On this episode of Wide Walls, I’m joined by Dr. Gary Stager — educator, author, jazz lover, and one of the most outspoken champions of constructionism and learning-by-doing in classrooms.

Gary has spent decades reimagining how children learn, championing hands-on, creative, and learner-driven approaches inspired by the work of Seymour Papert and Reggio Emilia philosophy.

In this episode, we discuss:

Jazz as a Model for Learning

Jazz blends mastery, collaboration, and deep listening. Excellence emerges from practice, tradition, and co-creation — not shortcuts. Classrooms should aspire to that same standard.

Reanimating the Art of Teaching

Teaching is not curriculum delivery. It’s designing environments where powerful ideas can flourish. Empathy and intuition matter as much as content.

High Ceilings Matter

Creativity without ambition is shallow. Students need real complexity and meaningful standards to grow.

Computers as Intellectual Laboratories

Programming is a way of thinking, not just a skill. When students model ideas with code, they engage deeply with concepts. Making with bits expands what’s possible.

Love Over Duty

Dignity and meaningful work reduce discipline better than rules. Students remember relationships, not worksheets. Love is a better master than duty.

Find more about Gary and his work:

* Personal Website -> https://professorgarystager.com/

* LinkedIn -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/garystager/

* Invent to Learn -> https://inventtolearn.com/

* Seymour Papert Archives -> https://dailypapert.com/

* The Language of Computation - CMK in Reggio Emilia -> https://reggio.constructingmodernknowledge.com/

* Cymbal Press -> https://cymbalpress.com/

In this episode, I discuss with the fantastic Dr. Tessa Forshaw, a cognitive scientist, educator, and innovation leader researching and shaping how we learn and work in an age of rapid change.

Tessa is the co-founder and research lead at Harvard’s Next Level Lab, where she explores learning transfer, creative cognition, and how humans and AI can work together. She also teaches design thinking and creativity at Harvard and previously served on the faculty at Stanford’s d.school. Before academia, she worked at IDEO CoLab and Accenture, bringing together strategy, design, and human-centered innovation.

In her recent book Innovation-ish, Tessa distills her experience and insights into a practical guide for tackling challenges and sparking creative solutions across both personal and professional contexts.

Here are some takeaways from the conversation:

🌀 Get Comfortable with Ambiguity — Tessa’s #1 skill for kids and adults: learn to sit with the unknown and move anyway.

🧪 Innovation Is Everywhere (Not Just Gadgets) — From a child’s DIY monster-detector to a philanthropy’s NLP-powered outreach, process innovation can be just as world-changing as products.

🧭 Mindset · Moves · Metacognition — Tessa’s innovation stack: adopt the right mindset, use small repeatable moves, and steer with metacognition (your inner compass when there’s no map).

🤖 AI: Starter, Not Substitute — Great for jump-starting ideas and surfacing options; risky if it replaces productive struggle, deep schemas, or your own judgment.

🎓 Explore Before Explain — Tessa teaches creativity by letting learners do first, then naming the patterns—so ambiguity becomes a practice ground, not a panic zone.

❤️ Design School Around Love of Learning — If we nurture curiosity and resilience, the rest follows.

Find more about Tessa and her work:

* LinkedIn

* ”Innovation-ish” book

* “Innovation-ish” website

* Next Level Lab @Harvard

In this episode of Wide Walls, I’m particularly excited to welcome Dr. Jody LeVos, a true champion for early childhood and play-based learning.

Jody currently serves as Chief Learning Officer at BEGiN, where she leads curriculum design and pedagogy across a family of beloved learning products, including HOMER, codeSpark, Little Passports, and Learn with Sesame Street. With over a decade of experience designing early learning experiences across digital apps, toys, books, and other media, she’s brought her expertise to some of the most iconic brands in the industry, such as LeapFrog and Mattel.

Jody is also a dedicated advocate for parents and educators, having contributed to major platforms like CES Kids@Play, Psychology Today’s “Science of Play” series, and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Screen Time Summit.

In this episode, we discuss:

🌟 Jody’s Purpose-Driven Career — Jody’s shift from research to industry as a model for aligning expertise, mentorship, and impact at scale.

🎲 Play as a Learning Paradigm — Why play is foundational (not decorative) to early development and genuine understanding.

