The What School Could Be Podcast

What happens when a young person who has spent years striving for perfection begins to discover that her worth cannot (and should not) be measured by grades, class rank, or other people's expectations? Meet Baylee Hunt, a seventeen-year-old senior at Fleming County High School in rural Kentucky, where she has spent her entire educational journey. Baylee is an accomplished student, cheer captain, community volunteer, HOBY youth leader, and aspiring orthodontist. But behind that impressive résumé is a thoughtful young woman learning to let go of perfection, embrace growth, and discover who she is becoming. Our conversation begins with Baylee's remarkable reflection on the Barbie movie, in which Barbie's feet finally touch the ground after a lifetime on tiptoe. For Baylee, that image captures her own journey away from the pressures of achievement and toward something more meaningful. Then we turn to Fleming County Schools, a rural district whose superintendent, Brian Creasman, and Chief Academic Officer, Michelle Hunt, Baylee's mother, have helped lead a transformation in how learning is designed, experienced, and assessed. Drawing on their chapter in Real Learning, Real Accomplishment, Baylee offers a student's-eye view of that transformation. We explore student agency, digital portfolios, authentic assessment, homework, mental health, and whether schools can truly recognize the whole person behind the transcript. Along the way, Baylee challenges us to think differently about what adults should value, what young people need, and what it means to feel genuinely seen. And we end where so much meaningful learning begins, with family, community, gratitude, and Baylee's hopes for investing in others. This is a conversation about learning, identity, belonging, and the beautiful, unfinished work of becoming. And what school could be. As always, my gratitude to our peerless editor, Evan Kurohara, and our creative consultant, Mel Ching.

Frankly, it’s hard to find the words to describe my guest, Arlian Ecker. To say he is a Planet Earth activist and young changemaker does not seem to do him justice. Arlian’s story began in Australia when, on his eleventh birthday, he watched three rehabilitated sea turtles being released back into the ocean and learned about the harm plastic pollution had caused them. The experience left him with a question: What could one kid possibly say or do that would make other people care? His mother, international documentary filmmaker Karin Ecker, responded by picking up her camera. Together, they created a 22-minute documentary film titled Plastic Alarm, and what began on one Australian beach grew into nearly a decade of filmmaking, scientific inquiry, environmental action, public speaking, and peer-to-peer education. Arlian, now age 20, has brought his work to more than 350 schools. his Plastic Free Boy site reports that his work has reached more than 1.5 million young people. At age thirteen, he addressed 130 mayors and some 1,400 delegates at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayors’ Forum. His work has taken him from the Great Barrier Reef to European glaciers and the Danube River, where he has collaborated with scientists, schools, governments, universities, businesses, and communities. Arlian is not a “student guest” in the conventional sense. After an early education that included traditional schooling and some homeschooling, he did not continue into a traditional high school. However, he is not an exception to this year's students only commitment because his life offers a living answer to the other question contained in our title: What could be school? For Arlian, the world became his classroom; protecting the planet became both curriculum and purpose, and he began learning and teaching at the very same time. This conversation was set up by a colleague, Kyle Wagner, who deepened his practice of student-centered, project-based learning as a humanities teacher and interdisciplinary team leader at High Tech High in San Diego. Kyle interviewed Arlian for his own podcast in 2025 and generously brought the two of us together. This will not simply be a conversation about plastic in the oceans. It is a philosophical conversation about education in the wild—and what can happen when a young person’s concern is treated as the beginning of serious work. As always, my gratitude to my peerless editor, Evan Kurohara, our creative consultant, Mel Ching.Links:Elite Changemaker ProgramABC NewsAPCS SummitArlian LinkedIn

The Five Angles Podcast is coming soon.Created by Josh Reppun of Josh Reppun Productions, The Five Angles Podcast explores one compelling idea at a time through five conversations, five distinct perspectives, and five different ways of seeing.Each collection brings together educators, researchers, designers, creators, students, community leaders, and other curious minds whose expertise and lived experience illuminate a shared question. Rather than rushing toward a single conclusion, the show slows down, listens carefully, and makes space for connection, tension, surprise, and discovery.Born in years of thinking about education, but now reaching far beyond it, The Five Angles Podcast examines the ideas shaping how we learn, work, create, belong, and become fully human. Every season of five episodes is designed as a complete journey, released together so listeners can move through the conversations in their own order and in their own way.This is not a show about finding one definitive answer. It is about discovering what becomes visible when one important subject is considered from several angles, and when voices that do not always appear in the same conversation are invited to meet.Five conversations. Five perspectives. One important idea, seen from five angles.The Five Angles Podcast is coming soon.

