Trending In Ed with Mike Palmer
At the intersection of learning, media, and the future of work, join us each week as we sense and discover where the future of education is heading. Join host Mike Palmer, the Founder of Palmer Media, as he engages with thought leaders, pioneers, and entrepreneurs exploring the cutting edge of learning in these tumultuous times.
Episodes
December 19, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Sunanna Chand, Executive Director of the Reinvention Lab at Teach For America (TFA). As the leader of TFA’s future-of-learning R&D engine, Chand is tasked with a formidable challenge: bridging the gap between a 19th-century education system and the demands of the 21st-century world.
The conversation explores the Lab’s "Radical Departures" framework, a mental...
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December 16, 2025 • 40 mins
Host Mike Palmer interviews Joshua Jones, CEO and Founder of QuantHub, an AI company focused on education and skills development. Jones, who previously co-founded the data science consulting firm StrategyWise, explains that QuantHub originated as an internal tool before spinning out to focus on delivering micro-learning chunks that target individual learners' specific needs.
Jones offers sharp insights into the AI revolution: he a...
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December 12, 2025 • 44 mins
AI permeates K-12 education, but the rush to adopt new tools often bypasses critical questions about equity, bias, and human connection. On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Stephanie Smith Budhai and Marie K. Heath, co-authors of the new book Critical AI in K-12 Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Cultivating Justice and Joy.
Together, they dismantle the "myth of inevitability" surrounding EdTec...
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December 9, 2025 • 36 mins
Dr. Adam Gamwell returns to Trending in Education to explore the evolving collision of anthropology, artificial intelligence, and the human experience. Since his last appearance in 2019, the technological landscape has seen seismic transformations—from the pandemic to the explosion of generative AI. Host Mike Palmer and Adam discuss why the anthropological imagination is more critical than ever for navigating these changes.
Adam d...
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December 5, 2025 • 23 mins
In this special on-location episode, Mike Palmer visits the headquarters of The Urban Assembly (UA) in New York City’s Financial District to sit down with David Adams, CEO of The Urban Assembly and host of the Innovations in Education podcast.
We explore how David and his team have evolved from designing 22 high-performing schools in NYC to "designing tools" that solve critical constraints in public education. David breaks down hi...
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December 1, 2025 • 26 mins
Mike Palmer returns to the Thanksgiving table to serve up a side of applied neuroscience. Powered by the recently released Gemini 3, he examines the "gratitude cocktail," a potent neurochemical mix of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin that mimics the effects of antidepressants and strengthens social bonds. Beyond the chemistry, Mike explores the psychological framework of The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy....
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November 21, 2025 • 34 mins
In this special episode, we welcome back Lindsay Whorton, President of the Holdsworth Center, to discuss her new book, A New School Leadership Architecture: A Four-Level Framework for Reimagining Roles. We dive into why the current model for school leadership is unsustainable and explore a new framework for building capacity and driving results in Texas public schools and beyond.
The Holdsworth Center is a nonprofit focused on bui...
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November 18, 2025 • 33 mins
Matt Dalio, founder and CEO of Endless Studios, joins host Mike Palmer to explore the profound connection between games, technology, and workforce development. Matt, who grew up with an early global perspective—including a transformative year in China at age 11—brings his philanthropic drive to the world of scalable tech solutions .
We dive into how Matt's company, Endless, initially focused on providing computers in emerging mark...
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November 14, 2025 • 27 mins
On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer talks with Halley Bowman, who focuses on curriculum and tutor training at Saga Education, and Katherine Huete, founder of the consultancy Estelita and a leader in scaling language support at Saga. We explore the powerful resurgence of high-impact tutoring, especially its critical role in supporting emergent multilingual learners (EMLs) in secondary math.
Halley shares Saga...
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November 11, 2025 • 37 mins
Mike Palmer welcomes Carlo Rotella, a professor at Boston College and author of the book What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics. Rotella, who has an academic specialty in the cultures of cities and also writes for magazines like The New York Times Magazine, approaches his classroom as a "scene" much like a boxing gym or a music club, where people practice a craft and hone their "chops".
