BaseCamp Live

Remember when your child loved school? They were excited to learn, happy to see their friends, and maybe even proud to wear that school uniform. Then middle school arrived, and suddenly everything changed.

The homework is too hard. The rules are too strict. Other schools seem so much easier. And now your once-happy student is begging to leave.

What happened? Is something wrong with the school? Are we pushing our children too hard? Or is this a normal part of growing up?

In this episode of BaseCamp Live, Davies Owens welcomes back counselor and Live Sturdy founder Keith McCurdy to answer a question submitted by a classical Christian school parent. Together, they explore why adolescence can bring unexpected frustration with school, how parents can respond without abandoning their authority, and why perseverance matters during these challenging years.

Keith shares practical advice for listening to teenagers, acknowledging their concerns without immediately trying to fix everything, and working with schools when problems arise. Davies also raises an important question for classical Christian educators: Are we helping students understand why their education is different and what it's preparing them to become?

Whether your child is entering middle school, struggling through the teenage years, or beginning to question the value of classical education, this conversation offers encouragement, perspective, and practical wisdom for the journey ahead.

Have a question you'd like Davies and Keith to explore in a future episode? Email [email protected].

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Worldview Institute
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 comes after high school? For many families, college seems like the natural next step. But what if a young adult isn't quite sure where God is calling them?

Sarah Northup, co-founder and Executive Director of Worldview Institute, joins Davies Owens to explore how families can approach this important transition with greater intentionality. From the rising cost of college to the value of apprenticeships and mentorship, Sarah shares why preparing young adults for life requires more than choosing a degree or career.

Discover how Christian formation, meaningful work, and a focus on the head, heart, and hands can help the next generation discern their calling and move forward with confidence and purpose.

• Rethinking the assumption that college is the only next step
• The financial and practical considerations surrounding higher education
• Continuing Christian formation beyond high school
• Apprenticeships, entrepreneurship, and meaningful work
• Why employers value communication, responsibility, and adaptability
• Helping young adults discover their gifts and calling
• Practical questions families can ask before choosing a college or career path

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Worldview Institute
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.

We send the emails. We share the updates. We tell our children what we expect. So why do our messages still get lost?

Communication is about more than delivering information. It's about building trust, strengthening relationships, and making sure the people who matter most feel heard and valued.

In this episode of BaseCamp Live, Davies Owens welcomes back longtime friend, educator, and author Scott Barron to discuss his new book, The Book on Communication: Featuring the Laws of the Grapevine.

Drawing on decades of leadership experience, Scott shares a memorable story about a school communication breakdown that inspired his approach to understanding how information travels and why the order, timing, and manner of our communication matter.

Together, Davies and Scott explore six laws of effective communication, the importance of listening, and the balance between warmth and competence. They also discuss practical ways parents can strengthen conversations with their children, particularly as those children grow older and begin asking more questions about the reasons behind family decisions.

Whether you're leading a school, teaching in a classroom, or navigating everyday family life, this conversation offers encouragement and practical wisdom for becoming a more thoughtful communicator.

Learn more about Scott's book and resources:
https://thebookoncommunication.com

Special Thanks to our partners who make BaseCamp Live possible:

Worldview Institute
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.

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.