Rusty is back by the creek. The water is moving. The bugs are buzzing. A bald eagle flies by because apparently even the birds know when a podcast needs a dramatic moment. 

In this solo episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty reflects on his spring speaking tour where he brought the fire for nature play, risky play, loose parts, and the slow, sparkly magic of childhood.

This episode is part road trip recap, part manifesto, part invitation. Rusty digs into the power of starting small, listening deeply, and building community with other play people who believe mud kitchens, willow huts, risky play, and outdoor adventures can change the world. 

He also gives a peek at the upcoming Nature Play Academy, a new community for folks who want to dream big, start small, and never stop. Woo woo woo woo.

Top Three Takeaways:

Links:

Sign up for Nature Play Academy updates: rusty-keeler.mykajabi.com/nature-play-academy-waitlist

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

What happens when a chemist wanders out of the lab and into the woods with children? Adventure, of course. 

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast Rusty talks with Jim McCullough, founder of Adventure Walkers about forest kindergarten, playwork, risky play, and the wild magic that happens when adults stop steering so much and start saying yes.

Jim shares his story of how working in a preschool turned into taking walks with kids. Soon Jim was on a journey to start a forest kindergarten pilot in the woods behind a preschool, and later building Adventure Walkers, a roaming, creek-splashing, log-balancing, frog-finding laboratory for childhood.

Jim and Rusty talk about risk, trust, reflection, and why “safe enough” may be better than trying to make childhood perfectly safe. Listeners will come away with a big invitation: start small, try a pilot, follow the children, and let the woods do some of the teaching.

Top Three Takeaways from Jim McCullough:

Links: 

adventurewalkersrva.com

Instagram @adventurewalkersrva

Facebook @AdventureWalkersrva

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Nature is not just pretty. It is medicine. It is our teacher. It is mud, microbes, moss, noise-softening, nervous-system-settling magic.

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler talks with researcher Alex Barrable about the deep and delightful ways humans connect with the natural world. Alex shares how becoming a parent brought her back to nature, how children help adults slow down to “Earth speed,” and why our bodies and brains are still wired for green, wild, living places. Alex and Rusty also explore our invisible microbial friends, the microbiome. Alex explains the benefits of what nature offers us, just by bein nature

Children need time. Space. Soil. Loose parts. Wonder. They need to smell it, touch it, climb it, taste it, and know they belong to it. Because when children feel connected to the Earth, they are more likely to care for it too.

Top Three Takeaways from Alex Barrable:

Links:
dirtyplay.org

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Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

The best playgrounds are alive. Dirt is medicine. And schoolyards can, and should, grow a little forest where kids can climb, hide, breathe, wonder, and come back to themselves. 

 In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler talks with Adam Bienenstock about nature play, living soil, school forests, and why children need more than a break from screens. They need roots. Bugs. Trees. Mud. The good stuff.

Adam and Rusty dig into the big, beautiful, messy connections between child development, gut microbiome, mental health, outdoor education, risky play, and regenerative landscapes. This conversation wanders from schoolyards to soil microbes to forests inside the fence. Adam shares why a single tree is nice, but a living forest system is better. More shade. More sensory play. More life. More chances for kids to build empathy, resilience, attention, and joy.

The time is now to rebuild children’s connection to land. The time is now to start giving kids a daily dose of nature, not just an occasional field trip. So plant the trees. Add the shrubs. Feed the soil. Let the weeds do a little work. 

Dream big. Start small. Never stop.

Top Three Takeaways from Adam Bienenstock

Links:

renature.org

@renaturefoundation Instagram | Facebook

LinkedIn @renature-fnd

@bienenstocknaturalplaygrounds Instagram

LinkedIn @bienenstock-playgrounds

Facebook @BienenstockPlaygrounds

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler takes us creekside on a warm spring day to think big. Big like gorges. Small like bugs. Slow like trees. This episode is a call to remember  the mission. The mission to give children what they need most: time, freedom, nature, community, and real life under their feet.

Rusty reflects on the strange, speedy blip of modern childhood. More screens. More stress. Less recess. Less mud. But instead of getting stuck in doom and gloom, he asks a better question: What if we are already building something new? Something rooted in play, place, seasons, risk, mess, imagination, and the deep human skills children grow through free play.

Rusty’s NEW Play Manifesto is the mission to slow down and go deeper. He explores how nature play, place-based learning, community, and child-led exploration can help shape the future, even in a world racing toward more technology and AI. 

This is your  hopeful reminder to stand strong in what we know in our bones: play matters, nature matters, and children find themselves when they have the space to play.

Top three takeaways from Rusty’s time by the creek:

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Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Step outside. Feel the mud. Hear the birds.

In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler sits down with Playcologist Claude Stephens to explore a simple but powerful idea: children are meant to play in nature. Not on perfectly polished playgrounds. Not inside neat boundaries. But in messy, wild, living places. The kind with sticks. And puddles. And possibility.

Claude and Rusty imagine playgrounds that feel like ecosystems. Spaces where kids build, explore, get a little lost, and have a lot of freedom. Children truly don’t need more equipment. They need as much freedom as we can give them.

Claude’s message is a hopeful path forward. Start small. One log. One stump. One muddy hole. Build connections between people. Between places. Between kids and the land beneath their feet. In small shifts, something beautiful grows: joy, confidence, and a deep love for the natural world.

Top Takeaways from Claude Stephens:

Links:

childrenatplaynetwork.com

IG @childrenatplaynetwork

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Spring rain. Mud everywhere. Kids smiling anyway. Let’s follow the weather!

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler invites us into a world where children climb, splash, wander, and belong. Short answer? It’s messy. And it’s magic.

A bus. The Highlands. Outdoor preschools tucked into hills, meadows, and even swamps. Educators from around the world, LA to Lithuania. Everyone bundled up. Everyone is curious. We’re talking about Rusty’s Scotland Bus Tour!

Rusty takes listeners through places where kids spend all day outside. We hear about willow tunnels. Climbing trees. Risky towers. Compost toilets. Yes, really. And underneath it all? A shared belief: nature is not extra. It’s essential.

This episode is a reminder. Slow down. Step outside. Let kids get a little wild. Let them belong to a place. Let them test limits. Because the good stuff? It’s not perfect. It’s muddy. It’s real. And it sticks. You’ll leave thinking about your own space. Your own students. Your own next small step toward more nature, more play, more yes.

Top Takeaways from Rusty’s recap of Scotland:

Links:

stramash.org.uk

Waitlist for 2027 Scotland Trip: bit.ly/BusTour2027Waitlist

Play Nature Podcast Episode 9 with Cameron Sprauge

fossoplay.org

balticstreetadventureplay.co.uk/home

playscotland.org/schools-childcare/schools/opal

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

This episode of the Play Nature Podcast feels like stepping into a backyard where something magical is always unfolding. Mud. Water. Sand. Stories. 

Host Rusty Keeler welcomes Kristy DeGraff to explore what happens when we trust children, follow curiosity, and let nature lead the way. It’s about more than play. It’s about belonging. It’s about building spaces where kids can dig deep, take risks, and feel at home in the world.

Kristy brings a powerful blend of experience. Social worker. Educator. Mother. Advocate. She shares how her journey, from supporting families in crisis to designing a nature-rich childcare program, shaped the way she sees children and community. 

This conversation stretches beyond the backyard. Into systems. Into advocacy. Into the work of speaking up for children and families. Kristy reminds us that change doesn’t have to be big to matter. A phone call. A small shift. A single idea put into motion. It all counts. Just like in play, we start where we are. And we keep going.

Top Takeaways from Kristy DeGraaf:

Links:

kristydegraaf.com

Instagram: @kristy.degraaf

Facebook: Kristy DeGraaf

TikTok: @kristykae.childcarepro

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Licensing. Not the most exciting topic. Not mud pies or tree climbing. But if you work in schools, parks, or early childhood programs, licensing is part of the landscape. 

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty is answering the question many educators ask: How do we keep nature play, loose parts, and risky play alive when licensing rules feel like a wall? The good news? The wall might actually be a doorway.

Rusty explores the relationship between educators and licensors. At first it can feel tense. Someone arrives with a clipboard. They inspect logs, spoons, mud kitchens, and climbing trees. But licensors are there for a reason. Their job is to protect children. 

When we slow down and communicate the why behind nature play, we often discover we’re on the same team. The key is speaking their language. Know the rules. Show your thinking. Share the research. When educators confidently explain the benefits of loose parts and outdoor play, licensors begin to see the bigger picture.

Top 3 Takeaways from Rusty

Buy Rusty’s Book: Adventures in Risky Play by Rusty Keeler

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Play is everywhere. It slips through sidewalks and across continents. In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler welcomes playworker, play advocate, and “friend of play” Marc Armitage. Marc is joining from Australia with stories that stretch from Yorkshire to the far corners of playgrounds and city streets. 

Together they wander through big questions. What is play? Who gets to decide? And what happens when we simply give children space and time to be?

Marc invites us into the mindset of playwork which is less about outcomes, more about conditions. He shares how playwork is both a profession and an attitude, rooted in history yet alive in every moment a child drifts into flow. 

From adventure playgrounds to city design, from the “three frees” to the quiet power of standing back and observing, the conversation reminds us that children don’t need us to script play. They need us to notice it.

This episode reminds us to trust the process, widen the lens, and remember that the spirit of play is already alive in every child, just waiting for room to roam. 

Play is universal. Play is ancient. Play is the thing children just do.

Links:

marc-armitage.com

@marc.armitage.at.play on Facebook

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs 

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide