In episode 13, Blake Boles joins Marni and Chris to talk about self-directed living and the search for purpose outside conventional systems. Founder of Unschool Adventures, Blake has spent since 2008 taking teens who don’t go to school on international trips, and has written several books on self-directed learning—most recently Dirtbag Rich: High Freedom, Low Income, Deep Purpose. He reclaims “dirtbag” as a term of endearment for someone so committed to what they love that they refuse to surrender all their time to conventional work, and reframes it around a trifecta of time, money, and purpose.
The conversation turns to Blake’s work with neurodivergent teens—many of whom get labeled ADHD, oppositional, or autistic in a classroom but thrive when given autonomy and real responsibility. Blake argues it’s the one-size-fits-all system that manufactures so many of these labels, and makes the case for a thousand small educational experiments rather than one replacement system. The threads of autonomy and freedom run straight through to PDA experience, as Chris and Marni push into gaming as a legitimate social world, meeting kids where they are, and Blake’s defense of calculated risk and the “one-way ticket” as a counterweight to communities built solely around safety. The episode closes on his challenge to the “cult of retirement” and his belief that a life of more time and more purpose is hard to strike but real.
Links from this episode:
Blake’s Writing
Blake’s travel company for teens, Unschool Adventures
Connect With Us
Wandering Brightly with Marni Kammersell
Positive Disintegration and cosmic cheer squad with Chris Wells
PDA: Resistance and Resilience on Substack
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