The Perkins Platform

The creator and author of The Life Brief, a simple yet profound action-driving practice that helps people navigate life's big decisions with clarity, creativity and courage, Bonnie Wan joins us to share her work. The Life Brief applies the art and science of brand strategy to how we live our lives. As a 30-year career Brand Strategist turned Life & Leadership Strategist, Bonnie not only helps some of the world's most iconic companies innovate from a place of purpose, but also guides everyday people live with greater intention and imagination. She has been named Chief Strategy Officer of the Year and one of 100 Women to KNOW in America.

Listen in today for an exciting conversation with distinguished scientist and practitioner in human behavior, recognized by the U.S. Department of State as a top 1% expert, Dr. Abbie Maroño discussing body language, trust and influence in leadership. She has provided specialized behavior analysis training to elite units, including the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which comprises agents from the Secret Service, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and local law enforcement. Earning her PhD in Psychology, Abbie became a Professor of Psychology at 23 and now serves as Director of Education at Social-Engineer, LLC, specializing in behavior analysis. She contributes regularly to Forbes and Apple News and has been featured on BBC News, WIRED, and Forbes Breaking News. Abbie was honored as Reviewer of the Year for her significant contribution to the academic community. Additionally, she is an author, expert consultant, coach, and a TEDx speaker.

Join us on Wednesday, December 4 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, Elizabeth Klerman to discuss her research on the impact of humans being awake after midnight. Dr. Klerman's research focuses on applying circadian and sleep research principles to human physiology and pathophysiology. She also uses mathematical analysis and modeling to study human circadian, sleep, and objective neurobehavioral performance and subjective (self-reported) mood and alertness rhythms.

On the next episode of The Perkins Platform, I am thrilled to welcome the brilliant sociologist Dr. Jennifer Patrice Sims! A trailblazer in the study of race, identity, and the social constructs that shape our world, Dr. Sims brings an unmatched depth of insight to our discussion. Dr. Sims is the author of three groundbreaking books, including the recently released, The Fallacies of Racism (2024), Mixed-Race in the US & UK (2020), and The Sociology of Harry Potter (2012). Her work has sparked conversations globally, challenging how we think about race, racism, and the ways these ideas are shared and reproduced. With accolades like the Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book Award and the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award, Dr. Sims' impact on the field of sociology—and on her students—is nothing short of remarkable.  Join our conversation on Wednesday, November 27 (6pm) for what promises to be an amazing conversation!  

Get ready for an insightful episode of *The Perkins Platform*! Join us as we welcome Professor Collins, a renowned expert in race and ethnic politics, urban policy, and democratic theory. Together with our host, he dives into his groundbreaking research on public participation at school board meetings and tackles a pressing question: are school boards "broken"? Drawing on insights from his upcoming book, *Democracy Speaks: School Board Governance through Deliberative Culture*, Professor Collins reveals how democratic school board practices can reshape urban education policy. Don't miss this compelling conversation about the future of school governance and what it means for our communities!  Jonathan E. Collins is an assistant professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Professor Collins also serves as the associate director of the Center for Educational Equity. Before joining the Columbia University faculty, he was the Mary Tefft and John Hazen White Sr. Assistant Professor of Political Science, Education, and International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

Join us on Wednesday, October 16 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with passionate advocate for women's advancement and a key advisor for leaders tackling retention and growth challenges, Deepa Purushothaman. With over 20 years at Deloitte, she became the first Indian-American woman to make partner and led the US Women's Initiative. Her acclaimed debut book, The First, The Few, The Only, won multiple awards and was named a Financial Times best business book. Deepa founded re.write, a think tank promoting a new work narrative, and is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School. She collaborates with the Aspen Institute on talent discussions and is launching a podcast series called The Leadership Rewrite. As a board member of Avasara and the Rutgers Center for Women in Business, she works to advance women in leadership. A sought-after keynote speaker, Deepa has addressed audiences worldwide, including at the United Nations and Disney. Her TED talks have garnered over 3 million views, and she regularly contributes to the Harvard Business Review. Deepa holds degrees from Wellesley College, Harvard Kennedy School, and the London School of Economics, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four pets.

Senior policy analyst for K-12 Education at the Center for American Progress, Paige Shoemaker DeMio joins us to discuss her recent article about states reducing qualifications of teachers. As a former high school social studies teacher, Paige has a passion for designing inclusive and comprehensive curriculum and creating education policy that will ensure a more equitable education system in the United States. Shoemaker DeMio earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio University and a Master of Public Administration degree from The Ohio State University. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, October 2 @ 6pm EST!

Research Associate at University of Waterloo, Canada, Maksim Rudnev joins us to share his research on how logical thinking and empathy define wisdom. He is a quantitative social scientist interested in human values, wisdom, and social perception, as well as their development across various cultures and countries. He focuses on understanding the substance of cultural (in)variability and the methods intrinsically linked to cross-cultural inference. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, September 25 @ 6pm EST!  

High-performance psychologist, author and one of the world's leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance, Dr. Michael Gervais joins us to share his advice for achieving mastery. He has developed a framework for mental skills and practices that help individuals and teams excel under pressure. His clients include Super Bowl champions, Olympians, top athletes, and Fortune 50 CEOs. Gervais has supported Team USA in multiple Olympic Games and hosts the popular podcast Finding Mastery, which has over 25 million downloads. His latest book, The First Rule of Mastery, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in November 2023. Gervais also created the online course Finding Your Best and co-founded the Performance Science Institute at USC Marshall School of Business. He holds a doctorate in psychology with a focus on sport performance and a master's in kinesiology. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, September 18 @ 6pm EST!

Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University's ILR School and author, Vanessa Bohns joins us to discuss her book, You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters. She holds a PhD from Columbia University and an AB from Brown University. Her research has been published in top academic journals in psychology, management, and law, and her research and writing have been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and the Economist. Professor Bohns is an expert in social influence, compliance, consent, why it's so hard to ask for things, and why it's so hard to say no. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, September 11 @ 6pm EST!

Principal Consultant at True Culture Coaching & Consulting based in Northern Virginia, Dr. Shawna M. Gann joins us to share her work on racial ambiguity and multi-racial experiences. She specializes in Organizational Culture and DEI solutions, focusing on inclusive practices and empowering organizations to support authenticity and belonging. Dr. Gann's research and work emphasize creating welcoming environments for racially ambiguous and multiracial employees. Her global experiences in Italy, Germany, The Czech Republic, and South Korea enrich her DEI insights. She serves on the Justice Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advisory Board for Bard Graduate Programs in Sustainability and hosts the podcast Our True Colors. Outside work, Dr. Gann enjoys music, dance, karaoke, and spending time with her family and their three whippet pups. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, September 4 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, August 28 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with public philosopher, Jonny Thomson to discuss his latest book, Mini Philosophy: A Small Book of Big Ideas. Jonny runs the social media accounts Mini Philosophy (@philosophyminis), a community of 500,000 across three platforms. He's a staff writer at Big Think, where he writes about philosophy, theology, psychology, and occasionally other subjects when he dares step out of his lane. He is the bestselling author of three books: Mini Philosophy, Mini Big Ideas, and Mini Psychology. Before turning to writing full-time, Jonny taught philosophy at Oxford University for ten years. Jonny lives in North Oxfordshire with his wife, two young sons, and an aggressively fecund apple tree.

Social psychologist who studies our moral minds and how best to bridge political divides, Kurt Gray joins us to discuss his upcoming book, Outraged: Why we Fight about Morality and Politics (Pantheon) and the research related to it. Gray received his PhD from Harvard University, and now directs the Deepest Beliefs Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also leads the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding, which explores new ways to reduce polarization, and is a Field Builder in the New Pluralists, which seeks to build a more pluralistic America. Gray's work on morality, politics, religion, creativity, and AI has been widely discussed in the media, including the New York Times, the Economist, Scientific American, Wired, and Hidden Brain. He is also the co-author of the book The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels and Why it Matters (Viking). And he frequently speaks at public events—including 3 TEDx talks—and for many different organizations. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, August 21 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, August 14 @ 6pm EST for an informative conversation with neuroscientist and physicist, Kelly Clancy to discuss her book, Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World. Kelly has held research positions at MIT, Berkeley, University College London and the AI company DeepMind. Her research focuses on uncovering the principles of intelligence, and she has invented novel brain-computer interfaces to investigate the biological underpinnings of agency. Her essays on neuroscience and AI have appeared in Wired, Harper's and The New Yorker!

Tune in for our Special Segment with Harvard trained nutritional psychiatrist, professional chef, nutritional biologist and author of the international bestseller, This is Your Brain on Food, Dr. Uma Naidoo. She joins us to discuss the impact of sugars on decision-making, leadership and focus. Dr. Naidoo founded and directs the first and only hospital-based Nutritional Psychiatry Service in the USA. She is the Director of Nutritional and Metabolic Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital & Director of Nutritional Psychiatry at the MGH Academy while serving on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Naidoo has been invited by the World Economic Forum to consult on their New Frontiers of Nutrition initiative. After being one of only four US physicians to be invited to meet personally with HRH The Prince of Wales, she was asked to collaborate with HRH and the UK College of Medicine on a public health Brain Food project. She is currently developing the first and only CME based educational program at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard to educate other clinicians globally about nutrition for brain health. Dr. Uma has appeared as a Nutritional Psychiatry expert on Live with Kelly & Ryan, Today Show, 700 Club, ABC, and been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Thrive Global, Harpers, Shape, Parade, Boston Globe, AARP, and more. Tune in for this special broadcast!

Join us on Wednesday, July 31 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Margot Machol Bisnow to discuss her book, Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did. Margot is a writer, wife, and mom from Washington, DC. For the last 10 years, she has spoken to parent groups about raising fearless, creative, confident, resilient entrepreneurial children who are filled with joy and purpose. She has a BA in English and an MBA, both from Northwestern, and spent 20 years in government, including as an FTC Commissioner and staff director of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. In the 1990s she established a non-profit that set up economic think tanks in Eastern Europe's emerging democracies. Margot served as an Advisor to EQ Generation, an after- school program in New York City that gives children the skills to succeed; on the Advisory Board of the MUSE School in Malibu, that prepares young people to live consciously through passion-based learning; and on the Board of Spark the Journey in Washington DC, that mentors low-income high school students to achieve college and career success.

