Nat & Martha Sharpe — The Conflict between Agency & Community (EP.163)

Nat & Martha Sharpe have been a creative team for over a decade. Nat was a film school graduate and Martha a storytelling enthusiast. They fell in love while filming a musical parody of "Beowulf" with their friends.

After another comedy and two documentaries, they started having children. Focus shifted from art to survival. Together, they learned to code, got off food stamps, and traveled around America in an RV. Today, Nat and Martha homeschool their 5 kids and are eager to explore alternative education, expand their comfort zones, and—as always—make movies.
Nat & Martha were the first recipients of an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship, which is a one-year program for ambitious people who want to build something great. Fellows receive a $100,000 grant and access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts to support them in bringing their projects to life.

Nat & Martha are using their fellowship grant to study and make documentary films of alternative childhood education schools.

Important Links:

• The O’Shaughnessy Fellowships
• Nat & Martha’s Website
• Nat & Martha’s Twitter
• Nat & Martha’s O’Shaughnessy Fellowship Application Video
• Nat & Martha’s YouTube Channel
• OSV’s investment in Synthesis School

Show Notes:

• Nat & Martha’s origin story
• How education is connected to community
• “Kids want to survive, they want to thrive, they want to learn”
• Education vs indoctrination
• Screen time isn’t the problem & why unschooled children become entrepreneurs
• The magic blue bus
• Finding the others
• What caused the rise in helicopter parenting?
• The conflict between agency & community
• It can be hard to give people money
• Learning by doing; in-demand learning
• How can we monetize the best teachers in the world?
• How AI is going to transform education
• What’s next?
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson