The Wild Minds Podcast

In this episode I’m joined by Dr Kanchan, an Ayurvedic doctor trained in India, to explore a radically different way of understanding health, not only as something we fix when it breaks, but as a lifelong relationship between body, mind, senses, environment, and meaning.
This is a conversation about prevention rather than crisis, and about what becomes possible when health is understood as a living, relational process rather than a purely medical one.
Topics include:
Ayurveda is described as a “science of life,” concerned with the whole arc of living - from conception to death - not just the treatment of disease
Health is understood as balance within the body, the mind, and the environment, while illness is a sign that something has fallen out of sync
Western allopathic medicine and Ayurveda are not in conflict; they serve different purposes, with acute medicine vital in emergencies and Ayurveda focused on prevention and long-term wellbeing
The body is seen as intelligent, with healing emerging when the right conditions are restored rather than imposed from outside
Ayurveda treats people as individuals, not categories, taking into account constitution, diet, climate, place, habits, and family patterns
The five elements and three doshas are not rigid “types,” but ways of understanding movement, digestion, transformation, and stability within a person
Ayurveda is framed as a life science rather than only a medical science, with protecting the health of the healthy as its first priority
Humans are not placed above nature but understood as part of it, with personal health inseparable from the health of the living world
The senses are described as powerful gateways shaping the mind, with overuse, underuse, or misuse contributing to imbalance and anxiety
Daily and seasonal rhythms — how we eat, rest, move, and attend — are presented as foundations for mental steadiness and resilience
Purpose and inner alignment matter, with illness sometimes arising when actions drift away from a person’s deeper values or moral compass
The invitation is not to adopt another system wholesale, but to widen our understanding of health, hold multiple ways of knowing, and remember that care, balance, and relationship sit at the heart of wellbeing

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-85-what-ayurveda-can-teach-us/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
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In this episode, Marina explores why climate education is a health issue by looking at what actually keeps us well, and what happens when the systems we depend on begin to destabilise.
This is a reflection on the living world, on physical reality, and on why informed climate education matters at a time of change.
Key points:
She begins in gratitude for the living world, and how amazing this biosphere really is!
Health is not something we create alone; it arises from stable temperatures, clean water, fertile soils and a functioning atmosphere.
Climate conversations often focus on ecology or policy, but beneath them sit physical laws that govern energy, heat and motion - Physics and Chemistry.
Climate change is driven by an energy imbalance, not by opinion or belief.
Chemistry explains what substances are, but physics explains what energy does in a system.
Climate change is already a health issue, showing up in bodies, hospitals and food systems.
Human health has always been intertwined with ecological health.
What’s most at risk and the stability of ecosystems, food systems and social systems
Denial persists not because the science is unclear, but we don’t assimilate it and come together - I would love to see Cross Party politics.
Language matters with Net Zero and Real Zero, especially the difference between delaying harm and stopping it.
Education is not an extra burden here; it’s one of the few tools we have for prevention.
Staying human means staying in relationship - with each other and with the living world.

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-84-why-climate-education-is-a-health-issue/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
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Mentioned in this episode:
How to Teach Climate Change
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/climate

In this conversation, Professor Hugh Montgomery names climate change for what it is:
A survival crisis driven by “radiation gain” and accelerating feedback loops. He cuts through denial, delay and mixed messaging with five simple moves anyone can make now - switch your power, move your money, change your food, shift your travel, and talk about it - then shows how asking seven others can cascade into mass action.
We touch on real zero vs net zero, why money we can do now, and how unity across politics beats division.
Here are the essentials:
Hugh reframes climate change as “radiation gain,” explaining that greenhouse gases trap longwave heat and create positive feedback loops driving escalating warming.
Humanity is emitting over 54 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent annually, and a fifth of what’s emitted today will still be heating the planet in 33,000 years.
Natural systems like oceans and forests can no longer absorb enough carbon; atmospheric CO₂ now rises about four parts per million per year, reaching around 430.5 ppm.
Feedback loops include methane release from permafrost (83 times more potent than CO₂), forests becoming net emitters, and loss of reflective ice - 9 trillion tonnes gone - accelerating heating.
Hugh warns that the real threat is not only to health but to human survival within the next one or two decades, not centuries.
He compares Earth’s situation to a patient long ignoring symptoms - what could have been minor surgery now needs radical, painful treatment to survive.
Inaction stems from circular blame between individuals, business, and politicians - each claiming it’s someone else’s responsibility.
Many in government and business remain ignorant of climate science or see it as a political issue; some even believe warming will benefit economies through resource access or growth from destruction.
Human psychology also plays a role: people avoid short-term loss or pleasure deprivation even when long-term risk is high - similar to health behaviors like smoking or drinking.
Fear-based climate messaging fails when it offers no agency; effective communication must link truth with action, empowering people to act immediately.

