The Learning Hack podcast

Your organisation has probably spent years building a learning library. Courses, videos, SCORM files, PDFs — hundreds of them, living in the LMS or scattered across SharePoint. You can enrol in them. You can sit through them. What you can't do is ask them a question and get an answer in seconds, at the moment you actually need one. The knowledge is there. It just isn't retrievable. That's the problem Mike Alcock, founder of Talvi, has set out to solve.

In this episode, Mike takes John through how Talvi works. They also cover Mike's own unlikely route into learntech: a Civil Engineering degree at Sheffield, a detour through an insulation factory in Newcastle, and three successive software businesses each arriving ahead of the market. And they have a searching conversation about what tools like Talvi mean for the LMS and for the instructional designer — neither of whom emerges entirely unscathed.

Is the technology now genuinely good enough to make learning in the flow of work a practical reality, rather than a conference agenda perennial?.

00:00 - Start

02:14 - Intro

04:15 - What is Talvi for?

16:20 - What's the journey for a learning leader adopting Talvi?

20:47 - Mike's story: from civil engineering to learntech

30:19 - What will tools like Talvi do to the LMS?

39:50 - Explanation of terms: RAG, vector databases…

49:01 - End

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What does it take to change how an industry works — and what happens when it doesn't change fast enough? Lars Hyland has been asking that question for thirty years, from the early days of interactive multimedia through nearly a decade leading EMEA for Totara Learning, and now at Enlytning, an AI-powered platform helping small businesses close the gap between policy and practice. In this conversation, John and Lars go back to the beginning — to the Epic days, when the e-learning model that now dominates the industry was taking shape around them — and trace a career-long argument about the one thing L&D keeps getting wrong.

They cover the founding of Retenda in 2010 — a learning reinforcement platform built on spaced repetition, a decade before the category existed — and why good timing isn't enough if the market isn't ready. They get into the Totara years, open source as a power relationship, and the honest tension in spending nearly a decade championing infrastructure you know is being misused. And they dig into AI: not the conference version, but the harder question of whether the industry is using it to fix a broken model or just to run the broken model faster. Lars's phrase for the latter — faster garbage in, garbage out — is both a provocation and a diagnosis.

Lars has a view on what he thinks good actually looks like. The question is whether the industry is willing to build it.

TIMESTAMPS

02:12 - Intro

05:05 - The formative years of elearning

17:59 - Why did he found Retenda?

21:35 - The Totara years

25:53 - What happens to open source tech when it goes commercial?

30:21 - Enlytning

40:26 - Compliance & HR

52:17 - Does the SaaS model still have a future?

57:51 - A way to cut down duplication in course catalogues?

01:08:51 - End

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What if the ideas that L&D has been nodding at for thirty years are finally about to become unavoidable? Bob Mosher has spent his career arguing that training and performance are not the same thing — and that building courses, however well-designed, only meets two of the five moments when people actually need to learn. The other three happen in the workflow, at the point of need. Most of the profession has agreed with him in theory. Rather fewer have changed what they do.

In this conversation, John and Bob catch up on how generative AI is changing that picture. Bob describes what AI is actually doing inside live workflow learning projects right now — including a headline figure on development time that stopped John in his tracks — and explains why the digital coach, not the course, is becoming the central deliverable. They also dig into the risks: what happens when AI accelerates the wrong thing, why L&D needs a seat at the IT table before it's too late, and what it means to be a performance architect rather than a training order-taker in an AI-assisted world.

The boulder, Bob says, has been going uphill for a long time. He thinks it's about to roll back. This episode is about what happens when it does.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Start

01:55 - Intro

04:27 - The five moments of need

08:14 - How has AI changed the conversation about workflow learning?

10:44 - How does AI save time?

24:07 - Risks to workflow learning from AI

31:42 - Has AI caused a rethink in practice?

40:19 - Workflow learning impact

53:38 - End

CONNECT WITH LEARNING HACK

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Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com

Does L&D know where it's going?

What separates the L&D functions that genuinely move organisations forward from those that stay busy but never quite shift the dial? That question has driven Laura Overton's research for over two decades — and it sits at the heart of The L&D Leader, the new book she co-authored with Michelle Ockers. Their answer, drawn from more than ten thousand L&D professionals and two hundred learning leaders, points not to new tools or models, but to something older and harder to teach: the ability to read the organisation, sense its currents, and navigate your own way to somewhere that matters.

In this episode John talks with Laura and Michelle about the ideas behind the book, which opens with the extraordinary story of the ancient Polynesian navigators — people who crossed 2,500 miles of open ocean without a compass or a clock. They discuss the lasting legacy of the pandemic for L&D, why two decades of research on workplace learning strategy show surprisingly little change in how most functions operate, and the risk that chasing the latest tool or model is actually damaging L&D's ability to drive real value.

And then there's the question that sits underneath all the talk of L&D maturity and business alignment: when we talk about driving value through learning, who exactly is that value for?

TIMESTAMPS

00:02:44 - Intro

00:05:55 - What was the genesis of the book?

00:10:04 - The collaboration — how Laura and Michelle came to write together

00:13:29 - Legacy of the pandemic for L&D

00:16:10 - Was the pandemic a 'golden period' for L&D?

00:19:42 - What are they telling people in The L&D Leader?

00:30:00 - The Polynesian navigators — and what they mean for L&D leadership

00:39:09 - Is technology causing 'skill fade' in L&D?

00:41:42 - How has the L&D community changed over two decades?

