Flourishing Education Podcast: Recent Episodes

Fabienne Vailes

Powerful imperfectly perfect conversations that shine the lights on AMAZING INDIVIDUALS who are doing WONDERFUL WORK. Discover why there's not ONE PATH but ONE'S PATH to a fulfilled and happy life. Find out how to become a FLOURISHING LIFE LONG LEARNER and achieve your full potential.

True learning is not the simple acquisition of skills, knowledge and competences. It requires us to be flexible, curious and open to unlearn through powerful imperfectly perfect conversations.

Are you ready?

Today I am really excited to be releasing this new imperfectly perfect conversation with Julie Legg who is the the Author of The Missing Piece: A Woman's Guide to Understanding, Diagnosing and Living with ADHD.

The exciting news is that Julie's book will be available as paperback in England from beginning of Julie (through WHSmith).

I got so much out of Julie's book when I was diagnosed with ADHD this year after struggling when I started my 1st year of PhD and I couldn't recommend it more - whether you or a loved one live with ADHD!

It helped me make so much sense of it all!!!

You can check out Julie and Jel's music here: OLDER

Today I am delighted to share a new episode for the podcast. This time with Noreen Asekenye who is a Philanthropist, Social-impact storyteller, Fundraiser, Children's Author as well as the Founder of Tell a Story Foundation

Noreen starts by sharing her journey to creating the Foundation and how she creates impact.

We then discussed how powerful stories and story telling are and how much impact and what a difference what seems like simple stories can have and make.

We also discussed the concepts of #Ubuntu and addressed some of my issues as a white person around appropriation. Noreen's loving and caring personality shines through.

If you are interested in stories, story telling and in #ubuntu, this is the perfect conversation for you. I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did!

You can contact her via email: noreenasekenye1@gmail.com

Today I am really delighted to be sharing this new episode with Dr Helen Street who is an Author, presenter & consultant, with background in social psychology, motivation and mental health. She is also the Founder of Contextual Wellbeing. Founder and Co-Chair of Positive Schools @PositiveSchools.

In this imperfectly perfect conversation, Helen comes to talk about her new and latest book The Impossible Question of Living Well: How do we hold on to what matters, while also knowing how to let go?

We go into a deep conversation around all these topics and much more.

I invite you to take a listen. You won't regret it.

Her website can be found here

Today I am delighted to share a new episode with Julie Norman who is an Education Consultant and co-founder of Evolve Generation School with Nachelle Crowther

In this imperfectly perfect conversation I talk to Julie about her own journey RE-membering she is a life-long, life-wide and life-deep learner.

She also shares all about Evolve Generation and their exciting plans for the future.

I really invite you to listen in and to contact them if you would be interested in investing in their wonderful project.

You can find out more here: https://evolvegeneration.co.uk/

Today I am delighted to share this new imperfectly perfect conversation with Gareth Campbell, who is Founder of the MoSAIC, a STEAM Educator and an Artist.

Together we talk about Gaz's journey into education and into re-membering he is a lifelong, lifewide, lifedeep learner.

We also talk about STEAM and what it means and how science, engineering and technology might have a lot more in common with the Arts than we consider or think about.

If like me, you like to discuss the power of interdisciplinary work, you will love this conversation.

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Kate Coleman, a Founder/Director at East Kent Sudbury. Change Maker, Freelance Management and Strategy Consultant.

Together we explore Kate's journey into re-membering that she is a life-long, life-wide and life-deep learner and their approach at East Kent Sudbury, which is a Self-Directed Democratic Learning Community For Home Educated Children.

We cover so much ground, there would be too much to write in this short description, so I invite you to simply come and listen and see what your key take-aways are and what stands out for you.

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Christine Paquette, who is a Mentor, Coach, Co-Designer guiding you Bridge the Gap and Live a whole life. She is the Founder of Bridge Dynamics.

Together we talk about her own journey into RE-membering that she is a lifelong, life-wide and life-deep learner and how to develop our Ideal Presence.

If you believe in the importance of heartfelt imperfectly perfect conversations, you will love this one!

Take a listen.

And the website Christine mentions in this episode can be found here

Caravan of Remembering

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Professor Rebecca Hodgson who is currently Professor of Higher Education, Associate Dean TLSE at the University of Manchester.

I reached out to her because I read her Wonke article entitled Time to go back to basics on belonging and I resonated deeply with it.

She agreed to come to talk to me about belonging, loneliness and mattering with a particular focus on Higher Education but I am sure you will find all her insights and sharing extremely useful and applicable to any parts of our education system.

I am sure you will enjoy listening to this episode. I know I did!

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Hajar Tazi.

Hajar's focus is on weaving alternative cosmovisions & economies, scientific knowledge, and indigenous wisdom to bring forth the Symbiocene and co-create vibrant, regenerative human and more-than-human communities.

I had the best conversation with Hajar and we covered so much.

We discussed Hajar's own journey to re-membering that she is a lifelong, lifedeep and life wide learner, how to BE authentically and how it involvles reconnecting to our sacred feminine.

I am sure you will love this episode. I know I did!

Today, I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Caroline Clark who is co-founder of Streams Learning Hub with Jo Sweetland and I but also Founder of Zebera.

Caroline recently wrote a fabulous blog post for Streams Education called Embracing the Chaos which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Caroline is a source of inspiration for me and I asked her to come and have an imperfectly perfect conversation with me on the podcast.

Together we explore and cover so much around what truly motivates us and drives us and how we might have it got wrong in education and beyond.

If you are interested in any of these topics, then I invite you to listen to this episode.

Today, I am delighted to share my imperfectly perfect conversation with Inge Rozendal who isCo-Creator of Purpose-Driven Learning Experiences in HigherEd, Didactic and Assessment Expert, Global Perspective.

Together we explore, Inge's journey into education

Her passion for Didactic and Assessment and what they mean to her.

The importance of doing a lot of inner exploration and thinking in education.

We meandered and covered so much during in this episode. I am sure you will absolutely love it.

Today I am delighted to share a second interview with the amazing Stef Kuypers from Happonomy

Stef is a Monetary systems architect, PhD Researcher in behavioural and monetary economics, Systems Thinker and Facilitator.

As I explore if Flourishing is possible when we don't have our most basic needs met in educational settings, I thought I would explore why systems change seems so difficult to achieve and what could be done.

If you are interested in Systems Thinking, in monetory economics and how money and how our behaviours are shaped by our conditioning then this conversation is definitely for you.

Today, I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr Jeff Mims, who is a Psychologist, Insights Consultant, Qualitative Researcher, MEACO Operations Lead and Speaker.

I reached out to Jeff to explore the power of music and its power on our well-being and how music makes us feel.

We go beyond the surface and unpack how we can connect music to wellness or well-being.

If you're interested in this topic, I really recommend this amazing conversation.

Today I am delighted to share this episode with Emer O'Donnell who is an Author. Founder Of TeenReconnect.

Creator Of The Digital Q Pathfinder And The 7Q TeenReconnect Coaching Formula.

In this conversation, Emer and I explore her journey into education and she shares her amazing work and how she coaches & Trains Individuals, Educators & Organisations To Empower Young People To Live Lives They Love.

I am sure you will love this imperfectly perfect conversation with Emer

You can find more about her work by visiting her website:teenreconnect.com/EmerODonnell

I am delighted to share part II of this imperfectly perfect conversation with Natalie Rothwell-Warn, Education Doctoral Researcher whose research question is 'How can teaching and learning experiences change so well-being can improve?'

In this episode we explore the key findings of Natalie's research and what it means for parents, teachers, leaders in schools but also for our policy makers and government.

Her message to us all: let's be brave, let's be courageous, let's re-discover our hearts.

We do this every day but now is time to make it louder, to be more united. Now is time to speak up!

I am sure you will loe this conversation if you are interested in change in education.

Today, I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Natalie Rothwell-Warn who is an Education Doctoral Researcher who talks about #flourish, #education, #youngpeople, #socialjustice, and #sustainability

We explore Natalie's journey as a teacher and as a researcher and her thoughts on the current education system.

Together we explore several questions including:

What's going on in our schools? and her research
'How can teaching and learning experiences change so well-being can improve?'

This is part 1 and we will be sharing part 2 - all about some of the findings from her thesis.

Today I am really excited to be sharing this beautiful and powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Cara Templeton who is English Language Acquisition Specialist.

Cara and I cover so much. It was a real dialogue and conversation with lots of back and forth!

Her journey from living in Australia to moving to Thailand.

We discuss the importance of

discovering a culture through language.
asking questions
going deeper and past the conditioning
trusting nature knows
trusting our children and young people know

Today I am delighted to share a new imperfectly perfect conversation with another amazing young person: Amarins who is 13 and currently living in India.

She was accompanied by her mother Inge Rozendal

In this beautiful episode we explore:

Amarins's journey through education
Her experience of living in different cultures (Thailand and India)
Why it's important to listen with an open heart and to allow young people to truly be themselves and find what works for them.

I have no doubt that you will find this conversation as awesome and beautiful as I found it.

Enjoy!

This week, I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Leonie-Ruth Acland who is an Earth Carer & Nourisher🌱 Mentor & Inspirer💡 Social Weaver & Collaborator🕸️ Questioner & Ponderer🦉 Nature Lover & Natural Mover 🐾 ND HSP Intuitive & Creative 🦋 Treads & Tends Ngambri Country👣

In this episode, Ruth and I discuss her definition of flourishing, what it is and it is not and her own ongoing and beautiful journey into flourishing as a human-being.

How do we flourish as individuals and as a group and the tension between these two paradoxes.
Our loving our planet truly is.
How living in different cultures has helped Ruth on her journey.

I absolutely loved every minute of it and I have no doubt that you will too, particularly if you have a huge interest in flourishing.

Enjoy!

You can contact Leonie via

LinkedIn

Email

Her website

This week, I am delighted to shine a light on the amazing work being carried out by Sarah Sudea, Founder of Finding The Flex.

Together we explore:

What Flexischooling is
What the benefits are
Why so many young people are in need of flexible educational solutions to support children’s wellbeing.
How we can do school differently.

And much more...

I have no doubt that you will really enjoy this imperfectly perfect conversation. I know I did!

I am delighted to share a new powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with yet another phenomenal young person.

This time I talk to Abbie Clark who is a Politics student at the University of Sheffield.

We had such a wonderful conversation. We talked about her journey into education and why she found the transition to university a real culture shock as well as her passion for politics and why she believes politics influence so many societal things and concepts.

I have no doubt that you will absolutely find this conversation very delightful. I could have spoken to Abbie for hours. So many insights from her.

You can reach her on Instagram

I am so happy to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with no other than my lovely eldest child Thomas Vailes .

This episode is extra special because we are releasing it on the 2nd Anniversary of Tom's de-registration from mainstream secondary education here in the UK.

You will have heard me talk about our experience and have heard my version of the story. Now, I give Tom a chance to share his!

I have no doubt that you will love this episode. I know I am biased but I did!

I am delighted to share this new episode on the Flourishing Education podcast with Adrija Jana who is a Social Activist, an Artist and Researcher in momentum from India.

Jana and I had such a wonderful imperfectly perfect conversation.

We discussed her journey in life thus far, including some of the challenges she experienced.

We also talked about her life as an English student at the University of Delhi.

Finally, we discussed some of her other work around menstruation and menstruation hygene in partnership with The Period Society, a youth led organization working towards eradicating the taboo surrounding menstruation and combating period poverty through open conversation, education and increasing access to basic necessities.

I have no doubt that you will love every minute of this chat with Adrija,

I am delighted to share this second imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr Jon Beale who is a Research Affiliate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, a Peak Performance Coach for the Flow Research Collective, a Performance and Well-Being Coach for the Center for Human Potential, and a consultant specialising in well-being in the workplace and education.

He is also Co-host, Flourish FM: a podcast for the good life

In this conversation, I explored more particularly:

Truth and flourishing in philosophy
Flourishing and beliefs tracking truth
Flourishing, success and well-being
The concept of accomplishment in positive psychology (PERMA)
Wellbeing, relationships and community
Home and community
Work-life balance, fulfilment and job satisfaction

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Cindy Lau who was a former student of mine last year and is now a Law and French student at Warrick University.

In this episode we talked about:

Education, cultural differences, and personal growth. (0:02)
Education disparities and personal growth in an international school. (7:51)
Academic vs creative paths in school and society. (14:35)
University applications and the pressure to attend prestigious institutions. (22:20)
Pressure to succeed in education and the impact of failure. (30:15)
University admissions and cultural capital. (34:29)
Educational disparities and university experiences. (41:46)
University experience, challenges, and finding balance. (46:52)
Academic journey, self-awareness, and community support. (51:48)

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with a former colleague and friend Annelyse Apicella who is in her final year of her Speech and Language Therapy Degree here in the UK.

Annelyse and I explore:

Her career change and pursuing a new passion. (0:03)
Motivation and pathways to higher education. (5:19)
Becoming a speech and language therapist. (11:02)
Speech and language therapy access and evidence. (17:30)
Special needs diagnosis and support. (23:36)
Language disorders in children and their impact on mental health. (28:53)
Disability awareness and support. (35:10)
Trusting parental instincts in identifying developmental delays. (41:23)
Speech and language challenges in youth justice system. (48:20)
Understanding "disruptive behaviors" in children. (53:55)

If you have an interest in topics related to neurodivergence, disability, language and speech therapy in particular, this conversation is definitely for you!

I am delighted to share with you this imperfectly perfect conversation with Paul Tupou-Vea Director of Clifftop Wellbeing.

We discussed how we weave well-being science for thriving schools, organisations and communities.

In particular we focused on:

Paul's own personal journey, education, and wellbeing (0:02)
Cultural capital and well-being for migrant families. (5:05)
Cultural differences and perceptions. (13:55)
Education system and parental involvement in New Zealand.(18:51)
Education, colonialism, and well-being. (25:49)
Shifting societal narratives towards community-focused well-being. (39:12)
Well-being and its various components. (46:12)
Well-being models and their relevance in schools (in particularThe Fonua Model Pacific Health Models » HAUORA (hpfnz.org.nz) Te Whare Tapa Whā Te Whare Tapa Whā | Māori Health Authority (teakawhaiora.nz)Te Whare Tapa Whā | Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology (xn--tepkenga-szb.ac.nz)). (53:25)
Hope and well-being in challenging times. (1:03:10)I am sure you will absolutely love this conversation. I know I did!

Today I am delighted to share Episode 5 of this new series dedicated to young people. I hold the space and shine a light on Raheen Fatima who is an Entrepreneur, an Activist, a Podcaster as well as a Speaker.

In this imperfectly perfect conversation, Raheen shares her journey and experience of education, in particular with the online school called The Socratic Experience.

A really uplifting and empowering story. I cannot wait to speak to Raheen in a year's time to see where her journey has taken her.

Today, I am delighted to share round 2 of an imperfectly perfect conversation with Eric Lynn,

Together we discuss:

What healthy organisations are and how we cultivate healthy organisations.
how to create inclusive spaces for meaningful conversations.

My conversations with Eric always leave me feeling so inspired and energised.

I have no doubt that you will love this episode as much as I did.

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Tom Lawrence, Founder of Highly Effective Leader, Author of "Manager To Leader", "A Limitless Mindset" & "Influence is Leadership" as well as Creator of "The Leader's Vault" Online Courses.

Tom shares his own journey into Leadership, his own challenges and what he learned along the way and is now sharing with his audience.

