Welcome to Episode 50! In this episode Marina talks about minimizing harm, critiquing neoliberalism, and exploring land ownership, indigenous perspectives, and sustainable practices.

In this episode, Marina struggles with many topics that include:

• Visioning in the new year as a physical expression of intention and future aspirations.
• Conversations on creating mindsets that minimize harm to others, oneself, and the natural world.
• Critique of neoliberalism's disconnection from a respectful land ethic.
• Reflections on the right to roam and land ownership paradigms.
• Insights from indigenous perspectives on land ownership and the The Law of Discovery and Terra Nullious (see links).
• Corporate and political accountability and the need for political will to legislate sustainable practices.
• Questioning impartiality in climate education within a context of ecological harm.
• Encouragement for self-care, forgiveness, and accountability in personal growth.
• Insights from thinkers like Jeremy Lent and Vanessa Andreotti on moving towards an eco-civilization.

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-50-reclaiming-values-beyond-capitalism/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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In this episode, I explore themes of environmental education, behaviour change, and empowerment with researcher, writer, and campaigner Lewis Winks.

In this episode we discuss:

• Rewilding, nature connection, and why advocacy is essential for creating meaningful change.
• The interplay between individual actions and systemic mandates, such as public health or environmental regulations.
• How models like "nudging" or educational approaches influence societal transformation.
• Insights from the Education at a Time of Emergency project, including the role of imagination, storytelling, and values in fostering young people's agency.
• Consider thematic curriculums inspired by local landscapes (e.g. the River Dart).
• The Right to Roam campaign and its fight for equitable access to nature amidst England’s stark land ownership disparities.
• How restricted access to land impacts community empowerment and environmental connection.
• Exploring alternative worldviews that focus on reciprocity with nature rather than extraction.
• Identifying leverage points to accelerate momentum for cultural and ecological transformation.

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-49-lewis-winks-right-to-roam/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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What if wild, not domesticated, should be our normal instead of factory-farmed lives?

What if you could cultivate fulfilling lives and contribute to a healthy natural world? 

The Wild Minds podcast is brought to you by me, Marina Robb, an author, entrepreneur, Forest School and Nature-based Trainer and Consultant, and pioneer in developing Green programmes for the Health service in the UK.

I'm also the founder of The Outdoor Teacher and creator of practical online Forest School and nature-based training for people working in mental health, education and business.

Tune in for interviews, insights, cutting-edge and actionable approaches to help you to improve your relationship with yourself, others, and the natural world.

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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Welcome to Episode 48, the final episode of Season 6.

I began by thinking about what it would be like to be an animal, a human animal, being force fed in a container of sorts. Trying to imagine the limitations of this lived experience compared to one where I am free to exercise my full-bodied animal life.

In this episode Marina:

• Imagines what it would be like if we were confined and raised to be eaten!
• Explores what is taken from us when we are caged.
• Reminds us that everything has agency and is participating.
• Reviews the themes of the current season.
• Examines the relational dynamics between humans and the more-than-human world.
• Considers how we may become oppression-informed, Trauma-informed and Climate informed individuals
• Revisits power as our ability to influence and act.
• Asks, “What is oppression?” Defining it as the systematic targeting or marginalization of one social group by a more powerful social group for its own benefit.
• Emphasises that anything “other” than human does not imply they are a resource, a commodity or have object status.
• Refers to "The Salmon Boy" story in Being Salmon, Being Human, with reference to Jamie Valadez and Klallam stories told by Adeline Smith (Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, 2012).
• Reframes society from a transactional model to one rooted in gift-giving and reciprocal relationships.

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-48-remember-we-are-wild/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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This was a powerful interview with Nadia Shaik, who is a naturalist, conservationist and land justice activist working with Right to Roam.

Nadia has worked in Land Policy for the RSPB for over 10 years and is now addressing addressing issues of decolonising the sector.

In this episode we discuss:

• The importance of valuing and protecting nature with the same passion we have for our National Health System.
• The Right to Roam and the disheartening truth that merely 8% of England's land is available to the public.
• How limited access to nature contributes to decreasing biodiversity.
• The State of Nature: https://stateofnature.org.uk/
• The persistent threat of pesticides that harm insects and contaminate our land.
• The need to decolonize the nature conservation sector.
• Embracing injustice as a catalyst for reflecting on our own grief.

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-47-nadia-shaikh/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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In this episode  I take a look at the four guiding principles that underpin the early years foundation stage in the UK and consider how these principles could also underpin wellbeing.

Sometimes it appears that nature-based experiences and learning is alternative or radical, but these very same principles exist underneath our practice we are all unique in the ways we learn and develop. We all need positive relationships to thrive, and have time to follow our own interests and needs. 

When we develop practices that enliven these principles then children can grow up to feel good enough, and know they are capable enough.  

In this Episode Marina considers:

• The importance of understanding child development.
• Core principles of the Early Years foundation curriculum.
• The needs of children and the wider community.
• The what and why of play!
• The attuned relationship & what this creates when a child is ‘listened to’.
• Relational needs for secure attachment.
• Learning spaces that value ‘democracy’ and the opportunities to have your voice, be listened to, experience agency, and your ability to influence.
• Importance of values, free flow and choice.
• Understanding of place and the impact on belonging.
• Multiple challenges of access.
• The power of empathetic listening – validating how they feel.
• The value of quality breaks for play and how this improves executive functioning, resilience and emotional self-control as well as the biochemical impact of play for emotional well-being (e.g oxytocin).

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-46-core-principles-and-needs/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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In this episode, I'm speaking with Sam Williams, headteacher of Redcliffe Nursery School, a state-maintained nursery school in the centre of Bristol.

