If the goal of education is to prepare students for the future, why are we not teaching them explicitly about the future? In an age of rapid change and uncertainty, what might education look like if imagination was treated as essential as literacy or numeracy? 🎙️ Episode Summary In this episode of The Learning Future Podcast , host Louka Parry speaks with Dr. Peter C. Bishop, executive director of Teach the Future and retired professor of strategic foresight from the University of Houston. Toge...
Jul 08, 2025•32 min•Season 9Ep. 7
What if peaceful system transformation isn’t led from the top, but from within — through the everyday choices of those embedded in the system? In a world craving certainty, how might we learn to embrace dissonance and cracks as the starting points of meaningful change? Episode Summary In this episode of The Learning Future Podcast , Louka Parry speaks with renowned systems thinker and facilitator Adam Kahane , author of Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems . Drawing on more than 30 years of ...
Jul 01, 2025•34 min•Season 9Ep. 6
What are we at risk of losing in our pursuit of efficiency, innovation, and AI-driven transformation in education? Are we designing systems for resilience—or are we unintentionally reinforcing inequality through the paths of least resistance? In this insightful conversation, Louka Parry is joined by Tracey Burns—Chief of Global Strategy and Research at the National Center on Education and the Economy, former OECD leader, and international systems thinker. Speaking from Paris, Tracey draws on her...
Jun 24, 2025•35 min•Season 9Ep. 5
What if the key to transformative leadership lies not in having answers, but in asking the right questions? How can embracing curiosity over certainty revolutionize our approach to education and organizational growth? In this episode, Jeff Wetzler delves into the transformative power of asking questions and how it can unlock hidden wisdom within organizations and educational systems. He introduces the “Ask Approach,” a five-step method designed to foster deeper understanding and innovation by ta...
Jun 17, 2025•41 min•Season 9Ep. 4
📘 Episode Summary: In this deeply thoughtful episode of The Learning Future Podcast , Louka Parry is joined by Dr. Katrin Kaeufer—author, educator, and co-founder of the Presencing Institute at MIT. Together, they explore how the emerging future can shape our present actions through the practice of presencing , a method that integrates mindfulness, leadership, and systems change. Katrin shares personal reflections on stepping into novicehood, how embodiment reshaped her approach to teaching, an...
Jun 10, 2025•39 min•Season 9Ep. 3
How might we design AI not just to personalize learning, but to truly make it personal, enabling each learner to discover and design their own purpose? What would professional development look like if it mirrored the learning experiences we aspire to give young people—human-centered, delightful, and deeply relevant? In this rich and forward-looking conversation on The Learning Future Podcast, host Louka Parry is joined by Sunanna Chand, Executive Director of the Reinvention Lab at Teach For Amer...
Jun 03, 2025•43 min•Season 9Ep. 2
What if we designed our education systems around relationships instead of outcomes—what would change in how we measure success? As AI rapidly integrates into learning environments, how do we safeguard and elevate the irreplaceable value of human connection in a child’s development? In this thought-provoking episode of The Learning Future Podcast , host Louka Parry is joined by Isabelle Hau, Executive Director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning and author of Love to Learn: The Transformativ...
May 20, 2025•37 min•Season 9Ep. 1
What if Emotional Intelligence Was as Essential as Math? Are We Truly Preparing our peers to Lead with Emotional Intelligence? In this special episode of The Learning Future Podcast, host Louka Parry welcomes back the podcast’s inaugural guest, Professor Marc Brackett, a global authority on emotional intelligence and founder of Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence. They dive deep into the significance of emotional education, reflecting on how far the field has come and the challen...
Dec 19, 2024•44 min•Season 8Ep. 8
How can educators and designers cultivate learning experiences that prepare us for a future that is constantly unfolding? In a world where the pace of technological change accelerates, what roles do emotion and creativity play in shaping our educational paradigms? Carissa Carter is a designer geoscientist and the Academic Director at the Stanford D School. Carissa guides the development of the D School’s pedagogy, leads instructors, and shapes its class offerings. She is known for her expertise ...
Aug 28, 2024•43 min•Season 8Ep. 7
How can educators balance the need for structure in the classroom with the importance of fostering student agency and creativity? In what ways can design thinking be leveraged to challenge and dismantle oppressive systems within our education systems? Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel is an esteemed educator and designer known for her work on equity, social justice, and the inclusion of underrepresented voices in design education. Currently transitioning to OCAD University in Toronto, she previously served as...
