The Wild Minds Podcast

• The Deeper Work of Ecotherapy with Linda Buzzell

  This week, I am in conversation with Linda Buzzell who is a psychotherapist, ecotherapist, author, and pioneer in the field of ecopsychology, working at the intersection of psychology, ecology, and culture since the late 1990s. Linda co-edited 'Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind' with Craig Chalquist and has written widely on the ecological crisis as both a psychological and spiritual challenge.In this episode, we explore what ecotherapy truly means - not as a treatment or technique, but as a way of healing our relationship with the living Earth. We talk about nature as therapist, community as medicine, and what it means to move from a culture of domination to one of partnership and reciprocity.Topics include:Ecotherapy as healing our relationship with our home world.Level one vs level two ecotherapy from personal benefit to reciprocal, culture-shifting practice.Nature as the ultimate therapist practitioner as catalyst, guide, witness.Eco-psychotherapy within clinical practice and the wider, community-facing field of ecotherapy.Zookosis in animals as a mirror for human nature-deficit and why habitats matter for sanity.Evidence beyond exercise research showing green and blue contact improves mood and health.Caution on “nature prescriptions” moving beyond individual fixes to place, community, and systems.Rooting in place bioregionalism, terra psychology, and rebuilding bonds with land.Decolonising therapy learning from Indigenous wisdom without appropriation and with repair.From dominator culture to partnership Riane Eisler’s lens and McGilchrist’s hemispheres.Eco-spirituality reclaiming the sacred through seasons, ceremony, bodies, and relational awe.The path of hope small groups, community ecotherapy, and standing together for the living world.Shownotes: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-77-the-deeper-work-of-ecotherapy-with-linda-buzzell/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.

  --------  

  52:14

  --------

  52:14
• The Cost of Looking Away

  In this episode, Marina reflects on power, responsibility, and duty of care. As November marks a season of endings and beginnings, she looks beneath the surface of our systems — from education to environment, and asks what happens when we stop paying attention, and what it costs us when we do.This conversation traces the threads between integrity and innocence, corruption and accountability, and how our personal and professional ethics shape the wider ecology we live within.Key ideas exploredThe uneasy link between wealth, power, and moral compromiseNovember as a time for renewalHow concentrated power in health, education, and business leads us to protect ourselves instead of our purposeTeachers and leaders navigating the “topside world” while tending what lies beneath — our own psychology and hidden systemsMoving beyond naïveté without losing hope or careReclaiming duty of care — asking whether our systems live up to the ethics we teachPracticing stewardship: leaving no trace, enhancing biodiversity, and restoring the flow of responsibilityShownotes:https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-76-the-cost-of-looking-away/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.

  --------  

  19:31

  --------

  19:31
• The River of Truth with Ash Smith

  In this episode, I’m speaking with Ash Smith, the founder of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution. A retired Detective Superintendent, former angler and scuba diver, Ash has spent the last eight years investigating the truth about what’s happening in our rivers. His love for the natural world, combined with a deep sense of justice, led him to gather a team of committed people from different disciplines to form one of the most effective groups holding water companies and regulators to account.In our conversation, Ash shares what’s really going on with our rivers, the scale of sewage pollution, and the failures of government and regulatory bodies to protect our waterways. This is a passionate, evidence-based discussion, grounded in data that you can find on the WASP website. The Windrush itself flows for 65 kilometers from Gloucestershire into the Thames - but this story reaches far beyond one river. It speaks to the health of our ecosystems, and to our own health as well.Topics include:A vivid picture of what a living, healthy river once was — and how the “new normal” hides a quiet collapse.How WASP (Windrush Against Sewage Pollution) turns citizen science and data analysis into undeniable proof of illegal pollution.The shocking reality of regulators who no longer investigate — and water companies marking their own homework.What happens when public services are sold off and profit replaces purpose.The money trail — how customers fund dividends while private shareholders drain the system.Why some water companies are now in “special measures” and what real accountability could look likeAsh’s journey from detective superintendent to river defender — following the evidence wherever it leads.The quiet power of ordinary people who refuse to look away.How anger can become fuel for change rather than despair.Practical ways to take action — join with others, use local data, and make enough noise to tip the balanceShownotes: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-75-the-river-of-truth-with-ash-smith/ 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.

  --------  

  1:06:06

  --------

  1:06:06
• What is Education for Now

  In this reflective solo episode, Marina explores how the changing seasons, our ancestral roots, and the social history of education help us question what learning really means today. We journey from postwar Britain to the present classroom, asking how we can reimagine education as something alive, relational, and grounded in nature.Topics include:Gratitude for autumn, the changing light, and small comforts that sustain us.Reflection on the natural cycle of endings and beginnings and what it teaches us about renewal.The symbolism of the elder and birch trees as reminders of wisdom, letting go, and new growth.Honouring ancestors and recognising what we’ve inherited through culture and family.The importance of doing inner work that leads to outer change in our communities and classrooms.Revisiting postwar Britain to understand how education emerged as a social contract for fairness and democracy.The 1944 Butler Act and its vision for universal education and rebuilding society after the war.Remembering that education is a system, while learning is an organic, lifelong process that transforms who we are.The tension between authority and shared power in schools and what that means for children’s voices.A call to reimagine education as something rooted in wellbeing, curiosity, and connection to the living world.Shownotes:https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-74-what-is-education-for-nowMusic 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.

  --------  

  40:02

  --------

  40:02
• Making Nature a Right in Education with Suzanne Welch

  My guest today is Suzanne Welch, Education Partnership Manager at the RSPB, the UK’s largest nature conservation charity with over a million members, and in this episode she explores what it would mean to make nature a right in education and why it’s time to rethink the purpose.Suzanne has spent decades in outdoor learning - from taking inner-city children to the Thames foreshore, where subjects like science, history and geography came alive, to now convening national partnerships and influencing education policy. Her work is driven by a vision that every child should have access to high-quality learning in, with and for nature.In this episode Suzanne Welch...Challenges the outdated knowledge-based model and invites a shift toward enquiry and relational learning. Reflects on her early work taking inner-city children to the River Thames and witnessing their transformation outdoors. Emphasises joy, curiosity and presence as the foundations of meaningful learning.Highlights how outdoor experiences naturally connect subjects like science, history, art and geography.Argues that learning shouldn’t be siloed because our minds don’t operate in compartments.Points to the early years sector as an example of where outdoor and child-led learning already works well.Questions about why these principles fade as children move through the education system.Explains how assessment and measurement culture have narrowed what counts as learning.Calls for systemic rather than incremental change and a national conversation about the true purpose of education.Advocates for a statutory right for every child to learn in with and for nature.Notes that equitable access currently depends on postcode school leadership and teacher enthusiasm.Ends with a simple invitation start with one outdoor lesson listen to young people and let hope lead change.Shownotes: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/making-nature-a-right-in-education-suzanne-welch/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.

  --------  

  1:00:02

  --------

  1:00:02

More Education podcasts

Trending Education podcasts

About The Wild Minds Podcast