Exploring Unschooling
Explore unschooling with Pam Laricchia, Anna Brown, and Erika Ellis. Helping parents figure out how to apply bigger picture unschooling ideas in their everyday lives.
Recent Episodes
Nov. 4, 2026
EU421: Foundations: From Control to Connection
For this week’s episode, we’re sharing the final Foundations episode of the Living Joyfully Podcast with Pam and Anna, From Control to Connection. Power and control are pretty insidious, seeping into so many corners of our lives. We talked about dropping the need to be right, considering the context of the moment, and the value of transparent communication. Reaching for control is often a red flag that shows where we might want to dig deeper, to figure out what’s really at play. Moving towards
Oct. 21, 2026
EU420: A Field Guide: Accepting Our Nature
We’re back with the fifth episode in our series in which we’re working our way through Pam’s book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide. Today, we’re continuing our exploration of the deschooling phase of the journey with stage nine: Accepting Our Nature. This stage is all about the temptations from our old life that may lead us to abandon or stray from our unschooling quest. Our lives have likely changed quite a bit since we were living in our ordinary world, but, chances are, there are time
Oct. 7, 2026
EU419: On the Journey Part 2 with Nora McDonald
We’re back with another On the Journey episode! Pam, Anna, and Erika talked to Living Joyfully Network member Nora McDonald, who was also on the podcast a few years ago. Nora shared an update about her family and spoke about how her unschooling journey has progressed. She also dove deep into a topic that she’s spoken a lot about on the Network, which is cultural differences. Nora is British and she currently lives in Costa Rica. Many of the expectations we take for granted in our home countries
Sept. 23, 2026
EU418: When Teachers Become Unschoolers
Pam and Anna interviewed three former teachers who are all unschooling parents and members of the Living Joyfully Network. Erika Ellis, Jen Hollis, and Michelle Kren shared their experiences becoming teachers as well as their thought processes as they chose unschooling for their own families. They talked about their changing views of education and how their roles as teachers helped shape their ideas of parenting. It was a fascinating window into a very common phenomenon – teachers becoming unsc
Sept. 9, 2026
EU417: On the Journey with Julia Triman
We’re back with another On the Journey episode! Pam, Anna, and Erika had fun connecting with Living Joyfully Network member Julia Triman. Julia was on the podcast with Pam back in 2021, when she talked about her unschooling stories. It was really cool to hear how things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same in her family of four. Julia shared about her family’s latest passions and what has surprised her the most about her unschooling journey. She also talked about her interest in quiltin
Aug. 26, 2026
EU416: A Field Guide: Accepting the Value of All Experiences
We’re back with the fourth episode in our series in which we’re working our way through Pam’s book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide. Today, we’re continuing our exploration of the deschooling phase of the journey with stage eight: Accepting the Value of All Experiences. We’ve questioned our beliefs about learning and about parenting. Now we’re moving beyond judgement. As our understanding of this new world of unschooling grows, we are drawn to digging deeper. Using the lens of unschoolin