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Episodes
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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Ep 29 | A Bus Tour Through Scotland: What Can We Learn from Stramash’s Outdoor Preschools?
Spring rain. Mud everywhere. Kids smiling anyway. Let’s follow the weather!
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler invites us into a world where children climb, splash, wander, and belong. Short...
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Ep 28 | Kristy DeGraaf on Nature Play, Outdoor Learning, and Advocacy
This episode of the Play Nature Podcast feels like stepping into a backyard where something magical is always unfolding. Mud. Water. Sand. Stories.
Host Rusty Keeler welcomes Kristy DeGraff to explore what happens...
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Ep 27 | Getting Licensing and Risky Play to Fit Together
Licensing. Not the most exciting topic. Not mud pies or tree climbing. But if you work in schools, parks, or early childhood programs, licensing is part of the landscape.
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host...
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Ep 26 | How a Playworker Thinks About Play with Marc Armitage
Play is everywhere. It slips through sidewalks and across continents. In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler welcomes playworker, play advocate, and “friend of play” Marc Armitage. Marc is joining...
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Ep 25 | Junk Becomes Genius with Erik Herman, Founder of the Free Science Workshop
What happens when kids are given time, space, and stuff? Real stuff. Junk. Tools. Magnets. Hot glue guns.
In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler is talking to Erik Herman to explore what play,...
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Ep 24 | Let the Universe Teach: A Schema Play Aha Moment
Winter. Ice cracking at the creek. Water freezing in buckets and balloons. Rusty is back outside, thinking out loud, when an aha arrives. One of those deep ones. The kind that doesn’t land all at once. The kind you...
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Ep 23 | Seasons of Play with Rusty: Tips for WINTER Outdoor Fun
Welcome to Season 2 of the Play Nature Podcast! A full circle around the sun. A new season of listening begins.
Winter has arrived (at least in Ithaca, NY). Cold. Snow. Gray skies. And…PLAY.
In this episode of the...
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Ep 22 | Place-Based Learning: Environment, Culture, and Food with Gemma Nicholl Medina
Some conversations feel like sunshine. This one? Pure magic. Imagine laughter blowing through the trees, college students climbing branches, children splashing in streams, and stories woven into the wind.
That’s the...
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Ep 21 | Building Deep Connections with Children: Robin Christie on Play, Failure, Curiosity, and Wonder
Welcome to a world where play speaks louder than words. Where adults climb trees dressed as toucans, worms magically become two worms, and curiosity crackles like fairy lights in a cozy home-like space flooded with...
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Ep 20 | Free-Range Kids and the Magic of a Dirt Pile with Lenore Skenazy
It’s time to trust kids more. Let them walk those four houses home, climb that tree, and spend an afternoon conquering a pile of dirt. Freedom, not fear, shapes childhood the childhood we hope to give our kids.
In...
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