1KHO 617: The Courage to Be Left Behind | Erin Loecher, The Opt-Out Family

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Parenting, Kids & Family

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erin Loechner is back for her third visit with a deeply freeing message for parents: you can step off the conveyor belt and still raise kids who thrive. From TV sets and Disney stages to off-grid cabins and a garden full of slow surprises, Erin has lived a dozen lives—and let many of them go. She and Ginny explore how seasons change slowly, why “success” can be lovingly rejiggered, and how refusing the race no longer meant for you is often the bravest step forward. If you’ve ever wondered whether opting out will leave you behind, this conversation says the quiet part out loud: it won’t. It will bring you home. Then they get wonderfully practical. Erin shows how to flip Big Tech’s playbook for the good of your family—bringing surprise, challenge, streaks, and shared goals back offline. Think a jelly bean in a coat pocket to reward real-world habits, a “treasure chest” microwave with small delights, fridge trackers instead of app streaks, midnight sundaes, silly-string welcomes, and family projects that build interdependence (yes, decks and ponds count). Along the way, they celebrate the outdoors as the world’s best noise-absorber and soul-reset. This episode is a permission slip to slow down, opt out, and choose a life your kids will actually want to inherit. Get your copy of Chasing Slow here Get your copy of The Opt-Out Family here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sean has had some good ideas over the years.
0:05.0	But using Canva was a really good one.
0:08.0	Sean designed some social posts to promote his friend's car boot sale.
0:13.0	They looked good.
0:15.0	Really, really good.
0:17.0	Next thing he knows, someone came and bought the lot, including the car.
0:23.6	Now Sean doesn't know how he's going to get home.
0:26.6	Thanks, Canva.
0:29.6	Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.
0:31.6	My name is Ginny Urge. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside.
0:34.6	And one of my very, very, very, very favorite people ever is back. Aaron Lockner,
0:38.6	welcome. Oh, Jenny, I could talk to you for hours, hours, hours. This is going to be so hard for me to edit down. Okay. Hi. I miss you. I'm so glad that you're here and I'm so glad that we've connected. We connected at Wild and Free, the Wild and Free conference a couple years back. And you are like the most humble person because I came, it was like my first time and I didn't know anybody. And you were the, what do they call it? I'm going to say concierge, but that's not the right word. What is it, what is it called? Present your host. Okay, you're a host. Yeah. I mean, so hospitable. Like just making sure everyone's taking care of. In fact, it was my first experience being treated so caringly. I remember telling Josh, I was like, this is incredible. Like she's like, do you know where you're going? Do you have what you need? I've got this. You know, people are driving at this point. Does everybody have a ride? Does, you like I think you checked in before the event
1:27.8	like texted before the event and I was like what is this this is amazing so then we met
1:33.4	and like we spent this weekend together and then I came home and I was like wait I was like
1:38.0	Aaron's been on TV she's written these books she has this thing called other goose to help
1:42.7	people with homeschooling. And you didn't
1:44.6	talk about it at all. Oh, you. Well, because I want to hear from you. I want to hear all your
1:50.0	fascinating things, which someday I just really feel like we need to do an episode about you where
1:53.3	you're interviewed by the whole world. Everybody just sends in their questions and we interview
1:58.4	you because I like it. I like, I want you I love you well I want
2:03.0	you and this is the thing before we kind of I hit record here we're talking about that of I think
2:08.8	of all the people that I know personally I think this is the true statement you to me are the
	...

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