Host Andy Vasily interviews inspiring leaders from professional sports, the field of education, and the health/wellness industry to unpack what striving for excellence means and to learn more about the guiding principles that shape their work.
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Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Martha James and I have an in-depth discussion about critical pedagogy, professional accountability, differentiation, and the importance of critical feedback. With over 30 years of experience in urban education, Martha shares her thoughts about what the biggest gaps are in the field of physical education and health and how schools can address these gaps in order to improve teacher practice and better engage students in their learning in physical education. I...
This episode features Professor Kevin Marks, who explores how mental and physical systems can optimize performance. He delves into his diverse work, including teaching psychology in prisons and consulting for athletes, emphasizing mindfulness, individualized goal-setting, and effective breath work. The discussion highlights the power of these techniques to foster resilience, adaptability, and sustained presence in challenging environments, both personally and professionally.
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sit down with my friend and colleague, Donovan Hall, to have a discussion about his background playing professional rugby and how this led to his trajectory into educational leadership. Donovan is the Director of Educational Technology at The KAUST School in Saudi Arabia and, as you can imagine, was faced with the challenging task of getting the entire organization ready for distance learning during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Once distance learning was...
Send us Fan Mail Happy to release part 2 of my interview with professional adventure skier and filmmaker, Brody Leven. In this episode, Brody and I discuss the obstacles that he faces on an ongoing basis in the work that he does and how he has learned to manage the fear that can arise from the danger that he is constantly up against. He shares his insight around avalanche risk management, the role of fear, and the powerful impact that preparation, learning, and intuition play in keeping him and ...
Send us Fan Mail As a professional adventure skier and filmmaker, Brody Leven travels the world to climb up and ski down some of the most challenging mountain peaks in the world. Through these adventures, Brody not only learns deeply about the physical and mental skills required to climb up and ski down these mountains, but also learns many important lessons that transcend his craft that he regularly applies in his personal and professional life. Brody is an activist for climate change and bring...
Send us Fan Mail Ewan McIntosh, the CEO and Founder of NoTosh , joins me on my podcast to share how the COVID19 public health crisis has impacted the work that he and his team have been doing around the world. In this episode, Ewan discusses what he has learned about himself, his global company, and how he and his team of innovative colleagues have managed to navigate the tricky waters caused by this pandemic. Ewan also share a few of the many successes that NoTosh has had over the years and the...
Send us Fan Mail Zack Smith is one of the very best early years educators that I have come across in my career. He puts a tremendous amount of time and energy into creating the very best learning experiences possible for his young learners in physical education. Through the use of story-telling and very purposeful environmental design, Zack focuses on engaging every single student in relevant movement experiences that deepen their learning and their motor competence. Zack and I collaborated deep...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Julian Edwards, the Primary Principal of the Inter-Community School Zurich shares his organization's journey over the past couple of months dealing with the current COVID-19 public health crisis. Julian speaks in-depth about how the leadership team has worked closely together with the teachers to help provide the very best distance learning experiences possible for their students. Through critical reflection and gathering feedback, his team was able to be agile ...
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Nicole LePera, The Holistic Psychologist, has built a community of over 2.4 million on Instagram through her commitment to help people around the world better understand and deepen their own learning about the power of the mind and body connection. She teaches people to create more empowering personal narratives by giving them the tools and skills needed to break free from subconscious habitual patterns of behavior and thought that hold them back from living more fulfilled a...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Kasson Bratton, the Deputy Director of Nanjing International School in China, shares the impact that the COVID-19 public health crisis has had on his organization and how they have dealt with the ongoing uncertainty caused by this pandemic. Kasson takes us through the first days of distance learning and the difficult challenges that they faced and speaks in-depth about the endless work done by the leadership team to get the school back to face-to-face teaching a...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ted Hill, the Director of Chadwick International School, in South Korea, shares his school's experience trying to navigate the tricky waters caused by the current public health crisis, COVID-19, and the impact that it has had on his organization. He speaks deeply about the process that the school has gone through to collectively come together to meaningfully collaborate in order to deliver a distance learning program that best meets the needs of their students. ...
Send us Fan Mail Angela Maiers' work has been featured on NPR radio, NBC news, ABC news and in the Huffington Post, USA today, and Forbes. She has over 30-years experience creating and leading change in the world of education. As a world-renowned author of 9 books, her influence has impacted over 60,000 classrooms in over 100 countries. Her Choose-2-Matter campaign brings hope to the world by helping every individual embrace their value and potential contribution to the world. Hope you have a li...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Stephen Gallacher, 2014 Ryder Cup champion and European Golf Tour veteran, shares what he has learned about himself through his experiences playing professional golf for more than 20 years at the most elite level in the world. Stephen opens up and discusses not only his successes, but how he was also able to work his way through some challenging moments in his career that ultimately led to him being in the winner's circle again. Stephen speaks about defining mom...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I have a conversation with George Couros, an “Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Consultant”, speaker , as well as the author of “ The Innovator’s Mindset ” and “ Innovate Inside the Box. ” George has worked with schools and organizations in many places around the world through conferences, keynoting, providing workshops, and consulting on how organizations can move forward by creating innovative environments for all learners in the community. In this...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I interview Fritzi Horstman, the founder and executive director of the Compassion Prison Project. In 2017, Fritzi won a Grammy Award working alongside Dr. Dre in The Defiant One, a 4-part documentary series. She has worked with many of the top names in the industry such as Richard Dreyfuss, Christian Slater, Jewel, Jennifer Lopez and many more, but it is not her accomplishments in the movie industry that now define Fritzi, but more so the work she is doing with ...
