The Regeneration Lab

What if creativity and learning do not begin with ideas, but emerge through relationships? In this conversation, Jason Frasca and Iain Kerr explore creativity as a more-than-human, ecological process shaped by people, materials, tools and environments. From embodied experimentation and the spaghetti game to co-emergence, uncertainty and “blocking” familiar assumptions, we discuss how education can move beyond knowledge transfer and solution thinking. Jason and Iain also reflect on business education, the limits of classrooms, and what becomes possible when the event itself is allowed to become the teacher.

Key themes
Emergent learning · More-than-human creativity · Embodied experimentation · Co-emergence · Uncertainty

About the guests
Jason Frasca and Iain Kerr are co-founders of Emergent Futures Lab, a collaborative community of practice exploring creativity and innovation as emergent, relational and more-than-human processes.

Iain Kerr is a designer and innovation researcher working across creativity, ecology and emergent systems, and co-directs the MIXLab at Montclair State University. Jason Frasca is an Associate Teaching Professor and co-director of the MIXLab, whose work brings together entrepreneurship, emerging technologies, innovation and systemic change. Together, they are authors of The Innovation Design Approach and co-host the WorldMakers community of practice.

Explore their work:
Emerging Futures newsletter - https://emergentfutureslab.com/newsletter
The Innovation Design Approach - https://emergentfutureslab.com/innovating-emergent-futures
WorldMakers community - https://emergentfutureslab.com/worldmakers

What if education helped us see relationships rather than isolated subjects? In this conversation, Soumi Duttagupta explores regenerative education, systems thinking and the shift towards a more ecological worldview. From storytelling and place-based inquiry to mapping the hidden consequences of everyday systems, we discuss how learning can help students engage with complexity, interdependence and responsibility. Soumi also reflects on moving beyond fragmented disciplines, preparing students for an uncertain world, and creating learning environments that, like forests, grow through diversity, relationships and self-organization.

Key themes
Regenerative education · Systems thinking · Ecological worldview · Interdisciplinary learning · Place-based inquiry

About the guest
Soumi Duttagupta is the founder of the Regenesys and an educator and independent researcher working at the intersection of regenerative education, systems thinking and ecological learning. Following a long career in clinical research, her work has spanned learners from early childhood to higher education and across disciplines including computer science, architecture, planning and finance. Her approach uses real-world inquiry, storytelling and systems mapping to help learners move from fragmented knowledge towards a more relational understanding of people, place and the living world.

Explore Soumi’s work and resources:
Website - www.https://www.regenesys.co.in/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumiduttagupta/
Hindustan Times: On preparing students for complexity rather than just exams
https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/features/view-we-prepare-students-for-exams-not-for-complexity-101771832318073.html
University of Helsinki (HELSUS Blog): Eco-pedagogy and fostering deeper connection with nature
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/helsusglobalsouth/2024/12/10/eco-pedagogy/
LinkedIn: Why Education Needs an Ecological Worldview?
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7381301772759388160/

What if business education challenged us to see beyond human interests? In this conversation, Helen Kopnina reflects on biodiversity, environmental ethics and teaching sustainability in business schools. From roleplays that give voice to polar bears and forests to debates, films and student reflections, we explore how playful methods can unsettle anthropocentrism without preaching. Helen also discusses the limits of sustainable development, the growing attention to biodiversity in business, and why education should cultivate an awakening to extinction, ecosystems and the intrinsic value of non-human life.

Key themes
Biodiversity · Ecocentrism · Anthropocentrism · Environmental education · Business education

About the guest
Dr. Helen Kopnina is Assistant Professor at Northumbria University whose work spans environmental education, biodiversity, business and environmental ethics. With a background in anthropology and decades of experience teaching sustainability, she explores how education can challenge anthropocentric assumptions, broaden whose interests are represented, and foster greater recognition of the intrinsic value of non-human life.

Explore Helen’s work:
Northumbria University Profile - https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/k/helen-kopnina/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/

What if education made room for different rhythms of learning? In this conversation, Nanda Vrielink explores outdoor education, nature connectedness and the possibilities of learning with the whole person. From the changing seasons and nature intelligence to sit spots, curiosity and learning beyond the classroom, we discuss how students can reconnect knowledge with experience, values and the living world. Nanda also reflects on moving beyond purely technical approaches to sustainability, experimenting with outdoor learning, and why education needs spaces for slowing down, reflection and regeneration.

Key themes
Outdoor learning · Nature connectedness · Holistic learning · Regenerative education · Curiosity

About the guest
Nanda Vrielink is a researcher and project leader at the Centre of Expertise Smart Sustainable Cities at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. Her work explores nature-inclusive cities, outdoor education and the relationships between people and the living world. Through teaching and research, she experiments with nature as a learning environment and with approaches that engage cognitive, emotional, experiential and philosophical dimensions of learning.

Explore Nanda’s work:
HU Profile - https://www.hu.nl/onderzoek/onderzoekers/nanda-vrielink
Smart Sustainable Cities - https://www.smartsustainablecities.nl
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nandavrielink/

What happens when academic learning moves outdoors for more than a few hours? In this conversation, Koen Arts explores outdoor relational education and the possibilities of reconnecting embodied, emotional and cognitive ways of learning. From everyday encounters with nature to multi-day experiences involving fire-making, shelter-building and living closely with the land, we discuss what sustained time outdoors can open up for students. Koen also reflects on vulnerability, intrinsic motivation, institutional barriers, and why nature-inclusive education should not remain the domain of specialists, but become part of learning across disciplines.

Key themes
Outdoor relational education · Embodied learning · Nature connectedness · Transformative learning · Everyday nature

About the guest
Dr. Koen Arts is a lecturer and researcher at Wageningen University & Research whose work explores human–nature relationships, conservation, rewilding and outdoor relational learning. His teaching brings academic inquiry together with embodied outdoor practices, exploring how experiences such as making fire, building shelter, working with natural materials and spending extended time outdoors can deepen reflection on our relationships with nature and ourselves.

Explore Koen’s work:
Wageningen University & Research profile
Personal website
Arts, K., Roncken, P., Buijs, A. & Wals, A. (2025). Embedding outdoor relational education in academia: Perceived barriers and opportunities at a Dutch university. Australian Journal of Environmental Education.

What changes when architecture begins designing for more than humans? In this conversation, Wesley Massij explores nature-inclusive design, biodiversity and the possibilities of bringing other species into architectural education. From seeing buildings as shared habitats to asking students to design from the perspective of birds, bats and insects, we discuss how nature can become a normal part of the design process. Wesley also reflects on challenge-based learning, navigating real-world constraints, and why educational change may be like water: finding new pathways until small streams become something larger.

Key themes
Nature-inclusive design · More-than-human perspectives · Biodiversity · Challenge-based learning · Built environment as habitat

About the guest
Wesley Massij is an EngD trainee and educator at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), working at the intersection of architecture, biodiversity and nature-inclusive design. His work explores how the built environment can provide habitat not only for humans but for other species, and how architectural education can help students integrate ecological considerations into their design process from the outset.

Explore Wesley’s work:
TU/e profile - https://www.tue.nl/en/research/researchers/wesley-massij
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley-massij/

What if education began by paying attention to the cracks, in ourselves, our institutions and the systems around us? In this conversation, Bas van den Berg explores regenerative education, nature-inclusive learning and the possibilities of more embodied, relational approaches to higher education. From kintsugi and outdoor Socratic dialogues to presence, calmness and bringing nature into business education, we discuss what universities might become if they nurtured the whole person. Bas also reflects on institutional courage, small experiments and how seemingly modest interventions can create wider ripples of change.

Key themes
Regenerative education · Nature-inclusive learning · Embodied learning · Institutional transformation · Relational leadership

About the guest
Dr. Bas van den Berg is Associate Professor at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where he works with the Centre of Expertise Mission Zero, stewards research on regeneration, and co-leads the Master’s in Sustainability Transitions. His work explores regenerative leadership and education, systems change, and how more embodied, relational and nature-inclusive approaches can support people and institutions in contributing to healthier living systems.