If you want to find out how to become a highly effective leader, then this conversation will definitely be of interest to you.

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Ben Holmes. This is not the first time we get to speak to one another and I joked with Ben that it feels a bit like I am doing a longetudinal study of his life a student.

I have known Ben for a while and it's a delight to speak with him as he enters his final year at Cambridge University.

We talk about what his experience at university was like, his key take-aways and thoughts.

In particular, we focus on the fear he has experienced throughout his years in secondary school and at university. We also discuss the concept of 'cultural capital' and how it is hidden in our structures and organisations and is often 'unspoken'.

I am sure you will find this wonderful discussion with Ben truly enjoyable.

Today I am delighted to release this imperfectly perfect conversation with Tim George who is Director of Support'ed.

Tim shares his journey and how over 30 years, he has dedicated himself to working with adults and young people who have complex needs.

He explains how his focus is on achieving the best outcomes for all individuals involved and how his personal values and empathy guide his decision-making so that he can achieve his ultimate goal: not to serve himself, but to serve and support others.

And you can clearly hear this goal in absolutely everything Tim said in this episode.

If you are interested in how to support young people, values-based and personalized learning then this conversation is definitely for you!

Today I am delighted to share my latest imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr Jon Beale who is Research Affiliate, Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, Peak Performance Coach, Flow Research Collective and Co-host of a phenomenal podcast for the good life: Flourish FM

There is no best way to explore Flourishing in workplaces and educational settings than with Jon who shares his own definition based on his amazing work as well as from the research at large.

I am sure you will love every minute of this conversation and I can't wait for round 2.

This week, I am delighted to share Episode 3 of this new series dedicated to Young peopleand to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Leo Dean.

We explore Leo's journey into the schooling system as well as his beautiful journey of being trans and discovering who he is in this garden called life.

It's a truly moving conversation and I particularly loved how he came to life when he started talking about his research.

I am sure you will love this conversation as much as I did.

Today I am delighted to share my imperfectly perfect conversation with Eric Lynn, Facilitator, Consultant, Mediator, Executive Coach, Developer of CultureQs, ⁠ Author: Dancing with Change

As I am about to embark on my PhD exploring how we build Flourishing Communities in educational settings, you can imagine how excited I became when I came across Eric's work.

I wanted to talk to him about generating meaningful conversations about life, culture and change as well as cultivating healthy organisations.

We focused in particular on:

Eric's own journey
The problem with labels and labels in the world
Why the title 'dancing with change'?
Our organisations as communities
Questions to ask when opening a new space
The arrogance of pretending to know what's good for other people.We had such an in-depth and fascinating conversation and we didn't have time to address how we cultivate healthy organisations so I am looking forward to our round 2.

Today, it is pure joy to shine a light on Flora Clapham, one of my former students who is also a violinist and an ouststanding French speaker.

Flora and I talked about self-reflection, personal growth, and identity.

We also explored the concept of 'discipline' and looking beyond the curriculum as well as curiosity and how it is stiflled in our schools.

I have no doubt that you will absolutely LOVE this dialogue with Flora. I know I did!

I am delighted to share this truly beautiful conversation with Je'anna Clements who is a writer, Young People's Assistant at Riverstone Village, European Democratic Education Community (EUDEC) Oversight Committee Member and Training Materials Developer.

If you have been wondering what Self Directed Education (SDE) is then look no further. This conversation is just what you need.

It was such a delight talking with Je'anna who selflessly shared all her insights and experience with me in this imperfectly perfect conversation.

I am sure you will enjoy every minute, as much as I did.

I am delighted to share this first episode for our new season which is solely dedicated to our children and young people. In these imperfectly perfect conversations, I will be shining the light on young people showing how uniquely unique they all are and how important it is for us adults to become curious about their unique gifts and fragrance in this garden called life.

My first guest is Arthur Templeman-Lilley and together we talk about a topic that is very close to Arthur's heart - championing children's rights and youth participation.

We talk about Arthur's own journey into the British schooling system and what he is currently doing but also his passion - children's rights.

We discuss how we adults make sure that youth participation does not come across nor become as tokenistic.

Arthur's webiste can be found here: https://futureyouthimpact2.wixsite.com/future-youth-impact

I am sure you will love every minute of this conversation as much as I did!

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Claire Gillespie who is Founder of Oglee Poglee, a home Educator and Facilitator.

You can reach Claire on Facebook or Instagram In this episode we cover so much ground:

Claire's own journey and how she became a home educator but most importantly how she walked alongside her children
Why we are made to learn
How we build flourishing communities
How we discover who we are in this garden called life

I am sure you will love every minute of this conversation. I know I certainly did!

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Ken Caputo who offers online and in-person training and workshops through Momentum Learning.

Together we explored Ken's own personal experience of the schooling system, his martial art skills and his work through Momentum Learning and we discussed how the better we understand each other, the deeper we connect, and the more our organisation(s) can evolve.

I particularly loved what Ken said: 'in grass root change, we can trust that every strike matters and we can't really know when the result is going to appear. Things are happening beneath the surface that we can't see [...]. suddenly there is something new that feels like it came out of nowhere but but it was these tiny injections of energy, of attention and intention that made it all happen.'

Learn more about Ken's work here

I am delighted to share part 2 of this imperfectly perfect conversation with ⁠Joshua Farris⁠

Together we discuss

the challenges faced by homeless young people
the need for a shift in mindset on how we perceive others
the difference between happiness and pleasure
putting youth at the centre of what we do
creating opportunies for youth to learn from adults and adults from youth
being the space holder, a facilitator

You can find more about Joshua's work through his ⁠website

I have no doubt that you will enjoy this episode as much as I did.

I am delighted to share part 1 of this imperfectly perfect conversation with Joshua Farris T

ogether we discuss whether

ALL young people need to go to university,
meritocracy,
first generation College Grads and the challenges they face,
and most importantly how we listen to our youth and learn with and through them.

You can find more about Joshua's work through his website

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr David Penberg, Leader in Residence at 2Revolutions.

David shared his journey as an educator/teacher and writer and together we explored

how he supports schools and community spaces in reimagining learning to remake a common world.
how we become citizens and human beings
how we feed the universal need for meaning, connection, and growth.

I am sure you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

David Penberg's website can be found here

In this imperfectly perfect episode, I talk with Dr Udo Gößwald, a former museum director, now freelance writer and blogger.

Together we draw on Udo's work in museums and we explore:

what well-being is - at the individual, community and planetary level,
how we are together,
how we value our neighbourhood and neighbours

To do this, we need to have individuals who know who they are, who have a strong self-esteem and content.

His research and work led him to write his theses which are also available in English. The link for these can be found here: www.48thesen.de/en/

The essays corresponding with the first three theses have been published on Medium.

At the end of our conversation, Udo mentioned

a book by Omri Boehm, Radikaler Universalismus, Berlin 2022 (forthcoming in English).
a documentary about the situation in German schools: www.bildungsgang-film.de

In this episode, I have an imperfectly perfect conversation with Michael Strong, Founder of The Socratic Experience, a secondary school for parents seeking a warm, motivating, high performance virtual educational experience for their children, specializing in creative, intellectual, and entrepreneurial students whose needs are not being met by conventional schools.

Together we explore:

Michael's journey in the world of education
why he does what he does
what it means to be socratic and the importance of relationships (absolute interest in what the child is thinking and why)
the principles of Socratic dialogue and why it is so vital

Michael's Youtube channel can be found here

Michael's book: The Habit of Thoughts

In this episode I talk with Dr Anne Knock a passionate educator and a design-focused complexity strategist. Anne is a culture architect and impact designer who is also Director of Leadership and Culture at The Learning Future which reimagines and redesigns learning ecosystems so people thrive.

Together we explored:

what complexity theory is
The beauty of a complex future
The importance of attention to our inner world
What progress is to you

I am sure you will truly enjoy this episode as much as I did.

I am absolutely delighted to start the week with this beautiful and imperfectly perfect conversation with d'Arcy Lunn⁠ Head of Sustainability and Global Citizenship at Education in Motion (EiM) d'Arcy is also a speaker, facilitator, educator & comms specialist. He co-founded Teaspoons of Change to activate and alignbusiness, education and government with the Global Goals.

In this episode, d'Arcy shares his journey and explains what each of us can do in terms of:

-Small but significant ideas, attitudes and actions that have a positive impact on people and the planet

Living by the formula: Small Actions X Lots of People = BIG Change

I am sure you will get so much out of this amazing conversation. I know I did!

You can connect with d'Arcy on LinkedIn: d'Arcy Lunn

The musician d'Arcy recommended is Michael Franti

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Amy Milliron who is the Founder and Executive Director of Fearless Farmers and CEO of Deeply Rooted Ranch.

In this episode we discuss the direct correlation between soil health and human health and Amy shares her passion for farming and her journey. She shares their tools and training so that adults, children and young people can discover how regenerative agriculture can revitalize our soil to support the future generations that will need it most.

We also explore how to build regenerative communities.

I am sure you will love and enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Rosa Maria Drumond Moreira who is the Founder of VEM (Virtual Exchange Mode).

Rosa shares with me how VEM means a call.

It is a call for all those who believe Education is connected to purpose, human values and knowledge in context. It is a virtual student exchange program designed to anyone willing to learn what makes sense to have a 🌎 growing in peace and prosperity.

VEM is an invitation to a collective network of schools and collaborators take part into convergent projects to have true Education back to learner’s minds and hands.

Listen to the whole conversation to find out more.

You can reach out Rosa through email: rosadrumor@hotmail.com

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Jan Frolic and Jennifer Johnson who are co-founders of Captains and Poets.

Together we discussed the groundbreaking Kindergarten – Grade 12 Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program that students will take with them their entire lives.

The premise of the program is that there is a unique Captain and Poet in each of us that, in partnership, enable us to be our best selves. When kids learn about their inner Captain and Poet they have immediate access to their emotions, their unique gifts and perspectives, and the complexities of what makes them human.

They become more resilient, learn how to draw on their innate strengths, and to nurture a positive mindset. By inspiring connection to self and others, we encourage a healthier sense of well-being and identity, more positive relationships, and greater agency and purpose in the world.

In short - Captains & Poets is where well-being meets inclusion and belonging!

I am sure you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Delighted to reach our 200th episode with a friend and co-creator Steve Schecter co-founder and CEO of Much Smarter, a digital platform which teaches young people to make full use of their minds so that they can:

Learn anything they want
Create the lives that they want

Together we explore how Much Smarter came to life and Steve's journey as well as how together with his team, they empower young people to develop healthy habits of thinking, feeling and learning.

I am sure you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did

I am delighted to end the week with this beautiful and imperfectly perfect conversation with Curtis Ogden who is Senior Associate for the Interaction Institute for Social Change and most of his work entails consulting with multi-stakeholder networks to strengthen and transform food public health, education, and economic development systems at local, state, regional, and national levels. He has worked with networks to launch and evolve through various stages of development.

I asked him to come and talk to me because I have resonated deeply with many of his articles such as 'At the Heart of Regeneration... is the Heart (and the Gut)' and I really wanted to explore concepts such as unravelling and healing as well as creating more space for things to happen.

The course in the Autumn Curtis will be running called Energy Systems Science and Practice can be found HERE

The book he recommended and I have been reading is called The Heartfulness Way by Kamlesh D. Patel and Joshua Pollock

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Kobus Du Toit who is Partnerships Manager at School of Humanity

As I explore how we build flourishing communities in education and beyond, I thought I could learn a lot from Kobus and his phenomenal journey both as an educator and a lifelong learner.

We explored how we create parthnerships and connections with others - adults and young people alike so that we can all flourish.

And the beauty of this amazing conversation, is that Kobus gave mwe a new metaphor to describe how we all flourish - that of a jazz band!

To find out more, listen to the whole episode. I am sure you will love it!

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect with Simon van der Els whom I connected with on LinkedIn.

Simon is a (micro)biologist who has spent the last ~12 years studying molecular biology and specializing in the microbial genetics.
Over the last 3 years my interest shifted towards the macro scale : systems (both the anthroposphere and the biosphere which encompasses it).

He is now a Researcher interested in the questions:
"In what capacity will the biosphere survive the coming centuries?"
"How can homo sapiens step up and play a regenerative role instead of the current omnicidal one?"
Together we explore our journey thus far as well as these questions both at the analytical and conceptual levels as well as the more practical and implemental levels.

David Bohm whose extensive work can be explored here

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Brian Curcio, who is co-founder of Rapunzl and a passionate supporter of any and all things related to financial education.

Brian shared with me how at a young age, I was incredibly fortunate to receive broad exposure to entrepreneurship and the stock market through my family and why during his senior year at Amherst College, he developed Rapunzl. He explained how we partnered with his highschool friend, Myles Gage, and together they designed a developed an app that could solve the three roadblocks that prohibit many from understanding the stock market: fear, exposure, and accessibility.

Listen to find out more!

This week I share my imperfectly perfect conversation with Mariam Brian who is a chief imagineer and Founder of holoartcollective.com and who offers global advisory services. She is a Global Speaker State of the Art Topics, a High Impact Global Consultant.

I discovered Mariam's work on Linkedin when I came across her blog on The Future of Education which resonated deeply with me.

We explored so many topics but in particular

the concept of thredding the needle from STEM to STREAM and what needs to happen now AI is here.
what advice she has for parents
what the future of education is

We had the most wonderful conversation. It left me feeling like I could have asked so many more as she has such a wealth of knowledge and understanding.

Take a listen and get in touch with her, particularly if you would like to find out more and learn with and through her by collaborating with her.

In this imperfectly perfect conversation, I connect with and talk to the wonderful Dr Eri Mountbatten O'Malley who is Senior lecturer in Education Policy at Bath Spa University.

I reached out to him because his PhD is a conceptual analysis of human flourishing. As a researcher keen to understand what flourishing means and how we create flourishing communities in educational settings, I really wanted to learn with and through Eri.

We not only discussed his research but the phenomenal work he is doing with his Flourish Cafe here in the UK.

If you are interested in well-being and flourishing, both at the individual but also at the community and planetary levels then this is definitely a conversation for you.

Enjoy!

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with the amazing Sally Lewis.

Once in a while, we meet people and it feels like we have known them for ever. My encounter with Sally was exactly like this and I am sure you will be able to hear this when you listen to this episode.

Together we share our passion - children and young people's wellbeing and we explore how we can help them discover their greatness.

Sally shares heer experience in Bali and how she came to write her book 'Figuring out your Future: A guide to life beyond the school gates' and much more...

If you feel inspired to connect with Sally

Her website can be found here

And the books she mentions are:

Todd Rose

The end of Average

Dark Horse

Collective Illusions

The Creative Act: A way of Being by Rick Rubin

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Rachel Musson, Director of Thoughtbox, Systems Thinker and Climate Activist.

I invited Rachel for a second conversation on the podcast because I truly love her work. It is so aligned with my research and explorations.

Our first conversation was called 'Listen to your inner salmon'

She recently published a new ebook called The Future of Education which can be downloaded for free and where she takes us on a journey right down to the root causes of our crises in schools and back out again towards a healthier learning horizon by nurturing a culture of care for ourselves, for each other and for the planet.

And this is what we explore in this episode which is simply beautiful and left me feeling inspired and hopeful.

You can join Rachel and become an Explorer member for free here too.

Today I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Michelle Blanchet who is Co-Founder as well as Change Consultant at The Educators' Lab. She is also co author of The Startup Teacher Playbook and Preventing Polarization.

