Fare Of The Free Child

Whadddup, Listener homie! I hope you're listening to this final episode thinkin' Daang, Akilah really helped me get more aligned with the type of person I wanna be. Who are you now that you have experienced some of these conversations here on the podcast? My answer to that question is that I am more zoned in on the embodiment of the unschooling skills, which currently look like:Shifting my seminary studies from interfaith/interspiritual ministerial ordination to Integrative Thanatology at the Art of Dying Institute (this is so aligned with what the past four years have taught me!)more somatic movement tings (been studying the Feldenkreis method and doing more Dancehall-centric freestyle movements lately)Savor Complex Work (wrote about it on my new-ish newsletter here)Being at home with my family and present for all the ways love live hereThis podcast has been such a belonging-maker in my life--thank you for being part of this! In our finale episode, I offer the fifth care package of how-to guides to

Have you ever wondered how grief and loss might pave a pathway toward spiritual growth? In this penultimate episode of Fare of the Free Child podcast, I share with you the fourth path in my care package to this community. Sharing Season 9 reflections, Chemay Morales-James, Vanessa Molano, Jasai Madden, Stori, and I bring to life our experiences in this liberation walk. Engaging in a candid exploration of spirituality, manifestation, magic, and money, we unravel the ways it has shaped our lives. We also dive into our origin stories and the leveling up it has brought us to.Taking a step further, we tackle the often overlooked issue of pervasive whiteness ingrained in ourselves, our communities, and our learning or workspaces. Drawing from the wisdom condensed in the Developing a Disruptor's Ear workbook, we unearth the impacts of whiteness on various aspects of education and society. Pervasive Whiteness, as we articulate, "Is when a white person either unconsciously or deliberately asserts unsolicited

Join Akilah as she journeys through the third path to Raising Free People: For Me not Them. Learn the languaging that helps you, the adult, the independent person, move through discovering confident autonomy and other themes that come through as you traverse the pathway of personal leadership.This week we continue our exploration into liberation and self-direction from Seasons 6, 7, and 8. Among those who got their flowers are Yolonda Coles Jones, Leslie W. Bray, and Vanessa Molano, who have provided essential tools for this journey. Karen M Ricks, Tony Galloway, and Amelia Allen Sherwood. Karen explored the correlation between food, play, and mindfulness, followed by Tony's reflections on finance, politics, masculinity, mental health, and unschooling, and Amelia gave us a unique perspective on Montessori education for Black folks. We also showed love to other guests like Iris Chen, Karema Akilah, Ieishah Clelland-Lang, and Season 8's co-host, Domari Dickinson, who joined us in offering the P.A.U.S.

Moving away from school-centric culture and the performances we got going on is a very real thing that one listener voiced and we're sharing it here in this episode. We're diving deep into this topic, addressing the importance of honoring our children's confident autonomy and moving away from the ingrained schoolishness we perform at home. We're exploring this through one listener's transformative story, lessons from my personal parenting journey, and the integrated perspectives that Savorism has allowed.Embrace this journey with us as we navigate the shift from school at home to more liberated and nurturing approaches. We recap Season 4 and 5 in this episode and highlight the overarching themes. This episode is a fusion of personal narratives, listener insights, and practical pieces of advice tailored for anyone managing the beautiful task of raising free people.Let's rethink education, nurture relationships, and foster liberation, while savoring the spaciousness it allows.Some

A 6-minute offering for the beginner’s path.Start a journey of discovery, trusting that learning comes from various sources - many of which can't be measured on a conventional scale. May this bonus 6-minute offering on Fare of the Free Child serve you well! Be sure to listen to Episode 265 for more on the starter/beginner path too!We're throwing some critical questions in the mix with some MQA, inviting you to question the rules and agreements we've held ourselves and our children to. As we navigate the path of unschooling, we'll explore the profound impact of trusting the autonomy of children, and of avoiding performance and external validation in favor of self-inquiry and self-knowledge. This is your ticket to embark on a journey of trust and discovery.  Join us again in the next episode for more tools to walk the talk in this work of raising free people.Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. T

