The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

What happens when we give kids more time to play, explore, and discover their passions?

Christian singer-songwriter Seth Slagle, whose hit song Counting My Blessings has touched millions, joins Ginny for an inspiring conversation about childhood, creativity, faith, and finding gratitude in everyday moments.

Seth shares how growing up homeschooled in a family of six gave him the freedom to spend countless hours outdoors, pursue music, and develop his creativity. He reflects on why today's overscheduled, screen-filled childhoods leave too little room for imagination, boredom, and meaningful connection.

He also shares the remarkable journey behind his music career, including turning down a full college scholarship, boldly reaching out to Phil Wickham, and watching his music unexpectedly go viral in Brazil.

Plus, Seth introduces his beautifully illustrated new children's book, Counting My Blessings, and discusses fatherhood, trusting God's direction, and teaching children to recognize life's blessings—even when things don't go as planned.

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What does it mean to truly know that you are loved?

New York Times bestselling author Stasi Eldredge joins Ginny Yurich to discuss her new book, The Ladder of Love: A Pathway to Emotional Healing and Spiritual Intimacy with Jesus. Drawing from her own story of childhood wounds, struggles with shame, depression, and healing, Stasi shares how our understanding of love can be restored—and how a deeper relationship with God can transform the way we see ourselves and others.

Together, Ginny and Stasi explore the different ways we experience God—as potter, shepherd, father, mother, friend, and more—and what each reveals about His character. They talk about learning to trust again, embracing childlike wonder and play, extending mercy to ourselves and our children, and finding freedom from shame.

It’s a hope-filled conversation about healing, identity, faith, and discovering that even the most difficult parts of our stories are never the end.

Get Stasi's Book HERE!

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Dr. John Ratey joins the show to discuss why exercise may be the single most powerful thing you can do for your brain. Dr. Ratey is a Harvard psychiatrist and bestselling author of the book Spark. In this episode John and Ginny explore all the incredible things happens in the brain when we move. They talk about exercise and ADHD, anxiety, depression, addiction, learning, resilience, cognitive decline, pregnancy, aging, and how movement turns on the parts of the brain responsible for thinking and attention. Dr. Ratey also explains why exercising outside and with other people is especially powerful, why dance is extraordinary for the brain, and why getting kids moving before they learn will change what happens in the classroom. Exercise isn't just about looking better. It is one of the best tools we have to build healthier, stronger, more resilient brains.

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Love and Logic changed the trajectory of my family, and getting to sit down with Dr. Charles Fay for this conversation was an emotional, full-circle for me. I discovered the Love and Logic principles when I was just starting out in teaching. The principles allowed me to practice an entirely different way to interact with kids that eventually translated into my parenting. I was able to learn how to do it all without yelling, nagging, rescuing, or controlling. Love and Logic entails more empathy, strong boundaries, natural consequences, and a deep trust that our kids are capable of figuring things out. In this episode, Dr. Fay shares incredibly practical language parents can use when kids are bored, whining, fighting, forgetting responsibilities, making poor choices, or pushing our buttons. We talk about why kids need to make mistakes while the price tag is still small, why boredom is training for life, how to step out of power struggles, and the deceptively simple question that gives a problem back to a child: “What do you think you’re going to do?” We also dive into his new book, Raising Spiritually Strong Kids, and why raising children of deep faith and character has far less to do with controlling their behavior than we may think. I’ve carried this parenting framework with me for decades, and I cannot recommend this conversation enough. Please share with a friend!

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Hope can feel almost dangerous when you’ve been disappointed enough times. Ebie Hepworth, author of Midnight Hallelujah: Why Hope Is Still Worth the Risk, joins Ginny Yurich for an honest conversation about grief and unanswered prayers. Ebie talks about her journey with infertility and adoption, and how she is currently walking alongside her son through Duchenne muscular dystrophy. She discusses what it looks like to keep choosing hope when the story still hasn’t changed. Ebie shares why grief has to be tended instead of buried, how waiting is different from awaiting, why community matters when life hurts, and how her family has learned to become “joy hunters” in the middle of an uncertain future. This is an encouraging conversation for anyone who has ever wondered whether hoping again is worth the risk.