Michelle and I explored how to create tools to help educators turn their ideas to improve teaching and learning into ACTION. We are often told that we need to innovate in education but no one provides a HOW. Frustrated with training that inspired but didn't provide follow-through, Michelle shared how they have taken methodologies from the social-startup space and adapted them for educators, so as to provide the HOW for teachers to make innovation happen.

The other book she mentioned (beside hers above) are:

⁠Humanity⁠ by John GloverLean Startup

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Aaron Schorn who is an amplifier of youth, co-designing education programs rooted in youth agency and entrepreneurship. Head of Community and Growth at Unrulr, as well as Program Director at the Nalukai FoundationAaron and I first discussed the importance of co-designing education programmes rooted in youth agency and entrepreneurship, focused on human connection and the key elements such as trust and transparency.

We then discussed how through the use of Unrulr, a social learning app we can make holistic growth visible through authentic moments.

Some of the books Aaron mentioned are:

An Ethic of Excellence : Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students
The Innovator's Dilemna: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business
Creative Hustle: Blaze Your Own Path and Make Work That Matters

This week I share my imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr Nicolene who is the co-founder of a Learning Centre in Bali called Open Flow Learning Centre which is a nice international learning centre co-curating education for children.

We explore Dr Nicolene's journey and how she co-created Open Flow and the key changes.

She highlighted:

the amount of choice and voice that they bring into the Learning Centre, but also in the children's Day in how they do things, and how they get to actually speak up and take responsibility.
the importance of being human-centered and human centered conversations.
Her advice to all of us educators (parents and teachers alike) is to stop over analysing, overthinking or justifying. Let's just do things and get on with it. Because there is no other time than now.

In this imperfectly perfect conversation, I talk with the wonderful Dr Daniel Wahl, author of Designing Regenerative Cultures.

We explore what's wrong with our societies, organizations, ideologies, worldviews and cultures - and how to put them right.

Daniel is a consultant, educator, activist, speaker, blogger, weaver, catalyst. I asked him how his work can also be applied in the world of education.

We discussed in particular:

The dominant narrative, which is that of separation versus the story of interbeing and remembering that we are much more deeply connected to place and the resources of place and how we could meet human needs within the limits of a bound territory or bio region.
We are so much more capable than that narrative has made us believe we are in multiple ways, as healers of places and as healers of communities.
We are not separate from what we're looking at.

As well as the importance of:

understanding the fluctuating dynamics of life and how to dance with it
paying attention to the metaphors we use.

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Benjamin Freud and Charlotte Hankin who are both co-founders of Coconut Thinking.

In this episode, I invited Benjamin and Charlotte to come and talk about their new venture Nature on the board which is a new collaboration between Benjamin, Charlotte, Andy Middleton and Michelle Blanchet We discussed how we create the conditions for genuine sustainability action and how we create a paradigm shift in the education system.

We focused in particular on the importance of:

Having a spokesperson for nature on the board.
Putting nature as a spokesperson in schools.
Taking action
Localising

To get in touch with Nature on the board -

email: connect@natureontheboard.ioOr book in a time with them: Calendar Nature on the Board

This week I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Magaga Enos who is Communication and Outreach Coordinator for BEADS for Education and HundrED Country Lead Kenya.

He shares his journey and passion to support and give women, in particular from vulnerable communities more compassion.

I am sure you will find this episode as fascinating as I did.

In this imperfectly perfect conversation I talk with Dr Adam R Wright and Dr Nick Holton about antifragility for a Flourishing Education.

Dr Holton is a consultant, coach and educator, who serves a variety of both formal and informal roles, all of which are devoted to the study, dissemination, and application of the science of human flourishing. Feeling, behaving, and functioning as our best selves and at our highest potentials.

Dr Wright is a doctor of sports psychology and mental skills consultant, executive coach, and educator. For the past 20 years, he has been fully immersed in the world of high performance and has had the privilege of coaching world-class and professional athletes, Hollywood celebrities, CEOs, hedge fund executives, and more.

The book mentioned are:

The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff

Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Dopamine Nation: Finding the balance in the age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke

Nick's podcast can be found here:

Flourish FM

Finally - here is the link to Dr Scott Barry Kaufman's podcast⁠The Psychology Podcast ⁠

Today I am delighted to share with powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Madeleen Mulder who is a Wayfinder | Warrior for the human spirit | Futurist | Regenerative Leadership | General Counsel | Purpose activator | Writer.

Madeleen explains how she used to be a lawyer but left because she was bored and also she loved asking the hard questions or the critical questions, the why?

We reflected (among other things) on:

how we are not encouraged to be a seeker, to ask questions.
The power of curiosity
The importance of healing our trauma (individual and collectively)
We cannot live in isolation

The books Madeleen mentioned are:

The Alchemist- Paulo Coehlo

The Body keeps the score - Bessel van der Kolk

Flux - April Rinne

In this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation, I talk with the wonderful Natalia Blagoeva who supports humans humans to thrive in an era dominated by AI and machines by unleashing their Human Advantage. She is also a Change Whisperer©, Educator, Constellator Systemic Constellations, Founder & Co-creator, Podcast Co-host.

You can find out all about her work here: https://www.nataliablagoeva.com/

In this episode, we particularly focused on Natalia's journey on how to let go and surrender as well as the importance of heart-to heart connections and how easy it is to recognise them.

I have absolutely no doubt that you will love every minute of it (as much as I did!)

At the end of our conversation, Natalia promised a list of the authors that most touched her on her journey. Here it is:

Meditations for Living in Balance: Daily Solutions for People Who Do Too Much by Anne Wilson Schaef
Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski
Leading with Wisdom: Spritual Based Leadership in Business by Peter Pruzan and Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen
Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust by Adam Kahane
Braving the Wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone by Brené Brown
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein
Who Do We Choose to Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity by Margaret J. Wheatley
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté MD

In this imperfectly perfect conversation, I talk with Brad Peirce who is a Living Systems Learning Experience Designer, Facilitator, Advisor, and Coach.

Brad explained how he helps clients bring their sustainability strategies to life.

We discuss how leaders and teams develop regenerative mindsets, skills and capabilities. And much more...

I am sure you will enjoy this episode as much as I did.

The book Brad mentions is called Regenerative Leadership by Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Edd Moore who is a Primary School Teacher, National Award Winning Eco Coordinator.

During this episode he shared his amazing initiative in the primary school he works and how he empowers schools and their pupils to become Eco Ambassadors.

I am sure you will love this conversation as much as I did.

You can reach Edd via LinkedIn

In this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation I talk with Deborah McNeliswho is a Speaker and Author of The First 60 Days & The Neuro-Nurturing® Interaction Packets Series.

We cover a lot in this conversation but in particular:

The first 60 days of neural nurturing.
Self-perception and the brain.
How to make changes in the brain.
How to switch the focus.
The teenage brains

I am sure you will love this conversation and will learn lots. I know I did!

In this imperfectly perfect conversation I shine the light on an amazing innovator and disruptor in the field of education: Raya Bidshari CEO and Founder of School of Humanity

We started with Raya's journey into education and then Raya shared all about School of Humanity and its origin, the values of that underpin the school and how as a parent whose son attends School of Humanity, I have noticed that these values permeates absolutely everything the team does.

We also explored how we let go of the need for qualifications that are highly valued by universities and societies?

I am sure you will love every minute of this conversation. I know I did!

In this imperfectly perfect conversation with Stef Kuypers who is a TEDx Speaker, PhD student in Business Economics, Researcher in behavioural and monetary economics, Systems Thinker and Facilitator.

I first discovered Stef's work through his two TEDx talks:

Money, Behaviour and Society: the invisible Link

Man Made Money

We discussed Happonomy, an initiative originally started by Bruno Delepierre based on his research about happiness and well being. Its goal is to build an economy which has our well being at its core.

If you've ever wondered how we can create a different economy and system, then this conversation is definitely for you.

Today I talk with Matt Piercy who is a learner, international educator, author, and an explorer.

We covered so many points in this imperfectly perfect conversation.

Here are some of them:

A renewed sense of appreciation for place.
The importance of community and nature.
We all have a responsibility to choose our response.
The curse of knowledge and wisdom.
The scarcity mindset and the value of time.
The importance of community and quality relationships.
The difference between laminated values and lived values.
The importance of choosing our passions.
Empowering our children to be lifelong learners

His website: matthewpiercy.edublogs.org/

Today I share this wonderful conversation with John Rainford who came to talk to me about how much he cares about Education, Health and Wellbeing.

He shared how he created the Darwin Matrix and how he believes that we should all believe in ourselves.

He added that we all carry a lot of baggage around but what would happen if we let go of that baggage?

We would

go on leaps and bounds
bring a new mindset
think differently

When/if we think differently, we can do anything

Take a listen to the whole episode and let me know what your key take-aways are.

In this new episode, I am delighted to share my imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr Jayne-Louise Collins who is a Learning Designer; Researcher; Facilitator of Adult Learning.

We discussed the notion of partnering to learn and lead and regenerative change.

We explored other questions such as :

how do we prepare for change in a complex system?
how do we decide to partner with an organisation or not?
the importance of attending to what is happening right now
what are the possibilities for a learning culture?

Jayne-Louise also shared:

her web-like illustrations and connections drawn from her PhD work
how leadership and bio-leadership start will listening
how holding the space for silence is.
how noticing and SLOWING RIGHT DOWN become our ritual

Because "when we let the play between the inner and the outer become one, we can learn deeply about ourselves, in relationship and in interaction with others."

I am delighted to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Esther Montmany. She now works with family and young people. She shares with me how

she has been exploring the question: who am I?
How she worked inside so she could be happy.
And she also has put a lot a lot of energy in how to relate to others in a respectful way, that allows them to really be themselves too, especially with babies and young children and then of course, mainly to with her own family, with her own children, the father of her children.

She then shares how as I kept learning, she's been sharing her findings and sharing this path with other families.

A truly beautiful conversation with a wonderful human being.

You can reach out Esther Montmany via email: esthermontmany@gmail.com

In this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation, I spoke with the wonderful Christine Freeland who is the Founder of Boost Your Brilliance.

Christine shares with MWe about Leadership in tune with life. She worked for the National Park Service in the United States for 30 years. The last 6 years of her career, she became interested in leadership, feeling there was something missing in the way work and workers were managed. Very top down, bureaucratic, and hierarchical, with a mostly transactional way of working. She had an aha moment taking an unusual leadership course which involved connecting with her personal and work passions.

Something clicked, and she thought, this is the necessary ingredient, leadership with heart!!

Helping to lift employees up in an organization and support their talents and passions to accomplish amazing and creative ways of working together.

The two books Christine mentions at the end are:

Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatley
Regenerative Leadership by Laura Storm and Giles Hutchins

I am delighted to share this new episode with the wonderful Evelien Verschroeven who is a Business Mentor as well as an Educational and L&D Innovator, Edutech focused on educational Design and Relational Cognition.

Together we discussed how wisdom is born in interaction.

Evelien shared how to learn sustainably, we have to respect and connect with the wholeness:

with ourselves in all our different roles – the individual;
with our team in all its diversity – the collective;
with the ecosystem or market in all its opportunities and collaborations – relationships.

She also shared how her vision is based on her knowledge of pedagogy, anthropology and relational cognition and experience as a business mentor.

I am sure you will love this episode as much as I did.

In this conversation, I talk with Inez Aponte who is a Storyteller, an Educator and a Human Scale Development Consultant. She is the Founder of Growing Good Lives and Crazy Beautiful World.

We discussed how Crazy Beautiful World started with a conversation between a mother and a son and how it now connects teens and adults to explore – with open hearts and minds – the challenges of growing up in the 21st Century.

Growing Good lives asks the questions: how do we live in harmony with each other and the Earth?

I am sure that you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Link to the Oxfam report: https://www.oxfam.org/en/not-all-gaps-are-created-equal-true-value-care-work

The link to Megan Phelps- Roper Ted talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/megan_phelps_roper_i_grew_up_in_the_westboro_baptist_church_here_s_why_i_left?language=en

I am delighted to share another imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Maggie Favretti who is an author, CoDesign Thinker, Systems Change Maker, Educator, Climate Activist, Founder of Design Ed 4 Resilience.

During this episode we discuss her new book Learning in the Age of Climate Disasters which was released today - 13th December 2022 on the day we spoke.

Maggie outlined the contexts and causes of "futurephobia" and then offered Regenerative Learning strategies rooted in nature’s principles for repair and redesign. She explains how tending the soil and cultivating the roots of (re)generative power (Love, Personhood, People, Place, Purpose, Process, Positivity) help us disrupt degenerative hierarchical fragmentation.

You will love this conversation, I am sure!

You can reach her via email: maggie@designed4resilience.org

In this episode, I talk to Thomas Legrand who is a wisdom’s seeker, living in France next to Plum Village, the monastery of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Thomas has a PhD in economics and he works in the field of sustainability for UN agencies, NGOs and companies.

We discussed his new book Politics of being Thomas explained how he researched what wisdom traditions, in dialogue with science, can tell us about how to design a new model of development because the old one is broken.

This wisdom-based approach to politics offers a coherent vision across many different traditions and resonate with current emerging reflections. It puts human fulfillment at the center of our development efforts. In the 21st century, Thomas argues that this should now be the fulfillment of all living beings, including non-humans (plants, animals, ecosystems, mother earth, etc.). Human fulfillment is the realization of our full potential: our highest and truest being. Our highest being refers to the development of inner values, virtues, or qualities, while our truest being relates to the process of becoming who we really are. They both converge in the manifestation of our true interbeing or relational nature.

The politics of being conceptualization allows to identify an agenda for action with clear priorities and many concrete public policies in all sectors that can embody such politics and bring about the cultural evolution – as well as the human, social and environmental regeneration – we need.

In this conversation with Brandon Wetzstein who is Founder and Principle of In8 Create, I discuss the importance of play not just in the lives of our children and young people but also for us adults.

Brandon designs and facilitates workshops for teams using the LEGO Serious Play method. He explained all the benefits of this approach.

As a linguist, I really enjoyed exploring the tension between two words such as 'serious' and 'play' too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this joyful and fun conversation with Brandon. I am sure you will too!

I am delighted to share this new episode with Tim Klein who is an Educator, Writer, Researcher and Co-Founder of How To Navigate Life.

In this conversation, Tim and unpack unpack his new book co-written with Dr Belle Liang called How to Navigate Life where they advocate for cultivating a purpose mindset. They tell us that purpose is about playing the long game, pursuing something meaningful, about making a contribution.

Tim and I went on this wild tour all across the world of purpose and but when it boiled down to it, the practice of purpose is really really simple. The more we think about our lives in an intentional way, the more likely we are to find purpose in them.

There is so much synergy between my research and Tim and Belle's work that we had a truly empowering and fascinating discussion about trusting ourselves to figure it out, intentionally listening to ourselves and to what our strengths and values are.

The other book Tim mentioned at the end is The Path to Purpose by William Damon.

I highly recommend this episode. It was as Tim says at the end, a joy!

I am delighted to share this imperfectly perfect conversation with Dicken Bettinger who founded Three Principles Mentoring and who is currently working to train and develop 3 Principles Practitioners, as well as running seminars on-line and for the public in cities around the world.

Dicken is also co-author of 'Coming Home' which is how I felt when I first listened to his work online and when I spoke to him to record this conversation.

