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Future of Education Podcast — Education for Kids
Future of Education Podcast

The Future of Education Podcast is the place to find out what’s happening in schools. Our guests are wide and varied, from educators, entrepreneurs, athletes, celebrities, influencers and most importantly-our students! They all have one thing in common- they are passionate about reinventing education to make it relevant and efficient.

Our host, MacKenzie Price, is the Co-Founder of 2hr Learning (2hourlearning.com) and some of the top-performing schools in the country. 2 Hour Learning is a groundbreaking school model that is reshaping the landscape of K-12 education. It’s powered by AI technology, enabling schools to provide personalized curriculum to students. Our K-12 schools perform in the top 2% nationwide by leveraging this personalize model to help students love school, learn twice as much, and build life skills. MacKenzie is at the forefront of educational transformation, striving for a balanced and enriching learning experience for every child. She graduated with a BA in Psychology from Stanford University and resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two daughters.

The Future of Education podcast is produced by 7 Lyons Media (7LyonsMedia.com). Please send press inquiries to mkp@2hourlearning.com.

Latest Episodes:

S2E349: The Harvard-Backed Strategy to Motivate Your Kids (Alpha's Secret to Success) Jul 21, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Mackenzie breaks down a groundbreaking Harvard study on student outcomes—which she helped get off the ground—and reveals how Alpha turned those findings into a high-yield motivation model. Plus, she shares practical, real-world examples so you can steal Alpha's exact incentive strategies and apply them in your own living room tonight.

S2E348: Goodbye 3 R's, Hello 4 C's: The Skills Replacing Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic Jul 17, 2026

Show notes

For generations, traditional education has anchored itself in the "3 R’s": Reading, writing, and arithmetic. But in a world dominated by artificial intelligence, these foundational skills are no longer the ceiling—they are the floor. The skills that secured your career will not secure your child’s. The 3 R’s are still required, but relying on them alone leaves your kid vulnerable to automation.

In this episode, MacKenzie breaks down the "4 C’s"—the crucial, uniquely human soft skills that will give your kids an unshakeable edge against automated tech. Packed with micro-habits and practical games you can start playing at the dinner table tonight, this episode is a tactical guide to preparing your children for an unpredictable future landscape.

S2E347: How We Hire Top Talent to Lead Our Classrooms (Most Aren't Teachers!) – with Dr. Stef Baduria Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Out of 40,000 applicants last year, only a fraction made the cut—and 80% of them have never taught in a traditional school before. We have former doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, consultants, veterans, therapists, and, yes, some teachers, leading our classrooms across the country. Our Guide role breaks the traditional mold of a teacher, but the outcome has been groundbreaking. Joining us in this episode is Dr. Stef Baduria, Director of K-8 at Alpha, to pull back the curtain on how Alpha vets and hires its classroom Guides.

Whether you are a parent wondering about the elite rigor behind the people mentoring your child, or a high-performer looking to transition into a career with massive impact, this episode provides an amazing insight into the philosophy behind the glue that holds our school model together.

By the way, we're hiring! Want to see if you have what it takes? Apply to be an Alpha Guide here.

S2E346: She Was Our Guinea Pig. Did It Work? Jul 09, 2026

Show notes

Ten years ago, Elle became one of the very first students at Alpha—essentially acting as a long-term guinea pig for a brand-new school model. Today, she is graduating as valedictorian, heading to Stanford University, and the youngest published female author in NATURE science journal. In Part 2 of this post-mortem, MacKenzie and Elle sit down for an honest debrief on how the experiment actually played out.

S2E345: "I'm Not Smart": How Identity Labels Trap Our Kids Jul 06, 2026

Show notes

What happens when a child decides by the first grade that they simply aren’t the "smart" one?

When Elle brought home a family portrait labeling her sister as smart and herself as dumb, her teachers and parents feared she had already been put in a box. But an unconventional school model and a tactical "confidence anchor" completely flipped her trajectory.

