Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they dive into the biggest stories shaping education technology this week: ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:04:32] OpenAI study shows teaching and tutoring are ChatGPT’s top global use cases [00:10:50] Parents testify in Congress about risks of unsafe AI chatbots for kids [00:19:38] Google announces “Learn Your Way” and AI video generation for YouTube [00:22:47] Shift from SEO to AEO as answer engines reshape discovery [00:26:39] UK secures $40...
Sep 26, 2025•58 min
Send us Fan Mail Naria Santa Lucia is the General Manager of Elevate at Microsoft , where she leads global education, workforce, and skilling programs that have already reached over 100 million learners. With 20+ years of experience across corporate, nonprofit, and international organizations, she has partnered with the UN, World Bank, and Ministries of Education worldwide to advance AI, cybersecurity, and sustainability skills. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why Microsoft calls this ...
Sep 25, 2025•40 min
Send us Fan Mail Dave Messer is a Product Manager on Google's Learning & Education team, leads product for emerging learning initiatives, including Learning Labs and Gemini. A former teacher with masters degrees in software engineering and education, he works with experts and the education community to build products that target real-world challenges for educators and students. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: Google’s vision for AI in education How multimodal learning makes concept...
Sep 23, 2025•46 min
Send us Fan Mail Andrew Grauer is the co-founder and CEO of Learneo Inc . , a leading productivity and learning platform that includes QuillBot , Course Hero , CliffsNotes , LitCharts , Scribbr , LanguageTool , and Symbolab . He also serves as CEO of QuillBot, an AI-powered writing and communications tool. Andrew launched Course Hero in 2006 while at Cornell University and has since grown Learneo into a global platform recognized as one of Inc.’s Best Led Companies. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in T...
Sep 22, 2025•44 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and guest co-hosts Matt Tower of Whiteboard Advisors , & Kate Eberle Walker , CEO of Presence as they break down the latest headlines in education technology and from Big Tech’s AI push to the evolving future of school models. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:00:00] Kate Eberle Walker on parents’ concerns about AI chatbots and student mental health [00:03:20] Apple integrates OpenAI and Gemini into Siri, reshaping the AI race [00:04:15] Global AI shake-up: Mi...
Sep 19, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Send us Fan Mail CT Turner is President of GED Testing Service and VP at Pearson’s Enterprise Learning and Skills division. A recognized leader in workforce development, he champions equitable economic opportunities for underserved populations. CT supports adult education and workforce initiatives, holding degrees from Indiana University and Wichita State University. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: How the GED has evolved over 80 years to serve a changing learner population The role of...
Sep 16, 2025•53 min
Send us Fan Mail Ivan Crewkov is the CEO and Co-Founder of Buddy.ai , the leading AI tutor for kids under 12, reaching over 20 million students annually from all over the world. Buddy is not just a chatbot. It’s an AI-powered talking animated character in a mobile app teaching English as a foreign language to students all over the world. Buddy is unique because it operates in a highly regulated environment where most off-the-shelf AIs like Chat GPT can't be used. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This...
Sep 15, 2025•45 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they break down the latest shifts in education technology, from Google’s aggressive AI push to early childhood challenges and new federal initiatives. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:04:48] Google’s AI surge disrupts Duolingo with gamified language learning in Google Translate [00:12:14] Google’s edge in practical AI tools versus the AGI race [00:17:28] Competitive landscape across OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and predictions for Chinese challen...
Sep 12, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Send us Fan Mail In this special episode, we speak with Daphne Li , CEO of Common Sense Privacy , alongside leaders from Prodigy Education, AI for Equity, MagicSchool AI, and ClassDojo—recipients of the Privacy Seal . Together, we explore how the edtech sector is tackling one of its biggest challenges: earning trust through responsible AI and data privacy practices. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: The purpose of the Privacy Seal How Prodigy builds trust through privacy-by-design How AI...
Sep 10, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Send us Fan Mail Abhay Gupta is the Co-Founder and CEO of Frizzle . He was Previously a Product Manager at Coinbase, where he drove $50M of incremental revenue, as well as Tesla, and Meta and helped scale an online e-learning platform to millions in revenue. He holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Economics from Vanderbilt University. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: How Frizzle saves teachers up to 20 hours a week Why Agile Learning can transform student progress The surprising c...
