In this episode, I discuss with the fantastic Dr. Tessa Forshaw, a cognitive scientist, educator, and innovation leader researching and shaping how we learn and work in an age of rapid change.

Tessa is the co-founder and research lead at Harvard’s Next Level Lab, where she explores learning transfer, creative cognition, and how humans and AI can work together. She also teaches design thinking and creativity at Harvard and previously served on the faculty at Stanford’s d.school. Before academia, she worked at IDEO CoLab and Accenture, bringing together strategy, design, and human-centered innovation.

In her recent book Innovation-ish, Tessa distills her experience and insights into a practical guide for tackling challenges and sparking creative solutions across both personal and professional contexts.

Here are some takeaways from the conversation:

🌀 Get Comfortable with Ambiguity — Tessa’s #1 skill for kids and adults: learn to sit with the unknown and move anyway.

🧪 Innovation Is Everywhere (Not Just Gadgets) — From a child’s DIY monster-detector to a philanthropy’s NLP-powered outreach, process innovation can be just as world-changing as products.

🧭 Mindset · Moves · Metacognition — Tessa’s innovation stack: adopt the right mindset, use small repeatable moves, and steer with metacognition (your inner compass when there’s no map).

🤖 AI: Starter, Not Substitute — Great for jump-starting ideas and surfacing options; risky if it replaces productive struggle, deep schemas, or your own judgment.

🎓 Explore Before Explain — Tessa teaches creativity by letting learners do first, then naming the patterns—so ambiguity becomes a practice ground, not a panic zone.

❤️ Design School Around Love of Learning — If we nurture curiosity and resilience, the rest follows.

Find more about Tessa and her work:

* LinkedIn

* ”Innovation-ish” book

* “Innovation-ish” website

* Next Level Lab @Harvard

In this episode of Wide Walls, I’m particularly excited to welcome Dr. Jody LeVos, a true champion for early childhood and play-based learning.

Jody currently serves as Chief Learning Officer at BEGiN, where she leads curriculum design and pedagogy across a family of beloved learning products, including HOMER, codeSpark, Little Passports, and Learn with Sesame Street. With over a decade of experience designing early learning experiences across digital apps, toys, books, and other media, she’s brought her expertise to some of the most iconic brands in the industry, such as LeapFrog and Mattel.

Jody is also a dedicated advocate for parents and educators, having contributed to major platforms like CES Kids@Play, Psychology Today’s “Science of Play” series, and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Screen Time Summit.

In this episode, we discuss:

🌟 Jody’s Purpose-Driven Career — Jody’s shift from research to industry as a model for aligning expertise, mentorship, and impact at scale.

🎲 Play as a Learning Paradigm — Why play is foundational (not decorative) to early development and genuine understanding.

🌎 Designing for Diverse Learners — Building inclusive experiences through real-world kid testing, family insights, and evidence of transfer.

📱AI’s Role in EdTech Research and Parenting — Using AI to accelerate prototyping and feedback while guiding families toward thoughtful, balanced tech use.

Find more about Jody and her work:

* LinkedIn

* BEGiN

* Psychology Today

* Children’s Media Association

* Instagram

Welcome to my conversation with Suzie Hicks — an award-winning filmmaker, author, and television host whose work sits at the crossroads of entertainment, education, environmental justice, and community activism. Their latest project, the amazing YouTube series “Suzie Hicks the Climate Chick & Sprout,” pairs Suzie with their puppet sidekick Sprout on a seven-episode adventure through climate science.

In this episode, we discuss:

🌎 Their Journey into Climate Storytelling — Suzie shares their personal path into climate activism and how storytelling became their most powerful tool.

📺 Making Science Fun and Hopeful — We explore the power of children’s media in making climate science engaging, playful, and accessible.

🌱 Behind the Scenes of Suzie Hicks the Climate Chick & Sprout — Suzie opens up about the creative process and what it means to communicate complex issues with joy.

🤝 The Power of Community — We discuss why building community is essential for climate action, and how collective storytelling fosters hope and resilience.

💡 Blending Entertainment, Education, and Activism — Suzie shows how these worlds can come together to inspire real change on both local and global scales.

Find more about Suzie and their work:

* Suzie Hicks the Climate Chick & Sprout on Youtube

* Website

* Instagram

* TikTok

* LinkedIn