LiberatED Podcast

Jackie Hill is the founder of Acton Academy Hampton Roads in the southeast part of Virginia. A mom of 5 and a Montessori teacher, Jackie wanted a different educational experience for her own children. In 2008, she created a little Montessori learning pod in her living room that kept growing and growing and eventually evolved into a democratic school and later into three Acton Acade

Magatte Wade is an entrepreneur and author renowned for her dynamic approach to business and her dedication to fostering economic development in Africa. Born in Senegal, Magatte is the founder and CEO of SkinIsSkin.com, a skincare company providing high-quality, ethically sourced products. Magatte’s entrepreneurial journey began with Adina World Beat Beverages, a company she foun

Located on beautiful 400-acre organic farm in Smyrna, Tennessee, about 20 miles outside of Nashville, Bloomsbury Farm School began in 2020 with one teacher, Kaiti Dewhirst Monroe, and five homeschooled children, including farmer Lauren Palmer’s own five-year-old. Today, it is a Reggio Emilia-inspired K-5 farm school, with additional parent-child programming for littler ones, that

Founded in 1989 by alternative education advocate Jerry Mintz, the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) continues to provide resources, support, and community for parents, teachers, and learners interested in alternatives to traditional schooling. AERO's Peter Berg joins me today to talk about the organization's enduring legacy and its upcoming, annual conference bein

Robert Kimble is the founder of Dream Academy in Dubuque, Iowa. A project of the Dubuque Dream Center, an afterschool program that Kimble cofounded in 2013, Dream Academy is opening this August as a faith-based, K-7 private school with plans to grow through high school by 2029. More than 50 students have already enrolled, and all are attending tuition-free thanks to Iowa's new univ

Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is the author of the new book—out today—entitled: The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.

Hannah Mackey and Lauren Umlauf are former teachers who cofounded The Dandelion Project, an unschooling community in Philadelphia that offers daytime programming for homeschoolers as well as after school programs and summer camps that emphasize self-directed education. They also do homeschooling evaluations for homeschoolers throughout Pennsylvania through an unschooling lens. 45

Amy Novak is a former teacher who in 2021 launched Acton Academy Red Rock in southern Nevada. Acton Academy Red Rock is part of the fast-growing Acton Academy network of learner-driven microschools that was founded in 2009 and now includes more than 300 schools serving thousands of learners. Amy's program is intentionally inclusive of neurodiverse learners and those with special l

Christen Parker-Yarnal is the cofounder of the Miami Sudbury School in Miami, Florida, a fully self-directed, democratic K-12 private school modeled after the flagship Sudbury Valley School that was founded in Massachusetts in 1968. Christen was a conventional school teacher for several years in St. Louis, then moved back to Miami where she grew up, unschooled her 3 children, and l

Anna Graves is the founder of The Field Academy in Denver, Colorado, a traveling high school that this academic year is collaborating with the Aurora Public Schools, the Englewood Public Schools, Stead Charter School, and alternative schools within the Denver metro area to address chronic absenteeism and credit recovery in creative ways. High school students who are not showing up