KindlED | The Prenda Podcast

Episode 104: What Does It Take to Build a Great School? A Conversation with Norman Atkins.

We talk with Norman Atkins about what it takes to build schools that endure, from the early charter movement to today’s microschools and AI-powered learning. We dig into

Episode 103: What If School Worked For Kids Again. A Conversation with Mickey Revenaugh.

We talk with Mickey Revenaugh, co-founder of Connections Academy and author of Schools Out, about why families are walking away from one-size-fits-all schooling. We dig i

Episode 102: Raising Kids Who Can Change History. A Conversation with Latham Turner.

We talk with Latham Turner about leaving a high-performing career to homeschool after watching his son’s love of reading collapse into daily tears and declining test scor

Episode 101: Build A Career Without The College Default. A Conversation with Hannah Maruyama.

We talk with Hannah Maruyama, founder of Degree Free, about why colleges don’t own education and why the “just go to college” default is failing many young adults. We bre

Episode 100: Prenda: Looking Back, Looking Forward. A Conversation with Kaity and Kelly.

We celebrate Episode 100 by digging into Kaity’s first year guiding a home microschool and what it teaches us about building belonging, agency, and high expectations. The

Episode 99: School Choice Rhetoric and Arguments. A Conversation with Matt Frendewey.

We draw a hard line between tweaking the school system and transforming it, starting with one idea: parents should hold the decision rights for their child’s education. W

Episode 98: Pluralism in American Education. A Conversation with Ashley Berner.

We ask what it would take to stop treating public education as a zero-sum culture war and start funding many legitimate school models with shared expectations for quality

Episode 97: High Agency Learning Environments. A Conversation with Tyler Thigpen.

We talk with Tyler Thigpen about building student agency through self-directed learning, and why kids thrive when they have purpose, strong relationships, and real choice

Episode 96: Reconnecting to Joyful Learning. A Conversation with Meredith Reyes.

We sit down with former public school teacher Meredith Reyes to unpack the moment burnout stopped being manageable and started being dangerous. She shares how moving stat

Episode 95: A Mathematician's Lament. A Conversation with Paul Lockhart.

We talk with mathematician and author Paul Lockhart about how school can drain the life out of math and why real mathematics feels more like art than a subject. We argue

Episode 94: Recentering the Family. A Conversation with Matt Beaudreau.

We talk with Matt Beaudreau about why kids are born motivated and how schools and homes can accidentally train that drive into distraction and compliance. We dig into mic

Episode 93: School Choice Matters. A Conversation with Morgan Camu.

We explore why more parents are rethinking the default school path and how real support makes school choice easier. From being mislabeled in school to helping scale educa

Episode 92: The Imagination Crisis. A Conversation with Nicole Jarbo.

We name the “imagination crisis” holding education back and argue that better schools start with better dreaming, not just better funding or tools. We share how 4.0 Schoo

Episode 90: Microschools for Texas Families. A Conversation with Colleen Dippel.

We dig into what parents actually want from schools: strong reading and math, safety and belonging, and communication that treats families like partners. Texas’s EFA, new

Episode 91: Education Disruption: Where are we now? A Conversation with Michael Horn.

We examine how disruption theory applies to K–12 and how microschools and ESAs shift power from systems to families. We discuss rigor, the science of reading, special edu

Episode 89: Microschools are Everywhere. A Conversation with Meredith Olson.

We name the real barrier in education as the status quo mindset and share how Vela backs nearly 5,000 founders building learner-centered options. Meredith traces her jour

Episode 88: Money For Microschools. A Conversation with Allison Serafin.

We trace Allison Serafin’s path from restless learner to teacher, elected education leader, and capital guide who helps schools access facilities and finance. The heart o

Episode 87: Innovating From Within: Public Microschools. A Conversation with Victoria Andrews.

We explore how joy, autonomy, and real-world experiences transform learning from third grade to high school, and how microschools inside and alongside public systems meet

Episode 86: What Does it Take to Start a Microschool? A Conversation with Brittany Miller.

We explore the front lines of the microschool movement with Brittany Munk-Miller, a Prenda microschool specialist, and unpack what it really takes to start small, teach w

Episode 85: Removing Education Barriers in Arkansas. A Conversation with Laurie Lee and Emmy Henley.

We explore how a mother and daughter helped turn Arkansas into a leading state for school choice, sharing hard-won lessons from family needs, policy battles, and the expl