The Wild Minds Podcast

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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As winter gathers and the days shorten, in this final episode of the season, Marina reflects on the Rowan tree, the act of wintering, and the hidden life beneath stillness.
Here are some of her reflections:
The Rowan as a winter guardian, its bright berries offering sustenance and protection in the dark months.
The solstice as a time of descent, when we enter the heart’s cave and tend the inner fire that keeps us alive through uncertainty.
How stillness and retreat restore our capacity to listen, dream, and notice what truly matters.
The importance of reworking our stories — how memory, identity, and imagination can evolve with the seasons.
The denials that shape our modern crisis: of planetary limits, of our entanglement with the living world, and of our own vulnerability.
How fear and defensiveness rise in turbulent times, and the invitation to find gentler, more connected ways forward.

Shownotes: https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-80-tending-the-embers
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
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Today I’m speaking with Nick Stoop, founder of Pangea Impact Investments - a company that’s trying to change something most of us rarely think about.
Where our pensions are invested, and what that money is actually doing in the world.
In this episode we get practical and brave about money — banks, pensions, and the difference between light green labels and deep green impact — so our savings can serve the living world as well as our future selves.
What happens to our money inside banks and pensions.
Why pensions can outweigh everyday “green” habits in impact.
Agency in an opaque system and how to start using it.
Light green screening versus deep green positive impact.
Ethics, risk, return and the futures we’re funding.
The problem with labels and why “ethical” often isn’t.
Transparency as reconnection to place and consequence.
The role of workplace pensions and scope 3 emissions.
Third-party verification, B Corps and better metrics.
Moving money without sacrificing performance over time.
Imagining local, regenerative investments we can visit.
Small first steps that build a values-aligned portfolio.

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/money-with-a-conscience-with-nick-stoop/
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!
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In this solo episode, Marina explores what Linda Buzzell calls “level two ecotherapy” - a shift from using nature as a tool for human wellbeing to recognising our reciprocal relationship with the living world.
Moving from “me” to “we,” she reflects on how our practices, systems, and mindsets can evolve toward a more ethical, embodied, and relational way of belonging.
Key Ideas Explored
The move from extraction to relationship — recognising nature as a living partner, not a service.
From “me” to “we” — human development as a journey toward community and interconnection.
The many meanings of ecotherapy and why values and worldview matter more than labels.
The power of shared outdoor activity — fire, craft, and stillness as natural therapy.
Reclaiming the roots of eco and therapy — caring for our shared home and one another.
Nature-centric models that place humans within the circle of life, not above it.
The need to move beyond individual healing to include the health of the Earth.
Western culture’s mindset of extraction and the call for reciprocity and re-education.
Bringing nature-based practice into health and education systems despite structural barriers.
Seeing bullying and domination as symptoms of fear and disconnection from relationship.
The importance of moral courage, ethical conduct, and grounded self-worth in our work.
Community ecotherapy and deep ecology as ways to restore belonging and collective care.

Shownotes:
https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-78-level-2-ecotherapy-from-me-to-we/
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!
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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 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:
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https://theoutdoorteacher.com/webinar