Those of you who listened to our epic Christmas special in December will remember Tom reading out a stream of tweets from Dr Emily MacLeod, who had just completed her doctorate about teacher recruitment. Well, now we have Dr Emily in person, speaking to us down the line, to delve deeper into the fascinating study she undertook which seeks to understand what motivates (and demotivates) people to become teachers. Using a massive treasure trove of longitudinal data from the ASPIRES project at the Institute of Education, Emily takes us through some of the really interesting things she’s found out, and what the implications might be for the ever more difficult task of recruiting new members of our wonderful profession. ————————————Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 28th February 2024