The Disagreement

On April 14, we recorded a live episode on the Fusion stage at the ASU/GSV education conference in San Diego. We dove into what I would argue is one of the most important questions, not just in education, but for us as a species: Does AI Expand or Atrophy Human Intelligence?  Is AI making us smarter, or is it actually eroding our cognitive capabilities? Embed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

This week’s disagreement is on Oz The Mentalist and the Ethics of Deception . This episode is about magic and mentalism, but, more than that, it’s about the nature of how we form beliefs, determine what is real, what is true, and the social consequences of mass deception. First off: who is Oz the Mentalist? He’s the guy you’ve probably seen in your social media feed, appearing to read the minds of...

Today we’re trying something new on the show –  it’s a different kind of book review, where we have a healthy disagreement around the core arguments made in a recently released book. The book is The Case for American Power by Shadi Hamid, a columnist for the Washington Post and host of the Wisdom of Crowds podcast. It’s a fascinating read – Shadi makes a case that you don’t hear very often: that A...

Today, we’re sharing a special live recording of The Disagreement at the Harvard Graduate School of Education*. Our topic: Parents' Rights and K-12 Curriculum. This is our first live recording in a university class, and we are incredibly appreciative of Professor Jim Peyser and his students for having us. This episode was sparked by the judgement in the recent Supreme Court case, Mahmoud v. Taylor...

Today, we’re continuing our How to Disagree series with an episode called How to Disagree On Gaza and Zohran Mamdani. A reminder: these episodes feature coaching sessions and real-life disagreements. Our goal is to equip everyone with the skills (and some inspiration) to more productively disagree. Please note: this session was recorded live, on Substack, this summer. And as you know, quite a lot...

Today, we’re doing the second episode in our new series: How to Disagree. A reminder: these episodes feature coaching sessions and real-life disagreements. Our goal is to equip everyone with the skills (and some inspiration) to more productively disagree.  On to the episode…You know that feeling when you walk into a room and realize someone’s talking about you? Imagine that on steroids: you tune i...

Today, we’re introducing the first episode in a new series: How to Disagree. As we expand our work to model and enable productive disagreement across lines of difference, we are trying something new with “How To Disagree.” Instead of bringing together experts to have a productive disagreement on social or political issues, we’re delving into interpersonal disagreements. Episodes will feature coach...

Recently, First Lady Melania Trump convened the second White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence in Education. There is simultaneously an incredible amount of excitement around AI in schools and just beneath it, a sort of terror about its potential impacts and all we do not know. We wanted to take a macro approach and examine the current state of AI in education, its promise, the fears, an...

Today's disagreement is about US Selective Public High Schools. These schools, also known as “Exam Schools”, are elite publicly funded high schools that have historically relied on a single entrance exam to determine admission.  You’ve likely heard of many of them: In Boston, you have Boston Latin, the oldest public high school in the country. Alums include Ben Franklin and Sam Adams. In New York:...

Today’s disagreement is about college and its worth-it-ness. Does the traditional college model still make sense in today’s economy? Should we embrace shorter-term skills-based alternatives? And how can institutions balance access, affordability, and workforce readiness in a rapidly changing world? Ryan Craig is a Managing Director at Achieve Partners and co-founder of Apprenticeships for America....

Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship. He has placed this issue at the forefront of his immigration agenda and it is now being taken up by the Supreme Court. To have this conversation, we’ve brought together a constitutional law scholar and a political commentator. Cristina Rodríguez is the Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law at Yal...

Today’s disagreement is about college campus detentions, due process, and free speech. We focus on the two most high-profile cases: Mahmoud Khalil: a green card holder, legal resident, and graduate student at Columbia University who had a leadership role within CUAD, which stands for Columbia University Apartheid Divest; and Rümeysa Öztürk: a graduate student at Tufts University who is a student v...

In March, we recorded an episode live on stage at SXSW EDU in Austin, Texas. This disagreement is all about ESAs, or Education Savings Accounts. You may have heard of ESAs under a different name, like vouchers or school choice programs. Right now, 18 states have some sort of ESA program in place. The programs are becoming more popular across the country, but should they be? What accounts for the i...

Today’s disagreement is about transgender health care for young people and the future of the trans rights movement. Gender Affirming Care is a method of treating gender dysphoria by affirming a child’s gender identity and tailoring medical and social interventions around this identity. This might begin with a social transition and often leads to a medical protocol that involves puberty blockers an...

Today’s disagreement is on The Telepathy Tapes, Autism, and the Paranormal. If you’re not familiar, The Telepathy Tapes is a cultural phenomenon and podcast that launched in Fall 2024. By early January, it was the number one podcast in the country. Today, it’s still in the top ten. Its core thesis is quite provocative: that there are non-verbal autistic young people who possess telepathic powers a...

This episode was recorded live on stage at EDTECH WEEK in New York City. Like most edtech conferences, there were many conversations about the potential power that AI could play in student learning. Ours was a different kind of conversation. We brought together two experts who both expressed skepticism about the role AI should be playing in education today. While they agreed on many things, there...

President Trump campaigned on a pledge to dismantle the DOE and has already made sweeping cuts to its research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). What role should the federal government play in U.S. education? Where should the Department of Education’s functions live bureaucratically? Should they stay in the DOE or be distributed to other federal agencies? Michelle Dimino is the Educa...

Gender diversity in sports has become a focal point in the culture war and point of disagreement for sports governing bodies. We recorded this episode before the recent executive orders affecting transgender people. But those recent developments have put the political in a new light. Hopefully what you hear feels like a totally different kind of conversation. What is the nature of biological male...

Destini Ann Davis is a peaceful parenting advocate and influencer with 1.5 million followers on TikTok. She's the author of Very Intentional Parenting, Awakening the Empowered Parent Within. In our Gentle Parenting, episode with Lori Gottlieb and Ryan Allen, we covered a lot of ground, but didn’t dive deeply into the role of discipline and punishment in raising kids. So we're circling back with on...

In the last couple of years, sports betting has exploded across the United States. The rise of mobile, app-based sports betting is having profound impacts on the nature of sports viewership, fandom, and gambling addiction, particularly amongst young men. Is the rapid ascent of online sports betting creating a public health crisis? Is the online sports betting industry predatory? How should it be r...

This disagreement is on The Ethics of Having Kids. In the age of climate change, is it more ethical to have kids or not have kids? What are the costs and benefits of either choice when the reality of our shared future is unknown? What does the pro-natalist movement and its policies get right and wrong? Heather Houser is a professor of English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. A cult...

Today’s disagreement is on AI tutoring and K-12 Education. How will AI tutoring benefit struggling and high achieving students? Will it enable personalized learning pathways for students? Two education experts come together for a longform, productive disagreement about whether AI is going to usher in a new era of personalized learning – and whether that is a good thing. Niels Hoven is the Founder...

Gentle parenting can be seen as a movement and generational push-back against the parenting styles that Gen-Xers and Millennials grew up with. We use “Gentle Parenting” as a stand-in for the entire constellation of modern parenting brands: Peaceful, Respectful, Mindful, Intentional, Conscious, Compassionate, Sturdy…While there are some small differences between each method, they all generally foll...

In this bonus conversation, we feature a short (and new) excerpt from the full disagreement between last week's guests, Roman Yampolskiy and Alan Cowen. Here we apply the question of whether an AI can become conscious to Alan’s company, Hume AI, and their chatbot EVI. For a different disagreement between Roman and Alan, check out the feature episode. Questions or comments about this episode? Email...

Today’s disagreement is on Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk. In this episode, we ask the most consequential question we’ve asked so far on this show: Do rapidly advancing AI systems pose an existential threat to humanity? To have this conversation, we’ve brought together two experts: a world class computer scientist and a Silicon Valley AI entrepreneur. Roman Yampolskiy is an associate...