A bill signed into law recently makes Louisiana the first and only state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in public schools and colleges. Listen in to my thought-proking conversation with one of the nation's foremost authorities on religion and schools to discuss this decision and share his expertise, Dr. Charles J. Russo, M.Div., J.D., Ed. D.  Dr. Russo is the Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences, director of its Ph.D. program, and research professor of law in the School of Law at the University of Dayton.  He was the 1998-99 president of the Education Law Association, and 2002 recipient of its McGhehey (Achievement) Award. He. has authored or co-authored more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals; authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited 81 books, and has more than 1,300 publications. Dr. Russo also speaks extensively on issues in education law around the globe. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law on the Faculty of Law at the Sydney Campus of Notre Dame University. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, July 24 @ 6pm EST!

Highly successful speaker and trainer, captivating audiences nationwide with his expertise and charisma, Andy Craig joins us to discuss a leader's role in inspiring a team and reducing workplace burnout. With a BA in Speech Communications from the University of Washington, Andy has navigated various industries, ultimately finding his passion in speaking and sales. He began coaching in 2006 and became a certified Thinking Into Results Facilitator in 2012. Andy ran for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma in 2014, co-authored "The Change 3" in 2015, and has since delivered impactful seminars across 30 states, engaging numerous Fortune 500 companies. A licensed Ziglar Master Coach and Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer, Andy gained international acclaim with his bestselling book, "Passion Power: Discover the 3 Indispensable Keys to Your Success." His message on achieving breakthroughs and overcoming limiting beliefs resonates globally, further highlighted by his recent features in In The Know Magazine and Influence Magazine as an Influence 100 Authority. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, June 26 @ 6pm EST!

Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and co-director of the Stanford Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences, Dr. Jamie Zeitzer joins us to share the results of his recently released study about individuals that work late into the night. Dr. Zeitzer is a Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and co-directs the Stanford Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences. He is also a Health Science Specialist at the Palo Alto VA. He has more than 25 years of research experience in sleep and circadian rhythms across a wide variety of organisms, including humans. His more than 150 papers on the impact of light, use of wearables, and physiology, have been cited more than 12,000 times. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, July 10 @ 6pm EST!

Professor of Psychology at California State University, Long Beach, Dr. May Ling Halim joins us to discuss her research on preschool girls. Dr. Halim completed her MA and PhD in Social Psychology with a Developmental Focus and Quantitative Minor at New York University and her BA in Psychology at Stanford University. Dr. Halim has won numerous awards and grants, such as from the National Science Foundation and the American Psychological Foundation. She has been invited to speak at several events and universities such as the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology and the Society for Research on Child Development Biennial Meeting. Her research spans two broad areas. The first examines the development of gender and racial intergroup attitudes. The second focuses on gender identity development among diverse young children. Her research has been published in leading national academic journals such as Child Development and Developmental Psychology and has been used to inform legal proceedings (e.g., ACLU) and educational programs (e.g., Head Start). Her work has also been written about in the popular media, such as on NPR, CNN and in Psychology Today, and she has written op-eds for Huffington Post and NBC Think. She also serves as a Consulting Editor or Editorial Board Member for several academic journals including Child Development, Journal of Cognition and Development, and Sex Roles. Dr. Halim has also consulted as a Program Director at the CSULB Center for Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness supporting programs in California aimed to improve K-12 education. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, July 3 @ 6pm EST!

Named America's go-to Leading LGBT+ Expert by The New York Times, ABC News, Yahoo!, and CNN, Dr. Kryss Shane LSW, LMSW (she/her) joins us for an important conversation on how leaders engage in their organizations to build an inclusive LGBT+ workplace. Dr. Kryss serves as the Director of the Social Work Program and Assistant Professor at Thomas University, as well as being a Lecturer at Columbia University and an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University, National Louis University, and National University. With over 25 years experience, Dr. Kryss is known for helping businesses address their unique Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion needs in an approachable, manageable and actionable way. In addition to her doctorate, she holds two master's degrees, and two licenses to practice mental healthcare. Also a successful author, she has written, Creating an LGBT+ Inclusive University: A Practical Resource Guide for Faculty and Administrators, which provides guidance for faculty and administrators of universities and colleges to become knowledgeable, capable, and able to make their campuses (including online campuses) more LGBT+ inclusive. She is also the author of Creating an LGBT+ Inclusive Workplace: The Practical Resource Guide for Business Leaders, which provides best practices and professional guidance for creating LGBT+ inclusive workplaces. Her writings have also appeared in the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, Huffington Post, International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership, The New Social Worker Magazine, and many more. Tune in on Wednesday, June 26 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, June 18 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with writer-artist, scholar-activist, academic-advocate, Dr. Menah Pratt to discuss her upcoming book, Blackwildgirl: A Writer's Journey to Take Back her Superpower (April 2024). The book and companion journal, Finding your Superpower explore the challenges of Black girlhood and Black womanhood in America. Dr. Pratt is the Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity and Professor of Education at Virginia Tech. A fierce advocate for those who have been disempowered, she is the founder of the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference, now in its 12th year, and the Black College Institute, now in its 7th year. She is the author of 5 books on issues of race, class, gender, culture, diversity, education, women's leadership, and critical race feminism.  She earned her PhD and JD from Vanderbilt University. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Tennessee, with expertise in real estate, construction law, affirmative action, equal employment opportunity, disability, and governance. Nationally recognized as a leader, scholar, and author, Dr. Pratt has received several national awards: the 2023-2024 American Council on Education Fellowship; Women We Admire in Virginia, 2023 and 2024; the 2023 Individual Winds of Change award by the Forum on Workplace Inclusion; the 2021 Inclusive Excellence Individual Leadership Award by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education; and the 2018 American Education Studies Association Critics' Choice Award for outstanding scholarship for A Black Woman's Journey from Cotton Picking to College Professor.

Join us on Wednesday, June 12 @ 6pm EST for an informative conversation on overcoming the anchoring effect with Rich Horwath, founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute. In his role, he helps executive leadership teams develop their strategic thinking and planning capabilities to set direction, create competitive advantage, and profitably grow their business. He is also the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books on strategic thinking, including, STRATEGIC: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence, selected by Inc. Magazine as a top 4 “must-read book for 2024.” Rich has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX TV and his work has been published in the Harvard Business Review.

University Business Communication Lecturer and Communication Consultant and Strategist specializing in change management communication from planning to stabilization, Aryca Woodson joins us to discuss her work in strategic communication. She has led and supported transformative change initiatives using strategic storytelling in both nonprofit and global health care sectors. In response to the unrest in 2020, Aryca shifted her focus to leverage strategic storytelling and change management frameworks to address the polarization in our rapidly changing world. Whether in university classrooms or community discussions on divisive political issues, Aryca passionately believes in our shared humanity as a bridge to unity. She advocates for equipping ourselves with the right tools to foster understanding and bridge divides. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, June 5 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, May 29 @ 6pm EST for an important conversation with author and developmental psychologist with two decades experience working with families, Dr. Aliza Pressman, to discuss her New York Times bestselling book THE 5 PRINCIPLES OF PARENTING: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans. Her book offers a comprehensive framework for nurturing children, emphasizing empathy, communication, consistency, boundaries, and self-care. Through practical advice and real-life examples, it empowers parents to foster resilience, kindness, and emotional intelligence in their children. Aliza is also the host of the popular podcast Raising Good Humans. She is the co-founding director of The Mount Sinai Parenting Center and an assistant clinical professor at Mount Sinai Hospital. She holds degrees from Dartmouth College, Teacher's College, and Columbia University. Aliza is the mother of two teenagers.

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Injury and Violence Prevention Program at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, Sophie L. Kjærvik joins us to discuss her recent article on venting and dealing with anger. She earned a Ph.D. from the School of Communication at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and a Master's in Psychology from the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research focuses on understanding how and why acts of aggression and violence occur in society, and how to prevent such socially destructive behavior through anger management and training interventions. I explore these relationships using quantitative methods (e.g., meta-analytic reviews, laboratory experiments, and online surveys). Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, May 22 @ 6pm EST!

Bestselling author, top-rated leadership speaker, and unconsultant who believes that individuals have the power to transform companies and cultures through great leadership and applied critical thinking, Bryce G. Hoffman joins us to discuss his position on one of his recent articles about how to overcome the anchoring effect. Bryce is the author of American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company, which was named one of the “Best Business Books” by Bloomberg and Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything, which Jon Gordon called “further proof that Bryce Hoffman is one of the great business writers and thinkers of our time.” These books have become manuals for leaders who want to learn how to create winning cultures, navigate complexity, and make better decisions faster in today's rapidly changing world. He was also named one of the “Top 100 Leadership Speakers” by Inc. magazine and has been a guest lecturer at the National University of Singapore, Warwick Business School, and Washington State University, as well as an adjunct lecturer at the University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business. In 2015, Bryce founded Red Team Thinking to teach individuals and organizations how to use applied critical thinking to make better decisions in today's complex world. Red Team Thinking® evolved from a system developed by the military and intelligence agencies to make critical and contrarian thinking part of their strategic planning process. And in 2021, he launched The Thinking Leader Podcast, featuring conversations with business and thought leaders, cognitive scientists, military officers, and other bestselling authors who share his desire to help people think more deeply and lead more effectively.

Join us on Wednesday, April 24 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Karen “Dr. K” Baptiste, as she shares her work as the Founder Preschool to Prison, LLC, and film Director of her new, award-winning documentary, Preschool to Prison. Dr. K has served on the International Board of Directors and the Education Legislative Committee at ASCD where she advocated to Congress and developed national educational policy points to address systemic barriers. As a visionary who can make magic and transform any space she's in, Dr. K leads with compassionate courage and has bridged her love of supporting individuals with special needs and individuals impacted by the criminal justice system with storytelling in film. Growing up in the Bronx and becoming a special education teacher in the Bronx, seeing kids drop out of school was the norm. She is also a co-author for The New Classroom Instruction That Works.

Award-winning journalist and author, Tom McGrath joins us to share his recent opinion piece on how bad became the new good and discuss his new book, Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation, which will be published by Grand Central Publishing in June 2024. Tom is also the author of the newsletter Common Good, which explores issues related to politics, culture and the economy. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Philadelphia magazine, as well as chief content officer of the magazine's parent company, Metro Corp. (which also publishes Boston magazine). He continues to write for both publications, as well as several others, including Politico. In 2022 he was named Writer of the Year at the National City & Regional Magazine Awards. Read his work at tommcgrathwriter.com. Subscribe to his newsletter at tmcgrath.substack.com. He lives in suburban Philadelphia. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, April 17 @ 6pm EST!

“Recognized by Meetings and Conventions Magazine as one of the nation's top business speakers.”, Kaplan Mobray is globally acclaimed as one of the world's most dynamic and inspirational business speakers, and joins us to discuss his book, The 10Ks of Personal Branding: Create a Better You. Wharton educated, Kaplan has been featured on CNN, FOX, Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, and shares his message to NFL players and fans annually at the Super Bowl. He continues to serve as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies and an advisor to the nation's top business schools, working with business leaders to elevate Performance Excellence, Branding, Leadership Effectiveness, Innovation, Diversity Equity and Inclusion and Workforce Transformation. Kaplan has delivered presentations in 23 countries across 5 continents. All of his innovative presentations have been described as life-changing events. In his personal pursuits, Kaplan is a professional saxophone player. He resides in West Nyack, NY and is active in civic and charitable organizations.  Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, April 10 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on April 3@ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with world-renowned organizational psychologist and author, Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg, to discuss his new book, Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings. Dr. Rogelberg holds the title of Chancellor's Professor at UNC Charlotte for distinguished national, international and interdisciplinary contributions. He is an award-winning teacher, has over 200 publications, been cited well-over 10,000 times in the academic literature, and was recipient of the very prestigious Humboldt Award for his research on meetings. Adam Grant has called Steven the “worlds leading expert on how to fix meetings”. He has been interviewed or featured on major TV broadcasts (e.g.  CBS This Morning, multiple times on CNN, BBC World), radio (e.g., NPR's Morning Edition), leading podcasts, and in most major newspapers and magazines. His keynotes on meetings span the globe and occur at the world's leading organizations including but not limited to Google, Facebook, Amazon, Pfizer, Cisco, Bank of America, PayPal, Dell, The United Nations, 3M, RAND, The Security Exchange Commission, Corning, Siemens, London Stock Exchange, TIAA, and Warner Brothers. He was the inaugural winner of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Humanitarian Award and just finished his term as President of SIOP, the largest professional organization in the world for organizational psychology.

Join us on Today, March 27 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, Nicholas Tampio, discussing his new introduction to the seminal text, Democracy and Education written by John Dewey (Columbia University Press 2024). Nicholas researches the history of political thought, contemporary political theory and education policy. He is the author of Teaching Political Theory: A Pluralistic Approach (Edward Elgar Publishing 2022) and has published books on teaching political theory, democracy and national education standards, the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and the legacy of the Enlightenment in contemporary political theory. Nicholas serves as an editor of the journal Comparative Political Theory and faculty advisor to the Fordham Political Review and the Fordham Pi Sigma Alpha chapter. He often writes for public facing outlets such as the Boston Globe, USA Today, and the Washington Post, and his articles have been translated into Albanian, Chinese, Croatian, Estonian, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Join us on Wednesday, March 20 @ 6pm EST for an informative conversation with librarian, lecturer and educator, Lisa Manganello as she shares her thoughts about how to prepare students to be consumers of information. Lisa has been a librarian at South Brunswick High School for the past seventeen years, where she was recognized as Educator of the Year in 2015. An active member of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, Lisa presents regularly on information literacy. Recent presentations include Now What?: Information Literacy Lessons for the High School Library, Diverse Readers, Diverse Books: New Titles to Build a Culture of Reading, and Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Information Literacy with your Librarian.  In January 2024, she published an article titled “Information Literacy begins in your school library” in NJEA Review Magazine. Partnering with Dr. Joyce Valenza, Professor of Information Science at Rutgers University, Lisa helped to develop the New Jersey Open Library Tour (NJOLT) to give pre-service and practicing librarians opportunities to visit and learn from their colleagues throughout the state. She is passionate about sharing her information literacy lessons with other educators and spotlighting the value of school librarians. Lisa's work with media literacy has been featured in reports on NBC and CNN.

Join us on Wednesday, March 13 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Managing Partner of Triad Consulting Group, Debbie Goldstein as she shares her work in conflict and communication. Debbie teaches negotiation as a faculty member at Harvard Law School and Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has also taught at Tufts University School of Medicine and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center for many years. Her work often takes her internationally: to Dubai, where she worked with government leaders; to Ethiopia, where she worked with the Members of Parliament; and to Cyprus, where she taught public policy students from across the globe. Her varied clients include Merck, Chanel, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Capital One, Barclay's, Honda, Standard Bank, Shell, Boeing, General Mills, MetLife, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Citigroup, Prudential, and Proctor & Gamble. She coaches senior executives through difficult decision-making and managing critical relationships, and has helped mediate family business disputes. In the public sector, she founded and ran a free legal aid clinic called LINC (Legal Initiative for Children) for the patients at Massachusetts General Hospital's Chelsea outpost. She is currently on the Board of Directors of WBUR and Income Research + Management. She has been a featured guest on NPR, and her writing has appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, the Management Information Exchange Journal, and the Harvard Business Review. Debbie is a graduate of Williams College and Boston College Law School. After college, Debbie lived in Chicago chasing (and catching) her dream of becoming a jazz vocalist. Debbie can be reached at goldstein@diffcon.com.

