The Luminous Mind Podcast | A show about you becoming your best self through unconventional thinking

This is a great podcast learning about Cate Fogarty's personal educational journey and how she learned to better direct her life through the childhood experiences of world-schooling with her family. She also talks about how empathetically working with others helped her better craft messages in simplistic terms for better understanding.

 Cate Fogarty is a filmmaker and writer who has lived in the United States, the Caribbean, and Norway. Her current projects include making a documentary film about sailing from Minnesota to Florida and writing for Mixed Mental Arts.

Show Notes for Episode 208

This is a fun as well as inspiring conversation with prolific content creator, Kristi Clover, on "simple solutions for a more joy-filled life." 

Kristi Clover is a Christian, homeschooling mom to five kids ranging from teens to tots and wife to her high school “crush.” Aside from her family (and chocolate), she’s passionate about encouraging women in their faith and inspiring them in their daily lives as moms, wives, and homeschoolers by offering “simple solutions for a more joy-filled life.” Be sure to connect with Kristi online for an extra dose of encouragement for your day and get a free copy of her book, Sanity Savers for Moms.

Show notes for Episode 207 

In this episode, we chat with Teri Lynne Underwood who is a pastor’s wife, ministry speaker, and Bible teacher about problems facing our girls and mothers as well as solutions through prayer, faith, and realizing our true place in our daughter's lives. This is a great conversation regardless if you have daughters but want to better help society at large.

Teri Lynne is the mother of a teenage daughter and the founder of Prayers for Girls, a popular online community for mothers of daughters, Teri Lynne is a cheerleader for girl moms and the author of Praying for Girls: Asking God for the Things They Need Most.

Show Note for Episode 206

In this episode, we talk with Caitlyn Scheel, a 16 year old autodidact who took control of her education at fourteen. Caitlyn is the essence of a "Firestarter" which on our website, we describe as: "people who strive to think differently, outside-the-box, who inspire people around them to ask questions and look at things differently. In essence, to create ideas of passion that start fires of change in their paradigm"

Caitlyn Scheel tells her story of how she made a presentation to her parents in 8th grade, to opted out of the public school system. In addition to driving her own education, Caitlyn is the youngest person to be accepted to Praxis (a college alternative). Through this connection, she connected with Praxis alumnus, Brad Matthews. Together they launched UnschoolHQ.com, a site that aims to educate parents and students alike on what unschooling is and how to go live life as an unschooler. It was this connection with Brad that led to her to landing her current job with PARADOX, where she handles their entire digital presence. This has been a fantastic position for her to continue self-directed learning in the real world. 

Show Notes for Episode #205

Adam is an innovation expert, a career-long student, and devotee of innovation. He serves as the Vice President of Innovation at Ideas To Go, Inc., a leading innovation consultancy where he has served Fortune 200 clients for 16 years. He shares with us ideas from a book he co-authored, Outsmart Your Instincts: How The Behavioral Innovation(TM) Approach Drives Your Company Forward. It is an interesting conversation on how we can be more innovative by shedding cognitive biases—the instinctual mental shortcuts we all have in our brains that shape how we see and respond to the world around us— which can also be the archnemeses of innovation/innovative thinking. He teaches us new way of thinking to help us be more innovative, curious, and creative.  

Show Notes for Episode 204 

In this episode, we finally connect with author and mentor, Lea Ann Garifias, where we discuss her 3 books Rocking Ordinary: Holding It Together with Extraordinary Grace, Homeschool Made Easy: Homeschool Your Way, and her new book, Homeschool High School Made Easy: Find Your Why . . . Then Find Your Way (Homeschool Made Easy). It is a great conversation between ordinary moms on how to live life in your mission with grace and determination. 

Lea Ann is a homeschool graduate and homeschooling mother of four.  She has worked for the past five years as a homeschool columnist, featured writer, and editor for several homeschool publications around the country. Lea Ann was herself homeschooled from seventh grade through high school graduation. Besides homeschool mom, Lea Ann also wears the titles soccer mom, professional violinist, and wife of a hot Latino. She is madly in love with her husband of over two decades, David Garfias from Peru. They live with their four hilarious children in the Dallas area.

Show Notes for Episode 203

This honest, authentic conversation of Walking Out Your Life's Mission with prolific author of more than seventy books, Tricia Goyer, is based on her book, Walk It Out: The Radical Result of Living God’s Word One Step at a Time. She helps us discover that mission as well as the steps we can take to get started. 

Tricia is a homeschooling mom of ten, grandmother of four, and wife to John. She is the founder of Hope Pregnancy Center in Kalispell, Montana and now leads a teen mom support group in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Show notes for Episode 202

There are certain "sacred cows" of government agencies we aren't allowed to analyze, no matter their performance. In this episode, we are joined by Vicki E. Alger to discuss one such federal agency, The Department of Education with her book, "Failure: The Federal Misedukation of America's Children.

Vicki E. Alger is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, and author of the book Failure: The Federal Misedukation of America’s Children who is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California. Alger’s research focuses on education reforms that promote a competitive education marketplace and increase parents’ control over their children’s education. She is the author of more than forty education policy studies, co-author of Lean Together: An Agenda for Smarter Government, Stronger Communities, and More Opportunities for Women, Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California, and Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice, as well as Associate Producer of the documentary “Not as Good as You Think: Myth of the Middle Class School.”

Show Notes for Episode #201

In our special 200th Episode we get the privilege to hear from Hunter Maats, co-author of "The Straight-A Conspiracy: Your Secret Guide to Ending the Stress of School...and Totally Ruling the World" as well as co-host of the popular Mixed Mental Arts podcast. With his humorous rapport, Hunter gives us insight to his research for the book and a great discussion on what parents can do to help their children better succeed in their education.

Hunter founded Overqualified Tutoring, an educational services company which applied the latest neuroscience and psychology to help students of all ages succeed. As the company expanded, he and another of the company’s co-founders realized the transformative force they had created by introducing the science of learning directly to students. Along with Katie O'Brien, he synthesized seven different fields in neuroscience and psychology and thousands of hours of tutoring experience into a single book that would inspire readers to take charge of their educations. The Straight-A Conspiracy: Your Secret Guide to Ending the Stress of School...and Totally Ruling the World has received rave reviews from students, educators and parents alike and led Hunter and Katie to appear on dozens of TV and radio shows, including being reviewed by Wired and profiled by Amazon as an innovative author. More importantly, the book has become a staple in several schools, community colleges, and even prison systems in the U.S. and globally. 

To learn more about Hunter, visit the show notes page

In this episode we hear how children learn "knife and life" skills as well as so much more by cooking for their classmates. Emelia share with us how their kitchen has been an alternative classroom for the last 34 years. 

Emelia Miguel, known as Ms. Emelia to her students, is the Food Service Director at Pacific Elementary School in Davenport, California. Along with the responsibilities as Food Service Director, Emelia is in charge of the world-renowned, award-winning FoodLab program. This program brings 5th and 6th grade students into the kitchen classroom

Show notes for Episode 199