What Happened to The Learning Hack Podcast
Serious question. What happened to The Learning Hack Podcast?
I used to be such a fan! Of course, I was a fan of the Great Minds on Learning episodes when Donald Clark went over theory and research. But I just watched an episode and I had to bail around 49 minutes or so because it was so boring.
And this episode had Margaret Korosec and I've worked (to my delight) with Margaret so I was really looking forward to listening/watching.
Instead I found some rather boring, not-staying-on-track, and oh-by-the-way-did-you-bring-any-content stuff. It's interesting b/c even the host John mentions that he's received some flack for his podcasts and I wasn't thinking much of it. For sure, even if he lets a live conversation wonder, he does not reign it in much in editing. But after the aforementioned 49 minutes, I was grasping for
some
kind
of
point.
Even my friend Margaret...what had she said simply beyond proposing words as questions?
- Teachers should learn from students when it comes to using AI in schools
- What are the ethics involved in AI in schools?
- What is working and not working with AI in schools?
All questions. No answers. If I paid to go to this conference, for sure I'd have wanted to hear some answers to those questions. I'm in no mood for conscience pricking, thank-you-very-much. I'm an American and right now I'm getting much of that.
The high point that I can remember is that John asked Donald and Margaret who they follow (influencer-types) in either the instructional design, learning and development, or AI in education space and they named some names. Nice, but I could have gotten that all for free off of their own respective social media feeds.
Now let me go for the real point.
I don't remember The Learning Hack Podcast interspersed with SO MANY ADS.
Ads:
0:33 - 1:12 Learning Technologies Conference
1:13 - 1:51 Synthesia with a discount link (and intros in this podcast were done by "Mariana, An AI Avatar from Synthesia"..what happened to the dear lady?)
26:27 - 26:47 The Podcast Learning Festival 2026
I'm guessing the ads went on but I bailed.
And I'm sorry to say, ads for things like 'using AI to create your learning materials'--- makes me shudder-- because I used to come to this Podcast for good content but now I'm going to have to wonder how much John edits in or out just to be favorable to his sponsors.
I get it. Perhaps the man's gotta make a buck. But there are other choices.
- If you can no longer produce your podcast, stop producing it.
- If you must have sponsors, try to get one that might not be a conflict of interest. 🎤💧