The Wild Minds Podcast

• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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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