Margin of Thought with Priten

In this episode, Priten speaks with Brad Bushman, professor of communication at The Ohio State University and a leading researcher on human aggression, about what children learn from violent media and why the same questions now extend to AI and robots. Bushman has spent decades studying how violent television, video games, music, and even scripture shape behavior. The conversation works through th...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Anand Rao, director of the Center for AI in the Liberal Arts at the University of Mary Washington and professor of communication, about what higher education should preserve and what it needs to rethink as AI reshapes the classroom. Rao has studied AI in digital studies courses for years and co-wrote an early book on ChatGPT in education in March 2023. The conve...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Jane Rosenzweig, director of the Harvard College Writing Center and lecturer in expository writing, about teaching writing in the age of AI. Jane's first-year course, To What Problem Is ChatGPT the Solution?, asks students to study artificial intelligence without outsourcing the work of thinking to it. They discuss why writing is inseparable from thinking, what...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Tiffany Brown, litigation counsel at Tech Justice Law, about what accountability looks like when AI products cause real harm. They discuss the wave of product liability lawsuits filed against ChatGPT, why disclaimers and "for entertainment purposes only" language do not insulate companies from responsibility, and how courts are beginning to treat generative AI a...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Cody Venzke, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, about who is actually protecting student privacy when the law has not caught up to the technology. They walk through what FERPA and COPPA do and don't cover, the limits of "FERPA compliant" as a marketing claim, how AI surveillance tools are being deployed in schools with...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Joel Sohn, Deputy Head of School at Head-Royce, a K-12 independent school in Oakland serving roughly 920 students, about how a school can build a coherent approach to AI without retreating into a rulebook. Joel walks through the two-year arc of arriving in fall 2023, identifying early teacher champions, taking them to the Schools of the Future Conference, and us...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Chuck Parish, an English teacher at a private Christian school in El Paso, about what it looks like to build an AI elective from scratch inside a community that is still deciding whether to be afraid of the technology or learn it. Chuck's path runs through pastoral ministry, teaching at the bachelor's level in Papua New Guinea, and a year of sixth grade before l...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Tina Austin, an AI educator and professor of biomedical ethics who helps institutions rethink assessment and teaching in the age of generative AI. As ChatGPT disrupted the assumption that polished output reflects student thinking, Tina moved beyond academic integrity concerns to ask a deeper question: what if we redesigned learning around when and how thinking h...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Laura Schroeder, an 18-year-old student in Germany who spent a year at an American high school and now participates in the Knowledge Society, a global innovation program for ambitious teens. Laura's dual experience across two education systems reveals a critical tension: while schools provide foundation and structure, ambitious students increasingly find their m...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Melvin D. Smith II, a digital learning specialist and computer science teacher at an all-girls school in Maryland where he teaches a required ninth-grade course called Digital Thinking. Smith challenges the assumption that today's youth are automatically tech-savvy and doesn't shy away from restricting access—his school has a no-phone policy—while simultaneously...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Lorin Koch, an educator who has taught across high school, online, and college settings after starting his career in journalism. Koch brings perspective from multiple vantage points—as a classroom teacher navigating AI integration, an online instructor confronting assessment challenges, and a parent of soon-to-be teenagers. Together they explore what happens whe...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Mary Shawn Newins, a computer science teacher in Greensboro, North Carolina, who arrived in the classroom at sixty with decades of corporate and sales experience but no coding background. Her unusual arc gives her permission to build AI literacy alongside her students rather than ahead of them. What emerges is a classroom culture where curiosity itself—not maste...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Alyssa Muhvic, a high school history teacher in Indiana navigating AI's reshaping of her classroom. With experience on her district's AI task force and deep expertise in both AI literacy and equity concerns, Alyssa demonstrates how educators can lead rather than resist technological change. She challenges the assumption that AI's presence signals either inevitab...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Brian Merusi, a special education teacher at Niles High School working with students aged 14–19 who have cognitive impairments. Brian brings two decades of international teaching experience across Abu Dhabi, Poland, Penang, and rural development contexts. The central tension: how do we unlock AI's potential for accessibility and student expression while protecti...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Paul Blaschko, an assistant teaching professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University. Paul's work sits at the intersection of liberal education, critical thinking instruction, and course design. The central question driving their conversation: in an era of AI that can generate plausible-sounding arguments and explanations, can we still teach students to think...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Megan Barnes, a PhD student in learning technologies at the University of North Texas and a K-12 librarian with 14 years of experience, about what age-appropriate AI in education actually means. Megan holds dual roles as library director and director of educational technology for early childhood through fourth grade in Dallas, and her research draws on cognitive...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Anna Zendell, a social worker turned educator who oversees healthcare management, human services, and wellness programs at Bay Path University, about what it takes to rebuild a curriculum around AI when the stakes are patient outcomes. Zendell is currently piloting an AI-enhanced program from the ground up, designing courses where a closed AI system mentors stud...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Kari Weaver, a librarian educator and program manager for the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Initiative at the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), about why existing tools like citation and methodology sections can't capture how AI is actually being used in research and learning -- and what a structured disclosure standard might look li...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Jack Kincaid, a third-year medical student at Harvard Medical School, about navigating clinical training in an era of powerful AI tools. Jack shares his perspective on Open Evidence (a medical LLM), Harvard's AI Sandbox, and the tension between leveraging new technology and developing as a physician. Key Takeaways: AI tools can accelerate diagnostic reasoning—bu...

In this episode, Priten and Yanni Chen explore what it actually looks like to build AI tools that support learning rather than shortcut it. Yanni, a master's student at Harvard Graduate School of Education and product developer at Deep Brain Academy, shares her experience creating an AI math tutor with a genuine commitment to scaffolding, cultural inclusivity, and keeping teachers central to the l...

In this episode, Priten and Jessica Maddry examine how surveillance culture and rigid policy enforcement are eroding trust and genuine learning in schools. From cell phone bans that criminalize normal behavior to reading programs that strip away the joy of stories, they explore how the gap between written policies and their ethical implementation has created environments of control rather than con...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Nathán Goldberg, a philosopher-statistician whose career weaves together two unlikely threads: professional soccer and democratic activism. As Vice President of the US Soccer Federation and founder of both Harvard Forward and Bluebonnet Data, Nathán has spent years thinking about who gets to sit in the rooms where decisions are made—and why it matters. Key Takea...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Varun Gupta, an Accounting and Economics professor at Wharton County Junior College in the Houston area who has been teaching since 2007. Varun is refreshingly candid about his own complicated relationship with AI—he uses it extensively for lesson planning, assignment creation, and communication, but worries deeply about what happens when students skip the grind...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Brian Tash, an elementary school teacher with nearly 30 years of experience who has witnessed the complete arc of education technology—from Scantrons to Google Classroom to AI. Brian shares how he balances technology integration with preserving fundamental skills like reading stamina and handwriting. The conversation covers his transparent approach to using AI f...

In this episode, Priten speaks with Noelia Pozo, a high school Spanish and French teacher with nearly two decades of experience who now heads the Foreign Language and Classical Department at her school. Noelia shares how she transformed her classroom by using AI openly alongside students rather than policing it. The conversation covers how she handles AI-generated work through relationship-buildin...