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People I (Mostly) Admire

22. Sal Khan: “If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.”

People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.62K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Khan Academy grew out of Sal Khan’s online math tutorials for his extended family. It’s now a platform used by more than 115 million people in 190 countries. So what does Khan want to do next? How about reinventing in-school learning, too? Find out why Steve nearly moved to Silicon Valley to be part of Khan's latest venture. This episode originally aired on April 2nd, 2021.

Transcript

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0:00.0

When Sale Khan started posting a few free instructional videos on YouTube 15 years ago,

0:09.0

I don't think anyone could have imagined what Khan Academy would become.

0:13.0

More than 115 million registered users spread across 190 countries in 46 different languages.

0:20.0

And it's gone way beyond videos.

0:22.6

Now there are over 70,000 practice problems, quizzes, and articles,

0:25.6

even state-of-the-art SAT prep.

0:28.6

All of it available completely free to students and parents.

0:34.6

Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.

0:39.6

I spend much of my time these days working through my center at the University of Chicago to try to change the world for the better.

0:46.3

And I can't tell you how much we've struggled and how little impact we've had relative to what I would have hoped for.

0:52.7

Sal Khan makes it look easy, but in reality it is incredibly hard.

0:56.7

So today, I have two goals.

0:58.7

First, I want to get inside the head of Sal Khan to understand what the special sauce is that has made him so incredibly successful in this area,

1:06.5

so I can do better myself.

1:08.0

Second, although he doesn't advertise it, I have the suspicion that Sal Khan's ambitions go far beyond Khan Academy.

1:15.1

I think he has an even bolder plan in mind,

1:17.5

a complete rethinking of how education works.

1:20.4

I also have radical ideas for the future of education,

1:23.0

and my pipe dream is that our visions might align

1:25.6

and there could be an opportunity for us to work together.

1:28.2

So let's see.

1:42.3

Selcon, what a treat it is to get to talk to you today.

...

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