Dr. Matthew Zylstra is a conservation ecologist with over 15 years of international experience in research, education and facilitation of collaborative social-ecological change processes. Matt has co-founded several organisations, including EarthCollective and Living Lands. He currently serves as founding director for the Organisation for Noetic Ecology, research associate with the Sea Change Project, and lead instructor for Wildlands Studies academic (undergrad) field programs. Matt has a passion for novel approaches to experiential learning, motivated by his transdisciplinary PhD research (2014) which explored how meaningful experience and nature connectedness supports transformative education for sustainability.

In this conversation, Matt shares what he has learned from his research on meaningful nature experiences and how that can shape our willingness to protect natural spaces. 

A transcript of this podcast, as well as a list of resources mentioned, is available at https://efinst.org/mattzylstra.