Listeners, this episode takes us to Warren Local High School in rural southeastern Ohio, where sophomores Jocelyn Evans and Lily King are helping us explore what can happen when a public school begins listening differently to its students. Warren is a recognizable American public school, grades, schedules, homework, tests, football games and homecoming, but something interesting is happening inside it. Through Students Solving Problems (SSP) and related student agency work, young people are learning to conduct empathy interviews (in partnership with the Human Restoration Project and Polaris Education), listen closely to peers and teachers, analyze what they hear, and bring those findings back to the adults shaping their school. What began amid a familiar tension, teachers concerned about student motivation and students frustrated by traditional “sit and get” learning, has become an experiment in something much larger: trust. Jocelyn and Lily take us inside that work, including efforts to understand Warren’s Flex Friday; they wrestle with what student agency means when young people are given not merely a voice, but opportunities to influence what happens next. Jocelyn also shares how the work carried her from rural Ohio to MIT and the Student Power Summit in Los Angeles, representing Warren far from home. But this conversation goes well beyond programs and school improvement. We talk about the adults who make young people feel safe, supported and seen, leadership without titles, Lily’s hatred of homework, and what students may really be saying when they push back against “sit and get.” Jocelyn offers an extraordinary challenge to adults: “What are we doing wrong? Why don’t the children trust us?” We also explore whether school itself may contribute to young people’s stress, and whether agency, purpose, consequential work and knowing that your ideas matter might help create healthier conditions for learning. What emerges is not a story about two students who have all the answers. It is a story about what becomes possible when adults stop assuming they already have them. Warren is learning to ask, listen, trust and act. And Jocelyn and Lily remind us what we may discover when young people are given real opportunities to practice their voices. Editing is provided by the talented Evan Kurohara. My creative consultant is Mel Ching. Our theme music is by Michael Sloan.

Many of you know that the film Most Likely to Succeed changed my life, opening doors into the education reimagined movement I never imagined possible. At the heart of that film was High Tech High in San Diego. Despite its name, High Tech High is not one school or simply a technology academy. It is a network of 16 public charter schools serving roughly 6,300 K–12 students. Founded in 2000, HTH is known for project-based learning grounded in equity, personalization, authentic work, and collaborative design. Students create work for public audiences, participate in exhibitions and presentations of learning, and complete real-world internships. Eleven years after I first discovered High Tech High, I have the privilege of sitting down with three remarkable students. Jillian Quinn Asiong, 16, is an athlete, adventurer, and entrepreneur whose jewelry business helped finance her own trip to South Korea. Diego Harris, 17, has pursued student government, environmental advocacy, community service, and an internship in government communications. Poema Strong, 16, is a basketball player, runner, guitarist, student leader, and outdoor adventurer whose transformative chemistry experience redirected her ambitions toward becoming a surgeon. All three have a lot to say about learning, challenge, relationships, purpose, and what school could be. Preparing for this conversation has been a privilege. And a huge shout-out to Brittney Quinones at High Tech High for helping make it happen. Brittney, you rock. My additional thanks to my editor, the talented Evan Kurohara of SOZEN Audio, and my creative consultant and co-producer, Mel Ching.

Earlier this year I listened to two episodes of Phil Evans' Education by Design podcast. One explored the Iovine and Young Center, founded on the vision of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, where challenge-based learning, design thinking, and entrepreneurship are redefining what public education can become. The other episode featured the International Baccalaureate's ambitious Systems Transformation pilot, where students tackle complex global challenges through systems thinking, interdisciplinary inquiry, and authentic assessment.Although the two initiatives emerged from very different places, I was struck by how much they had in common. Both reject the idea that learning should revolve around subjects, standardized tests, and the transfer of information. Instead, they invite young people to grapple with messy, consequential problems, work collaboratively across disciplines, and develop the habits of mind needed to lead meaningful change in an increasingly complex world.Today I'm reposting those two episodes here on the What School Could Be Podcast. It's my way of expressing my gratitude to Phil Evans—for his friendship, his collaboration, and for creating conversations that continue to move forward the education reimagined movement. I hope you'll receive these episodes in the same spirit in which they're offered: as gifts to be shared. If you are a podcaster, maybe you will consider sharing someone else’s awesome episode on your platform. As always, if you have thoughts or questions, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at [email protected]. My thanks to my editor, Evan Kurohara and creative consultant, Mel Ching. And now, please enjoy these two episodes from Education by Design.

