Blog

Kerry McDonald talks about the massive growth of homeschooling and unschooling after the Covid-19 pandemic, and how you can start unschooling with your children.

Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, and an adjunct scholar at The Cato Institute.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• [2:00] What is unschooling
• [4:30] What does unschooling and schooling look like in comparison to government schooling and how it’s trying to be different
• [6:10] How Covid-19 has changed homeschooling and unschooling
• [11:03] How children learn and how parents can support and facilitate that learning
• [13:27] What misconceptions people who were brought up in the system have on homeschooling
• [18:03] How homeschooling has expanded in the past year
• [19:21] Kerry’s experience and journey to homeschooling
• [25:57] The first steps to exploring your child’s education in homeschooling
• [29:45] The process of finding the best option for your child
• [35:14] How to incorporate non-academic activities into your schooling
• [39:07] How to spark your child’s interests
• [40:20] Stereotypes of homeschooling
• [42:44] The difference in outcome between homeschooling and public education
• [45:56] Navigating college and how to prepare your child for an unknown future

Resources:

• Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom by Kerry McDonald
• Kerry McDonald Bio

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Ari Hershkowitz talks about his journey and experiences in the Hasidic Jewish community explored in the Netflix documentary One of Us (2017).

We discuss Ari’s healing journey, return to the Hasidic community, and how the Jewish community is changing.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• [1:00] What a Hasidic Jewish Community looks like
• [2:21] Ari’s current stance in his community
• [4:47] Journey to change within the Hasidic community and the specific changes being made
• [6:26] The cause of these changes
• [7:31] Fears and control of information flow
• [8:27] Why New York is the home for a Hasidic Jewish community
• [10:00] Ari’s Journey to questioning and leaving his community
• [14:51] Ari’s involvement with the documentary crew and experience with film One of Us
• [16:34] Ari’s experiences post leaving the community
• [18:51] School and education within the Hasidic Jewish community
• [19:6] Best and worst of leaving
• [21:09] Ari’s discoveries of other religions and experiences post leaving the community
• [23:40] Ari’s return back to living with the community
• [25:27] Ari’s hopeful changes for the community
• [28:02] Ari’s journey to self-recovery and healing
• [29:44] Sexual abuse and how it’s handled in the community
• [32:44] Footsteps and mental health organizations in the documentary “One of Us” and how to get involved
• [34:09] How the Hasidic Jewish community see other Jewish communities and perceive criticism from the outside
• [39:00] Criticism of circumcision and anti-semitism
• [41:44] Generational trauma and finding ways to have an understanding between outsiders and people within the community
• [45:11] Jewish Identity defined
• [47:51] Where Ari is today and his next steps moving forward
• [48:55] Community and reaction to the Netflix Documentary

Resources:

• One of Us (2017) on Netflix
• Ari Hershkowitz Website
• Ari on Instagram / Facebook

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Garrett Dailey and I candidly explore numerous topics, including the cycles of generational wealth, civilizations and the potential origins for autism and neurodivergencies.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• [2:03] How people’s trauma creates their behavior, specifically from early childhood
• [9:22] Strauss-Howe generational theory
• [14:26] Story of the Buddha
• [19:28] Scott Adam’s skill stack
• [22:20] Generalist vs. Specialists and applying new perspectives to old problems
• [30:25] Myers Briggs personality types
• [43:56] Neupro-atypical diagnoses
• [49:40] Solo hunting and patterns/characteristics of Autism Theory
• [53:05] The essence of quality

Resources:

• Garrett  on Twitter
• Garrett’s Substack
• Aion (Garrett’s Company)

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Yolande Norris-Clark, freebirth educator and coach talks about family birth outside the system. Yolande shares her 20 years of wisdom and experience in natural home births.

We discuss the importance of freebirth, the common misconceptions and how we can best provide a safe, natural environment for our newborns.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• [2:43] Yolande’s Journey to freebirthing
• [3:19] How to prepare for having a natural home birth
• [5:52] What does a healthy natural birth look like?
• [14:53] How to handle cultural stress as a free birther
• [20:57] Natural home births and how to best prepare
• [33:43] How we can let go and enjoy the full experience of natural child birth
• [43:26] Pre-birth steps within industrial hospital systems and the misconceptions of home birthing
• [48:47] Parenting and birthing in fear and the double standard between home birth vs. the industrial system
• [55:37] Working through psychological and social pressures against natural home births
• [1:02:30] Cutting the cord of the placenta
• [1:06:20] Anticipating home births and dealing with being in the moment
• [1:08:56] Handling placenta post-birth and using placenta as supplement capsules
• [1:21:52] Misconceptions of new born baby mucus

Resources:

• Yolande’s Website
• Yolande on Instagram
• Yolande’s Linktree

Sponsor:

• Foregen

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Adam Fletcher talks about adultism, and the pervasive bias the society has towards adults over the needs of children.

Adam Fletcher is the executive director of Youth and Educators Succeeding and the Free Child Institute. He is also the author of Facing Adultism. In this episode, we talk about how adulthood is socially constructed and give practical advice on what you can do to create greater engagement with your children.

