European voices on soil health - the LOESS podcast

In this episode, we travel to Germany to explore soil health education. Together with a university professor and a student, we discuss why soil health matters, how education can inspire care for our soils, and what young people need to connect with the ground beneath their feet.

In this episode we visit Italy, where the natural environment has been shaped throughout the whole peninsula since Roman times. The Italian landscape is mostly anthropogenic and soils are not generally in good health.
Luckily, realizing that we live in the Anthropocene (that is human activity is now the dominant influence on climate and the environment) brings the awareness of the positive impact we can have.
Our Italian partners (Università degli Studi di Brescia, Università degli Studi di Sassari and Controvento Società Cooperativa Sociale Onlus) have built a community of practice where many people from various areas of the nation gather to make a change, as they believe we can -and we must- save our soils.

In this episode, Emma McKenna, Science Shop Coordinator at Queen’s University Belfast, invites us into a conversation about the importance of soil health education.

Emma's interviews with student, Aoibheann Quinn, university lecturer, Karen Kerr, and researcher, Calum McGeown, touch on themes of outdoor learning for nature connection, education for policy change and the need for more interdisciplinary and problem-solving approaches to learning about soil health.

In this episode, we are experiencing the beautiful environment in Greece where we have remarkable variety: volcanic soils in the islands, deep alluvial plains in Thessaly, thin and rocky soils in the mountains. Each has its own character, its own community of organisms. We interview a student and a biology teacher from Pierce College, Athens about their journey in this environment.

In this episode, we travel to Lithuania to explore our deep connection to the ground beneath our feet. We begin with the voices of Applied Ecology and Biology students, who reflect on soil as a living ecosystem—the "beginning of life" that cleans our water and sustains our food. They share a vision for an "ecocentric" future where young people reconnect with the earth through community gardens and practical experience. The journey continues at the regenerative farm 'Smėlynė', where Laurynas Kaučikas applies his biological background to heal exhausted land. Moving away from chemical shortcuts, Laurynas explains how he uses the natural instincts of livestock to restore the soil food web and bring biodiversity back to the fields. Together, our guests remind us that soil health is the foundation of animal, plant, and human health—a precious asset we must learn to partner with rather than simply use.

In this podcast episode, Réka Matolay, Head of Corvinus Science Shop at Corvinus University of Budapest speaks with Tünde Udvarnoki, social entrepreneur and founder of ComPot, and student collaborator Máté Kovács, about how soil health connects communities, education, and everyday life. Through personal stories, reflections on sustainable and practical examples such as indoor composting, regenerative campus gardens, and community-based environmental action, the conversation explores how people — university students but also urban dwellers without access to gardens — can rebuild meaningful relationships with soil. The episode highlights themes of interconnectedness, resilience, ecological learning, and participatory change, showing how caring for soil is not only an environmental issue, but also a social, cultural, and deeply human one.

The significance of soil education in land management in Poland.

In this episode, we welcome two women working in soil health education. Carina, a teacher with years of experience, and Johanna, a lecturer at University of Innsbruck, take us back to their childhood memories, their first connections with soil, and explain the importance of soil health education.

In this episode, we travel to The Netherlands, a country where soil health is under pressure from agriculture and industry. Professor Emeritus Johan Bouma shares his perspectives on soil education, emphasizing the value of an interdisciplinary outlook and the need for engaged teaching and learning.

We also hear from students Ilse Reitsma and Lena Gildemeister, who are currently pursuing their MSc degrees at Wageningen University. They share their motivations for studying soils and their aspirations to contribute to the protection of soil health.

In this episode, we visit Ireland, a country that has a focus on agriculture and that also has important peatland habitats. Environmental educator Craig Douglas shares how people can take steps to connect with soil and sustainability and the importance of joining a local community to do this. We also hear from chemistry students Eva Garry and Áine Winters who emphasise the need for soil education in universities and among the wider population.