Getting Smart Podcast

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Annie Murphy Paul author of the new book The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain. For the past decade, Annie has been a leading brain science writer on The Brilliant Blog. Let's listen in as Tom and Annie discuss the importance of the body in using the mind, how this can be better applied in schools and distributed cognition.

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Kiko Suarez, VP of Higher Education and Workforce Development at Territorium, a global edtech company connecting learners with recommended jobs. Territorium recently launched its AI-powered Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR), into the U.S. to break down the barriers between universities and employers. Let's listen in as Tom and Kiko discuss why learner records are so important, the state of higher education and who decides which skills are most important.

This episode of the podcast is a re-publishing of our recent Getting Smart Town Hall we are celebrating the one year bookiversary of Difference Making at the Heart of Learning by Tom Vander Ark and Emily Liebtag. We talked with our live audience about purpose-based learning, getting communities involved and how this ties into the idea of a global citizen. You can find links to the resources mentioned here. For a quick recap you can read it here.

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Clifton Taulbert, an acclaimed author, speaker and entrepreneur. His life story, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored became a critically acclaimed 1996 movie and one of his books was sent to Nelson Mandela as a gift for his release from prison in 1990. His most recent book, The Invitation, was chosen by the Architect of the United States Capitol as part of the 50 the anniversary celebration of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Legislation. Taulbert has written fourteen books in total, produced a major motion picture, and served as a consultant on several documentaries, including the Emmy-award-winning Boomtown: An American Journey, which details the birth of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Tom Vander Ark is joined by Christine Ricci and Leo Morton, two business leaders from Kansas City who recently met with Tom at a Kauffman Foundation-sponsored real-world learning event. For the last five years, Christine served as CEO of Phone Medic, also known as UbreakIfix, an electronics repair chain. She has had twenty years of executive leadership in healthcare and tech with companies like HCA, Cerner, Sprint and more. Leo Morton is a private equity investor and President of DeBruce Companies, a family office managing a diverse investment portfolio. He started his career as an AT&T engineer and has had numerous executive roles in manufacturing and energy. He also served as the Chancellor of the University of Missouri Kansas City for nearly a decade. Let's listen in as they talk about connecting school to industry, where entrepreneurship comes from, how to have better school and business partnerships and much more.

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Mason Pashia is joined by a very special guest — Luke Harris. Luke is a Junior at Horace Mann high school and has described himself as "enjoying taking things apart and not quite getting them back together." For the past two years, he has been developing a design engineering curriculum for kids, created to teach real-world entrepreneurial and engineering skills. Let's listen in as they talk about the design process, why problem solving and finding both need to be taught to engineers and much more.

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Carla Marschall, co-author of the new book Worldwise Learning: A Teacher's Guide to Shaping a Just, Sustainable Future, which is a guide focused on supporting K-8 learners in gaining a better understanding of how to be global citizens. Carla has held leadership roles in international schools in Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, and Singapore over the past ten years and currently works as the Director of Teaching & Learning at UWC South East Asia, with the mission to make "education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.

We are thrilled to bring you a new podcast from Getting Smart called EduCatered: A Podcast That's Catered to Educators. It'll be on its own podcast feed soon! At Getting Smart, food, education, and innovation are at the heart of our recipe. This podcast mixes it all together to get to know teachers that are doing the work and making a difference. We kick off the podcast series with Ululani (Ulu) Shiraishi, a middle school language arts teacher at Kamehameha Schools Maui. She is also a mother of three and a self-proclaimed laugher. Shawnee chats with Ulu about a range of topics, ranging from salad goulash and listening to the importance of community and habit. She also expresses gratitude for the work of Ekela Kanaiaupio-Crozier, one of the first people to teach the Hawaiian language at the collegiate level. Let's dig in.

This episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by the Getting Smart newsletter: Smart Update. On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Robert Simmons III. Robert is a scholar and activist on diversity, equity and inclusion. Robert serves as a Scholar in Residence and a Scholar of Antiracist of Antiracist Praxis in the School of Education at American University and as a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan. Let's listen in as they discuss new social contracts, longtime DEI advocacy, compounding crises, food programs and much more.

Be sure to sign up for our Smart Update newsletter to get a weekly round up of what's innovative in learning. On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Nate McClennen is joined by Kim Alexander and Alton Frailey from Collegiate Edu Nation (CEN). Kim is the CEO of Collegiate Edu Nation and has spent most of his career at Roscoe Independent School District where he served as superintendent from 2003 to 2019 before transitioning to lead CEN. Kim has done so much in Roscoe to promote early college and STEM to support disadvantaged rural students. Alton has been in the education world for 35 years, serving as a superintendent for two districts in Texas and one in Ohio. Alton is involved in numerous boards and community organizations both locally and nationally. and He is currently President of Alton L. Frailey & Associates, LLC, specializing in leadership development, community engagement, school board team building, and executive coaching. Let's listen in as they discuss rural innovation in Texas schools and more about CEN.