The Play Ed3 Podcast

Is AI making everything look the same? Rick and Tisha welcome back Amanda Macias, an instructional coach, 20-year public school educator, and the podcast's first-ever returning guest, for an unscripted conversation about where the human fits when AI can make the flyer, the poster, and the presentation for you. Tisha shares an AI crisis she's working through in real time. Using AI for produ...

Does ADHD Awareness Month actually change anything? Rick and Tisha hit record mid-planning and ended up living the answer: interruptions, tangents, and banter included. They start by questioning awareness months themselves. Awareness should happen every day, not as "an appointment to behave," and underneath it all, people just want to belong, to be seen, and to be understood. From there...

Ninth graders asking to write? Tisha and Rick press play with Stephanie Clinise, a ninth grade English teacher in Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania community lead for We Will Write, whose students keep asking, "Are we playing that writing game again this week?" Stephanie shares how she gets teenagers past the fear of being wrong (because, as she puts it, writing is "just screaming i...

What did you get in trouble for the most as a kid? For Barbara Bray, it was always asking "why?" Seven decades on, she's built a whole life around that question. Rick and Tisha sit down with the author, empowerment coach, and host of the Grow Your WHY podcast to talk about finding your purpose, and finding it again when life changes the plan. Barbara's path runs from dental hygie...

Why are teachers expected to be perfect when other professions get room to practice? Rick and Tisha open up the first responses to "What Are You Noticing?", the anonymous section of their new Press Play newsletter, and read them out on air. One listener asks why doctors and attorneys have a career practice while educators face a performance expectation of near perfection. Another sent in a powerfu...

Would you know if your co-host was lying to you? Tisha and Rick borrow the brilliance of the British panel show Would I Lie to You? for a no-guest, just-for-fun episode — each tells a story from their life, the other interrogates them, and then they make the call: true, or complete rubbish? The stories get wild fast. A hundred copies of The Exorcist's Regan hidden around a high school classroom. A...

What happens when an ed tech insider goes back into the classroom? Rick and Tisha sit down with Stephanie Howell (intervention specialist, instructional coach, Google Innovator, and co-author of Control the Chaos) just two weeks into a new school year, after years working at ed tech companies. Stephanie gets honest about what ed tech gets wrong about a teacher's day: time constraints that kill dee...

Nine experienced professionals posting about their job search in a single day was enough for Tisha to hit pause, so she and Rick recorded this impromptu midweek episode on what's really happening in today's hiring market. Rick brings the data: unemployment that looks steady but is quietly growing, senior roles drawing 150 applicants per post, "easy apply" culture, application tracking systems (ATS...

When did learning stop being fun? Rick and Tisha put that question to Scott Bricker — founder and CEO of AweFull Learning, and a 25-year veteran of classrooms, ed tech offices and school leadership — and the answer goes back to a logo sketched on a napkin in a Denver restaurant. Scott's whole company came out of one realization: for a lot of students, learning has become awful — A-W-F-U-L — an...

What did you believe at 25 that you'd now call complete bollocks? Tisha and Rick go off-script for this one — no plan, no guest, just the two of them working through the things they were taught and no longer believe. It starts funny: you won't always have a calculator with you, eat your carrots and you'll see in the dark, eat your crusts and your hair will go curly. Then it gets honest...

What do you do when the meeting meant to help your child feels like a poker game — everyone holding cards, nobody showing them? Rick and Tisha sit down with Dr. Amy Mathews-Perez, who spent 34 years in Texas public education as a teacher, speech pathologist, diagnostician, special education supervisor, assistant principal, principal and director of special education. Amy has sat on every side of t...

How many teachers walk into their classroom every day hiding a part of themselves? Rick and Tisha sit down with Dr. Jennifer Osborne, Assistant Principal and founder of Neuro-AFFIRMing Schools, to talk about what it really costs neurodivergent educators to stay silent. Jennifer's PhD research explored the lived experiences of neurodivergent educators, and she brings that research — plus her own st...

