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So, you're an ex-h homeschooler with a story to share. I want to hear it. Hey,
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what's up, guys? I'm Jacob Gooden, host of the Ex Homeschoolers Club. That's
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right, the best exhomeschooler show this side of the internet. And, uh, if you're
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new here, welcome in. If you're returning, welcome back. Uh, that's right. Today, I'm talking about why you
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might be the perfect guest to come on the show. And, uh, you know, I'm going
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to talk about the stories that I'm looking to feature. Uh, I'm going to talk about the process of actually like
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doing the interview and I'm going to share, you know, a little sneak peek at
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some of the questions you might get asked. So, if at any point during this conversation you go, "Yes, this is me."
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I want you to do something. Shoot me an email at [email protected]. Say, "Hey, Jacob, I
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want to come on the show. Let's get that conversation rolling." First things
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first, let's talk about why I'm doing this. I wanted to make an episode be
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about this because I just know how intimidating it can be to like first of all be on a podcast but secondly reach
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out to a podcast and ask to be a guest. Okay, that imposter syndrome sets in. You start to question question like is
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my story all that interesting? Does my story even matter? Am I an interesting person? And let me just stop you right
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there, okay? Because everybody's story is so unique and so different. And what
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I've learned is that I think some of the most powerful stories come from the most
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unsuspecting people and from the people who don't think they have a great story
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to share. Okay. So, if you've been homeschooled or been involved in the homeschool world, whether it was good,
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bad, ugly, somewhere in between, this show might be the place for you. And I want
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to get that that ball rolling. So, shoot me that email. Okay. Now, let's talk
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about some of the topics I'm interested in pursuing. Now, know that this list is
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not expansive, extensive. Uh it doesn't cover everything, okay? These are just
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some of the topics that recently have been on my mind. I've been thinking a lot about and I want to touch on them.
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So, first and foremost, big family versus small family homeschooling. Okay, I come from a small family. It was two
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of us being homeschooled. Uh but I know kids who came from families of 12 and uh
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they have very different experiences with the homeschool world than I do. So if that's you whether either side of the
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spectrum um I want to hear from you, okay? I want to know uh I want to know your story. Secondly, I want to talk
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about neurode diverency and homeschooling. So whether you were diagnosed, undiagnosed, growing up with
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autism, asberers, uh freaking ADHD, like any number, dyslexia, uh if your brain just functioned a little bit
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differently. Uh I want to hear about your experience. I want to know whe what whether it was good, was bad, whatever.
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I I'm I'm interested in pursuing more of that. Uh and kind of being the dumb guy
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in the room who could just ask questions. Uh, so yeah. Number three, I want to touch on
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LGBTQI plus uh stuff. I know I might have missed some letters. I hope I didn't, but um their experiences. I grew
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up in a in a very religion-based Christian home education system. Okay. LGBT was like not really talked about,
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and when it was talked about, it was usually with a negative light. And so, one, I'm interested to know what it was
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like growing up in an environment like that. But maybe you didn't grow up in an
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environment like that. Maybe you grew up somewhere where it was very accepted and
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very normal. Um, and I want to hear I want to know. Um, so if that's you, reach out. Number number four, I don't
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know. Next one. Next one. Um, this is a little bit down in the dumps, but I do want to talk about abuse and
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homeschooling and what that looks like. Um, I know that's kind of a dark place
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and I promise I will put a disclaimer on that episode if and when it comes to fruition, but I am interested in it. I
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didn't grow up in an abusive household. Um, at least in in maybe the traditional
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sense of what we think abuse is, but if you feel like homeschooling was an abusive area for you, I'm
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I'm I want to hear from you. Uh, I want to know. Next one I want to hear is growing up in an like agnostic
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homeschool environment. Like I said previously, I I grew up in a Christian environment. Okay, that was everyone I
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knew was a Christian. Or so I thought. And so if that wasn't you, right, if you
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grew up maybe you didn't have religion in your house or maybe you had a different religion, right? Maybe you
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grew up with Islam or Judaism or or something else, Mormonism. Uh I I think it'd be really interesting to touch on
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those and how they play a role uh in in the homeschool world, right? and what it
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looks like to be homeschooled without them um is something I'm interested because that's just not my experience.
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Uh next one on the list, the impact of purity culture uh and what happens after. I've talked about this before.
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I've shared my story. I've had a couple people, we've talked about purity
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culture a little bit. Again, it's a religious thing. uh tends to be a religious thing, but um it's something
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that is near and dear to my heart because it's something I deal with on the regular and am still working through
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some things. And so um yeah, so if that's you, you want to talk about it, let's talk about it. Next up on the
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list, what do we got? Whether the curriculum you used helped or harmed you, right? If you got a favorite
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curriculum, like I loved Math, you see, that helped me understand math so well. Um, I still kind of visualize it in my
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brain sometimes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Matthew C was
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amazing. Um, it's like block building math, uh, essentially. And, um, yeah, so if you've got a curriculum that is
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just, you know, the love of your life, or maybe it's the the spawn of Satan in
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your opinion. That's something I'm interested in in in exploring with you. Next up,
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uh, let's see. What do we got? Stories from parents. Okay, I know I've had a
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couple homeschool parents on. I've had my parents on. Uh the wonderful Mrs. Brooks has come on this podcast as well.
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But if you're a homeschool parent or former homeschool parent, I want to talk
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to you. I want to kind of pick your brain. I want to know, would you do it again, right? What would you change?
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What do you tell other parents who are looking to homeschool their kids now? What kind of advice do you give them?
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Uh, I I think one of the main goals of this show, it started really as a way to just
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reconnect with people. It was a networking thing. Um, and reconnect and hear people's stories. But I've realized
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that one of the goals that I have of this show is to help the next generation of homesooled people. Uh, whether it's
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parents, whether it's kids, I want to give them hope that that things can be
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better. And I want to push them to be better than my parents were than than uh than we were as homeschooled kids,
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right? I want them to be that next uh that next iteration, if you will. So, if you're a homeschool parent and you want
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to chat, let's chat. Hit me up. Um and then the last thing I've got on the list
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here is how does homeschooling look today as compared to back then? So, this is for
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current homeschoolers or homeschool parents. Um, or maybe people who just got out of it, right? Uh, I've been out
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of home the homeschool world for about 10 years now. Uh, so I'm a little rusty.
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Uh, I've been doing my research and learning and and you know, connecting with some some current homeschool
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families and some current homeschool educators uh, and things like that. But I want to know. I want to know whether
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you just graduated, whether you're still in it, whether you're still a parent
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teaching in the home school world. I'm kind of interested to pick your brain a
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little bit, find out what's maybe different, what's the same. Uh how have
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things evolved? So again, if you heard a topic in there that you're like, I can
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talk about that. Maybe you didn't hear a topic that you could talk about, but
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maybe you've got a different topic. Shoot me an email at exhsclubgmail.com. Okay? Okay, I'm going
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to keep plugging it because I expect emails. Okay, I'm expecting them. Let's
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move on to what it looks like, okay? What the actual interview process is going to look like for you. Um, every
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interview is slightly different, okay? But some of the things remain the same. So, let's go through it. Number one, I
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always offer to do a pre-in chat. It's usually over a phone. Maybe it's a Zoom
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call, but you know, if you're just nervous or you want to just get to know me uh in a
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non-recorded, non pressure scenario, we can do that. Okay? It's just a sit down
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chat. You and I, we're going to hang out. We're going to get to know each
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other. We're going to ask stupid questions. Um it also helps me sometimes with creating the questions that I'm
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going to ask in the interview and where you want to take it and where you feel comfortable taking it. So, if you're a
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nervous person like I am, this can be really, really helpful. Um, just to kind of like ease the nerves a little bit.
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Okay. But once we've done that and you're like, I'm coming on the show.
