The Solutionists

School Sucks Even More Than You Thought | Esme Van Deventer

On the future (or lack thereof) of education Schools are failing students, employers are failing graduates, and parents are failing to ask the right questions - this episode is for business leaders worried about their talent pipeline, HR professionals frustrated by grad programs, educators fighting the system from within, and anyone who has ever wondered whether the money poured into education is producing any real return. Bronwyn Williams and Sharon Pierce sit down with teacher and educational philosopher Esme Van Deventer to diagnose exactly how schools, systems, and societies are producing the wrong kind of human for the world of work. They examine the product problem (wrong skills, siloed thinking, format compliance over real understanding), the pricing problem (education as a status game rather than a value-generating investment), and the parent problem (helicopter parenting, homework battles, and Gen Z bringing mom and dad to job interviews). Esme shares her hands-on classroom experiments in integrated, phenomenon-based learning: a 10-week Charlie and the Chocolate Factory curriculum that teaches geography, ethics, science, economics, and writing as one interconnected system rather than separate hour-long silos. She explains why she has never believed in homework, how she sets Bloom's Taxonomy Level 4 and 5 exams for remedial boys and gets a 54% class average, and how a classroom fiat economy complete with wages, tax, UIF, desk rent, and a restorative justice court is teaching financial literacy and democratic thinking to 12-year-olds. The conversation covers the CAPS curriculum and its arrested development, Montessori and Reggio Emilia philosophy versus jug-and-mug pedagogy, the commercialisation of private schooling, AI slop and critical digital literacy, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus and fake sources, and why a degree is now just a country club membership rather than a signal of genuine capability. It ends with a clear argument: the solutionist mindset - contextualise, diagnose, empathise, solution, operationalise, digitise, relearn - must be embedded from cradle to career, and that work and learning should never have been separated in the first place. Montessori education overview - American Montessori Society [https://amshq.org/About-Montessori/What-Is-Montessori] · Reggio Emilia Approach - official overview [https://www.reggiochildren.it/en/reggio-emilia-approach/] · Connect with Esme on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/esm%C3%A8-v-7194ab271/] · Survive the AI Apocalypse website [https://survivetheaiapocalypse.com/] · Connect with Bronwyn on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynwilliams/] · Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-pearce-60b0485/] · Follow Bronwyn on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bronwynwilliams] · Follow Sharon on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sharon.pearce1]

Work isn’t working | Reanna Brown (Work Futures)

In this episode, The Solutionists unpack how and why work isn’t working for workers, employers - or customers. Along with special guest, work futurist, Reanna Brown, they unpack why “skills” won’t save jobs, how surveillance management is sacrificing outcomes (and people) for metrics and question if HR as we know it has a future at all… But don’t worry, The Solutionists also leave you with some solutions too, on how to realign value (and values) between workers, businesses and the human beings they serve. Make work work again [https://www.survivetheaiapocalypse.com/] · Connect with Reanna on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/reannabrowne/] · Work Futures Website [https://www.workfutures.com.au/] · Survive the AI Apocalypse website [https://survivetheaiapocalypse.com/] · Connect with Bronwyn on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynwilliams/] · Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-pearce-60b0485/] · Follow Bronwyn on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bronwynwilliams] · Follow Sharon on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sharon.pearce1]

Corporate “culture” change and other oxymorons

Transformation is a process, not a product. In this episode Bronwyn and Sharon talk about when therapy doesn’t work, how culture is not a commodity, why transformation fails, and why what you do matters more than what you say (however much you paid an internal branding consultancy to tell you otherwise). Stay tuned for: - PowerPoint wastelands - Unicorn mysteries - Weaponised mediocrity - Where to find missing motivation - and more. If you hope to “transform” anything or anyone, listen up, before you waste your shareholders’ money - and your own precious time. Speaking of culture (watch this) [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UqkyUy9TE_I] · Survive the AI Apocalypse website [https://survivetheaiapocalypse.com/] · Connect with Bronwyn on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynwilliams/] · Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-pearce-60b0485/] · Follow Bronwyn on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bronwynwilliams] · Follow Sharon on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sharon.pearce1]

The Productivity Paradox | Bullshittery exposed and solutions proposed

In this episode The Solutionists dive deep into the productivity paradox and why measuring what does not really matter is killing your business - and your value. We also follow two brave economists into the woods, slay bullshit and buzzwords, have a quick physics lesson, and give you some solid solutions to start applying to your work place to shift from measuring metrics to delivering results. This test helps you & your team reflect honestly on your BS & blind spots [https://www.survivetheaiapocalypse.com/bullshitometer-for-business] · Survive the AI Apocalypse website [https://survivetheaiapocalypse.com/] · Connect with Bronwyn on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynwilliams/] · Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-pearce-60b0485/] · Follow Bronwyn on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bronwynwilliams] · Follow Sharon on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sharon.pearce1]

Welcome to The Solutionists

The therapy session your workplace didn’t know it needed. Bronwyn Williams and Sharon Pearce, the co-authors of Survive the AI Apocalypse, a guide for solutionists, are tired of treading in BS everywhere in the world of work and business. Bloat, bureaucracy, make work disguised as "efficiency", pointless meetings, overstuffed organograms, corporate cholesterol is everywhere - but everyone, from CEOs , CTOs and CHROs through to middle management and new hires seems too afraid (or too invested) to call the BS for what it is : Bullshit. - or to seem to know what to do about it. So they started this podcast, The solutionists - to be the therapy session your workplace didn’t know it needed, to uncover all your corporate dirty laundry - all those naughty little secrets - and help you clean it up with real talk - and most importantly - real solutions you can apply right now to stop wasting time, talent and money and start the process of REAL business transformation. If you’re tired of the BS and ready to get to work - and if you have a dirty little corporate challenge of your own you'd like help to solve, you’re in the right place. survivor@survivetheaiapocalypse.com Survive the AI Apocalypse website [https://survivetheaiapocalypse.com/] · Connect with Bronwyn on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynwilliams/] · Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-pearce-60b0485/] · Follow Bronwyn on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bronwynwilliams] · Follow Sharon on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sharon.pearce1]