Tips from experts about how to get more marks in university essays, university life and more. Each episode stands alone so you can listen in any order.
Something a little different this time, I left the virtual studio behind and recorded this one in Alan King's living room in the lovely town of Mumbles, South Wales. Alan is the founder and CEO of AI consultancy ITAA.ai, founder of the AI-Your-Org community (which I'm a member of), and AI Strategy Director at the Global AI Association. He's also the author of Harnessing the Power of AI in Organisations and, more recently, Further State, a book about how intelligent systems reshape organisational logic. All built on a background spanning automation and robotics at Hewlett Packard and an MBA from Brunel.
Alan spends his time both pushing organisations forward with AI and pulling them back to do it safely, so we dig into that tension: why risk and purpose should be your first two questions, how to build a "brain" that genuinely knows your subject rather than just firing questions at an empty chat box, and why defining the problem matters far more than the answer. Along the way we cover needle-in-a-haystack tests and models that seem to know when they're being watched, Blockbuster and Kodak getting their organisational logic completely wrong, the case for an AI CEO of Amazon, and why for all its power AI still hasn't written The Great Gatsby or given us a Taylor Swift. There's loads in here for any student trying to use these tools to do better work, not just less of it.
You can find out more about Alan at itaa.ai (https://www.itaa.ai )and aiyourorg.org (https://www.aiyourorg.org), or through the Global AI Association.
12 Jun 2026
EP 28: Stephen Taylor – Tech That Actually Teaches
This time I'm joined by Stephen Taylor, Learning Technology Lead at Regents University London — and as he puts it, his job is less "IT support fixing your laptop" and more "driving instructor teaching you to actually use it." We dig into the difference between "edtech" and proper pedtech (technology with the science of teaching behind it), why a lecturer reading straight off their slides is a "sage on the stage," and how real learning happens in a constant loop between you, your tutor and your peers. Stephen shares a genuinely handy framework — TPACK — for working out whether a shiny new tool is worth your time, makes the case that AI should be a critical friend rather than a ghostwriter, and explains why play, board games and even The Incredibles can teach you more than you'd expect. Also: how to stop your TikTok algorithm feeding you Jordan Peterson, and the right way to treat a chatbot like a horse.
Links to Stephen:
Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-taylor-education/)
Portfolio (https://stephentaylor.myportfolio.com/)
Blog (https://gamesforall.net/)
Other things we mentioned
TikTok STEM (https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/exploring-videos/stem-feed )
JISC Website (https://www.jisc.ac.uk/)
15 Aug 2025
EP 27: Andy Cook - Teams on Tight Timelines
In this episode I’m joined by Andy Cook. Freelance Content & TV producer, director, trouble shooter and all-round problem-solver. Andy has spent 15 years making everything from A Place in the Sun to Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and Eat Well For Less. (even the occasional dog show). We talk about the high-pressure world of short-deadline TV, the art of leading a team you’ve only just met, and how to prioritise under pressure. Also: the time a job to film "some royals" turned out to be slightly more than Andy was expecting. Loads of really useful tips which work for any projects where you have a team and time pressure.
You can find out more about Andy on his website https://www.andycooktv.com/ (https://www.andycooktv.com/)
...or on his socials https://www.instagram.com/andycooktv/ (https://www.instagram.com/andycooktv/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-cook-31890bb/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-cook-31890bb/)
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