Regenerative Ed

This week it's just me, talking about some things I hold dear: applying principles and themes of living systems to heal ourselves, our relationships to ourselves as "educators", and to make possible change for our learners by breaking down the barriers of modern western culture (that we might not even be aware have been towering over us), opening up a new way for ourselves and our students to learn to be in this world.

That, and my black walnut hulling experience last weekend.

If you love this podcast, please share it with a friend! Rating and reviewing is also helpful. Thank you! <3

Enjoy!

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• Read more about all the opportunities to participate in We Are Verbs.

Tune into this amazing conversation I have with David Bidler, founder of Physiology First, where we explore the role physiology plays as educators who work, primarily, with the student brain (and, who do THAT, with ... our own brains)!

What would happen if we were to put the physiology of the brain & body first? David's organization, Physiology First, aims to do just that by not only teaching skills like how to breathe, how to lift heavy weights, and how to endure cold plunges and ice baths (and how all of that improves hormones and brain health), but also how to envision the most inspiring version of your life, how to build relationships, how to become empowered. How, basically, to thrive.

I know you'll get as much value out of this show as I did!

Physiology First LINKS:

• Physiologyfirst.org
• Functional Physiology Certification
• Instagram: @physiologyfirst
• Twitter: @physiologyfirst

Regenerative Ed Links:

• Read more about our monthly deep-dive into topics that lead us as educators towards regeneration in We Are Verbs! It's a program and a community. UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• Thanks for your support for as little as $3 a month! Patreon.com/regenerativeed and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation! Thank you!

ABOUT DAVID

David Bidler is an author, speaker, and social entrepreneur. As owner of The Distance Project, a human performance training center in Freeport, Maine, David has studied and applied the science of physiology across the lifespan. Through assessments on breathing, heart rate variability, and biometrics related to health and longevity David has utilized science-based tools to optimize human performance for close to a decade. In 2018 David began collaborating with Dr. Jose Herrero, a NYC based neuroscientist specializing in how breathing impacts the brain. This collaboration led to David's participation in clinical research with patients, presentations on respiratory physiology for hospitals, and application of science-based breathing exercises with students and athletes across the globe. This collaboration inspired David to author Breathe to Perform: Simple Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress, Improve Energy, and Peak Athletic Performance. As co-founder of Breathe to Perform, a consulting company specializing in the science of stress physiology, David works with companies and teams to implement health and wellness practices with measurable, scaleable results. David was instrumental in founding Physiology First in 2019. "The greatest problem of our time is the mental health of the next generation of problem solvers. We need to employ every tool in the health, wellness, and performance training toolbox for give the leaders of tomorrow the skills and tools they need today." David is currently co-designing curriculum for the New Teacher's Academy in Hoboken, N.J as well as a worldwide professional development program, The Functional Physiology Certification, to help educators and allied health professionals bring the Physiology First model to their private practices, schools, and communities.

This episode I'm in conversation with Jennifer Lumpkin and Molly Martin, two Cleveland Community Organizing powerhouses. We're talking about the role of expanding democracy and what that has to do with viewing education as a living system. We get deep into the specific structure that they are working to promote called Participatory Budgeting.

Why are we talking about Participatory Budgeting on a podcast about education? First off, civics education is severely lacking and we can't expect ourselves to help ourselves into a new system if we don't understand how the old system functions. But, maybe even more importantly, PB is a way to think about flattening the hierarchy and distributing power, which is pattern we see over and over again in living systems, and if we want to mimic our systems (like Education!) after a living one, we might as well learn some structures that work well to flatten them, like PB!

I hope you'll listen and be as inspired as I was after talking to these two, then share it with a friend and rate and review it. It means so much!

Today's Guests:

Jennifer Lumpkin is a community organizer and supporter in coalitions and efforts across the City of Cleveland. Jennifer founded Creative Community Builders, LLC in 2016 after organizing in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. with a foundation on legacy farming and intercultural solidarity. Her organizing and partnership practice, My Grow Connect, is rooted in supporting the development of sustainable communities through creative relationship building, cultural organizing and mindful resource connections.

Molly Martin works for the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless to support the organization's advocacy and organizing work and their mission to eliminate the root causes of homelessness. Molly grew up in Cleveland and is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She is passionate about homeless civil rights, housing justice, and deepening anti-racist commitment through policy advocacy and community organizing. She is an Advisory Board Member of Cleveland VOTES, a democracy-building organization strengthening our community's civic muscle, and she is a Coordinating Committee Member of Participatory Budgeting Cleveland, a grassroots coalition of Cleveland residents actively organizing for a participatory budgeting process in Cleveland.

• CLEVELANDERS: GET INVOLVED WITH PB CLE
• GENERAL PB CLE INFORMATION
• MORE GENERAL: PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING PROJECT
• PB IN SCHOOLS!

Regenerative Ed Links:

• WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!

I was so excited to get to talk to Tyler Bastian today about so many *incredible* things-- everything from a film he co-created years back. It's titled "Everything is Incredible"-- a theme which actually surfaced so many times in our conversation about education and life in general. I know you're going to love it!

About Tyler:

Tyler Bastian is an educator, filmmaker, father, and the founder of Roots Charter High School. Tyler loves to teach and has a passion for discovering and developing potential in everything around him.

For four years Tyler taught Character Education at a local High School and believes positive character is the greatest indicator of success. In 2012, Tyler began to develop the concepts that have become Roots Charter High School.

Roots Charter High School is Utah's first farm-based charter high school. Roots works with students that come from risky environments, helping them find and reach their potential.

• Learn more at www.rootshigh.org.
• Follow Tyler @teach_243

Regenerative Ed Links:

• WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!

