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PODCAST

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for Revolutionary Conversations about Nature-Based Education

Welcome to the Forest Educator Podcast hosted by Ricardo Sierra. Join Ricardo as he engages in enlightening conversations with educators from across the globe who are revolutionizing nature-based education. Drawing on his 35 years of experience in wilderness education, Ricardo shares practical insights, tools, and best practices to inspire and support forest educators and camp staff worldwide. Tune in twice a week for interviews with passionate educators and skill spotlights that delve into the

sports wilderness

All Episodes

36:24

Episode 143 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Why Modern...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/10/17

I've noticed a common theme in many of the Facebook forest school groups I'm a part of. People are constantly asking where they can get the right training to start their own nature programs, and they're seeking suggestions for activities and crafts to do with children.As an educator, I emphasize the importance of providing children with real challenges and activities that build practical skills, rather than relying on contrived or disconnected experiences. I encourage you to focus on

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72:06

Episode 142 - Damage Report: The Impact of...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/10/14

This is a first hand account of Grant Adkisson, who spent days preparing for Hurricane Helene on his farm and nature program Corylace Cove in Mars Hill, North Carolina. This event was catastrophic to communities throughout the Carolinas and Tennessee, and Grant shares what it was like during the storm, and then discovering how widespread and life changing this event has had for thousands of people throughout this region.Grant talks about why he and his partner Sara chose to continue to offer

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44:15

Episode 141 - Adventures in PaleoEthnobotany and...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/10/10

The search for knowledge sometimes involves tedious, patient work when it comes to understanding the diet of our distant ancestors. It can involve charcoal analysis at a microscopic level from campfires from 10,000 BC. It can involve the scrapings of carbonized food remains from pottery shards that are clues to what was eaten or used medicinally. It's not particularly flashy or exciting like demonstrating fire by friction to a group of fifth graders, but Max Gordon actually does both. Max

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49:08

Episode 140 - Lessons from Bears and Jaguars with...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/10/07

John returns to the Forest Educator Podcast to share more of his unique journey into nature and tracking. John's work with youth led him to upstate New York, in the Northern border area, where he learned about communicating with bears. (Very helpful to know when you work with youth in the wild!) In each place where he traveled, he found elders who shared powerful experiences that changed how he saw and connected with the natural world. These events helped John tremendously when working with

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38:47

Episode 139 - Lessons from Bears and Jaguars with...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/10/03

John returns to the Forest Educator Podcast to share more of his unique journey into nature and tracking. John's work with youth led him to upstate New York, in the Northern border area, where he learned about communicating with bears. (Very helpful to know when you work with youth in the wild!) In each place where he traveled, he found elders who shared powerful experiences that changed how he saw and connected with the natural world. These events helped John tremendously when working with

en

55:34

Episode 138 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/30

I always knew when I was in an 'initiatory experience', because my peaceful, stable, predictable life would suddenly be turned upside down. It is not a pleasant experience, generally, and I would be forced to let go, grow, learn, and expand. Sometimes, the initiation started due to a relationship, or sometimes, community pressures. Other times, it happened more physically, with pressure or forces that left me with no other options. No amount of bargaining, discussion or denial would bring

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65:36

Episode 137 - Forest Education Without a Forest with...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/26

There are lots of times when we as educators face the task of creating a positive nature experience with less than ideal situations. Running forest school sessions in urban schools near a football pitch, or an abandoned lot is not always what we were thinking we were getting into when we envisioned being nature educators or went through our training!In this episode, David Fisher and I explore some of these challenges and how they might be mitigated both on an individual or community level and at

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45:57

Episode 136 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Ancestral...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/23

When I created the Hawk Circle Wilderness Camp back in 1989, I started with a goal to offer something 'real' to students & campers. I began to scour my knowledge and imagination of how our ancestors were connected to the land in visceral, intrinsic ways, from the moment of birth to their very end of life. I sought to add these elements, or threads of understanding, one strand a time, in a way that would feel natural, unassuming, without a lot of drama or fanfare or 'calling attention to

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51:30

Episode 135 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/19

There are a lot of 'ingredients' in most forest educator programs that make up the bulk of the experiences. Crafts. Skills. Games. Challenges. Free Play. Exploration. (and more). Viewed as a recipe, they would be the big items in whatever dish you're making. They'd take up a lot of space in the pot or pan, and they would get the most attention. But there are also the smaller ingredients in the mix, that are often completely overlooked and seldom thought about, that are critical to making the

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47:37

Episode 134 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/16

The one question I get asked about most is about program design, curriculum and activities for older children, teens and young adults.There are lots of good ideas and content out there that covers nature/science combos, or nature/language arts or nature/creative arts, and those are awesome. In this episode, I share some of the things I've learned over the more than three decades of working with young people and how 'work projects' can have incredible and valuable life skills and long term

