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 challenges and triumphs of the field.
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 54 minutes
- Episodes
- 164
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
Episode 143 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Why Modern Educators Struggle with Nature & Skills Content
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…
00:36:24 |
Thu 17 Oct 2024
Episode 142 - Damage Report: The Impact of Hurricane Helene with Grant Adkisson
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…
01:12:06 |
Mon 14 Oct 2024
Episode 141 - Adventures in PaleoEthnobotany and Evolution with Max Gordon
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 cam…
00:44:15 |
Thu 10 Oct 2024
Episode 140 - Lessons from Bears and Jaguars with John Stokes (Part Two)
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 le…
00:49:08 |
Mon 07 Oct 2024
Episode 139 - Lessons from Bears and Jaguars with John Stokes (Part One)
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 le…
00:38:47 |
Thu 03 Oct 2024
Episode 138 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The Initiatory Power of Hurricane Helene
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 …
00:55:34 |
Mon 30 Sep 2024
Episode 137 - Forest Education Without a Forest with David Fisher
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 p…
01:05:36 |
Thu 26 Sep 2024
Episode 136 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Ancestral Lessons in Nature Program Design
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…
00:45:57 |
Mon 23 Sep 2024
Episode 135 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The Invitation to Dream Bigger
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 rec…
00:51:30 |
Thu 19 Sep 2024
Episode 134 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The Surprising Benefits of Hard Work
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 …
00:47:37 |
Mon 16 Sep 2024
Episode 133 - Tracking with Aboriginal Elders, Healing the World with John Stokes
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 an…
01:07:35 |
Thu 12 Sep 2024
Episode 132 - Is the Recent Guardian Opinion-Article a 'Hit Piece' on Forest Schools? Understanding the Nature Media Narratives with Asa Hardy-Brownlie
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 Schoo…
00:59:28 |
Mon 09 Sep 2024
Episode 131 - Holistic Marketing Strategies with Elizabeth Clyde
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 a…
01:09:14 |
Thu 05 Sep 2024
Episode 130 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Experiences of the Sacred and the Profane in Nature Education
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 i…
01:02:08 |
Mon 02 Sep 2024
Episode 129 - Enhanced Mental Health and Healing through Ecopsychology with Linda Buzzell, MA, LMFT
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…
01:11:10 |
Thu 29 Aug 2024
Episode 128 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Why Nature Education is Expensive (And What We Can Do About It).
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 ar…
01:10:03 |
Mon 26 Aug 2024
Episode 127 - Coming Home to the Earth in South Africa with Reuben Piet
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…
00:55:46 |
Thu 22 Aug 2024
Episode 126 - Forest Educator Spotlight: The Life, Passion and Legacy of Tom Brown, Jr.
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 na…
00:51:37 |
Mon 19 Aug 2024
Episode 125 - The Power of Wild Medicinal Plants with Liz Neves
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 …
00:42:31 |
Thu 15 Aug 2024
Episode 124 - Forest Educator Spotlight: Leaning In To Your Bioregion
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 surro…
00:36:13 |
Thu 15 Aug 2024
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are the property of Ricardo Sierra | The Forest Educator | The Forest Box for Kids | Hawk Circle. This content is not affiliated with or endorsed by eachpod.com.