Explore Bas’s work and resources:
Regenerative Leadership — The Hague University of Applied Sciences - - https://www.thuas.com/research/regenerative-leadership
School of Regenerative Educators - https://www.regenerative-educators.com

What if education created the conditions for something new to emerge? In this conversation, Michael von Kutzschenbach reflects on nature connectedness, transformative learning and the role of openness in business education. From rain, seeds and cracks where light can enter to Theory U, reflection and Learning 3, we explore how education can move beyond transferring knowledge towards creating spaces for experimentation, questioning and change. Michael also reflects on uncertainty, sustainability, digital transformation and why future learning may depend less on answers and more on good questions.

Key themes
Transformative learning · Emergence · Systems thinking · Nature connectedness · Business education

About the guest
Dr. Michael von Kutzschenbach is Professor at the School of Business at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). With a background in forest and environmental sciences, his work brings together sustainability, digital transformation, systems thinking, innovation and systemic process facilitation. In his teaching, he is particularly interested in creating spaces for experimentation and reflection that allow learners to question established assumptions and explore different possibilities for more sustainable and flourishing futures.

Explore Michael’s work:
FHNW Profile - https://www.fhnw.ch/de/wirtschaft/ueber-uns/portrait-organisation/personen/michael-von-kutzschenbach
Personal Website - https://www.kutzschenbach.eu/de/

What if education helped us reconnect, regenerate, and disrupt? In this conversation, Arjen Wals explores transformative learning for socio-ecological sustainability, from childhood encounters with nature to social, emotional and outdoor learning in higher education. We discuss playfulness, vulnerability and reciprocity between teachers and learners, alongside the need to challenge systems that make unsustainable living feel normal. Arjen also reflects on whole-institution transformation, business education, rewilding, and the importance of cultivating not only awareness of crisis, but the capacities, relationships and “seeds of resistance” needed to create change.

Key themes
Transformative learning · Nature connectedness · Social learning · Transgressive education · Hope and resistance

About the guest
Dr. ir. Arjen Wals is Professor of Transformative Learning for Socio-Ecological Sustainability at Wageningen University & Research. His work explores how education can create space for social learning, relationality, creativity and critical reflection while developing the capacities needed to respond to complex sustainability challenges. A central thread in his work is how learning can strengthen our capacity to connect and regenerate, while also enabling us to disrupt and transform systems that perpetuate ecological and social harm.

Explore Arjen’s work:
Wageningen University & Research profile - https://www.wur.nl/en/persons/profdrir-aej-arjen-wals
Drive and Purpose - http://youtu.be/iqB4ryiS4cY
Transformative Learning blog - www.transformativelearning.nl

What if education prepared us not to control complexity, but to move within it? In this conversation, Tobias Luthe explores embodied learning, systemic design and our intrinsic relationship with the more-than-human world. Drawing on decades of teaching, mountain guiding and outdoor practice, we discuss how discomfort and uncertainty can become spaces for growth, why teachers may increasingly become holistic guides, and what migrating birds can teach us about adaptive leadership. Tobias also reflects on AI, contemporary survival skills, and why future education may need to bring us back outdoors.

Key themes
Embodied learning · Befriending uncertainty · Systemic design · Adaptive leadership · More-than-human nature

About the guest
Prof. Dr. Tobias Luthe is Program Director and Head of the Systemic Design Labs at ETH Zurich and founder of the Monviso Institute. His work brings together systemic design, regenerative systems, sustainability leadership and decades of lived outdoor and mountain-guiding experience. Across his teaching and practice, he explores how embodied learning, movement and engagement with place can help people navigate complexity, develop adaptive leadership, and learn with and as part of nature.

Explore Tobias’s work:
ETH Zurich profile - https://ibi.ethz.ch/en/das-institut/people/person-detail.tobias-luthe.html
Personal website - https://tobiasluthe.de
Monviso Institute - https://monviso-institute.org