🌎 Designing for Diverse Learners — Building inclusive experiences through real-world kid testing, family insights, and evidence of transfer.

📱AI’s Role in EdTech Research and Parenting — Using AI to accelerate prototyping and feedback while guiding families toward thoughtful, balanced tech use.

Find more about Jody and her work:

* LinkedIn

* BEGiN

* Psychology Today

* Children’s Media Association

* Instagram

Welcome to my conversation with Suzie Hicks — an award-winning filmmaker, author, and television host whose work sits at the crossroads of entertainment, education, environmental justice, and community activism. Their latest project, the amazing YouTube series “Suzie Hicks the Climate Chick & Sprout,” pairs Suzie with their puppet sidekick Sprout on a seven-episode adventure through climate science.

In this episode, we discuss:

🌎 Their Journey into Climate Storytelling — Suzie shares their personal path into climate activism and how storytelling became their most powerful tool.

📺 Making Science Fun and Hopeful — We explore the power of children’s media in making climate science engaging, playful, and accessible.

🌱 Behind the Scenes of Suzie Hicks the Climate Chick & Sprout — Suzie opens up about the creative process and what it means to communicate complex issues with joy.

🤝 The Power of Community — We discuss why building community is essential for climate action, and how collective storytelling fosters hope and resilience.

💡 Blending Entertainment, Education, and Activism — Suzie shows how these worlds can come together to inspire real change on both local and global scales.

Find more about Suzie and their work:

* Suzie Hicks the Climate Chick & Sprout on Youtube

* Website

* Instagram

* TikTok

* LinkedIn

In this episode, I am thrilled to discuss with Dr. Colleen Kelley — a fantastic science educator, and the creator and founder of Kids’ Chemical Solutions, a comic-book based curriculum designed to make chemistry accessible and exciting for learners of all ages.

Colleen’s journey began with a love for chemistry and research, leading her to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State University by the age of 24. Over the past 25 years, she’s been teaching chemistry — currently at the University of Arizona — all the while asking one big question: Why do students think chemistry is so hard?

Her answer? Chemistry is a language — one we’ve never properly taught students to read. From this insight, she coined the term Molecular Literacy and developed creative new frameworks to help students embrace science learning as a whole, and chemistry in particular.

In this episode:

* 🌟 Colleen shares her journey from falling in love with chemistry to becoming a chemistry instructor and launching her own educational content.

* 🧙‍♀️ She’s reimagining STEM education by challenging outdated narratives and embracing the power of storytelling.

* 🧩 We dive into molecular literacy—what it is, how it can be approached as a universal language, and why it opens the door for children to start learning chemistry at a much younger age.

* 🧠 She introduces four other essential types of literacy that are key to children’s development but often go overlooked.

* 💡 Colleen offers practical tips for educators and parents on how to bring more curiosity and joy into learning—both in the classroom and at home, even when it comes to homework.

Find more about Colleen and her work:

* Kids’ Chemical Solutions

* Colleen’s LinkedIn

* Colleen’s Instagram

In this Wide Walls episode, I’m honored to welcome Ken Kahn — a true pioneer in using technology to support creative learning.

Ken has spent over 30 years as a researcher in programming languages, computer animation, and programming systems for children.

After completing his doctoral thesis on creating computer animation from story descriptions, Ken taught at MIT, Stockholm University and Uppsala University, before joining Xerox Palo Alto Research Center as a research scientist.

In 1992, Ken founded Animated Programs and developed ToonTalk, an award-winning, game-like programming language for kids.

He went on to become a Senior Researcher at Oxford, where he developed AI programming resources for students, and held visiting positions at NUS - National University of Singapore - and Yale-NUS.

With his recent - and fantastic - book, The Learner’s Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity, Ken demonstrates how generative AI can foster rich educational experiences and support creative learning, a topic we discuss in depth in this episode, answering questions such as:

🤖 What roles can chatbots play in supporting children's learning and development?

🎨 What kinds of ideas and projects can children explore using AI tools?

🌱 How can we design learning experiences with generative AI that both benefit children and ensure their safety?

🏫 What are effective ways to integrate AI into traditional classroom settings?

Find more about Ken’s work:

* Ken Kahn on LinkedIn

* Ken’s book: The Learner’s Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity

In this new episode of Wide Walls, I’m thrilled to welcome Merve Cerit, a PhD Candidate from Stanford University working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, learning sciences, and mental health.

