# Ep 199: Voices of Student Success: Why Are Students Opening Up to AI Instead of People?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-key-with-inside-higher-ed-1232013/ep-199-voices-of-student-success-why-are-students-opening-up-to-ai-instead-of-people
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-key-with-inside-higher-ed-1232013/ep-199-voices-of-student-success-why-are-students-opening-up-to-ai-instead-of-people.md
Podcast: [The Key with Inside Higher Ed](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-key-with-inside-higher-ed-1232013)
Published: 2026-05-21T06:50:00+00:00
Episode link: https://insidehighered.podbean.com/e/ep-199-voices-of-student-success-why-are-students-opening-up-to-ai-instead-of-people/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/pws2unsxwip2zxuk/riverside_voices_of_student_success_joshua_x_alison_lee_inside_higher_ed_ed6lz4t.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-key-with-inside-higher-ed-1232013/episodes/ep-199-voices-of-student-success-why-are-students-opening-up-to-ai-instead-of-people
Duration seconds: 2470

## Resource

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Alison Lee, chief research and development officer of The Rithm Project, joins IHE’s student success reporter, Joshua Bay. As colleges struggle to meet growing mental health needs, they explore how more young people are opening up to chatbots and conversational AI tools for comfort, advice and connection. They also examine where AI may genuinely help students, where the ethical and emotional risks emerge, and what institutions may still not fully understand about why students are turning to these tools in the first place.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-key-with-inside-higher-ed-1232013/episodes/ep-199-voices-of-student-success-why-are-students-opening-up-to-ai-instead-of-people/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-key-with-inside-higher-ed-1232013/ep-199-voices-of-student-success-why-are-students-opening-up-to-ai-instead-of-people.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.