Broken Custodians

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to Dr Mandy Pierlejewski, senior lecturer and researcher at the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University, about the Reception Baseline Assessment and the digitisation of skills testing for four-year-olds. They explain what the RBA is, why it is carried out in the first weeks of primary school, and why...

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem reflect on their recent conversation with Tom Richmond (Episode 4), and ask what it means for parents concerned about the growing use of one-to-one devices, AI and other edtech in schools. They discuss why learning depends on children thinking hard, and why the spread of classroom technology may be undermining that process...

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem discuss the libertarian case for restrictions on children’s access to harmful social media, and why this is consistent with the free speech of adults. They explain why free speech matters to them as much as child protection, and why the Online Safety Act has been failing on both fronts: infringing the free speech of adults...

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to education expert Tom Richmond about the infiltration of AI into UK schools, and the serious questions being missed in the rush to embrace it. Starting with the government’s enthusiasm for expanding the use of AI in education, they explore how these tools have already become embedded into classrooms through the sof...

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to former pharmaceutical industry insider Dr Alan Black. They begin with a recent case in which Moderna was found to have allowed inappropriate payments to be offered to children to join a medical trial, and use it as a starting point to explore broader questions about ethics and accountability in the pharmaceutical...

In this episode of Broken Custodians, lawyers and campaigners Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem examine the UK Covid Inquiry’s Module 4 report and contemplate the official account of that era now being constructed by the Inquiry. Drawing on their work during and after the pandemic, Molly and Ben discuss school closures, children’s health policy, government secrecy, the premature sidelining of...

In this first episode of Broken Custodians, lawyers and campaigners Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem introduce the questions at the heart of the series: how are decisions affecting children being made, who benefits from those decisions, and what happens to those who challenge them. Drawing on their work during and after the pandemic, Molly and Ben discuss school closures, children’s health po...

Broken Custodians is a bold podcast with Molly and Ben Kingsley of UsForThem, hosting candid discussion of ethics, corporate influence and accountability in public policy-making affecting children. Hosts: Molly Kingsley, Ben Kingsley Senior Producer: Francesca Gilardi Quadrio Curzio Video Editor & Audio Producer: Andrija Klaric