About the Getting Smart Podcast
The Getting Smart Podcast covers trends, innovations and insights in K-12, higher ed, lifelong learning, leadership, investing and more. You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Every other Friday we publish an episode called “Catching Up” where Nate McClennen and Mason Pashia try to make sense of what’s going on in education, learning and human flourishing. Check it out.
If you’re on Spotify, we have built some great playlists to help you jump into some conversations we’ve been having over the last few years. You can go long on the following topics:
- Student Voice
- Pathways to Postsecondary
- Green Skills & Schools
- Microschools
- What’s Next in Learning
- AI in Education
- Next Generation Leadership
Interested in placing an advertisement in the podcast or sponsoring a series of conversations? Check out our sponsored content page to learn more.
Know of someone who would make a great guest on the podcast? Email Mason to pitch your suggestion or learn more about being on the podcast.
Subscribe to Our Podcast
This podcast highlights developing trends in K-12 education, postsecondary and lifelong learning. Each week, Getting Smart team members interview students, leading authors, experts and practitioners in research, tech, entrepreneurship and leadership to bring listeners innovative and actionable strategies in education leadership.
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Learner Wallets for Identity, Discovery and Pathways | Jacksón Smith
What if a credential wallet could do more than store badges, it could help a learner understand who they are and navigate toward what they want to become? In this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Mason Pashia speaks with Jacksón Smith, co-founder and CTO of the Learning Economy Foundation, about building LearnCard as open-source public infrastructure grounded in three verbs: collect, understand, and navigate. From peer endorsements in Scouting to a real-time learner GPS that reroutes around adversity, this conversation reframes credential technology as a tool for identity formation, not just data storage. Education leaders ready to move beyond compliance-era transcripts will find this one worth the full listen.
20 Years Later, a Former Advisor Asks His Old Students What Stuck | Andrew Frishman on The Advisory
What does a high school experience look like when it is built around who you are rather than what you can produce on a standardized test? In this episode, Getting Smart host Mason Pashia speaks with Andrew Frishman of Big Picture Learning, Met alum Natasha Luigui, and current Met senior Daniela Moraes about the lasting power of advisory, internships, and exhibitions as tools for human development. Their conversation is a vivid reminder that the outcomes education leaders should be measuring are not visible at graduation, and that the structures we build for young people today ripple forward in ways we are only beginning to trace.
Can AI Make Math Class More Social? | Britte Haugan Cheng & Ann Edwards
What does truly inclusive R&D in math education look like when researchers, developers, teachers, and students design together from the start? In this episode, Britte Haugan Cheng and Ann Edwards of the AIMS Collaboratory unpack how their Gates Foundation-funded network is building public goods, harnessing pro-social AI, and centering priority students to raise outcomes for all learners. If you lead a school or system grappling with math proficiency and a crowded EdTech market, this conversation will sharpen both your vision and your discernment.
Catching Up: Can AI Help Students Connect With People?
In this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Nate McClennen and Mason Pashia braid together data and design thinking across four urgent topics: Arizona's ESA spending report, the mechanics and limits of PISA, the pro-social possibilities of AI tools, and the stubborn reality that fewer than one in ten students report feeling both agentic and engaged. If you care about what it actually takes for learners to thrive, and not just score, this conversation is essential listening. The insights on witnesses, warm handoffs, and social capital alone are worth the full runtime.
The Problem With Letter Grades Isn’t the Grades | Bill Zima & Michelle McCann
What does it actually take to implement competency-based education with fidelity, and why do so many systems stall before they get there? In our latest podcast episode, Nate McClennen sits down with Bill Zima and Michelle McCann of Marzano Resources, alongside Getting Smart's Rebecca Midles, to explore the research, the roadblocks, and the real-world strategies behind CBE, anchored by their new book, Competency-Based Practices: Factors for Successful Implementation. From proficiency scales to the stubborn persistence of letter grades, this conversation names the invisible barriers that hold systems back and offers a grounded, hopeful path forward for education leaders ready to do the work.