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Feature Conversation: Meeting the Moment Livestream

IHE leaders Steve Cochrane, Julie Meltzer, Mary Pat Champeau, and Zoe Weil explore what’s at stake—and what’s possible—for the future of education in an era of funding cuts, policy upheaval, and growing global uncertainty. June 18, 2025

Click to expand the dropdowns below to browse all interviews, conversations, and presentations.

“Zoe Weil Says ‘Education Is the Root System Underlying All Other Societal Systems’,” Zoe Weil on the Seed Field podcast by Antioch University, April 1, 2026

“Solutionary Synergy,” Julie Meltzer on the Synergy in Education podcast with Kathryn Berkman and Dom Verwey, March 15, 2026.

“Zoe Weil Has a Solutionary Idea to Change the World,” Zoe Weil on the Lives Well Lived Podcast with Peter Singer, March 5, 2026.

“The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries,” Zoe Weil interviewed by IHE Executive Director Steve Cochrane on the Awakin Podcast, September 27, 2025.

“The World Becomes What We Teach,” Zoe Weil on Lantern Voices, August 7, 2025.

“IDG Skill: Optimism,” Zoe Weil, Purposeful Empathy with Anita Nowak, June 20, 2025

“Empowering Students to Solve Real-World Problems as a Solutionary” Solutionary coaches Katie Coppens & Marcela Villan, Reshaping Learning with SchoolDay podcast, June 12, 2025

“A Teaching Framework Helping Students (or Others!) Tackle Complex Challenges With Impact in Mind,” Julie Meltzer with teacher and solutionary coach Katie Coppens and student Cate, Sustain What webcast, May 1, 2025

“It’s All About Food,” Zoe Weil on the Progressive Radio Network, March 19, 2025

“Humane Education and The Solutionary Way,” Julie Meltzer and Zoe Weil on the Future Learning Design Podcast, November 23, 2024

“The Surprising Link Between Humane Education and Lasting Change,” Zoe Weil on the Plant Powered Athlete Podcast, November 11, 2024

“The Solutionary Way: Transform Your Life, Your Community, and the World for the Better,” Zoe Weil at the Wilmette Institute, October 28, 2024

“The Solutionary Way,” Zoe Weil on the Getting Smart Podcast, October 23, 2024

“The Solutionary Way,” Zoe Weil on the Human Restoration Project, September 14, 2024

“Building a Compassionate Future,” Zoe Weil on the Joyful Vegan with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, August 30, 2024

“Zoe Weil – Transform Your Life, Your Community, and the World for Better,” Zoe Weil on The Progressive Page Turner, August 16, 2024

“Solutionary Public Policy Webinar: How to Write the Next Chapter of History the Way You Want it to Be,” Caitie Whelan and Zoe Weil, August 14, 2024

“Becoming Solutionaries | Toward an Ethic of Most Good and Least Harm,” Zoe Weil on the Overpopulation podcast, July 9, 2024

“Stressed About the World? Start Thinking Like a Solutionary,” Zoe Weil on the Conspiracy of Goodness podcast, June 27, 2024

“Music and The Solutionary Way,” Zoe Weil and Noel Paul Stookey, June 22, 2024

“The Solutionary Way—we can’t wait!,” Zoe Weil on Sentientism, June 11, 2024

“How to Transform the World & Become a Solutionary,” Zoe Weil on the Theory into Action podcast, June 10, 2024

“Zoe Weil on Forging “Solutionary” Paths to Progress,” on the Sustain What videocast, June 4, 2024

“Humane Education is the Solution with Zoe Weil,” NHA Health Science Podcast, January 4, 2024

“The Power of Humane Education,” Vegan Visibility Podcast, September 12, 2023

“Education for Climate Change,” Reinventing Education Series with School of Humanity, August 29, 2023

“The Journey from Asking William Shatner for a Kiss to Establishing the Institute for Humane Education,” Coffee for the Brain podcast, March 1, 2023

“What is Education for in the Anthropocene,” Sustain What webcast, February 22, 2023

“Game Changer Series: A Conversation with Zoe Weil, Dr. Kristin Alford, Laura McBain, & Aubrey Yee,” What School Could Be, December 1, 2022

“Maine Wonders,” Wells Reserve, November 30, 2022

“Making The World What We Teach,” The Perkins Platform, November 2, 2022

“The Purpose of Education: Educating for a Solutionary Future?,” Ethical Schools, October 19, 2022

“How Anyone Can Become a Solutionary for Systemic Change,” Nature Solutionaries, June 23, 2022

“Zoe Weil Talks Being A Solutionary and The Purpose of Education,” Conceptually Speaking, June 23, 2022

“Raising ‘Solutionaries’ by Teaching Skills Instead of Facts with Zoe Weil and Steve Cochrane (Episode #91),” Conspiracy of Goodness Podcast, June 1, 2022

“Zoe Weil on Educating a Generation of Solutionaries,” Getting Smart Podcast, April 20, 2022

“Education as Activism,” Rise Travel Institute Podcast, March 31, 2022

Episode 82, Vegan Mainstream Podcast, March 22, 2022

A Conversation with Zoe Weil and Steve Cochrane, World Happiness Fest, March 19, 2022

Episode 67, The Teachernerdz Podcast, February 7, 2022

“Teach students how to solve community & world problems,” TeacherGoals Live Podcast, February 3, 2022

“Learning can liberate – Mary Pat Champeau,” Sentientism Podcast, January 16, 2022

“Humane Education and Solutionary Thinking,” KPFA Radio, December 31, 2021

Episode 73, Ignite EdTech Podcast, November 19 2021

“Dedicating Her Life to Creating a Humane, Just and Sustainable World with Zoe Weil,” Kindness Think Tank Podcast, August 1, 2021

