Only Boring People

Dr. Shana Carpenter is a Professor in the School of Psychological Science at Oregon State University and has extensive research on best retrieval practices.

Andrew Butler is an Associate Professor of Education and Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Butler's research focuses on how the process of retrieving memories affects the content and phenomenological characteristics of those memories. We talked about his undergrad, dissertation, and research experiences, and then transitioned into the tension between desirable difficulty and retrieval accuracy and success.

Mark A. McDaniel is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) at Washington University in St. Louis. We discussed his 2014 publication, Make It Stick, and the principles, research, and tactics that appear in the book. I shared with him some of my classroom experiences with these techniques and Mark offered some feedback and advice.

Dr. Peter Liljedahl is a professor at Simon Fraser University and a renowned mathematics education researcher. His book “Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics” presents over 15 years of research on… essentially, getting students to do more thinking. It’s a fascinating read and I was really honored that he took the time to speak with me.

Dr. Jodi Magness is a Classical and Biblical archaeologist specializing in ancient Palestine (modern Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories) from the time of Jesus up to the tenth century. Her research interests include Jerusalem, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient synagogues, Masada, the Roman army in the East, ancient pottery, the Byzantine-early Islamic transition, and Diaspora Judaism in the Roman world. Without further introduction, I give you Dr. Jodi Magness.To follow her upcoming work, please visit the dig’s website.

Dr. Lisa Schrenk is a Professor of Architectural History at the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. She is the author of multiple books, including The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright; and she is the co-founder of the global Institute for the Study of International Expositions (ISIE). Without further introduction, I give you Dr. Lisa Schrenk.

Dr. Steven Weitzman is a scholar in the department of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania and his research specializes in the Hebrew Bible, ancient Judaism and the origins of Jewish culture— and it is my pleasure to invite him back to the show. Without further introduction, I give you Dr. Steven Weitzman.

Dr. Sarah Fine is an educator, ethnographer, and the co-author of In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School. She currently directs the High Tech High Graduate School of Education’s Teaching Apprenticeship Program and also serves as a Lecturer in Education Studies at the University of California San Diego.

Dr. Jal Mehta is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has written extensively on what it would take to improve American education, with a particular focus on the professionalization of teaching. Jal is the author of several books and publications, including… In Search of Deeper Learning, a contemporary study of schools, systems, and nations that are seeking to produce ambitious instruction which he co-authored with Dr. Sarah Fine. In addition, Dr. Mehta produces a podcast with Rod Allen called Free Range Humans. Without further introduction, I give you Jal Mehta.

Shamoyia Gardiner is the executive director of Strong Schools Maryland. Shamoyia is a first-generation American, first-generation college graduate from Miami. Due in part to her identities and experiences as a former educator, she’s determined that life is best spent working at the intersection of education, advocacy, and youth development.  Since its inception in 2017, Strong Schools Maryland has built a sprawling network of tens of thousands of individual grassroots supporters focused on securing the 2020 passage and 2021 veto override of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, a law dedicating financial resources and critical policies to create a world-class system of public education in the state of Maryland. Without further introduction, I give you Shamoyia Gardiner. For more information about the work Shamoyia and others are doing at Strong Schools Maryland, please visit strongschoolsmaryland.org.

Amy Junge is a former California public elementary and middle school teacher and assistant principal. She started working with teacher-powered schools in 2009 and was a contributing author for Trusting Teachers with School Success: What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots. Today, Amy is the Director of Teacher-Powered Schools, an organization started in 2014 with the goals of highlighting the successes of teacher-powered schools, and inspiring other teacher teams to either take charge in their schools or design and run new schools. Amy supports educator teams across the country with teacher-powered governance, collaborative leadership, and autonomous school models.  Julie Cook teaches middle school at the Souderton Charter School Collaborative, a K-8 school in Souderton, Pennsylvania. Julie joined SCSC in 2002 and has been instrumental in designing and sustaining a teacher-powered school with her colleagues. SCSC’s mission to change the environment of education through individualized, experiential, and community-based learning is supported by the school’s innovative organizational processes and systems that empower teachers. To learn more about Teacher-Powered Schools, please visit their website at teacherpowered.org.

Massimo Pigliucci is currently the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. His research interests include the philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and practical philosophies like Stoicism and New Skepticism. His most recent book The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders (Basic Books, 2022) is about the philosophy of character. It delves deep into the question of whether or not character can be taught, and how, and it applies these questions to our search for upright citizens and leaders. Please be sure to visit his website in the link in the description. Without further introduction, I give you Massimo Pigliucci.

Dr. David Bentley Hart is an author. To call him anything else, I found, gets a little tricky. He expressed to me in our conversation, for example, not really enjoying the title of theologian, though many might call him that. Similarly, others might try to categorize him as Orthodox, although again, he tells me he has little interest nowadays in orthodoxy, regardless of whether or not you capitalize the O. The problem of trying to introduce someone like David Bentley Hart reminds me of the Whitman line: “I contain multitudes.” Having now just spoken with him, I can’t think of a better introduction. And so I give you, Dr. David Bentley Hart.

