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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 nuclear family model. 

We discuss the difference between daily logistics and real dialogue, why travel often brings deeper connections, and how temporary communities can support richer conversations. Blake shares ideas like hosting travelers, playing structured games like Hot Seat, and treating every interaction as a chance to learn something new.

Listen to our first episode together with Blake Boles | Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids To School? : https://www.theconrad.family/selfdirected48

🗓️ Recorded August 26th, 2025. 📍 Åmarken, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

🔗  Relevant links

• Website: https://www.blakeboles.com/
• Blake on Substack: https://letters.blakeboles.com/ 
• Podcast: https://www.blakeboles.com/dbr/ 
• Website: https://www.unschooladventures.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blaketotheboles/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unschooladventures/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unschool.adventures
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blake.boles

Books by Blake Boles

• Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?: https://amzn.to/3RCDi20
• The Art of Self-Directed Learning: https://amzn.to/3GEXpXe
• Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree: https://amzn.to/3RCiwzx
• College Without High School: A Teenager’s Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College: https://amzn.to/3RkZlc2

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PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/theconradfamily

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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 Balme on the launch day of his new book, Challenge Accepted: 50 Adventures to Make Middle School Awesome. We were introduced to Chris by our friend and former guest, Blake Boles, and quickly said yes to the conversation.

Chris shares why adolescence is one of the most powerful stages of development — with a brain growing faster than at any other time, and social awareness reaching new heights — yet why conventional schooling so often gets in the way. Drawing on twelve years of research with adolescents worldwide, he shows how adventures like starting a business, creating guerrilla art, or camping solo can help young people step into their capabilities and keep their curiosity alive.

Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, praises the book:

“Buy this book for every middle schooler, or about-to-be middle schooler you know. It just might provide the spark that turns what can be difficult years into years of awesome adventure and growth.”

We also explore Chris’s own path from unhappy student to educational innovator — founding a lab school and creating an apprenticeship program that connected more than 17,000 young people with real-world mentors (including one who learned to fly a plane at twelve!).

🔗  Relevant links

• https://www.chrisbalme.com/ 
• https://www.instagram.com/chrisbalme 
• https://www.facebook.com/ChrisBalme/ 
• https://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Accepted-Adventures-Middle-Awesome/dp/B0FJ2R8DY8 

Books mentioned in the podcast

• Baol by Stefano Benni
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Humans by Matt Haig

🗓️ Recorded August 15th, 2025. 📍 Lindale, Grange-over-Sands, UK

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PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Theconradfamily
Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
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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 raising children alone? 

Sarah van Gelder, founder of YES Magazine and author of "The Revolution Where You Live," joins us to explore the troubling fragmentation of our social structures and the promising alternatives emerging in response. A growing number of Danish households are single-person dwellings, and approximately 95% of Danish children attend daycare. There is a global trend toward smaller household units and increasing isolation that contributes to what the U.S. Surgeon General has called a mental health crisis of loneliness.

Drawing from her experience raising children in a co-housing community and her 12,000-mile journey exploring grassroots solutions across America, Sarah van Gelder shares examples of how intentional communities create joy, support, and meaning. From worker-owned cooperatives transforming economic power dynamics to neighbourhood initiatives that rebuild social connections, these stories challenge the dominant narrative that privacy and independence should be our highest priorities.

The conversation delves into the cultural forces driving our disconnection—media that emphasizes danger over cooperation, economic pressures that separate families, and the glorification of individualism that leaves people feeling they must solve all problems alone. 

The path toward more connected living doesn't necessarily require radical lifestyle changes—simple actions like organizing neighborhood gatherings or creating mutual aid networks can begin to rebuild our social fabric. 

🔗  Relevant links

• https://substack.com/@howwerise 
• https://www.facebook.com/Sarah.van.Gelder/ 
• https://www.yesmagazine.org/ 
• https://www.instagram.com/sarahrvangelder/ 
• https://x.com/sarahvangelder
• https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sarah-van-Gelder/author/B006ASKW2M 

🗓️ Recorded August 6th, 2025. 📍 The Addisons, Whityham, UK

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PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Theconradfamily
Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theconradfamily

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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 with others to publish it. Both care deeply about children’s rights and wanted to respond to recent news stories and new UK legislation affecting home education.

They discuss the motivation behind the anthology, which was to give home-educated children and families a chance to share their experiences directly. Addison notes, "Nowhere in the bill do they ask what the child thinks," highlighting the lack of young voices in education policy discussions.

Ben has always been home educated; Addison has experience in both school and home education. They describe learning based on curiosity and individual interests. The book includes contributions from both children and adults. This conversation provides a direct account of home education from young people who live it every day.

🔗  Relevant links

• Buy the book and support Ben and Addison: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-Voices-Speak-Anthology-Educated/dp/B0F3DP9KQZ 
• X.com page for the book: https://x.com/hidvoicesspeak 
• Learn more about the Homeducation Family Festival where Ben and Addison gave a talk: https://hefestivals.co.uk/

If you want to know more about the political aspects of Home Education in the UK, then we recommend that you listen to our episodes with Randall Hardy

• http://theconrad.family/selfdirected33
• http://theconrad.family/selfdirected44

🗓️ Recorded August 5th, 2025. 📍 The Addisons, Whityham, UK

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PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Theconradfamily
Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
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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 the biggest changes happened in us as parents—not our children. We describe letting go of academic pressure, seeing teenagers choose their own academic interests, and how travel creates natural learning opportunities. We also talk about why we stepped away from curriculum-based education and what we've learned about trust, autonomy, and family life on the road.

