Barbara Oakley is an educator and writer who’s empowering people all over the world to learn more effectively. Barb is best known for her role as the lead instructor on Coursera’s Learning How To Learn – the most popular online course in the world last year – and her bestselling book A Mind for Numbers.

For all the hours we spend in school it's remarkable that we're never taught how to learn. This is even more surprising when recent developments in cognitive psychology and neuroscience mean that we know more about the learning process than at any point in history.

Barb's work on the MOOC Learning How To Learn has brought this knowledge to the public domain, with remarkable results thanks to her engaging presentation style and ability to communicate complex ideas in a simple way.

In this conversation we discuss a range of topics including:

- Barb’s insights from learning in the military and retraining as an engineer at 26
- How to apply what cognitive science has established about the learning process
- The future of online education and the success of "Learning How To Learn"

So whether you're looking to upgrade your learning skills, find out more about how they pick up skills in the military or understand the secrets behind great online education, this episode will give you all that and more.

Is it really possible to learn from animals? For thousands of years, all kinds of authorities have been repeating the idea that we humans are exceptional and by far the most intelligent in the animal kingdom.

So it’s easy to see why we humans think we’re much smarter than animals – but is that actually the case?

The fact that animals don’t understand us in some ways, and that we don’t understand them in others implies our intelligences are different. But different in kind rather than rather in level – like the difference between analytical and musical intelligence, rather than the 'I’m smarter than you' type of intelligence.

In this episode I dive into 5 of the main lessons I think we can learn from our friends in the animal kingdom including:

- What wolves can teach us about leadership
- What ants can teach us about collaboration
- What giraffes can teach us about being ourselves

So by the end you'll have gained insight into to some of the main lessons we can learn from some of the remarkable creatures we share the world with.

In ancient cultures, mythology served a number of other important functions on an individual and personal level which may not be immediately obvious.

On a personal level mythology created a sense of awe about the mystery of human existence. By creating this sense of wonder, mythology helped people to learn about their own lives in a way that few other fields could.

On a social level, mythology educated people about how they fit into the group they lived in. Rituals would help to mark the different stages of life and would help to define the roles of the different members in that society.

In this episode I discuss the insights we can take from mythology including:

- My interpretation of the myth of the Trojan Horse in Homer's Iliad
- The danger of hubris, drawing on the myth of Icarus and Daedalus
- The hero's journey, drawing on Homer's Odyssea

In this episode you'll learn to look beyond the surface of mythology and find far more than literary entertainment - because mythology is at the core of ancient wisdom and points at what it means to live a good human life.

Zahra Davidson is a multidisciplinary designer innovating in education by encouraging people to learn in communities. She is the founder of Enrol Yourself, an organization that gives people the structure and support to pursue learning marathons (long term learning projects) with other lifelong learners.

When we leave school we often miss out on one of the most important components of learning anything - community. Communities allow us to learn from others, assess our performance level and share the learning experience.

Zahra has experience of participating in great learning communities and has now built and managed her own, so she's perfectly placed to offer insights into the process of using community to accelerate the learning process.

In this conversation we discuss a range of topics including:

- The importance of learning in communities
- The impact of the educational system on collaborative learning
- The qualities needed to become a self directed learner

So whether you're looking to join a community to supercharge your learning or start your very own learning marathon, this episode will give you the tools and techniques you need to succeed.