Michael Horn speaks and writes about the future of education and works with a number of organizations to improve the lives of as many students as possible. Michael Horn is the author and coauthor of multiple books, papers, and articles on education, including the award-winning book “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns” and the Amazon-bestseller “Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools.” To learn more about Michael, please visit his website linked here.

Sharif El-Mekki is the Director of the Center for Black Educator Development (CBED) which he founded in 2019. Prior to that, Sharif was an educator in Philadelphia for nearly 30 years. Sharif served as the principal of Mastery Shoemaker beginning in 2008 and under his leadership the school received a number of notable awards including the 2016 bronze medal on the U.S. News & World Report high school rankings, 2015 Schools That Can School award, and two Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) awards (Silver, 2011; Gold, 2009). In addition, Mastery Shoemaker ranked as the 7th-best high school for Black student achievement in PennCAN’s Top 10 Schools Report Card. Sharif has served as a 2013 U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow and America Achieves Fellow. Sharif blogs at Philly’s 7th Ward and serves on the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on African American Males as well as Excellent Schools PA. And, in addition to all this, and I’m lucky to say it, El-Mekki was my principal and boss at Mastery Shoemaker shortly before he left to begin the Center for Black Educator Development. Without further introduction, I give you Sharif El-Mekki. Feel free to visit The Center for Black Educator Development here.

Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal is the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Religion for eight years and helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He presently helps direct the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he served as Chair of Board from 2015 to 2020. Jeff is the author or co-author of twelve books. He specializes in the study of extreme religious states and the re-visioning of what he calls “a New Comparativism”. He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of religions and the sciences for The University of Chicago Press, collectively entitled The Super Story. Without further introduction, I give you Dr. Jeff Kripal. Please visit his website, linked here. 

Kevin O'Brien, SJ, is a Jesuit priest and educator. He has taught and served in the administration at several Jesuit universities, including Georgetown, Santa Clara, and Saint Joseph's and he is passionate about connecting his writing and teaching to the cause of environmental and social justice. He is among the most widely read authors in the field of Ignatian spirituality today. His best-selling books include The Ignatian Adventure and Seeing with the Heart. In these works, he translates the 500-year-old tradition of Jesuit spirituality to a wide audience today. Here are links to both of his books: Ignatian Adventure: https://store.loyolapress.com/the-ignatian-adventure?utm_source=only-boring-people&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=only-boring-people-podcast Seeing with the Heart: https://store.loyolapress.com/seeing-with-the-heart?utm_source=only-boring-people&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=only-boring-people-podcast

Dr. Richard Ingersoll is a leading expert on America’s elementary and secondary teaching force. His research examines teaching as a job, teachers as employees, and schools as workplaces—from a teacher’s pre-employment training through their last day in the classroom. After teaching in both public and private schools for a number of years, Dr. Ingersoll obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. From 1995 to 2000 he was a faculty member in the Sociology Department at the University of Georgia. In 2000 he came to the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and in 2012 was appointed Board of Overseers Professor of Education and Sociology. He has published more than 100 articles, reports, chapters, and essays on topics such as teacher turnover, migration, and attrition; math and science teacher shortages; teacher education and the problem of underqualified teachers; induction and mentoring for beginning teachers; school accountability; teacher leadership and empowerment in schools; changes in the demographic character of the teaching force; the status of teaching as a profession; and shortages of teachers from underrepresented racial-ethnic groups. Without further introduction, I give you Dr. Richard Ingersoll.

Dr. Elizabeth Bonawitz received her Ph.D. from MIT in the brain and cognitive sciences in 2009. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at University of California, Berkeley (from 2009-2013). She was an Assistant and Associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University, Newark from 2013 until 2020 when she moved to Harvard. Currently, Dr. Bonawitz is the David J. Vitale Associate Professor of Learning Sciences at Harvard University. Her work focuses on the basic science theories of learning with the broader goal of informing educational practice. Her research bridges two research traditions: cognitive development and computational modeling. Specifically, Dr. Bonawitz’s approach focuses on the structure of children's early beliefs, how evidence and prior beliefs interact to affect learning, the developmental processes that influence beliefs, and the role of social factors in learning. Without further introduction, I give you Dr. Elizabeth Bonawitz.

Dr. Connie McReynolds is a licensed psychologist and certified rehabilitation counselor with more than 30 years of experience in the field. She has a proven track record of more than 13 years of successful outcomes using neurofeedback with children and adults ages 5-90.  Additionally, Dr. Connie has published and presented internationally on her successful outcomes in treating ADHD in children and adults. Without further introduction, I give you Dr. Connie McReynolds. Learn more about Dr. McReynolds' work at: www.conniemcreynolds.com