The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Kerry McDonald makes a calm, compelling case for something many parents can feel but struggle to name: kids don’t need more pressure—they need more trust. In this conversation with Ginny Yurich on The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast, Kerry (author of Unschooled and Joyful Learning, and host of the LiberatED Podcast) unpacks how modern schooling became increasingly standardized—and why families are steadily walking toward homeschooling, microschools, hybrid models, and learner-led environments that bring curiosity back to the center. You’ll hear why “seat time” and one-size-fits-all metrics can miss what matters most, what joyful learning actually looks like in real life, and how freedom—paired with meaningful community—can turn education from compliance into aliveness. (Explore Kerry’s writing at Forbes and The 74.)

Check out The Liberated Podcast here

Get your copy of Joyful Learning here

Get your copy of Unschooled here
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennie Allen is back on The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast, and this conversation goes straight for the thing most of us can’t name—but feel every day: the hidden “core lie” running beneath our thoughts. With warmth, honesty, and that signature Jennie clarity, she helps us spot the patterns that keep showing up (striving, spiraling, numbing, isolating), trace them back to what we’re really believing, and start fighting for actual freedom—especially because our kids are absorbing more than we realize. You’ll hear the three core lies that tend to drive us (worthless, helpless, unlovable), why “trying harder” is a trap that burns you out, and why surrender can be the most practical, clear-headed path forward.

Get your copy of The Lie You Don't Know You Believe here

Learn more about Jennie and all she has to offer here
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We weren’t built to live in a constant state of “what’s next.” Yet that low-grade restless hum has become normal in modern family life. In her third appearance on The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast, Michaeleen Doucleff — author of Hunt, Gather, Parent — returns with a powerful conversation about her new book Dopamine Kids and the science behind why screens and ultraprocessed foods leave us chasing instead of satisfied. This episode unpacks the overdrive of wanting, the illusion of pleasure, and the practical shifts that can help you take back the steering wheel of your home. Less frantic scrolling. Less food noise. More calm. More creation. More real joy. We deserve better than Netflix.

Get your copy of Dopamine Kids here . It's one of the best books I've ever read!

Get your copy of Hunt, Gather, Parent here

Learn more about Michaeleen and all she has to offer here
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ginny Yurich sits down with writer and researcher Alex Soojung-Kim Pang to reclaim something our culture keeps treating like a reward: real rest. Drawing from Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less and his work on the four-day workweek, Alex makes the case that rest isn’t what you do after life finally calms down—it’s the engine that makes good work, good parenting, and a good life possible. You’ll hear why history’s most creative people didn’t grind nonstop (they worked in focused bursts, then walked, napped, played, and protected their attention), why shorter workweeks tend to make people more present and “ridiculously wholesome,” and why kids’ independence and unscheduled time are not luxuries but developmental fuel. This conversation will make you want to put your phone down, step outside, and start building a life where work and rest are equals on purpose.

Get your copy of Rest here
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Bevere joins host Ginny Yurich on The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast with the kind of story that wakes you up—in the best way: a kid who struggled with writing (his SAT English score was a 370) becoming the author of 25 books… because he couldn’t shake the sense that God was asking him to put something on paper. From an unexpected college conversion to a decades-long reluctance to talk about end-times, John explains why his newest message isn’t about charts, dates, or fear—it’s about preparation, eager anticipation, and living with an eternal perspective that actually makes you kinder, steadier, and more alive right now. You’ll hear a surprisingly beautiful “relationship, not religion” moment, a fresh picture of eternity that sounds nothing like floating on clouds, and why “the King is coming” is meant to produce courage—not escapism. Explore The King Is Coming and The Awe of God and check out MessengerX - the free discipleship app John mentions.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices