All Episodes
Episodes
Ep 41 | Everything Can Be Taught Outside with Dr. Megan Zeni
What if the answer to better learning, happier kids, and even easier classroom management is just outside the door?
In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, Rusty talks with Dr. Megan Zeni about bringing play,...
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Ep 40 | Stop ’Splaining the Play: Lisa Murphy on Trusting Kids
What if play didn’t need a lesson plan? Or an outcome? Or a grown-up standing nearby explaining what’s supposed to happen next?
In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler sits down with longtime early...
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Ep 39 | Should Kids Go UP the Slide?
What happens when one kid climbs up the slide while another is coming down? Is going up the slide really dangerous? Or is it just one of those playground rules we’ve inherited without thinking too hard about it?
In...
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Ep 38 | Let’s form a Nature Play Community!
What happens when children meet a muddy hill, a dangling rope, and a whole lot of possibility? They climb. They slip. They tumble. They try again.
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty returns to Six Mile...
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Ep 37 | Nature-Based Learning Doesn’t Need a Forest with Dr. Rachel Larimore
Nature is everywhere. In the trees. In the rain. In the crack in the sidewalk where one determined little plant is doing its thing. In the tree that looks like a butt.
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty...
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Ep 36 | Outdoor Learning, Risky Play, and Food Education with Louise Licznerski
A school that smells like mud, woodsmoke, porridge, and possibility? Well…that sounds perfect!
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty chats with Louise Licznerski about outdoor learning in Scotland, where...
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Ep 35 | Let’s Go Far…Together
Rusty is back by the creek. The water is moving. The bugs are buzzing. A bald eagle flies by because apparently even the birds know when a podcast needs a dramatic moment.
In this solo episode of Play Nature Podcast,...
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Ep 34 | Adventure Walkers: Why Kids Need Creeks, Logs, Frogs, and Freedom
What happens when a chemist wanders out of the lab and into the woods with children? Adventure, of course.
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast Rusty talks with Jim McCullough, founder of Adventure Walkers about...
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Ep 33 | Mud, Microbes, and the Magic of Nature with Alex Barrable
Nature is not just pretty. It is medicine. It is our teacher. It is mud, microbes, moss, noise-softening, nervous-system-settling magic.
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler talks with researcher Alex...
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Ep 32 | Adam Bienenstock on School Forests, Soil Health, and the Future of Nature Play
The best playgrounds are alive. Dirt is medicine. And schoolyards can, and should, grow a little forest where kids can climb, hide, breathe, wonder, and come back to themselves.
In this episode of the Play Nature...
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Ep 31 | My New Play Manifesto! Slowing Down in a Speeding Up World
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler takes us creekside on a warm spring day to think big. Big like gorges. Small like bugs. Slow like trees. This episode is a call to remember the mission. The...
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Ep 30 | Claude Stephens’ Nature Play Revolution
Step outside. Feel the mud. Hear the birds.
In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler sits down with Playcologist Claude Stephens to explore a simple but powerful idea: children are meant to play in...
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