Today we're talking with Dr. Ruth Ann Smalley, a former educator, about teaching, homeschooling, healing, climate change, and writing. Ruth Ann shares her journey and the threads that pull everything together. Our conversation feels really generative and hopeful in the midst of bleak climate catastrophes. She also shares a concrete healing practice, a classroom tip we can all use, and more about her work as an author writing the children's books she wishes she had when her kids were younger.

Ruth Ann Smalley, Ph.D, is a children's book author and energy practitioner living in upstate New York. Her work focuses on earth stewardship, healing, and sustainability; she loves using poetry, narrative, and humor to deal with the big, scary issues. Also a wellness and creativity coach, Ruth Ann helps people of all ages access their unique voices and healing powers. Her picture book, Sheila Says We're Weird helps families discuss the simple values of green living, and is available online and through your local bookstore. She is currently at work on a middle grades eco-adventure trilogy, and has offered free video-recordings of the first two volumes, Defender of Dirt and Running with the Sun on her YouTube channel. She welcomes collaborative projects with like-minded educators! You can find out more at ruthannsmalley.com or at her vibrant-energies.com website.

Videos:

• Playlist for her book readings: https://youtu.be/miY-WMqosGg
• Playlist for Energy Balancing exercises: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLymWW5ifb7iuGMaL8pLbzv6ZMr0kI2kCU

A short list of high impact books on the environment, education, transformation that impacted Dr. Ruth Ann Smalley:

Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards

Sandra Steingraber, Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis

Rob Hopkins, From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want

Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures

Regenerative Ed Links:

• WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!

Eek! I'm thrilled to bring you a conversation I had this week with Ian Sanderson.

Ian Sanderson is a member of the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. He is committed to serving people from all backgrounds as they develop and elevate their awareness—of themselves, their work, their relationships, and the world—through innovative synthesis and application of Indigenous, Eastern, and Western thought. He facilitates individual and group learning processes, serving a diversity of people and organizations whether in conference rooms, schools, or in a forest. He has 25 years of outdoor and experiential education experience, applying principles of tracking and other natural-world skills to present day situations. He owns the Boulder Quest Center, a martial arts dojo where he teaches and trains in the art of To-Shin Do ninjutsu; a modern application of timeless principles of how to intelligently handle the challenges likely to arise in our societies today. Utilizing reality-based empowerment training, he coaches students in ways to promote peace, security, well-being, and building the kind of resiliency and perseverance that leads to life mastery. He holds the rank of Yondawn- 4th-Degree Black Belt, and is also a student and practitioner of the Tendai and Shugendo Buddhist traditions of Japan since 2007 and took his deshi vows in 2017. Ian has also taught at Naropa University for over 10 years and is a Senior Adjunct Faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program.

We hit on topics from breaking patterns to embodiment to disconnection because of covid to fear-based living, to the complication of a pendulum-swinging, reactive culture around very, very important justice issues. We sneak in a few things about teaching, too. :)

Links

• Boulder Quest Center to find out more about one of many aspects of Ian and to get in touch with him.
• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta

Regenerative Ed Links:

• WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, if this podcast meant something to you, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!

This week, a special Twin Talk with Jess (co-founder of Grounded Teaching and HS English teacher AND twin sister to me!) where we briefly review each of the previous pattern podcasts we discussed over this series in a casual, bite-sized conversation. We also answer some frequently asked questions we've received about We Are Verbs! Enjoy this low-key conversation between two sisters who shared a womb and who might talk too fast when they're talking to each other. :)

Regenerative Ed Links:

• WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community for educators who are interested in regenerative futures, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, if this podcast meant something to you, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!

Find new definitions of success! Detach from outcomes! Ask yourself "what is uniquely mine here to do?"! And then scatter those seeds, ash, glass, lava rock out into the world through an explosive move...or a gentle drop. Your choice!

The natural pattern of scattering provides us with so much wisdom and inspiration for what's important. For what's a good use of our precious energy. For who we actually are, and how we can feel nourished. This podcast form feels a little more scattered than the previous ones, and that's not intentional at all, maybe just how it's supposed to be. Tune in to consider reshaping industrialized patterns into ones that are better for you, a living thing, and for the world you're wanting to participate in. Scatter is pattern #8 of a 8 patterns in podcast form that we'd normally deliver in an online workshop, but, you can tune in here for free.

Regenerative Ed Links:

• WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community for educators who are interested in regenerative futures, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, if this podcast meant something to you, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!

Create (flexible) boundaries! Harvest Nourishment! Broaden instead of bulldoze! How? Nets. Really, Sarah? Yep! The natural patterns of nets provide us with a lot of food for thought for reshaping patterns of linear shots and/or burnout that come from existing in all sorts of industrial models--schools included. I hope you'll check it out. If it resonates, like, subscribe, share-- you know!

Regenerative Ed Links:

• WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community for educators who are interested in regenerative futures, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, if this podcast meant something to you, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!

Create Attraction! Embrace Diversity! Grow Stronger and more Nourished! How? Lobes. I know, it sounds a little weird. But the natural patterns of lobes provide us with a lot of food for thought for reshaping patterns of boredom and weakness that come from an industrial model. We talk about how this applies to education and our personal life with one of my favorite, most helpful principles ever: the edge effect. Enjoy!

Keep posted on what we've got coming up for Grounded Teaching in the next few weeks!

Regenerative Ed Links:

• UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: WE ARE VERBS! Read more! It's a program and a community for educators who are interested in regenerative futures, and we'd love for you to join! You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out!
• If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Patreon.com/regenerativeed
• If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to support us through a one-time donation or recurring donation on our website! Thank you so much!

Most of all, if this podcast meant something to you, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you!