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Sometimes the best thing we can do for our kids is not rush in to help. Magalie Del Angel joins Ginny Yurich to share what she’s seeing firsthand at TimberNook Kauai, where kids climb trees, get covered in mud, work through disagreements, make friends, take risks, and discover just how capable they really are. Magalie shares the unforgettable story of a little girl who kept calling for help from a tree until she figured out how to get down by herself and a boy who spent days on the edges of play before finding his way into the group. We talk about why adults often step in too soon, what children learn when we give them time to struggle, and how outdoor play creates so many opportunities for confidence, resilience, problem-solving, and independence that are increasingly hard to find in childhood. Magalie also shares how she discovered TimberNook through the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast and turned that inspiration into a thriving program for families on Kauai. This one is such a good reminder: our kids are capable of far more than we realize.

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What is glyphosate—and how might one of the world’s most widely used herbicides be affecting our health and the environment?

Ginny sits down with MIT senior research scientist Dr. Stephanie Seneff, author of Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate Is Destroying Our Health and the Environment, for a wide-ranging conversation about her research into glyphosate and its potential effects. Dr. Seneff explains why she became interested in the chemical, its relationship to the gut microbiome, and her theories connecting glyphosate exposure with a range of chronic health concerns.

They also explore glyphosate’s potential environmental impact, including concerns surrounding soil health, pollinators, monarch butterflies, amphibians, and the broader food web. Dr. Seneff discusses the use of glyphosate on crops, including its use as a pre-harvest desiccant, and shares practical ways families can think more carefully about food and chemical exposure.

The conversation closes with a hopeful reminder of the value of sunlight, time in nature, walking, and reconnecting with the outdoors.

Get Stephanie's book here!

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Kids are struggling in numbers we’ve never seen before, and Dr. Robert Melillo believes we’re missing a crucial piece of the story. In one of the most fascinating conversations I’ve had, we talk about what’s happening inside the developing brain, why movement and sensory experiences matter so much, the surprising importance of primitive reflexes, what crawling and other early milestones have to do with later development, and why screens may interfere with processes the brain desperately needs. Dr. Melillo has spent more than 30 years studying children with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, learning challenges, and developmental delays, and his work offers parents something deeply needed: hope. I took 15 pages of notes on his book Disconnected Kids before this interview, and I truly believe this is information every parent and educator should know. Learn more about Dr. Melillo at DrRobertMelillo.com and pick up a copy of Disconnected Kids

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Somewhere along the way, getting into the “right” college became proof that childhood had gone well. Ana Homayoun, author of Getting In Is Not Enough, joins Ginny Yurich to challenge that faulty finish line and look at what actually prepares kids for a good life. They talk about adaptability, focus, friendship, executive functioning, perfectionism, energy, free time, and why kids need room to build their own blueprint instead of spending childhood checking all the right boxes. This conversation is a reminder that our kids need more than an impressive college résumé. They need the skills and confidence to find their way in a world that keeps changing.

Learn more about Ana Homayoun: https://anahomayoun.com

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MIT professor and bestselling author Sherry Turkle has spent more than four decades studying our relationship with technology. Now she says we’ve entered a fundamentally new era: one where artificial intelligence isn’t just helping us think—it’s asking us to form relationships with it. In this conversation, Sherry joins Ginny to discuss her new book, Artificial Intimacy, and why AI companions, chatbots, and even AI-powered toys pose unique risks for children.

They explore how outsourcing reading, writing, conversation, and emotional connection can “de-skill” young people, why solitude and boredom are essential for developing empathy, and what happens when friction-free relationships with machines begin replacing messy human ones.

Sherry also explores AI friendship, grief technology, privacy, and why parents still have the power to push back. A timely conversation about protecting childhood, human connection, and the experiences that help us become fully human.

Get Sherry's book here!

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