AI keeps getting pitched as the fix for everything wrong with education. Rick and Tisha sit down with Jeffrey Bradbury — founder of TeacherCast Educational Network — to make the case that it isn't. Jeffrey shares his journey building TeacherCast into a resource reaching educators in 180 countries, and why the real work of teaching still comes down to self-care, community, and consistency — not...

AI is everywhere in education right now — but is it making us more creative, or quietly flattening everything into sameness? Rick and Tisha dig into the question with real, honest experiences from their own lives. They start with feedback from past episodes before diving into AI in the classroom — why critical thinking and digital citizenship matter more than ever, and why asking the right questio...

Every educator has sat through a professional development session that felt like a waste of time. Rick and Tisha get into why — and it starts with mindset. They open up about how leaders handle uncertainty differently, then dive into a hilarious game of workplace bingo — calling out the habits and phrases that show up in every staff meeting whether you work in a school or a boardroom. From 'le...

What do you do when you've built a career most people dream of — and then lose everything to your own mind? Rick and Tisha sit down with Eric Kussin, former Chief Revenue Officer with the Florida Panthers and founder of #SameHere Global, for one of the most powerful conversations PE3 has ever had. Eric spent over 15 years at the top of professional sports — NBA, NHL, the works — before a sever...

Rick and Tisha just got back from ISTE — and they came home with a lot more than a tote bag and a lanyard. In this episode, they unpack what it really means to show up intentionally at a conference (and in life). From the significance of ISTE's name change to the moments that actually moved them, they dig into creativity, self-care, physical expression in education, and the gap between attendi...

Mental health isn't a detour from learning — it's the foundation of it. Rick and Tisha welcome Dr. Marialice Curran, educational consultant and Community Impact Director for #SameHere Global, for a conversation that goes deep. Dr. Marialice shares her personal journey navigating dyslexia and neurodivergence, and makes the case that what schools often treat as a deficit is actually a superp...

Screen time in classrooms — it's one of the most debated topics in education right now. Rick and Tisha dig into the real question: not whether to use technology, but how. They explore what intentional technology use actually looks like, why so many schools are getting screen time policies wrong, and what happens to teachers when they're stripped of autonomy over how they use it. From the l...

What does it take to truly show up for your students? Rick and Tisha sit down with Keke Powell — award-winning educator, costume enthusiast, and former collegiate soccer player — for a conversation that's equal parts hilarious and deeply inspiring. From rocking over 100 classroom costumes to building a travel community called the Ina Fam, Keke brings the same energy she had on the soccer field...

Before Rick and Tisha get serious, they flip the script — starting with Juice Box Confessionals, where Dr. Will Deyamport III takes a trip back to Colecovision, Donkey Kong, and the slow-internet betrayal that had him calling his provider in desperation. Then things get real. Dr. Will — author of The Edupreneur and host of The Dr. Will Show — makes the case that teachers are already entrepreneurs....

What do you actually mean when you say "quite good"? Or "I hear what you say"? Or "bless your cotton socks"? If you're British, you know. If you're American — you have absolutely no idea. Rick and Tisha dive into the hidden language that sits between British and American English — the phrases that sound polite but mean the opposite, the words that look the sam...

In this episode of the Play Ed3 Podcast, Rick and Tisha kick things off with the historic Artemis II moon mission before welcoming a very special guest — Avery Davenport. A recent high school graduate and first-time manager, Avery shares candid insights on what it really felt like to step into the real world, and what she wishes school had taught her first. From learning to trust yourself and thin...

In this episode of the Play Ed3 podcast, hosts Rick and Tisha welcome Matt Miller, an influential figure in education and author of 'Ditch That Textbook.' The conversation explores Matt's journey from journalism to teaching, his writing process, and the impact of technology on education. They discuss the importance of critical thinking in the age of AI and the need for educators to ada...

Season 2 kicks off with a bang. Rick and Tisha bring together four of EdTech's most connected educators — Claudio Zavala Jr., Jeni Long, Dr. Lydia Croupe, and Manny Curiel — for a conversation about the power of community. From noise violations at conference booths to flying solo to Minnesota for the very first time, the stories in this episode show exactly what happens when educators find the...