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67:35

Episode 133 - Tracking with Aboriginal Elders,...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/12

It was through Tom Brown Jr and his Tracker School that I came to meet John. It was 1984, on a farm in western New Jersey, and he was an instructor at the school, and spending seven days with him and the rest of the staff and Tom changed the direction of my life in a radical way. John was pulled to New Mexico in 1986, where he founded The Tracking Project, and began running rites of passage camps for boys and girls, as well as adult trainings and retreats. I was incredibly fortunate to spend time

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59:28

Episode 132 - Is the Recent Guardian Opinion-Article ...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/09

It came out of nowhere, right as hundreds of Forest School Leaders were preparing for the Autumn semester: An opinion piece in The Guardian ominously titled "I'm All For the Concept of Forest School, Just Not the Kind I Pulled My Kids Out Of." by Emma Brockes.It's just six paragraphs of cynical observations around schools, camps, forest schools and misunderstanding, but it packs a lot of criticism for nature education without a lot of detail, nuance or substance. It's the kind of piece that

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69:14

Episode 131 - Holistic Marketing Strategies with...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/05

The task of communicating the value and benefits of what we do as nature based educators is vital to the long and short term success of our mission/vision, so 'marketing' is one of the hats we wear as part of our leadership roles. But often, we are SO reluctant and hesitant to promote ourselves, and talk about it, and I've seen a LOT of people get really uncomfortable taking the leap into even thinking about it! Enter my guest for this episode: Elizabeth Clyde. She's been doing 'holistic

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62:08

Episode 130 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Experiences...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/09/02

This episode explores the phenomenon that often occurs when we work with people in nature, where there is a moment of touching the divine, or the light. We also tackle the flip side, where someone in our care goes down, to the rich, warm darkness, where things get raw and primal. I share about why I find the duality principle both lazy and inadequate as a metaphor, and how its oversimplification can be limiting or even traumatizing for some students. Using the 'ecosystem' as a new model, I

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71:10

Episode 129 - Enhanced Mental Health and Healing...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/08/29

The world of medicine and academia seems to run on a different timeline than the modern world. Changes take time to process, evaluate, become revised and eventually, approved for integration into the working model for treatment or training. There are good reasons for this process, because acting too quickly can create a lot of confusion, waste of money and time and generally degrade the public opinion of these institutions, but to an outsider, it can be maddening to watch and wait in real

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70:03

Episode 128 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Why Nature...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/08/26

This episode is for nature educators AND Parents, Grandparents, Teachers, Schools and Organizations, as it dives into the reasons why professional Nature Education Programs are priced the way they are. I present some ideas and details that can promote understanding moving forward, and share some ways that schools, parents, grandparents and organizations can save $ in some cases. This is a great episode to share with your staff, your student parents, or for schools that you work with, if you feel

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55:46

Episode 127 - Coming Home to the Earth in South...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/08/22

Reuben Piet joins the Forest Educator from Cape Town as a singer, songwriter, musician and transformational nature leader. He draws upon his ancestral roots to create powerful experiences for people of all ages, awakening an ancient remembering of who we are, and why we are here. South Africa, like most of Africa, is a melting pot of diversity, cultures, languages and perspectives, and Reuben shares how he finds common ground and calls for a new consciousness and way of living that goes beyond our

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51:37

Episode 126 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The Life,...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/08/19

I don't think it's a stretch to say that Tom Brown Jr leaves quite a 'wake' in his passing. He's taught thousands of students, both through his books and Tracker School, and he's been a 'force of nature' in these past five decades. He's been a mentor, a guide, a father figure to many whose fathers were absent, and he won't ever fully know the depth of his presence or impact had on those who leaned in to his teaching. He was complicated, and a little wild. Untamed, I guess I'd call it. Kinda

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42:31

Episode 125 - The Power of Wild Medicinal Plants with...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/08/15

When I first started learning wilderness skills and discovering wild foods, my mentors taught and also modeled a deep sense of gratitude to these living beings that we used every day. I didn't know how to do it the 'right way', but I made every attempt to show my appreciation, b0th out loud and in my head. What I wasn't prepared for was the feeling that I had from THEM, which was both intuitive and at other times, clear and concise with detailed information that held up! There is no question

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36:13

Episode 124 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Leaning In...

Forest Educator with Ricardo Sierra | A Podcast for... ·

2024/08/15

If you want to add depth and meaning to your relationship to the natural world, a little research, study and discovery of our natural history, geography, cultural history and flora & fauna that surrounds us! It's all about understanding different unique aspects of our small corner of the world, and how it's special, just like our students and ourselves. Forest Educator Bonus Content Page: http://foresteducator.com/bonuscontent Join the Forest Educator

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