Episode 043 looks at curbing anxious thoughts from spiraling out of control; carving time out now to spend with your family while they’re young, instead of waiting until you’re middle-aged or elderly; how to leave social gatherings early without damaging your reputation with the host; the importance of being frugal around the holidays, especially in such a tough year as 2020; and not being afraid to find a new job when your current job stops serving you.
Author: Skyler J. Collins (Editor)
Founder and editor of Everything-Voluntary.com and UnschoolingDads.com, Skyler is a husband and unschooling father of three beautiful children. His writings include the column series “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” and “One Improved Unit,” and blog series “Two Cents“. Skyler also wrote the books No Hitting! and Toward a Free Society, and edited the books Everything Voluntary and Unschooling Dads. You can hear Skyler chatting away on his podcasts, Everything Voluntary and Thinking & Doing.
Shepard’s Journey, Former Cop, Voluntaryism, & Spreading Liberty (59m) – Episode 426
Episode 426 welcomes Shepard the Voluntaryist to the podcast to chat with Skyler on the following topics: knowing Carl Watner intimately and his work at Voluntaryist.com; Watner introducing both Skyler and Shepard to Stoicism; his discovery of Ron Paul, and then Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, Larken Rose, et al; his 10 year career as a police officer, 2 of which were as a prison guard; capitalism versus corporatism; growing up with the Mennonites, but later becoming an atheist; Marc Stevens’ method of challenging state jurisdiction; the wisdom in avoiding the cops; why the BLM protests over the some had the wrong grievance about injustice; a story of a prison inmate getting beat up for flushing a toilet, and how asking about why this happened to a fellow prison guard got him ostracized; why spreading the ideas of liberty, planting seeds, is a very slow process; fun strategies to repel cops; and more.
Andrew Napolitano: Nation of Sheep (48m)
This episode features a talk by by former Federal judge and libertarian Andrew Napolitano from 2008. He discusses how the federal government has circumvented the Constitution and is systematically dismantling the rights and freedoms that are the foundation of American democracy. He challenges Americans to recognize that they are being led down a very dangerous path and that the cost of following without challenge is the loss of the basic freedoms that facilitate our pursuit of happiness and that define us as a nation. He asks the simple question, which are you, a sheep or a wolf? Do you blindly follow behind where you are led, or do you challenge the government at every pass, forcing it to make decisions that will protect our freedoms?
Emily’s Journey, Schooling Deficiencies, Human Conation, & Consulting Business (1h1m) – Episode 425
Episode 424 welcomes Emily Melious to the podcast to chat with Skyler on the following topics: why school only works for 20% of kids, and leaves out the rest; the trouble that gifted kids have in school; learning only how to do things according to someone’s “correct” way and the limits this places on kids; schooling versus human nature and creativity; the importance of school grades in the business world; the trilogy of mind: cognition (skills/knowledge), affection (emotions/motivations/personality), and conation (volition/desire); Kolbe Corpe and the way they assess a person’s trilogy of mind; her history learning about herself and advocating for her strengths personally and professionally; why she’s always focused on her capabilities instead of her immutable characteristics like gender; the limits on usefulness of personality tests; the challenges that 2020 has brought to her consulting business LaunchConsulting.io; and more.
King or Tyrant & The Jurisdiction of Fate (16m) – Episode 042
Episode 042 looks at two Stoic topics: the first from Seneca who wrote, ““Our soul is sometimes a king, and sometimes a tyrant. A king, by attending to what is honorable, protects the good health of the body in its care, and gives it no base or sordid command. But an uncontrolled, desire-fueled, over-indulged soul is turned from a king into that most feared and detested thing—a tyrant.”; and the second from r/Stoicism, a post by answersamir, who started off with, “Its true that fate has jurisdiction over your birth and death. It can also be argued that fate confines you within some realm of possibilities throughout your life.”
Special Children, Prison Bail Inequality, & Disney Princesses as Role Models (36m) – Episode 424
Episode 424 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following entries to r/unpopularopinion: MassLax writes, “We HAVE to stop telling kids they’re special.”; tarababygirl writes, “Being able to pay your way out of jail shouldn’t be a thing.”; and ShinyAwesomeYT writes, “Disney princesses are terrible role models for children”.
Alex’s Journey, Digital Nomad, Ammo.com, & LibertasBella.com (1h6m) – Episode 423
Episode 423 welcomes Alex Horsman to the podcast to chat with Skyler on the following topics: his work with Ammo.com; the Ammo.com Resistance Library; graduating the University of Missouri (Mizzou) with a business and economics degree, and their Austrian School trained economics professors (lawsuit); becoming a digital nomad after graduation and living in 4 different countries in the last two years; experiences in Bali (Indonesia), Colombia, Lisbon (Portugal), and Sao Paulo (Brazil); constantly being offered drugs in Lisbon (Portugal decriminalization); unschooling and Sudbury schooling (Free to Learn by Peter Gray); Utah history and politics; COVID-19 and tourism; LibertasBella.com merchandise business; Tuttle Twins and the Mises Summit at Jekyll Island; Robert Kyosaki and Jeff Berwick feud; EVC logo colors origin; predictions on Trump pardoning anybody of note; and more.
Retrogressive Causation & Exponential Growth (14m) – Episode 041
Episode 041 looks at the logical fallacy Retrogressive Causation and the cognitive bias Exponential Growth.
Freedom and Benefit, Toxic Workplace, Tax Avoidance, & Capitalist Ideology (25m) – Episode 422
Episode 422 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following entries to r/shitstatistssay: DizzFizz writes, “It’s interesting to see how a lot of US-citizens will bend over backwards in order to argue against something that would only benefit them, simply because of ‘freedom'”; anonymous writes, “What your niece did is right, it just unfortunately means you (and workers) suffered.”; bickerstaff writes, “Reagan ruined this country. By creating the notion (now foundational to the GOP) that government was not the solution, but the problem, he gave birth to the modern ‘starve the beast’ movement that is currently the largest problem in politics: tax avoidance.”; Pascal Morimacil writes, “Capitalism is… a system of government granted monopolies called private property.”
Sandra Dodd: Unexpected Benefits of Unschooling (19m)
This episode features an audio essay written by long-time unschooling mom and guru Sandra Dodd in 2008, and which comprises Chapter 22 of Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting, edited by Skyler J. Collins and published in 2012.