Hugh outlines five tangible actions anyone can take:
Switch to 100% renewable electricity
Move personal banking away from fossil-fuel funders
Shift to a largely plant-based diet (less meat, smaller portions)
Reduce air and car travel where possible
Talk about climate concerns openly to normalise action

Shownotes:

Episode 82 invites listeners to arrive into 2026 with honesty, care and a sense of shared responsibility - not as individuals carrying the world alone, but as part of a wider web of life.
Drawing on reflections from Jane Goodall’s work, seasonal change and lived experience, this episode explores how we stay present without panic. It asks what it really means to act with courage, dignity and relationship in uncertain times.
Here are some of her reflections:
Opening the year with Jane Goodall’s reminder that what we do makes a difference - and that change begins with choosing the kind of difference we want to make, rather than acting from fear or urgency.
Reflecting on the seasonal crossing between hemispheres, and how growth, decay and renewal are always happening somewhere, all the time - whether we notice or not.
Sitting with Alder as a teacher: a tree that carries water and fire, masculine and feminine, strength and softness and how this mirrors our inner lives, our fragility, and our need for both boundaries and surrender.
Honouring Jane Goodall’s long life of peaceful activism and her understanding that people can only carry what they can - that survival, dignity and stability matter before wider responsibility.
Realising that while I never thought of my work as “democratic,” the erosion of democracy makes it clear how relational, sociocratic and consent-based outdoor learning really is.
Sharing the moment from the interview that stayed with me most: Jane Goodall’s mother responding to her disappearance not with punishment, but with curiosity and listening - and how her spirit was not broken.
Returning to regulation through breath, movement, sensory connection and time outdoors - remembering that responsibility was never meant to be an individual burden, but a collective one shared with the more-than-human world.
Realising that healthy outdoor learning mirrors healthy systems: listening matters, power works best when shared, and sociocratic, relational ways of being together are deeply needed now.
Closing with a reframing of “together we can” - not as fixing everything, but as listening more deeply, carrying only what is ours, acting where we are, staying in relationship, and choosing our difference with care.

Shownotes: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-82-together-we-can/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
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Today, I’m joined by Rosemary Reed, trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK, and Jasmina Georgovska, Director of Outreach for Roots & Shoots UK — the global youth programme Jane founded to support young people to take action for people, animals, and the planet.
In this episode, we talk about what it means to raise changemakers without breaking spirits. About listening, really listening, to children, and to each other. About how environmental responsibility can only grow where people feel stable, respected, and supported.
Hope is described as an active choice - a way of meeting difficult realities with belief, responsibility, and small, purposeful actions.
True mentorship helps people remember what they’re capable of, shifting mindsets from limitation to possibility through education, trust, and belief.
Jane Goodall’s power came not from force or argument, but from listening deeply, holding conviction with humility, and responding through story rather than confrontation.
Information alone doesn’t move people - connection does. When an issue is felt, not just understood, action becomes possible.
Jane’s early experiences with her mother model an ethic of learning that protects curiosity, encourages exploration, and listens before correcting.
Care, kindness, hope, enthusiasm, determination, teamwork, and personal responsibility sit at the heart of this work - alongside the belief that every individual matters.
Rather than being managed or directed, young people are invited into leadership, supported to identify what matters locally and respond meaningfully.
Seeing a problem isn’t the same as registering responsibility. Change begins when awareness turns into even the smallest act.
Roots & Shoots (www.rootsnshoots.org.uk): Hands-on projects and immersive experiences - including thoughtful use of technology - help young people feel their relationship with the living world and offer small, tangible acts that build confidence rather than overwhelm.
TACARE (Take Care) is the Jane Goodall Institute's (JGI) community-led conservation program, started in Tanzania in 1994 shows that conservation only works when human dignity, stability, and community wellbeing are addressed first, because everything is connected.
The invitation is to listen more deeply, act more kindly, and take responsibility in small, grounded ways - carrying hope without collapsing under its weight.

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-81-jane-goodall-legacy-roots-and-shoots-uk/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
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If you have enjoyed today's episode,