Sep 09, 2025•47 min
Send us Fan Mail Chong-Hao Fu is the CEO of Leading Educators , a national nonprofit specializing in comprehensive instructional improvement. Over the past 14 years, he’s worked to scale exceptional teaching and leadership in some of the country’s fastest-improving districts while exploring how emergent technology like AI can bring new possibilities to instruction. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why instructional coherence is the backbone of school improvement. How Leading Educators i...
Sep 08, 2025•45 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they navigate a week of heavy headlines in education technology—from AI risks and teen safety to global expansion moves by OpenAI and new research from Anthropic. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:02:20] AI panic in the headlines with concerns about teen mental health, suicide, and youth dependency [00:06:33] AI’s impact on job opportunities for new college graduates [00:08:00] Comparing AI anxieties with past moral panics about video games, mus...
Sep 05, 2025•34 min
Send us Fan Mail While you spent thousands of hours studying math in high school, odds are you never use any of it. There is math that really matters – it’s just not covered in school. Just as Freakonomics made us rethink economics, Aftermath does the same for math. Today’s guest, Ted Dintersmith , is a bestselling author, education advocate, and former venture capitalist who believes math has been weaponized—and it’s time to set things right. If you’re curious about the math you missed, and how...
Sep 01, 2025•54 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they dive into the biggest headlines shaping the future of education technology, from AI breakthroughs to new models of learning challenges. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:03:23] GPT-5 fallout and Altman’s vision for GPT-6 [00:08:14] AI risks: AGI fears, scams, misinformation [00:14:37] Post-COVID learning gaps and inequities [00:18:33] Students solving problems with AI [00:21:42] AI updates from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Grammarly [00:25:29] ...
Aug 29, 2025•1 hr 54 min
Send us Fan Mail Arun Saigal is the Co-Founder and CEO of Thunkable , the no-code platform where anyone — from students to startups to enterprise teams — can build powerful, native mobile apps. With an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and integrated Gen AI tools, Thunkable empowers creators to go from idea to real, publishable app without writing a single line of code. Arun has an S.B. and M.Eng. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT and has held various leading roles at techn...
Aug 25, 2025•57 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin, Ben Kornell, and guest co-host Matt Tower from Whiteboard Advisors for a back-to-school edition of Week in EdTech, covering market shifts, Big Tech’s push into education, the GPT-5 rollout, and the rising challenge of deepfake abuse in schools. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:03:40] Back-to-school funding uncertainty and “back-to-basics” mentality [00:06:40] B2C vs. B2B: consumer learning grows while institutions tighten [00:09:31] Big Tech moves from infrastru...
Aug 22, 2025•1 hr 41 min
Send us Fan Mail Drew Bent leads Education as part of Anthropic 's Beneficial Deployments. He also co-founded the tutoring non-profit Schoolhouse.world with Sal Khan. Prior to that, he wrote code at Khan Academy, taught high school math, and has been tutoring students for over a decade. Drew has degrees in physics & CS from MIT, and an education master's from Stanford. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why Anthropic made education one of Claude’s first real-world focus areas Insights...
Aug 21, 2025•30 min
Send us Fan Mail Julia Stiglitz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Uplimit , an AI learning platform helping companies equip their talent with the skills of tomorrow. She previously was a Partner at GSV Ventures, where she invested and partnered with some of the most innovative entrepreneurs in edtech. Prior to GSV, Julia was one of the first hires at Coursera and led many groundbreaking initiatives, mostly notably as Vice President of Enterprise, where she founded and led Coursera's enterprise busine...
Aug 18, 2025•39 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and guest host Claire Zau of GSV Ventures as they unpack a huge week for AI in education, major edtech mergers, and new funding opportunities. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:00:00] Claire Zau on AI tutor memory, personalization, and data contamination risks [00:01:58] Google Guided Learning Mode vs OpenAI Study Mode – Socratic AI tools compared [00:14:07] Google Classroom integration and the personalization edge from LMS data [00:15:16] Instructure and OpenAI p...
Aug 15, 2025•1 hr 43 min
Send us Fan Mail Amir Nathoo is CEO of Outschool , a marketplace for live online classes for K-12 learners, and an advocate for expanding education access. Previously, he led product development at Square and co-founded Trigger.io, a platform for creating native mobile apps. Amir holds an MEng in Electrical and Information Sciences from The University of Cambridge and lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children. Justin Dent is the founding Executive Director of Outschool.org . Justin w...
