Self Directed

Jamie Rumble shares his research on digital nomadism in the era of climate change. We explore how mobility, mental health, and community connect—and what nomads can teach about resilience.

🗓️ Recorded September 22, 2025. 📍 Åmarken, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

🎙️ Listen to:

• First episode with Jamie Rumble: https://www.theconrad.family/selfdirected127
• Second episode with Jamie Rumble: https://www.theconrad.family/selfdirected128

📚 Books mentioned in this episode

• Nomad Century by Gaia Vince - Get it on Amazon
• Digital Nomad by Tsugio Makimoto & David Manners - Get it on Amazon
• Education in a Time Between Worlds: Essays on the Future of Schools, Technology, and Society - Get it on Amazon

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Kate McAllister shares her journey from traditional teaching in the UK to creating The Human Hive in the Dominican Republic. We talk about learning through global projects, raising children outside the standard map, and what it means to discover that there are no dragons when you step off the expected path.

 🗓️ Recorded September 10, 2025. 📍 Åmarken, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

🔗  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

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Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
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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, why Goa became her family’s second home, and how the hub supports children, teens, and even parents through education, play, and wellness practices. We also explore community life, balancing family and business, and why parent and dad circles matter for building connection.

🗓️ Recorded September 10, 2025. 📍 Åmarken, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

🔗  Relevant links

• https://www.worldschoolinghubgoa.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/worldschoolinghubgoa/
• https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561303705469 
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/worldschooling-hub-goa/ 
• https://www.tiktok.com/@worldschoolinghubgoa 
• http://amandaashworth.com/ 

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Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconrad.family
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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 from conventional educator to unschooling advocate.

In this episode we talk with Leah about her path out of the classroom and into unschooling with her own family. She shares what it was like to grow up homeschooled in a very rigid, school-at-home way, and how that experience shaped the choices she made later. We hear how becoming a mother pushed her to rethink education completely, and why she founded Your Natural Learner to support families making the same shift.

Leah explains why homeschooling often repeats the same problems as school when parents bring curriculum, tests, and grades into the home. She talks about the process of deschooling for parents, unlearning the reflex to correct or measure everything, and learning instead to trust children’s natural curiosity. Her own son’s love of math shows what this can look like in practice—solving complex problems in his head without ever being taught traditional methods.

We also talk about how unschooling can feel isolating at first, when friends and family don’t understand the choice. Leah reflects on the constant questions children face, like “What grade are you in?” or “What did you learn today?” and why shifting those questions toward real interests matters. She reminds parents that the pressure to justify unschooling often says more about their own uncertainty than about the curiosity of others.

🗓️ Recorded August 28th, 2025. 📍 Åmarken, Lille Skendsved, Denmark

🔗  Relevant links

• https://www.instagram.com/yournaturallearner 
• https://www.facebook.com/yournaturallearner
• https://naturallearningshop.com
• https://bridgeacademy.us 
• https://yournaturallearner.substack.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/yournaturallearner 
• https://x.com/therealleahmcd 
• https://www.youtube.com/@Yournaturallearner 

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Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
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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 website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
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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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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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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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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

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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.

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Podcast website: https://www.cecilieconrad.com/self-directed
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