Nature With You

Episode 51, Nature With Lauren 🐍 🐢 🌾 🛶 🥾

Lauren's mission is to spark wonder, foster empathy, & inspire the next generation of environmental stewards to defend, protect, & conserve natural spaces & their inhabitants - a mission she works towards every day as Manager/Educator of the Phillip Merrill Environmental Education Center program at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Episode Highlights: nature's unpredictability, strengthening a passion for nature in adulthood, mindfulness, climate anxiety, creating your 'nature community'

💬⭐️ "We are not apart from nature, we are a part of it."

Episode 50, Nature in the Movies: Hoppers is out now 🦫🐛🐸🪿🐟🐍

Co-host Jackson & I enjoyed exploring the plethora of environmental themes in Pixar's newest film🦎

Episode Highlights: protecting places we love, activism with local government, keystone species, environmental messaging in children's movies, connecting with people about nature

💬⭐️ " There is so much that we can do just in our sphere of influence. We forget about that because we try to fix the entire world. And sometimes to fix the entire world, you need to start with fixing your little glade."

Hoppers was written by Jesse Andrews and directed by Daniel Chong. Watch it now on Disney+! 💚🎬

Episode 49: Nature With Maretta is out now 🌻🌿

Maretta is a 7th grade teacher who loves spending time outside. She considers herself an environmentalist and is always willing to educate herself and learn more about different environmental impacts 📚

Episode Highlights: reflective thinking in nature; artificial intelligence - use in education, water consumption, impact on creative thinking; enjoying the rain

" The things that you do will affect not only the environment, but how other people are able to live as well."

Episode 48, Nature With Heather 🌻🌿Heather hopes to one day be tackling our environmental pollution issue at a larger scale & her current thesis work is definitely pushing her to do just that! She is looking at quantifying PFAS, or you could say forever chemicals, from non-point sources across land use areas in central Maryland. Episode Highlights: Running in nature, PFAS & why it’s research is important, Reflecting on a changing relationship with nature, Connecting climate change with health, food, migration, & more💬⭐️ "You should be conscious of what you’re taking in [and] with your decisions of what you buy."

Diyor has spent a lot of her time exploring the outdoors in her own way. She's gotten into hiking and traveling more recently, and now it's a part of her routine and something that grounds her. She's not the typical outdoorsy person, but she's learned that you don't have to fit a certain mold to belong outside. And now she spends her days preaching that online as @planetdiyor 💚

DISCLAIMER! At 10:28, Cody goes into detail about traditional Mongolian methods for processing a sheep. Skip to 13:26 if you would like to avoid hearing about that.

Co-host Jackson & I had so much fun talking to filmmaker Cody Sheehy about his relationship with nature.

 Cody joined us live from his sailboat somewhere in the Sea of Cortez. His life has traveled many roads. He grew up in China, explored the wilds of Mongolia, has spent years immersed in nature across the globe, and right now is raising his 4-year-old son aboard a boat with his wife while sailing and diving.

Episode Highlights: getting lost outside at age 6, living in Mongolia & cultural practices, living on a sailboat, Make People Better film about genetic engineering

💬⭐️ "...when it comes to natural spaces on Earth, I wonder what the implications [of technology] will be."

Co-host Jackson & I had so much fun talking to Cody Sheehy about The Last Dive film ⛵️🌊

Cody is an award-winning filmmaker whose films intimately tell the stories of characters challenged by our changing world. He has lived on a sailboat for decades and is the founder of Rhumbline Media.

Episode Highlights: how the story came to be, manta characteristics & conservation efforts, creating the film (filming underwater, editing & cinematography, finding the core of the film), 'unlikely' conservationists

💬⭐️ "Why is it that a manta ray would have these kinds of deep emotional connections with people?"

Explore more about The Last Dive film: https://www.thelastdivefilm.com/

Excited to share this piece of myself with all of you 🌻🌿🪼🌳☀️🛶🦆

Happy Earth Day/Week! 🌎🌍🌏 One way I'm celebrating Earth Day 2026 is by reflecting on my favorite nature experiences and some environmental issues that matter to me. In this episode, I answer questions provided by you! I talk about some of my favorite places on this planet (Western Pennsylvania, Maui, Costa Rica, Chesapeake Bay) & my favorite things to do outside, and also discuss important topics like the fossil fuel industry, plastic recycling, and more.

Enjoy!

Episode 43, Nature With Drea 🌼🦋👩‍🌾🪴🐛

Drea is a nature-lover who started a business that helps the environment one garden at a time by growing native plants and creating sustainable native plant gardens that are great for the environment and beautiful to us as well ☀️

Episode Highlights: native plants, finding nature in your backyard, nature's intricate relationships, getting involved with your local government, sharing passions with others

💬⭐️ "It doesn’t matter how small or how big your yard is, any amount of native plants that you plant makes a difference.”

Episode 42, Nature With Diana is out now 🌳🥾🏡👩‍🌾

Being outside, playing in the woods, nature, and working among plants have been major parts of Diana’s life. Can’t wait for you to hear about it! 🌺

Episode Highlights: human impacts on state/national parks, solo vs group hikes, life as a landscaper, effects of climate change on plants

“I would hope that everybody at some point in life can get out there and work a day or two and find the beauty of getting dirty.”