Podcast - Sal Khan, Founder of Khan Academy

    In WBEZ Chicago, the radio station features a podcast by Art of Power titled "Sal Khan, Founder of Khan Academy." The podcast is a 37-minute interview on Sal Khan, an educator who is well known for his popular website Khan Academy. In the podcast, Khan discusses his life and journey as an educator.

    One of the most interesting things about Khans' interview is when he talks about his upbringing in his life. Khan was born to a southeast Asian family where his dad came to the U.S. to work on his medical residency. Khan was born outside of New Orleans. However, Khan had never met his father. His father had left when he was only 18 months old. Khan was then left with his mother and his mother's siblings. Khan's family was described to live as a "stereotypical" life as the interviewer described. His mother and siblings had businesses and owned stores and recollects a memory where his uncle was shot in the store. Sal seemed to live in a dangerous neighborhood however was not wealthy nor poor. However, it was hard for his mother to take care of Sal Khan and his other siblings. 

    Further on, Khan talks about the origin and beginnings of Khan Academy. After graduating from MIT, Khan furthers his education by getting an MBA degree at Harvard where is then later hired as a hedge fund analyst. However, during his free time he tutors his younger cousin Nadia. He then took advantage of this feature on Yahoo where he could draw on an electronic pad to demonstrate and explain equations to her cousin. He was then suggested that he would put all these videos on YouTube to use as a platform for other people to see. This was a great idea for it helped other children and people who struggled with their education courses. Khan receives great reviews from people he had never met and from people from other countries across the world. 

    What makes this podcast interesting is the result of Khan's life after his upbringing. The interviewer mentions that Khan grew up fatherless and had to live with his single mother and her siblings. Khan was not rich or poor but had experienced the struggles of being in the lower middle class. Khan's family owned businesses and his mother had worked as a cashier while at the same time, had to provide for him and his siblings. However, the opportunities of Khan had allowed him to further his education at MIT and was fortunate enough to earn an MBA at Harvard. However, through all the education and degrees, his free time was spent on tutoring his cousin, which led to tutoring a group of his cousins, then to ultimately being the most well-known tutor worldwide. Khan Academy allowed children to thoroughly understand their lessons and has expanded educational resources and tools for students as well as educators. His story is very inspiring, and I believe that everyone should take the time to listen to this podcast. He has helped me and others around the world to help with our struggles in education.

Sal Khan, Founder Of Khan Academy : NPR One