Join us on Wednesday, March 6 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Jana L. Carlisle, EdD, discussing her new book, Women Navigating Educational Leadership (Educational Leadership: Innovative, Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives). Dr. Carlisle has spent more than 30 years working to transform public education outcomes through leadership positions in the not-for-profit, public, private, and philanthropic sectors. Her roles have placed her in settings from urban districts to those focused on education advocacy, philanthropy, leadership, evaluation, and reform. She currently serves as Lead Consultant for Education Support Consulting, which provides strategy, planning, framework, and implementation support to clients. Dr. Carlisle studied political science and international relations as an undergraduate at Michigan State University's James Madison College, Public Policy Analysis with a focus on education when earning her Masters of Science at the University of Rochester, and educational leadership for her doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania's Mid- Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Dr. Carlisle designed her new book to deliver—in an accessible manner and in one volume—new and existing knowledge, insights, interrelationships, and practices about women in educational leadership. Women Navigating includes a comprehensive equation for women pursuing and serving as educational leaders. The book will appeal to practitioners who wish to gain understanding as well as those who teach in graduate schools of education. Women Navigating presents a view of what it takes for future leaders envisioning their own journeys as well as insights into what it has taken for women to serve as educational leaders. 

International keynote speaker, research scientist, and author of the The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016), Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., joins us to share her work on harnessing the mind and success. She is currently a Lecturer at the Yale School of Management and Faculty Director of the Yale School of Management's Women's Leadership Program. She is also the Science Director of Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Seppälä's expertise is positive leadership, emotional intelligence, positive psychology, and social connection. Her research has been published in top academic journals and featured in major news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and CBSNews. Seppälä speaks and consults internationally for Fortune 500 companies like Google and Facebook and contributes to Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Psychology Today, and TIME among others. She has also spoken at several TEDx events. A repeat guest on Good Morning America, her research on breathing for military veterans with trauma was highlighted in the documentary Free the Mind. She is also featured in documentaries like The Altruism Revolution, What You Do Matters, and Bullied. She graduated from Yale (BA), Columbia (MA), and Stanford (Ph.D.). Originally from Paris, France, she is a native speaker of French, English, and German and conversant in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, February 28 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, February 21 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Jared Cooney Horvath (PhD, MEd) discussing his work on how people learn and his latest book. Jared is a neuroscientist, educator, best-selling author, and creator of the award-winning program The Learning Blueprint. He has conducted research and lectured at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Melbourne, and over 750 schools internationally. Jared has published 6 books, over 50 research articles, and his work has been featured in numerous popular publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Economist, and PBS's NOVA. He currently serves as Director of LME Global: a team dedicated to bringing the latest brain and behavioral research to teachers, students, and parents alike.

Distinguished leader, educator, journalist and author, Arnold E. Holtberg joins us to share his opinions on how to teach the truth even when it's challenging. Arnold is the strategic advisor of The Compass School of Texas, a start-up private school for students age 4 through grade 3, and a contributing columnist for The Dallas Morning News and The Arkansas Democrat Gazette. He is also an accomplished author with his latest releases, "Second Down and Life to Go" (Spring 2024) and "Game On! One Boy's Odyssey" (2023). He previously served as the Headmaster of St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas for over 20 years, Dean of Students and teacher of Social Studies in numerous other U.S. private and public schools, as well as the principal of the Hong Kong International School. His experiences on the Board of Directors of non-profit organizations and private schools, as well as a Regional Panelist for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships, has informed his leadership strategies and skills to improve education systems. Arnold holds an M.A.R. in Pastoral Care and Counseling from the Lutheran Theological Seminary and an A.B. in Sociology, Cum Laude, from Princeton University, showcasing excellence in academics and athletics. Tune in for this broadcast on Wednesday, February 14 @ 6pm EST!

Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, Edwidge Danticat joins us to discuss her work and particularly the design and intent in her course, "Writing in the Presence of Ancestors.” Edwidge received her B.A. in French Literature from Barnard College and her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Brown University. She is the author of seventeen books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; the novels-in-stories, The Dew Breaker, Claire of the Sea Light, and The Art of Death, a National Book Critics Circle finalist for Criticism. She has written seven books for children and young adults, a travel narrative, After the Dance, and a collection of essays, Create Dangerously. Edwidge is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow, a 2018 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, a 2018 winner of the Neustadt Prize, a 2019 winner of the Saint Louis Literary Award, a 2020 United States Artist Fellow, a 2020 winner of the Vilceck Prize, and a 2023 winner of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Her story collection, Everything Inside, was a 2020 winner of the Bocas Fiction Prize, The Story Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Prize. Her essay collection We're Alone is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in Fall 2024, and a novel, The Once and Future Dead, from Knopf in 2025. Tune in for this special broadcast on Wednesday, February 7 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, January 31 @ 6pm EST for an important conversation on utilizing AI in schools with Carly Ghantous, who has worked in education for fifteen years as a teacher, instructional designer, and educational technology trainer. Before making the switch to online education, she spent the first eight years of her career teaching high school language arts at a brick-and-mortar school in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to her B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education and M.Ed. in Instructional Design and Technology, Carly is also an ISTE Certified Educator, Google Certified Educator, and Microsoft Innovative Educator. In 2020, Carly earned a Blackboard Catalyst Award for online course design and instruction. Currently, Carly teaches language arts and history courses at the Davidson Academy Online and continues to develop online courses and content. Teaching online has allowed Carly to pursue a passion for creating community despite physical barriers, and her classes often focus on building relationships with students to create a learning community. Carly lives in Mason, Ohio with her husband, four children, beagle, and two cats. When she finds a moment to herself, Carly enjoys reading (especially mysteries), listening to podcasts, and taking her dog for extra long walks.