Aug 21, 2024•44 min•Season 8Ep. 6
How can we, as educators, better harness the power of reflection to shape the future of our students and our world? In a system that often prioritizes the "right answer," how can we cultivate a culture of divergent thinking and curiosity in our classrooms? Leticia Britos Cavagnaro is an innovative educator, designer, and scientist, currently co-directing the University Innovation Fellows program at Stanford's D School. With a PhD in developmental biology from Stanford University, Leticia has ded...
Aug 14, 2024•37 min•Season 8Ep. 5
How can we harness our infinite creative potential in everyday life? What role does failure play in building creative capacity? Grace Hawthorne is an entrepreneur, designer, educator, author, and artist. She's the founder and CEO of Paperpunk, an award-winning origami and Lego mashup. Grace is also an adjunct professor at the Stanford D School, where she teaches courses on creativity and failure, and leads groundbreaking research on creative capacity building. In this episode, Grace Hawthorne di...
Aug 07, 2024•47 min•Season 8Ep. 4
What are the impacts of integrating contemplative social emotional learning and systems thinking in education? How can we transform our educational structures to better serve the well-being of students and educators? Mette Miriam Boell is a biologist specialized in the evolution of complex social systems, mammalian play behavior, and philosophy of nature. She holds a PhD in organizational ethology from Aarhus University and additional degrees in contemplative leadership and the philosophy of sci...
Jul 31, 2024•41 min•Season 8Ep. 3
How can we effectively integrate AI into education to prepare students for the future? What key competencies and character traits must education systems prioritize in a rapidly evolving technological landscape? This episode features Charles Fadel, founder of the Nonprofit Center for Curriculum Redesign and author of "Education for the Age of AI." Charles has taught at Harvard, MIT, Wharton, and the University of Pennsylvania, and has held executive roles at Cisco Systems. He brings a unique pers...
Jul 24, 2024•47 min•Season 8Ep. 2
What if the success of our education system was measured by how well it engages students in their passions rather than standardised test scores? How might the dynamics of a classroom change if students, parents, and teachers all had an equal say in designing the curriculum? In this episode of the Learning Future podcast, Louka Parry talks with Rebecca Winthrop, a senior fellow and co-director at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. They discuss the technical setup cha...
Jul 17, 2024•49 min•Season 8Ep. 1
Hello team and welcome back to the Learning Future Podcast! It's been quite a while since our last release, but we're excited to bring you a special episode today. We’re taking a moment to reflect on the incredible journey of Season 7, aptly titled "Education Transformed," and offering a glimpse into the exciting content we have lined up for Season 8. Season 7 Retrospective: Season 7 was an extraordinary collaboration with the international think tank, Salzburg Global Seminar. As a multiple-time...
Jul 08, 2024•24 min0
In an environment of rapid academic and technological achievement; what are the potential long-term impacts on individual well-being and societal development should social-emotional learning no be effectively incorporated into our educational systems? What can we do to balance and serve broad diverse requirements of young learners? Ryder Delaloye is the Associate Director for SEE Learning® (Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning) Program at the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-ba...
Dec 09, 2023•42 min•Season 7Ep. 20
How do you safely define 'peak humanity' and what would you consider its main characteristics? What ingredients make the education, reasoning, rationality, and creativity for an era of fulfilment for humanity; particularly when faced with dramatic and powerful tools such as AI? Dylan Wiliam is one of the best known educationalists in the world. He’s dedicated his entire career to understanding how to ensure learner outcomes are achieved, especially through the study of formative assessment. Dyla...
Sep 02, 2023•40 min•Season 7Ep. 19
How does one become the realisation that much of what might be learned over 15 years of schooling was mostly meaningless influence over a person's life trajectory? How might free and untethered gaps help one find personal growth, resilience, and navigation in their life? Sal Gordon dives into the details of his Peaceful Pirate Principle. After Sal's schooling, he quickly realised that most of what he had learned in over 15 years of formal education seemed meaningless. In a way, Sal felt that sch...
Aug 19, 2023•38 min•Season 7Ep. 18
What conditions in our current learning systems may be hindering our young people's ability to thrive, and how might we address these barriers to foster better learning environments? See some of Cathrine’s projects at www.trustforlearning.org and her nature-based learning report published in April 2023, found here . This conversation features a longing to expand into capabilities that make us really human and help us in the new reality of the marketplace, for example, to be problem solvers, risk...