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Okay. The first thing is going to be a guest intake form, I'm going to email
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this to you or send you a link. You get to pick a time and date that works best for you. Um, it's got a couple questions
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in there about, you know, it's got the easy stuff like your name, your email
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address. It'll ask you a couple of things about like topics you want to discuss. It'll ask you if anything's off
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limits. It'll ask you uh if you want to join my join my email newsletter, which
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hint hint, you should do that. Link in the description below. Join the newsletter. Um but yeah, it's just some
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general questions to get things set up. Then you'll get an email and that email
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is going to have some further instructions. Um and uh it's basically going to be all the things you need,
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right? So, your the date and time of your interview, all the links you need to to do it. Um, you know, if you've got
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headphones, wear them. If you've got a microphone, let's use it. Uh, I currently use a third party service to
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record that's called uh Descript. So, it's got links to that. It'll walk you
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through the whole process of how you set that up. You know, probably best to do it on a computer, not on a phone. Uh,
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that kind of stuff. It's it's the technical mumbo jumbo. Um, next up, the
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actual interview. Okay, so what's great, I have uh some services that uh basically will send you reminder emails.
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We'll send you one 24 hours before our interview, send you an hour before our
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interview, and I think it sends 15 minutes before the interview if I'm not wrong, but you'll get at least get two
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emails before your interview just reminding you, hey, it's coming up. Um, but yeah, we're going to jump on a call
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together. It's going to look very much like a Zoom call. Everyone's done a Zoom
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call at this point. Um, but yeah, we're going to hang out. We'll chat for a few
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minutes. We'll get comfortable. We'll shake out the nerves. We'll do what we
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need to do. We'll take care of any tech issues. And then we'll press record and
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we'll just get right into it. Okay? We're going to ask questions. We're
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going to have a good time. We're going to laugh. Maybe we're going to cry. Who
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knows? Um, it's going to be a good time. I promise you. And, uh, last up on the
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list is publishing. Okay. After we've recorded, it's going to the editor.
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That's me. Okay. Uh, I'm going to edit this bad boy down. And, uh, that's the
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great thing about recording with me. We edit the show, okay? So, if at any point
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during the conversation, you need a break, you need to take a take a breath, maybe you said something out of turn,
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maybe you just said something, you're like, "Ah, I want to rephrase that." We
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can edit it. We'll make it, we'll fix it, okay? Um, not a problem. Now, when
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the episode goes live, um I usually will tag you in an Instagram post, um with a
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little clip of the episode, um uh and I'll shoot you a message on Instagram and say, "Hey, our episode's out. Like,
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thanks for coming on." That kind of a thing. Uh if you don't have Instagram,
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that's okay. I'll shoot you an email. I'll let you know it's live. Send you
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links. All that fun stuff. And really, at that point, it's up to you what you
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want to do. I love when people share it. I love when people are proud of it and they send it to all their friends. Um,
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but I understand if that's not you. I get it. Um, but it is nice when they when people do share it. But overall, I
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want the experience to be as low pressure. I want it to be collaborative. It's meant to be a conversation, right?
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It's meant to be a back and forth. Of course, I'll have a whole list of questions that I can ask you um that we
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can go for, you know, hours on end uh talking about. But I also want you to feel open to ask me questions about my
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experience if that's what you want to do, right? that makes you feel comfortable. Um especially if we don't
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know each other from the past or anything like that, it's sometimes nice to get to compare notes, so to speak. Uh
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that's kind of the fun part of this. So, uh yeah. So, hopefully that has put your
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mind at ease. Again, if you're hearing this and you're going, I could do this,
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shoot me an email, [email protected]. Say, hey, Jacob, I think I'm ready. So, last up, let's talk
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about some of the questions. Okay, so these questions typically I send out, these get sent in
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that email, that pre-in email. Um, just to kind of get your brain turning a little bit. Okay. Um, and in general, if
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you've listened to the show before, you know, you've heard these questions
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before, you know kind of how they go. But number one, I'm going to ask you about a day in the life of your
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homeschool world. Okay? Right? I want to know what did it look like? like did was
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mom getting you up and having you in the classroom by 8:00 a.m. Was it really chill? How many siblings you got? Um I
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want to know a little bit about just like life in general. Was every day the same? Was every day not the same? Who
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you know? Um I want to know that. Okay. Kind of our our jumping off point into getting to know you as a person. Um then
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we're going to get into like what are you doing now, right? How has homeschooling shifted into you, you
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know, your world today? Uh, does it play a role? Does it not? You know, some people choose to identify still as a
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homeschooler like me. Um, it's still very much a part of my identity and something that I would argue is kind of
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a selling point. Um, if you want the package. Uh, but, uh, you know, I want to know what you're
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doing now, right? I want to, you know, we're getting to know each other, so to
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speak. Uh, and then I'm also gonna ask you about like a distinct or vivid. This
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could be good, bad, ugly, but like this distinct memory of your home school world. Uh, for me, I remember very
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vividly the first day I took ballroom dance class, which was associated with my homeschool world. And, uh, I was I
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hated it at first, and I fell in love with it. It created some of the best friends I could have ever asked for. Uh,
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I met some of the coolest people and I get to tell people I was a swing dancer back in the day. So, um, you know, it
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really it worked out, so to speak. Um, yeah. So, there's that. Um, I'm also
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going to ask you like, you know, cuz I get asked this of like you were a homeschool kid. Would you homeschool
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your kids? Would you recommend people homeschool their kids? Like, I want to I'm going to I want to know your take on
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that, right? Would you say yes? Would you say no? Would you say, "Well, if it
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was different in this way, I would consider these things." Uh, I want to know. I That's like I said, one of the
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goals of this show is to create an impact for the next generation of homeschoolers. Of course, it's also to
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be a therapy group and, you know, a connection point for former homeschool kids to, you know, we have some similar
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experiences whether you grew up in Michigan or California or Texas or whatever. Um, you know, there's usually
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some overlap there, but uh, you know, this show it can be so much more than that. So, again, those
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are just a couple questions to give you a little taste of like what you can expect. So, last call. If this sounds
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like you, if this sounds like something you want to do, shoot me an email at [email protected]. So, that's my
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plug. I know this is a little bit of a shorter episode, but that's okay. I'm
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going to give you a little tease of what I'm working on. Um, I've got a couple
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episodes in the works right now. One, with some amazing guests. They're going
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to be really, really fun. Um, but two, I've been doing some reading. Okay. Um,
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I talked briefly before about how purity culture is a big deal for me. It's something that I'm very passionate
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about. It's something I'm very passionate about dismantling um, and and having better sex education
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and purity conversations with people in the future. And so as a result of that, I have been reading probably the most
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notorious purity culture book of all time, and that is I Kiss Dating Goodbye by Josh
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Harris. One of the worst books I've ever read. Um, I've also read his follow-up
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book that was more about marriage called Boy Meets Girl. And uh, also one of the
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worst books I've ever read. Um, so I'm rereading both of those. I had not read
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Boy Meets Girl. Um, so I read that for the first time. very interesting to read a book. Um, we're going to get into it,
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but but the tease is that these are terrible books, okay? Do not read them. I'm reading them so you don't have to.
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Um, we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about how damaging this
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could be and how at 14 years old, oh my gosh, if I was being handed some of these books and told, "Yeah, read this
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and it's good for you." I would have taken it as as ultimate truth. Um, and
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reading it now, while I don't think that every 100% every piece of advice in
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there is bad, um, it definitely needs to be questioned. And, uh, I will give the
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disclaimer. I know that Josh has like has distanced himself from these books. They're no longer in publishing. He very
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much he's renounced them. Um, and he has done, I think, some to kind of, I don't know, do penance. um for for
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the harm it caused. Um but yeah, so it's just again something I'm passionate
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about is the purity culture movement. Um and I want to talk about it. So I've
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been reading those books. Those are still a little ways off cuz I'm putting together just some more in-depth uh
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looks at them than just me kind of like reading and throwing together something.
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I wanted to really take my time with it and make something I'm very proud of. So
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those are coming. Hint hint. but they'll probably still be a month plus away. So,
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in the meantime, I've got some cool ones, some cool episodes coming with new
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friends, with old friends. Uh, we're going to touch on some cool subjects. So, with that, I'm going to close things
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out, but do me a favor, join the newsletter, follow me on Instagram, follow me on Tik Tok. Uh, all the links
00:18:52
are down below. You know what to do. You're you're a normal person who understands how the internet works. Uh,
00:18:58
go give me a follow, shoot me an email. again, exhs club uhgmail.com. Uh and uh yeah, so until
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next week, this has been Jacob Gunnen signing off. Peace. [Music]