If you've been searching and asking about some of the most innovative minds in the realm of unschooling, youth rights, and liberation, names like Zakkiyya Chase, Moji Yai, Lane Santa Cruz, and Dr. Sundiata should ring a bell. Some of our most listened-to early dialogues included ones with Ieishah Clelland-Lang and Lou Wilkerson. We detangled topics like Black maternal mortality rates, intuition, trust, and deschooling. Their insights set the stage for seasons two and three of Fare of the Free Child podcast, and Akilah is giving them their flowers today!  As we revisit these transformative dialogues, we dive into the heart of raising free people, where we're amplifying our stories and deepening our connections to love and liberation. You'll also get perspectives and madd question-askin' around how to start unschooling. Questions that double as mantras is the offering here, and we truly hope you find these useful!THE LINKS.Moji Yai of Wise African Woman Retreats. Host of THE Birth Education

In this episode, we'll explore the concept of savorism, a term Akilah coined to savor the spaciousness, slowness, and richness that comes from integrated unschooling. Sit with us for storytime about how Akilah's family made the shift from conventional school to homeschooling to unschooling. It was an experience that caused her and her partner to pause, reflect, and listen more to their children's needs. Hear how they fought against the 'stuckness' of conventional schooling and forged their own paths. This episode also gets into the important difference between pace and rhythm as we set out to design our days with our natural flow in mind.Also, we send our heartfelt thanks to Megan, our fellow liberationist over at The Unschool Files, for her energizing words and strong commitment to the raising free people movement!Links:Shoutout to Meghan! You can learn more about her podcast, zine and Roam here:https://www.flowcode.com/page/theunschoolfilesOur dope beats are from these beatmakers:ht

Ever wondered how unschooling and liberation work intersect? Join us for a nostalgic trip down memory lane as we delve into the first season of Fare of the Free Child podcast. We discuss my personal journey to unschooling and how moving away from a school-centric life connected to liberation work. In this episode, we give a special shout out to Juan Perez, our beloved audio editor! We also celebrate the various topics, conversations, and stories from season one that have left a lasting impact on us as listeners.Discover how resistance can serve as a roadmap to understanding the identity of unschooling and its potential for personal growth. I share my experience with revisiting the personal manifesto path - a transformative course I published in 2014. We discuss the importance of taking full responsibility for our experiences, opening up new portals of exploration in the world of unschooling, liberation, and social justice. Find a cozy spot, tune in, and let's do some Sankofa work. LINKS:For any audio edi

What happens when we eulogize an elder who has guided us on our journey of unschooling, decolonizing education, and raising free people? Join me in this heartfelt final season as we celebrate the transformative energy of unschooling and the legacy of Self-Directed Education. Together, we'll explore the three containers of explainers, affirmations, and insights that will guide us through this final season, reflecting on the wisdom and experiences we've gained from Fare of the Free Child.As we embark on this extraordinary season of gratitude, growth, and endings, I'll provide you with clear direction for ways to move through this body of work, ensuring that the closure of this podcast is a continuation for you and your journey to be and raise free people. Throughout this season, I'll use three containers: explainers, affirmations, and insights to cover the core themes that we have wrestled with, realized, reclaimed, or released since our very first episode in July of 2016. All season long, y

Ahhh….what an accomplishment! Our penultimate season reaches it’s finale… and ya’ll what a season it has been!!Manifestation, magic, bridges, money as a tool, and the community that is MRM Village! We talk about how networking is actually all about creating community and linking up with folks who are willing to support each other’s missions.Chemay talks about her intuition-led path to MRM’s updated business model that centers relationships, not dollars!We learn how Chemay and Vanessa concepted their current STAR model in the Village.We ear-witness Chemay’s passion for bringing SDE into every part of life and reimagining the work we do in the world.We name the real FLOW chart of entrepreneurship: The pivot! Nothing is certain, everything will FLOW as it must and morph into iterations of the idea until it forms into what works best for the people involvedThis conversation brings so much to the fore and it’s so important to bring these topics to the table and unpack things like: Intuitive work, embodiment, trust