PhD sociologist studying work-life fulfillment and happiness, Dr. Tracy Brower joins us to discuss her book, The Secrets to Happiness at Work: How to Choose and Create Purpose and Fulfillment in Your Work. She is the vice president of workplace insight for Steelcase and a senior contributor to Forbes and Fast Company. Tracy is an award-winning speaker and has over 25 years of experience working with global clients to achieve business results. Tracy is an executive advisor to Like|Minded, Coda Societies and to the MSU Master Industrial Mathematics Program. She is an executive council member with Design Museum Everywhere and board member for the United Way. Tracy's work has been translated into 19 languages and she has been featured in TEDx, The Wall Street Journal, Work-Life Balance in the 21 st Century (book), Globe and Mail (Canada), InsideHR (Australia), HR Director (UK), T3N (Germany), Real Estate Review Journal, Fortune.com, Inc. Magazine, HBR (France) and more. Tracy holds a PhD in Sociology, a Master of Management in Organizational Culture, and a Master of Corporate Real Estate with a workplace specialization. You can find her on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, Unsplash or at tracybrower.com. Tune in for this special broadcast on Wednesday, January 24 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, January 17 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with internationally renowned etiquette expert, Diane Gottsman as she shares her work on etiquette training and recommendations for school leaders--Top 5 Things to Remember When at an Event. Diane is also an author, speaker, popular media resource, and owner of The Protocol School of Texas, a company specializing in professional development and corporate etiquette training. Diane understands modern etiquette is more than knowing which fork to use at the dinner table and has spent the last 20 years training business professionals, university students and individuals on how to navigate social and professional situations with confidence and ease. She holds a Master's Degree in Sociology with an emphasis on human behavior.  Diane is regularly called upon by the media to offer her insights on a wide range of topics to include dining, business, social media, body language, job interview, travel etiquette, as well as a variety of everyday social dilemmas. She has been featured on national television shows, such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Sunday Morning, Fox & Friends, and The Hallmark Channel. She is the resident etiquette expert for Good Day Austin, Fox 7 and San Antonio Living, News 4. And is regularly quoted on CNBC, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Market Watch, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and USA Today. In addition to her work as an etiquette expert, Diane has authored two books and is a sought-after keynote speaker who has earned a well-deserved reputation as dynamic, inspiring and motivational. She has spoken at conferences and events around the country and considers travel one of her favorite hobbies. A wife and mother of three, she knows firsthand the challenges of balancing a private, social, and professional life.  Diane believes success requires four main ingredients ... Curiosity, Training, Dedication and Desire.

Principal Consultant and best-selling Author, Dr. Janice Z. Gassam Asare joins us to discuss her latest book, Decentering Whiteness in the Workplace: A Guide for Equity and Inclusion and share her experiences since its release. Janice is the founder of BWG Business Solutions, an award-winning DEI consultancy designed to help organizations create cultures built on equity. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with Google, Amazon, Yale University, Nordstrom, H&M, and Paypal/Venmo among many others. She is the author of two best-selling books, Dirty Diversity and The Pink Elephant. She is a senior contributing writer for Forbes having authored over 400 articles, a Harvard Business Review contributor and a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. In 2022, Dr. Janice was recognized as one of LinkedIn's Top Voices in Racial Equity. In 2023 she was recognized by Gusto as one of the 25 Top Workplace Experts to Follow. She is a 2-time TEDx speaker and the host of the Dirty Diversity podcast where she discusses all things diversity, equity, inclusion. Tune in for this special broadcast on Wednesday, January 10 @ 6pm EST!

Professor and Director of the Endeavor Antiracist & Restorative Leadership Initiative (EARLI) at Teachers College, Columbia University, Dr. Mark Gooden joins us to discuss his book, Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership which provides a comprehensive guide for school leaders who desire to engage their school communities in transformative systemic change. Mark's research focuses broadly on culturally responsive school leadership with specific interests in principalship, anti-racist leadership, urban educational leadership, and legal issues in education. Mark is the 2017 recipient of the UCEA Jay D. Scribner Mentoring Award and the 2021 recipient of the UCEA Master Professor Award for distinguished service in teaching, curriculum development, and student mentoring. His research has appeared in a range of outlets, including American Educational Research Journal, Educational Administration Quarterly, Teachers College Record, Review of Educational Research, and The Journal of Negro Education & Urban Education. He is the Past President of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA). Tune in for this special broadcast on Wednesday, January 3 @ 6pm EST!

Associate Professor in the Communication, Media and Learning Technologies Design program at Teachers College and the Associate Director of the Media & Social Change Lab (MASCLab), Dr. Ioana Literat joins us to share insight on the younger generation's online political expression. Her research examines young people's creative and civic participation in online spaces. Key questions driving her research agenda are: How does online participation enable new forms of creativity, collaboration and learning? How do young people's creative and civic practices intersect online? How can we leverage an understanding of these creative and civic practices in order to better support the next generation of thinkers, voters and activists? Tune in on Wednesday, December 20 @ 6pm EST!

