FreshEd
FreshEd with Will Brehm
FreshEd is a weekly podcast that makes complex ideas in educational research easily understood. Five shows. Three languages.
Airs Monday.
Visit us at www.FreshEdpodcast.com
Twitter: @FreshEdPodcast
All FreshEd Podcasts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Airs Monday.
Visit us at www.FreshEdpodcast.com
Twitter: @FreshEdPodcast
All FreshEd Podcasts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 18, 2026 • 32min
FreshEd #214 – Less is more (Jason Hickel)
FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back soon with new episodes.
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Today we explore the idea of degrowth.
With me is Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist, author, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the United Kingdom. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics, and Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He recently published a book entitled Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World. The book is a must read for anyone who wants to know how we can stop ecological break down and enable human flourishing.
freshedpodcast.com/jasonhickel/
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Jan 11, 2026 • 31min
FreshEd #330 – Aboriginal Voices in Education Research (Nikki Moodie)
FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back in February.
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Today we explore aboriginal voices in education research in Australia. Australians will soon vote in a referendum about whether to change their Constitution to allow for the creation of an advisory body made up of First Nations peoples. This body would to provide advice to the Parliament and the government on matters that impact indigenous communities. This is called The Voice.
Nikki Moodie is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity at the University of Melbourne. Together with Kevin Lowe, Roselyn Dixon, and Karen Trimmer, she has recently co-edited the volume Assessing the Evidence in Indigenous Education Research: Implications for Policy and Practice.
freshedpodcast.com/moodie
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Jan 4, 2026 • 32min
FreshEd #378 - Globalization and Educational Futures (Fazal Rizvi)
FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back in February.
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Today Fazal Rizvi joins me to talk about his forthcoming book entitled Globalization and Educational Futures. Fazal revisits the rise of the popular discourses of globalization, examines many its discontents, and suggests nonetheless that it is too hasty to imagine its total demise.
Fazal Rizvi is Emeritus Professor in Global Studies of Education at the University of Melbourne, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Citation: Rizvi, Fazal with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 378, podcast audio, December 2, 2024. https://freshedpodcast.com/378-rizvi/
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Dec 28, 2025 • 43min
FreshEd #410 – 2025 in Review (Susan Robertson & Mario Novelli)
As we near the end of 2025, it’s time to take stock of the year. What were the big events this year and how might they impact the field of comparative education? What new ideas emerged? And where is our field headed in 2026? Continuing this FreshEd tradition, Susan Robertson and Mario Novelli join me for the last episode of the year.
Mario Novelli is professor in the political economy of education at the University of Sussex. Susan Robertson is a professor of education at Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge as well as at the University of Manchester. They co-edit the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education.
freshedpodcast.com/2025inreview
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Dec 21, 2025 • 31min
FreshEd #409 – Education ‘among the people’ in China (Baiwen Peng)
Today we unpack the Chinese term minjian and conceptualize it for the field of comparative education. My guest is Baiwen Peng.
Baiwen Peng is a doctoral student in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. His new article is “Minjian: exploring education ‘among the people’ in China,” which was published in Comparative Education.
freshedpodcast.com/peng/
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Dec 14, 2025 • 35min
FreshEd #408 – From the Former Soviet Union to Canada (Niyozov, Bahry & Antony-Newman)
Today we unpack the education experiences of students from the former Soviet Union who have migrated to Canada. My guests are Sarfaroz Niyozov, Stephen Bahry and Max Antony-Newman. For the past few years, they have been working on a research project that has explored the experiences of the high school children with post-Soviet backgrounds in the Greater Toronto Area. The research project strives to improve the education experiences of this under-researched, often misunderstood group of Canadian youth, their parents, and communities who come from the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Sarfaroz Niyozov is an Associate Professor in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, where Stephen Bahry is a sessional lecturer. Max Antony-Newman is a lecturer in education at the university of Glasgow. Various articles from their research project will soon published. You can follow the link to their project website to find them.
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freshedpodcast.com/niyozov-bahry-antony-newman/
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Dec 7, 2025 • 37min
FreshEd #407 – Education for Societal Transformation (Frank Adamson and Carol Anne Spreen)
Join Frank Adamson, an education policy expert, and Carol Anne Spreen, an international education professor, as they discuss transformative educational alternatives. They critique neoliberalism's effects on schools and emphasize the need for participatory, solidarity-driven approaches. The conversation highlights the urgency of rethinking education in the face of global crises like climate change and authoritarianism. They advocate for grassroots movements, radical dreaming, and the importance of education in shaping just societies.

Nov 30, 2025 • 29min
FreshEd #318 – Producing Global Learning Metrics (Clara Fontdevila)
Today we explore the production of global learning metrics inside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. My guest is Clara Fontdevila, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow.
Clara’s newest article is entitled “The politics of good enough data. Developments, dilemmas, and deadlocks in the production of global learning metrics,” which was published in the International Journal of Educational Development.
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Thanks to Matthew Thomas for organizing the event.
Citation: Fontdevila, Clara, interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 318, podcast audio, April 24, 2023.https://freshedpodcast.com/fontdevila/
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Nov 23, 2025 • 35min
FreshEd #262 – Climate Education beyond COP26 (Christina Kwauk & Radhika Iyengar)
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Today we take stock of climate education, its past and its future. With me are Christina Kwauk and Radhika Iyengar, who have recently co-edited the book, Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action: Toward an SDG 4.7 Roadmap for Systems Change. They argue that COP26 has been disappointing in terms of education and climate action, and encourage everyone to focus on local action and change.
Christina Kwauk is the Research Director at Unbounded Associates and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institute. Radhika Iyengar is Director of Education at the Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University.
Citation: Kwauk, Christina, and Iyengar, Radhika interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 262, podcast audio, November 15, 2021. https://freshedpodcast.com/kwauk-iyengar/
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Nov 16, 2025 • 33min
FreshEd #406 – Prioritizing and Improving Foundational Learning (Michelle Kaffenberger)
Today we explore foundational learning in low and middle income countries. My guest is Michelle Kaffenberger.
Michelle Kaffenberger is the Director of evidence translation at the What Works Hub for Global Education the University of Oxford. I Spoke with her on the sidelines of the Development and Education Conference (DevEd) held in Melbourne, Australia last week.
https://freshedpodcast.com/kaffenberger/
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Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com


