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Education Futures

Education Futures

Svenia Busson & Laurent Jolie 52 Episodes Aug 20, 2026

A podcast about the future of education in the age of AI. It brings together interdisciplinary voices to explore how we can shape more desirable futures for learning.

Episodes

Africa's 800+ languages and the AI data gap
Africa's 800+ languages and the AI data gap Aug 20, 2026 39:51 Dr. John Mugo is the Chief Executive Officer of Mizizi Elimu Afrika, the African-led education organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, formerly known as Zizi Afrique Foundation. He holds a Doctorate and a Master's degree in Special Needs Education from the University of Hanover, Germany, and a Bachelor of Education (Music) from Kenyatta University, where he went on to chair the Department of Special
Redesigning school for the AI age
Redesigning school for the AI age Aug 17, 2026 45:12 Dan Effland is the Chief of Staff & Strategy at Summit Public Schools, where he leads the continued evolution of Summit's school model. He holds a Master's in Special Education from Dominican University and a Master's in Public School Building Administration from Columbia University's Teachers College.Before entering education, Effland spent over a decade as a professional musician in Chicago.
Designing ethical AI characters for kids
Designing ethical AI characters for kids Aug 13, 2026 41:25 Dr. Sonia Tiwari is a children's media researcher based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Director of Research at Oki Pie Lab. She holds a PhD in Learning, Design, and Technology from Penn State University, along with an MFA in Animation and a BS in Film, credentials she first put to work as a character designer in the video game industry before turning to research on how children bond with charac
Inside a student-led movement for AI Literacy
Inside a student-led movement for AI Literacy Aug 10, 2026 46:10 Ian Cho graduated from St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and heads to Yale University this fall to study cognitive science. Frustrated that AI had quietly become a "taboo subject" wrapped in cheating anxiety, he founded what is now called Sailing (Student AI Literacy Interscholastic Navigator Group), a peer-led initiative that gives students across schools a space to talk openly ab
When AI meets grassroots education in India
When AI meets grassroots education in India Aug 6, 2026 51:31 Dr. Rukmini Banerji is one of the world's most influential figures in grassroots education. Trained as an economist — a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and a PhD from the University of Chicago — she chose classroom-level work over academia, returning to India in 1996 to join Pratham, one of the world's largest education NGOs, where she served for over a decade as CEO before recently stepping into the rol
A maker's guide to creativity and AI
A maker's guide to creativity and AI Aug 3, 2026 41:27 Christine Braun is the Chief Creative Officer of Cresconova, the education charity behind Cresconova Labs, a hands-on studio for ages 8–16 in Chelsea, London. She holds a BFA from the University of the Arts and a Master of Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts, a grounding in material-making that runs through everything she's built since.Her path began with founding Robots for Kids Too, a
Can AI leapfrog India's learning crisis?
Can AI leapfrog India's learning crisis? Jul 30, 2026 45:40 Gouri Gupta is Senior Project Director for EdTech at Central Square Foundation (CSF), one of India's leading education nonprofits, based in New Delhi, where she has led the EdTech portfolio for nearly a decade. A Chartered Accountant (rank holder) and IIM Bangalore MBA, she began her career at the Boston Consulting Group before helping build the National Skill Development Corporation, a Government
Designing safe & pedagogically sound AI
Designing safe & pedagogically sound AI Jul 28, 2026 07:39 On building safe, pedagogically sound AI for young people and the fellowship we built to do it. This fellowship is for builders of AI x education products or anyone thinking to do so in the future.https://educationfutures.ai/fellowship https://educationfutures.substack.com/
No grades, no homework: inside a self-directed school
No grades, no homework: inside a self-directed school Jul 27, 2026 48:28 Dr. Tyler S. Thigpen is the co-founder and Head of School at The Forest School: An Acton Academy, a self-directed K3–12 microschool in Trilith, near Atlanta, Georgia, and co-founder of the Institute for Self-Directed Learning. He holds a doctorate in Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Master's in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, an
Why AI should (and can) make schools more human
Why AI should (and can) make schools more human Jul 23, 2026 51:19 Robin Lake is Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), based at Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. For more than two decades she has been one of the most respected systems thinkers in American education — researching charter schools, district–charter collaboration, portfolio strategy, and urban school reform, and testifying before the U.S. House Educ
Funding evidence-based applications of AI in education
Funding evidence-based applications of AI in education Jul 20, 2026 50:40 Kumar Garg is President of Renaissance Philanthropy, the science-and-technology philanthropy he co-founded with Tom Kalil in 2024 to help donors invest in high-impact research across AI, climate, and education. He holds a BA from Dartmouth and a JD from Yale Law School, and cut his teeth over eight years in the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he led the administrat
Why teachers should not reject AI without trying it
Why teachers should not reject AI without trying it Jul 16, 2026 56:06 Maureen Russo Rodriguez is coming up on her 20th year as an educator and teaches language and literature — primarily Spanish, with occasional turns in English — at St. Mark's School, a small boarding school outside Boston. With a background in comparative literature and a stint in higher ed, she co-founded AI Co-Lab, a teacher-led, peer-to-peer network for building AI literacy. What began with a s

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