Tune in for one of our new Quarterly Special Segments - The Thing About Food with Harvard trained nutritional psychiatrist, professional chef, nutritional biologist and author of the international bestseller, This is Your Brain on Food, Dr. Uma Naidoo. Dr. Naidoo joins us to share the details of her upcoming book, Calm Your Mind with Food: A Revolutionary Guide to Controlling Your Anxiety. In this groundbreaking guide, she presents cutting-edge research about the ways anxiety is rooted in our brain, our gut, our immune system, and our metabolism. Drawing on the latest science on the connection between diet and anxiety, she shows us how to effectively use food and nutrition as an essential tool for calming the mind. Dr. Uma Naidoo founded and directs the first and only hospital-based Nutritional Psychiatry Service in the USA. She is the Director of Nutritional and Metabolic Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital & Director of Nutritional Psychiatry at the MGH Academy while serving on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Naidoo has been invited by the World Economic Forum to consult on their New Frontiers of Nutrition initiative. After being one of only four US physicians to be invited to meet personally with HRH The Prince of Wales, she was asked to collaborate with HRH and the UK College of Medicine on a public health Brain Food project. She is currently developing the first and only CME based educational program at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard to educate other clinicians globally about nutrition for brain health. Dr. Uma has appeared as a Nutritional Psychiatry expert on Live with Kelly & Ryan, Today Show, 700 Club, ABC, and been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Thrive Global, Harpers, Shape, Parade, Boston Globe, AARP, and more. Tune in for this special broadcast on Thursday, December 14 @ 2pm EST!

Science journalist fascinated with brains, minds, and culture, David McRaney joins us to discuss his latest book, How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion. David created the blog/book/podcast You Are Not So Smart to get a better understanding of self delusion and motivated reasoning. It became an internationally bestselling book and then podcast, where he continues to interview scientists who study the psychology of reasoning, decision-making, and judgment. In the early days, David was a newspaper reporter covering Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and in the Pine Belt region of the Deep South. Since then, he has been an editor, photographer, voiceover artist, television host, journalism teacher, lecturer, and tornado survivor. He has worked for several years as the head of digital media for WDAM-TV where he produced The Green Couch Sessions, a TV show about the music of the Deep South. He has also written for Heineken, Duck Tape and appeared in a Reebok ad that he helped write. Most recently, he wrote, produced, and recorded a six-hour audio documentary exploring the history of the idea and the word: genius. www.davidmcraney.com. Tune in on Wednesday, December 13 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, December 6 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Jen Franks Ahaghotu, Harvard College graduate and founder and CEO of Disruptive Truth, LLC, as she shares her work and insight on her organization. An educator for 15 years, Jen designed and implemented a multi-million dollar initiative in New York City schools called Learning Partners Program that impacted 250 schools and 100,000+ students a year, the largest scale work of its kind at the time.  This included diving deeply into life changing racial identity work with her team and then scaling racial equity initiatives across the city.  The inaugural project of Disruptive Truth is called the Black Women World Record and honors the educational achievements of black women around the world.  Jen is here to gather black women together to speak their truth and change the world and supports people from other marginalized communities to do the same.

Award-winning journalist and social commentator covering parenting and lifestyle trends, Jennifer Wallace joins us to discuss her latest book, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—And What We Can Do About It. Jennifer is the co-founded of the nonprofit The Mattering Movement, which offers free resources for educators and students to help combat the "never enough" messages that are pervasive in our culture. She is also a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and appears on television to discuss her articles and other hot topics in the news. After graduating Harvard College, Jennifer began her career in television at “60 Minutes” where she worked as a journalist for many years. She lives in New York City with her husband and their three children. For more information visit www.jenniferbwallace.com. Tune in on Wednesday, November 29 @ 6pm EST!  

Join us on Monday, November 20 @ 6pm EST for an informative conversation with Josh D. Grossman as he shares his research on discrimination in college student admissions. Josh is a Ph.D. candidate in Computational Social Science at Stanford University's Department of Management Science & Engineering. Broadly, his research applies tools from data science to issues in public policy and he is particularly interested in understanding how racial disparate impact manifests itself in judicial decisions and college admissions. He recently interned as a data scientist at Recidiviz, a non-profit that builds technology to reduce incarceration. Previously, he worked as a data scientist at the Stanford Computational Policy Lab and IXL Learning, a K–12 education technology company. He completed his bachelor's degree at Harvard University, majoring in Neurobiology and minoring in Statistics. His work is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP).

President of Financial Insyghts. Researcher of confidence-driven decision making, and Professor, Peter Atwater, joins us to discuss his new book, The Confidence Map: Charting a Path from Chaos to Clarity. In this book, he shares the tools and insights he uses in his work with business leaders, investors, coaches, and public policymakers. When Peter Atwater turned 45, his son said, “Dad you are halfway to ninety.” Three months later he left a very successful career in financial services to do something different. After helping several hedge funds successfully navigate the banking crisis, that “something” turned out to be studying confidence. Tossing  aside his academic training in economics and his experience on Wall Street, Atwater turned to social psychology and discovered that not only do we act as we feel, but we do so consistently, too. To paraphrase Mark Twain, history rhymes for a reason. Today, Atwater is a recognized expert on the impact of confidence on individual and group decision-making. He teaches classes on the topic at William & Mary, his alma mater, and for the honors program at the University of Delaware. And when he isn't in the classroom, you can find him speaking on stage, on Bloomberg Television and in The Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine. Tune in on Wednesday, November 15 @ 6pm EST!