SPECIAL: Whose problem are you solving? For higher education leaders, with Jack Goodman, Founder - Studiosity.

Whose problem are you solving, and what serves student learning? Studiosity founder Jack Goodman records a special solo episode after a week in California: a conversation with cognitive neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf at UCLA, then a conference on AI convened by the Association of Marshall Scholars at Stanford Law School, where he moderated a panel on AI in education. Borrowing a question Stanford’s Rob Reich puts to founders, Jack turns it toward universities. Who is deciding which tools reach students, on what evidence, and in whose interest? He sets out what deep reading builds in the brain and why it sits beneath critical thinking, what the research says about cognitive offloading and “cognitive surrender”, why there is no AI literacy without literacy, and what students themselves are saying. He closes with a pathway for leaders: choose technology on evidence from cognitive science, teach responsible use, and validate learning without surveillance that assumes guilt. Referenced: Maryanne Wolf, Reader, Come Home; Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami and Jeremy Weinstein, System Error; Jill Lepore; Anastasia Berg; Kevin Kruse; Sal Khan; E.H. Carr, What is History; the 2026 PISA results. Reimagining the Future of Higher Education is Studiosity’s podcast with leaders across universities and colleges in Australia, the UK, North America, the Middle East and South East Asia.