Teach, Coach, Mentor
Teach, Coach, Mentor
Podcast Description
Welcome to Teach Coach Mentor, the podcast for anyone who believes learning is a lifelong mission, not a one-time event.
Whether you're a student trying to find your footing, a professional chasing your next edge, or someone who's been called to teach, lead, or guide others, this show was made for you.
Every week, we sit down with exceptional teachers, coaches, mentors, and learners from every walk of life: classroom educators, athletic coaches, business leaders, military instructors, and everyday people doing the hard work of growth. Together, we unpack what it really means to teach with clarity, coach with purpose, and mentor with heart.
If you've ever asked yourself:
How can I learn faster, remember more, and actually apply what I know?
How do I motivate my students or team when the fire fades?
How do I mentor someone without giving all the answers?
What do the best teachers, leaders, and guides do that others don’t?
You're in the right place.
Each episode blends research-backed strategies with real-world stories, because learning isn’t just about knowledge, it’s about people. We go deep on:
Learning science, habits, and memory techniques
Communication and connection
Building trust and accountability
Creating transformative experiences for students and teams
The mindset, methods, and mistakes that shape great educators and leaders
Hosted by Mike Wish, Marine Corps officer, teacher, and founder of Velle Logos. This show is born from a lifelong obsession with helping others grow. Mike brings humor, heart, and a teacher’s clarity to every conversation, challenging guests and listeners alike to dig deeper, think harder, and never stop becoming.
No matter your role, age, or stage, this podcast is here to equip you, challenge you, and inspire you to be better at what matters most: the people you serve.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on themes of lifelong learning, teaching efficacy, coaching strategies, and mentoring dynamics, with episodes covering topics such as learning science, communication methods, building trust in education, and real-world applications of memory techniques and transformative experiences.
Welcome to Teach, Coach, Mentor: the podcast about what it actually takes to reach people.
We sit down with teachers, coaches, and mentors who are doing the work and we dig into their methods. How they teach so it lands. How they coach so it sticks. How they mentor so it matters.
If you care about getting better at developing others — whether that’s in a classroom, on a field, in a workplace, or across a lifetime — this show is for you.
I’m your host, educator and coach, Mike Wish. Let’s get after it.
Summary
In this conversation, Michael Wish interviews Frank Narducci, an award-winning physicist and professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, discussing his approach to teaching advanced physics to military officers. They explore the value of repetition and review in learning, the difference between memorization and true understanding, and why Frank reframes exams as a “Celebration of Knowledge.” Frank also shares how his father and legendary quantum optics researcher Leonard Mandel shaped his career, what the PhD mentor-student relationship really demands, and the one piece of advice every teacher needs to hear.
Takeaways
- Frank Narducci is a recipient of the Richard Hamming Teaching Award at the Naval Postgraduate School.
- Starting each class with a review of prior material is a deliberate and effective teaching strategy.
- Covering less material thoroughly outperforms covering more material quickly.
- Conversational teaching is more effective than traditional lecturing.
- Exams should function as learning experiences, not just measuring sticks.
- Understanding underlying principles matters far more than memorizing formulas.
- Choosing a PhD program is 5% about the school and 95% about the advisor.
- Great mentors ask whether the work is fundamental enough to be worth doing.
- Flexible teaching — pivoting when the moment calls for it — produces deeper learning.
- The best teachers design lessons from the student’s perspective, not their own.
Titles Celebration of Knowledge: Frank Narducci on Award-Winning Teaching Don’t Memorize the Formula: Frank Narducci on Teaching Physics and Mentorship
Chapters
- 00:01 Introduction and the Richard Hamming Teaching Award
- 01:15 The Review-Before-Teaching Method
- 05:53 Conversational Teaching vs. the Lecture Model
- 09:48 Celebration of Knowledge: Rethinking Exams
- 11:00 Memorization vs. Understanding
- 16:49 Teaching, Coaching, and Mentorship in Academia
- 17:29 How to Choose a PhD Advisor
- 20:08 Leonard Mandel and a Father Who Sparked a Career
- 24:36 Research Philosophy: Is It Fundamental Enough?
- 26:49 Advice for Teachers and Mentors
- 31:06 The LIGO Nobel Prize Pivot: Connecting Physics to the Fleet
Keywords quantum physics, physics education, Naval Postgraduate School, NPS, award-winning teaching, teaching strategies, spaced repetition, active learning, exam anxiety, knowledge retention, mentorship in academia, PhD advisor, Leonard Mandel, quantum optics, laser physics, military education, lifelong learning,
Disclaimer
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