Curious educators thinking past the hype.
Living On The Edge of Chaos is an education-focused interview show where Aaron talks with people working around classrooms, technology, creativity, and change. Recent episodes circle AI adoption, primary sources, curiosity, travel, burnout, and the question of how humans stay in the lead.
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Living On The Edge of Chaos is an interview-driven education show for people trying to think clearly while technology, work, and learning keep shifting under their feet. Aaron approaches each guest with visible curiosity and concern for what can actually be used by educators. The show spends a lot of time with AI, but it rarely treats AI as a magic shortcut. Instead, recent episodes ask what humans should do first, what problems are worth solving, and when a tool is simply another distraction dressed up as progress. Victoria pushes the conversation toward mindset, leadership, and the need to stop using AI only to do more. Jackie brings human-centered adoption into focus, especially the discipline of sorting useful tools from time-wasting novelty. Jessica and Kimberly return for a wider look at hype, versions of AI systems, privacy, compliance, and the cost of progress. Those conversations can get technical, but the show keeps pulling the thread back to schools, educators, and everyday decisions. Other episodes stretch the frame. Kira Shishkin’s discussion of media minimalism and primary sources turns attention into a civic and personal practice. Claire connects curiosity to memory, learning, and the way large language models can become sparring partners rather than answer machines. Stephanie brings travel and wanderlust into a conversation about comfort zones, storytelling, and the experiences that make people more human. Older excerpts with Mary Beth Hertz and John Nash point to the show’s long-running interest in edtech ethics, design thinking, leadership, and positive change. The rhythm is loose and conversational. Aaron often starts from a personal dilemma, a half-formed question, or a practical educator concern, then lets the guest build the larger idea. That informality is part of the value. Living On The Edge of Chaos feels like professional learning before it has been packaged into a slide deck. It is for educators, school leaders, designers, and curious generalists who want to test their assumptions without being talked down to. The show’s strongest throughline is simple: tools matter, but attention, curiosity, ethics, and human worth matter more.
Made for: The show is for educators, school leaders, edtech practitioners, and reflective learners who want candid conversations about AI, attention, curiosity, leadership, and classroom change. It especially suits listeners who like ideas tested through practical educator questions.
What sets it apart: Living On The Edge of Chaos stands apart by treating edtech as a human problem before a technical one. Its guest mix reaches beyond standard education circles, bringing in entrepreneurs, travel voices, and people working with AI, design, and research to sharpen how educators think.
“Living On The Edge of Chaos,” hosted by Aaron Maurer, is a podcast that takes listeners on an intellectual journey through various facets of education and technology. The show features conversations with experts and innovators like Kevin Eastman, former assistant coach for the Boston Celtics to Lori Mazor, who enlightens on the fusion of Artificial Intelligence and creativity, Brittany Blackwell, who discusses educator burnout and mental health, and Laura McBain, exploring the intersections of design and learning. Through these dialogues, listeners are provoked to ponder on the unfolding narrative of education, making it a unique platform for those curious about the evolving educational…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Thoughtful guest conversations turn AI adoption, media habits, and curiosity into practical questions about how educators learn and decide.
Aaron keeps returning to a practical question: how can educators use new tools without surrendering attention, curiosity, or judgment? Living On The Edge of Chaos answers through open-ended interviews, with Aaron testing ideas against classroom realities and his own habits.
Aaron wants a Sora invite while deleting apps; your AI contradictions have found company.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A process-first look at AI adoption that pushes past hype and asks what people will actually do next.
Living On The Edge of Chaos uses this episode to revisit AI, leadership, and the habits people bring to new tools, with Victoria Mensch bringing both industry experience and a psychology-informed view.
A clear case for building opinions from the primary source.
The episode keeps its focus on a simple, useful idea: if someone wants a real opinion, they should start with the primary source. Aaron frames the discussion in a way that lets Kira Shishkin, a four-time serial entrepreneur with experience in banking, business, and crypto who…
A practical conversation about AI adoption that keeps the human side in view.
Aaron frames a clear question: where does AI fit when humans stay at the center? Jackie answers from the practical side of adoption and training, giving the discussion enough substance to matter for educators, trainers, and readers deciding what deserves space in a newsletter…
A grounded conversation about AI, education, and the institutional limits around these tools.
Living on the Edge of Chaos brings Jessica and Kimberly together for a conversation that connects AI with learning, teaching, and the larger challenge of making sense of education and society.
Curiosity, memory, and LLMs are linked here as practical habits for better questions.
Aaron from Coffee for the Brain and Claire Inkster, who runs The Curiosity Experiment, treat curiosity as something practical rather than abstract. The episode lands on a clear idea: curiosity seems to help memory most when someone already knows a little and wants to know more.
A grounded conversation about using wanderlust to build curiosity, courage, and a more attentive way through ordinary life.
Travel sits at the center of this single-episode conversation with Stephanie Cantwell, owner of Lost in Adventure Travel, but the real subject is the habit of staying curious.
Living On The Edge of Chaos episode 224 centers on Victoria's case for using AI to redesign work instead of just accelerating old tasks.
Kira Shishkin says AI will multiply noise so fast that reading news without a filter will become impractical, and Informed.Now is built as a trust layer.
On Living on the Edge of Chaos, host Aaron talks with Jackie Celske, a globally certified AI adoption consultant who left a corporate marketing career after collapsing from burnout and quitting on a whim.
Jessica Parker and Kimberly Becker call generative AI a trade-off, not a time-saver.
Claire Inkster, founder of The Curiosity Experiment, tells Aaron from Coffee for the Brain how a corporate research career led her to curiosity interventions, applied positive psychology, and climate-change consulting.
Aaron talks with his former high school classmate Stephanie Cantwell, owner of the Atlanta travel agency Lost in Adventure Travel, about using adventure travel to build curiosity and empathy, especially for educators.
Host Aaron Maurer interviews educator Mary Beth Hertz about her 20-year career in K-12 education and her experience with edtech.
Host Aaron Maurer interviews John Nash, an associate professor, about design thinking and human-centered design in educational leadership.
Host Aaron Maurer interviews Mia about using Lego Serious Play to make abstract ideas tangible in education, business, and personal life.
Host Aaron Maurer interviews Stephan Bauchard about his background in academic speech and debate and discusses rethinking education and AI.