Jul 19, 2023•38 min•Season 7Ep. 17
Are we truly promoting self-control or just compliance to adult demands? How can we engage students in deep, effortless, and meaningful learning experiences? Stephanie M. Jones is the Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Child Development and Education and Director of the EASEL Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research, anchored in prevention science, focuses on the effects of poverty and exposure to violence on social, emotional, and behavioral development from early childhood thro...
Jun 30, 2023•34 min•Season 7Ep. 16
How might a background in politics, including as Minister of Education, shape an approach to public education? What significant initiatives or reforms from Government might spearhead successful and positive education reform in the public sector? Mr Olli-Pekka Heinonen became the 8th Director General of the International Baccalaureate Organization on 1 May 2021. Prior to joining the IB, Mr Heinonen was Director General of the Finnish National Agency for Education where he worked from January 2017...
Jun 21, 2023•47 min•Season 7Ep. 15
Have you ever considered how curiosity is a powerful state of mind and being? What feel-good trends are there in modern humanity? Jigyasa says her name means curiosity, and in this conversation, she doesn't shy away from delving into deep explorations of creativity, holism, beautiful futures, and even meeting our dreams. These two deep-thinking changemakers share their insights, free of inhibitions, and encourage listeners to embrace their own curiosity to change the world for the better. Jigyas...
Jun 14, 2023•39 min•Season 7Ep. 14
How can a basic understanding of neuroscience empower children to take control of their reactions and behaviors? How can schools cultivate conditions that promote flow in their students and why is this important for optimal learning and fulfillment? This conversation is a goosebump inducer, an optimistic and can-do showcase of the practicality of practices that can promote flow - high-level performance and deep learning. Dido Balla Speaker, Educator, and Entrepreneur, Dido is currently the Head ...
Jun 02, 2023•41 min•Season 7Ep. 13
What are the ingredients, components and other big Cs for human flourishing? What tools are available and what are unneeded to achieve our visions? Alex sets out clear and enactable frameworks and approaches to achieve our visions and ultimately create systems in our work and life geared for human flourishing. Alex Battison is Senior Deputy Head at Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire, UK. Previous to that, he was on the SLT at Wells Cathedral school in Somerset and taught at Hurstpierpoint Coll...
May 26, 2023•32 min•Season 7Ep. 12
Why do some students have such few hopes for the future where others do, when both have the same potentials and opportunities? What are some revolutionary, brave, and ingenious developments of technology design in education? Lasse Leponiemi is a co-founder and executive director at HundrED, https://hundred.org/ a mission-driven organisation focusing on identifying, amplifying and implementing education innovations. Lasse has been working with the youth education and career planning since 2003. I...
May 18, 2023•37 min•Season 7Ep. 11
What does it mean to empower younger generations? Does it shift power away from others, or does it empower the whole? The concept of sharing and building and renovating our spaces, co-designed intergenerationally, enables more broad outcomes and possibilities. This episode features two guests and contributors to Salzburg Global Seminar, this seasons partner. Elo·ise loves to connect ideas, people and places. In her work with the charity Big Change, a catalyst for long-term changes to how we supp...
May 11, 2023•34 min•Season 7Ep. 10
What does it mean to recognise that education is more than an institution, but a state of being? What are some of the shifts of perspective required for positive systemic transformation? People and their systems are in symbiosis, the relationship between personal and systemic transformations is an inseperable one. Romana Shaikh is the Chief Program Officer at Kizazi, a global non-profit that seeks to catalyze innovation in the design of school models to enable all children to thrive. She has dee...
Apr 19, 2023•46 min•Season 7Ep. 9
How do projects of Agency across broad ranges and portfolios across Peru impact upon the lives in the community? Hear from a Peruvian expert in education about how a system has empowered hundreds of students into role models and doers of admirable public and community good. Franco is CEO and co-founder at Enseña Peru. https://ensenaperu.org/ Franco finds, connects and develops leaders to transform education together. His passion is student leadership. He holds a master’s degree in education from...
Apr 01, 2023•48 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Is there a way to prepare ourselves for complexities that don’t fit standardised approaches or formula? How complicated can pedagogy become before it’s unworkable, and what does it take to increase this threshold? Transcripts available at https://www.thelearningfuture.com This episode features The Learning Future’s Director of Leadership and Culture. Dr Anne Knock is an educator, facilitator, and coach who enables profound shifts in strategy, leadership, culture and pedagogy through her wisdom. ...
Feb 16, 2023•38 min•Season 7Ep. 7
