Nature and Science Podcast
Our podcast explores nature and science by following the personal journeys of individuals who have dedicated their lives to nature and science. We talk with theoretical physicists, park rangers, conservation biologists and anyone who loves nature and science.
Nature and Science Podcast
Two Time Loser To Revolution: The Birth of Ky’Orda
Hello everyone, I'm your host of Nature and Science Podcast, Don Murphy. In the episode I am interviewed by our producer, Anna Murphy to discuss, how my two time failure in chemistry ultimately led to the founding of Ky'Orda. The mission of Ky'Orda is to eliminate the fear and failure in learning complex subjects for everyone by creating an education app with a personal guide that uses behavioral science and adaptive technology. I think many of you out there can identify with failing a subject and feeling like you didn't measure up or at the worse you were not smart. You may have even abandoned a subject before you even got a chance to explore its adventures and discoveries. The guided app I will talk about is creating an entirely new world and may ultimately change the way education in done worldwide. So join us this next episode and be amazed.
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Hello everyone. I'm your host of Nature and Science Podcast, Don Murphy. We've been away for a while during the summer, and during that time, I founded a brand new company. Yes, that's right. At the young age of 74, I founded a startup, and in this episode, I get to be interviewed by my daughter, daughter, and producer, Anna Paula Murphy, to discuss how my two-time failure in organic chemistry ultimately led to the founding of our new company, Keorta. So, what does Keorta do? What's the mission? Well, the mission of Keorta is to eliminate the fear and the failure and the anxiety about learning complex subjects like organic chemistry for everyone by creating an education app with a personal guide that uses behavioral science and adaptive technology. I think many of you out there can identify with failing a subject and feeling like you didn't measure up, or even worse, that you just weren't smart. You may have even abandoned the subject before you got a chance to discover how wonderful it was and the wonders of it all. Well, this guided app I will be talking about is creating an entirely new way to learn and may ultimately change the way education is done worldwide. So give a listen. I think you're going to be amazed by the changes I'm proposing.
SPEAKER_01:Today I'm speaking with Donald Murphy, creator of Keorta, a revolutionary learning app that's taking a completely different approach to teaching chemistry. So, Donald, let's start at the beginning. What personally led you to create this app?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's actually a pretty embarrassing story. I failed organic chemistry not once, but twice. Not because I wasn't smart enough, but really because I was completely psyched out before I even walked into the classroom.
SPEAKER_01:Psyched out how?
SPEAKER_00:Well, from the moment I considered signing up for that course, I was bombarded with horror stories. Organic chemistry is impossibly hard. It's a weed out class, only geniuses survive, all that kind of nonsense. So I was defeated before I even opened the textbook. And predictably I crashed and burned, as I said, twice.
SPEAKER_01:So what changed? How did you go from failing to creating an app all about chemistry?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I had what I could only describe as an epiphany, I mean a real live epiphany. I realized that a massive mind game was being played on students like me. The fear, the anxiety, the weed out culture, it was all manufactured. It really had nothing to do with our actual ability to learn. But the epiphany really went deeper than that. It was, I I somehow realized that it was all about how I was cosmically connected to the universe and that carbon, like Carl Sagan said, you know, we're the stuff that's of stardust. I mean, that's what we are. And carbon came from exploding novas and or exploding supernovas. And when I realized that, I mean, it really changed my whole way of thinking about things.
SPEAKER_01:So what happened once you understood your interest in chemistry in this cosmic um kind of context?
SPEAKER_00:Well, once I approached organic chemistry and other so-called impossible subjects with confidence instead of fear, I got straight A's. And it I that epiphany that I just explained early instilled confidence in me.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's a huge turnaround from you know believing it's a weed-out culture to believing that you know anything is possible. So, what qualified you to create an educational solution to this problem?
SPEAKER_00:Well, beyond my personal confirmation, I did my PhD studies in physiology and pharmacology. I spent 15 years leading executive seminars at the Aspen Institute, and I've homeschooled my own children. All of that gave me a unique perspective on how learning really works, how it breaks down.
SPEAKER_01:So you see a blueprint for doing something different for education.
SPEAKER_00:Well, exactly. I begin to see the possibility for an entirely new educational ecosystem, one that builds confidence first, then confidence. I mean, we're really creating a whole new paradigm in education. I mean, we're not an educ an online education system or uh just recreating the classroom online. This is really a different way of approaching uh education entirely.
SPEAKER_01:So Keorta has an interesting cosmic angle. Tell me about that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, as I said earlier, you know, and when I had that epiphany, once I understood that we were, you know, made of stardust, it went deeper than that personally for me. I mean it had really to do with the fact that we have a cosmic heritage. And so here's where science emerges from wonder. You've probably heard that old saying, as I've repeated on several c occasions, uh, that we're made of stardust. Uh the carbon atoms in your body and my body were forged in the heart of ancient stars billions of years ago. And carbon is a fascinating story in itself. Its mere existence is nothing short of a miracle, or what ancient or what scientists call really fine-tuning. And here's the story. Three helium atoms, that is two protons, two neutrons, and two electrons, is referred to in science as an alpha particle. And well, without getting too esoteric about it, when three of those beryllium atoms is what I just described, come together, it forms carbon-12. And well, here is the miracle and the fine-tuning point. It's called the beryllium bridge. Two alpha particles first combine to form unstable beryllium-8, which normally decays in now get this. 10 to the minus 16th seconds. And to make that real for you, this is what 10 to the minus 16th means. It's 0.0000 000 000 of one second.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so a very small amount.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean it's not just a small amount, it's incomprehensible amount of time. But within that tiny window of 10 to the minus 16th seconds, a third alpha particle has to combine with beryllium-8 during this incredibly small window. And so a scientist named Fred Hoyle first predicted this and was laughed at by his peers until experiments proved him right. And even though he was an atheist, he felt some divine architect was monkeying around, monkeying around. Is that a word? Monkey around with physics of the universe. And there's a lot more to say about this, but that's a story for another time.
SPEAKER_01:And so, how does all that connect to learning chemistry?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, it's it's everything. When students understand this profound connection, that they're not studying some abstract student study or subject, excuse me, some abstract study, but exploring their own cosmic origins, you know, something really magical happens. Chemistry transforms from a nightmare into an adventure. Fear becomes fascination.
SPEAKER_01:So is that kind of the foundation of the educational model you're building through Keorta?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, absolutely. We don't just teach chemistry, we rebuild the entire relationship between student and subject. We start with Stardust and guide students on a journey from cosmic origins to mastering organic chemistry, building confidence every step of the way.
SPEAKER_01:So, what makes this different from the other educational apps that might be out there trying to tackle chemistry?
SPEAKER_00:Well I'm gonna go off script in answering that question for a second because you know I've really thought about this deeply, and it's it's all about empathy. And what do I mean by that? So usually when a student's in a classroom and being lecture to, you know, there's rarely a connection between the student and the professor. And there's no empathetic feeling with the professor in saying to the students, oh, you know, I've been where you've been. They're just up there scribbling stuff on a blackboard. And so that's what traditional education starts with. They start with this high level and they immediately erect barriers to learning without connecting the students to the wonder of it all that they're actually studying. And so students don't fail a chemistry class because they're not smart enough, they fail because of how the game is designed. And so, what I mean by that is that you know, failing is just a symptom. And what's really going on is that psychologically they don't have the correct mindset and the understanding of their connected to the very thing that they're learning, and so that failure is just a symptom. And so most educational systems do nothing but, you know, lecture uh to students, then the student fails, and nobody cares, but we care.
SPEAKER_01:No, it definitely sounds like you're trying to change the method in which students will have the ability to learn in the context in which they'll be able to really internalize the information and understand it. So, what are you doing at Keorta to change the game for these students?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's education reimagined, where game-like engagement meets cosmic storytelling, where confidence builds competence, and where every student can experience the joy of truly understanding the universe they're made of. And I mean, Keorta is an app that people will be able to hold in their hands. There's going to be an empathetic avatar, if you will, real life person interacting with them very empathetically, and starting off basically with saying, look, I've been where you've been. I understand this can be a difficult subject, but it doesn't have to be. Let me guide you through the process. That's where where we're going to begin.
