This episode is a conversation between 4 dads with kids @ Galileo. At Galileo, there are families from all around the world who have chosen to home educate their children for a number of reasons. For some, it’s to suit a nomadic lifestyle or to break the status quo. For others, they’re fed up with the traditional schooling system and want to do more for their children. Listen in as we share our unique family journeys on education and everything in between. This conversation took place...

Have you ever reacted strongly to something your kid has done, and then later regretted how you handled it? Does this happen way more often than you’d care to admit? Include me in that camp! My guest today Hunter Clarke-Fields had her own breakthrough moment. Years ago, she noticed her young toddler was becoming fearful from momma’s yelling, and she knew something needed to change. Now Hunter is a mindful mama mentor. She is the creator of the Mindful Parenting course, host of the Mindful...

Dr. Jeannine Jannot is an academic coach and the author of The Disintegrating Student: Struggling But Smart, Falling Apart, and How To Turn It Around. She has over 25 years of experience working with children, teens, and young adults in both public and private school settings. In 2014 she founded The Balanced Student, which offers customized academic coaching for middle school, high school and college students. (and parents) Jeannine has a master's degree in school psychology from The...

Covid restrictions have put enormous pressure on a lot of kids. One research study reveals that depression and anxiety in youth has doubled compared to pre-pandemic levels. One in 4 adolescents globally are experiencing clinically elevated depression symptoms, while 1 in 5 youth are experiencing clinically elevated anxiety symptoms." What we have is a global mental health crisis in youth. My guest today, Dr. Karin Jakubowski sees this first-hand. She’s a school principal, and has worked...

I’m really excited for today’s show, which is especially for parents raising differently wired children - children with learning disabilities, ADHD, twice-exceptional, autism, sensory processing challenges, anxiety, giftedness and more. I didn’t realize that more than 20 percent of today’s children are in some way neurologically atypical. My guest today, Debbie Reber refers to this as “differently wired.” And because the world isn’t set up to accommodate their unique way of being, these...

My guest today, Shelby Kretz has a dream - to create a world where everyone is accepted for who they are. For her, that means we investing in the next generation. Alongside other topics like maths, sciences and the arts, they also need awareness of social justice. Parents play an important role in this, but talking about social justice issues can be hard. How can we make topics interesting? We might not feel we have enough knowledge on a topic. So Shelby created a fun program to help...

Yann wasn’t an ideal student. He struggled with school, mostly getting bad grades. Not because he wasn't smart... he just wasn't motivated by what school had to offer. He did try university, because that is what his parents wanted him to do, and dropped out after the first year. Nothing seemed to fit, and he was determined not to settle... he would find a passion to put his time and energy into. His is a story of perseverance, of finding his own unique path. He discovered cryptocurrency...

For as long as there has been compulsory schooling, students have asked, “Do I really have to go to school through 12th grade? Isn’t there some other way?” The conventional answer most parents respond with is, “No, there is no other way. You just have to make the best of it.” That was what they did, and they survived. That answer didn’t satisfy Kenneth Danford. In 1996, he left his public school teaching job to help students live, learn, and grow in a different environment. He co-founded...

I’m excited to have on the show today a guest who has dedicated much of his life to reforming government and education. He’s on a quest to bring America’s public education into the 21st century, and there is one solution he believes is key to making that happen. Charter schools have produced what some experts believe to be the most rapid academic improvement in American history—and created a reform model that now other cities are trying. Now for 10 years David Osborne was a senior partner...

Victoria Ransom, founder & CEO of Prisma, her middle school alternative to the antiquated education system. But don't call Prisma a school - she prefers a Connected Learning Network that aims to bring joy to learning today, and prepare millions of kids to thrive in the world of tomorrow. She's a highly successful entrepreneur from New Zealand, most known for Wildfire Interactive, a social marketing SaaS company, sold to Google in 2012 for $450 million. Ransom was listed as one of...

Today we shine a light on youth taking action in education and in the world. Addie Lentzner is a 17 year old with a passion for social change. She is the founder of the Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network. This group of students promotes anti-racism in schools through curriculum change. She’s involved in homelessness work, with an ambitious goal to house every person in her community. Addie is living proof that youth can and do make a difference, when given the opportunity. She’s...

Technology dominates most of our lives. Do you remember what life was like without a smartphone? Cars are basically now computers with 4 wheels, and in the future we’ll all have self-driving vehicles. Every aspect of life is affected by technology in one way or another. That in turn means the demand for computing skills is exploding. My guest today saw an opportunity to help children find joy and skill in coding. Hansel Lynn founded theCoderSchool to provide children aged 7 to 18 years with...