He told me how he encountered and discovered the work of Sydney Banks, a person graced with an enlightenment experience. He now insightfully deepen our understanding of the 3 Principles as taught by Sydney Banks.

An ever-deeper understanding of these Principles reveal them to be the sole source of all feelings and experiences, and is the key to raising anyone's overall level of well-being.

When our level of well-being rises, we experience less anxiety, less time feeling down, less stress, more enjoyment, a greater sense of aliveness, a light-heartedness, more confidence in our decisions, and a greater ease in all of our relationships.

Such a beautiful conversation! Thank you, Dicken!

Today I am delighted to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Satish Kumar. Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years.

We had a conversation about his amazing work but also about the recent publication of Regenerative Learning. Nurturing people and caring for the planet. We discussed how it was published for the 30th anniversary of Schumacher College, U.K., and how this is an outstanding collection of essays on a subject of urgent importance for our world, afflicted as it is by climate change, inequality, mass disadvantage, and pandemics.

The essential message of this book is that we need to abandon the evolutionary perspective on education which places humans at the top of the tree to exploit and despoil everything below us.

This is round 2 of a powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr Bern Nicholls.

We discuss how we create conditions for ourselves and young people to flourish, to have the courage to find our way and how we can contribute to the world. How we can be of service to the world, rather than this old paradigm of getting ourselves ready for work.

To do this we also need to be asking the question: who's at the table, particularly the decision making table, per se, particularly the discernment table? How can we discern and decide if our young people and our other key people in our community aren't there? Because we need diverse voices and we need to be disruptive. This will enable us to get everyone at the table authentically, not in a tokenistic way.

We schooled our children and young people for work rather than schooling for life.

Bern told me how many of the young people she worked with told her that young people they don't feel seen, don't feel heard and they don't feel valued.

Her dream is to start changing education to create the conditions for our young people to feel truly safe, to be integrated and part of the learning community.

Meg Wheatley's book - who do we choose to be

This week I am delighted to share my first conversation with Dr Bern Nicholls who is a passionate advocate for student empowerment and believes every student needs to be in the driver’s seat of their own learning.

Through her consultancy work in schools she is committed to providing practical, evidence-based ways for leaders and teachers to genuinely include student voice in the learning journey.

Integral to her facilitation is the creation of a safe space of trust, which support leaders and teachers to take time to reflect on their current practice and explore ways of leading and teaching that values the integrity of student voice in the learning equation.

I am sure you will love every minute of this amazing conversation.

The book Bern mentions isWho Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality | Claiming Leadership | Restoring Sanityby Margaret J Wheatley

This week, I am delighted to share my conversation and interview with Annabel Jeffcoate who helps primary teachers reduce anxiety & switch off through work-life balance coaching. Through her business Balance For Teachers she shares what work-life balance for teachers is all about.

Annabel shares her own personal story and provides us with some amazing tips on how to deal with our stress and anxiety as adults, whether we are teachers or parents.

Link to the book by Brené Brown - Atlas of the heart

Link to register for the 5 Day Challenge

I am so happy to share this powerful imperfctly perfect conversation with Curtis Ogden who is Senior Associate of the Interaction Institute for Social Change.

It was such a delight to be in conversation with Curtis and the hour flew by!

Curtis works with multi-stakeholder networks to strengthen and transform food public health, education, and economic development systems at local, state, regional, and national levels.

I highly recommend reading his blog posts for IISC which are simply transformational.

In addition to his work at IISC, Curtis is on the advisory board of EmbraceRace, a member of the Research Alliance for Regenerative Economics (RARE) and the Emerging Networks Governance Initiative (ENGI) and shares the Thomas W. Haas Professorship in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of New Hampshire where he is engaged in scholarship on the intersection of networks and racial equity.

I think you will love this conversation with Curtis. He told me that life is, when lived at its best truly a journey of learning throughout. The invitation is not simply to forget about our heads but to reclaim the rest of our bodies that are sources of knowledge, wisdom and emotion.

The three books recommended by Curtis are:

Sand Talk: How indigenous thinking can save the world

Braiding Sweetgrass

Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve : Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism

I am super excited to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Rachel Musson who is Director of Thoughtboxwho believes the most valuable thing we can learn in life is how to care for ourselves, each other and the planet.

Rachel and I discuss how as the world transforms, so must our education systems. It’s time to regenerate – to connect with the world and cultivate our innate human values so that we can be well in our lives, feel valued in our communities and live in balance with our planet.

A beautiful conversation. I highly recommend it - I know you will love it!

The book Rachel recommended is Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone

This week I am delighted to share my conversation with Dr Thom Markham who is considered one of the founding fathers of Project Based Learning, Thom Markham is an educator by trade, a positive psychologist by training, and a global entrepreneur dedicated to expanding educator mindsets in service to a positive future. n 2015, Thom established PBL Global to offer online courses and onsite professional learning for a transformative strengths-focused model of project based learning that integrates high quality project design, student centered growth, and social emotional well-being.

In this conversation we discussed how to let go of the traditional standard pathway and supposition in education that all will be fine and that instead we have to think about the personal capabilities of our children and how to best develop them and one way to do that is to honour who they are as individuals rather than asking them to fit into the system.

Thom's book can be found here: Redefining Smart

This week I am delighted to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Maggie Favretti. Maggie is a Co-Design Thinker, an Award-winning Educator, Mentor, and Founder of Design Ed 4 Resilience

We discussed how we can design Education and Lifelong learning to cultivate belonging and shape collaborative community responses to climate change and other complex issues. Maggie told me about how to learn about and tap into the power of life found in nature, self and community so that we can learn how to CO-Create the world we want to live in.

A truly beautiful and empowering conversation. I am sure you will love it too

The book recommended by Maggie at the end of our conversation can be found here: All We Can Save

I am delighted to share a conversation with Alan Williams, Director of ServiceBrand Global. This is round 2 as I spoke to Alan last year and I will be completely honest, this conversation over the summer was absolutely life altering for me.

In this episode Alan explains what a values driven life: it really means consciously making choices and decisions and behaving in line with what we understand is important to us. Instead of just reacting and responding to the environment around us, we become clearer about what was is important to you.

And the starting point is is the question, what is important to me? So what are my values?

I am sure you will love this conversation as much as I did.

Link to the book by David Bohm - Wholeness and the Implicate Order

Video of Dancing Guy - How To Start A Movement - Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy

Today I am extremely excited to be sharing this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Richard Barrett. Richard is Managing Director of Barrett Academy for the Advancement of Human Values.

Richard shares his breakthrough work - the Barrett Model. Inspired by Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and tested over more than two decades of real-world experience with thousands of organizations, the model identifies the seven areas that comprise human motivations. These range from basic survival at one end, to service and concern for future generations at the other.

In this episode Richard explains how as parents we can take a values-based approach and provide personal and societal transformation through self-expression. We teach our children and young people to fully self-express, connect and contribute.

Richard added that we should never ever sacrifice our self-expression because it is about exploring your gifts and talents. Connection is about self expression. And contribution is about service.

To explore and download the handbooks Richard mentions in the podcast - visit Humanity Awareness Initiative

I am delighted to share this new episode with the wonderful Max Girardeau who is Director and co-founder of The Visionaries.

In round 2 of our conversation, we talk about the work Max, Adrian and Nikki do. In this imperfectly perfect episode, Max shares their guiding inquiry: how to support regenerative leadership to emerge both in young people and in educators, and those working in the systems of education.

So what do Max and his co-founders mean by looking at our education system through an ecosystemic lens?

So let's make this episode, the reference conversation to spark some thinking and ideas for those that are looking to take that kind of approach but know that the way that we're doing things currently isn't serving

The book mentioned by Max at the end of the podcast is:Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner

Today I am beyond excited to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with two trailblazers in education Charlotte Hankin and Benjamin Freud.

I absolutely love the work that Charlotte and Benjamin are doing with Coconut Thinking to disrupt the way we educate and parent our children and young people in order to help individuals and organizations create, develop, stress test, and implement their ideas for sustainability and regenerative design.

I wanted to talk to them in particular about their WISR conceptual framework developed with Louka Parry, Education Futurist for the purpose spreading "awareness and action" on Regeneration.

Some other important website relevant to the conversation to check out:

WISR

The Learning Future

The books Charlotte and Benjamin mentioned at the end of the podcast are:

Jeremy LentWeb of Meaning

Fritjof CapraWeb of Life

With over two decades of experience at the forefront of international education, Craig Vezina is the founder & President of the Z-17 Collective (formerly ZSchool: The International School of Social Entrepreneurship) & co-founder of The Spaceship Academy.

We talk about what it means to empower people to discover and find out their meaning or purpose so that they don't feel at the mercy of bigger powers. How do people find their meaning and be part of something substantive, forward thinking and real?

The book Craig recommends at the end of the podcast can be found here: Guns, Germs and Steel

Today I return from a truly invigorating 4 week-break and I am delighted to start again with a powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Jessica Cavallaro and Roslynn Jackson who are both based in Florida.

They are both educators, innovators and change makers in education. In this episode, they share how they both discovered Agile as a solution to keep their students connected, collaborating and creating while distance learning and it transformed their pedagogy.

If you are interested in innovative ways to approach your teaching, this is the podcast for you!

Enjoy!

Here are the links to connect with them:

Website: www.the-agile-mind.com

Teachers Lounge: www.l-eaf.org/teachers_lounge

Email addresses:

jessica@the-agile-mind.com

rosjackson@the-agile-mind.com

Why are things the way the are? And how can we make them better?

These are two of the questions that Gary asks himself every day and that he shared with me during this powerful imperfectly perfect new conversation on the podcast.

We also talked about flourishing at the individual and organisational, community and societal level and Gary's own journey as an educator and father over the last 30 years.

Here are some of the information Gary shared with us.

Books and other Readings that been formative for him:

Awakening Genius in the Classroom by Thomas Armstrong

“On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings” by William James

“Only Connect: The Goals of a Liberal Education”, by William Cronon

The Path to Purpose by William Damon

A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Oech

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman

(as well as the documentary video here)

Other readings:

Anything on the RENVISIONED Medium site created by Prof. Erin Raab

Anything on Monte Syrie’s “Project 180” blog.

Anything on the “Teachers Going Gradeless” website maintained by Arthur Chirarivalli and Aaron Blackwelder.

Anything done by Chris McNutt and Nick Covington for the Human Restoration Project.

Gary's own blogs/websites:

Only Connect (Personal musings, mostly on education, design, design thinking, creativity, etc.
NOVA Lab (a site for a class I co-create with students. It is based on self-determined, purpose-based learning)

Connect with Gary on social media:

Twitter--@Ed_by_design

Instagram -- @pvnovalab

Youtube -- Garreth Heidt

A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative

I am absolutely thrilled to be sharing this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Max Girardeau from The Visionaries.

Max and I talk about his amazing work and vision - how do we help create nurturing school communities and to support young people into healthy adulthood.

We also discuss the importance of self-care so that we can care for the planet and serve others.

I loved every minute of it. I am sure you will too!

Here are some of the references that Max mentioned in our conversation and said he would share with us too:

Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft
Bill Plotkin, Wild Mind
Steven Foster & Meridith Little, The Book of The Vision Quest
Frederic LaLoux, Reinventing Organisations
Richard Louv, Nature DEficit Disorder
Toko-Pa Turner, Belonging

I am delighted to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Jenny Finn who is the Founder of Springhouse.

Jenny and I talk about how we can create conditions for vitality to thrive in the individual and collective.

What happens when an intergenerational learning community work towards a vision of regenerative culture where all people are connected to the vitality within themselves, their community, and the Earth?

Listen to find out more

I am delighted to share this new episode with Uncle Sele - Founder, Trees and Pillars Online school for Values, character and Child mentoring.

Uncle Sele is a Values and Character Coach Model and Mentor to Children. We discussed what values are and why they are important and what the role of parents and adults are.

I am sure you will enjoy this conversation - I know I did!

In this episode I share the wonderful work of Dr Elizabeth Lindsey, Nat Geo Explorer and UN Visionary.

Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey is a global strategic advisor and the first Polynesian Explorer and female Fellow in the history of the National Geographic Society. Her keen insights are helping to reshape Western perspectives on global leadership.

Her commitment to conserving traditional knowledge and wisdom is critical for the complexity of these times. Elizabeth applies this intelligence to help leaders and organizations navigate today’s challenges.

A must listen to!

This week I am delighted to share my conversation with Dr Pauline Crawford - The conversation maker

We talk about her work and how we can activate conscious leadership, lead authentic success, elevate performance through Magical Conversations.

We also discuss how to expand relationship potential between #Men&Women #AuthenticHarmony#AuthenticPower

You can watch the video: Bears and Birds -Tale of Two Cities - Who's in Charge? here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKsqGgyhuow&t=13s

I am delighted to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr Benjamin Freud - co founder of Coconut Thinking, which is a website where we post articles and have a podcast. They are trying to get people together to have conversations about how we can move beyond the system of education that we have today.

Benjamin explains that revolutions by definitions don't happen at the core, because the system doesn't want to kill itself. So the revolutions have been on the fringe. He explains the mechanistic versus the living systems approach and how they determine how approach to nature.

We are not beings, we are becomings.

A fascinating conversation about how we can bring about change and what we can do from an individual perspective so ALL can flourish.

I am delighted to share this conversation with Dr Charles Margerison, Founder of Amazing People Schools, a chartered psychologist and member of the Royal Institution. He has been researching the lives of Amazing People for over 20 years.

I talked to Charles about how by sharing these stories we can unlock the amazing potential of every student through their award-winning, whole-school approach to character and well-being.

A fascinating imperfectly perfect conversation!

I am delighted to share another powerful imperfectly perfect conversation. This time with the wonderful Christa Campsall who is the Teacher and Author of "My Guide Inside: Knowing Myself and Understanding My World" K12 Curriculum.

Christa introduced the 3 principles by Sydney Banks and we discussed the importance of discovering the wisdom within and the fact that we all have an innate wellbeing. We also talked about the importance for our children, young people and ourselves to know ourselves and understand our world.

happyteachers #happylearners #myguideinside

I am delighted to share this fantastic interview with Neil (Dr Values) Hawkes who is Founder of Values-based Education VbE

Neil and I had such a powerful and magical conversation about what it means to be a values-based school, institution or organisation and why it is important if we want to reach true quality education.

A must listen to!

In this episode, I share my powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Stephanie Sewell who is Independent Education Coach and Consultant | Homeschooling and Unschooling Support | Speaker | Advocate for Children's Right to Individualized Education.

Stephanie told me howshe helps:

children and teens to look at their education through a new lens - a lens of ownership. Owning their learning allows young people to build engagement, happiness and confidence in all aspects of life
parents to see their kids, and their kids' learning, through this lens too. This allows parents to fully support their child’s educational journey.

We then discussed the impact on the children and teens, the parents and the families as a whole.

A truly magical conversation that I am sure you will enjoy as much as I did!

In this amazing episode, I speak with Ulcca Joshi Hansen - author of The Future of Smart: How our education systems needs to change to help all young people thrive and Chief Program Officer at Grantmakers for Education.

In our conversation Ulcca told me how we all have our sphere of influence. Education belongs to all of us. Young people grow into the adults who shape the world. And so education is all of our responsibility. We can all ask ourselves: what is my sphere of influence in this?

She added that it is an intentional choice. We're at a moment where we have no choice but to make a shift. It's both big and small. We have to do this and we can do it if each of us is really intentional about our sphere of influence and doing the small things we can do every day and collectively.