00:50:55 - Who gets the value from workplace learning — the learner or the stakeholder?

01:02:58 - End

CONNECT WITH LEARNING HACK

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Website: learninghackpodcast.com

The results of the 2026 Global Sentiment Survey are out — and the mood in workplace learning is uneasy. In this episode, John speaks with Donald H. Taylor about AI's "hangover moment," rising pressure on L&D teams, diverging regional trends, vendor anxiety, and what showing value really signals this year. Is this a temporary wobble — or a structural shift in what L&D is for?

00:00 - Start 02:21 - Intro 04:14 - Overview of this year's GSS 12:50 - Metaverse and virtual environments 21:59 - Opportunities and Challenges of AI 26:49 - More US respondents this year? 28:33 - Global differences in vibe? 33:46 - Personalisation and individualism 36:09 - New vs returning respondents 41:04 - The challenge of technology 52:47 - End

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What if the most powerful learning system in your organisation is already there — hidden in plain sight? In this episode, Dr Kinga Petrovai introduces The Learning Hive: a structured, research-informed model for peer learning that amplifies tacit knowledge, builds community, and accelerates learning transfer. Drawing on her academic background and real-world practice, Kinga explains why informal learning is often undervalued — and how deliberate design can make peer learning both human and effective.

00:02 – Introducing the Learning Hive

00:06 – What makes it true peer learning

00:12 – Origins in academic research

00:19 – Why "hives", not communities

00:25 – Systems thinking and learning design

00:31 – Peer learning, tacit knowledge, and AI

00:41 – Keeping the human at the heart of learning

00:50 – Karaoke closer

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Voices from Online Educa Berlin 2025.

Recorded at Online Educa Berlin 2025, this episode brings together five perspectives on keeping the human at the centre of learning in the age of AI. From global learning trends and AI maturity, to human-centred education, the Global South, emerging talent, and the long view of digital learning, these conversations capture the diversity, tensions, and possibilities shaping education and workplace learning worldwide.

• Donald H. Taylor

• Margaret Korosec

• Ibraheem Adedayo Adediran

• Buena Jill Galleposo

• Paul Bacsich

• 00:02:19 – Intro: OEB 2025

• 00:02:52 – Donald H. Taylor: humanity, AI, and the learning peloton

• 00:26:48 – Margaret Korosec: human-centred AI and higher education

• 00:49:56 – Ibraheem Adedayo Adediran: AI, counselling, and the Global South

• 01:13:53 – Buena Jill Galleposo: 30 Under 30 and the future of learning

• 01:30:26 – Paul Bacsich: distance learning, perspective, and continuity

• 01:54:32 – End

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As organisations head into 2026, Josh Bersin returns to The Learning Hack to make sense of what is really changing in work, skills and learning. Drawing on his latest research and global advisory work, Josh explains why AI has crossed a threshold, how jobs are being reshaped rather than eliminated, why skills velocity is fundamentally cultural, and why L&D is facing a once-in-a-generation structural reinvention.

• 01:28 – Intro

• 03:12 – What happened in 2025?

• 05:08 – 'Superworkers' & 'supermanagers'

• 09:39 – What's happening in the job market?

• 16:40 – Skills velocity

• 25:30 – What are the biggest shifts in L&D?

• 31:08 – Where are the real, durable changes in learntech, a year ahead?

• 36:44 – Obsequious LLMs

• 38:03 – Differences across global regions?

• 42:39 – What signals should people look out for in the coming year?

• 46:25 – Should we expect consolidation in the learntech market?

• 50:01 – End

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Recorded live at Online Educa Berlin, this episode of Great Minds on Learning explores AI and the Global South through history, hard lessons, and contemporary debate. John Helmer and Donald Clark examine early techno-utopian experiments, the ethics wars around AI, and newer perspectives rooted in language, power, and lived experience. From Negroponte and Mitra to Gebru, Arora, Manyika, and Mugane, the conversation asks who AI is really for—and who gets to decide.

00:57 – Intro

01:58 – Introduction to AI & the Global South

14:11 – Nicholas Negroponte

17:38 – Sugata Mitra

24:11 – Global South takes on AI

28:11 – Timnit Gebru

32:27 – Payal Arora

37:39 – James Manyika

43:12 – John Mugane

54:49 – Summing up

58:41 – Q&A

Great Minds on Learning explores 2,500 years of learning theory—from the Greeks to the geeks. Hosted by John Helmer and Donald Clark, the podcast connects historical ideas to today's debates in education, technology, and society.

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2025 was billed as a "make-or-break year" for L&D. But what actually happened? To make sense of a turbulent twelve months in learning, talent and HR, John Helmer speaks with Myles Runham of Fosway Group, Europe's leading analyst firm. They explore AI's real impact, shifting buying patterns, skills intelligence, evaluation, and whether L&D is heading for reinvention or obsolescence. A clear-eyed, data-led look at where we stand — and where we're heading.

• 00:59 – Intro
• 03:30 – Did we make it or break it?
• 07:02 – Are organisations spending smarter or just spending less?
• 09:06 – Have HR buying patterns changed too?
• 16:24 – Where is he seeing genuine AI transformation?
• 22:06 – Are organisations training enough on AI?
• 25:00 – AI effects on the job market
• 28:31 – Are we any closer to meaningful skills intelligence?
• 34:57 – Are we getting any better at evaluation?
• 37:31 – Trends in the systems and tools market
• 43:06 – Will L&D avoid obsolescence?
• 49:16 – Karaoke favourite?

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Website: learninghackpodcast.com