Free Range Humans

Shanna Peeples is the Dr. John G. O’Brien distinguished chair in education at West Texas A&M university. In 2015 she was awarded USA National Teacher of the Year for her work at Palo Duro High School, and also found her way to Harvard where she attended classes taught by our co-host, Jal Mehta! Highlights from this episode include: an opening dialogue on the recent school shooting in Evalde, Texas...

Kim Ondrik is the Head Learner from Q'SHINTUL Mill Bay Nature School on Vancouver Island, and someone Rod and Jal have worked closely with in the past. They would describe her as courageous, fierce, values-driven, and always acting in accordance with her beliefs about what constitutes great learning for kids and adults. Highlights from this week's episode include: an opening discussion on the rece...

Kent McGuire is the Program Director of Education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He leads the investments in teaching and learning and open educational resources strategies, with a focus on helping all students succeed in college, work and civic life. Highlights from this episode include: an opening dialogue on re-entry into the world post-COVID; the childhood influences that develop...

Victor Cary has worked in education for over 40 years, starting as a high school teacher in Richmond, CA, and now serves as the Senior Director at the National Equity Project, where he leads development of the equity-centered coaching and leadership model. Susie Wise is a design leader with experience in the education, tech, and  social sectors. She coaches leaders in equity design and innovation...

Dr. Ulcca Joshi Hansen is an author, consultant,  founder of Educating Potential, and currently Chief Program Officer at Grantmakers for Education. Her work is aimed at changing the dialogue about education in America. Her conversation with Rod and Jal covers a lot of topics including: what different kinds of teaching and learning look like; why we need to move past endless debates and focus more...

Andy Calkins is the co-director of Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) and helps to lead strategy development, organizational management, and program execution across all phases of the initiative. Dr. Carlos Beato is the newest crew member and also co-director at NGLC. Prior to joining he served as the founding principal at the International High School at Langley Park (IHSLP) in Bladensbur...

Clara Medina is a senior at NEST+m High School in New York City. Madeline Mayes, is a junior at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, New York, and Kenisha Mahajan is a junior from Queens, New York who attends Stuyvesant High School. All three are involved in Next Generation Politics , a youth-led organization built to inspire and equip today's youth to drive a more productive, inclusive, and inf...

Zelia Gonzales is the co-founder of Rebel Ventures Network (RVN) which provides a structured environment for young people to develop, maintain, and reflect upon community and personal explorations. David Banda is a teacher at The MET, a network of six small, public high schools located in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island. They are joined by Andrew Frishman, a member of the Big Picture Learning...

Harsh Dhaliwal, Kyra McKinnon, and Chris Zimmerman are high school students and members of the Prince George District Student Advisory Council (DSAC). Katie Marren, their mentor teacher, also joined the conversation and she is the District Vice Principal in the Indigenous Education Department. This group is creating quite a stir in Prince George and beyond with their work on anti-racism, and with...

John Watkins  is Co-Director with Jal Mehta & Alisa Berger, of the Deeper Learning Dozen, creating a community of practice for superintendents who are committed to the transformation of their districts. He has over thirty years experience in consulting, coaching, designing, facilitating, researching, and evaluating in school and school district improvement efforts. Jessica Forbes is a teacher at O...

To celebrate the podcast reaching 10,000 downloads this week, we turned most of the interview topics over to our listeners — choosing questions they submitted leading up to the recording. Also, producer Gino Beniamino joins the episode as a guest host, and picks his favorite audience submissions along with a few of his own. The conversation covers a wide range of topics including: the origin of Ro...

Shelley Moore is a Canadian educator and an expert on special education. A teacher and researcher, she advocates for inclusive education and seeks to reform Individualized Education Programs to better suit the needs of individual students. Her energetic conversation with Rod and Jal includes: pointing out the differences between integration and inclusion; the importance of co-constructing communit...

Jody Hoffer Gittell is Professor of Management at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy & Management, and co-founder and board member of the Relational Coordination Collaborative. She is an expert in the human and humane approach to building organizations. Highlights from the conversation include: what it means to build a relational organization and culture; emphasizing internal co...

Marshall Ganz is the Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He teaches, researches, and writes on leadership, narrative, strategy and organization in social movements, civic associations, and politics. His conversation with Rod and Jal covers a number of topics including: the diversity and promise of today's young stu...

Gregg is the founder and co-chair of Remake Learning, a 15-year endeavor to build a learning ecosystem in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Remake Learning is a network that ignites engaging, relevant, and equitable learning practices in support of young people navigating rapid social and technological change. He is also executive director of the Grable Foundation, managing a g...

Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl is the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning and Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There has been a push to maintain in-person learning during the pandemic, and that has come with several new challenges - one of the biggest being how to handle the mental health impact being felt by everyone in s...

Dr. Jeff Duncan-Andrade is Associate Professor of Raza Studies and Education at San Francisco State University. He is also founder of the Roses in Concrete Community School, a community responsive lab school in East Oakland. His conversation with Rod and Jal covers many areas including: how schools should be leveraging the pandemic to re-invent themselves; the value of creating a space for failure...

Our first episode of the new year features two parts: an opening conversation between Rod and Jal addressing the latest COVID surge and what it means for education systems, and a one-on-one conversation between Jal and his mother, Louise Mehta, as they connected during the holidays.  Louise Mehta has been a teacher, administrator, and Associate Head of the Park School in Baltimore, Maryland, and m...

Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser have the privilege of leading the Networks of Inquiry and Indigenous Education and the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network. They are deeply committed to achieving equity and quality for all learners—and to networking for innovation and improvement both in Canada and internationally. Their conversation with Rod and Jal covers several topics including: an opening disc...

Anthony (Tony) Mackay is CEO/President of the Washington DC based National Center on Education and the Economy. He has held multiple positions within education and continues to consult in parts of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Tony is deeply connected to the global learning transformation agenda and offers a unique perspective on the current and future state of our education sy...

Alisa Berger was the founding principal at both the NYC iSchool, a New York City public high school, and the Mott Hall II school, a NYC public middle school. Devon Larosa is the former principal of La Follette High School in Madison, Wisconsin and currently works as the Deputy Chief of Schools - High School Network for the Chicago public school system. This robust conversation covers several topic...

Andy Hargreaves is Director of Chenine (Change, Engagement and Innovation in Education) at the University of Ottawa in Canada, and Emeritus Professor at Boston College, USA. He has published more than 30 books and has eight Outstanding Writing Awards. His most recent book, Five Paths of Student Engagement (with Dennis Shirley), focuses on engagement strategies that promote students' well-being, le...

Shane Safir is described as an innovator at heart, with a rare combination of leadership and instructional expertise. Her voice resonates with educators who want to reinvent their schools and organizations into places of equitable learning. Jamila Dugan began her career as a teacher in Washington D.C. and currently serves as an equity-centered leadership development coach across all sectors. Shane...

Michael Fullan is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. He is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative (npdl.global). Recognized as a worldwide authority on educational reform, he advises policymakers and local leaders in helping to achieve the moral purpose of all children learning. Highli...

Neema Avashia teaches ethnic studies in the Boston Public School system, and Jen Poeger is the Assistant Principal of La Follette High School in Madison Wisconsin. Both have accomplished incredible things and learned valuable lessons over the past year. Highlights from their conversation with Rod and Jal include: what classrooms should be focusing on as students return to in-person learning; what...