Aug 11, 2025•53 min
Send us Fan Mail Katy Knight is President and Executive Director of Siegel Family Endowment , where she leads bold, systems-focused philanthropy at the intersection of technology and society. Since 2017, she has advanced equity, flexible funding, and inquiry-driven grantmaking grounded in the scientific method, and centered on reframing big questions and learning alongside grant investments. Dr. Allison Scott is CEO of the Kapor Foundation , leading work at the intersection of racial justice and...
Aug 04, 2025•55 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they break down a pivotal week in EdTech, from AI breakthroughs to Roblox’s education push and the future of personalized learning. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:00:33] Quizlet report shows 85% of students and nearly 90% of teachers using AI, with different adoption patterns. [00:02:24] International Math Olympiad highlights AI’s reasoning advances, earning a gold medal and raising assessment questions. [00:11:16] OpenAI agents and AI-native...
Aug 01, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Send us Fan Mail Vijay Thakkar is a visionary entrepreneur, educator, and the CEO & Co-founder of FotonVR . He’s transforming the way children learn by bringing immersive Virtual Reality experiences into classrooms around the world. With a deep passion for innovation in education, Vijay has pioneered immersive Virtual Reality solutions designed specifically for school learning. Nisha Panchal is the Head of Global Business Development at fotonVR. With a strong focus on international business ...
Jul 28, 2025•50 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Claire Zau , a Partner and AI Lead at GSV Ventures as they explores the latest developments in education technology, from AI agents to teacher co-pilots, talent wars, and shifts in global AI strategies. ✨ Episode Highlights [00:00:00] AI teacher co-pilots evolve into agentic workflows. [00:02:15] OpenAI launches ChatGPT Agent for autonomous tasks. [00:04:24] Meta, Google, and OpenAI escalate AI talent wars. [00:07:38] Privacy guardrails emerge for AI a...
Jul 25, 2025•1 hr 33 min
Send us Fan Mail Tammy Wincup has served for over 25 years as a business executive at the intersection of technology and education. Tammy is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Securly , the leading digital safety and wellness company serving over 22,000 K-12 schools globally to keep students safe, secure, and ready to learn. Before Securly, Tammy was a partner at Rethink Education, an impact venture fund investing in global education technology. For almost a decade, Tammy was the Chief Ope...
Jul 22, 2025•51 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the latest developments in education technology, from AI showdowns to immersive learning pilots and funding updates. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:02:00] OpenAI announces $28M K-12 AI training initiative with AFT, UFT, and Microsoft [00:04:34] Gallup-Walton poll reveals 68% of teachers lack AI training despite high usage [00:07:11] OpenAI takes a bottom-up approach as teachers criticize Google’s AI rollout [00:23:41] Meta forms ...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 38 min
Send us Fan Mail In this special episode, we speak with the founder of Edthena and five outstanding educators who were honored as 2025 Teacher Leader Impact Award winners. Each guest shares how they’re shaping the future of professional learning, using technology in smart and supportive ways, and leading from the classroom and beyond. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why teacher leadership goes beyond classroom walls. How video coaching and AI are transforming PD. What real educators wa...
Jul 15, 2025•1 hr 25 min
Send us Fan Mail Sam Whitaker is the Senior Director of Social Impact and Institutional Development at StudyFetch , an all-encompassing AI learning platform for students. His primary focuses are bringing advanced AI education to underserved communities around the world and developing safe and responsible K-12 AI solutions. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: How StudyFetch is redefining AI as a learning tool, not a shortcut. The story behind Sparky, the AI tutor designed for real engagemen...
Jul 14, 2025•48 min
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell with guest Jacob Kantor as they explore a transformative Week-in-Edtech, from Google’s AI-powered classroom revolution to major political shifts affecting schools nationwide. Episode Highlights: [00:03:17] Google launches 50 AI tools for educators through Classroom and Gemini [00:05:47] Startup funding threatened as Google expands free AI features [00:13:41] Google solidifies K-12 dominance, pushing out AI competitors [00:24:51] OpenAI and ...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 35 min
Send us Fan Mail Matt Miller is the CEO and Co-Founder of OKO Labs , an innovative EdTech company developing human-centric, pro-social AI to power collaborative learning in K-12 classrooms. With a background as CTO and VP of Labs at Amplify Education and VP of Product at Flatiron School, Matt brings deep technical expertise and a passion for leveraging technology to solve real-world educational challenges. Holding BS and MS degrees in Computer Science and Intelligent Systems from Columbia Univer...
Jul 07, 2025•47 min
