Send us a text 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...
Send us a text 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 [00:2...
Send us a text 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...
Send us a text 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 infrastr...
Send us a text 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 areasInsights f...
Send us a text 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...
Send us a text 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 ...
Send us a text 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. Jus...
Send us a text 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 justic...
Send us a text 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-nativ...
Send us a text 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 bus...
Send us a text 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 eme...
Send us a text 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 Chi...
Send us a text 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...
Send us a text 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 want...
Send us a text 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 engagement....
Send us a text 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...
Send us a text 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...
Send us a text Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell for a thought-provoking summer edition of Week in Edtech, featuring headline debates on AI in education, a rare look into PBS KIDS’ funding crisis, and grassroots innovation in ocean learning from Ecuador. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:03:16] MIT study raises alarms about AI's impact on student thinking [00:07:42] AI cheating scandal hits national debate championships [00:12:33] Teachers vent frustration as AI disrupts classroom dynamics [00:1...
Send us a text Jerome Pesenti is the founder of Sizzle AI, an AI-for-learning company whose mission is to make learning amazing for everyone. Jerome has worked in AI for the past 25 years, including as VP of AI at Meta, co-CEO of BenevolentAI, VP at IBM Watson, and co-founder of Vivisimo (sold to IBM). 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: How Sizzle AI uses bite-sized, adaptive learning to help students study more effectively.Why Jerome left big tech to tackle educational challenges with ...