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What happens when Big Tech gets to decide what our kids learn?
Technology companies have worked their way into our schools—not just providing the devices and software, but influencing curriculum, training teachers, lobbying lawmakers, and shaping what educators are told our kids need to succeed.
In this episode, I sit down with NY Times journalist Natasha Singer, author of Coding Kids, to unpack how the tech industry sold America on the idea that every child needed to code—and how that same playbook is now being used to push AI into our classrooms.
We talk about the viral video featuring Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates that helped launch the coding movement, the billions of dollars and political influence behind computer science education, tech companies recruiting teachers as brand ambassadors, and what happens when the companies building the technology also help decide how it's taught.
And then we get to AI. Are we asking whether AI actually benefits kids—or are we simply being told that an “AI-first future” is inevitable and our schools need to prepare for it?
Natasha also introduces a powerful alternative: Tech Civics—teaching kids not just how to use technology, but how to question it. Who built it? Who profits? Who benefits? Who could be harmed? And what happens when technology becomes too powerful to challenge?
This conversation isn't about keeping technology out of schools. It's about making sure kids—not technology companies—are at the center of decisions about their education.
