
Self Directed
Self Directed - A Podcast on Life, Learning, and Raising Free Thinkers. Hosts Cecilie and Jesper Conrad, full-time travellers since 2018 and parents of four, invite a new guest on the podcast every Thursday.
Episodes
142 episodes
Amanda Ashworth | Building Community: Creating a Worldschooling Hub in Goa
Amanda Ashworth shares how reading The Four Hour Workweek led her to question conventional success, homeschool her children, and eventually create the World Schooling Hub in Goa. She explains discovering her son’s hidden learning needs...
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Season 1
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Episode 137
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47:22

Leah McDermott of Your Natural Learner | Why I Chose Unschooling
What happens when a kindergarten teacher moves to teaching fifth grade and discovers that in just five years, the educational system has extinguished the light in children’s eyes? For Leah McDermott, this stark realization sparked a journey fro...
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Season 1
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Episode 136
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57:33

Blake Boles | Escaping Routine: Deep Conversation and wanting a Galactic Commune
Blake Boles joins us to talk about his recent editorial, "I Don't Want a Nuclear Family, I Want a Galactic Commune - on the pursuit of quality conversation", which is about the decline of quality conversation and his resistance to the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 135
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58:43

Chris Balme | Challenge Accepted: Turning Adolescence into Adventure Chris Balme
Adolescence is often seen as something to endure — awkward years full of turbulence and struggle. But what if these years could be a time of discovery, adventure, and growth?In this episode, Jesper and Cecilie Conrad talk with Chris B...
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Season 1
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Episode 134
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47:21

Sarah van Gelder | The Revolution Where You Live - Rebuilding Community in an Isolated World
How can we recover the essential human connections that make life meaningful and sustainable? How can we create a world where neighbors know each other's names, children play freely outdoors, and no parent faces the overwhelming challenges of r...
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Season 1
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Episode 133
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50:39

Hidden Voices Speak: An Anthology of Home Educated Voices
In this episode, we talk with Ben Feliz (14) and Addison Harding (13), home-educated children and contributors to the anthology “Hidden Voices Speak.” Addison came up with the idea for the book, Ben designed the cover, and they worked together ...
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Season 1
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Episode 132
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41:56

Unschooling and Worldschooling Has Changed Us | The Conrads in dialogue with Heidi & Andrew Schrum
We sit down with Andrew and Heidi Schrum, just three weeks away from starting their life as a full-time nomadic worldschooling family. They ask us direct questions about our seven years of unschooling and worldschooling.We discuss how th...
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Season 1
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Episode 131
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1:17:02

Navigating Unschooling and Nomadic Life | The Conrads in dialogue with Heidi & Andrew Schrum
We sit down with Heidi and Andrew Schrum, who are about to leave home and begin travelling full-time with their two young children. They ask us what we wish we’d known at the beginning, and we talk through everything from reluctant...
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Season 1
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Episode 130
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53:08

Charles Eisenstein | Are We Meant to Live Like This? The Price of “Normal” Modern Life
Charles Eisenstein is an author and speaker whose books and essays explore themes of community, human connection, economics, and social change. He is known for works such as The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.<...
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Season 1
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Episode 129
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51:17

Jamie Rumble | Beyond the Classroom: Learning Emerges When We Stop Teaching and Start Living
What if our traditional education system is fundamentally misaligned with how humans naturally learn? Jesper and Cecilie Conrad continue their conversation with Jamie Rumble, exploring the philosophy and practice of unschooling within a nomadic...
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Season 1
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Episode 128
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1:21:58

Why We Chose Nomadic Freedom for Our Family | The Conrads & Jamie Rumble
We got an email from Jamie Rumble... "I’m a Master of Education student at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, Canada. For my thesis, I’m researching how digital nomads are adapting their lifestyles in response to climate change, and what ...
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Season 1
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Episode 127
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1:24:25

Vanessa Woozley | Single Mom, Van Life, and Worldschooling
What happens when a single mom chooses to reject conventional norms, embraces van life, and takes her daughter out of traditional education? Vanessa Woozley joins us to share her inspiring story of courage, resilience, and transformation.
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Season 1
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Episode 126
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57:53

