Joining the Dots

About Joining the Dots

”Joining the Dots” focuses on the many challenges facing education and how different approaches and innovations are required to meet these challenges, which, due to their interconnectedness, are also challenges facing all sorts of educational establishments, educators, parents and families, businesses and the economy as a whole. Co-hosts Matt Jessop and Al Kingsley, have discussions with innovative educators, business leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders and guests.

Publisher

Matt Jessop & Al Kingsley

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Nov 2024

Latest episode

16 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

36 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Oct 2026

   Season 3 Episode 1 - Rethinking Education: Insights from Eddie Blass

   Exploring the need for change in our education system. In our latest conversation, we delve into the transformative ideas of Professor Eddie Blass, who left academia to address the pressing challenges in high school education. Eddie's insights reveal a landscape where traditional university models may no longer serve today’s learners effectively. The Shift from University to High School Eddie shared her journey from two decades in higher education to focusing on high school education, driven by the need for innovative teaching methods. "The fun of teaching and creating in university had gone for me." She expressed frustration with the standardised nature of university courses, where creativity and individual teaching styles are stifled. Instead, Eddie believes the future lies in cultivating skills in younger students, preparing them to thrive in both life and further education. Bridging the Gap in Education A major discussion point was the disconnection between primary, secondary, and higher education. Eddie pointed out: "One of the issues for me in university was that the universities are becoming very standardised." She called for a more cohesive educational pathway from ages 3 to 21, emphasising the importance of resilience and critical thinking skills, which are often overlooked in traditional curricula. The Role of Relevance and Relationships Eddie identified key factors contributing to student disengagement: Pace of Learning: Many students fall behind while others rush ahead, leading to a lack of motivation. Relevance of Curriculum: Students often fail to see how academic concepts relate to their lives, making learning feel disconnected. Teacher Relationships: As students transition to high school, they lose the personal connections with teachers that are vital for support and encouragement. "The relationship with the teacher is the number one thing that’s come out in the research." A Call for Systemic Change The insights shared by Eddie resonate deeply with the ongoing discussions in educational reform. He advocates for a model that recognizes individual strengths rather than forcing conformity, allowing students to excel in areas where they show potential. As we reflect on these points, it's clear that the education system needs to evolve beyond traditional methods. Join us in considering how we can collectively nurture a generation of learners ready to engage with the complexities of the modern world.

2. 

   25 Jul 2026

   Seasion 2 Episode 17 - AI, education and the future of learning, with Daniel Hulme

   Matt and Al are joined by Daniel Hulme, one of the UK's leading voices on AI. Daniel grew up in Morecambe, was actively discouraged from applying to university, and did his A levels under a desk in the hotel restaurant he was running at 16. He got into UCL anyway, fell in love with education, and went on to found the AI company Satalia (acquired by WPP, where he is now Chief AI Officer) and Conscium, a company working on machine consciousness. He also ran a master's programme at UCL for five years. The conversation starts with a blunt question: is the traditional school-to-university pathway still an honest transaction? Daniel's answer is nuanced. He's watching students opt straight into work rather than risk three years on a degree with no job guarantee, and he doesn't think they're wrong. But he's equally clear that foundational knowledge still matters: the fundamentals of algorithms and computational complexity haven't changed in decades, and they're what separate people who can make good decisions about AI from the crowd who rebranded themselves as experts three years ago. He's forthright on the state of AI adoption too, borrowing Dan Ariely's line about big data: everyone says they're doing AI agents, almost nobody is, and much of what the big consultancies are selling is nonsense. His advice is the same one educators give: start with the problem, not the technology. From there it gets properly mind-stretching: why large language models are 'intoxicated graduates' on their way to professor level, spiking neural networks and brains that run on 20 watts, evolving digital creatures in a virtual petri dish, his colour-wheel theory of consciousness, the seven singularities, and whether a machine that understands pain and empathy would be safer for humanity than a 'zombie superintelligence'. The closing stretch comes back to education: testing how students apply knowledge rather than whether they hold it, AI's potential to narrow (or widen) disadvantage gaps, and what people say they'd do in a world of abundance. Top answer: improve their golf handicap. Second answer: learn. Daniel's new book, Perspectives on Machine Consciousness, gathering 30 of the world's leading thinkers in the field, is out in the coming months.

3. 

   25 Jul 2026

   Season 2 Episode 16 - A Call to Action on Climate Change with Mike Berners-Lee

   Matt and Al are joined by Mike Berners-Lee, professor at Lancaster University, founder of Small World Consulting and author of four books including How Bad Are Bananas? and There Is No Planet B. Mike chairs the National Emergency Briefing, which last November brought 1,200 of the UK's most influential people, including around 85 MPs, peers, business leaders and faith leaders, into Central Hall Westminster to hear nine top experts set out the bare facts on the climate and nature emergency. The government should be briefing the public the way it did during COVID. It hasn't, so they did. Mike walks through what those nine briefings covered: CO2 levels now far outside the narrow range that supported 10,000 years of human civilisation, the rising risk of the AMOC ocean current shutting down and what that would mean for UK farming, weather extremes that our century-old infrastructure was never built for, food security, health, defence, and the economics of the transition, which contrary to the usual noise pays for itself by about 2052. It isn't a counsel of despair. Not one person in that room of 1,200 thought the picture had been exaggerated, and the energy in the room went up as the dots were joined. The briefing has since become the People's Emergency Briefing, a 50-minute film presented by Chris Packham, now past 1,600 community screenings across the UK, with each screening triggering more than one new one on average. Along the way: disinformation and the psychology of denial, whether the UK is too small to matter (it isn't), how to talk to children honestly about the crisis, critical thinking in schools, the Inner Development Goals, and how Mike stays positive after decades of banging the drum. Take action at nebriefing.org: find or host a screening, check whether your MP attended the briefing, and sign the petition calling for a televised national emergency briefing across the major TV channels. National Emergency Briefing (screenings map, MP checker, petition, take action): https://nebriefing.org Small World Consulting: https://www.sw-consulting.co.uk Mentioned by Mike: People Planet Pint meetups, the Inner Development Goals, the Good Life Schools project

Who has been a guest on Joining the Dots

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Bianca Farthing
• Carla Aerts
• Naomi Timperley

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

156

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

28

Social presence

0

YouTube

64

Engagement

0