Earlier this year I listened to two episodes of Phil Evans' Education by Design podcast. One explored the Iovine and Young Center, founded on the vision of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, where challenge-based learning, design thinking, and entrepreneurship are redefining what public education can become. The other episode featured the International Baccalaureate's ambitious Systems Transformation pilot, where students tackle complex global challenges through systems thinking, interdisciplinary inquiry, and authentic assessment.Although the two initiatives emerged from very different places, I was struck by how much they had in common. Both reject the idea that learning should revolve around subjects, standardized tests, and the transfer of information. Instead, they invite young people to grapple with messy, consequential problems, work collaboratively across disciplines, and develop the habits of mind needed to lead meaningful change in an increasingly complex world.Today I'm reposting those two episodes here on the What School Could Be Podcast. It's my way of expressing my gratitude to Phil Evans—for his friendship, his collaboration, and for creating conversations that continue to move forward the education reimagined movement. I hope you'll receive these episodes in the same spirit in which they're offered: as gifts to be shared. If you are a podcaster, maybe you will consider sharing someone else’s awesome episode on your platform. As always, if you have thoughts or questions, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at [email protected]. My thanks to my editor, Evan Kurohara and creative consultant, Mel Ching. And now, please enjoy these two episodes from Education by Design.

Nobel Navigators is a global learning community founded by a way cool education revolutionary named Andrew Sachs. By revolutionary I mean the type of person who wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Andrew didn't set out to redesign this thing we call school. He more or less decided to ignore tradition and build something completely different. Nobel Navigators has a bold mission: helping young people around the world develop the technical skills, human skills, and leadership they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Young people from more than 180 countries come together online to learn, and teach. Thousands of young learners focus on design thinking, collaboration, coding, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, public speaking, and servant leadership, all while working on real projects and relevant subject areas. Nobel Navigators isn't trying to improve the traditional model of school. It has thrown out the traditional, obsolete model used in so many countries and is instead asking a much bigger question: What if we build a global learning community centered in purpose, empathy, and action?Today's guest joins us from Afghanistan. Protecting her privacy was essential during my prep, and is essential today. We'll simply call her Rukhsar. There are no photographs of her in our promotional materials, only an artist's rendering. A few years ago, the Taliban barred her and all Afghan women from continuing a formal education, meaning the future Rukhsar had imagined was suddenly taken away. But that is only the beginning of her story. Through Nobel Navigators, Rukhsar discovered not only a way to keep learning, but a way to lead, to teach, and to serve. Today she organizes workshops for Afghan women, builds learning communities, mentors others, embraces AI as a tool for human flourishing, and has become a passionate advocate for empathy, servant leadership, and educational opportunity. Listening to her, it's impossible not to recognize that education is about far more than classrooms, diplomas, and test scores.Neuroscientists tell us that our brains remain remarkably plastic throughout our lives, continually rewiring themselves in response to new ideas, new experiences, and new relationships. I suspect the same is true of our hearts. Today's conversation invited me to reconsider what learning is, what leadership is, what it means to become educated, and even what it means to be future ready. My hope is that as you listen to Rukhsar's remarkable story you won't simply learn something new. My hope is that, together, we'll discover the quiet joy of reconsidering what we thought we already knew. If you have comments, insights or questions, email me at [email protected]. As always, my boundless gratitude to our talented audio engineer and editor, Evan Kurohara, and our creative consultant, Mel Ching. 

