🎙 Episode 6 – Class Is in Session

This week on The Tinker Table, we’re kicking off a brand-new “class time” format—short, thoughtful episodes packed with stories, tools, and questions to keep your curiosity thriving between our deep dives.

In this episode:

Innovator Spotlight: Ada Lovelace—the visionary who imagined generative computing more than a century before it existed, blending logic and imagination into what she called poetical science.

Stay in the Know:

🚀 SpaceX Crew-9 sets a record for the fastest human spaceflight to the ISS

🤖 The White House AI Action Plan outlines guardrails for AI use in public services

🧠 Google’s NotebookLM gets a major update, making it an even stronger closed-network AI study partner for students and educators

Tools for the Table: A deep dive into NotebookLM—how it works, why it matters, and simple ways to try it this week.

We’ll wrap with a reflection prompt and invite you to help choose the topic for our next deep dive: Digital Literacy or Systems Thinking.

Sources & References:

NASA. (2025). Crew-9 mission update. nasa.gov

The White House. (2025). AI Action Plan. whitehouse.gov

Google. (2025). NotebookLM update. notebooklm.google

To learn more about Ada Lovelace:

Essinger, J. (2014). Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age. Melville House.

Fuegi, J., & Francis, J. (2003). Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes'. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 25(4), 16–26.

🎧 Listen now to join our first “class time” session and see how history, tech news, and practical tools can spark your thinking for the week ahead.