The Wild Minds Podcast

Sitting by the fire with Annie Spencer, we explore ceremony as lived relationship - with spirit, story, blood, grief, and the long arc from initiation to eldership - and what it means to keep dreaming a life-affirming world in times that feel increasingly divided.
Topics include:
Sitting by the fire together becomes a doorway into relationship - gratitude not as a nicety, but as a way of remembering life is alive, and not guaranteed.
Ceremony, for Annie, starts with intention and beauty - not “performing a ritual,” but making a space that might genuinely invite presence from beyond the purely human.
Fire is treated as a being with its own kind of aliveness - honoured, spoken to, and offered things, as a practice of not taking life for granted.
A simple daily practice can be enough: choose a time, choose a place, return again and again until something responds - an “altar” as an anchor for attention.
This way of knowing doesn’t sit easily inside modern culture - it can feel like being pulled between realities, and that tension can be exhausting.
Annie names both the fascination and the danger: exploring other realities without a well-trodden path can unground people - tradition can be a rope that helps you return.
Stories shape what we believe is possible - we live inside the story we tell about our lives, and the same event becomes different “truths” depending on who is telling it.
Dreaming isn’t escapism: in times of political fear and widening authoritarianism, Annie suggests we can either feed a reality by fighting it constantly, or step back and hold a different dream with strength.
Birth and menstruation are framed as everyday ceremonies - women making “a rich nest for life” each month, and the radical possibility of honouring life-giving blood rather than normalising bloodshed.
Rites of passage matter because adolescence is a “loose” time - when identity isn’t fixed yet - and a strong experience of belonging, mystery, and beauty can orient a young person for life.
Eldership isn’t a label you earn at menopause - it can take decades of turning toward death, letting go of dominance, and learning humility, until you can truly hold community.
The elder’s offering is presence, acceptance, and perspective - holding what others can’t bear alone, sharing stories with teachings (without “you should”), and making space for ceremony and healing.
The conversation keeps circling back to one core truth: life is relationship and reciprocity - giving and being given to — and even death is framed as the final gift back into the living system.

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-87-ceremony-and-eldership
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
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In this episode, I step into what I’m calling the season of the amateur - asking big questions without claiming expertise. I explore how medicine is shaped by culture and worldview, what “evidence” really means, and how different systems - from biomedicine to Ayurveda - understand causation, illness and health.
This isn’t a rejection of modern medicine - it’s an attempt to widen the lens. To ask what keeps us well, not only what makes us ill. And to consider whether we can hold scientific rigour and relational depth in the same conversation - without collapsing into superstition, and without dismissing mystery.
Topics include:
Gratitude for what keeps us well: walking, breathing, rest, friendship, safety, purpose and for the years of disciplined study that form a psychiatrist: medical school, clinical rotations, exams, and over six years of specialist training.
What counts as knowledge in medicine - and who decides? Holding expertise and personal sovereignty in the same frame.
Medicine across civilisations - Babylon, Egypt, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, Greece - each emerging from a worldview, none “primitive,” all culturally shaped.
The rise of the biomedical model - anatomy, cells, pathogens, biochemistry and its extraordinary success in acute care and life-saving intervention.
Evidence-based medicine and the power of Randomised Controlled Trials - what they measure brilliantly and what they struggle to capture.
Psychiatry’s measurement dilemma - symptom clusters, self-reported scales, and the question of whether symptom reduction equals flourishing.
The placebo effect, expectation, relationship and meaning - what actually creates change?
Ayurveda as the “science of life” - balance, prevention, daily rhythms, and cultivating health rather than only treating disease.
Green prescriptions and nature-based practice - bridging biomedical legitimacy with relational, ecological models of wellbeing.
Safeguarding, discernment and humility - widening causation without abandoning rigour, and asking what it truly means to be well.

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-86-saving-lives-and-cultivating-health/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
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Mentioned in this episode:
How to Teach Climate Change
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/climate

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
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
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Mentioned in this episode:
How to Teach Climate Change
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/climate

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
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If 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:
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:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-83-climate-change-health-and-survival-with-professor-hugh-montgomery/
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
Please Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
If 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:
How to Teach Climate Change
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/climate