Edufuturists

What if the most valuable thing at an EdTech festival isn't the tech, but the conversation with the stranger sitting next to you? In this episode, Ben and Steve are joined by three people who know the Brilliant Festival inside out: Andy Miah, Melanie Tagg and returning guest Trudi Barrow. Festival director Martyn Collins was unwell and couldn't join, so the panel stepped in to explain why...

#Edufuturists #FutureOfEducation #AIinEducation What if the biggest problem in education isn't workload, personalisation or even AI, but the things we've simply never stopped to question? In this episode, Ben and Steve are back in the studio for The Big Review Part 18, looking back at eight recent conversations on the future of education. From heart-led leadership and the myth of AI person...

What if inclusion can't wait for a diagnosis, a plan or a nine-month waiting list, and every week we wait is a week a child loses? In this episode, Ben and Steve are joined by Mykhailo Kalitkin, a Ukrainian education entrepreneur who has spent more than 20 years working in education. After his son Kirill was diagnosed with autism and given a prognosis that he would never speak, Mykhailo set ou...

What if the biggest problem in education isn't AI, it's that almost nothing we already do has ever been tested for evidence the way a new drug would be? In this episode In this episode, Ben and Steve sit down with Dr Yusuf Ben-Tarifite - A&E doctor, social mobility researcher, and founder of Ava - to talk about what happens when you apply medical-grade evidence standards to education. From ema...

What if the man who invented modern American schooling didn't actually believe in it, not enough to send his own kids? In this episode, Ben and Steve take Edufuturists live on stage in front of an audience at Minerva Virtual Academy's (MVA) 5th birthday celebration, launching their new book, Pick 'n' Mix Education. They're joined by MVA founder and CEO Hugh Viney and home educa...

What if the real danger of AI in schools isn't plagiarism, it's your own child telling you off for not saying "thank you" to Alexa? In this episode, Ben and Steve sit down with Trudi Barrow - Edufuturist of the Year 2026 - to talk about the messy, brilliant middle ground between traditional craft and generative AI. From a late-night Midjourney experiment for a Year 10 design clas...

What if the biggest problem in education isn't too much choice but not enough of it, for the people who need it most? In this episode, we sit on the other side of the mic as David Cameron puts our new book, Pick 'n' Mix Education, under the microscope. Built around the analogy of choosing sweets at Woolworths, the book argues that education shouldn't be something done to parents an...

What if the biggest risk in AI and education isn't the technology at all, but the questions we've stopped asking? In this episode of the Edufuturists podcast, Ben and Steve sit down with Laura Knight, former teacher and leader turned AI and digital education consultant, to pull apart what "human-centred AI" actually means when you strip away the marketing gloss. Laura doesn't...

In this episode of the Edufuturists podcast, Ben and Steve sit down with Dave Jones and Stephen "Klem" Klemich to unpack Heart Styles, the character development framework built on 18 years of research into what really drives effective leadership, teaching and learning. Dave Jones is the founder of Uplift, a coaching and leadership consultancy based in High Wycombe, UK. He is an accredite...

Seven episodes, one big question: are we still having the same education arguments in 2026 that we were having a decade ago? In this episode, we sit down for our bi-monthly review, running back through seven recent Edufuturists conversations, pulling out the best bits, the sharpest provocations, and the ideas that are still bothering us weeks later. From AI governance and permanent exclusion to ki...

What if the biggest problem in schools isn't teachers resisting change, it's that they're never given enough safety to try it? In this episode, Ben and Steve are joined by Grant Wootten, founder of Edusfere, to unpack why so much of a teacher's best work disappears the moment they leave a classroom and what it would take to stop the cycle. Grant spent a decade teaching in Southeast...

Is kindness in school leadership a weakness, or is it the one thing that actually stops your best teachers walking out the door? In this episode of the podcast, Ben Whitaker and Steve Hope sit down with Joanna Povall, principal, COBIS lead improvement partner, and author of Kind Leadership: Leading Schools with Empathy, Honesty and Impact. Joanna has spent 30 years in education across the UK, Fran...