Listeners, earlier this year I participated in a virtual event called Eye on Student Protagonism, hosted by education author and consultant, Jennifer D. Klein. The format was simple. Invite young people to showcase their school projects, surround them with interested adults primed to listen, ask questions and offer insights. During this event Jennifer’s two student presenters were from a program called Gone Boarding, founded in a high school in the great state of Michigan. One of those students was a young woman named Harper Klassen. As I learned about, and from Harper I totally lost my educator mind. I felt like I had torn open a chocolate bar and discovered one of the five Willy Wonka Golden Tickets, the chocolate factory was Gone Boarding and Harper was Willy Wonka. At the end of the session I learned that Harper was about to graduate and had been accepted at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which is in my home state. Her goal is to study business and bring Gone Boarding to the islands. Be still my educator heart. So what is Gone Boarding? Gone Boarding is a wildly engaging, project-based, student-centered program where young people design, build, brand, market and ride boards: skateboards, surfboards, snowboards and more, while learning the stuff schools often struggle to make real: science, math, design, entrepreneurship, communication, craftsmanship, confidence and teamwork. Founded by educator Bill Curtis, who noticed that some students valued snowboarding more than school itself, Gone Boarding flips the usual script. Instead of asking students to leave their interests, cares and passions at the door, it builds school around them. Students don't just complete assignments and take tests. They create products, present to companies, meet industry partners, test their own designs and discover that learning can be life-useful, unforgettable and very, very real. What began as an experiment in one Michigan high school has now expanded into more than a dozen states, with schools across the country adapting the model to their own communities and local board sports. In a world where educators spend endless hours debating student engagement, Gone Boarding has become one of the most intriguing examples of what can happen when schools start with passion, purpose and real work. More importantly, it offers a glimpse of what becomes possible when schools help young people develop the confidence to believe that their dreams are not too big. Bill Curtis wrote the following about Harper Klassen for this episode. “Harper Klassen is passionately pursuing her dreams! She embraced every opportunity Gone Boarding presented to her. She spent hours in the shop creating all types of boards and never missed an opportunity to get out and shred on the boards she made. When it comes to networking, Harper connected so naturally with all of our brand partners and continues to do so. Upon graduating from high school in Michigan, she is pursuing her dreams by attending the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to study business. Our "shredder of the year" is going to do big things and we are so proud of her!” As always, this show’s audio engineer is the talented Evan Kurohara. My thanks to our creative consultant, Mel Ching, and to Lynn Cvengros, who first introduced me to Gone Boarding and Bill Curtis. If you have questions or insights, email me at [email protected]. 

RECOMMENDED: WATCH THE SHORT FILM, NOTHING BEFORE YOU LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE. AND, READ THE SHORT STORY, "MARRY ME, GEORGIA." Listeners, given my love of all things media production, I am super stoked to bring you today’s guest, Norah DeMello, a screenwriting major at Chapman University’s nationally renowned Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She is a writer, aspiring filmmaker, and deeply reflective young artist whose relationship with storytelling began early, somewhere between the mountains and rivers of Northern California, stacks of beloved novels, and a home filled with music from bands like Radiohead, Pixies, and The Cure. She describes herself as “a nature girl through and through,” and there is something about the way she talks about art, film, music, and the human condition that makes it feel less like career preparation and more like a voyage of discovery. Norah is also a product of California public schools, including Placer High School in Auburn, where teachers recognized and nurtured her gift for writing long before she fully trusted it herself. Today, after transferring from community college into one of the nation’s most selective film programs, she is developing screenplays, directing short films, balancing multiple campus jobs, and learning how to build a creative life without tying her worth to perfection. Her work explores questions of connection, vulnerability, identity, and what it means to become fully alive, themes that seem deeply connected to her own ongoing process of becoming freer, more open, and more at peace with uncertainty. Mitch Weathers, author of “Executive Functions for Every Classroom,” founder of Organized Binder and a longtime friend of Norah’s father, wrote the following for this episode. “I want to begin by saying that I genuinely admire Norah DeMello. Not simply because of what she has accomplished, although those accomplishments are impressive, but because of who she is as a person. If you are fortunate enough to know Norah, what stays with you is not just her talent, but her authenticity, her courage, and her heart. I’ve known Norah her entire life. Her father, Dave, has been my closest friend since middle school. But over the last couple of years, I’ve had the chance to really get to know Norah herself. Watching her grow into who she is becoming has been inspiring. By most standards, Norah was on the “'deal' path. School came naturally to her. She earned outstanding grades in high school, received an academic scholarship, and enrolled at one of California’s most prestigious universities. But before the end of her first semester, she dropped out. I remember asking her about it, and her answer has stayed with me ever since. She simply said, “I just didn’t find my people.” There is something incredibly brave about a young person stepping away from the path everyone else celebrates in order to pursue a life that feels true to who they are. That decision wasn’t easy, and I know it came with uncertainty and struggle. But Norah chose authenticity over expectation, and that takes real courage. Since then, she has embraced a path in acting and screenwriting, and it’s been amazing to watch her flourish creatively. She has a natural presence both on camera and the stage, and in her writing. If you get the chance, make sure to watch the film Nothing, which she stars in. What I admire most about Norah is that she seems committed to truly living her life, not just performing the version of success others expect from her. And my sense is that somewhere along the way, she has found her people. As always, if you have feedback about this show, reach out to me at [email protected]. Audio engineering is provided by the talented founder of SOZEN Sound, Evan Kurohara. And, my eternal thanks to my podcast creative partner, Mel Ching.