This is a big topic from which you will learn a completely different way of thinking about the social issue of how we treat children.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• [00:58] Introducing guest and reviewing Facing Adultism book
• [02:52] Why adults should be the center of everything in the society
• [07:46] Things that children do are determined by their age
• [11:15] Danger of having responsibility without power in parenting
• [14:34] Adults sharing power and empowering kids
• [21:01] Linking your childhood experiences to address adultism
• [25:46] Contemporary vs. traditional adultism roles and responsibilities
• [30:33] Justifying adultism patterns based on the age of the child
• [34:43] Negative adultism that is embraced in the new generation
• [40:27] When does adultism occur?
• [45:02] How does adultism factor into infants and babies?
• [48:56] Impact of adultism on brain development
• [53:38] How to deconstruct social expectations and biases
• [58:00] Become the change you want to see in the society
• [1:00:02] Final words and contact information

Resources

• Youth and Educators Succeeding
• Free Child Institute
• Facing Adultism by Adam Fletcher
• Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Nick Duffell talks about the wounded leaders produced by the elite boarding school system and how their psychology has shaped the world.

Nick also shares how leaders can change their psychology, integrate these experiences and better connect with the people they serve.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• [1:13] Nick’s work in psychohistory and his interest in elite boarding schools
• [9:18] How elite boarding schools were intentionally designed
• [16:05] Historical transitions in British society and how it impacted elite systems
• [20:53] Questioning the foundation of privilege in elite systems
• [26:00] Nick’s clinical work and the types of personalities in boarding school survivors
• [29:38] Strategic survival personality
• [33:36] Arbitrary roles within boarding school and societies
• [36:13] How shame in wounded leaders manifests into psychological projections on to others
• [40:47] Nature of the psyche in relationships
• [43:41] Behavior of leadership steaming from early childhood traumas and psychological projections and examples
• [52:56] How to heal as a boarding school survivor
• [1:03:45] Global effect of elite systems

Resources:

• Nick’s Website 
• Nick’s Books
• Lloyd DeMause
• John Taylor Gatto

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Anthony Migliorino, a coach on fatherhood and the founder of Peaceful Fathers, shares his insight on peaceful parenting.

Peaceful Fathers focus on bringing up children peacefully, through positive parenting, which embraces hard work, improvement, dedication, and constant learning, rather than corporal punishment and abuse. He champions good fatherhood parenting aspects such as masculine self-development, peaceful parenting, and better bonding with your children.

During this episode, we talk about the impact of good parenting on general society’s growth.

In This Episode:

• [00:45] Origin of Peaceful Parenting concept.
• [03:44] Peaceful Parenting building journey.
• [06:18] Peaceful Parenting transformation steps, methods, and techniques employed.
• [07:53] Family development plan, a success factor to good fatherhood.
• [12:14] Steps that seem to help men more in becoming better fathers.
• [14:25] Common challenges that deter men from becoming good fathers.
• [19:48] The process of instituting masculinity elements in men.
• [24:03] Factors that contribute to a successful fatherhood transformation.
• [27:18] The disconnect between parenting, relationships, business, and money.
• [32:02] Authoritative parenting weaknesses.
• [34:30] Peaceful Parenting variations in different stages of child development.
• [37:48] Orientation of new members to Peaceful Parenting.
• [40:39] Common resistance to men who enroll to Peaceful Fathers
• [44:25] Peaceful Parenting as a hard work
• [52:43] Social ConditioningCondition that makes men poor fathers.
• [57:10] Recommendations and suggestions to men who want to become better fathers.
• [58:45] The one commitment that gives 80% results to good fatherhood.
• [01:01:09] Finding the right motivation groups for better fatherhood.

Resources

• Peaceful Fathers
• The Fraternity of Excellence
• Anthony on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
• Hold On To Your Kids
• Anthony’s Sister (Lactation Consultant)

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Author and historian Lynn Hunt shares her work on the history of human rights.

We talk about how the new technology of the novel led to the inspiration for humans rights, the failures of early human rights movements, and what lessons history can teach modern activists today.

Topics Discussed In This Episode

• [1:14] Lynn’s Book “Inventing Human Rights: A History” and the story behind her interest in Human Rights
• [2:47] Is Human Rights an invention or a discovery?
• [4:49] Rights vs. Human rights and how the idea and discovery came about
• [8:00] The rights of “man” and the fight for equality
• [11:34] “The Novel” and the initial seed for human rights
• [18:28] The power of storytelling and lessons from novels creating empathy
• [23:16] Torture punishment and the present
• [29:00] Parallels from history and political reform
• [34:08] Diversity in opinions on rights
• [38:15] The on going expansion of human rights and what modern activists can learn from history
• [41:28] Solving the problem of differences from a story-telling level and the push back on human rights
• [49:26] Authoritarianism and participatory governments
• [50:11] Past Revolutions based in equality and the progression to today
• [55:56] The perceived failures in comparison to the aspirations of the human rights movement

Resources: 

• Inventing Human Rights: A History by Lynn Hunt

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