What is abundance culture? And what does pausing have to do with sustained abundance? These are some of the questions Vanessa Molano (our resident party animal + book nerd) asks us to explore in this conversation. "I designed a spreadsheet to help you manage your bone$ and circulate that shit." - Vanessa Madd Question Askin' from this convo:What are some of the alternative ways we can do what we’re trying to do, without the harm?How do you manage money in a way where you measure success by the way your relationships feel?How do we practice reparations?How do we practice valuing healing as the center of financial management?How do we do financial management in a collective way? with foundations for inter-class solidarity.How do we practice “small is all”?Highlights from this convo:7:20 - 7:24 “what’s the point of being alive if you don’t have yourself?” VM25:59 - 26:02 “For unschooling entrepreneurs, financial creativity is really at the heart of self-direction” ASR30: 48 - 30:51 “authenticity i

In this episode, and through the season, we are inviting you to listen, to notice, and to feel through what these conversations evoke for you; within you.Madd Question Askin'What new language is forming for you? What are you resisting? What are you allowing? What are you reframing and reimagining?Are you already using spiritual tech in your life? What does that look like? Are you finding ways to introduce play/playfulness into your days? What infuses more joy into just being? What tools are you employing to navigate this life? Are you taking on new skills to pull you through or pivot away from things?Are you aware of or recognizing ways that help you be more mindful? Are you getting stuck because you think you ‘know’ a way out or are you stuck because you’re actually thinking that but not doing it?Are you trying to balance all the things in your life or are you going deeper and finding sustainability in harmony? Are you in flow in your life?What are you doing to face your freedom calling?LINKSJournaling

What is your connection to your origin story? Do you feel tied to your origin in ways that feel good and grounding? Or do you feel tethered to something that doesn’t quite feel like you?What do you think about when you read or hear the words Origin Story, anyway?Do you think about the start of your actual life?Or a particular relationship?A specific place?A type of food?An event?On this episode, you’ll hear some of me (Akilah) and Naaz’s (aka Fatima’s) origin story—how we met, and where we were in our respective lives when we joined forces. It’s more of an origins-to-now story, with plenty examples about following the threads that led us to peace and release! Plus, Dr. Crystal Menzies of EmancipatED and I have a real-ass convo about releasing aspects of our origin stories as creators, as givers, as liberation workers, so that we can live in ways that align with our current needs, energies, and intentions.Related links:Dr. Menzies on Parenting Decolonized PodcastSign up here for Expansive Journaling Workshop u

This is the first episode of Season 9 and we’re delighted to dive into the work of shifting our spiritual and intuitive work to include our raising free people practice. This feels important because while some of us might already see the connection between our commitment to raising free people and the cultivation of our spiritual and intuitive practices, not all of us do. For some of us, the weight, pressure, and pace of our daily responsibilities make that particularly difficult to name, let alone practice. For some of us, the fatigue and frustrations that come with lack of community, for example, can have spiritual work feeling like a luxury we just don’t have time to get into. Our intention is that this season will offer you pockets of education and examples for how to begin exploring what spirituality and its first cousin, intuition, in your specific life and relationship work. And then, through that exploration, it is our hope that you can begin to clear away the not-it shit that’s taking up way too much

As we continue our preparation for Season 9, you are invited to listen as Naaz (also known as Fatima) Mookadam tell us what showed up for her as she listened to Akilah S. Richards’s conversation with Dr. Crystal Menzies. You’ll hear much of that conversation in Season 9, so for now, hear Fatima’s insights and Akilah’s invitation to you. If you missed our first teaser, listen to it here. We are so excited to be centering the voices of five women who are deep in their own deschooling journey!Chemay Morales JamesDr. Crystal MenziesNaazneem (Fatima) MookadamAkilah S. RichardsVanessa MolanoAnd here are the some of the topics we’ll be exploring all season long:Shift /pivot/changeSpiritual workFreedom, truth, trustSpirituality intersects with SDETruth shiftsGraceBullets for safetyArrows of justiceSavor, not saviorSeek, don't solveStay tuned. More soon!Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you!The Raising Free P

