The Wild Minds Podcast

• Learning for Life

  In this closing episode of Season 9, I’m exploring something that feels urgent in our times: the difference between education and learning. Education is often about systems, metrics, and tests — but learning is about life itself. It happens in forests, green spaces, kitchens, and communities. It’s experiential, embodied, relational, and remembered because we live it.With the rise of AI, increasing mental health challenges, and the fast pace of our lives, we need to ask: what skills truly matter now, and how can we reimagine learning so every young person leaves not just with knowledge, but with self-worth, connection, and a sense of agency?Topics include:The urgent difference between education and learning, and why it matters now more than ever.Why formal schooling often leaves young people without confidence, agency, or self-worth.The danger of convergent thinking and the value of divergent, creative, and adaptive skills.Experiential learning: Why we remember fire-lighting, foraging, and play more than worksheets.The principles of autism-informed, trauma-informed, and consent-based practice as foundations for real learning.The Outdoor Teacher Approach: Play-based, body-led, and relational rather than hierarchical.The opportunity (and risk) of the UK’s new climate curriculum, and why connection, not just knowledge, is key.The Children’s Fire principle and what it means to educate with future generations — all children, human and more-than-human, at the heart.Shownotes:https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-72-learning-for-lifeMusic by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsIf you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

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• Beyond Profit & Power: The Children’s Fire and the Future of Leadership with Mac Macartney

  In this episode of the Wild Minds Podcast, I’m in conversation with Mac Macartney, a storyteller, leader, and founder of Embercombe, exploring what it means to live and lead in service to life.In this far-reaching conversation, we explore The Children’s Fire — an ancient principle that no law, decision, or action should harm the young of any species, and how it might transform leadership, education, and our relationship with the natural world.We talk about education rooted in the simple yet radical commitment that no child should leave school without feeling good about who they are, and the power of play as an antidote to a culture that leaves so many children, and adults, masking their pain and feeling worthless beneath the surface.Topics include:Exploring The Children’s Fire — the ancient principle that no decision should harm the young of any species.Reimagining education so no child leaves school without feeling good about themselves.Unpacking the hubris of superiority — how our systems consistently enforce it.The power of play and nature connection as antidotes to hopelessness and masking how we truly feel.Insights from Mac’s leadership company on redefining the purpose of business — beyond profit and growth — and valuing well-rounded human beings.Reflections on indigenous wisdom, community ownership, and leadership rooted in service rather than self-interest.A call to rethink wealth, power, and responsibility so that resources and decisions serve the many, not the few.An invitation to imagine a more joyful, courageous, and humane society.Shownotes:https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-71-mac-macartney-interviewMusic by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsIf you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

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• Scientific Enough to Wonder

  In this episode of Wild Minds, I'm exploring what it’s like to have big questions that don’t always fit into your job title. Whether you’re a teacher, therapist, or just someone who feels things deeply, this conversation is about the risk, and importance, of staying open, curious, and honest in times of change.Topics include:What it feels like to hide parts of yourself in professional spacesThe fear of sounding “too out there” or being seen as unprofessionalWhy curiosity and wonder matter more than ever, especially in helping rolesHow feelings and intuition often get pushed aside—even though they guide so much of our real understandingA look at where our sense of mind and consciousness might actually come fromHow Indigenous wisdom and quantum science both challenge the idea that we’re separate from natureWhat happens in our body when we feel awe or connectionWhy being open-minded isn’t soft or silly—it’s essential for making sense of the worldShow Notes:https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-70-scientific-enough-to-wonderMusic by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsIf you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

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• Beyond the Five Senses: A Model for Plant Communication with Pam Montgomery

  In this powerful and expansive conversation, Pam Montgomery (teacher, author, and plant spirit ally) invites us into a deeper relationship with the natural world. We explore what it means to communicate with plants, how to trust our intuition, and how ancient ways of knowing are being remembered at this time of global rebirth. In this episode....Through personal story, scientific insights, and spiritual practice, Pam helps us reimagine our role in the web of life.Pam’s grandmother introduced her to the idea of talking with plants – a formative influence that shaped her lifelong path.Communication with plants isn’t imaginary; it’s relational, vibrational, and increasingly supported by emerging science.Devices like those from Damanhur allow us to hear plants "sing," revealing their responsiveness to intention and environment.True communication happens through resonance, light, and sound – not just words – with the heart as the central sensing organ.We are vibrational beings too; like plants, we can tune into our environment and one another on subtle energetic levels.Pam describes “first voice” – the intuitive message that arrives before the rational mind interrupts – and how she trains herself to listen to it.Slowing down and entering the present moment opens a “portal” to meaningful encounters with nature.Nettle is explored as a plant ally that wakes us up and demands presence, while yarrow helps with energetic boundaries and healing.Nature responds when we become coherent – as our nervous systems settle, the world around us comes closer.Bonding with nature releases oxytocin, the “love hormone,” which initiates the body’s restorative response.We are already in relationship with plants through our breath – consciously acknowledging this can be a gateway to deeper connection.Pam speaks of a global rebirth and the possibility of a “new earth” rooted in interbeing, where all life can thrive together.Show Notes:https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-69-plant-communication-with-pam-montgomery/ Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsIf you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.

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• Leading With Our Inner Life

  In this solo episode, I'm reflecting on the quiet strength it takes to pause, listen, and allow our inner world to guide how we show up - especially in uncertain times.This season is taking an interesting turn as I find myself paying closer attention to my inner life - to sensations, to moment-by-moment shifts, and to the subtle places where I might be reacting. I’m learning to be alongside feelings, not rushing past them, but staying curious.In this episode, Marina explores:Beginning with a moment of feeling off-track, and the choice to stop and listen inwardly.Reflecting on the value of not knowing - and how uncertainty can be fertile ground.How discomfort is offered not as something to fix, but as a doorway to something deeper.An honest look at how ego can subtly shape even well-intentioned work.Inviting us to stay rooted in the body, in the earth, and in our own deep sensingHow grief and disorientation are acknowledged as natural responses to collapsing systems.How there’s reassurance that we don’t need all the answers in order to stay in service.How true leadership may mean staying with the unknown rather than rushing through it.Reflecting on Joseph Cornell’s approach - beginning from a felt state that sets the tone for learning, and how Flow Learning starts from inner alignmentEnding with an invitation to keep listening to the thread of life - and letting it guide the wayShow Notes:https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-68-leading-with-our-inner-life/Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsIf you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This really helps me to spread the word to more people like you, and to empower more people to take their practice outdoors!Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, "follow" the podcast, as if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out. Mentioned in this episode:Free Course in Forest School ActivitiesTry our online training for free: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/free

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