LiberatED Podcast

John Mackey is an author, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Whole Foods Market. In 2022, he stepped down from his 44 years as CEO of the natural and organic grocer. He is now launching a new startup, Love. Life . Mackey is the author of several books including the just-released The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism . *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on educat...

In Stillwater, Minnesota, Amy Marotz launched Awakening Spirit microschool to serve the distinct needs of gifted and neurodiverse learners. After earning an education degree and teaching at a Minneapolis charter school early in her career, Amy began homeschooling her own children and saw a need for a dedicated program to address neurodiversity within a holistic, nurturing environment. She now runs...

Jessica Slayback and Victoria Forsman launched the REALM , Redesigning Education And Living Meaningfully, in 2010 as a microschool with one student and since then they have served 3,000 students with both full-time and part-time learning options. Located in Santa Monica, California, REALM currently enrolls 134 students ages 4 to 14 each semester, with a new high school program opening soon. *** Si...

Denice Dixon is a former public school special education teacher and founder of TREAD Academy , a K-12 microschool serving neurodivergent and neurotypical in Atlanta. Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .  

Chip Reichanadter is an experienced Montessori educator and cofounder of  Pinyon Montessori , a PreK-6 microschool in Salt Lake City that opened in November 2023 and is the first Wildflower Montessori school in Utah. Founded in 2014, Wildflower is a national network of dozens of teacher-owned Montessori microschools fostering child-centered learning.   Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsle...

Former public school teacher Coby Aldana is the founder of Refresh Learning Center , a Christian microschool for kindergarteners through high schoolers near Phoenix, Arizona. It opened in August 2023 and focuses on small classes and personalized learning.   *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

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 Academy campuses. ***...

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 founded in 2004 that...

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 currently serves...

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 being held in June i...

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 universal school cho...

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 Years of Micro...

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 learning needs i...

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 launched Miami Su...

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 to school, and w...

Libertas Institute education policy analyst, and former public school teacher turned homeschooling dad,  Jon England joins me on the podcast today to talk about removing regulatory barriers for education entrepreneurs. Jon describes new zoning legislation in Utah passed earlier this year to make it easier for microschool founders to launch their programs. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email...

Dominique Paloma Bible was born in Brazil and raised in Brooklyn, eventually dropping out of high school. That experience led Dominique to discover the importance of personal agency and self-determination, as well as the possibility of alternative learning models outside of traditional schooling. Dominique earned a GED and enrolled at Goddard College. After collecting undergraduate and graduate de...

Bountiful Microschool is a home-based microschool in Bountiful, Utah created by edtech entrepreneur, David Blake, cofounder and CEO of  Degreed , and his wife Mikel, cofounder of Tech-Moms. The couple wanted to bring the innovation and personalization they were seeing in the larger tech sector to the K-12 classroom to benefit their own children and others in their community. "Utah's Emerging Educa...

The podcast's very first guest, Jill Perez, joins us today to celeberate our 200th episode! She gives us an update on her journey as the founder of Tranquil Teachings Learning Center , a pandemic pod turned microschool, in New Jersey. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

Jenson "Fig" Newton is the founder of Empigo Academy , a faith-based high school focused on career technical education (CTE) that is opening this fall in Des Moines, Iowa. He expects to launch with 50 students, all of whom will attend tuition-free thanks to Iowa's new universal school choice program. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .  

Kanesha Adams is a former public school teacher and founder of The Learning Lounge , a tutoring center and new microschool in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a low-income community outside of Little Rock. In this episode, Kanesha shares her founder story and explains why Arkansas's new universal school choice program propelled her startup decision. In Arkansas, School Choice Is Encouraging Education Entrepr...

Angela Watson is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education and the creator of the new Homeschool Hub at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, providing in-depth data on homeschooling, regulations, and research across the US. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

On the podcast today, Heather DiNino, a former public school teacher and founder of  Elements Academy just outside of Boston, talks about the challenges of running a microschool. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .  

Jennifer Kempin taught for more than a decade in public schools in Pennsylvania before launching her home-based, Waldorf-inspired microschool,  Fáilte Microschool , earlier this year.  *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .