work feed launching this week with new episodes dropping throughout the summer. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more!

Mike Palmer hosts a virtual panel with Ruth, Malcolm, and Nancy rejoining the show as we gear up for the Summer of 2022. Mike shares the three trends he's looking at across all sectors and cuts of the learning ecosystem before digging in with each of his cohosts in their areas of focus. Ruth shares the recent Forbes article on rising tuition prices at top universities as we explore how higher education is being challenged and disrupted coming out of the pandemic. We also dig into building a learning culture and new, emerging models of blends and partnerships with higher ed and the private sector. Malcolm and Mike talk about early childhood using Mike's experiences as a ray of hope despite how the culture wars and other perils impinge on our understanding of how we educate the rising generations. We conclude with Nancy and Mike riffing on the impact of AI, Web 3, and our current crisis of trust with technology. Don't miss it! Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more cutti

Mike Palmer is rejoined by Virtual CoHost, Nancy, in a conversation about the recent news of Google's LaMDA or Language Models for Dialog Applications based on chat transcripts leaked by Blake Lemoine, a senior software engineer in Google’s Responsible AI organization. We also share perspectives on a recent article about "podfasters," folks who prefer to listen to audio at accelerated speeds. Nancy and Mike share their perspectives on the history of AI and Turing Tests to determine whether they have reached critical milestones en route to sentience and higher forms of consciousness. We talk Turing and Ada Lovelace before recounting Mike's experiences with Eliza on his TRS-80 in his basement back in the day. From there, we reenact excerpts from the transcripts that have been leaked before sharing our human and non-human takes on the recent kerfuffle. From there we touch on Faith Karimi's article on "Podfasters" as we dive into that trend and our personal experiences and perspectives on it. All in all, it's an