David Caballero Pradas is hard to define in a few words. He’s done a lot of different things… genetic engineering of biological memories, negotiating deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars and building an adobe house. He has given lectures on leadership and has taken care of cleaning the bathrooms in a hostel. He has failed more times than he has tried at entrepreneurship; and has angered more people than he has inspired. He has lived in five countries and feels at home in many more....

Do you have a child interested in becoming a doctor? For those already in high school or post secondary, have you thought about what it takes for them to get into medical school? These days, getting into medical school is tougher than ever. There are so many variables to focus on - test scores, shadowing physicians, doing tons of extracurricular activities and getting great recommendation letters. And even with all that, it’s often not enough to get in. So how do you decide what to do? My...

A lot of young people go to college or university because, well that’s what you are supposed to do. They spend a few years of their lives going through the motions of attending classes, and then hopefully on the other end, wind up with a degree that will serve them the rest of their lives. Oh, and accumulate a lot of debt in the process. Is that really serving young people? Too often the big choice offered to high schoolers is what college to pick, rather than what life to pick. My guest...

Today's guest is one of the most unusual voices in education circles. His name is Matt Barnes and he believes that every role in education must shift, starting with the parent. His position is that the parent -- not the school -- must become the child's "Head Coach" and that good grades are no longer the aim. Instead, he coaches parents on how to build their kids into "independent learners." He has taught thousands of parents how to adopt a "Head Coach" mindset for their kids through...

So... what IS education for? We put in so much effort on education as parents and as students, so what is our WHY? Is it to ‘get kids into college’? To ‘get a good job’? Those common narratives from the educational establishment are weak at best. My guest today, Frank Forencich sees a real problem in that modern schooling lacks relevance. He sees the need for a narrative relevant to the future world students will inhabit. (climate change, ecological collapse, social ambiguity). Today...

Today we’re excited to chat with an amazing 15-year-old student. Praja Tickoo is on a mission to empower students through the process of Design Thinking. Two years ago, Praja had an experience that changed his life forever. At an event called Design the Future, he collaborated with other youth to help design a better ankle brace for a multiple sclerosis patient. This experience taught him the power young people have to reshape their world. It also reinforced his conviction that problems...

Bridgemont International School provides an alternative for secondary students who want to graduate from a Montessori high school, but do not have that option in their community. As more students discover that learning online at home and in the local community works, Bridgemont aims to offer so much more than the typical home school program. I’m delighted to have two guests with me today - Dr. Robin Howe, Director of Bridgemont and Danielle Parker, one of the lead teachers and developers of...

My guest today is on a mission to bring creativity back to the classroom. He believes and I agree that in traditional classrooms, kids are not developing the critical motor, language, social, and decision-making skills required in today’s world. This, despite 72% of business leaders in a recent survey saying that creativity is the #1 skill they seek when hiring. He realized he had to do something, and Imagine Arts Academy was born. Imagine Arts Academy delivers programs that combine...

Today you get to meet Luke Hohmann - one of the most energetic, thoughtful people I know on the planet. We first met and also worked together during my days in the software industry as an Agile coach. I also had the privilege to help facilitate one of his Budget Games for the city of San Jose - citizens engaged in prioritizing the multi-million dollar city budget by playing a game to spend limited funds on a range of budgetary options. He’s now the Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, Inc., a...

Online learning options for students are exploding, especially over the last couple of years. There is more choice now than ever for families to choose from, which is a great thing. The problem is that word - online. We all need connection, and well, chatting through a Zoom screen just isn’t the same as face to face. And not everything can be done virtually either, like going outdoors. Many students like my son David are drawn to traditional school because they offer that in-person...

Today we’re in for a fun ride. With me today is the self proclaimed Jay Z of youth education. The Kanye West of business and tech education for youth. The Lil Durk of youth instruction. Big Stew, Scott Steward, or Professor Steward (depending on how you know him) grew up loving school, but hating learning, because it wasn’t fun. He had few teachers he could identify with, or who took an interest in him, and with little motivation, he struggled, leading to mediocre results in the classroom....

I’m really excited for today’s interview. Today we’re going to talk cryptocurrency, a topic I’m super passionate about for reasons that may surprise you and that we’ll get into on the show. My guest today and friend Alex S. Elliot is an early bitcoin and cryptocurrency investor, who started way back in 2013 with her first of many Bitcoin investments. I consider her one of the smartest people I know in the crypto space and someone I and many others turn to for guidance. These days, Alex...