Trending In Ed with Mike Palmer

What would you build if someone handed you a university with almost no students and told you to start over? We kick off our EdTech Week 2026 series live from Teachers College's Digital Futures Institute with Dr. Nick Ladany, President of San Francisco Bay University (SFBU). Nick is a first-gen college student and a counseling psychologist by training. He worked his way from professor to dean acros...

What if schools stopped paying for books, licenses, and PD days, and started paying for kids learning to read? Back on the show for round two, Really Great Reading CEO Karl Rectanus joins Mike Palmer live from EdTech Week 2026 at Teachers College's Digital Futures Institute. Karl started out as a teacher and charter school CFO, taught overseas, and then founded LearnPlatform, whose rapid-cycle eva...

When AI can tutor anyone, anytime, why are parents still choosing human tutors? Live from EdTech Week 2026 at Teachers College's Digital Futures Institute, Mike Palmer sits down with Eugene Kashuk, founder of Brighterly and the show's first guest from Ukraine. Eugene is a serial entrepreneur with a go-to-market and operations background. Over five years he has grown Brighterly into a direct-to-con...

What if the most important edtech company in your classroom is one you've never heard of? Live from EdTech Week 2026 at Teachers College's Digital Futures Institute, Mike Palmer sits down with Dan Goldstein of Learnosity, the assessment engine that powers some of the biggest names in education from behind the scenes. Dan's path ran through College Board's SpringBoard curriculum, where he led imple...

What would change if schools knew their students the way the best companies know their customers? Host Mike Palmer welcomes back Trending in Ed all-star AJ Gutierrez, CEO of Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) and co-founder of Saga Education, for his first Bring a Friend episode. AJ's friend is Dr. Susan Enfield, Executive Director of the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washing...

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’...

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. H...

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 Chic...

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 incre...

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 Tr...

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...

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 starti...

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 i...

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...

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 b...

How can higher education equip Gen Z to navigate rapid AI disruption, political polarization, and shifting workplace expectations? In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer connects with Francesca Schuler, Executive Director of Dialogue Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt University. Drawing from her executive career as a COO and CEO in private-sector consumer and fitness industries, Frances...

What if the safest career path in an era of rapid AI disruption is actually doing something entrepreneurial or mission-driven? In this episode of Trending in Education, Mike Palmer is joined by Arun Gupta, CEO of NobleReach Foundation and author of The Mission Generation: Reclaim Your Purpose, Rewrite Success, Rebuild Our Future. Drawing from his background as a venture capitalist, Georgetown and...

Host Mike Palmer connects with Monica Marquez, founder of ⁠FlipWork⁠ and founding director of the ⁠TIDE Center at UNT Dallas⁠, to explore how humans can navigate the rapid disruption of AI in the workplace. Drawing from her deep background in human capital, diversity, and leadership development at industry giants like Goldman Sachs, Google, and Bank of America, Monica brings a deeply human-centere...

Host Mike Palmer connects with behavioral neuroscience expert and executive coach Dr. D. Ivan Young to discuss his book, Leading from the Heart. They analyze the balance between artificial intelligence and human emotion, detailing how self-empathy, compassion, and psychological safety impact leadership. Dr. Young also shares practical insights on managing emotional signals, navigating media-driven...

How do we shift the role of teachers from passive curriculum implementers to active classroom architects? This week on Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer is joined by K-12 math teacher and author Jim Gaona Ellis on the day his new book drops: Educators as Designers: The Hidden Architecture of Learning. Drawing from his unique background transitioning from an architecture student to a global educator...

This week on Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer is joined by Trending in Ed all-star Beth Rudden, CEO of Bast AI. From her roots digging in the dirt as an archaeologist to managing a $34 billion division as the Chief Data Officer of IBM Managed Services, Beth brings a deeply grounded, technical perspective to the artificial intelligence conversation. In this wide-ranging and insightful conversation,...

In this milestone 750th episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer takes the podcast on the road to the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) for the Next Level Lab Spring Learning Summit. Centered on the future of work, workforce learning, and instructional design, this episode features a dynamic series of conversations with emerging researchers and educational innovators who are re...

Big changes are coming to Trending in Ed. Next Tuesday, June 9th, we are hitting a historic milestone: Episode 750. To celebrate our upcoming 10th-anniversary season, we are completely reinventing the show's structure for a massive Summer 2026 Sprint. We are officially launching four dedicated summer tracks to follow the changing talent and learning landscape: K-12 Classroom Design AI & EdTech The...

Commencement season is here, and while we all love the tradition, let’s be honest: a lot of graduation ceremonies are still operationally stuck in the 18th century. This week, Chase Rigby, CEO of Tassel, joins Mike Palmer to talk about what it actually takes to modernize the final milestone of the student lifecycle. Chase shares his path from teaching seventh-grade math and science with Teach For...

In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer welcomes Erika Kitzmiller, a research associate professor at the University of Chicago and author of the new book, Unchartered: How One Public High School Transformed First Generation College Success. Drawing on her own background as a former middle school teacher and a proud first-generation college graduate, Kitzmiller shares the insight...