You can check out Ulcca's work on her website Educating Potential

The Future of Smart: How Our Education System Needs to Change to Help All Young People Thrive

I am delighted to share this sensational conversation with Joanna Merrett who is a Home Education Researcher, Early Years Professional and an Elective Home Education Support Consultant.

We have a conversation about her research on home education and how we stop thinking about school as being the only option and how we can re-imagine education, learning and work that works for us all as a family.

We discuss the one-size fits all versus a personalized and individualized education.

I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did!

I am delighted to share this fantastic episode with Dr Rachael Jefferson-Buchanan who is a Lecturer in Human Movement Studies (Health and PE) and Creative Arts at Charles Sturt University, and International Consultant, Speaker, and Life Poet.

Rachael shares her work and research and why she believes it is important to develop self-awareness as well as well as being kind - to oneself and to the young people in our care.

I am sure you will enjoy this as much as I did!

What happens when your child suffers a really serious brain injury and his changed and unable to attend school? In this wonderful episode, I talk with Nicola Leyland - a mother, a dog walker and home educator who is also a part-time student on the Msc in Mindfulness at Aberdeen University.

In this conversation, Nicola and I share our passion for mindfulness - its link to autonomy and agency in education and the importance of living 'in the now' for our children and ourselves.

I really recommend this episode! So powerful!

This is the second conversation I have with the wonderful Shannon Ross. He is Executive Director of The Community. Partner at Paradigm Shyft, Reentry Strategies and Consulting. Founding member of the Univ. of Reentry. Advisor for Sia Precision Education. Emotional IQ expert & jokester extraordinaire.

Shannon shares his journey, what books have inspired him to change your mental models and how much we need to find ways to sustainably challenge ourselves.

Today I am so happy to share this amazing conversation with the fabulous PJ Jackson also known as the JoyOwl. PJ is a Soul Empowerment Coach who creates breakthroughs for high performers looking to level-up.

Author, influencer, difference maker, PJ brings a positive energy like no other, she is truly one-of-a-kind! A creative force that can influence change, PJ is making a difference, one moment at a time. Join PJ’s Inner Circle at www.PJJackson.com

PJ shares the stories behind her two books - The Labyrinth Influence: Awaken the Wisdom Within and Sophie G Wanderlin: One of a Kind

In this episode PJ and I talk about #kindness, #wellbeing, #empowerment, #mindfulness, and #conciousliving

In this episode I have a wonderful conversation with Thomas Schecter co-founder of MuchSmarter and Gavin Hepherd-Hall, Managing Director of Much Smarter UK Ltd.

They both explain how we can help frustrated, stressed-out young people learn how to learn and the 3 habits of thinking, feeling and learning.

Enjoy!

In this episode I am very lucky and privileged to speak to Dr Peggy Kern who is Associate Professor at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education.

You can check out Peggy's website here. Peggy and I talk about flourishing and thriving. We discuss who thrives in life, why, and what enhances or hinders healthy life trajectories. We also discuss the synergy between my research and her work and the question of individual, group/community and societal wellbeing.

The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education put together by Peggy that she mentions at the end of the call can be downloaded for free here

Today I am delighted to be sharing this interview with the wonderful Penny Pullan who is an expert, speaker and author as well as a mentor and consultant in Virtual and Hybrid Leadership and Creative Collaboration. You can check out her website Making Projects work here. Penny will help you take projects from hard slog to creative collaboration.

We talk about how to become good leaders and virtual leaders and Penny takes us through her model.

We also discuss how leadership has changed and the model we need is a 'distributed leadership' which enables to facilitate a network of people.

If you want to find out more, go and buy Penny's second edition of her book 'Virtual Leadership - Practical Strategies for Success with Remote or Hybrid Work and Teams.' it's officially out tomorrow:

https://www.koganpage.com/product/virtual-leadership-9781398604278

Today I am delighted to share this wonderful conversation with Willy Wijnands who is the Creator & Founder of eduScrum® as well as co-founder of the worldwide initiative "Agile in education".

As you will hear, Willy is a passionate chemistry and physics teacher on the Ashram College in Alphen aan den Rijn and Aikido teacher.

Willy shares about his journey and how he created eduscrum, we discuss the values underpinning it all and the fact that he gets pushback around students' agency and freedom to choose what they do.

I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I am delighted to be sharing this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Dr John Cottone. John is a Psychologist, Researcher, Clinical Assistant Professor and Columnist for Psychology Today

We discussed so many topics: mental health versus mental ill-health and the 4 types of depression, the Tao Te Ching for parents, how best to support our young people when 25 is the new 18 and we need to adapt our expectations and consider that boys tend to lag behind in childhood. and finally why getting in a top university shouldn't be the end all and be all.

LINKS:

Article: What Today's Teens and Teslas Have in Common

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Article: Why 25 Could Be the New 18 (1 of 2)

Article: Why 25 Could Be the New 18 (2 of 2)

Note: The first article talks about the phenomenon of extended brain development into the mid-20s; the second article offers recommendations for parents.

Article: Four Types of Depression

Ted Talk: Andrew Solomon - Depression: The Secret We ShareArticle: The Idea of Existential Depression-----

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Ted Talk: Brene Brown - The Power of Vulnerability

The Tao Te Ching: Translated by Benjamin Hoff

Looking Beyond Ivy League Hype - The College Solution:

https://thecollegesolution.com/looking-beyond-ivy-league-hype/

This week it's conversation two with the wonderful Olly Newton. If you haven't listened to our first conversation, you can check it out here: Episode 56.

In this episode Olly and I talk about his recent work on Rethinking Assessment and you can read Olly's blog post I mention in our chat here.

Olly and I talk about the importance of all coming together to push for change and the holistic element.

This week I am delighted to share my powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Hema Patel on the importance to love who we be and what we do in order to express ourselves authentically.

Hema is a Hypnotherapist and Coach who also delivers Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT). She supports rebellious growth seekers, like you, to LEVEL UP and ENJOY IT!!!

She tells me how much she believes that self-love and self-expression are gateways to abundance.

This week I am delighted to share a conversation with Dr Chris Bagley about his amazing work as an educational psychologist whose core motivation is to co-develop psychologically healthy education systems alongside young people, families, professionals and creative thinkers.

We talk about his research as part of his role as Director of Research at States of Mind, and how he is part of an innovative team of practitioners dedicated to gaining young people's insights about education and placing their voices at the centre of reform.

A must listen to if you believe in the power of autonomy and in promoting reform by listening to young people.

This podcast interview is another powerful imperfectly perfect conversation. This time with the wonderful Bea Herbert.

Bea founded States of Mind in 2017, driven by a desire to create change in how our society speaks about and supports experiences of emotional distress. Bea is the Project Manager and Lead Facilitator at States of Mind.

We talk about Bea's work - co-designing initiatives that promote young people’s wellbeing which draw on her training in Psychosynthesis Psychotherapy. Such an inspirational chat. Take a listen!

I am thrilled to be sharing this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with the wonderful Becky Carlzon. She is an Educator, enabler. Co-creator of Learning Pioneers, revolutionising Professional Learning. Nearly award-winning author, Powering Up Children.

If you wonder what happens when two women who are passionate about education and change in education come together and have an in-depth conversation - take a listen!

You can find Becky on Twitter @Beckycarlzon and Linkedin

Today I am delighted to share this wonderful conversation with Dr Abide Zenenga who is the co-founder of Riverside Education and a Special Education Needs Consultant.

I visited Abide and his team in October 2021 and I was so impressed by his work and his school settings.

I think you will thoroughly enjoy this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with him.

I am delighted to start the New Year by sharing this amazing conversation with the wonderful Alice Sheldon. She is the Founder of Needs Understanding.

Alice's book recently came out - it's called 'Why weren't we taught this at school? - the surprisingly simple secret to transforming life's challenges'.

We talk about 'being busy', life and how we can get all of our needs met.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am sure you will too!

In our previous episode, we talked about the importance of our wellbeing as mothers. In this conversation, I talk with the wonderful Florence (Ukpabi) Okwusoguand we discuss the importance of teachers' wellbeing.

Florence empowers burnt out teachers to thrive by becoming the Boss of their Health, Happiness & Life. You can check out her website here: Aligned Flow.

We cannot have a flourishing education and flourishing young people if their teachers and educators are unwell. Flourishing education = flourishing students and flourishing adults in their lives and that includes their teachers. Florence talks about her experience and shares tips and advice on how to look after our wellbeing as teachers/educators.

Enjoy!

This week I am delighted to share this powerful conversation with Dr Dani Hristova about a very important topic which is often ignored and certainly not discussed enough (in my humble opinion) and which can clearly affect our wellbeing and health as mothers (and as a result the rest of the family): menopause.

Dani is a Senior Clinical Physician and Medical Advisor with a deep interest in Women's Health. She is an expert trainer, mentor and clinical trial specialist. In this podcast she shares why it's important to seek professional help early and the potential impact of menopause in our lives now and for the future.

Listen here!

In this episode, I talk to the wonderful Rob Hopkins - Rob is a cofounder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network, and the author of The Transition Handbook, The Transition Companion, The Power of Just Doing Stuff, 21 Stories of Transition and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. Rob also hosts a podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘ which invites listeners to send in their “what if” questions and then explores how to make them a reality.

In this podcast, we discuss what would happen if we reimagined education and if we unleashed the power of imagination to create the future of education we want. A very powerful chat indeed!

In this episode I am delighted to be talking with Alan Williams, Director of ServiceBrand Global Ltd. We use the values' lense to look at the word 'education' and we discuss the question: 'what's the purpose of education'?

A deep dive into the meaning of these word and the importance of going beyond surface level assumptions.

In this episode I am delighted to follow up the two powerful episodes with Rosina Dorelli with a powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Zach Reznichek, Co-Founder at Da Vinci Life-Skills | Author of Teacher-Gamer Handbook.

We talk about the Da Vinci Life Skills pilot in Bali but also about Zach's work and his book - the Teacher Gamer Handbook and how Role-Playing Games in Schools helps build literacy, bolster confidence and ignite imaginations.

Enjoy!

I am delighted to be sharing Part I of this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Rosina Dorelli, Founder/Director at Da Vinci Life-Skills, Design Technology & Art teacher and Homerton Changemaker Ambassador.

In this second episode, we hear all about Rosina's specific plans with Da Vinci Life Skills which showcases a model for the future of education.

Enjoy!

I am delighted to be sharing Part I of this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Rosina Dorelli, Founder/Director at Da Vinci Life-Skills, Design Technology & Art teacher and Homerton Changemaker Ambassador.

In this first episode, we hear all about Rosina's experience and what led her to create the Da Vinci Life Skills which showcases a model for the future of education. I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy this chat.

In this podcast interview I talk with Riyad Maroof HassanAuthor, Youngest Writer of Assam, Talk Show Host. Founder - The Clippers & TCCCI & LOS Podcast Host - A Sketch Of The Sky. History & STEM Analyst, Global Child Rights Ambassador, Poet, Singer, Essayist.

Another powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with a young writer and author. We discussed about how young people can co-create with adults and the importance of imagination and creativity in education.

Today I share my conversation with Mike McCarthy. Mike is a Journalist, Media consultant. Campaigner for mental health awareness and change.

I often say that all the people I speak to reshape who I am. This podcast is one of them. A real life changer which moved me to the core of my being.

Listen to Mike who shares his story, the loss of their beautiful son Ross to suicide and his mission and campaign for mental health awareness and change so that we can have better mental health in the UK (and beyond).

In this episode, I talk with Mike Gilmour who is Principal of Knightsbridge House International School in Singapore and Author of The Power of Rapport. Mike and I had such a heart-warming conversation about the importance of human connections and what little steps we can all take to bring more rapport in our lives in order to build positive relationships and a sense of belonging.

The Power of Rapport: A Practical Guide to Build Trust, Increase Productivity and Develop Authentic Connections

I am really excited to be sharing this conversation with the wonderful Sharath Jeevan. Sharath talks to us about his amazing book 'Intrinsic: A manifesto to re-ignite our inner-drive. I loved the book and I recommend it highly.

I asked Sharath a lot of questions around intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation and their implications in the field of education.

You can find out more about Sharath's work on his web site Intrinsic-lab

I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Intrinsic: How we can re-ignite our inner drive in a rewards-based world

In this new episode, I talk with the wonderful Liz Keable and her amazing work as Teaching and Learning Specialist.

We discuss metacognition in education and in practice as well as success, neuroscience and why it is important to think about our thinking.

I loved this conversation and I am sure you will too.

I am delighted to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Zofie Lloyd-Kucia, Happiness Coach and Founder of Relax Me Happy.

We discuss the importance of presence in our lives and what we can do to be free from anxiety.

I am delighted to share this conversation with Greg Satell who is best selling author of Mapping Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age as well as Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change.

In this podcast Greg explains how creating true change is never easy. The status quo is, almost by definition, well entrenched and never gives up without a fight.

Greg also explains how to truly change the world or even just your little corner of it, you don’t need a charismatic leader or a catchy slogan. What you need is a cascade: small groups that are loosely connected but united by a common purpose.

It's a very powerful conversation and anybody who wants to see change in education will enjoy it tremendously.

You can connect with Greg on Linked in as well as Twitter

His websites are - Digitaltonto and GregSatell.com

Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change

Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age

I am super excited to be sharing this conversation with Richard Fransham.

Richard told me how early in his teaching career, he read “Education and Ecstasy” by George Leonard and that set him on a course to becoming a strong advocate for self-directed learning. He now focuses his advocacy on the mental health of young people, which has two core ingredients: social justice and self-determination. He explains how these ingredients form the basis to self-directed learning.

Richard has initiated The Youth Rights Dayto provide youth and their supporters with the opportunity to show the power of their combined voices.

You can find out more by checking Richard's website

I am delighted to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Gilda Scarfe who is a researcher, keynote speaker, global consultant, and positive education and leadership expert. You can find out more about her work here - Positive Ed

We talk about how we (parents, educators, leaders) can empower young people to be the architect of their success. Gilda shares her work around mental toughness, self-compassion, self acceptance and resilience. Enjoy!

I am delighted to be sharing this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Bryn Llewellyn who is the founder of TAGTIV8 and Co-Director of Move & Learn.

We discuss many topics and in particular how we need to incorporate movement into the daily lives of our children and young people (and ours) in order to develop critical thinking, curiosity and empathy.

I would highly recommend that you also watch Bryn's TED Talk (with Andy Daly-Smith) on how physically active learning combines movement and learning and how initial research proves positive impacts on academic performance, classroom behavior and cognition.

In this episode, I speak with Michael Stewart, Founder of ESP thinking.

Michael tells me about the ESP range of products are aimed at providing a new set of solutions to some of the major problems facing education. We know that more and more is being asked of our teachers and so Michael and his business are looking at as many ways of achieving this as possible. This is not following trends, it is creating them.

Advance warning! This episode is for adults only and contains a fair amount of swearing.

In this episode, I share the very 'raw' & 'honest' conversation I had with Charles Young who created LACES - an educational programme which was developed by Charles in 1994. It offers educational and practical support to vulnerable young people of all ages.

Since 1994, Charles has spoken to thousands of young people on the subject of Drugs and alcohol and how a life of crime can affect individuals, their family and friends, and the victims. Charles' message is clear and simple "Don't Follow a criminal path as I did".

