Disrupt Education Podcast

What if the biggest problem in education isn't students but the system we've built around them?In this thought provoking episode, superintendent and education innovator Chris NeSmith challenges the outdated "college vs. career" mindset that continues to limit student opportunities. Chris shares lessons from Germany's apprenticeship system, explains why career pathways should open doors instead of close them, and reveals how schools can better connect academics, workforce readiness, and real world experience.We dive into youth apprenticeships, mastery based learning, AI, durable skills, leadership, and why many schools are rewarded for the perception of success rather than actual student outcomes.If you're an educator, administrator, parent, policymaker, or workforce leader, this conversation will challenge how you think about student readiness and the future of education.Powered by YouScience Brightpath.YouScience Brightpath, the next generation platform helping students make personalized decisions as they move from education to career. If you are serious about connecting students to real opportunities, head to youscience.com/disrupteducation-podcast. Request a demo and let them know you heard about YouScience right here.

What happens after you hit stop on a conversation that challenges everything you thought you knew about grades, college, and internships?In this recap episode of the Disrupt Education Podcast, Peter Hostrawser and Alli Dahl unpack their recent conversation with Brandon Busteed and go even deeper into what it all means.Peter shares the full circle moment of first hearing Brandon speak a decade ago and how that research on experiential learning helped shape the Disrupt Education movement. Alli connects the dots between her own early work experiences and the idea that we need to value the learning from all work, not just what happens in a classroom.They wrestle with big questions.If grades are inflated, what are they really measuring?Why are internships still not scaled in higher education?Are students going into debt for something employers are not prioritizing?What would happen if we treated work as learning from day one?This episode is about mindset shifts, internships, work based learning, and redefining what signals real readiness. If last week’s conversation made you think, this one will push you further. The data is there. The opportunity is there. The question is whether education and industry are ready to align.A quick thank you to our sponsor, YouScience Brightpath, the next generation platform helping students make personalized decisions as they move from education to career. If you are serious about connecting students to real opportunities, head to youscience.com/disrupteducation-podcast. Request a demo and let them know you heard about YouScience right here.Check out more at DisruptEducationPodcast.com

A spicy LinkedIn post about field trips lit up the internet—and this episode is the why behind the fire.Here is the post that started it all - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterhostrawser_disrupteducation-cte-careerreadiness-activity-7382071108952498176-O__x?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=member_desktop_web&rcm=ACoAAAm03zEBGi3ZOO_BO8D4Sr3zhuz2I4cEmLIIn this conversation, Peter and Alli unpack the unpopular opinion that traditional high school field trips often miss the mark. Not because experiences don’t matter—but because too many trips are disconnected, passive, and designed as checkboxes instead of catalysts for growth.This episode goes far beyond buses and permission slips. It’s about intentional design.You’ll hear:- Why most high school field trips don’t actually change student direction or outcomes- The difference between career awareness and career readiness—and why timing matters- How “field trips” should evolve into field experiences, micro-experiences, and real community work- Powerful real-world stories involving Hyatt, Coca-Cola, Calamos, and students performing in front of real executives- Why reflection, durable skills, and value creation matter more than tours and sit-and-gets- How districts can reduce burnout by shifting from isolated teacher efforts to system-wide experience designThis is not an anti-field-trip rant.It’s a challenge to rethink them.If you care about student engagement, work-based learning, durable skills, or connecting school to real life—this episode is for you.Head to www.disrupteducationpodcast.com for more!

Episode 4 is the pause-and-process moment after a truly disruptive series.Peter and Alli step back to unpack the emotional, mental, and professional reactions sparked by the pega6 conversation. This episode isn’t about selling a model — it’s about acknowledging the discomfort that comes when a system you trusted, went through, and maybe even thrived in… starts to crack.They explore why failure is still treated as something to avoid in education, how perfection quietly kills progress, and why the hardest part of disruption isn’t the model — it’s the zero-to-one mindset shift required to even consider it.From chemistry labs to internships, pull-ups to professional growth, this episode connects the dots between experiential learning, real-time coaching, intentional friction, and what it actually takes to prepare learners for a fast-moving, AI-driven workforce.Big questions tackled:- Why does disrupting education trigger fear and nostalgia at the same time?- What does “workforce engineering” really mean — and why does it make people uncomfortable?- Why high engagement and accountability still require humans, not systems- How zero-to-one learning shows up everywhere, not just careersThis is the episode for educators, parents, and leaders who felt something during the series — even if they didn’t fully agree with it yet.If you came this far... head to www.pega6.com/dep You won't be disappointed!Check out www.disrupteducationpodcast.com for more!

After lighting up the college model in Episode 1, Peter and Alli come back with the real question: if higher ed is broken… what replaces it? Jeremy Smith (PEGA6 co-founder/CEO) answers with one phrase that frames the entire episode: workforce engineering.Jeremy argues that education shouldn’t be treated like a pipeline where students just get moved along. It should be treated like a supply chain where value is added at every stage—because the goal is not “school completion,” it’s readiness for the next step. And in his model, the customer isn’t the student (even though they pay)—the customer is the employer, because that’s where the best jobs and opportunities get decided.From there, Jeremy breaks “job-ready” into three non-negotiables for the AI age:Technical Skills — not “theory,” but real, usable tools and mechanics of the job (he references things like industry tools and workflows).Soft Skills — communication, professionalism, managing up, teamwork—the things that make people actually promotable and trusted.AI-First Approach — not just knowing AI tools, but thinking AI-first to accelerate work, then finishing with human judgment and technical fundamentals.Then the conversation gets spicy again—in the best way:Jeremy calls out the “college builds critical thinking” claim as a myth, arguing real critical thinking is a concrete set of skills (biases, logic, stats, fallacies) that most students aren’t systematically taught.Alli challenges the framing: “Are we just building workers? What about leaders?” Jeremy’s answer is timing: optimize for the next step first, then build leadership later through real experience (and future “Pegas7”-type progression).Peter hits the big fear word: pigeonholing. Jeremy flips it—being “open to everything” but skilled at nothing isn’t optionality; being skilled creates mobility. And the solution for students who don’t know their path is better “routing” earlier—he directly connects this to aptitude/fit tools like YouScience.The episode ends with a clean cliffhanger: next week they go inside PEGA6—how it’s being built, what the accelerator experience looks like, and how close it is to launch.If you came this far... head to www.pega6.com/dep You won't be disappointed!