In this special episode of the YRV Thought Partner Podcast, Joyce welcomes Dr. Rethabile Mawela, educator and former president of Africa ELTA, to explore how teachers can challenge stereotypes and foster cross-cultural critical thinking.

Dr. Mawela shares practical classroom strategies to help students question assumptions, embrace different perspectives, and develop greater cultural understanding. Educators will also gain useful insights for developing projects for Youth Research Vox’s 2026 Global Teachers Grant.

Learn more about the grant: https://www.youthresearchvox.org/grants

Africa ELTA members can apply here: https://www.youthresearchvox.org/africaelta

What does it mean to think critically across cultures?

In this episode, host Joyce Coffey speaks with Dr. Ada Muoneke, founder of EduCounts Consulting and an education leader with more than 30 years of experience in the United States and internationally.

Dr. Muoneke shares the one habit she believes can transform how we think and communicate across cultures—and a real-life experience that changed the way she approaches unfamiliar situations.

This episode also provides context for educators participating in Youth Research Vox’s 2026 Global Teachers Grant, which supports English classroom projects that encourage cross-cultural critical thinking.

Learn more and apply at https://www.youthresearchvox.org/grants

In this episode, we introduce the Cross-Cultural Critical Thinking Series and explore why understanding cultural assumptions, questioning our own perspectives, and learning to think across differences may be essential to navigating an increasingly connected yet deeply divided world.

Youth Research Vox is also launching the 2026 YRV Global Teachers Grant, supporting secondary school English teachers who create classroom projects that celebrate local culture, strengthen students’ cultural identities, and encourage cross-cultural critical thinking through English language arts.

Learn more and apply at https://www.youthresearchvox.org/grants

In the final episode of Human Identity in the Age of AI, we explore what we choose.

Using WALL-E and real-world stories about teens turning to AI companions for advice and support, we ask: When does AI help us make better decisions, and when does it begin making decisions for us? What choices should we delegate—and which should remain meaningfully human?

Ultimately, our choices do more than determine what happens next. They help shape who we become.

This episode explores how real emotions help shape human identity in a world where AI can imitate empathy but cannot actually feel. Through Inside Out 2 and Soul, we reflect on anxiety, belonging, purpose, and the importance of protecting our ability to feel life.

How do our experiences shape who we become? In this episode, we explore how memories, relationships, and lived moments become part of our identity — and what happens when AI can capture, imitate, or learn from the traces of those experiences.

Through clips from Inside Out 2 and 60 Minutes, this episode asks a deeper question: if AI can recreate parts of our lived experience, what makes those experiences truly ours?

As AI begins reshaping work, what happens to the identities we’ve built around our jobs? In this episode, we explore how productivity, job titles, and career status became tied to human worth, and why AI is forcing us to rethink that relationship.

Through news clips, tech CEO commentary, and a look back at The Twilight Zone, this episode asks a deeper question: if we are not our work, then who are we?

AI can now write songs, generate art, and even mimic creative styles with surprising accuracy. So why are so many artists not impressed, but unsettled?

In this episode, we explore how creators like Hayao Miyazaki and Nick Cave are reacting to AI-generated art. Their concern isn’t about quality. It’s about what’s missing: human experience, struggle, and emotional truth.