Educating to Be Human Podcast

In this episode of Educating to be Human, Lisa is joined by B Cavello, Director of Emerging Technologies at Aspen Digital. Lisa and B explore the ideas of Public AI and what it means to innovate and develop technology that is grounded in the needs of our community rather than the interests of Big Tech corporations. Their conversation challenges the narrative of the inevitability of AI, reminding us that in a democracy, we have a say in how AI is built, governed and used – and who it ultimately serves. Public AI is not a single technology or platform, but an approach grounded in three principles: public access, public accountability and sustainability. Lisa and B's conversation explores the risks of concentrating AI development and governance in the hands of a small number of private companies, and offers an alternative more "open" vision in which AI becomes infrastructure that communities can access, shape and rely on. This conversation feels more important than ever; it's one that uplifts and empowers us - the public - with the realization that the choices and decisions we make today truly matter and can actively shape the future of technology, and its impact on us. B Cavello is a technology and facilitation expert passionate about creating social change by empowering everyone to participate in technological and social governance. They serve as director of emerging technologies for Aspen Digital, a program of the Aspen Institute. B also serves as a 2026 Siegel research fellow, as organizer for the Public AI Network, and as a board member to Metagov, an interdisciplinary research nonprofit promoting digital self-governance. Previously they worked assistant program chair for the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Conference, tech policy advisor in the US Congress, program lead at Partnership on AI, senior engagement lead at IBM, and director of product and community Exploding Kittens. Relevant Links: https://www.aspendigital.org/project/amplify-public-ai/ https://www.aspendigital.org/blog/its-not-the-speed-its-the-direction/

As we head into one of the most consequential midterm elections, we are revisiting an episode that first aired back in September 2024 just ahead of our last presidential election. In this episode, I speak with Joel Westheimer, Professor of Education at the University of Ottawa and author of What Kind of Citizen? Educating Our Children for the Common Good. We talked about the role of education in a democratic society, what it means to be an engaged citizen, and how we can prepare young people to be active participants in this society. Here we are two years later and our democracy faces ever-increasing pressures – from the growing influence of big tech, the concentrated wealth and influence in our political systems, and the erosion of public trust. This episode challenges us to think deeply about what kind of citizens we want to cultivate, and what kind of society we want to live in. We think you will find this conversation as relevant today as it was when we first recorded it, as one of the most fundamental challenges we face today may be how we understand, value, and teach democracy itself.

In today's episode of Educating to be Human, Lisa speaks with Matthias Kirschner, the president of the Free Software Foundation Europe and author of the children's book, Ada & Zangemann, a story that relates the joy of tinkering and highlights the values behind software freedom. Lisa and Matthias explore the roots of the modern open movement and why software freedom has always been about much more than just code; it's about our human desire to share, tinker, and collaborate. Matthias Kirschner is the President of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), a charitable organization that empowers users to control technology. In 1999 he started using GNU/Linux and realised that software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives. Matthias is convinced that this technology has to empower society not restrict it. While studying Political and Administrative Science he joined FSFE in 2004. He helps other organisations, companies and governments to understand how they can benefit from Free Software - which gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt, and share software - and how those rights help to support freedom of speech, freedom of press or privacy. He is also the author of the children's fable Ada & Zangemann – A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Pi.

In this episode of Educating to Be Human, Lisa Petrides is joined by Robin DeRosa, executive director of the Open Education Network, and Jim Luke, Professor of Economics (ret.) and founder of Open Learning Lab at Lansing Community College take stock of where open education has been and where it is headed. With decades of experience in Open Education between the three of them, they explore why open education matters, what learners gain when they help shape knowledge rather than simply receive it, and how institutions might change to support that kind of learning. They consider the commons as something people actively do together, and what it takes to care for shared resources in a landscape increasingly shaped by commercial pressures and emerging AI technologies. It's a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation about the values behind open education: sharing, reciprocity, care, and the public good. It also asks what the movement has gotten right, what it may have gotten wrong, and why the work still matters. Whether you're an educator, a librarian, a student, or simply curious about who gets to access and shape knowledge, this conversation offers plenty to think about. Dr. Robin DeRosa is the Executive Director of the Open Education Network. Based at the University of Minnesota, the OEN is a collective of institutions and consortia that work collaboratively to make higher education more affordable, equitable, and engaging for learners. She has previously worked as a professor of literature and Interdisciplinary Studies, the founder and director of a faculty development center, and as the library director at a public university. Jim Luke is an independent scholar studying the institutional economics of technology, higher education, and of healthcare. He's a retired professor of economics, having taught at a three colleges and universities. He's the author of chapters in Higher Education for Good and Of Many Minds, among other works. He lives in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area.

In this episode of Educating to Be Human, host Lisa Petrides is joined by Lila Bailey, Senior Policy Counsel at the Internet Archive, to explore what it means to truly own something in a digital world, continuing this season's central theme of protecting and preserving open and decentralized access to information and knowledge. Together, they trace how human culture evolved as a communally shared experience - and how modern copyright law and digital gatekeepers have gradually closed off public knowledge, owned and created by the community. Lila unpacks the tension between traditional intellectual property, commercialization, and the foundational human drive to create, share, and remix ideas. Looking toward a more equitable future, Lila calls for efforts towards building public AI infrastructure - toolsets hosted by a diversity of entities such as libraries, schools, and civic institutions - that honor the ideals behind the "open" movement valuing community-built and -shared knowledge and culture. Key Topics Covered The Human Default: Why open sharing and collective culture long predate copyright law. Digital Ownership: How licensing agreements distort what it means to "own" books and media. AI & The Commons: Navigating corporate extraction, reciprocity, and the pushback against Big Tech data harvesting. Public Knowledge Infrastructure: The vital role of memory institutions like the Internet Archive in protecting public data and open source tools. Rebranding "Open": Shifting the conversation away from legal jargon to focus on shared human values, community, and equitable access. Lila Bailey is Senior Policy Counsel for the Internet Archive. A seasoned attorney and copyright expert, Lila leads the library's policy work.