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Author: Palmer Media
What if the teacher shortage isn’t really a shortage of teachers? Host Mike Palmer welcomes Dr. James Lane, CEO of Unlimited Instruction (UI), formerly University Instructors. James started as a middle school band director, and went on to be a principal, a superintendent in three Virginia districts, Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the leader of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. James argues that the teacher shortage is really a workforce design problem. The real problems are pay, a thin pipeline, poor retention and a confusing path to certification. UI tackles this through InstructEd…
What happens when the original edtech pioneer gets an early look at GPT-4? Host Mike Palmer welcomes Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, for a conversation spanning two decades of edtech. Sal traces his path from hedge fund analyst tutoring his cousin Nadia over Yahoo Messenger to YouTube videos his cousins liked better than him in person, to a nonprofit serving learners in 50+ languages. He explains why he leaves his mistakes in, and why that human quality will be hard for AI to replace. From there, Sal recounts his first look at GPT-4 months before ChatGPT and…
Are screen bans solving the right problem, or just creating new ones? Host Mike Palmer welcomes Dr. Janice Jackson, Executive Director of the Education & Society Program at the Aspen Institute and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, for a conversation that trades hyperbole for nuance. Janice traces her path from CPS history teacher and debate coach to superintendent, then to founder of Hope Chicago, and now to Aspen. There she helps lead the new Rising Generations Strategy Group, a cross-sector, cross-partisan, intergenerational effort that puts young people at the center of the conversation, not just on the input list.…
Trending in Ed kicks off Season 11 with the return of Harvard’s Howard Gardner, the developmental psychologist behind the theory of multiple intelligences. Picking up where their first conversation left off, Howard and host Mike Palmer look past next year’s syllabus to ask what education should be in 2050 and beyond. Howard revisits Five Minds for the Future with a provocative claim: AI will increasingly outperform us at the disciplined, synthesizing, and creating minds, leaving the respectful and ethical minds as the core human work of education. He explains why he’s adding “It” to I, We, and They, what scouting,…
How can higher education rebuild its relationship with the public in an era of heightened political polarization, shifting financial models, and rapid technological disruption? In this episode of Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer welcomes back Jeremy C. Young, Senior Advisor at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), to discuss the foundational new report: Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education: The Trust Agenda. As part of our ongoing Trending in Higher Ed series—featuring insights from leaders like Eddie Watson (AI & pedagogy), Brian Rosenberg (Whatever It Is, I’m Against It), and Elliot Felix (The Connected College)—this episode explores…
Mike Palmer reconnects with old colleague Don Gregori, COO of First Factory, to unpack core insights from Don’s book, The Emergent Leader: A Guide to Brand Building, Leadership, and Self-Mastery. Drawing from a non-linear career path—ranging from theater major and aerial stunt coordinator to an 18-year tenure at Kaplan and scaling tech teams—Don shares practical strategies for authentic leadership, proactive stress management, and navigating AI workplace disruption. Key Takeaways 🎭 Unconventional Paths Build Strong Leaders: Creative backgrounds like theater teach team vision, feedback loops, and real-time collaboration far better than standard business classrooms. 🏷️ Authentic Brand Building: Standing out requires…
What if everything we know about teaching reading is upside down? In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with tech entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and innovator David Chalk to unpack a remarkable story of literacy, neurodiversity, trauma, and redemption. Key Highlights & Discussion Points: 🧠 Trauma and the Literacy Crisis: David recounts his early school trauma starting on day one of first grade, highlighting how unrecognized dyslexia and ADHD left him functionally illiterate for decades. ✈️ Building Success Beyond Reading: Despite reading at a fourth-grade level, David built multi-hundred-million-dollar businesses and became an airline jet pilot…
How do we move beyond baseline AI literacy to true AI fluency, agency, and self-efficacy for the next generation? In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Dr. Taniya Mishra, Founder and CEO of SureStart, to explore how hands-on, mentor-led AI education is empowering youth globally to shift from passive users to confident creators. Drawing from her 12+ years as an industrial AI researcher, Dr. Mishra shares how SureStart demystifies technology through near-peer mentorship, modular curriculum, and a layered approach to AI learning—from middle school vocabulary to vibe coding and building small language models. KEY…
In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer is joined by Dr. Ozgur Bolat, associate professor of educational science and author of The Reward Trap: Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids. Dr. Bolat shares his journey from seeking external validation to decoding the science of intrinsic motivation, offering practical strategies for parents and educators looking to move away from quick-fix rewards and build lasting resilience and internal drive in children. Key topics discussed include: 🧠 The Pitfalls of External Validation: How relying on rewards, praise, and criticism creates an external locus of control and…
In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Mike Peng, Founder and Managing Partner of Weatherstone Capital Partners, to explore the evolving intersection of education, technology, and capital markets. After missing a meeting at ASU+GSV in San Diego, Mike and Mike reconnect to unpack what it takes to scale educational ventures past the startup phase and navigate the broader macroeconomic shift from venture capital to private equity in EdTech. Drawing from his unique career journey—from engineering at UT Austin and strategy consulting at McKinsey to leading rapid growth at Block Renovation and earning an MBA…