On navigating the shoulds and possibilities of adulthood

Sameera on finding a creative way to live

Kevin and Sameera caught up in Brighton this week. Sameera was a “Pioneer”, part of the first Liminal Learning cohort that started with a Quest in the Algonquin wilderness two years ago. Kevin had just watched her perform a packed one-woman comedy show at the Brighton Fringe [https://www.thereviewshub.com/brighton-fringe-sameera-bowers-what-is-going-on-rotunda-theatre/] — the reason both of them were in town. When Sameera joined the Liminal Learning Quest, she was making detailed lists, fretting over post-graduation paths, and bracing for the wrong choice. After going to a competitive high school, just about to graduate from Economics at Cambridge, life felt linear, and the wrong choice meant "you lose… two years… and you have to start again." In this conversation she walks through what loosened. She talks about a portfolio life — an office job, online tutoring, stand-up, screenwriting — and the surprising way the threads turn out to feed each other rather than compete. The best example: the office job she’s in now came from a stranger in the audience at one of her stand-up sets, who turned out to run a climate-finance lab and opened a contract for her. Her degree didn’t get her that job. Her comedy did. They land on surface area for luck — the idea that if you can stay in touch with what’s alive and follow that, you can create a life wide enough for luck to land on. Sameera describes the moment in Algonquin when she felt her shoulders drop tension she hadn’t known was there, and the slow reframe that followed: life isn’t a linear path with sequential pass/fails, it’s a creative practice. The point isn’t the thing you’re doing. It’s working with possibility, letting one thing lead you to the next, and having faith that worlds are connected in ways you can’t predict or see. Know a curious young person finding their way? We have a few places left in our next cohort, starting in the New Forest, UK, on June 28 [https://liminal-learning.com/upcoming-quests]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit liminallearning.substack.com [https://liminallearning.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

On navigating the shoulds and possibilities of adulthood

A major task of early adulthood is making sense of the shoulds: understanding the merits and tradeoffs of traditional paths on one’s own terms. It is often gradual and challenging work to find the authentic middle — between what feels like kneejerk rebellion and unconscious drifting along. Last summer, at the Life Itself [https://substack.com/profile/301548251-life-itself] Hub in Bergerac, Kevin hung out with Finn. Finn reflected on his path since finishing uni in the UK, and on questioning the standard next step (a corporate job in London). They spoke about travel as a way of opening the lens, experiencing the many possible ways of living. Know a young person who’s figuring out what next? Our next cohort starts with a Quest in the New Forest, June 28 – July 3 — more info and registrations here [https://liminal-learning.com/upcoming-quests]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit liminallearning.substack.com [https://liminallearning.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Finn on his path to work that fits

Kevin and Finn caught up in Toronto this week. Finn was a “Pioneer”, one of the first cohort of Liminal Learning which wrapped up in August, 2025. He’s stayed close to the community ever since, hanging out, helping out with events, and returning for the Heist training for the Stargazers cohort. Finn tells a serendipitous story of how he’s landed in work that fits. Out of university, he joined the Liminal Learning Quest with the weight of too much choice and a deep care to pick the right path. He credits the Liminal program with helping him shift posture, to experimentation and holding things in tension, and took an unpaid role at a startup that went nowhere… but along the way, in a Toronto café, he overheard a stranger using the same financial terms he was struggling to learn for a Dragon’s-Den-style pitch. He leaned over and asked a question. That stranger became a mentor. A year and a half later — after a fruitful but not-it detour into event planning — Finn reconnected with the same mentor, who offered him the first hire in a brand-new company. The mentor listed the qualities he was looking for, and Finn felt they were exactly the ones that resonated for him in Liminal’s program and practices: curiosity, agency, comfort with ambiguity, an open posture toward the unknown. The mentor was “looking for an awesome Heister”. The two of them get into fittedness — the rare experience of landing somewhere that meets the whole of you, not just the curated 40%. They talk about how you “can’t hide” on an authentic small team or on a Heist, and the fear and excitement that comes with that. And they land on exploration: the point isn’t the thing you’re doing, it’s doing it with enough courage to let it lead you to asking the next question. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit liminallearning.substack.com [https://liminallearning.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

What do young people need to thrive in a world in flux?

What do young people actually need during the messy, fertile transition to adulthood? Many are finding that the old scripts don’t work. In a world in flux, the urgent need is to cultivate a fruitful relationship with the unknown. Isabela and Kevin discuss what makes young adulthood a unique developmental inflection point, and the developmental and philosophical scaffolding upon which Liminal Learning is designed. They talk about Neither/Nor [https://liminallearning.substack.com/p/neithernor] oscillation practice, exploring virtues, what a "world-readiness" curriculum involves, and how collective containers for experimentation can help young people discover what matters most to them. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit liminallearning.substack.com [https://liminallearning.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Stargazers check-in: Michael & Riley

Our second cohort started with a Quest in Ontario in October, 2025. Each cohort names themselves at the end of that week in the woods, and so we can now happily introduce the Stargazers! ✨ Kevin chats with Michael and Riley about a month after returning from the Quest. They talk about what attracted them to Liminal Learning, their experiences of the Quest at Elbow Lake, and what they’re looking forward to for the rest of their yearlong program together [https://liminal-learning.com/program]. Keen to join a Quest? We’ll run two more cohorts in 2026, one in Canada and one in the UK — details and early registration here [https://liminal-learning.com/upcoming-quests]! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit liminallearning.substack.com [https://liminallearning.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]