W...
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November 7, 2025 • 42 mins
On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer welcomes Liz Cohen, Vice President of Policy at 50CAN and author of the new book, The Future of Tutoring: Lessons from 10,000 School District Tutoring Initiatives.
We explore the massive, rapid mobilization of tutoring efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated learning disruptions. We look at the key components of effective high-impact tutoring—small ...
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November 4, 2025 • 31 mins
Welcome back to Trending in Education! This week, we dive headfirst into the accelerating world of emerging technology with Gerry White, Dean of Academic Technology for ECPI University. Gerry, an English and Music major turned tech enthusiast, shares his fascinating career trajectory and the work he is doing to keep ECPI University at the forefront of the AI revolution.
We explore the current landscape of AI in higher education, n...
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October 31, 2025 • 31 mins
On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer sits down with Jon Deane, CEO of GreatSchools, for a deeply informed conversation about the choices—and complexities—facing modern parents. GreatSchools' mission is simple: to help every parent cut through the noise and truly understand their children's educational options. As a parent to a 6-year-old, Mike knows firsthand that the pressure to choose the right path is real,...
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October 28, 2025 • 40 mins
The global landscape of education and work is changing at a pace that requires an entirely new approach to measurement. Trending in Education host Mike Palmer welcomes Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS (Educational Testing Service), the organization responsible for millions of assessments worldwide, to discuss the high-stakes transformation of how we identify talent.
We explore how the trillion-dollar education sector is struggling to measur...
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October 24, 2025 • 40 mins
On this episode of Trending in Education, Mike Palmer welcomes author Scott R. Levy to discuss his new book, Why School Boards Matter: Reclaiming the Heart of American Education and Democracy. Scott shares his journey from Wall Street to serving on his local school board in 2015, driven by the unintended negative consequences he observed from federal programs like Race to the Top.
We dive into how school boards transitioned from b...
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October 22, 2025 • 28 mins
In this special episode of Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer is LIVE! at Google's Headquarters in Chicago for Collegis Education's DisruptED event, providing highlights from six in-depth interviews with nine leaders in higher ed, technology, data, market analysis, and research.
We begin by hearing from Kim Fahey, the CEO of Collegis, who provides some framing about the role her team plays providing managed services to schools tryi...
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October 17, 2025 • 31 mins
In K-12 education, the urgency of children's needs often eclipses strategic thought, resulting in constant reaction and a "whack-a-mole" approach to problems. We talk with co-authors Elizabeth "Liz" City and Rachel Curtis about their new book, Leading Strategically: Achieving Ambitious Goals in Education, which offers a practical, accessible framework for leaders at all levels—from teachers to superintendents—to shift from constant...
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October 14, 2025 • 30 mins
We are thrilled to welcome a fellow podcaster and longtime education journalist, Jeff Young, to the show. Many know Jeff's work from his time hosting the weekly EdSurge Podcast, where he was a consistent voice covering the intersection of technology and learning. Now, Jeff is out on his own and has launched a new project to tackle the biggest story in education: AI and the fundamental questions it raises about what it means to lear...
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October 10, 2025 • 28 mins
Mike Palmer welcomes back Friend of the Show, AJ Gutierrez, the pioneering co-founder of Saga Education, now CEO of Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS).
AJ shares his transition from direct service to a focus on systemic change, detailing the crucial, often overlooked, mission of EOS: identifying and accelerating equitable opportunity for high-potential students. Historically, education equity conversations focus on raising students t...
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October 7, 2025 • 33 mins
Welcome to an inspiring conversation on the future of learning with Michael Ioffe, founder of Arist, a company doing really interesting work in education. Michael is a Forbes 30 under 30 and a Thiel fellow. Michael joins host Mike Palmer to share his journey, beginning with his early obsession with education, influenced by his parents who were refugees. His experiences, including scaling free live conversations with entrepreneurs t...
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