Welcome to The Playground, where anything goes. We’re Ascend Now, an EdTech startup helping students ages 8-18 pursue their passions and reach their full potential. In each episode, our bright young students showcase their remarkable articulation abilities through talks. Our talented learners can interview their heroes, share their experiences or present their ideas in a talk format akin to TED presentations. Join us to be a part of this riveting dialogue where passion meets potential and dreams turn into reality.

In RONderings, Ron talks to his guests about their superpowers, including career advice, diversity, mindset, wellness, and leadership. Ron grew up in New York City, and has been coaching and leading executive searches for the last five years, taking what he has learned from 15 years in corporate, higher education, government, and non-profit contexts. He and his wife are obsessed with reality television, and Ron also moonlights as a men's personal stylist and group fitness instructor. Ron says, "I believe in the power of intuition and deepening one’s self-awareness and impact on others. I believe in the power of connection and transparency. I believe that we must dismantle systems of oppression and racism to recover our fullest humanity. Most of all, I believe our power to change the world starts from changing ourselves first."

Since the first scratch of rocks on a cave wall, blood and ink on papyrus or scrolls, transcriptions of folk tales and songs in dusty volumes, first audio recordings of birds on wax cylinders, and jots of songs on Victrolas and now smartphones … we humans make noise, tell stories, and pass our wisdom down the line. This is a podcast that takes the shine off the shiny music, and the production off of the tunes. It brings the firelight, the woodsmoke, the birds, and the hammering rain … the sound of the atmosphere, and the emotions of the moment … into the foreground. Dr. Kent will bring tunes to the front porch, and he’ll talk about music from the perspective of Beethoven’s chamber pot, to the inspiration that a little bit of rain, a new love, or a bent morning, may bring to a song. In 2020, Dr. Kent played music alone on his back porch, looking out at a field, treating the sounds of the rain, the heater on the porch, the traffic, or the stadium cheering in the distance, as part of the field recording. That’s where this started. Now we will be asking musicians of all backgrounds to come with field recordings of their own, talking about the music that inspires them, and the moment of inspiration that was captured by that field recording.

The Punch Up is a place for difficult conversations, about everything from Beyonce to globalism, from climate change to religion, and from business to basketball. Key word: conversations. It's time that we talk about the difficult things in a way that is accessible, communal, and decidedly un-fake. Mark Fedeli and Kent Gustavson join guests of all rank and rigor, in both panel discussions and hotseat interviews.

Take one genre, two combative critics, five authors angling to break out of the pack and what have you got? “Blurb!” – the new book show that’s anything but bookish. Each week, bibliophiles Sally Shields and Dr. Kent review not books themselves but prerecorded pitches from five writers whose literary works are hot off the presses. And each has got a mere three minutes to convince the hosts that theirs is the one worth cracking. But if they succeed, they capture the coveted Book of the Week title. That means Sally and Dr. Kent post the winning work prominently on the Blurb! Radio page, and invite its author on their show a week later for a live pitch to thousands of listeners. Plus, each winning work will be featured on the BlogTalkRadio blog!

Podcast by Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson

A view of the world through upside-down Coke-bottle glasses. The CEO of indie publisher Blooming Twig, Kent Gustavson, sits down with his editors every month to talk about writing, publishing, pop culture, and current events. It's not as boring as it sounds, we promise.

Every day we think tens of thousands of automatic thoughts. Today, stop and focus in on a single question. Explore topics from entrepreneurship to creativity and from the mundane to the philosophical. Inquire more deeply to live more fully.

End of the Roaders is a podcast that's made by bears and mostly is focused on humans because you all are getting it wrong. I'm here with my buddy from Siberia I'm from Denali originally. We're a couple of bears - big and ugly, and we stay in the basement most of the time. We have to growl, have to bite, but we like to talk about environmental issues, people issues and I mean, sometimes bear issues. It's going to be a podcast where a couple of bears are hanging out because we're pissed off. We're tired of the way things have been going.

On "Shop Talk" we talk shop with people who go from "blue collar" to "blue suit". That's it. (Producer: "We need a longer description for social media." Us: "Piss off.")

There are ways to properly nourish your body, your soul, and your mind so that weight loss is a source of personal growth. The process should be pleasurable, fulfilling, and freeing. If it’s not, you are doing it wrong. We’re not going to give you a long list of things you can’t do and can’t eat – life is for enjoying! How is it possible to lose weight for the last time? Well join me on this podcast and find out. You see, the other weight loss approaches out there are capitalizing and thriving on your fear, your shame, your guilt, your feeling like you are not enough and you have to change. I like to think of that as the 1980s approach. It's old, it's outdated, and it doesn't work. You do not need yet another diet. Rather, I'm going to invite you on this podcast to join me in a totally new paradigm. It's all about context. In what context do you want to improve your health? The old context was about fear and shame. And those are what I call MOTIVATION KILLERS! Of course, you keep gaining the weight back - you're operating out of the wrong context, and you are trying to solve the wrong problems. Extra body fat is not the problem - it's a symptom. So we have to get to the root of the problem. And we do that through love. The new context is about love. I'm hoping this podcast will be a source of comfort, solace, and food for thought for you. Let’s work together to help you to lose weight while creating a healthy, long-lasting life that you LOVE.

The Stronger Podcast is where the real conversations behind education and nonprofit leadership come alive. Each episode spotlights executives, founders, and purpose-driven leaders who are shaping schools, organizations, and communities across the country. These are the people on the front lines, opening school doors, building new models, and creating opportunities for kids every single day. Leaders share their journeys, the challenges they are navigating right now, and the mission that drives them. It is the kind of candid, heart-level exchange you would normally only hear after hours at a conference. Listeners can expect stories of impact, resilience, vulnerability, and vision. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes raw, always real. This podcast is not about selling products or ideologies. It is about connection. By amplifying the voices of those doing the work, the goal is to build community, spread powerful ideas, and ultimately fuel the larger mission of creating opportunity for millions of children. If you care about education, leadership, and what it takes to build change from the ground up, this is your front-porch seat to the conversation.