SPEAKER_01:So is this just going to be for students? Do you want educators to get into this? What is really your your group that you're trying to get to pay attention to this new app, Keorda?
SPEAKER_00:Well, whether you're a student struggling with chemistry, you know, a parent watching your child battle STEM anxiety, or an educator looking for better solutions or better outcomes to your teaching. I mean, I can't I can't imagine, you know, that a professor is happy with 40 to 50 percent of his students failing organic chemistry. Um, and a recent discussion I had with the provost at Revell College at UC San Diego, where I went to school, you know, demonstrated this. He said professors want their students to learn deeply and not just memorize. And he made the point that if you understand a subject deeply and are connected to it, then you don't have to memorize anything. When you get a question or you get on an exam, it's not you didn't memorize the answer. You know the answer because you've internalized it, you've understood what you're learning.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. It sounds like you're really focused on comprehension as opposed to the root memorization, which seems to be such a large part of our education system. So, what are your final thoughts? What does Key Orta represent to you and what's the the future of uh education like this?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it represents turning my failure, you know, if I can make this personal, into everyone else's success and connecting every learner to their cosmic heritage. And that connection to cosmic heritage, um, even though that might sound a little esoteric, um, is really what Keorta attempts to do. And through this connection, there's a deeper understanding of why they're learning a subject like organic chemistry or any subject for that matter. And through that connection, it confidence will be built, you know, leading to competence and a mastery of whatever the subject matter might happen to be. So you're not just studying the universe, you are the universe experiencing itself. That's really what it's all about.
SPEAKER_01:That is an awesome perspective to have. I mean, it's really important to be able to give not just the facts of where we came from and um, you know, kind of a separate, disparate analysis. This is a real kind of connection to where we come from, why this education is important and how it's the building blocks for life as we know it, but life as we're continuing to experience it.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And Keorta is coming soon. We can't wait to really introduce it to students and get it in their hands. Well, I hope you all enjoyed this uh brief discussion about uh my new endeavor establishing uh Keorta. We're really in the startup stage right now, but I wanted to give you a little bit more information about Keorta and give you an update. Uh we are legally uh incorporated as a Delaware C Corp. We've got a clean cap table that's uh managed by Carta. We've got a great uh board structure and uh the intellectual property that we're using uh is uh fully um uh developed and uh we have a pending patent for that intellectual property. Uh-huh. And uh we've really also got a great team of advisors with Dr. Dan Ariale. He's a Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics and a best-selling author of uh Predictably Irrational. He's advising us on the adaptive learning and the behavioral change uh that's important in this learning effort effort. And then we've got Dr. Zafra Lerman. She's a chemistry education expert um advising on the pedagogy and curriculum. And so that's really uh important for us. Uh, we've also got a lot of traction uh going already. I mentioned earlier speaking with the provost at UC San Diego who's helping us um get uh volunteer students who will uh beta test the app uh when it's uh ready. We're gonna be building a prototype. And in fact, we're in the process of recruiting a co-founder, chief technical officer, which will be responsible for at first building the minimum viable product, the MVP or the prototype, uh, which is really great. We've got a great uh pitch deck which uh our uh potential investors can see on our website. And so we're really ready to uh to roll this out as uh as soon as we get the prototype uh built. And that's just a little bit more about uh Keorta and where we are right now in the process. But again, go to our website if you want to find out more at uh keorta.org. That's k yorda.org. Well, coming up next, we're gonna return to our regular nature and science programming, and we're gonna be speaking with Vic Maris. Uh he's a former state park ranger with California State Parks, and he had everything to do uh with helping to establish the California Desert Protection Act, uh protecting millions of acres of uh of desert in California. So you won't want to miss that segment. Um Thanks for joining us, and as always, stay safe, share happiness, and remember never stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.