{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Make It Mindful: An Education Podcast","title":"#85 The Biology of Trust with Dr. Katherine M. Heavers","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2765,"description":"In this episode of Make It Mindful, Seth talks with Dr. Katherine M. Heavers — a high school biology teacher, evolutionary biologist, and co-author of Transforming Teaching Through Relationship-Building and Self-Reflection: Finding Our Way In — about what it actually takes to build authentic relationships in a classroom. Heavers draws on her doctoral theory of the \"telling break\" and 12 years of research conducted while teaching full-time to argue that the relational work great teachers do is learnable by anyone.\nTogether, Seth and Kate explore the biology of trust — why authenticity isn't soft or sentimental, but a survival mechanism the mammalian brain has been running for 200,000 years. They talk through Kate's theory of the telling break, the moment a teacher's personal disclosure cracks open a shared space of curiosity in the room, and why that moment is at the center of learning rather than on its margins. Kate makes the case that vulnerability, emotional safety, honest feedback, and the willingness to name your own failures in front of students are all trainable skills — not personality traits — and that any teacher can be brought to them given the right conditions and inner work. The conversation ends with a genuine surprise: after three and a half years of exploring AI tools, Kate recently deleted her ChatGPT account because her teenage niece's ethics teacher changed her mind.\nKey topics:\nThe telling break — what happens when a teacher steps out of instruction and becomes a person in the room\nTeaching as a learnable craft vs. an innate gift\nThe biology of trust and why authenticity is an evolutionary strategy\nEmotional safety and productive struggle — how to hold both at once\nSelf-reflection and inner work as professional practice, not personal disclosure\nConfronting bias as an ongoing relational obligation\nAI, cognitive offloading, and what we give up when we stop thinking for ourselves\nLinks & Resources:\nTransforming Teaching Through...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/aX0c3Zcu_BWgnhhPpU7UI3YNLxRjFjQabj8M1H8irwE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hZjhi/ZWY0ZTA5YTUxYjE1/YTlmY2NlYTQ3NDkz/ZDZlYS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}