reeducated

In this conversation, I sit down with Caroline Winterer, a historian of early America and the history of ideas at Stanford University, to rethink what history actually is. We begin with a simple but profound shift: history is not something that lives outside of us in textbooks. It lives within us. The past flows through our cognition, shaping how we see time, progress, identity, and even ourselves...

In this episode, I sit down with Andrea Kane, a longtime educator and district leader who has worked at nearly every level of K–12 education, from substitute teacher to superintendent and now professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania. We trace her journey from banking into elementary classrooms, and then into school and district leadership. Along the way, we unpack what actually chan...

In this episode, I share the beginning of my story. Before the podcast, before the interviews, before the frameworks and ideas, there was simply a young person trying to understand the world. I reflect on the early experiences that shaped how I think, what confused me, and why certain questions would not leave me alone. This episode is not about achievements or milestones. It is about the internal...

In this episode, I sit down with Betsy Rymes to unpack something we all use constantly but rarely examine closely: language. We start with something deceptively simple, names, and quickly move into how naming, kinship terms, and everyday word choices carry intimacy, distance, power, and belonging. Betsy helps illuminate how language is never just a neutral tool. Every word carries layers of lived...

In this episode, I speak with Terry Moe about how political power shapes institutions and why bureaucracy plays such a central role in modern democracy. We begin with his work on the rise of the strongman presidency and how public frustration with democratic systems creates openings for leaders who promise simple solutions. From there, we explore how similar dynamics operate inside education, wher...

In this episode, I speak with Gretchen Brion-Meisels about what it really means to center young people in education. We begin by talking about her path into youth work and research, and how early experiences with students shaped her belief that education works best when young people are treated as partners rather than passive recipients. She explains why student voice is often misunderstood, reduc...

In this episode, I speak with Taylor Odle about how higher education in the United States became a system that promises opportunity while quietly reproducing inequality. We begin with his path from public policy and data science into education research, and why universities are such powerful and complex institutions to study. Taylor explains how metrics, rankings, and quantitative indicators shape...

In this conversation, I sit down with John Willinsky to explore a question that quietly shapes nearly every part of modern life: who gets access to knowledge, and why. We begin with his early years as a classroom teacher, where his love for literature collided with deeper questions about curriculum, authority, and the hidden values embedded in education. From literary theory and imperialism to the...

In this conversation, I sit down with Rupert Wegerif to explore one of the most fundamental questions in education, a question that is often avoided or quietly assumed rather than openly discussed. What is education actually for. We begin with personal origin stories and quickly move into a deeper examination of meaning, purpose, and why so many students today feel competent yet disconnected, info...

In this episode, I speak with Diana Rodríguez Gómez about what education looks like in places shaped by violence, displacement, and fragile state institutions. Our conversation begins with her work in Latin America, particularly near the Colombia-Venezuela border, where schools operate under conditions of uncertainty that most education research rarely addresses. Diana explains how schooling in th...

In this conversation, I speak with Tina Grotzer, a leading researcher in the learning and cognitive sciences, about what it actually means to learn in a complex world. We begin by unpacking learning not as the simple acquisition of information, but as preparation for future thinking and adaptation. Tina explains how our minds form causal models, why we rely on default patterns, and how real learni...

In this episode, I sit down with David Labaree , one of the most influential historians of education in the United States, to examine how schooling came to occupy such a powerful and complicated role in American life. We begin with his personal journey into the field and quickly move into a deeper discussion of education as both a promise and a problem. Schooling, he explains, has long served two...

In this conversation, I sit down with Elizabeth Robbin Bonawitz to explore one deceptively simple question: how do humans learn before they can even speak? We begin with early childhood and unpack how infants and young children actively explore the world, test hypotheses, revise beliefs, and build intuitive theories long before formal education begins. Rather than seeing learning as passive absorp...

In this conversation, I sit down with Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell to explore why so many well-intentioned education reforms fail once they reach real classrooms. We talk about the gap between policy design and day to day school life, and how organizational structures quietly shape what teachers, students, and leaders are actually able to do. Drawing from her experience as both a former classroom te...

In this episode, I speak with Jon R. Star, an educational psychologist whose work focuses on how students learn mathematics and how teachers can support deeper understanding rather than rote performance. We begin by discussing the gap between educational research and everyday classroom life, and how Jon has worked to bridge that divide by continuing to teach middle school math while conducting res...

In this episode, I speak with Gabrielle Oliveira, an anthropologist whose work explores migration, parenting, and the lives of children moving across borders. We begin with her reflections on raising her own children and how becoming a parent reshaped the way she understood her research. She describes the gap between ideals and practice, the constant need for flexibility, and how every phase of pa...

In this episode, I share the personal story of my car and the strange comfort it has given me over the years. It is more than a vehicle to me. It is a space where I have had some of my clearest thoughts, most honest conversations with myself, and a kind of quiet that I rarely find anywhere else. The car became a place where I could be alone without feeling lonely, where long drives opened up space...

In this episode, I speak with Jonathan Zimmerman, Professor of the History of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, about how schools shape democratic life and the tensions that sit at the heart of public education. We begin with the origins of modern schooling and how ideas about intelligence, ability, and citizenship became woven into the structure of the American school system. Jonathan...

In this episode, I sit down with Shaun M. Dougherty, Professor of Education and Policy at Boston College, to talk about how we measure learning and what our systems of assessment often miss. Shaun’s research focuses on education policy, equity, and the impact of accountability systems, and he brings both an analytical and deeply human perspective to the question of what counts as a good education....

Beyond Small Talk Summarized | Hosted By Mylon Kemp

Chapter 6: Conclusion | Beyond Small Talk: A Modern Framework for Understanding Someone Deeply.

Chapter Five: Challenges | Beyond Small Talk: A Modern Framework for Understanding Someone Deeply

Chapter Four: The Constant Themes Beyond Small Talk: A Modern Framework for Understanding Someone Deeply.

Chapter Three: The Nine Stages | Beyond Small Talk: A Modern Framework for Understanding Someone Deeply.

Chapter Two: Nature of Understanding | Beyond Small Talk: A Modern Framework for Understanding Someone Deeply | Season 11 Episode 2 | #170