Self Directed

By Cecilie & Jesper ConradSociety & Culture Education Self-Improvement Personal Journals Parenting Kids & Family

Self Directed episodes

January 20Hannah Beach | The Importance of True Play in Children’s Development
Hannah Beach explains why true play and “void moments” are essential for healthy child development. She describes void moments as unstructured, unstimulated time where children are not directed, entertained, or managed, and shows how these moments allow children to process experience, develop identity, regulate emotions, and build resilience.
Hannah is an award-winning educator, author, and emotional health consultant with more than 25 years of experience developing play-based and relationship-centered programs for children, families, and schools. She is co-author of Reclaiming Our Students and works internationally with educators, school systems, and organizations to support children’s emotional well-being through play, attachment, and community.
🗓️ Recorded December 15, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://hannahbeach.ca
https://www.instagram.com/hannahbeachedu
https://www.facebook.com/hannahbeachedu
https://www.youtube.com/@hannahbeachedu
https://x.com/HannahBeachEDU
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-beach-edu
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Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
1 hr 3 min
January 04Jeppe Trolle Linnet | Men, Vulnerability, and Masculinity in Transition
Anthropologist Jeppe Trolle Linnet explains how men’s fear of vulnerability is shaped by dominance, shame, and competition, drawing on years of work with men’s groups and recent field research in Greenland. He describes why men struggle to share pain, how loneliness and divorce intensify isolation, and how fatherhood, emotional listening, and community spaces offer alternative models of masculinity grounded in trust rather than control.
🗓️ Recorded December 8, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeppelinnet
Jeppes personal Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067588879414
🔗 DareGender
https://www.daregender.dk/
https://www.facebook.com/DareGender
https://www.instagram.com/daregender/
https://x.com/daregender
https://www.linkedin.com/company/daregender/
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
52 min
December 21, 2025Victoria Lenormand | From Detective To Unschooling Advocate
Ex-detective turned homeschooler Victoria Lenormand describes leaving a policing career as it shifted from service to force and recognizing the same pattern in her son’s early schooling. In this conversation, she explains how grading, labels, and constant assessment eroded confidence, and how home education replaced pressure with agency, learning by doing, and community built through shared interests rather than age-based classrooms.
🗓️ Recorded December 8, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://geminidirections.co.uk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-lenormand-2129227b/
https://www.instagram.com/geminidirections.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/geminidirections
https://amzn.eu/d/dZz1BqH
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
53 min
December 14, 2025Nicklas Bergman | How to Stay Sceptical in an Algorithmic World
Nicklas Bergman is a deep-tech investor and technology explorer who focuses on how new tools shape everyday life rather than predicting distant futures. The episode examines AI, social media, and regulation through concrete examples from work, education, family life, and investing, with an emphasis on curiosity, skepticism, and personal judgment.
🗓️ Recorded November 19, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://www.nicklasbergman.com
https://ncklsbrgmn.substack.com
https://se.linkedin.com/in/nicklasbergman
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
1 hr 6 min
November 27, 2025Susan Yao | From Teacher to Unschooler
Susan Yao is an educator, school founder, and advocate of self-directed learning. She previously served as Middle School Head at Friends Academy in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, following more than a decade of teaching. She co-founded the Vermont Village School, a community-based microschool emphasising student-led learning, autonomy, and community engagement.
The episode connects her parents’ years in China’s school closures with her own path through American schooling and into the early stages of unschooling. The conversation outlines her family’s approach to dyslexia, late reading, and open learning rhythms.
🗓️ Recorded November 6, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://susyao.substack.com/
https://www.vermontvillageschool.org/
https://www.lionsroar.com/author/susan-yao/
The Math Myth by Andrew Hacker: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620970686/
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
45 min
November 09, 2025Missy Willis | From Unschooling To Exams
What happens when unschooled teens meet college systems, exams, and external expectations? Jesper and Cecilie Conrad speak with Missy Willis about how adolescents raised with freedom step into formal learning without losing curiosity or confidence. The conversation follows family transitions, changing homes, and the moment when rigor and motivation finally align.
🗓️ Recorded November 4, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://letemgobarefoot.substack.com
https://letemgobarefoot.com
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
1 hr 1 min
October 25, 2025Kate McAllister | Nervous System Regulation: From Reaction to Response
Kate McAllister describes how nervous system regulation shifts behavior from reaction to response. The conversation maps how stress patterns shape daily life, from parenting and school to refugee camps and co-regulation through rhythm and presence. Breath, movement, and sensory grounding become practical tools for returning the thinking brain online when fight, flight, or freeze take over.
🗓️ Recorded October 23, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://www.thehiveadventure.com
https://www.facebook.com/thehiveadventure
https://www.instagram.com/thehiveadventure
https://www.tiktok.com/@thehiveadventure
https://www.youtube.com/@thehiveadventure
https://www.linkedin.com/in/misskatemcallister
🔗 Books mentioned in this episode
Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté
https://www.amazon.com/Hold-Your-Kids-Parents-Matter-ebook/dp/B001LOEFZU
The Chimp Paradox: The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme for Confidence, Success and Happines by Steve Peters
https://www.amazon.com/Chimp-Paradox-Acclaimed-Management-Confidence-ebook/dp/B006K26BEQ
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
54 min
October 17, 2025Summer Jean | Unschooling - Living Without the Need to Prove Yourself
Summer Jean describes how growing up unschooled shaped her ideas of work, freedom, and value. She explains how her mother’s focus on connection over control helped her develop confidence in her own sense of rightness. The episode contrasts inner conviction with productivity as a measure of worth.
🗓️ Recorded October 16, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://www.facebook.com/mermaidartglass/
https://www.instagram.com/summerisafairy/
https://www.instagram.com/andanzasanpancho/
https://www.instagram.com/mermaidartglass/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/mermaidartglass
🔗 Books by John Taylor Gatto
https://www.amazon.com/Dumbing-Down-Curriculum-Compulsory-Schooling-ebook/dp/B072F9VRZP
https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Mass-Instruction-Schoolteachers-Compulsory-ebook/dp/B0097DE6XI
https://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education-Investigation/dp/0998919101/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
1 hr 13 min
October 09, 2025Timmy Eaton | Choosing a Life with Golden Hours
Cecilie and Jesper Conrad describe how illness, travel, and questioning convention led their family from a more or less traditional path in Denmark—through a Freinet-inspired free school—to a fully unschooled, nomadic life. They explain how unschooling developed through practical choices, legal frameworks, and value-based reflection rather than ideology.
🗓️ Recorded September 20, 2025. 📍 Åmarken, Solrød, Denmark
🔗 Relevant links
https://www.thisgoldenhour.org/podcast
https://www.instagram.com/this.goldenhour
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Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
1 hr 8 min
October 05, 2025Lise Damkjær | Life Is Easy—When We Allow It to Be
Co-creation unfolds when control gives way to trust. Life Is Easy grew from a shared intention among ten people who wrote together without plans or deadlines. The process reveals how purpose and openness can replace pressure, turning collaboration into a form of ease.
🗓️ Recorded September 30, 2025. 📍 Tarragona, Spain
🔗 Relevant links
https://learning4life.dk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lise-damkjær/
Send a message

Support the show
SUPPORT & CONNECT
Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
58 min

About Self Directed

From the publisher's feed

Self Directed - A guest based podcast on Life, Learning, and Raising Free Thinkers. Hosted by Cecilie and Jesper Conrad, full-time travellers since 2018 and parents to four.