Send us Fan Mail James Greenshields, the founder of the Resilient Leaders Foundation based in Australia, joins me on my podcast to share his inspiring story. James was a commanding officer in the Australian military who led a combat team of over 100 soldiers into a war zone 15 years ago. Having experienced firsthand the devastating impact that war can have, James developed PTSD and major depression that almost cost him his life. However, he was able to do the deep internal work needed to not onl...
Send us Fan Mail Distance learning is tricky to navigate for teachers, but with careful planning that focuses on personalized learning, students can still thrive as they are able to find their own entry points to learning as artists. In this episode, Andrew Shuttleworth, a visual arts teacher from The KAUST School in Saudi Arabia, shares how he is striving to engage his students in a way that not only allows them to have voice and choice, but to work at a pace that best suits them as learners an...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Clare Dallat, an expert in risk and crisis management, shares her deep insight into how schools and other organizations can navigate their way through the current COVID-19 public health crisis. Clare has a PhD in Engineering Psychology and an MSc. in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management and is the Director of Risk Resolve, an Australian-based consultancy organization. Using a systematic approach, Clare and her team have helped over 100 schools and organizati...
Send us Fan Mail In this new podcast series, I plan to do short interviews with educational leaders from around the world to discuss with them how the current COVID-19 crisis has impacted them both personally and professionally. We will explore ways that they are learning to cope with the adversity and hardship, what is keeping them inspired, and what they are learning about themselves. It brings me great pleasure to have Kath Murdoch on the show to share her learning. Hope you have a listen. Ab...
Send us Fan Mail In this new podcast series, I plan to do short interviews with educational leaders from around the world to discuss with them how the current COVID-19 crisis has impacted them both personally and professionally. We will explore ways that they are learning to cope with the adversity and hardship, what is keeping them inspired, and what they are learning about themselves. It brings me great pleasure to have Michelle Remington on the show to share her learning. Hope you have a list...
Send us Fan Mail In this new podcast series, I plan to do short interviews with educational leaders from around the world to discuss with them how the current COVID-19 crisis has impacted them both personally and professionally. We will explore ways that they are learning to cope with the adversity and hardship, what is keeping them inspired, and what they are learning about themselves. It brings me great pleasure to have Anne van Dam on the show to share her learning. Hope you have a listen. Ab...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Neila and Andy share their recent learning related to mindfulness and the impact it can have on easing stress during difficult times. In particular how living more mindfully can help to better cope with the stress, anxiety and massive disruption caused by the current COVID-19 crisis that has inflicted itself on the world. About Andy and Neila Neila Steele and Andy Vasily are international educators who have worked at fully authorized IB schools in 5 different co...
Send us Fan Mail The episode you are about to listen to is with Othman Almulla, who is the first tour golfer from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was an honor and a joy to sit down with Othman to talk about his very unique journey and to learn more about him as a person and as a professional athlete. Othman exemplifies what it means to be a risk-taker and to have the guts and determination to follow his dreams. Othman is the very first tour pro to represent his home country of Saudi Arabia and i...
Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I feel very fortunate to have interviewed Simon Dyson. Simon, who is from England, was a 17-year veteran of the European Golf Tour having won 6 times in Europe and 3 times in Asia. Simon played in 20 majors over the years, having made the cut in 9 of them. Anyone who knows and understands the game of golf, knows just how hard it is to qualify for a major, let alone make the cut. Simon played in 2 Masters, 4 US Opens, 9 Open Championships, and 5 PGA Championsh...
Send us Fan Mail In todays’ episode, I sat down to have a face to face conversation with educational consultant and cartoonist, Matt Smith. Matt has a great story and is genuinely a person of the world. He is a third culture kid. If you haven’t heard this term before, this is what the actual definition is:Third culture kids (TCK) are people raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of the country named on their passport (where they are legally considered native) for a signific...
Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I sat down with Hamish Brewer. Anybody who has seen Hamish in action can immediately feel his presence, his passion, his zest for life and learning, and his desire to make a genuine difference in the lives of the teachers and the students he serves. Hamish is the principal of Fred Lynn Middle School in Woodbridge, Virginia. One the the very first things you can notice about genuine difference makers in this world is their ability to clearly articulate their p...
Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I had the privilege to interview Shawn Livingston. Shawn is a 10-year military veteran having served in Iraq during his time in the military. Having sustained a serious back injury while serving, he required long term use of narcotic pain killers to get through each day due to the intense pain he was experiencing as a result of the back injury. Over the course of two years, military doctor’s continued to prescribe these meds to Shawn which resulted in him dev...
Send us Fan Mail How habitual is it for you to take out your cell phone when waiting in lines or when in the company of strangers? How often do you strive to stay present and mindful in difficult situations? Is chaos more easily embraced when we practice mindfulness? How does practicing mindfulness help you to produce the best work possible? How does being present and truly listening help to improve the quality of relationships in your life? These are some of the questions that we explore in thi...
Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I had a chance to speak with renowned lecturer and author, Alfie Kohn. Alfie writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. He has published 14 different books since the late 1980’s and has been described by Time magazine as being America’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.”As well, Kohn has been featured on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including the “Today” show and two appearances on “Opr...
Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I feel very lucky to have sat down in person with Caterina Carna, who has become a good friend of our family here in Saudi Arabia. Caterina is from a small village in southern Italy, but has lived here at KAUST in Saudi Arabia for the past 5 years. Anyone who knows Caterina knows what a kind, caring, and compassionate person she is. What makes Caterina uniquely special is her ability to connect with others in an effort to build community and give people a gre...
