An Educated Guest
An Educated Guest is a podcast that dives deep into the innovations and trends shaping the future of education. The host is Todd Zipper who has over two decades as an entrepreneur, executive, and investor across K-12, Higher Education, and Workforce Development. He brings together visionaries, innovators, and operators from the education industry to explore the solutions that are transforming learning and work.
Episodes
92 episodes
Ep.92 | Rethinking Assessment for the AI Era with ETS CEO Amit Sevak
What if the future of assessment is not simply about creating better tests, but about measuring what truly matters? In Episode 92, Todd Zipper speaks with Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS, about the organization’s evolution from the Educational Testing S...
Ep.91 | From Struggling College to Thriving University: Marian’s Dan Elsener on Thinking Big
When Dan Elsener became president of Marian University in 2001, the institution had roughly 1,100 students, significant financial challenges, and what he calls “one foot in the financial grave and the other on a banana peel.” More than 25 years...
Ep.90 | Funding Students, Not Schools: Stand Together’s Adam Peshek on the Future of Education
What if instead of funding schools, we funded students and families—and gave them the power to build an education around what each child actually needs?In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with A...
Ep. 89 | From Hours to Outcomes: Fixing Work, Unlocking Productivity, and Reimagining the Essential Workforce with Array’s Fouad ElNaggar
What if the biggest problem with the way we manage people is that we're measuring the wrong thing? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Fouad ElNaggar, co-founder and CEO of Array, to explore his provocative...
Ep.88 | Beyond the Sticker Price: Rebuilding Public Trust, ROI, and Value in Higher Ed with Strada’s Justin Draeger
In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Justin Draeger, Senior Vice President of Affordability at the Strada Education Foundation and former President & CEO of NASFAA. Drawing on decades ...
Ep.87 | Penn Engineering Dean Vijay Kumar on Scaling Higher Ed the Right Way
How can higher education scale its reach without sacrificing academic rigor or student outcomes? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Dr. Vijay Kumar, Dean of Penn Engineering at the Universit...
Ep.86 | Education higher than higher ed — Flight School’s Abby Falik on cultivating aliveness, agency and attention
What happens when our modern schooling system reaches its logical conclusion—one optimized for a thin slice of intellectual testing that the computer in our pocket can now ace in seconds? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd...
Ep.85 | Closing the Experience Gap with Cloud for Good's Founder Tal Frankfurt
What happens when an entrepreneur builds a business not out of a tech epiphany, but simply to survive? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Tal Frankfurt, Founder and CEO of Cloud for Good...
Ep. 84 | From Sylvan to Cintana: Doug Becker on Four Decades of Scaling High-Quality Education
What happens when a high school student decides to skip his Harvard admission to launch a healthcare technology company? You get the four-decade entrepreneurial odyssey of Doug Becker, the founder and CEO of Cintana Education. In ...
Ep.83 | The Micro-Schooling Revolution: How Grassroots Disruption is Transforming American Education
What if the future of American education didn’t involve multi-million dollar buildings, century-old factory models, or teaching to the "mythical center" of a 30-student classroom? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper ...
Ep. 82 | A Conversation with Author Anya Kamenetz on High-Stakes Tests, Student Debt, Generational Justice, Screen-Time and More
What happens when the traditional promises of higher education, standardized testing, and steady middle-class milestones no longer align with reality? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with acclaimed auth...
Ep. 81 | Unpacking Financial Aid: Shifting from the Back Office to Strategic Driver with Robert Heil of FAS
For decades, colleges and universities have treated the financial aid office as a dense, back-office administrative function—a labyrinth of tax-code-like regulations to be managed out of sight. But as higher education faces a stark demographic ...
Ep.80 | Jane Swift on Mending the Broken College-to-Career Pipeline: Why Paid Internships are the New Hardest Application in America's Workforce
When it comes to the path from education to financial security, the "golden ticket" narrative we grew up with is showing significant cracks. Today, students who work hard and play by the rules find themselves facing a steep experiential paradox...
Ep.79 | From Correspondence School to Workforce Training Powerhouse with Kermit Cook, CEO of Penn Foster
What does the future of the American workforce look like when you bypass the traditional four-year college track entirely? In this episode of An Educated Guest, we sit down with Kermit Cook, the CEO of Penn Foster, to exp...
Ep.78 | The Earn-and-Learn Revolution: Can Apprenticeships Save the Entry-Level Worker from AI?
As the 2026 labor market faces an enrollment cliff and a massive influx of AI automation hollowing out traditional white-collar entry-level work, the "what is college for" debate has reached a fever pitch. Students are increasingly wary of high...
Ep. 77 | Beyond Phonics: The Moral Imperative of the Science of Reading with Dr. Maria Murray, The Reading League
What happens when a tenured professor realizes that the very system she serves is "irreparably broken"? In this episode, Todd Zipper sits down with Dr. Maria Murray, the force behind The Reading League, to discuss the staggering r...
Ep. 76 | The Diplomatic Chancellor: Leading Flagship Universities Through Turbulent Times with Nick Dirks, President of the New York Academy of Sciences
Is the "Iron Triangle" of higher education—cost, quality, and access—officially under siege? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Nick Dirks, President of the New York Academy of Sciences and former Cha...
S3E36 | The Apprenticeship Renaissance: How Achieve Partners is Reengineering Workforce Entry with Daniel Pianko
Is the $1.8 trillion student debt crisis a symptom of a broken "Iron Triangle" in higher education? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Daniel Pianko, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Achieve Par...
S3E35 | The Forest is the Classroom: How Terris King II is Revolutionizing Early Education
The Forest is the Classroom: How Terris King II is Revolutionizing Early EducationCan the future of education be found in the woods? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Terris King II, founder...
S3E34 | The 10 Pillars of AI Enablement: Norm Allgood on Rebuilding Saint Leo University
Is your degree program past its "sell-by date"?In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Norm Allgood, Dean and CEO of the Lyonova Institute at Saint Leo University, for a candid look at the ...
Closing the First-Gen Underemployment Gap with the Founder of Basta, Sheila Sarem
Getting into college is a massive achievement—but for first-generation students, graduating is often just the beginning of a new struggle. Why are so many talented graduates stuck in "underemployment" traps?In this episode, Todd Zipper s...
S3E32 | The Blue-Collar Renaissance: Solving the Skilled Trades Shortage with Rob Holmes, Founder of ForgeNow
In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Rob Holmes, co-founder of ForgeNow, to discuss the revolutionary "Micro-College" model. As traditional higher education faces a crisis of cost and duration, ForgeNow...
S3 E31 | Mark Milliron on Designing Value-Rich Education for the "ANDer" Student at National University
On this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Mark Milliron, President of National University, to explore how higher education can better serve the majority of today's learners: non-traditional, working, and mil...
S3E30 | Solving the Student Disengagement Crisis with Rebecca Winthrop of the Brookings Institution
Are we handing the keys of AI to a generation of "passengers"? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper talks with Rebecca Winthrop, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of The Disengage...
S3E29 | Dartmouth College’s Joe Catrino on Life Design and the $30 Million Internship Revolution
What happens when you apply the principles of design thinking to the Ivy League career journey? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper talks with Joe Catrino, the Executive Director of the Dartmouth Center for Career De...