I am delighted to be sharing the amazing work done by The Global Goals Centre, a UK based education charity creating exciting engaging experiences that inspire learning and action on climate and equality in our everyday lives. Jenny Foster, the Project Lead for the Global Goals Centre explains how they create their own projects and amplify the work of others, inspired by the UN Global Goals.

I am thrilled to be sharing another powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with a young man - Jake Donziger. We talk about his project Blaze and how Jake is trying to spark change in education through innovation.

Enjoy!

In this episode, I have a wonderful conversation with Praja Tickoo and we discuss his business Impact the Future, an organization dedicated to empowering students to problem-solve through the process of design thinking.

We talk about the importance of empowering young people and giving them a voice and platform.

A powerful conversation!

In this episode, I speak with Michael Lawrence, Veteran Teacher, Education and Music Writer about what we can learn from Finland in order to change the face of education and ensure that our young people truly become life long learners.

We talk about Michael's book - Testing 3, 2, 1: What education can learn from Finland

Testing 3, 2, 1: What Australian Education Can Learn From Finland

I am so happy to share this conversation with May-Ling Thomas who is a home-educator and a coach. This is our third conversation as we have become very good friends and in this episode we ask (amongst many other things):

what would happen if we stopped viewing the situation in education from the lense of 'problem'?
Can we reform education one powerful conversation at a time?

May-Ling wanted me to clarify two things she said in the podcast - Nikki O'Rourke & Natasha Gossett created this great self-directed project called Curiouser & Co, but she referenced them as the idea holders of a kind of learning community that is actually just Nikki's. Nikki set up Curious Minds which is an existing Home Educating group in Raynes Park/Wimbledon.

The 2nd thing was the democratic school she mentioned was the East Kent Sudbury School. Kezia Cantwell-Wright set it up and wrote that article that said we should support existing projects if at all possible.

This is the article: https://eastkentsudburyschool.org.uk/democracy/thinking-of-starting-a-democratic-school/

Enjoy

I am delighted to share this fabulous imperfectly perfect conversation with Steve Hall who is Senior Lecturer in Education at Staffordshire University with an interest in community-led learning and a work-based, apprenticeship route into teaching.

You can connect with Steve on Twitter.

We discuss the importance of research-led change and why it's important, the concept of 'white space' for creativity and innovation and finally why trust, equity and a shared language for learning are vital.

In this episode I talk with Professor Paula Caligiuri - we discuss her latest book 'build your cultural agility' and the link I have found between flourishing individuals and the fact that I believe they are culturally agile.

You can find out more about Paula's work by checking her website Skiilify

Her guide to building cultural agility and the assessment can be found here myGiide

Build Your Cultural Agility: The Nine Competencies of Successful Global Professionals

I am so happy to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Alex Khost. He talks about Flying Squads, the project he is currently working on. Alex is a father and Youth Rights advocate. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Tipping Points, the book and magazine publisher for the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, and founder of Voice of the Children, promoting and facilitating art and activism for young people. He works at the homeschooling coop, Brooklyn Apple Academy.

A must listen-to if you are interested in Youth Rights!

In the podcast, Alex also mentions the work done by Akilah Richards called Raising Free People

This is an incredible conversation with Angela Karanja who is an Adolescent Psychologist & Parenting Teenagers Expert. In this episode, you will learn more about Angela and will discover how she can help you build strong bonds with your teenager based on honesty and trust, so that they actually wants to listen to you.

You can connect with Angela here:

Website: Raising Teenagers

Linkedin: Raising Teenagers

Twitter @angelakaranja

Facebook @angelakaranja

Facebook page @raisingremarkableteenagers

Instagram @raisingremarkableteenagers

This episode was a real joy and pleasure to record. I was very lucky to chat with the wonderful Kristen Helmsetter, author of Coffee Self-Talk - 5 minutes a day to start living your magical life as well as romance novels under the pen name Brisa Starr.

If you have heard of the importance our our mind chatter and inner dialogue and want to develop new and healthier habits, then this book (and this podcast conversation) is for you.

You can follow Kristen on Instagram - Coffee Self Talk page and join her Facebook group

Coffee Self-Talk: 5 Minutes a Day to Start Living Your Magical Life

In this episode, I have a fascinating conversation with Alison Kriel who shares her experience as Head Teacher and CEO who has both turned around a failing school within a deprived area of London from the bottom 1% to the top 0.1% in 3 years and then sustained the success for a further 6 years.

Alison also shares why she believes that school staff know their school best and why she has launched a professional platform where we can celebrate, connect, share and collaborate to make #EverySchoolAGreatSchool

In this episode, I speak with Brandi Heather - Award-Winning Disability and Inclusion Educator, Consultant, Business Owner of Amped2play, Play Coach, Inspirational Speaker, and Canadian Best Selling Author of Return To Play: Rebuilding Resilience, Risk and Reconnection.

You can also buy it if you are in France and Germany

Brandi and I talk about how together, we build diverse and inclusive cultures. We also discuss the importance of play. Brandi's business was created as an answer to the critical need in business, health, and education for solutions to account for our loss of physical, cognitive, and social ability to adapt in times of change.

This conversation was so empowering for me and I am delighted to be able to share it with you. Enjoy!

Return To Play: Rebuilding Resilience, Risk and Reconnection

In this episode, I speak with Dr James Mannion, Director, Rethinking Education. Specialists in research-informed school improvement and professional development. We discuss all the fantastic work James has been doing, including his Rethinking Education Mighty Network and Rethinking Education podcast.

You can also join his Rethinking Education Facebook Group and Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations.

His book Fear is the Mind Killer co-written with Kate McAllister is available on Amazon

Fear Is The Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time - and how to make it work for your pupils

In this episode, I talk about Dr Laura Biggart, a Senior Lecturer in Social Science Research and Psychology in the School of Psychology and the Director of Enterprise and Extermal Relations for the School of Psychology. Laura is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

We talk about the difference between emotional intelligence and emotional resilience but we also explore Laura's work: The Team as Secure Base draws from social workers’ experiences and their articulation of what helps create trust as a foundation for effective teamworking.

A fascinating conversation - I highly recommend it.

This episode was so easy and fun to record - David Anderson or Pep the Poet. His mission is to ‘scatter sunshine one poem at a time.’ David is the easiest man to talk to and so humble. We talk about the books he has written: poetry for children, but also for student teachers and educators.

We also discuss fear and love and why fear tells lies.

A must listen to!

I am really delighted to be sharing this wonderful conversation with Graham Frost - a speaker who helps young people make better choices and heart-shaped decisions.

In this wonderful episode Graham shares his own heart-shaped decisions which include leaving his whole family behind at the age of 17 to start a new life, and just two years later, getting away from a life of petty crime after a spell in a Young Offenders' Institution.

Such a powerful conversation!

I am very happy to share this conversation with Helen Clare, she is a former primary school teacher. She's also a senior yoga teacher, founder of Class Yoga. Her vision is to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of children globally, no matter their background, by enabling teachers, parents and carers to offer excellent quality yoga and mindfulness for them, at school and at home.

We discuss why we, as adults we are role models for our young people and why it is so important to look after own wellbeing so that our young people be well too.

I am delighted to share this extremely powerful conversation with Dave McPartlin, Head teacher of Flakefleet Primary as well as BBCbitesize presenter. Britain's Got Talent Golden Buzzer Finalist, Happiest school 2018 and School of the Year runner up 2019.

David share with me why happy children = happy learners. We did talk about BGT but we also went much deeper and discussed the importance of mindset and equity in education.

Have a listen! I loved it and so did Dave!

I am delighted to be sharing this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Raheen Fatima. Raheen is a 13 year-old girl from Pakistan. She is a peace and SDGs activist, standup-comedian, Theater Actress and Interviewer.

Her goal is to empower People around her to foster the global peace.

Enjoy our conversation! I loved it. I am sure you will too.

I am so happy to be sharing this powerful conversation with Yumna Hussen, co-author of Struggles of War. Yumna is a multi-hyphenate growth enthusiast, committed to influencing transformational change to ensure marginalised young people’s voices are directly embedded in policy making.

She is the elected Deputy Member of Youth Parliament for Birmingham and the Chair of Birmingham Aspiring Youth Council, representing 200,000+ young people in UK Youth Parliament.

I would recommend you listen to Yumna's TED talk. In this conversation, we talk how it is time to grow our own collective resilience. Now's the time that we need to reevaluate our education. How now is the time that we need to remember that we as individuals have far more impact when we give ourselves the permission to seek a renewed sense of possibility for our own communities. When we work together, when we collaborate, in which we can actually develop ourselves into active citizens who want to create a difference, you are reimagining the systems that we live in with a limitless potential, and we have the agency to redefine our lives on our own terms.

A must listen to!

Struggles of War

I am delighted to share this conversation with Lottie Cook, activist, public speaker, writer and A-level student who is also part of pupil power.

Lottie tells me why we need to listen to young people and act on what they are sharing and saying to us.

A truly powerful and magical conversation.

This week is all about young people and we start this Monday with Olivia Barnes. She is 17, lives in the US and describes as a self-directed learner, a lover of learning.

Listen to what she has to say about her experience. I was so impressed by her eloquence and her ability to express herself so clearly and effectively. You will understand why she calls herself a lover of learning.

I have found a new hero!

In this episode, I talk with Professor Guy Claxton. We discuss his new book 'The Future of Teaching: And the Myths That Hold It Back' and why it's time for the educational slugfest to stop. He also told me why the search for a new model of education – one that is genuinely empowering for all young people – is serious and necessary.

A must listen for anybody who wants to see change in education!

The Future of Teaching

I am so happy to share this conversation with Heather MacTaggart creator of the Unschooling school movement - let's make school fit the learner.

Heather is a mother of four children, passionate about making the education system work for everyone. She is also Founder and Executive Director of Classroom Connections, on-site leader, Change It Up initiatives within Alberta First Nations communities. She is the co-author Overschooled but Undereducated, with John Abbott in the UK

Overschooled but Undereducated: How the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents

This episode is an outstanding conversation with Derry Hanham. He shares with me about how in his twenty years as a teacher in English state secondary schools he always tried to create environments where students could make choices about and take care control of their own learning in a democratic and rights respecting context. We talk about his book Another Way is possible - hardcopy or ebook

Derry has been described as a 'bridge person' who tries to bring about dialogue between the mainly private democratic education movement with its 500+ schools worldwide and state or public school systems.

I highly recommend this episode.

This is a beautiful conversation with Elsa Torres about equity and inclusion. I highly recommend it. It was such a powerful chat.

Elsa tells us to:

be gentle on ourselves
there's always a story behind any behaviour
build empathy for each child
serve all children

Wonderful to finish the week with this powerful interview with Scott Van Beck who is co-founder of The Education Game.

We talk about our importance and role as parents, how we can become learning coaches instead and start asking questions instead of telling our children what to do.

A short conversation with Beau McCoy, Founder and CEO at SOLcademy. We talk about his new educational short-format video platform, distraction-free & ad-free and the benefits it brings to learners, parents and educators.

Today, I am particularly excited to share my interview with Shannon Ross. He is Founder and Executive Director of The Community. Emotional intelligence expert. HIGH-motor, highly-principled entrepreneur and Reentry/reform consultant.

Shannon truly inspired me during this interview and we talked about his experience in prison, how it changed him and all about his work on Reentry and reform consultant. A truly empowering conversation.

I am very excited to be sharing this episode with Emmanual Ponchon, who is Multicultural educator - eduScrum Rep / Trainer for Spain and France. Languages & Effective Communication Trainer / Coach.

In this episode, Emmanuel tells us about eduScrum and his amazing work with the Treehouse but we also discuss what it would be like if we considered education as an ecosystem. What happens when we create a safe and nurturing environment? If we fostered trust in ourselves and our young people and most importantly if we developed more connections: with yourself, with the people around you, with your emotions with the world, and with nature (which is very important)?

Today I talk with Seth Fleischauer, President & founder at Banyan Global Learning; founder at Lingoloop; expert in video conferencing, international teaching, SEL & K-12 online education.

We talk about his amazing work at the intersection of technology, language, culture and social and emotional learning.

Seth invites us to:

consider what we are learning right now
analyse and bring consciousness of that process for ourselves
ask ourselves: how can knowing that help me help young people more.

We often say that our schooling system is not working. Well today, I am going to share the amazing work done by the wonderful Wayne Haworth who is Principal at Hampton Park Secondary College in Australia.

Wayne shares his journey and his innovative thinking and approach and why we want young people to be lifelong lovers of learning.

A must listen for those who have lost faith in the current schooling system.

This week, I talk to Kathryn Pratt - Founder at Soweni (Cornish for Thrive) where we discuss the origins of this empowering non-profit, which is evolving education for the 21st Century in the Age of Corona.

It’s all about Ecosystem Learning where the traditional boxes of family life, work life & school are blown apart and education becomes an exciting, inquiry driven, supported open journey for everyone.

I am sure you will find this episode a fascinating listen!

This week I talk with Lee Pace, Deputy Headteacher who specialises in pedagogy and curriculum design. We talk about the concept of cognitive load, cognitive overload and how great curriculum design, tailored to the needs of pupils, complimented by research informed pedagogy will lead to amazing outcomes, giving learners hope for the future.

Today, I talk with Ava Shabnum Hasan, LSE graduate and former teacher who worked in several state and independent schools in England and Asia, including Merchant Taylors' Prep School and Harrow International School Bangkok. Former SENDCo and Senior Leader she founded Mentally Well Schools in 2019.

We talk about the importance of compassion and self-compassion as well as giving our young people the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the challenges ahead of them.

This week, on the Flourishing Education podcast, I talk to the amazing Aidan Sloane, Head of Skills, Apprenticeships, Employer Engagement at Belfast Metropolitan College. We discuss how the FIRST choice is always the RIGHT choice for young people and how there is not just one determined straight path: GCSE, A-levels and degree/higher degrees (in the UK) but that people should be encouraged to find what is right for them - not ONE PATH but ONE'S PATH.

In this episode, I interview the amazing Naomi Fisher, Clinical Psychologist.

We talk about her book Changing our Minds and how it brings together research, theory and practice on learning.

Naomi looks at education through a psychological lens and tells us how there are other ways to learn. School is not the only way to become educated.

This week I talk with Nathan McGurl, Founder of The Study Buddy which Nathan created to support his child when he was revising for his GCSE.

We discuss the importance of developing skills for the future of our young people.

In this episode, I speak with Claire Fitter, previously a secondary school teacher for nearly 10 years and who is now home educating her two daughters.

She tells me what home educating is (and is not) and her amazing journey.

This week, I share another powerful conversation with Toni Pettitt, who is founder and director of Branching Out Forest School & Social Forestry.

We discuss the what 'Forest School and Social Forestry are, their benefits and most importantly why we should keep investing in children and young people's outdoor experiences.

In this episode, the wonderful Sally Fox, Headteacher of a Pool Church of England primary school in West Yorkshire talks to me about her big why and why she believes in personalising education not standardising it. and helps me realise that what I want the most for my children and our young people (and myself) is to find meaning and fulfilment in life.

I am sure you will find this conversation with Sally as inspiring as I did.

This week, I talk with the wonderful Dr Ian Cunningham who chairs the Governing Body of SML College. He created Self Managed Learning in the 1970’s and was the first person to be awarded a PhD in Management Learning from the University of Lancaster. He has published six books and over 120 articles and papers in areas such as education, learning, leadership and organisational change.

In this episode we talk about his new book - Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm and his amazing work at the Self Managed Learning (SML) College. I am sure you will be as inspired and motivated by his work than I am.

This episode was so transformative for me and I am so grateful to Stu Evans - Headteacher at PRU New Leaf inclusion Centre for his insights and knowledge. He showed me my unconscious biases and reminded me that all behaviour is communication.

A very timely and powerful conversation.

Tis week I speak with the wonderful Komal Shah, Educational consultant creating a more harmonious world by shifting outdated educational paradigms through consciousness. It was a fascinating discussion talking about Komal's journey through the 'mainstream system', her frustrations which led her to write her new book, a nonfiction book that speaks to educational leaders, teachers, and parents who have a desire to educate the whole child in a new way.

Komal's book 'Bringing Consciousness to Education' is available to pre-order here.

This week I talk to TJ Jutla Managing Director of QTS - Quality Teacher Suppliers who is inspiring change in education and & challenging The Status Quo.

Enjoy!

This week I had a wonderful and joyful conversation with Ros Wilson about the importance of talk.

With over 55 years experience in education, including 27 years in schools, ten years in senior management positions and 14 years in advisory and inspection work.

She has taught in primary, middle and secondary schools in England and overseas and has a wide experience in teaching and advising on raising achievement for pupils with English as an additional language and also pupils with special educational needs.

She is the creator of Big Writing (books published by Oxford University press), VCOP and the criterion scale.

This week, I talk with the wonderful Matt Barnes.

Matt describes himself as a son, a spouse, a dad, an entrepreneur, and an active community member. Over the last 10-years, he has coached thousands of parents on how to grow their children into “self-directed learners for the 21st Century.”

His kids have been educated in public, private, hybrid, virtual, and homeschool structures over the last 13 years. One is a valedictorian in his local public school, another started attending college at 15, and the other is starting a business at 14. As a family, they routinely use online, off-line, and experiential learning to build the children into Self-Directed Learners. The result is traditional academic success and readiness for the 21st-century.

If you want to schedule a call with Matt, please use this link or go directly to Matt's website (www.theeducationgame.com/contact).

Their services are free (some are sponsored by our Patreon donors).

This week I speak with Olly Newton - Executive Director of The Edge Foundation.

Olly oversees Edge’s work on research, policy and Edge Future Learning. He is passionate about connecting researchers, policy makers and practitioners to learn from each other.

Olly chairs several of Edge’s networks and often speaks at events – feel free to email him or connect on Twitter @UkEdgePolicy if you would like to start a conversation.

Before Edge, he spent ten years with the Department for Education, most recently as Head of Apprenticeship Strategy. Olly is based in Sheffield where he is a governor and Enterprise Adviser for Firth Park Academy and volunteers with the Scout Association.

Victoria is a primary school headteacher in the North West of England, a post she has held for nine years. She is a mum of two teenagers. In her spare time she is a British Army reservist and also lectures on the MA programme in Educational Leadership (previously at Chester University and currently at Liverpool Hope). In addition, she has completed two MAs (in Equality & Diversity and Educational Leadership) and a doctorate, and is currently studying for a third MA with Bucks University, in Military History. She loves sport, cooking, and the outdoors. She has presented a TEDx on The Power of Language and how we can all be ‘everyday heroes’, has done several key note speeches, podcasts and blogs, most recently for BERA and Leeds Beckett University.

You can follow her on Twitter

This week, I have an amazing conversation with Phil Sharrock, former headteacher who has a passion for the well-being and empowerment of children, staff and the whole community in order to facilitate rapid improvement. He prides himself on being different and challenging the norms of what is perceived to be right for all schools. He argues strongly that all schools are individual and their needs should be met with an individualistic approach to solve their issues. He has been called a “maverick” and a “breath of fresh air” as well as “inspirational” by Ofsted.

Having trained at Y Coleg Normal in Bangor from 1992-96 graduating with a B.Ed (Hons) in Physical and Outdoor Education, he then completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Education Management at Wolverhampton University in 1999.

Phil has been a PE coordinator, ICT coordinator, Assistant Head, Deputy Head and finally Headteacher.

Phil’s career has taken him from Birmingham, The Black Country, Oldham in Lancashire and Dewsbury in West Yorkshire.

He has been the Headteacher of 4 Schools which were all in and “inadequate” category and led them to “Good in all areas” within 15 months.

For the last 3 years he has been a Foster Carer and has had a number of children live with him over that time.

This week I talk with a colleague at the University of Bristol, Imogen Moore who is Associate Professor in Law, lead on education and innovation and development.

We talk about the blogpost we wrote together ahead of yesterday's symposium on staff wellbeing organised by Advance HE.

We talk about the need for a holistic approach to wellbeing in Higher Education (and in all settings) which requires a focus on the whole institution, on student and staff. We conclude that a flourishing institution requires flourishing students AND flourishing staff.

One cannot happen without the other.

This week I speak with Nicole Webb, journalist, writer and speaker. Nicole spent 20 years in Australia television as a reporter, producer and presenter. She's recently returned to Sydney after nearly a decade abroad in Hong Kong and China.

We talk about her book China Blond, which you can buy here. Through her wonderful experience Nicole shows us how stepping outside of our comfort zone, not letting fear hold us back and being patient is the only way to live a full life.

This week, I speak with Maxine Houghton, who is Advisory Teacher for SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health) at Somerset County Council.

Maxine tells us what she thinks we all need to cope with lockdown and beyond and provides us with very good advice and tips for parents, teachers and young people.

Today I speak with the talented Megan Norton, an intercultural training consultant, facilitator, and researcher focused on supporting cross-cultural families. and we discuss what we can learn from her experience of being and working with Third Culture Kids (TCK). Such a powerful conversation again!

Megan's expertise as an intercultural trainer combined with her experience in international education has enabled her to design socio-emotional and educational programming tailored to globally mobile families and youth. Megan mentors, writes, and consults to enable Third Culture Kids, families, and cross-cultural workers to identify and implement tools and strategies that will help them transition well and thrive wherever they are. Growing up as a U.S. diplomat dependent/Third Culture Kid, she lived in 6 countries (the U.S., South Africa, South Korea, Germany, Japan, and Israel) and has lived in 4 more as an Adult Third Culture Kid (Austria, Greece, Hungary, Poland) in addition to 5 U.S. States (Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Washington DC, and Michigan). She loves hearing TCKs share their stories and supporting their journey into their next “home.” Megan is also host and producer of “A Culture Story” - a podcast which focuses on cultural identity, belonging, and purpose in relation to intercultural stories.

This week I speak with the amazingly talented Briony May from Briony Bakes, semi-finalist of the Great British Bake off 2018 (GBBO) and winner of the Great Christmas Bake off 2019 and now presenter - Food Unwrapped, Channel 4.

Briony shares her story, how she got from language teacher to TV presenter and what her recipe for life and success is.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I loved recording it.

Cette semaine - c'est un programme en français avec la merveilleuse Elisabeth Allier.

Nous parlons de notre rencontre en 2011, comment elle a découvert la pleine conscience et nous partageons des conseils et des idées sur comment améliorer et développer notre bien-être.

Bonne écoute!

This week I share my conversation with Marjo Kyllönen, Head of Development Services, City of Helsinki. We talk about the Finnish Education system and what we (as UK teachers, educators and parents) can learn from the changes and the work they have done over the last 20 years.

I learned so much and really loved our conversation.

You can find Marjo Kyllönen on Linkedin

In this episode, I talk to Professor Basia Spalek about staff wellbeing (mainly in Higher Education) but this applies to all settings.

We talk about what we can do to change the system and to make sure that we create a flourishing education where both students AND staff can flourish.

Professor Spalek is the founder and director of Mental Wellbeing Services

You can follow her on Twitter @MentalWellbein6

Today I talk with Dr Peter Gray, research professor at Boston College, is author of Free to Learn (Basic Books) and Psychology (Worth Publishers, a college textbook now in its 8th edition). We talk about self-directed education and how we foster curiosity in our young people.

He has conducted and published research in neuroendocrinology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Rockefeller University. His current research and writing focus primarily on children's natural ways of learning and the life-long value of play. He a founding member of the nonprofit Alliance for Self-Directed Education and a founding board member of the nonprofit Let Grow. His own play includes not only his research and writing, but also long distance bicycling, kayaking, back-woods skiing, and vegetable gardening.

This week I have a conversation with the wonderful Ashish Bhatia - a GP (Gentle presence), Tutor at the medical school at the University of Bristol and Founder of the Humble Foundation.

We talk about what it takes for human beings to flourish and be humble.

Happy listening!

This week I had another conversation with the wonderful Dr Sarah Whyte who with a degree in psychology, a masters in education and a doctorate in emotional intelligence, shared science-backed tools and very practical tips to help us (and our young people) deal with our emotions in these difficult and challenging times.

Based in Singapore, she works with organisations, international schools and families across South East Asia to equip people with simple, practical skills to boost their resilience and develop their emotional wellbeing.

I hope you find her tips very useful and we will do another podcast to discuss emotional equity soon.

Today I am really excited to share interview with Kelly Challis a Consultant Teacher at Driver Youth Trust. We talk about education, what it is, what it isn't and how our schooling fits into this notion of education.

You can find Kelly on Linked in or on Twitter.

I hope you enjoy listening as much as I loved speaking to her.

Have a good week and a fantastic weekend.

This week I talk with the wonderful Hayley McDonnell who is supporting school leaders with SMSC and Global collaborations and meaningfully connect with others to create positivity and success.

We talk about SMSC - which stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Did you know that all schools in England must show how well their pupils develop in SMSC? I loved talking to Hayley - her passion for her subject is infectious. I also agree wholeheartedly with her mantra 'collaboration, love and community' and how at its core this means if we work together, we will work towards harmony between people and build stronger communities.

I am sure you will enjoy this week's episode too!

You can find Hayley here:

Website

Facebook

This week I share with the wonderful Dr Helen Street, Founder and Chair of The Positive Schools Initiative in Australia which advocates for educational reform to better support equity, motivation and wellbeing in young people. I talk to Helen about contextual well-being which is the title of her book.

Such a powerful and insightful conversation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

My conversation this week was on a very moving and sensitive subject - how to stop men taking their lives? with the wonderful and inspiring Ben Akers, a filmmaker. A PROBLEM SOLVER AND MENTAL HEALTH campaigner.

Co-founder of Talkclub.

I hope you will feel as motivated as I am to ask: How are you? Out of 10?

This week I talk with the wonderful Dr Martina Geromin - CEO & Founder of School Beyond Limitations.

We talk about their online school - offline and online learning and what it means to take a holistic and whole student approach to teaching and learning.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Lots of synergy between my research and what Martina and her school are trying to achieve.

I had the most wonderful conversation with May Ling Thomas about 'unschooling'. If you don't know what it is - worry not! all will be revealed in this episode. May-Ling is a coach and she has been unschooling her two daughters and she tells us what we can learn from this 'home educating' concept.

Our conversation really got me thinking and made me question a lot of my approaches. I hope it does the same for me.

You can reach May Ling here

Website www.maylingthomas.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/maylingthomas

Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/maylingthomas

This week I had a conversation with the wonderful Dr Sarah Whyte who with a degree in psychology, a masters in education and a doctorate in emotional intelligence, shared science-backed tools to develop emotional wellbeing and resilience with me.

Based in Singapore, she works with organisations, international schools and families across South East Asia to equip people with simple, practical skills to boost their resilience and develop their emotional wellbeing.

A must listen if you want to discover more about emotional wellbeing.

The book she mentions at the end is from Dr Dan Siegel and is called 'The Whole Brain child'

The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

“We're only as sick as our secrets” they say in the AA. Well this week, I am completely honest and share one of my most guarded secrets for over 30 years - my issues with body image and how sugar was my drug of choice. Was? Yes! Now that I have started working with the wonderful Dr Rebecca Hiscutt creator of The Happy Eating Club - things have drastically changed. In this episode, I have a wonderful conversation with Rebecca: why diets don't work and how the work we have been doing together since July has literally transformed my relationship with my body.

To know more about Rebecca's amazing work

Info about The Happy Eating Club

www.happyeatingclub.com

Instagram - happyeatingclub

This week I had a fascinating conversation with Dr Louise Younie whose work celebrates human Flourishing through creative enquiry. We discuss how through creative enquiry medical student are invited to find their personal voice and to share their own experiences when presenting patient cases.

Today I had a fun and amazing conversation with two wonderful young people - Libby Smerdon and Ben Holmes who used to be respectively Head Girl and Head Boy at Gordano School and whom I met when I organised a focus group with Year 12 and Year 13 to discuss my research.

They provided me with their views on the UK Education system and what they think needs to change. We also discussed the A-level fiasco. I would highly recommend this to any parent or teacher/educator who wants a student's perspective of our current UK education system.

Very grateful to them both for sharing their story and their views so openly. So much maturity and fabulous ideas.

Do you suffer from anxiety? Do you sometimes feel that life is not enough and that YOU are not enough.

In this episode the wonderful Jen Ramsey , sought-after coach, business strategist and podcaster shares her story and talks about how she dealt with her diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder (GAD). She gives us specific tips on how to live life from a place of true freedom and peace.

I am sure you will love this episode. I certainly did.

The meditation Jen mentions in the conversation can be found here

If you would like to work with Jen or find out more about her click on the links below:

Facebook:

Instagram

Podcast

I share a conversation I had at the start of the summer holiday with the wonderful Jeanne Fairs who works at Gordano School. She is Assistant Head, Head of Sixth Form. She is also Mental Health Lead and Head of Careers. She gives us a 'school perspective' of what to expect in September and what we can do as parents to support our children when they go back.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did!

Round 3 and such a powerful conversation with Adam Dacey, my mindfulness teacher. We talk about 'stepping off' the treadmill and why it took me so long to relax and 'switch off'. Am really grateful for his insights.

If you too have experienced or experience this 'busyness' too - I would really recommend listening to Adam and his amazing insights.

Round 2 - a new conversation with Adam Dacey my mindfulness teacher - Director of Mindspace and we discuss the power of a regular contemplation of the impermanence of life (and the power of a meditation on death).

That's a bit morbid! Listen here to find out why we both feel that the absolute opposite is true. A wonderful opportunity to challenge YOUR TRUTH.

Another amazing and powerful conversation with the wonderful Gareth Hughes, Psychotherapist, Research Lead - Student Wellbeing, PFHEA, University of Derby, Human Givens College. He is also a campaigner for student wellbeing and an educationalist.

We talk about young people and how they are not weak or 'snowflakes' but are in fact extraordinary as they are called to deal with the unique and complex challenging environments of the 21st century.

From this conversation, you will see that it is clear that we both believe young people have amazing strengths and potential.

Listen now to find out more...

In today's episode, I have a fascinating conversation with Professor Mike Higton who is Professor in the Department of Theology and Religionat the University of Durham. I contacted him because I thoroughly enjoyed one of his books, Vulnerable Learning - Thinking Theologically about Higher Education. We discuss why we are all life-long learners and why he might not write the book in the same way and not use the terminology 'vulnerable learning'.

I am sure you will get as much out of this conversation as I did.

In this episode, I talk with Dr Dominique Thompson, Director of Buzz Consulting about why we decided to write a book together and what we can do as parents and educators to best support our young people over the summer and post Covid as we enter the new normal.

I am sure you will enjoy this as much as I did.