Now a graduating senior, Alpha Valedictorian Elle joins MacKenzie to share her incredible journey from struggling student to history-making researcher. She breaks down the exact psychological shifts that unlocked her potential, the reality of building a massive teen dating app with AI, and what happened when she hounded a top scientist to run a study that is now up for publication in the world's leading scientific journal.

S2E344: Does AI Belong in a Montessori Classroom? Jul 03, 2026

Show notes

Many Montessori apologists decry the use of AI in the classroom, claiming this type of technology is harmful to the learning experience. But our latest experiment actually proves the opposite. We just opened Montessorium, a school that combines the learning technology of Alpha Schools with the classical Montessori method of teaching. Anna Smiley, Lead Guide at Montessorium, joins MacKenzie to break down the real-world results of this model so far—and how AI can actually enhance, not replace, child-led learning.

S2E343: The "Pay to Read" Method (+ 4 Other Unconventional Ways to Raise Bookworms) Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

In an era of instant dopamine hits like TikTok, YouTube, and ChatGPT summaries, getting a kid to crack open a book feels like a losing battle. But it doesn't have to be!

In this episode, MacKenzie breaks down the exact strategies used to build high-agency, avid readers—including a highly controversial, hyper-effective, science-backed weapon: paying kids to read.

For parents who want to build a lifelong reading muscle in their kids, this episode's 5 easy strategies are a great way to get started this summer.

Austin Scholar’s Age-by-Age Book Recommendations

(For the full age-by-age list, including graphic novels, series, and magazines, head over to Austin Scholar’s original post.)

Kindergarten — 1st grade:

The I Can Read! and Ready-to-Read leveled series.
Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff.

2nd — 3rd grade:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.
Wonder by R.J. Palacio.
The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne.

4th — 5th grade:

Holes by Louis Sachar.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau.
The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley.
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling.
Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan.
Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter.

Middle School:

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.
The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Legend by Marie Lu.
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall.
Project Hail Mary and The Martian by Andy Weir.

S2E342: Why Traditional Discipline Makes Kids Worse: The Behavioral Science You Need To Know Jun 27, 2026

Show notes

Traditional discipline punishes disruptive students by isolating them. But bad behavior is actually just a data point.

In this episode, I sit down with Matt Shenker—a licensed therapist, the Lead Guide at Alpha Scottsdale, and a behavioral science expert with years of experience specializing in ADHD. Matt breaks down a massive systemic flaw: the education system doesn't have a knowledge gap when it comes to behavior management...it has an implementation gap.

This episode is a goldmine for any parent or educator who deals with challenging behavior (hint: it's all of us!), offering extremely practical shifts that truly change how we achieve positive growth.

S2E341: When Your Middle Schoolers Pitch You a Podcast Episode, You Say Yes Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

The story of how today’s episode came to be perfectly illustrates student agency in action: An email from one of our GT School students, Everest, popped up in my inbox asking to come on the show.

She wanted to teach our audience the exact tools and techniques her first-year team used to absolutely crush it at the National Quiz Bowl Championship—placing in the top 100 in the country despite having one of the youngest average ages in the entire competition.

Because we back student agency 100%, we headed straight to the studio. In this episode, MacKenzie sits down with the entire GT School Quiz Bowl team to break down how a group of rookies out-thought legacy teams that have been drilling for years.

S2E340: We Hired Our Student (From Video Game Obsession to Tech Founder) Jun 19, 2026

Show notes

Most schools expel students for hacking their network. We gave this one a job.

In this episode, I sit down with Austin, an Alpha High junior who did the unthinkable: he successfully hacked into our academic platform, completely redesigned it over a weekend, and now manages a team of six adult software developers to build a brand new AP exam EdTech tool.

Austin's journey began as a typical video game-obsessed kid. But following his passions, affinities, and talents led him to somewhere remarkable and unexpected. If you want to know what happens when you stop underestimating teenagers and start giving them real autonomy, this conversation is a must-watch.

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