Today on the show I’m talking to Dale Whittaker. He’s a Senior Advisor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and has spent his career working in academia at institutions including Texas A&M, Purdue University, and the University of Central Florida. He’s also a watercolor artist and plays a mean harmonica.  I wanted to pick Dale’s brain on the state of higher education around the world, both from his perch inside institutions, and now outside as part of the Gates Foundation. We talk about how education relates to careers today, how artificial intelligence will impact the future of learning, and how education remains one of the strongest levers and predictors of economic mobility. We also dig into some of the various alternative learning movements, like coding bootcamps and Google certifications, and unpack the real value of higher education today.  Dale also tells the story of his time as president of the University of Central Florida, which ended in a very public battle with Ron Desantis and the Florida legislature. I’m grateful to him for being so open about that journey and what he learned from a traumatic period in his career journey. I also of course ask him for his thoughts on Desantis’s prospects for the presidency. New episodes released every Thursday, right here on YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts.  ☕️ Season 2 is presented by SK Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster, based in Minnesota, shipping worldwide. Learn more: https://bit.ly/skconnection  Connect with the show  Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnectRequest  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectionrequest/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@connectionrequest  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@connectionrequest  Email: connect@shrugcontent.com   Connect with Joel  Twitter: https://twitter.com/joelleeman  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jleeman/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joelleeman/  About Connection Request  Connection Request is a podcast about career journeys, produced by Shrug Content. Hosted by Joel Leeman, a producer and strategist who has spent the past 10 years making media for the Internet, the show profiles a variety of fascinating people, digging into how they spend their waking hours, what they’ve learned along the way, how they make decisions, and why they do what they do. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.