John Kennedy — The Hidden Crisis in American Education (EP.253)

John Kennedy, a director at the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation, is tackling an overlooked crisis in American education: air quality. 

With the ingenious use of a simple $60 box fan, he's on a mission to revolutionize the health and learning environments of students nationwide.

It's mind-boggling how much low-hanging fruit there is here. The difference that clean air makes to health and brain capacity is enormous, and it's a surprisingly cheap problem to fix. In fact, as you'll hear about halfway through our conversation, I was so convinced by John and the Corsi-Rosenthal team's solution that I committed to offering him a $100k Fellowship on the spot.

But our discussion went far beyond air quality. John shared fascinating insights into the future of education—how we can reorganize it from the ground up to produce happy, healthy, and high-agency adults ready for the challenges of the 21st century.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• The Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation
• John’s LinkedIn
• John’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Nobody gets to choose the air they breathe…
• Why has air quality been overlooked?
• When Jim got stranded up a mountain
• How do you scale a K-12 solution?
• What would it cost to put a Cori-Rosenthal box in every New York classroom?
• Surprise! Welcome to the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships
• What would a model 21st-century K-12 system look like?
• How to overcome systemic inertia
• Do Charter schools work?
• Why public schools can’t mimic private school innovations
• What exciting developments are happening in edtech?
• What does public school look like in 2044?
• John as World Emperor
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America; by George Packer