BaseCamp Live

AI can write essays, solve problems, and produce polished work in seconds. But does that mean our children no longer need to learn how to do those things themselves?

Andrew Pudewa, founder of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, joins Davies Owens to explore a question that goes far beyond classroom technology: What is education actually for?

Together, they discuss how learning shapes our capacity for attention, memory, perseverance, and wisdom. Andrew explains why the process of doing difficult things matters, how music and meaningful responsibility help form character, and why children need opportunities to engage deeply with the real world.

Rather than rejecting technology altogether, this conversation invites parents and educators to consider how we can use modern tools without surrendering the experiences that help children become fully human.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Worldview Institute
Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
ZipCast
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

What if some of the things we’ve accepted as normal for childhood aren’t actually healthy?

Children and teenagers now spend hours each day on devices, carry the internet in their pockets, and increasingly experience friendship, entertainment, and even education through technology. But as Emily Harrison explains, there is an important difference between what is common and what is actually good for children. 

Emily returns to BaseCamp Live as a wave of lawsuits against major technology and social media companies begins bringing years of internal research and concerns into the courtroom. She and Davies explore what these cases are revealing about addictive design, why simply limiting screen time may not address the deeper problem, and why parents should be cautious about assuming that a product is safe simply because it is widely available. 

But this conversation isn't ultimately about Silicon Valley or courtrooms. It's about the children in our homes and schools right now.
Emily offers practical ways families can introduce technology gradually, create healthy boundaries around phones and social media, and give children increasing freedom without handing them unlimited access. She also shares how schools can rethink responsible technology use and create communities where choosing a different path doesn't have to mean standing alone.

The goal isn't to fear technology. It's to recover a vision of childhood shaped by wisdom, relationship, responsibility, and the freedom to grow up without every part of life being mediated through a screen.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Worldview Institute
Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
ZipCast
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

When parents hear that they are the primary educators of their children, it can sound like one more responsibility to carry.

But what if it’s actually good news?

In this episode of BaseCamp Live, Davies Owens sits down with Classical Conversations founder Leigh Bortins to rethink what education looks like in the life of a family. Leigh encourages parents to slow down and recognize the formative power of things they may already be doing: reading together, talking around the dinner table, asking questions, telling stories, spending time with good friends, and simply sharing everyday life.

They also discuss why parents need community and mentors rather than more information, how the habits formed in childhood shape lifelong learners, and why classical education may be particularly valuable in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.

Leigh offers an important reminder for parents who wonder whether they are qualified or doing enough: education doesn’t begin when a lesson starts. Formation is happening all the time.

You may already be teaching far more than you think.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Worldview Institute
Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
ZipCast
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

What if becoming better educated isn’t always about learning more, but about unlearning some of what we already believe?

Most parents today did not grow up with classical Christian education. We bring our own experiences of school with us, along with assumptions about grades, success, learning, authority, and what education is supposed to accomplish. Often, we don’t even realize those assumptions are there.

In this episode of BaseCamp Live, Davies Owens talks with educator, author, and consultant Christine Norvell about the surprising importance of unlearning. Drawing on more than 25 years in classical, homeschool, and public education, Christine explores how parents and teachers can recognize inherited habits of thought and begin replacing them with something deeper and more intentional.

Along the way, Mark Twain raises the uncomfortable question of where our opinions actually come from, while C.S. Lewis and his famously demanding tutor, “the Great Knock,” offer a picture of what it looks like to have our thinking challenged and rebuilt. 

The conversation also gets intensely practical. What happens when students are given time to think before answering? How can parents respond to an argumentative child without simply shutting down the conversation? And how do we help young people move beyond reacting with opinions toward thoughtful discernment?

Join us as we discuss moving forward in education while recognizing what we need to leave behind.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
ZipCast
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

Four hundred episodes. Nearly ten years. And a world that looks very different from the one in which BaseCamp Live began.

For this milestone episode, Davies Owens steps to the other side of the microphone as his daughter, Hannah Brusven, takes over as host. Together they look back at the unlikely beginnings of BaseCamp Live, from early recordings with a makeshift microphone to hundreds of conversations with educators, authors, parents, and thought leaders.

But this episode is about more than looking backward.

Davies and Hannah explore how parenting and education have changed over the past decade, including the growing pressure parents feel, the loss of generational wisdom, the flood of information and technology, and a renewed hunger for real community and embodied life. Davies reflects on the conversations that have shaped his own understanding of education and why he has come to see the formation of the next generation as some of the most consequential work we can do.

There is a fitting generational story here, too. Hannah was a senior in high school when BaseCamp Live began. Today, as she prepares to become a mother herself, she is part of the very generation BaseCamp Live hopes to equip for what comes next.

Along the way, they talk about memorable guests, recording mishaps, the relationship between BaseCamp Live and ZipCast, the importance of trusted partners, and the vision for the next decade.

Whether you have listened since the beginning or this is your first episode around the BaseCamp fire, episode 400 is both a celebration and an invitation: keep learning, keep building community, and keep showing up for the work of raising the next generation.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless
ZipCast

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

Music is everywhere. We stream it in our cars, hear it in stores, and carry thousands of songs in our pockets. But in gaining nearly unlimited access to music, have we lost sight of what music is actually for?

Dr. Eliot Grasso, musician, scholar, educator, and one of America's leading performers of the Irish uilleann pipes, returns to BaseCamp Live for a fascinating conversation about music's place in human formation and classical Christian education.

Eliot challenges the modern idea that music is primarily something we consume. For most of human history, music was something people made together. It required attention, discipline, participation, listening, and community. And those practices helped form not simply better musicians, but human beings.

