Motherhood and Higher Ed Burnout in an AI Moment

In this episode, Kimberly Becker and Professor Laura Dumin pull back the curtain on motherhood, higher ed burnout, and AI's effects on teaching. They talk pretty candidly about midcareer life with Laura sharing the reality of juggling three internal grants, release time, her kids' summer camp rush, and student needs and Kimberly tracing her own path out of Moxie, the AI feedback startup she co-founded with Jessica, and into a job completely outside academia after half a year of applications with zero interviews. Together, they discuss rising intolerance for institutional nonsense and why higher ed initiatives often feel like yet another layer of unpaid labor.

Key themes:

• 4–4 teaching loads and the myth of “just add research”
• Being the primary earner: health insurance, risk, and career choices
• Closing an edtech startup and facing a brutal job market
• Midlife in academia: burnout, boundaries, and “less tolerance for everything”
• Why many of us are choosing “good enough” over constant hustle

Suggested links to include:

• LinkedIn profiles for Kimberly and Laura
• Prior WTBAI episode about Moxie