Money & Breakfast

In this wide-ranging conversation, Mike Saunders sits down with longtime MCPS educator and (champion) boys tennis coach Gilbert Cooper II to explore the deep connections between education policy, classroom reality, technology, and human development. From the unintended consequences of standardized testing and shifting academic benchmarks to the growing influence of AI, smartphones, and short-form...

In this insightful interview, Dr. Policarpio Soberanis shares his journey from applied mathematician and systems engineer to a business development leader. He discusses the importance of critical thinking, effective communication, and the future of quantum computing and AI, emphasizing how these technologies can be harnessed for societal benefit. "Trust science because math doesn't lie." "If you w...

This time on Money & Breakfast, we sit down with the Ambassador of the Republic of Mali to the United States, H.E Sekou Berthe. The Ambassador speaks candidly about the geopolitical structures and catalysts that led to the creation of the AES (composed of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger), the blocs stalwart charge towards sovereignty, the persistent terrorist threats that the States are fighting...

What happens when the rigor of graduate-level research meets the unpredictable reality of human behavior? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Adam Thomas, Faculty Director of the MPP program at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy. From his pioneering work on the FamilyScape simulation model at Brookings to his deep-dive analysis into the fiscal impacts of social policy, Dr. Thomas speci...

Most innovation isn’t about the technology itself. It’s about how fast and how well people iterate, adapt, and build on it. In this eye-opening episode, AI strategist Alex Allen deconstructs the unpredictable race between nations, startups, and individual innovators shaping the future of AI, quantum computing, and cybersecurity. If you’re wondering how some succeed wildly without conventional cred...

The conversation delves into the impact of decisions on life expectancy, the compression of time in war, solving African problems with African solutions, the influence of culture on outcomes, changing culture and leadership, success stories of Rwanda, Botswana, and Ethiopia, leadership and development progress, the role of institutions in success, the foundation of successful institutions, and the...

On this episode of the Money & Breakfast podcast, our guest is Ian Lowery, an academic debate coach, researcher, and former professor. The conversation centers this time on the incoming college enrollment cliff, Ian's experience as a professor of young age, the art of rhetoric and how to form an argument, and the benefits of debate as well as Ian's ongoing career as a coach. Don't forget to li...

In this conversation, I sit down with Melvin Foote, a veteran advocate and leading expert on U.S.-Africa relations with over 4 decades of experience shaping policy, as well as the founder of The Constituency for Africa, a non-profit organization dedicated building coalitions, creating economic networks, and bridging the diaspora with the continent. We dive into the current state of U.S. engagement...

Technologist, curriculum designer, and educator C.T Unonu sits down with A.M for a wide ranging conversation around education and the curriculum that drives it. The two discuss American literacy scores, how C.T's multi-continent education gives him unique insights into what works as far as instructional design, and C.T's case for re-prioritizing the humanities as part of a complete STEM (really, S...