Home Podcasts This Week with EdSurge
This Week with EdSurge

This Week with EdSurge

EdSurge Podcast 488 Episodes Jul 1, 2026

This Week with EdSurge is a weekly podcast that explores the human stories behind education, covering topics like artificial intelligence in classrooms, student well-being, policy changes, and the future of teaching. Hosted by Ira Apfel and EdSurge contributors, the show provides rigorous and empathetic journalism for educators, leaders, and curious listeners.

Episodes

Can an Algorithm Replace a Teacher’s Instinct? Jul 1, 2026 23:36 This week, two teachers take a hard look at what happens when you hand a problem to a tool and trust it to solve that problem. David Webb, a school teacher based in Jakarta, India, spent a year vibe coding an AI-powered library app called LibraryAid and discovered exactly where the algorithm ends and the educator begins. Then, California high school teacher Gabe Nitro makes a counterintuitive argu
Is TikTok Now a Teacher Training Tool? Jun 24, 2026 24:32 Two educators are reckoning with who is really in charge: technology or the teacher. First, a teacher notices her students are quietly forming their professional knowledge on TikTok and decides to lean in rather than fight it. Then a high school engineering teacher builds an AI grading tool so efficient that it sent feedback to students without him ever reading it, and confronts what that actually
Your Kids Know More About AI Than You Do Jun 17, 2026 23:23 Schools are racing to write AI policies, but what if the policy is not the first step? This week, we hear from Aleta Margolis, founder and president of the Center for Inspired Teaching, who argues that real progress starts with a conversation, not a rule. Then EdSurge editor-in-chief Sarah McKibben brings it home with what AI actually looks like at her kitchen table, with two middle schoolers navi
Recess, Screens, and Absenteeism Jun 10, 2026 19:01 Schools have been quietly chipping away at recess for nearly a decade, and a sweeping new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics says it is time to stop. Meanwhile, the federal government has issued a formal advisory on screen time and children, raising urgent questions about how schools, parents, and tech companies should respond. This week, EdSurge reporters Lauren Coffey and Nadia Tamez
AI Is in Schools. Teachers Are Not Ready. Jun 3, 2026 22:34 Three-quarters of school districts now have AI guidelines, up sharply from just a year ago, yet 82 percent of teachers say they have never received formal guidance on how to use AI in their work. EdSurge reporter Lauren Coffey breaks down the 2026 CoSN State of Ed Tech report and what it reveals about AI adoption, cybersecurity gaps, and edtech vetting inside K-12 districts. Then host Ira Apfel ta
How a Vacant School Building Became a Symbol of Loss, and Then Hope, for a Dying Small Town Jan 14, 2025 54:15 When the only school in Donora, Pennsylvania, closed a few years ago, it hit the town’s residents hard. Now the building may be the town’s best hope, as a community college considers setting up in the former school. A University of Pittsburgh professor spent three years documenting life in this fading town for an unusual podcast series that ran late last year. Education was a key theme. On this w
How AI Has Changed Student Cheating — And How to Respond Jan 7, 2025 58:01 One long-time expert on preventing student cheating argues that understanding why students cheat is key to making adjustments in teaching to prevent cheating with AI. It's the argument of Tricia Bertram Gallant, a longtime expert in academic integrity who is director of the Academic Integrity Office at the University of California San Diego who co-wrote a new book, “The Opposite of Cheating: Teach
Inside the Push to Bring AI Literacy to Schools and Colleges (Encore Episode) Dec 10, 2024 55:30 There’s a growing push to add AI literacy as a subject in schools and colleges. But what exactly is AI literacy, and can educators promote curiosity about the subject amid their own concerns, and in some cases fear, around ChatGPT and other generative AI? This episode originally ran in January 2024, and was the most-listened-to episode of the year.
What We Learned About Teaching and Creativity By Commissioning a New Podcast Theme Song Dec 3, 2024 43:22 We found the theme song for the EdSurge Podcast on a free music library years ago, after spending hours clicking around searching for the right sound. The music turns out to have an unusual origin story, as we learned when we tracked down the artist this week for a conversation about the intersection of music, creativity and teaching.
Want To Find Highly-Engaged Students at 4-Year Colleges? Look At Transfer Students. Nov 19, 2024 34:45 When students transfer from community colleges to four-year universities, there’s often culture shock. But those transfers are often more motivated and engaged in the classroom than students who arrive straight from high school, experts say. Hear firsthand from a student in his 30s who recently transferred from a two-year college to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Should Students Chat With AI Versions of Historical Figures? Nov 8, 2024 59:34 A new documentary project about Sacagawea, the young woman from the Shoshone tribe who helped guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition back in 1804, lets students chat with an animated chatbot of her. Some educators worry about how faithfully such chatbots can represent history, or whether they might keep students from digging into documents to form their own analysis.
The Effects of Smartwatches on Kids, Schools and Families Nov 4, 2024 47:38 Should kids wear smartwatches? Companies market the wearable devices to kids as young as 4 years old, while digital media experts and educators worry about potential downsides of what some see as an “electronic umbilical cord.” On the EdSurge Podcast this week, we talk with our reporter who spent months researching the issue, Emily Tate Sullivan, and hear her read the full story.

Recommended