I particularly enjoyed the thoughtful exploration of his value of democracy and how this begins for nursery aged children. Really thinking about how a childs’s own agency, as well as being valued for what they think and say and do, links to this value of democracy.

Alongside this, the skills and care that is encouraged and needed in understanding and supporting what is meaningful for young people. We also discussed that when children really care about the natural world or our climate, they have a lot of empathy for the living world, but this can result in children feeling really helpless which is contributing to the rise in eco-anxiety.

However, if we develop agency in young people, then this has a positive affect on their wellbeing as they experience their ability to be heard, and then participate in the change they want to see. I do think as adults we have a powerful role to support young people’s voices and to advocate with them about what they care about. But For now, lets hear from Sam and his experience of working as a head teacher in Bristol.

• Revisiting the purpose of education and what it means for Redcliffe Nursery school.
• Embracing play as a core ethos.
• Exploring the idea of children as beings and children as becomings.
• Highlighting the importance of getting lost in the moment.
• Shifting our thinking to an ecological perspective, releasing pre-determined outcomes.
• Looking at creating space for the environment and materials to have their own agency.
• Reflecting on how ecological identity develops through agency, listening, and voice.
• Examining how eco-anxiety can be eased through eco-empathy and activism.
• Highlighting the value of state-maintained nursery schools and the critical importance of equity.

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-45-children-as-beings-and-children-as-becomings/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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October has arrived and the days are growing shorter and colder, yet at this time of year, we also experience a last rush of some of the edible plants before the winter. For example you can find nettle, plantain, ground ivy and even cleavers, as well as all of the berries, and if you know what you are doing, its also mushroom season!

Though this cycle of growth is coming to a close and death is all around us, thankfully this part of the cycle creates the ground for the next one to come, and soil and fungi science is particularly spectacular at the moment!

During my trainings and programmes, we are gathering the last of the hawthorn berries to make hawthorn leather, and looking for rosehips to make cordial and medicine for the winter!

In this episode I am grappling with how our choices bump up against the choices of others and the often invisible dynamics involved in our ability to make choices.

I also reflect on some of the techniques we may use to create safe enough spaces. 

Hope you enjoy this episode and do let me know if there are any areas you’d like me to cover in the future!

In this Episode Marina considers:

• How we agree to be together as a group and with wilder spaces when creating groups.
• What matters to us, including our boundaries and needs, while setting community agreements and allowing permission to choose.
• The importance of consent for well-being and consider how and where we gather information.
• How much we go along with ideas or actions and the power of choice.
• The edges of risk to gain benefits.
• The role of the practitioner's tone in creating a safe environment.
• Relational agreements and voicing what we need, while understanding how power shifts in different contexts and identities.
• The dominant systems and their often-invisible impacts on everyday life.
• The elements of healthy nature-based practice, leading us to reckon with our assumptions.
• How core values in education make learning relevant beyond artificial intelligence.
• The journey of 'hospicing' our culture

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-44-the-essentials-of-healthy-nature-based-practice/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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My guest today is Sophie Christophy, co-founder of the Cabin and the Lodge, both self-directed learning communities for home educated young people.

In 2016 Sophie established the philosophy and concept of consent-based education, which is the theme of today’s podcast. We start the conversation about our dominant culture, and how we find ourselves within a patriarchal world view, regardless of our gender, and that we can all behave, mostly unconsciously in a patriarchal way by normalizing power structures.

• What is consent-based education?
• Key ingredients of consent.
• What does our culture tell us about relationships, beliefs, behaviours and how do we pass this on?
• Patriarchy & normalised dynamics.
• Learning relational technology is rooted in consent.
• Living with assumptions and biases.
• From the old paradigm of patriarchy to new paradigm of consent.
• Agency for human and the more than human.
• Touching in to how we seek consent in a non-verbal relationship

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-43-sophie-christophy-relationships-rooted-in-consent/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts

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This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!

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It’s good to be back for a new season and notice autumn arriving! Isn’t it incredibly difficult to get away from screens and allow time for play, reflection, rest and social connection. 

On a recent walk, I saw swallows, who will soon be leaving us for southern Africa, and I did some research on Atlantic Mackerel as I saw all these people fishing – turn out they are leaving too and going north – life is always on the move! 

In this episode I highlight the increase in special educational needs and disabilities in schools as well as social, emotional, mental health challenges for young people. I continue to reflect on embodied practice, for me this means our capacity to notice sensations and feelings in our bodies, which is not easy and how this can help us to be in relationship with each other.

I will be exploring some of my own (and maybe your) blind spots so that we can begin to address privilege and power and afford others more dignity and respect.

In this Episode Marina discusses:

• Becoming more awareness of lots of power dynamics and privilege
• Learning to be softer on myself and harder on the system
• Noting the rise in June 2024 Data for Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) and Social, Emotional, Mental health (SEMH):
• Exploring how power influences our lives and addressing our blind spots
• Recognising that what feels safe to me may not feel the same for others
• How can we be more regulated as adults and increase our bandwidth for expression of emotion before we tip into fight, freeze or dissociative behaviour.
• How empowered SEN schools can provide opportunities to engage in vocational learning involving practical embodied experiences that facilitate social interactions and bodies that move!
• Understanding how stress narrows our window of tolerance (Linked to Podcast: Behaviour is Communication).
• Welcoming multi-modes of working in a complex world.
• Practicing staying with the discomfort and trouble (Donna Haraway’s).
• Valuing diverse life experiences through a metabolic paradigm– everything is alive in its own way.
• Shifting from a screen-based childhoods to more play-based learning opportunities.

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-42-embodied-practice-in-our-special-education-needs-world/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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