Jack Stewart | What I Learned When I Turned Off the Internet: Real Life Begins
When Jack Stewart turned off the internet, he discovered that digital connection often acts as a “social appetite suppressant”—satisfying on the surface, but not deeply nourishing. In this conversation, Jack explains how removing online distrac...
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Season 1
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Episode 125
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54:30

Jennie Germann Molz | The World Is Our Classroom: Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling
Sociologist Jennie Germann Molz joins the podcast to discuss her book The World Is Our Classroom: Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling. Jennie is a professor at the College of the Holy Cross whose research explores mobility...
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Season 1
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Episode 124
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52:34

Corianda Shepherd | Creating a Worldschooling Community in Spain
After her eight-year-old son was expelled from school in the UK, Corianda Shepherd and her partner Joel left behind a life that no longer worked. They moved to rural Spain, bought the first house they saw, and slowly built Shepherd’s Rest—a wor...
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Season 1
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Episode 123
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1:04:53

Kute Blackson | The Magic of Surrender: Ego, Intuition, and the Power of Trust
What if the real magic happens not when you push harder, but when you let go? We explore surrender as a powerful, often misunderstood key to living a fuller life.Kute Blackson is a transformational teacher and bestselling author of The M...
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Season 1
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Episode 122
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58:33
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Lenore Skenazy | Free Play: The Lost Key to Childhood Development
In this episode, we explore how modern culture has stripped childhood of the freedom it needs to thrive—and what can be done to bring it back. Our guest is Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids and co-founder of the nonprofit Let G...
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Season 1
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Episode 121
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37:12

Anna Vestlev Sandfeld | Why We Choose Unschooling
What happens when your child simply won't fit inside society's educational box? When Anna Vestlev Sandfeld realized her son didn’t fit into the structure of kindergarten—and likely never would fit into traditional school—she and her...
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Season 1
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Episode 120
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49:50

Amir Nathoo | Outschool: Passion, Not Curriculum, Is the Future of Education
Outschool founder Amir Nathoo explains why education built on passion—not curriculum—may be the only way to truly prepare kids for a rapidly changing world. We talk about his shift from traditional schooling in the UK to building Outschool, how...
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Season 1
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Episode 119
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28:15

David Cole | Questioning Normal – Our Offbeat Life as a Full-Time Traveling Family
Ever wondered what life could look like if you broke free from the conventional 9-5?David Cole and his family sold their home in Chicago in 2019 and haven’t stopped moving since. Cecilie and Jesper talk with him about how they made the s...
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Season 1
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Episode 118
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41:05

Dr. Cam Caswell | Why Control Fails and Connection Works with Teens
Dr. Cam joins us to discuss parenting teenagers and why efforts to control them often create more distance. She explains how control can undermine trust and why focusing on connection leads to better results.We discuss the difference bet...
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Season 1
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Episode 117
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49:29

Jacob Nordby | Rethinking Freedom: Purpose, Ritual, and the Value of Being
In this conversation with author and speaker Jacob Nordby, we explore the paradox of freedom in modern life. Is it simply doing whatever we want—or does real freedom require something deeper?While many consider freedom to be about...
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Season 1
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Episode 116
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1:15:08

Yasmin & Andy | Beyond Boundaries: One Family's Journey from England to Jungle Living in Belize
Yasmin and Andy left a comfortable life in the UK to join a small off-grid community in the jungles of Belize.Fifteen years after cycling through Central America, Yasmin and Andy returned—this time with three kids and a desire for a diff...
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Season 1
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Episode 115
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57:56

Amanda Diekman | Radical Acceptance and Low Demand Parenting
In this episode, we speak with Amanda Diekman about how her parenting changed when her six-year-old son went into autistic burnout. He lost verbal communication, stopped eating most foods, and couldn't follow basic routines. Faced with a crisis...
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Season 1
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Episode 114
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50:18

Luz Olid and David Caballero | Education Evolution: Beyond Traditional Schooling
Luz and David from Evolving Education left careers in biotechnology to explore and document alternative education models worldwide. Frustrated by rigid schooling systems, they traveled to over 170 learning centers to understand how children lea...
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Season 1
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Episode 113
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51:13
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