Radish is built on fifty years of research and one family’s conviction that the conversations between parents and children are more powerful than any content, filter, or restriction. We are pro-childhood, not anti-tech.
Kate Shaw's father, Frank Shaw, created the original Hole in the Fence stories for Health Canada as part of a national anti-drugs programme. Not the kind that used fear, but one built on the radical idea that children make better decisions when they understand why, not just when they are told no. A team of more than 50 researchers, educators, and writers built the programme together. And starting at age 7 was deliberate and, at the time, revolutionary: the belief that you prepare children before the pressure arrives, not after.
Kate Shaw's mother studied the original programme at the University of Kent, researching what made it effective. The answer: not the stories themselves, but the conversations they prompted between children and the adults in their lives.
Kate Shaw and co-founder Alex Stone rebuilt the programme for the defining challenge of modern childhood: growing up online. Alex is Director of Circles Alternative Education and brings two decades of working with young people through technology's impact on their lives. The motivation was personal. When Kate's son was eight, a game ad showed him something no eight-year-old should see. There was no language for it, no prior conversation, nowhere to take it together. Radish is the answer to that moment. The vegetable characters are back. The Let's Talk questions are back. The underlying belief, that conversation is the most powerful tool a family has, has not changed.
Co-founder and lead designer
Kate Shaw is a senior product designer with 20+ years designing consumer mobile and data-heavy systems across health tech, fintech, and digital identity. She built Radish Learning using Claude Code as a design partner, shipping from concept to live product in weeks. She specialises in translating complex information into intuitive experiences and believes good design should be joyful, not anxiety-inducing.
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Co-founder
Alex Stone is Director of Circles Alternative Education, leading three schools across eastern England for excluded children. He has spent his career in education and social development, working directly with young people navigating the impact of technology on their lives. He co-founded Radish with Kate because he believes digital literacy should start early, and that children deserve honest, joyful conversations about going online.
LinkedInEvery product we build is designed to start a conversation between a parent and their child. None of them survey, restrict, or replace. They open a door.