Topics include:

• Trusting children’s natural learning
• Moving beyond academic schedules
• Teens choosing study for themselves
• How travel shapes social and cultural learning
• Critiques of conventional schooling
• What changes most for parents in unschooling

🗓️ Recorded August 3rd, 2025. 📍 The Addisons, Whityham,UK

Support the show

PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
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Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theconradfamily

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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 kids and screen time to preparation that doesn’t help and the emotional crash that often comes six months into travel. 

We also get into how to parent while unschooling—without stepping back too far—and how public perception shifts when you reframe unschooling as world-schooling. 

This is a direct, unscripted conversation about what it actually takes to live nomadically as a family.

Support the show

PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Theconradfamily
Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
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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.

Charles joins us to explore how modern family structures have evolved and what's been lost in our transition from community-based living to isolated nuclear families. 

What gets lost when we accept today’s idea of “normal” life? Together with Charles we discuss the shift from community to isolated nuclear families, the fading of shared caregiving, and why so many people feel something essential is missing. 

Charles shares his view that grief and discomfort about modern life are important signals, not problems to fix. 

Together, we question how community skills have eroded and what it might take to rebuild real connection. 

If you find yourself questioning “normal” and longing for deeper connection, this conversation offers perspective and encouragement to trust that feeling—and to look for ways, big or small, to rebuild genuine community in your own life.

🔗 Read articles and see videos  with Charles Eisenstein 

• https://charleseisenstein.org/
• https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/ 
• https://www.youtube.com/@charleseisenstein 

🔗 Charles Eisenstein on Social Media

• https://www.instagram.com/charles_eisenstein/ 
• https://www.facebook.com/charleseisensteinauthor 
• https://x.com/ceisenstein 

🗓️ Recorded July 11, 2025. 📍 Bremerhaven, Germany

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PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Theconradfamily
Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theconradfamily
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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 lifestyle.

Jamie shares how his background, including influences from Paulo Freire and the concept of eco-pedagogy, shapes his approach to teaching and learning.

The discussion challenges the traditional structure of schooling, contrasting prescribed curricula with the emergent, curiosity-driven learning that happens in real life. Cecilie and Jesper explain why their family chooses not to worry about global crises like climate change and instead focus on adaptability, freedom, and the ability to hold discomfort and uncertainty.

They describe how living on the road exposes their children to different cultures and environments, building emotional intelligence and cultural humility. The episode examines the pitfalls of seeking “teachable moments” and questions the idea that adults should determine what children need to learn.

Reflection, dialogue, and presence are highlighted as essential elements of education. The conversation closes with a discussion of planetary citizenship, beauty, and the importance of navigating both challenges and joys with intention and love.

🗓️ Recorded July 1st, 2025. 📍 Åmarksgård, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

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PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Theconradfamily
Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
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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 insights their experiences might offer for future education and planetary citizenship." 

We thought it could be an interesting talk and said yes, given that we could use the recording for our podcast.

In this episode, we, Cecilie and Jesper Conrad, sit down with researcher Jamie Rumble to discuss our seven years as a nomadic family. We explain why we sold our house and chose to travel full-time with our three kids and two dogs, sharing what freedom really means to us.

We delve into the details of world schooling, explaining why we prioritise values, ethics, and adaptability over traditional school subjects. We talk about building and maintaining community while always on the move, and why we often say that “the adventure is the people.” We challenge the Instagram version of digital nomadism and share the practical realities of this life, from constant planning to the sacrifices involved. We also discuss privilege and the reasons we chose not to follow the conventional school system.

This episode offers a glimpse into what it's like to live as a nomadic family and the deliberate choices we make about engaging with the world.

🗓️ Recorded June 27th, 2025. 📍 Åmarksgård, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

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PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
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SUPPORT & CONNECT
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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.

Vanessa’s adventure began with short trips, gradually evolving into full-time worldschooling in a van. She dispels myths about needing significant resources or a traditional two-parent household to pursue a life of travel and alternative education. Vanessa reveals how her daughter thrived after leaving conventional schooling, becoming self-motivated and deeply engaged in learning through genuine interests.

We explore the practicalities of single-parent van life, covering everything from managing online education and co-parenting arrangements to handling van troubles and finding community through worldschooling hubs. Vanessa's insights on facing fears, handling uncertainty, and embracing resilience offer powerful encouragement to anyone considering a similar journey.

Vanessa also shares her holistic approach to health and well-being on the road, highlighting the simplicity and importance of maintaining healthy routines and nutrition despite the nomadic lifestyle.

🗓️ Recorded June 19th, 2025. 📍 Åmarksgård, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

🔗 Connect with Vanessa Woozley

• https://www.facebook.com/thelifesutras
• https://www.instagram.com/thelifesutra 
• https://www.youtube.com/c/VanessaWoozleyTheLifeSutra 
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelifesutra

Support the show

PODCAST INFO
Podcast website: http://theconrad.family/podcast
YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/theconradfamily365
Apple Podcasts: https://www.theconrad.family/apple
Spotify: https://theconrad.family/spotify
RSS: https://theconrad.family/rss

SUPPORT & CONNECT
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Theconradfamily
Share a review: https://www.theconrad.family/review-our-podcast
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