Merve’s work explores how we can better understand the impact of digital media on individual well-being, using innovative person-specific and computational methods.

She studies how people’s smartphone use relates to mental health on a highly granular level, and is now exploring how AI can be leveraged to support reflection, reasoning, and education in an increasingly digital world.

Whether it’s designing interventions that help us think more critically about media and technology or developing tools that reflect on our media behavior, her research has big implications for the future of learning, digital well-being, and human-centered technology.

In this episode, we:

- Unpack her innovative research methods to understand how we spend our time on screens

- Discuss key findings from her research projects

- Explore concrete applications to protect our children and improve our lives.

If you enjoyed the conversation, please share this podcast around and spread the word!

Find more about Merve’s work:

Merve’s LinkedIn

Merve on Research Gate

References from the episode:

Shows:

Adolescence, Netflix

The Social Dilemma, Netflix

Books:

The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt

Mindmasters, Sandra Matz

Healing, Thomas Insel

Hooked, Nir Eyal

Stolen Focus, Johann Hari

Podcast:

Your Undivided Attention, Center for Humane Technology

For today’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome our first-ever professional musician guest on Wide Walls: Jerome Rossen!

Jerome is a composer, songwriter, and professional musician whose work spans TV, film, video games, advertising, theater, and more. You’ve likely heard his music in hit TV shows like The Bachelor, Temptation Island, Extreme Makeover—and my personal favorite, Happy Tree Friends!

He’s also composed for children’s media, creating music for games like Get Ready for Kindergarten from LeapFrog, apps like Math Tango 2 from Originator Kids, and his latest project, an interactive book experience with Kibeam.

In this episode, we discuss:

✅ His creative process, from getting ideas to overcoming roadblocks

✅ The differences between composing for children and adults

✅ How technology has changed music production & accessibility

✅ Fun and insightful industry stories from his rich career

Beyond his creative work, Jerome serves as Director of Events for the Bay Area Children’s Media Association, which is how I had the pleasure of meeting him.

I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it! If you do, please share it to help more people join the conversation!

Find more about Jerome’s work:

* freshmademusic.com - Jerome’s website

* Jerome’s LinkedIn

For the first time on Wide Walls, we welcome not one, but two incredible guests—Emma Callow and Tom Doust!

Emma and Tom serve as the Creative Content Lead and Associate Director at the Institute of Imagination in London, a wonderful organization dedicated to designing and championing creative learning experiences across arts, science, and digital technologies.

In this episode, we dive into:

✅ The power of imagination in learning

✅ The legacy of Sir Ken Robinson

✅ Eight critical competencies for children’s future

✅ Social impact with local communities of learners

Find more about Tom and Emma’s work:

- Institute of Imagination

- 2023 Report - Institute of Imagination

- LinkedIn - Tom Doust

- LinkedIn - Emma Callow

I am excited to share this new episode of Wide Walls on a very special day for my wonderful guest, Isabelle Hau, as her first book, Love to Learn, is released today!

Isabelle is the Executive Director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, and a passionate advocate for young children’s development and well-being, rooted in educational research and deep empathy.

At the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, Isabelle collaborates with scholars, students, and external partners to leverage the latest advances in brain and learning sciences, data, and technology to create more effective and equitable learning solutions for everyone.

She’s also served on the boards of some of the most innovative organizations in education and impact investing, such as EdSurge, Khan Academy Kids, Reach Capital, and Wonderschool. She has judged prestigious innovation competitions worldwide, including XPrize and the LEGO Foundation’s $143 million early childhood challenge, and spoken at over 100 national and international events, including the US Senate.

In 2024, she was recognized as one of the “Women Leading in AI Revolution in EDU” by ASU-GSV, and in 2021, she received the GlobalMindED “Inclusive Leader Award – Early Childhood Education.”

In this episode we first discuss Isabelle’s research and insights on relational intelligence, a concept that is central in her book. Then, we explore the role of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning and some of the challenges faced by learning science researchers. Finally, Isabelle shares her views on the potential applications and impact of new technologies in education.

Find more about Isabelle’s work:

* Isabelle’s website

* Love to Learn - Book

* Small Talks - Newsletter

* Stanford Accelerator for Learning