Take Me Outside

Digital Balance: Why Nature Matters More Than Ever

Kerry Crofton, PhD, is a public health educator, corporate wellness consultant, yoga and Chi Gong instructor, and mindfulness teacher.  She is the author of Less Screen More Green - Finding Freedom with The Mindful Tech Plans™ – foreword by Dr. Jane Goodall – and the founder and CEO of the Canadian nonprofit Global Health Alliance and the consulting company WellBeing International Ltd.  Kerry is honoured to be a "Fellow Traveler" with Harvard's Digital Wellness Lab. 

Breaking Barriers: Race and Outdoor Learning

Jacqueline L. Scott is a scholar, writer, and consultant on race and nature. She is a postdoctoral fellow at Queen’s University. Scott’s PhD thesis is called Being Black and Outdoors: The Perception of the Wilderness in the Canadian Imagination. She is a former fellow at the Safina Center, and a past community director at the Institute for Public Art and Sustainability, Evergreen Brickworks. Scott volunteers as a land steward, and as a hike and bike leader with outdoor clubs.

Land-based Learning: What It Is And Isn't

To open the National Outdoor Learning Conference in May 2025, we had a thought-provoking panel discussion on land-based learning from three Indigenous educators. The panelists (who introduce themselves right at the start), are deeply engaged in this work and explore the full spectrum of land-based learning, highlighting its key components and significance.

Educator Wellbeing: Connecting Teacher Wellness with Outdoor Learning

Dr. Kendrick is currently the Director of Field Experience at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. She was a K-12 classroom teacher for nineteen years specializing in Physical Education, English and Language Arts. One of Dr. Kendrick’s main research areas focuses on compassion fatigue, burnout, and emotional labour in Alberta educational workers. 

Dr. Kendrick is the co-producer of the Ed Students in Conversation podcast series on voicEd Radio Canada and developer of the HEARTcare Educators website. She was the recipient of the 2020 Online Teaching Award from the Werklund School of Education as well as an Emerging Scholar Award from The Learner research network in 2019.

Technology, Climate Change, and Eco-Spirituality

Colin Harris speaks with Dr. Jenellen Good about issues like climate change, technology, and eco-spirituality. They discuss how these issues are communicated, both societally and educationally, and the role these issues play within the education system.

Dr. Good is currently the Department Chair of Communication, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University in Ontario. She is also a professor at Brock University researching the role of communication in how people relate to the “natural environment.” More specifically, she explores intersections of screens and the climate crisis, materialism, eco-spirituality and media/digital literacy. She teaches classes about environmental communication, psychology of screens, audiences, environmental justice, and communication research methods. She has published widely on these topics including her book Television and the Earth: Not a Love Story as well as many journal articles and newspaper op-eds. She is currently working on her new book entitled Stories, Stuff & Spirituality.

Show notes:

- Dr. Good vaguely mentions one happiness alternative economic index and also mentions Bhutan’s alternative economic index. Bhutan’s index is actually a “Gross National Happiness Index” and other similar indices that she talks about are the Genuine Progress Indicator (GP), Human Development Index (HDI), Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) and the Happy Planet Index (HPI).

- Ronald Wright’s Massey Lecture book A Short History of Progress was published in 2004.

- COP 2024 was in Baku (there was a COP in Doha – in 2012)

 

Passing the baton to Take Me Outside!

Ian and Sofía share a short message of thanks as well as a preview of what's to come.

In short, longtime partner organization Take Me Outside will be taking over the show and creating all forthcoming new episodes.

Everything on your end will stay the same: old episodes will remain exactly where they are, and new episodes will start populating on this same channel.

Thanks for tuning in, and enjoy the new episodes coming your way!

Episode 62: Energy transition narratives: good-faith, bad-faith, and keeping the faith

With Max Fawcett of Canada’s National Observer

What sorts of narratives about the energy transition are out there? Which ones are developed in good faith and which ones are developed in bad faith? Why is it important that we find the right balance between optimism and urgency? How can we have effective conversations with people who are resistant to the energy transition? Journalist Max Fawcett has long been on the energy beat, and he shares his insights on which narratives to embrace and which ones to avoid.

Guest:

Max Fawcett is the lead columnist for Canada's National Observer and the former editor of Alberta Oil magazine and Vancouver magazine. He worked in Alberta's Climate Change Office from 2017–19, and lives in Calgary today with his wife and son.

*Episode edited by M. Angel Goñi Avila

*Episode recorded in October 2023

*Episode produced with support from the Ivey Foundation

Episode 61: A Two-Worlds Approach to nurturing empathy in young children

With Claire Underwood of the University of Cincinnati’s Artlitt Center for Education, Research, & Sustainability and Children, Youth, Environments (CYE) Journal

What does empathy look like in young children? How can we nurture it? When do we just need to step back and let children sort through the complexities of the natural world? Claire Underwood recently participated in a Community of Practice centred on using a Two-Worlds Approach to develop an empathy model for young children. This work was rooted in Natural Curiosity’s four-branch framework of children’s environmental inquiry informed by Indigenous perspectives. In this fascinating discussion, Claire shares the findings from the CoP as well as stories from educators who have implemented the empathy model in their teaching.

Guest:

Claire Underwood is a Doctoral Student at the University of Cincinnati, where she is the Editorial Assistant for the Children, Youth, Environments (CYE) Journal and conducts research with the Artlitt Center for Education, Research, & Sustainability. 

After more than a decade working in non-profit leadership and community organizing focusing on environmental and social justice, Claire returned to academia to earn her Master's in Environmental Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth. There, her work focused on the impact of nature-based learning on children’s empathy development. Claire co-designed and co-facilitated a seven-month professional learning experience that supported 15 early childhood educators in deepening their empathy practices through intentional & respectful engagement with Indigenous peoples and perspectives. 

Through her work, Claire seeks to support teachers, children, and their families in creating experiences that affirm children’s agency, support their connection to the Earth, and work meaningfully together toward a just and sustainable present and future.

Learn more at https://www.clairecunderwood.com/.

Read the All Relatives Share Empathy article here.

*Episode edited by M. Angel Goñi Avila

Episode 60: Nature’s best hope (for kids)

With Douglas Tallamy of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware and Homegrown National Park

What is Homegrown National Park and what does it look like? How can we all do our part — at home — to contribute not just to conservation but also restoration? From where does the fixation on “the perfect lawn” originate? Why is it so important to shift to a mindset of seeing properties as functional and not just decorative? Following the release of Nature’s Best Hope: Young Readers’ Edition, Doug joined us to share many of the valuable insights contained in both versions of his bestselling and inspiring book! 

Guest:

Douglas W. Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. He is author of Bringing Nature Home, Nature’s Best Hope, and The Nature of Oaks; and co-founder with Michelle Alfandari of Homegrown National Park, visit it at HNPARK.org.

*Episode edited by M. Angel Goñi Avila

Episode 59: The lives of bees and pollinating wasps

With Heather Holm of Pollination Press and www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com

Which common species of native bees can be readily observed in your community? Why do wasps often fly under the radar when it comes to their impact as pollinators? What are some quick and easy tips for observing bees and wasps? Heather devotes much of her time to observing, photographing, documenting, and attracting bees, wasps, and other pollinators. She has also published several books on these remarkable insects. We are learning more about bees and wasps all the time, and Heather is playing a major role in expanding our collective knowledge. She shares some of her insights and stories in this lively discussion.

Guest:

Heather Holm is a biologist, pollinator conservationist, and award-winning author. She passionately informs and educates audiences nationwide, through her writing and many presentations, about the fascinating world of native pollinators and beneficial insects, and the native plant communities that support them. Heather is the author of four books: Pollinators of Native Plants (2014), Bees (2017), Wasps (2021), and Common Native Bees of the Eastern United States (2022). Both Bees and Wasps have won multiple book awards including the American Horticultural Society Book Award (2018 and 2022 respectively). Heather’s expertise includes the interactions between native pollinators and native plants, and the natural history and biology of native bees and predatory wasps. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and many local publications. Heather is also an accomplished photographer, and her pollinator photos are frequently featured in print and electronic publications. 

Click here for Heather’s expanded biography as well as links to her iNaturalist and social media pages.

*Episode edited by M. Angel Goñi Avila

*Episode recorded in March 2023