What's on the other side of a pause? Last season, we leaned into a focused pause, over and over, episode by episode. We also took that pause with us when the episode ended, and now we are ready to slow-walk our way into what arose for us, and for you.Listen as Naazneen (also known as Fatima) Mookadam and Akilah S. Richards speak to some of the themes we'll be sharing this season. You'll hear the voices of all five women who are centered in season 9.  Here they are in the order you heard them in this episode:Chemay Morales JamesDr. Crystal MenziesNaazneen (Fatima) MookadamAkilah S. RichardsVanessa MolanoAnd here are the some of the topics we touched in this episode, and will explore all season long:Shift /pivot/changeSpiritual workFreedom, truth, trustSpirituality intersects with SDETruth shiftsGraceBullets for safetyArrows of justiceSavor, not saviorSeek, don't solveStay tuned. More soon! Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we ca

Grief. Avoidance. Funky energies. We’re wrapping up Season 8 with all kinds of feelings in the mix. How do we embrace or transform these feelings as they arise? That’s the pausewerk, and this week we arrive at E, for Exploration.“Noticing your behavior in that moment is about noticing that moment, which is really powerful. It grounds you in the now.” Akilah encourages us to trust the wisdom that emerges from a pause, and Domari shares a story speaking to this experience.Domari reminds us that pausewerk is deschooling work. It’s the little moments where we stop to notice ourselves in our environment. But in what ways might this be a privilege? In what ways might this be radically transformative? How can pausewerk shape the way that we treat ourselves and others in community?Why we pauseWe are pausing from colonial habituation. We are pausing from autopilot. We are pausing to give ourselves undivided attention and to identify our needs.“Definitely deep emotions this week…because I see myself sitting at this int

The second to last episode in season 8 is live, #fofcpod fam! This week’s inquiry is about the E (for Exploration) in our P.A.U.S.E. acronym. We’re also sharing some post-season offerings and spaces, so be sure to take notes on the things that perk your ears up! These spaces help us find community and connection and are tools to decolonize and revisit our relationships and practices while we navigate through this deschooling journey with our #pausewerk tools in hand and in heart.Madd Question Askin’Have you thought about pausing as a skill set, not just an action?Are any of your current beliefs stopping you from showing up how you want to show up?How often do you reach for tools of oppression such as silencing, physical punishment, and emotional manipulation?What do you trust? And why do you trust it?Spaces where inquiry and pausewerk are welcomed!Live Virtual Training “Co-creating a Thriving Family Culture”: Dr. Sundiata teamed up with Maryella Marie and Tomis Parker, two other SDE-minded facilitators, to cr

Peace #fofcpod fam! This week, Domari is in the buildin’ for our Listening Party Live Chat,and she and Akilah share some experiences and examples of zoning in on the letter S. in P.A.U.S.E. We also continue speaking about the differences between practice and process. As we question what Sorting and Shedding look like, our hosts share some examples where pause work might be effective. What can we notice or re-imagine in our relationships, language, and self-care?DISCUSSION POINTSDomari talks about her relationship with pleasure (the card that continues to speak to her from our  Practice Deck) and how pausing opened up comfort and awareness to think about the practices she has been sorting and shedding with her children and herself. Domari names aspects of decoloniality at home and points out the importance of honoring boundaries and consent.“I’ll be working on identifying the ways that my kids and I are disrupting on a daily basis, and being intentional about noticing these moments and P.A.U.S.E.ing in order t

This week in Episode 251, we droppin’ gems around the S. in P.A.U.S.E. S. is for Sorting and Shedding. Domari (put her links here as usual) starts us off with a nursery rhyme remix to remind us about the side effects of neglecting to slow it on down sometimes!This week, Akilah offers us seven distinctions between process and practice. She reminds us about a convo with Tiersa McQueen Think about what feels present, the models of living and learning that you practice, and what you might need to pivot away from or at least, revisit.Be sure to join us next week for our Listening Party where we will be sharing some musings and goodness in our Live Chat.Discovery as part of designingAkilah points out the importance of questioning and deschooling our beliefs. Besides people’s consent, boundaries, and shared meanings as ways to invite understanding and trust, resistance feels like a key element in the mix, allowing us see (through our discomfort) what we might need to shift.“That pushback, that resistance—my children