Self Directed
by Cecilie & Jesper Conrad
Latest episode
Hannah Beach | The Importance of True Play in Children’s Development
Hannah Beach | The Importance of True Play in Children’s Development
About this podcast
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.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 152 episodes
- Hannah Beach | The Importance of True Play in Children’s Development · 1 h 2 min · Season 1 Episode 149Hannah Beach explains why true play and “void moments” are essential for healthy child development. She describes void moments as unstructured, unstimulated time where children…
- Jeppe Trolle Linnet | Men, Vulnerability, and Masculinity in Transition · 52 min · Season 1 Episode 148Anthropologist 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…
- Victoria Lenormand | From Detective To Unschooling Advocate · 53 min · Season 1 Episode 147Ex-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…
- Nicklas Bergman | How to Stay Sceptical in an Algorithmic World · 1 h 5 min · Season 1 Episode 146Nicklas 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…
- Susan Yao | From Teacher to Unschooler · 44 min · Season 1 Episode 145Susan 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…
- Missy Willis | From Unschooling To Exams · 1 h 0 min · Season 1 Episode 144What happens when unschooled teens meet college systems, exams, and external expectations? Jesper and Cecilie Conrad speak with Missy Willis about how adolescents raised with…
- Kate McAllister | Nervous System Regulation: From Reaction to Response · 53 min · Season 1 Episode 143Kate McAllister describes how nervous system regulation shifts behavior from reaction to response. The conversation maps how stress patterns shape daily life, from parenting and…
- Summer Jean | Unschooling - Living Without the Need to Prove Yourself · 1 h 12 min · Season 1 Episode 142Summer 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…
- Timmy Eaton | Choosing a Life with Golden Hours · 1 h 7 min · Season 1 Episode 141Cecilie 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…
- Lise Damkjær | Life Is Easy—When We Allow It to Be · 57 min · Season 1 Episode 140Co-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…
- Jamie Rumble | Nomadic Becoming in the Anthropocene · 1 h 15 min · Season 1 Episode 139Jamie 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…
- Kate McAllister | The Human Hive: Building Communities of Purpose and Learning · 20 min · Season 1 Episode 138Kate 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…
- Amanda Ashworth | Building Community: Creating a Worldschooling Hub in Goa · 47 min · Season 1 Episode 137Amanda 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…
- Leah McDermott of Your Natural Learner | Why I Chose Unschooling · 58 min · Season 1 Episode 136What 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…
- Blake Boles | Escaping Routine: Deep Conversation and wanting a Galactic Commune · 57 min · Season 1 Episode 135Blake 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…
- Chris Balme | Challenge Accepted: Turning Adolescence into Adventure Chris Balme · 47 min · Season 1 Episode 134Adolescence 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…
- Sarah van Gelder | The Revolution Where You Live - Rebuilding Community in an Isolated World · 51 min · Season 1 Episode 133How 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…
- Hidden Voices Speak: An Anthology of Home Educated Voices · 42 min · Season 1 Episode 132In 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…
- Unschooling and Worldschooling Has Changed Us | The Conrads in dialogue with Heidi & Andrew Schrum · 1 h 17 min · Season 1 Episode 131We 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…
- Navigating Unschooling and Nomadic Life | The Conrads in dialogue with Heidi & Andrew Schrum · 53 min · Season 1 Episode 130We 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…