In this episode of the Edufuturists podcast, we chat with Andrew Young, social sciences teacher, co-director of a Teaching School Hub in York, and author of Adaptive Teaching: Culture to Classroom, published by Crown House. Andrew has spent 14 years in education, from an unexpectedly early stint as deputy head of sixth form in London to his current role co-leading a hub supporting 250 schools a ye...

In this episode of the Edufuturists podcast, Ben gets to sit down with AI pioneer and award-winning school leader Matthew Wemyss to unpack what AI literacy actually looks like when you stop treating it as a bolt-on subject and start building it into lessons teachers are already planning. Guest introMatthew Wemyss is Assistant School Director at the Cambridge School of Bucharest, a former Edufuturi...

In this episode of the podcast, we sit down with Alexandra Levit and Stephanie Loeck for a conversation about whether youth unemployment is really a "crisis" and what we should be doing about it either way. Alexandra Levit is a workforce futurist who has spent over two decades tracking the disconnect between what education provides and what employers actually need. Stephanie Loeck is VP...

What if the one thing standing between a child and a lifetime of struggle is simply which adult happened to notice them today? Turning down a pro wrestling contract to study Shakespeare isn't the usual route into running a multi-academy trust but nothing about Stephen Steinhaus's journey has followed the usual route, and that's exactly why this conversation is so good. Stephen is co-fo...

What if the most important people in your school or college never set foot in a classroom? In this milestone 350th episode of the Edufuturists podcast, we sit down with Chris Loveday for a conversation years in the making - one that reframes who really drives an education organisation. Chris Loveday is Deputy Principal for Digital, Data and Funding at City of Portsmouth College, and the author of...

In this episode of the Edufuturists podcast, Ben and Steve sit down with Shahneila Saeed for an extended version of a conversation that began at the Brilliant Festival. They dig into why play-based learning is rigorous pedagogy, how computing can be taught without a single computer, and what the games industry can teach the classroom about preparing young people for the world as it actually is. Sh...

In this episode, Ben and Steve sit down with Professor Sara de Freitas for an extended conversation following their meeting at the Brilliant Festival in Liverpool. It's a wide-ranging discussion about immersive learning, the bloated curriculum, serious games, assessment reform, and why the UK's response to AI in education has been so fractured. Sara is one of the few people to have led at...

In this episode of the Edufuturists podcast, it's just Ben and Steve in the studio for The Big Review Part 15, looking back over seven recent conversations and pulling out the threads that connect them. From leadership and wellbeing to AI, integrity and creativity, this is a fast tour through the ideas that defined the last review period, with plenty of prompts to send you back to the full epi...

In this episode, Steve and Ben sit down with Fredrik Haren - the Creativity Explorer - for a conversation that's been months in the making. It's a wide-ranging, thought-provoking dive into what creativity really is, where it comes from, and why our assumptions about it might be completely wrong. Fredrik Haren has spent 25 years studying human creativity across the globe, visiting 15 to 35...

In this episode, we sit down with Annie Chechitelli, Chief Product Officer at Turnitin, to unpack one of education's most urgent tensions: how do you preserve genuine learning in an age where AI can write a passable essay in seconds? We go beyond the detector-versus-cheater framing to ask what assessment, academic integrity, and the role of the teacher actually need to look like now. Annie Che...

Are we teaching young people to consume technology - or to change the world with it? In this episode, Ben and Steve sit down with Natalie Moore, CEO of Apps for Good, to explore what it really means to put young people in the driving seat of their own learning - and their own futures. From a council estate in East London to the London 2012 Olympics, and now leading one of the UK's most impactf...

What if the biggest barrier to student success isn't curriculum, funding, or leadership - it's that we're burning out the very people holding it all together? In this episode, we sit down with Charlie Burley - The Teachers' Health Coach - to get real about the burnout crisis hiding in plain sight across our schools. Charlie shares the moment his own breakdown became his calling, an...

What if the real risk of AI in schools isn't that it cheats - it's that it quietly switches off the parts of our brains we need most? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Rob Wessman, VP of Ethics and Safety at School AI, to dig into one of the most important questions in education right now: are we building AI tools that develop young people, or tools that do the developing for them? With a back...