Davies and Eliot explore why great music may not immediately appeal to our modern tastes, what Eliot means when he calls music "sonic architecture," and why learning to listen well matters far beyond the concert hall. They also offer practical ways parents and schools can cultivate a richer musical life, even if the adults themselves didn't grow up appreciating classical music.

And this conversation doesn't just talk about music. Eliot brings along his uilleann pipes and gives listeners a chance to hear this remarkable Irish musical tradition firsthand.

Whether you're a musician or can't remember the last time you touched an instrument, this episode offers a compelling invitation to rediscover music as a gift that can help form attention, affection, discipline, beauty, and community.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless
ZipCast

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

Every story is shaping us.

Movies, television, books, music, and digital media do more than entertain. They work on our imaginations, stir our affections, and quietly influence what we love, admire, fear, and desire. So how can Christian parents help their children engage culture thoughtfully without falling into either fearful rejection or uncritical consumption?

Brett McCracken, author and senior editor and director of communications at The Gospel Coalition, joins Davies Owens to explore what wise media consumption looks like for Christian families. Brett shares how his own love of both the church and the arts led him to spend decades thinking about Christianity and culture, and why discernment requires going deeper than simply checking a movie rating or counting objectionable content.

Together, Brett and Davies discuss how stories form us, why even seemingly wholesome entertainment can communicate unhealthy ideas, the value of watching media in community, and practical questions parents can use to spark meaningful conversations with their children. They also use Project Hail Mary as a fascinating example of how Christians can identify themes of grace, sacrifice, virtue, and truth in a story that isn't explicitly Christian.

The goal isn't to consume everything, nor is it to retreat from culture. It's to become people capable of recognizing what is true, beautiful, and good while also knowing when something simply isn't worth our attention.

If you're raising children in a world overflowing with stories and screens, this conversation offers a thoughtful framework for helping them become wise viewers rather than passive consumers.

Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless
ZipCast

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

Classical Christian education often talks about forming students to love what is true, good, and beautiful. But how does that formation actually happen?

In this episode of BaseCamp Live, Davies Owens is joined by author, educator, and podcaster Heidi White to explore the formative power of stories. Heidi shares how literature shaped her own life and explains why great books do far more than communicate ideas or teach moral lessons. They awaken desire, give children models worthy of imitation, and help them wrestle with some of the deepest questions of what it means to be human.

Drawing from her book The Divided Soul: Duty and Desire in Literature and Life, Heidi explores the tension between what we want and what we know we ought to do, and how that struggle appears again and again in great literature, Scripture, and our own lives.

Davies and Heidi also get practical about reading with children. How much should parents explain? Should we protect children from darker moments in stories? And how can we ask questions that invite genuine thought rather than turning every book into another moral lesson?

This conversation is an invitation to see education differently: not simply as the transfer of information, but as the formation of loves, desires, imagination, and ultimately, the human soul.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless
ZipCast

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

Modern education often trains students to absorb information, reproduce it on a test, and move on. But is that really learning?

In this episode of BaseCamp Live, Davies Owens talks with Charley Dewberry, co-founder, Academic Dean, and tutor at Gutenberg College, about what it means to teach students to truly think. Drawing from his unusual journey through science, philosophy, biblical studies, and education, Charley challenges the idea that knowledge is simply a collection of facts. Instead, he argues that education should develop the skills students need to perceive carefully, read deeply, communicate well, and pursue truth with humility.

Charley explains why we tend to see what we expect to see, how our assumptions shape our understanding, and why encountering people and ideas that challenge us can be essential to genuine learning. He also discusses authorial intent, Great Books, the developmental stages of education, and why younger students need opportunities for curiosity, discovery, and experience before they are ready to wrestle with increasingly complex ideas.

The conversation also turns practical. What can parents and teachers do right now? Charley encourages adults to model a love of learning themselves, create room for discovery, listen seriously to those who think differently, and protect time for the kinds of conversations that technology increasingly pushes aside.

In an age when information and instant answers are everywhere, this conversation is a reminder that education is about something much deeper: forming people who know how to think, listen, learn, and seek what is true.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless
ZipCast

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.

Young people today are surrounded by voices telling them to discover their own truth, define their own identity, and create their own purpose. But what happens when the foundation underneath those ideas keeps shifting?

In this episode of BaseCamp Live, Davies Owens sits down with Joshua Weir, author of In Not Of: Firm Foundations for Life, to explore what it takes to raise a generation grounded in a biblical worldview.

Joshua explains why the increasing individualism of our culture can leave young people searching for identity, truth, and belonging, and why Christian formation requires more than simply protecting children from competing ideas. Parents and educators must help students understand the world as it truly is, reason from biblical truth, and recognize the communities and influences that are shaping them.

The conversation also gets practical. Joshua discusses why parents need to model the convictions they hope to pass on, why "because I said so" may not prepare older children to navigate competing worldviews, and how intentional conversations around the dinner table can help children develop the reasoning they will need when parents and teachers aren't there.

For educators, Joshua emphasizes the extraordinary opportunity of the classroom. Great Christian education isn't merely about transferring information or attaching Bible verses to a lesson. It's about helping students see truth woven throughout history, literature, art, relationships, and the whole of life.

In a culture of shifting identities and competing truths, how can we give the next generation something solid enough to stand on? This conversation offers encouragement and practical wisdom for parents and educators committed to building firm foundations that will last.

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Wisdom and Eloquence
The Herzog Foundation
Life Architects
Wisephone by Techless
ZipCast

Stay tuned for more enlightening discussions on classical Christian education, and join us next time on BaseCamp Live! Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and reach out to us at [email protected]

Don't forget to visit basecamplive.com for more info and past episodes.