“Creative Problem Solving: Developing Solutionary Thinkers,” Ethical Schools Podcast, May 6, 2021

“Becoming a Solutionary,” Purposeful Empathy podcast, April 8, 2021

“To Create a World Where All Can Thrive, Education Must Change,” The Seed Field: A Podcast by Antioch University, March 31, 2021

“No Judgement… Just How Do We Solve This?” Sentientist Conversations Podcast, March 14, 2021

“Humane Education with Zoe Weil,” Human Restoration Project, March 28, 2020

“Humane Education and the Whole Child,” Maine ASCD podcast, December 26, 2019

“Zoe Weil on Humane Education,” Ethical Schools podcast, May 22, 2019

The Sunny Chayes Show, UBN Radio, January 11, 2017

Why We Should All Have a Humane Education, My Home Planet, March 21, 2017

MetroFocus interview on NYC PBS affiliate, WNET, April 14, 2016

Sustainable Education Part: 1, Sea Change Radio, April 14, 2016

Sustainable Education: Part 2, Sea Change Radio, April 20, 2016

PYP 112: Zoe Weil on Raising a Generation of Solutionaries, Plant Yourself Podcast, July 21, 2015

The World Becomes What We Teach, AERO conference interview, May 24, 2015

Episode #30, Our Hen House TV, March 16, 2015

“Zoe Weil Opens at Blue Hill Public Library with Assessment of her Optimism,” The Weekly Packet, Aron Farrar, January, 29, 2026

“3 Ways to Step Off the Hatred Treadmill,” Psychology Today, Zoe Weil, September 18, 2025

“Biophobia is Dangerous,” Psychology Today, Zoe Weil, September 10, 2025

“Why I Don’t Insult Chat GPT (To Its Face),” Psychology Today, Zoe Weil, July 8, 2025

“Heal Yourself, Heal the World,” Psychology Today, Zoe Weil, April 18, 2025

“Outraged Over False Claims of Pet Eating? Consider Factory Farms,” LA Progressive, Zoe Weil, October 14, 2024

“The Solutionary Way: A Practical Way To Better The Future,” The Daily Good, Zoe Weil, June 27, 2024

“How Improv Comedy Can Help Resolve Conflicts,” TIME Magazine, Zoe Weil, June 26, 2024

“Practical Steps to Improve Our Lives and Communities,” The Goodness Exchange, Zoe Weil, June 2024

“Finance Education in Schools Must Be More Than Personal,” Letter to Edweek, Steve Cochrane, February 2024

“Let’s Reimagine the Purpose of School,” Letter to Edweek, Steve Cochrane, November 2022

“Urgency and Opportunity: Preparing a Generation of Solutionaries,” Steve Cochrane, April 2022

“50 Mainers Leading by Example” in Maine Magazine, July 2017

“Imagine Educating a Generation of Solutionaries,” Heinemann Publishing, May 2016

“How to Teach for a Better World” Education Week, April 13, 2016

“From Good Works to Good Ideas: Educating the #SolutionaryGeneration” Common Dreams, February 16, 2016

“Creating a Better World Through Education; Creating a Better Education Through The World” Our Hen House, January 6, 2015.

“How Do We Educate Global Problem Solvers” Edutopia, June 10, 2014

“The World Becomes What We Teach” interview with Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today, April 29, 2020

Unbound Project Interview, March 14, 2019

IWM: Zoe Weil, Borden Communications, October 27, 2015

How the Way You Spend Your Money Affects Animals, Girlie Girl Army, March 20, 2014

“The Heart of Education: A Discussion with Zoe Weil” by Michael Tobias in Forbes, April 25, 2012

Steve Cochrane

“Changing the world one child at a time.” Those words have inspired my work for more than four decades in education, and they continue to inspire me now. We are at a pivotal point in the evolution of our world. We are facing a climate crisis, a health crisis, a crisis of racial justice, a crisis in our treatment of animals, a crisis of media bias. The list goes on. And perhaps our greatest crisis is our consistent struggle as a society to simply come together respectfully, intelligently, and ethically to solve our problems and save our planet. We need solutionaries. We need young people who have been educated not only to think critically, creatively, and systemically about real-world issues, but also to be passionate, persistent, and humane in their implementation of real-world solutions. And that is IHE’s mission: to support teachers and educational institutions in preparing young people to become solutionaries – and the next caretakers of our planet.

IHE offers a healing vision and a tangible pathway forward for a struggling world. As Executive Director, I am excited, humbled, and deeply honored to join with others to promote that vision and that pathway in ways that make them foundational to systems of education throughout the world – and to each child who is committed to making that world a better place.

Passionate about preparing young people to lead lives of joy and purpose, Steve Cochrane has had a remarkable journey through the field of education. It is a journey that has taken him from the campus of Princeton University, where he served as an admissions officer and an assistant dean of students, to the classroom of a public elementary school, where he had the privilege of teaching – and learning from – his fourth and fifth grade students. Steve has been a dorm director and associate dean of admissions at Wheelock College in Boston. He has also been an elementary school principal, a middle school principal, an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and, prior to his work at IHE, he was the superintendent of the Princeton Public Schools in Princeton, New Jersey where he was honored with the award of County Superintendent of the Year. In each of these roles, Steve has collaborated with others to prioritize innovations in learning, wellness for students, equity, and a belief that every child should be supported and inspired to achieve their highest potential.

Steve received his undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University and his master’s degree in educational administration from Harvard. He is a competitive road cyclist who also enjoys the thrill of mountain biking. Steve and his wife are both vegans and advocates for holistic health. They currently reside in Spencerport, New York, with their two dogs and a very large Maine Coon cat.