To join the private Facebook community click here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/growingagrownup/

To download the free 5 Step Guide to supporting your teen this (weird!) summer click here https://bit.ly/3fVuAq2

You can reach Dominique

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-thompson/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://www.facebook.com/drdomthompson/

https://www.instagram.com/drdomthompson/

This week I have another powerful and wonderful conversation. This time with the talented and amazing Elaine Halligan, London Director of The Parent Practice (links to connect with Elaine and Melissa below). Elaine is author of My Child's Different - I highly recommend it!

We talk about raising a neurodiverse child and how as parents we can best support our children and young people. How can we recognise their differences and strengths and foster their individuality so that they can flourish and be their true selves.

www.theparentpractice.com

https://www.theparentpractice.com/shop/our_books

https://www.theparentpractice.com/podcast/

BOOK HERE FOR A PARENT SESSION

http://meetme.so/ElaineHalligan

Listen to Elaine's Tedx Talk here on ‘Neurodiversity being a super power not a problem

In this episode I have a second conversation with Fiona Spargo-Mabbs. In our first recording, she shared her son Daniel's story with me and we talked all about drugs and the work she is currently doing through the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation. In today's session we talk about our role as parents and teachers - what type of role model are we? Do you model all the helpful and positive habits? Do you talk about your emotions and feelings openly to your children?

I had a massive 'aha' moment whilst speaking with Fiona so would really recommend this particular episode.

The Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation

The websites Fiona mentioned were:

Talk to Frank https://www.talktofrank.com/

Drugscience https://drugscience.org.uk/

Drugsand.me https://www.drugsand.me/en/

Other useful sites Fiona and her foundation refer parents to are:

Say why to drugs podcasts https://play.acast.com/s/saywhytodrugs/

Alcohol Education Trust https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/

Festivalsafe https://www.festivalsafe.com/

Teen Tips https://www.teentips.co.uk/

In this episode, I speak with Vikki Hill (Senior Fellow of the HEA) who is an Educational Developer in the Attainment Team in the Teaching, Learning and Employability Exchange at University of the Arts London (UAL). We talk about inequalities in outcomes at University and what we can do to remove inequitable outcomes in Higher Education Settings (and in lower educational levels).

Vikki has over 20 years experience in art and design education teaching, managing and examining in both UK and international contexts. Vikki works with staff across UAL to address awarding differentials and develop learning and teaching approaches in social justice and anti-racism. She has been leading the UAL Creative Mindsets project – that aims to reduce bias and stereotype threat as barriers to learning - since 2017. Her doctoral research is focused on educational development, critical pedagogy, compassion, bias and arts-based research methods in higher education.

UAL Teaching Learning and Employability Exchange https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange
UAL AEM and Attainment: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/aem-and-attainment
Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zines: https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk/
UAL Creative Mindsets: https://ualcreativemindsets.myblog.arts.ac.uk/
Interrogating Spaces Podcast: http://interrogatingspaces.buzzsprout.com/683798
BLACK, ASIAN AND MINORITY ETHNIC STUDENT ATTAINMENT AT UK UNIVERSITIES: #CLOSINGTHEGAP: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2019/bame-student-attainment-uk-universities-closing-the-gap.pdf
Supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic students during the coronavirus pandemic

https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/events/supporting-black-asian-and-minority-ethnic-students-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ * Gurnam Singh (3 May 2020), Covid-19 does discriminate – so we should tackle its impact on BAME students.

https://wonkhe.com/blogs/covid-19-does-discriminate-so-we-should-tackle-its-impact-on-bame-students/ * Shades of Noir: https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/ * Audre Lorde (2018) The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.

Want to know more about diversity and inclusion? How do we make our environment inclusive for ALL pupils and staff?

In this episode, I talk with Trystan Williams - Principle of Venturers' Academy and Executive Leads Primary Schools in the Venturers' Trust.

We discuss the needs of ALL young people and how we can help them cope with the way the world has changed so rapidly and quickly.

I am sure you will agree that Trystan brings wonderful insights and useful tips for young people, teachers, leaders and parents.

You can find Trystan on Twitter.

Do you tend to want to change the external conditions? What if we had a lot more power than we realised?

In this episode, I have an extremely powerful conversation with the amazing Caroline Ferguson, Mindset trainer. As a Mindset Trainer and cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist, Caroline helps business leaders overcome wellbeing issues like stress, imposter syndrome, limiting beliefs and low self worth.

By listening to this episode, you will discover how it is in your control to shape your own experience(s) through your thoughts and mindset.

Caroline will provide you with very useful tips and tools. If you want to know more, you can contact Caroline by visiting her website https://carolineferguson.com/ or on LinkedIn.

Are you worried about what is going to happen when our children go back to school? Are you worried about going back to work?

In this second conversation with Elizabeth Gillies - Educational psychologist based in London we talk tips and advice on how to handle transition back to work and school effectively - we discuss 'cultural agility' as a great tool for our 'tool box'. What it is and how it can be used by students, staff and parents alike.

You can find Elizabeth on Linkedin

Are you worried about what is going to happen when our children go back to school? Are you worried about going back to work?

In this episode, I interviewed Elizabeth Gillies - Educational psychologist based in London and we talk about the challenges and disruptions Covid-19 has brought over the last few months. Elizabeth discusses her work with young people in transition and how to deal with ALL our emotions and how we can support our children/pupils back (and ourselves).

You can find Elizabeth on Linkedin

Are you struggling to juggle 'working from home', homeschooling/family life and all the other tasks ahead of you? Do you often feel frustrated?

Then I would highly recommend listening to this interview with Nicola Huelin, multi-award winning, qualified and accredited business coach and mentor, with over 20 years' in business, Nicola has connected, coached and mentored hundreds of women through Mpower for mums in business.

She shares really good advice on what we can do to flourish in life.

Twitter: @MpowerMumsinbiz

https://www.mpower.academy/nicolahuelin

This is the longest conversation, I have had so far but it was so worth it!

Listen to this conversation with Adam Dacey - Founder of MindSpace. He taught me all I know about Mindfulness.

In this episode, we talk about how he discovered Mindfulness and why Mindfulness has become so popular. We also discuss some of the more advanced practices and why they might be useful for us during Covid-19.

LINKS

Web: https://www.mindspace.org.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/createmindspace/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindspaceuk

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindspaceuk/

If you want to hear more about safer internet for all children and young people – whether they are gaming, communicating on social media, using apps or taking part in any other internet-based activity, then please listen to this interview with Lorin LaFave (Breck's mum) founder of The Breck Foundation in 2014 in response to the tragic murder of Breck Bednar, a 14-year-old Surrey schoolboy who loved science, computing and gaming who was groomed online.

You can watch Beck's last game here

http://www.breckfoundation.org/

Lorin LaFave

Founder and Head of Education & External Affairs

e: lorin.lafave@breckfoundation.org

t: 01883 621102 (ext 1322)

m: 07799 418070

@lorinlafave

A fascinating conversation about an exciting topic on how the science of compassion and how adopting a compassionate approach can help improve well-being in Higher Education (and education/life in general) with Dr Theo Gilbert. I loved every minute of it and felt so inspired.

Dr Theo Gilbert is Associate Professor at the Learning Teaching Innovation Centre of the University of Hertfordshire.

Check out his website on embedding and Assessing Compassion in the University Curriculum.

You can check his profile here

He is also on Twitter

If you struggle with your emotions and would like to understand their roles and their importance in your daily lives, then I highly recommend listening to this wonderful conversation with Davide Antognazza who is based in Locarno Switzerland.

Davide currently works as senior researcher and lecturer at the Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. Davide does research in International Education, Teacher Education and Didactics. It's main interest is emotional intelligence in education. He as a Masters in Education from Harvard School of Education.

He is an expert on emotional intelligence and in this conversation we discuss emotions (all of them - positive and negatives) and why we need to 'befriend them'.

You can find him on Twitter

About to go to University? Worried for your child? In this conversation Louise and I discuss how to use positive change and transition knowledge to university transition (and any transition).

Louise is a coach and consultant supporting individuals and organisations to navigate the challenges and maximise the opportunities and outcomes of relocation and international employment. Through her coaching and training programmes, Louise supports individuals and dual career couples to navigate change and transition positively and build thriving professional and personal lives abroad.

Louise holds a MSc, in Occupational Psychology, a Certificate in Creating Positive Change, is an Enhanced Narrative Coach Practitioner and is a Certified Personal Performance Coach.

Louise is also host of the Thriving Abroad Podcast HERE and author of Thriving Abroad: The definitive guide to Professional and Personal Relocation Success HERE

If you would like to connect with Louise, you can email her Louise@Louisewiles.com

Thriving Abroad: The definitive guide to professional and personal relocation success

This week - I had a conversation with Owen Barlow - one of Bristol Insitute for Learning and Teaching (BILT)'s Student Fellows. He is currently working on the wellbeing in the curriculum project.

You can find out more about him here

We've had numerous conversations in the past but today we focus on Covid-19 and the move to online teaching and online assignments. How can we all (students and staff) remain motivated. We discuss what motivation is and how we can make the current situation work for us.

Thanks Owen for a wonderful conversation and for allowing me to reflect on this.

If you want to reach Owen - his twitter handle is @ob_owenbarlow.

In this episode I speak with Fiona Spargo-Mabbs. She shared her son Daniel's story with me and we talked all about drugs and the work she is currently doing through the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation. How can we support young people to make safer choices about drugs.

A powerful story that we all need to hear. Thanks Fiona!

The Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation

The websites Fiona mentioned were:

Talk to Frank https://www.talktofrank.com/

Drugscience https://drugscience.org.uk/

Drugsand.me https://www.drugsand.me/en/

Other useful sites Fiona and her foundation refer parents to are:

Say why to drugs podcasts https://play.acast.com/s/saywhytodrugs/

Alcohol Education Trust https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/

Festivalsafe https://www.festivalsafe.com/

Teen Tips https://www.teentips.co.uk/

I spoke with my colleague Dr Debbie Pinfold, Senior Lecturer in German and our topic was Covid 19 - is it a threat or an opportunity for education?

We discuss personal tutoring, the challenging experience of moving our teaching to online teaching and online assessments, stress and anxiety for staff and students.

If you want to find out more about Debbie and her amazing work- you can see her University profile here.

I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I enjoyed speaking with Debbie - thanks so much for a wonderful conversation!

I am really excited to be sharing this episode with the amazingly talented Bailey Parnell. We talk about the impact of social media on our mental health.

Bailey Parnell is the Founder & CEO of SkillsCamp, a soft skills training company, and was named one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women. Bailey is a TEDx speaker with near 1 million views (watch it here), an award-winning digital marketer, and a businesswoman with a talent for helping people develop the skills they need for success. Her work and expertise have been featured in Forbes, CBC, FOX, Flare Magazine, and more. Bailey is also currently completing her part-time Masters in Communications and Culture at Ryerson University with research looking into social media's impact on mental health, the results of which she presented at the World Youth Forum in Egypt.

If you want to find out more about Bailey - check out her website here

In this episode, I have a conversation with my American friend Debra-Jo Bright. Over the weekend I felt very ill and very scared of dying and admitted to friends and family how I felt and how scared I was. I LOVED this conversation. So good to openly discuss my fears and to hear Debra-Jo and Frank's story.

Debra-Jo's husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 2 years ago. He's been living with cancer since. Debra-Jo shares their story, her views on death, spirituality, etc.

Again - some of my beliefs were challenged but I loved our conversation very much.

You can find her here www.TheBrightHouses.com

During the podcast she mentioned Julie Ryan - https://askjulieryan.com/ - it might be a bit too much for you (I know this is stretching my limits...) but feel free to explore further.

This is the meditation Debra-Jo mentioned https://youtu.be/VLqN25Mxx2A

Enjoy and I would love to hear your views on this topic.

This week I have been struggling with self-isolating as a family and you may have seen on my Facebook that I have given up on the whole idea of home educating the boys.

If you too have been having issues and experienced stress on how to juggle it all and 'do the best' for your children/teens, then you will absolutely LOVE this conversation with Emily Quandt. Such useful tips and Emily really challenged some of my beliefs around natural learning. Thank you Emily!!!

If you want to reach Emily - you can email her email is emily@FreetoLearnCommunity.com

https://www.facebook.com/freetolearncommunity/

http://freetolearncommunity.com/

If you want to see about an Agile Learning Center near them they can check the network map here: https://agilelearningcenters.org/#map

If you are looking for more info on how to support Self-Directed Education during this time at home there are tons of resources here: https://www.self-directed.org/

Finally if you are listeners more than readers, here is another helpful resource podcast of another mama doing Self-Directed Education. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fare-of-the-free-child/id1138611256

This week we speak with Dr Michelle Donah, Educator Life and Academic Coach at I heart Learning LLC in North Carolina, USA.

We talk about the importance of telling young people that they are already perfect as they are, how learning difficulties affect young people and what we can do as parents and teachers to empower them and not apply the deficit model to our parenting/education.

You can find more about Michelle here

Another international episode - this time with my friend Melissa Alexander who is a primary school teacher in the US (in Arizona) and Director of Joyful Empowered Living. She teaches empowerment programmes to students, teachers, and families who wish to discover more personal joy in life.

You can reach her by email: Melissa@joyfulempoweredliving.com

I am delighted to share this episode with Professor Corey Keyes at Emory College of Art and Sciences in Atlanta, USA. He is an expert in social psychology and mental health. His research centers on illuminating the “two continua” model of health and illness, showing how the absence of mental illness does not translate into the presence of mental health, and revealing that the causes of true health are often distinct processes from those now understood as the risks for mental illness.

Corey's flourishing and languishing continuum has been instrumental to my research and it is the reason this podcast, my business and my first book all have the name they have. As you will hear when you listen to this episode, it was such a pleasure and an honour to speak to Corey again and to have such an in depth conversation about wellbeing, positive psychology, flourishing and languishing.

Further information on Corey's work can be found here

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed speaking with Corey.

Today I share our first international interview, with the wonderful Dr Eithne Hunt.

Eithne is is a State registered occupational therapist who has clinical, research and teaching expertise in the area of adolescent health. She is also an award-winning university lecturer who has developed innovative curricula on everyday activities and health.

We talk about adoslecent brain and her new programme 'Everyday Matters - healthy habits for college students' she is introducing at University College Cork, Ireland (UCC).

Read an article in Thrive Global about it

You can find out more about her here and reach her on twitter and her email is e.hunt@ucc.ie

This week I share the interview I had with Dr Asha Akram, Neuroscientist and University Teacher from the University of Sheffield.

A must listen to for any of you who want to know more about sleep and how important it is for all of us.

We discuss what is sleep, why we sleep, society's veiw on sleep, the benefits of a good night's sleep, what happens when you're sleep deprived, sleep and mental health, how to get a good sleep, advice for parents with teenagers, advice for people who suffer from stress and anxiety and much more.

You can reach Dr Akram through twitter or via her webpage

Today I share my interview with Kelly Challis a Consultant Teacher at Driver Youth Trust. We talk about Systems Thinking and why it is a new and exciting approach for Education which will benefit institutions, teachers, parents and students alike.

You can find Kelly on Linked in or on Twitter.

I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed speaking to her.

Have a good week and a fantastic weekend.

Welcome to Flourishing Education:

The podcast that brings you tools and strategies to understand that joy and happiness come from the inside.

If you are interested in learning more about how to embed wellbeing into your daily lives then you are in the right place.

There is no magic wand, no silver bullet - just solutions specific to you as the unique, perfect individual that you are.

Find out what others do and see what you would like to start implementing in your own life.