Hopeful By Nature

About Hopeful By Nature

There are people all over the world connecting kids and communities to the natural world in ways that build hope and a genuine desire to protect the places where we play. Most of them will never make the news. Hopeful by Nature goes to find them. Hosted by Scott Shepherd, dad, educator, and founder of Wildward Institute, each episode is a conversation with someone who saw a gap and built a bridge. From ocean educators and activists across the globe to conservationists in your backyard — these are the stories that remind us what's still possible. New episodes every week.

Publisher

Scott Shepherd

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jun 2026

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

19 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   Closing the Urban Wild Gap: Conservation Education for Kids in Zimbabwe | Vimbai Chitauro, WildEd Zim

   A four-year-old in Zimbabwe watches a VHS tape of David Attenborough narrating a wildlife documentary shot in Kenya. She watches it again. She starts rescuing millipedes off the ant trail in her yard. Years later, she's running an organization trying to give that same jolt of recognition to kids growing up minutes from elephants they've never seen. Vimbainashe “Nicky” Chitauro is the Founder & Executive Director of WildEd Zim, a conservation education organization in Zimbabwe working with children, teens, and young adults to close what she calls the “urban wild gap” — the disconnect between kids who live alongside biodiversity and kids in cities who only encounter it on a screen. For years her programs followed a familiar pattern: build a curriculum, hand it to a teacher, run it for a funding cycle, move on. It worked in the sense that clubs got started. It didn't hold. So she rebuilt the model as a system — one that reaches district officials, school administrators, teachers, students, and whole communities before a single club session runs. In this episode: • Why proximity to nature isn't the same as connection to it • How one VHS tape shaped a career in conservation • What it takes to build trust as a first-time founder • The district-to-community system behind every WildEd Zim eco-club • What kids actually say when asked how to fix pollution — and why it matters • An international video exchange connecting students in Zimbabwe and Florida • Why WildEd Zim hands ownership of its clubs back to the schools • Her pitch to corporate funders who treat conservation as an afterthought ABOUT VIMBAI CHITAURO Founder & Executive Director, WildEd Zim. 🌍 https://www.linkedin.com/company/wilded-zim/posts/?feedView=all ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-shepherd-m-ed-979815b7/?skipRedirect=true) is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net (www.wildwardinstitute.net) New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   Less Screen Time, More Green Time Subtitle: A proposed settlement of up to $17 billion that raises questions about outdoor learning — and a real answer to whether hope actually works.

   Most people haven't connected the proposed Meta settlement of up to $17 billion to outdoor learning yet. In Part 2 of this conversation, Karen Cowe and Craig Strang of Ten Strands make the case for what "responsible optimism" actually means when the stakes are this high — and answer a harder question: does hope actually work as a motivator, or do we need fear instead? This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Part 1 covers AB 2158, now in Senate Appropriations with a hearing scheduled for September 28 — listen to that one first if you haven't. In this episode: What the proposed multistate Meta settlement of up to $17 billion would fund if approved What it could mean for outdoor learning, and what it doesn't guarantee Karen's line for the whole conversation: "less screen time, more green time" The global movement toward outdoor learning — the UK, Maine, and beyond A real answer to whether hope or fear better motivates climate-era kids How to plug into this work, wherever you live ABOUT KAREN COWE Founding CEO of Ten Strands. 🌐 tenstrands.org ABOUT CRAIG STRANG Consultant; Associate Director Emeritus, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley. 🌐 tenstrands.org ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

3. 

   28 Sept 2026

   Joyful Persistance – How a coalition of 700 Californians got an outdoor learning bill further than anyone thought possible – and what they're doing next (Part I)

   Craig Strang (https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-strang-010a9b14/) almost didn't take the class that set his entire career in motion — he thought "five units for a beach field trip" had to be a scam. Fifty years later, he and Karen Cowe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/karencowe/) are behind a California bill that passed every committee unanimously and still didn't make it through. Karen Cowe is the founding CEO of Ten Strands (https://tenstrands.org/), the California nonprofit that's spent thirteen years connecting nearly every environmental literacy effort in the state. Craig Strang spent 32 years at UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science (https://lawrencehallofscience.org/) before going independent, and now co-leads the California Campaign for Outdoor Learning (https://sites.google.com/tenstrands.org/ca-outdoor-learning-coalition/home) alongside Karen. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation about what it takes to build a coalition of 700+ people across party lines — and what happens when the bill they built together gets held in the Senate Appropriations "suspense file" at the last possible step. In this episode: How Ten Strands became the connective tissue for California's environmental education field Karen's path from math textbook publishing to founding a nonprofit Craig's origin story: a freshman-year course at Año Nuevo that set a 50-year career in motion What AB 2158 (https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab2158) actually would have required of California schools The moment the bill got held in the suspense file — and why What Karen and Craig are already planning for 2027 ABOUT KAREN COWE Founding CEO of Ten Strands. 🌐 tenstrands.org (tenstrands.org) ABOUT CRAIG STRANG Consultant; Associate Director Emeritus, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley. 🌐 tenstrands.org ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute (www.wildwardinstitute.net), based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net (wildwardinstitute.net) New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

4. 

   21 Sept 2026

   Closing the Nature Gap: How Policy Gets Kids Outdoors | Jackie Ostfeld, Sierra Club Outdoors for All

   What if the thing standing between your kid and a national park pass isn't belief — it's a budget line? Jackie Ostfeld (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackieostfeld/) has spent 20 years finding out, first as a naturalist teaching thousands of kids directly, then as the policy leader who helped build — and twice had to save — the program that gets every American fourth grader into their public lands for free. Jackie directs Sierra Club's Outdoors for All campaign and co-founded the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, a coalition of 100+ organizations working to close the nature gap in access to the outdoors. In this conversation, she and Scott trace her path from a segregated South Carolina classroom to the halls of Congress, and unpack why getting kids outside turns out to be one of the few genuinely bipartisan issues left — and why that still isn't enough to guarantee it gets funded. In this episode: Why "the nature gap" is measured in zip codes, not attitudes The real story behind the Every Kid Outdoors pass (https://everykidoutdoors.gov/index.htm) and the fight to save it from being cut How a 100+ organization coalition got built out of a single 2010 meeting UC Berkeley's research on awe: a 29% drop in PTSD symptoms after a wilderness rafting trip Why almost nobody actually disagrees kids need to be outside — and where the real fight is The new One Million Kids Outdoors (https://outdoorsallianceforkids.org/what-we-do/one-million-kids-outdoors/) campaign and how to get involved Simple ways to bring more awe into a 20-minute walk with your own kids ABOUT JACKIE OSTFELD Director, Sierra Club Outdoors for All campaign; co-founder, Outdoors Alliance for Kids. 🌲 sierraclub.org/outdoors-for-all (sierraclub.org/outdoors-for-all) ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net (wildwardinstitute.net) New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

5. 

   14 Sept 2026

   Teaching STEM in Spanish: Reclaiming Language as a Superpower | Ciencia Para Todos

   For years, Odalis Avalos believed that speaking Spanish as her first language was a disadvantage. Then she helped teach a lesson about bees to a room of bilingual elementary kids, and everything about how she saw her own language changed. Odalis, Christian Trujillo, and Diana are the co-founders of Ciencia Para Todos — Science for Everyone — a volunteer-run organization that trains future STEM educators and teaches science to Spanish-speaking families across California. What started as an angry flyer at Cal Poly Humboldt in 2019, born out of feeling unwelcome in their own environmental science classrooms, has grown into a statewide movement built on one idea: bilingualism isn't a gap to close. It's a superpower. In this episode: How a single 2019 flyer became a statewide bilingual STEM organization Why Spanish went from feeling like a disadvantage to a superpower Building science vocabulary in Spanish from scratch, with no formal training Partnerships with US Fish and Wildlife, NASA, and Redwood Parks Conservancy Why belonging to a culture doesn't require fluency in its language What Ciencia Para Todos needs most right now — and how to help A mid-episode note on Latino Conservation Week, September 12–20 ABOUT CIENCIA PARA TODOS A volunteer-run nonprofit training future STEM educators and teaching science to Spanish-speaking families and students across California. 🌱 https://hsucienciapt.wixsite.com/original (https://hsucienciapt.wixsite.com/original) ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net (wildwardinstitute.net) New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

6. 

   7 Sept 2026

   Hummingbird Parenting: Jamie Lynn Langley on Risk, Nature Prescriptions, and Play Therapy

   Jamie Lynn Langley had just finished teaching a room of therapists how to help kids safely assess the risk of climbing a tree — when to stop, how to guide instead of forbid — when they stepped outside and passed a dad doing exactly that with his son. She didn't plan it. This week, Jamie joins Scott to talk about what thirty-seven years of play therapy have taught her about risk, attention, and why she now writes some clients literal prescriptions to go outside. Jamie is a licensed clinical social worker and instructor at Middle Tennessee State University, and past president of the Tennessee Association for Play Therapy. The first fifteen years of her career were traditional, indoor play therapy; the rest has been built around what she calls nature play therapy, after discovering Richard Louv's work on nature deficit disorder two decades ago. The conversation moves through her concept of "hummingbird parenting" — flitting in and out instead of hovering — her research-backed "Big Three" case for getting kids outside, and the simple tools, a magnifying glass, a pair of binoculars, that can turn a child afraid of bugs into a discoverer. IN THIS EPISODE What play therapy and nature-based therapy actually look like Why kids increasingly don't know how to play without instructions Hummingbird parenting vs. helicopter parenting The research case for risk: as safe as needed, not as safe as possible The "Big Three": focus and mood, cortisol, and long-term wellbeing Nature prescriptions, nature play kits, and trading screen time for green time Making nature accessible when time, transportation, or safety are real barriers ABOUT JAMIE LYNN LANGLEY LCSW and instructor at Middle Tennessee State University, specializing in play, expressive arts, and nature-based therapy. Past president, Tennessee Association for Play Therapy. ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

7. 

   31 Aug 2026

   Retired Twice - And Still Passionate About Outdoor Learning

   Celeste Royer has retired from environmental education twice — and she’s still working, this time on a bill headed to the California Senate. Celeste spent over thirty years directing environmental and outdoor education for the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education, running the Rancho El Chorro Outdoor School before becoming a consultant with Ten Strands. She’s been in the room for nearly every major piece of California’s environmental literacy infrastructure since 2014 — the state Blueprint, the California Environmental Literacy Initiative, and now AB 2158, the Outdoor Learning and Environmental Literacy Act of 2026, which just passed the State Assembly 77 to 0. Celeste and host Scott Shepherd talk about what it actually takes to get people who disagree about nearly everything else to agree on kids — and why the bill’s coalition went looking for support from pediatricians and English-language-learner specialists before it ever wrote a page of legislation. In this episode: - How AB 2158 passed the California Assembly with unanimous, bipartisan support - Why “student health” became the unifying frame for the outdoor learning campaign - The California Environmental Literacy Initiative’s Partner Portal, and how it connects teachers to nearly 700 community-based organizations - Scott’s own research on field trips and school motivation - What forty years in one field, and two retirements, actually teaches you about advocacy ABOUT CELESTE ROYER Celeste Royer is a consultant with Ten Strands, working on the California Environmental Literacy Initiative and the campaign for AB 2158, after more than 30 years directing environmental and outdoor education for the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education. 🌿 tenstrands.org ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes monthly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

8. 

   24 Aug 2026

   How Human Disturbance Threatens Sea Otter Survival | Gena Bentall, Sea Otter Savvy

   A sea otter has no blubber. No fat reserve, no savings account — just fur, and a metabolism that burns through calories almost as fast as it can eat them. Gena Bentall is the founder, director, and senior scientist of Sea Otter Savvy, a Central Coast California nonprofit that's spent ten years turning marine science into behavior change — for kayakers, wildlife photographers, tribal partners, and the businesses that put people on the water. We talk through the physiology that makes sea otters uniquely vulnerable to disturbance, the simple "rule of thumb" for judging safe distance, and why calling people in works better than calling them out. In this episode: Why sea otters have no blubber, and what that costs them energetically The rule of thumb for judging safe wildlife-viewing distance "Death by a thousand cuts": how cumulative disturbance adds up The "publicity problem" of being the internet's favorite cute animal How CAWS certifies kayak outfitters and other Central Coast businesses Calling in vs. calling out: changing behavior without alienating people Otter 841 and the real cost of viral fame for an individual animal Sea Otter Savvy's Northern California recovery work: https://www.seaottersavvy.org/we-were-here-seaotters ABOUT GENA BENTALL Founder, Director & Senior Scientist, Sea Otter Savvy. 🦦 seaottersavvy.org ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes monthly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

9. 

   17 Aug 2026

   Building a Marine Conservation Career From the Desert | Julianna Acuña, University of Arizona

   Julianna Acuña grew up landlocked in Tucson, Arizona — and fell in love with the ocean anyway, on childhood summer trips to San Diego. One afternoon, swimming out further than she probably should have, a pod of dolphins surfaced close enough to see. She was maybe ten years old. "I think this is my future," she remembers thinking. That moment became a career: a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona, the presidency of the school's Marine Awareness and Conservation Society, and a curatorship of the largest stickleback fish collection in the country — built entirely from a landlocked state. Right now, Julianna is spending her summer on a Marine and Community Conservation Externship through the National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy, researching human-wildlife interactions at La Jolla Cove during peak sea lion pupping season. In this episode, she and Scott talk about what surprised her about the research, why facts alone don't change public behavior, and her plan to build a nonprofit blending mentorship with science communication. In this episode: A childhood dolphin encounter that set the course for everythingBuilding a marine science career from a landlocked state Curating the largest stickleback fish collection in the country Studying human-wildlife interactions during sea lion pupping season at La Jolla Cove Why storytelling changes behavior when facts alone don't Turning research into a self-guided audio tour and public awareness campaign Building a nonprofit around mentorship, science communication, and access The "rule of thumb" for safe wildlife viewing distance ABOUT JULIANNA ACUÑA Marine conservationist, science communicator, and aspiring shark biologist. B.S., Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona. President, Marine Awareness & Conservation Society. Currently a Marine & Community Conservation Extern with the National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy. 🌊 Instagram: @monstros_mom (https://www.instagram.com/monstros_mom/) ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net (wildwardinstitute.net) New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

10. 

    10 Aug 2026

    Why We Only Protect What We Love | Aaron N.K. Haiman, Author of Birds of the California Delta

    Aaron Haiman was six years old the first time he met an ornithologist, wandering the East Bay Hills near his childhood home. That was enough. Twenty-some years later, he's built an entire career, and a philosophy of science communication, on the idea that people only protect what they love — and only love what they already understand. Aaron is a birder, naturalist, and environmental scientist with the California Wildlife Conservation Board, where he manages the state's Stream Flow Enhancement Program. He's also the author of a brand new book, Birds of the California Delta, and has run the blog A Birding Naturalist for thirteen years, born out of frustration that bird scientists and birders — two communities that should have been one — almost never talked to each other. In this episode, Aaron and Scott talk about the disconnect between people who study nature and the people trying to teach it, what it took to write a field guide that reads like a story instead of a specimen list, and what it's actually like to take national political heat for defending California water policy, a wildlife crossing, and a monthly video series about queerness in the animal kingdom. In this episode: Growing up in the East Bay Hills and meeting the ornithologist who changed everything Why "we protect what we love, we love what we understand" is the whole thesis of his work Homeschooling, academic burnout, and "saving up" endurance for an advanced degree Starting A Birding Naturalist to bridge bird scientists and birders Writing Birds of the California Delta and working with illustrator Martha Espinosa What actually gets people to stop scrolling — and why it's garden snails, not evolutionary theory Drake's Beach Sanderlings, the longest-running youth bird-a-thon team in the country Taking national heat over California water policy and the Wallace Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Making the case, every June, that queerness is completely natural — and trying to do it without becoming a savior ABOUT AARON N.K. HAIMAN Environmental Scientist, California Wildlife Conservation Board. Author, Birds of the California Delta (Heyday Books). Founder, A Birding Naturalist. B.A., UC Berkeley; two M.S. degrees, UC Davis (Avian Science, Animal Behavior). 🦅 [link TBD] ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

11. 

    3 Aug 2026

    Earning Trust: Marco Wendt on Wild Animals, Belonging, and the Power of Listening

    A Cinereous Vulture named Clarence didn't like most people. For sixteen-year-old Marco Wendt, working his first summer job at what's now the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, earning that bird's trust anyway became the first lesson in a career built on one idea: you don't get to skip the part where you earn it. Marco is now a spokesperson for San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, where he's spent nearly thirty years working with the animals people find hardest to love — cassowaries, vultures, flamingos, cranes, raptors. Not because they're dangerous, though some are, but because nobody projects easy affection onto a cassowary the way they do an elephant or a panda. Closing that gap, animal by animal and person by person, has become his life's work. That instinct didn't start with animals. Marco grew up first-generation Mexican American in San Diego, one of the only Mexican kids in his classroom, punished for speaking Spanish instead of supported through it. He learned early to hide who he was. A cartoon called Captain Planet — where the Latino character's "lame" power was heart — became the thing that eventually pulled him back out, and it's shaped nearly every program he's built since. In this episode: The first bond that felt like more than an animal, and what a rescued vulture named Clarence taught him about earning trust Growing up as one of the only Mexican kids in the classroom, and getting punished for speaking Spanish Captain Planet, representation, and the "lamest power" that turned out to be his life's work The Plan to See program: giving lower-income San Diego families a real sense of belonging in zoos and aquariums What quality allyship looks like when it isn't performed for credit — "sometimes you just have to listen" Mentoring the next generation, and why he's already thinking about who takes his place Why the pandemic, for all its grief, reminded people what connection actually feels like Tailoring hope differently for a room of executives versus a room of eight-year-olds — and why every talk still has to end somewhere hopeful ABOUT MARCO WENDT Spokesperson, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Nearly 30 years in wildlife conservation and education, working with cassowaries, vultures, flamingos, cranes, and raptors. Builder of bilingual programming and access initiatives centered on representation and belonging. 🦅 sdzwa.org ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. As a dad, practitioner, educator, and outdoor veteran, Scott helps schools, camps, and nature-based programs make meaningful experiences academically impactful for learners of all ages. Scott's work aims to design programatic leaders who communities stand behind and attract funders to support. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

12. 

    20 Jul 2026

    Nature Deficit Disorder & Teaching Kids to Self-Regulate Outside | Amy Reyes-Hauff, Get Wild Wyoming

    A ladybug landing on a dysregulated child's arm shouldn't be a behavior intervention strategy. For Amy Reyes-Hauff, it worked anyway — one example of what she calls a "balanced sensory diet" that only the outdoors can provide. Amy is the founder of Get Wild Wyoming, an outdoor learning initiative now serving over 350 classrooms and roughly 6,000 children across the state. She started the program after years of watching kids in "four-wall classrooms" escalate and dysregulate — a pattern she traces to nature deficit disorder, a near-total lack of exposure to the natural world. Amy grew up poor, sometimes homeless, without toys or a television — and without knowing it at the time, she and her sister taught themselves to self-regulate simply by playing outside. That childhood shaped almost twenty-seven years in early childhood education, from Head Start teacher to Montessori director to founder of a statewide outdoor learning movement. In this episode: Growing up without a choice but to play outside, and what that taught her about calm What nature deficit disorder actually looks like in a classroom The ladybug story: a child on a behavioral intervention plan, and the meltdown that never happened Why nature provides a "balanced sensory diet" no plastic fidget tool can replace How to prepare nervous parents and educators to take kids outdoors safely Scaling Get Wild Wyoming to 350+ classrooms and 6,000 children The wind chill chart: outdoor learning through a Wyoming winter A new micro-credential in place-based education, built with Teton Science School, open to educators nationwide Why outdoor learning isn't a recess free-for-all — it's the same curriculum, delivered differently ABOUT AMY REYES-HAUFF Founder, Get Wild Wyoming. Nearly 27 years in early childhood education, including roles as a Head Start teacher and director and a Montessori director. Partnering with Teton Science School on a new nationwide micro-credential in place-based education. 🌲 https://www.tetonscience.org/programs/wy-place-based-educator-microcredential/ ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

13. 

    13 Jul 2026

    Son Como Las Piedras -- A bilingual environmental educator on reclaiming the language he almost lost

    Scott Shepherd grew up jealous of his cousins, who spoke Spanish at home with their godmother — until the language was deliberately removed from the house out of fear it would hold them back in school. He spent years afterward chasing that language himself, sailing around the world and studying abroad to claim it as his own. This week's guest grew up the opposite way. Sergio Corona-Munoz's first language was Spanish — and the world around him slowly taught him to feel ashamed of it. A bilingual education specialist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Sergio talks with Scott about the middle school moment that made him swear off speaking Spanish for over a decade, what it took to reclaim it as an adult, and the conversation with his own mother about coral reefs that changed everything. In this episode: — Growing up bilingual, and the institutional and social forces that push kids to abandon one language for another — The middle school moment that made Sergio stop speaking Spanish outside his home for over a decade — Leaving a political science major behind to follow a childhood love of animals back to environmental science — Saying yes to leading Spanish-language science education at the Aquarium of the Pacific, despite the fear — The conversation with his mother about coral biology that became a healing moment — "son como las piedras" — What happens in a room when a bilingual student hears marine science explained in their first language, often for the first time — Bringing ocean access to Central Coast farm labor communities through the Monterey Bay Aquarium's OLAS program — Breaking cycles — what it means to occupy spaces you didn't believe were available to you as a kid, and keep the door open behind you — Sergio's advice for finding your relationship with the natural world by starting with what you already love ABOUT SERGIO CORONA-MUNOZ Bilingual Education Specialist, Monterey Bay Aquarium. M.A. in Agricultural Education, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Leads bilingual programming for early childhood, K-12, and summer camp audiences across California's Central Coast. - https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/learning-programs/teen-programs - Sergion on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergio-corona-mu%C3%B1oz-b86370192/ ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

14. 

    6 Jul 2026

    Begin With Yourself - Why Every Kid Needs to Climb and What Sensory Processing Taught Me About Teaching My Own Classroom

    Scott Shepherd has ADHD, and he didn't have real language for what that meant until he became a teacher and started building accommodations into his own classroom — timers, visual cues, time outside. What he didn't expect: those accommodations helped every student, not just the ones who needed them most. This week's guest discovered the same principle from the opposite side of the desk. Emily Wishnick is an occupational therapist and creator of the Hundred Languages of Regulation, a framework helping educators understand how children communicate regulatory needs through movement, behavior, play, and interaction. After over a decade visiting classrooms across Philadelphia, Emily saw the same developmentally inappropriate patterns repeat endlessly — until she built a system to fix the root cause instead of treating one child at a time. In this episode: — What occupational therapy actually is, and why most people have never heard an accurate description of it — Sensory processing as the foundation of how children learn, regulate, and develop — The burnout that led Emily to build the Hundred Languages of Regulation framework — Why climbing, open-ended play, and time outdoors do more for kids developmentally than most structured lesson plans — A real example of underfunded schools handing screens to children who can't nap — and why it's developmentally costly — Research connecting early outdoor access to long-term comfort and reduced fear around natural spaces (Bixler, Carlisle & Hammitt, 1994) — What policy changes Emily believes every early childhood program needs — Why your own emotional regulation affects every person you interact with ABOUT EMILY WISHNICK Occupational therapist (OTR/L) and creator of the Hundred Languages of Regulation. Over a decade of experience across early childhood and K-12 settings in the Philadelphia region. Click here to learn more or contact Emily: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-wishnick-ot-746523a5?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

15. 

    29 Jun 2026

    It Doesn't Discriminate -- Building Careers in Conservation for Young Adults with Disabilities | Susie Schroer, AmeriCorps YES Initiative

    A sigmoid colectomy took nine inches of Scott Shepherd's intestine and nearly a year of his mobility. For twelve months, he was a member of the disability community he'd never thought much about before. This week's guest has spent her career building access into that community for others. Susie Schroer manages the Youth Empowerment Stewards initiative — YES — placing young adults with disabilities into AmeriCorps conservation careers with the National Park Service. Before that, she built adaptive whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and snowshoeing programs in Utah, engineering each one around the specific person in front of her. In 2020, Susie was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She's open about it — and about the sentence that anchors this conversation: the disability community is the only community any of us can join at any moment. In this episode: — Growing up in a log cabin in rural Missouri and learning to read the woods from her father — What AmeriCorps actually is, and how Susie found it while researching the Peace Corps — Building adaptive outdoor recreation programs — whitewater rafting, rock climbing, snowshoeing — engineered around the individual, not a checklist — The pairing model: matching able-bodied and special education students as field trip buddies, and what both groups learned — The YES Initiative — creating hiring pipelines for young adults with disabilities into National Park Service careers — Living with MS since 2020, and how it changed (and didn't change) her relationship to her work — Person-first vs. identity-first language, and why the distinction matters — What universal design looks like at the smallest possible scale — including a current, urgent opening for a YES position at the Niobrara National Scenic River in Nebraska ABOUT SUSIE SCHROER Program Coordinator, Stewards Individual Placements / Conservation Legacy, managing the YES Initiative. Former Adaptive Recreation Manager, Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation. B.A. in Journalism and Psychology, Drury University. 🌲 stewardslegacy.org/yes ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes monthly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

16. 

    22 Jun 2026

    Run Away From Home What a Himalayan concept, a phone ban in Thailand, and a rain-soaked rafting trip taught me about designing outdoor programs that actually meet people where they are

    Ghar Se Bhago. It's a Hindi phrase that means run away from home. But not away from something — toward something. The discomfort of the unfamiliar. The growth that waits just outside your front door. Krishna Patel found that phrase on a sticker at a campsite in the Indian Himalayas after her 21-day NOLS backpacking course. She put it on her Nalgene. It became her life motto. And it might be the best framework for outdoor education we've ever discussed on this show. Krishna is an outdoor educator based in Maharashtra, India. She grew up hiking Sayadri hill forts on alternate weekends with her dad. She went on to work with young people across India, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. She is NOLS-trained, adaptable, and one of the most globally textured thinkers I've had the pleasure of talking with. In this episode, Scott and Krishna talk about: Growing up in Pune — joint families, Sayadri hill forts, and how hikes to 300-year-old ruins became a weekend ritual What NOLS changed — from 'get to the top' to 'what did you learn on the way?' The phone ban experiment in Thailand — and what happened when Grade 10 students were asked to make films instead Ghar Se Bhago — the Himalayan concept of running away from home as a philosophy of growth Why kids putting wet clothes in plastic bags instead of drying them in the sun is not a problem — it's information The cultural dimensions of outdoor access — why what works in Utah doesn't always work in rural India The Gates Millennium Scholar who almost didn't get outside because 'camping is for people with too much time on their hands' How to design programs for the community in front of you, not the community you imagined This episode is for every outdoor educator who has ever taken a program that worked somewhere else and wondered why it fell flat. And for every parent, teacher, and program director who wants to meet the next generation where they actually are. ABOUT KRISHNA PATEL — Outdoor Educator. NOLS-trained facilitator. Based in Maharashtra, India. Working with young people across four continents. 🌿 ABOUT YOUR HOST — Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 15 years in outdoor and environmental education. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

17. 

    15 Jun 2026

    It Starts With One - How two Australian risk managers are using community for conservation

    The beach where Scott Shepherd learned to surf is closed. Not occasionally — up to 300 days a year, Imperial Beach in San Diego County is posted as unsafe for swimming. Decades of inadequately treated sewage from the Tijuana River have contaminated the Pacific Ocean in the southwest corner of the United States. The waves are still there. The water is not safe. This week on Hopeful by Nature, Scott sits down with two water risk management experts from Sydney, Australia — Dr. Annette Davidson and Sarah Loder of Risk Edge — who have spent their careers protecting communities from exactly this kind of crisis. But what makes this conversation remarkable is what they do when the systems fail and governments don't show up: they go talk to their neighbors. In this episode: — What water risk management actually means — and why uncertainty is both the problem and the opportunity — Purified recycled water, "Day Zero," and how communities are navigating water security in a climate-changed world — One Street: how a dinner party, a welcome letter, and a creek behind Annette's house became a grassroots conservation framework — Waters Most Unwanted: turning water contaminants into Western-style rogues gallery wanted posters to make science accessible — The Foodie Group: eleven years of dinner every six weeks, and why Annette calls it life-saving — First Nations knowledge and the stewardship of water as identity, not commodity — The UK sewage crisis and what it means for public trust in water utilities globally — The Tijuana River — and why cross-border problems require cross-border community — Why "the science is the easy part" and community storytelling is where the real work lives — Gratitude as a business meeting agenda item — and why it works ABOUT DR. ANNETTE DAVIDSON Principal Risk Specialist and co-CEO of Risk Edge. Award-winning water risk manager with 35+ years of experience. 2021 Australian Water Association Water Professional of the Year. 🌊 riskEdge.com.au | watersmostunwanted.com | onestreet.earth ABOUT SARAH LODER Principal Engineer and co-CEO of Risk Edge. 18 years of experience in water quality risk management across government and private sector clients. 🌊 riskEdge.com.au ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

18. 

    8 Jun 2026

    We're in the Goo -- What a blind father, a broken wood stove, and a bed bug infestation taught two dads about raising outdoor kids

    Alex Terry's father has been blind most of his life. He couldn't drive, couldn't see the trailhead signs or the snow conditions. But he could get excited. And when a young Alex came home talking about some upcoming adventure, his father would light up — not politely, genuinely. That's what started it. Not perfect outdoor education. Not expert instruction. A blind man getting excited about something he couldn't see, and making his son feel like the world outside was worth running toward. Alex Terry is a dad, educator, conservationist, and wilderness therapy veteran. He grew up scampering through the woods of New Hampshire, spent his adult life leading groups through the Sierra Nevada and Colorado Rockies, riding motorcycles through Baja California, and skiing glaciers in Iceland. A year ago, he moved back to the East Coast with his wife Jesse and their infant son Samson — and discovered that everything he knew about adventure needed to be rebuilt from scratch. In this episode, Scott and Alex talk about: — Growing up with a blind father who adventure-parented anyway — Five years in wilderness therapy — what it teaches you about risk, trust, and human resilience — The cross-country move that went spectacularly wrong (food poisoning, a sick baby, bed bugs at 3am) — The chrysalis — the idea that new parents are "goo" between who they were and who they're becoming — Why Alex is "at high risk of shoving the outdoors in his son's face so hard that he hates it" — Trail stewardship on the outlying islands of Northeast Maine — Why outdoor access sometimes just means having enough toilet paper in the bathrooms This episode is for every parent who has ever found themselves in the goo — convinced they've ruined everything — and slowly figured out that the backyard was enough all along. ABOUT ALEX TERRY Regional Stewardship Manager, Maine Island Trail Association. Dad, educator, conservationist, wilderness therapy veteran. Based in Maine. 🌊 mita.org | @meislandtrail ABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 15 years in outdoor and environmental education. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

19. 

    1 Jun 2026

    "From Fear to Frontier" | Forbah Sandra N. — Leading Ocean Literacy and Environmental Education.

    She learned to swim two years ago. Now she's teaching kids in Cameroon to dive. Forbah Sandra Ngwemetoh grew up in Limbe — a coastal city on the edge of the Atlantic, inside one of the most biodiverse marine environments in Africa. Environmental science wasn't in the curriculum. Ocean literacy didn't exist in her school. When she became an educator and asked her students what careers they dreamed of, 98% said doctor. Zero said anything connected to the ocean. So she built a bridge. Through her nonprofit BRIDGES, Forbah is doing something that has never been done in her community. She's teaching photography as a career path. She's teaching swimming as the first step toward becoming a marine biologist or an underwater cinematographer. She introduced swimming into her program two years ago. That's when she first learned to swim herself. Since then, she has dived to 18 meters off South Africa as part of the National Geographic Explorer network. She came back to Limbe and told her students: I've seen what's down there. It's extraordinary. And you can have a career studying it. In 2024, she was nominated as a National Geographic Young Explorer. In this episode, Scott and Forbah talk about: — Building an environmental education program where the concept has never existed— How Forbah went from wanting to be a doctor to becoming one of Africa's most compelling young ocean advocates— The Ocean Splash Academy — what it is, what it needs, and what it will take to make it permanent— Why ocean literacy is an economic issue, not just an environmental one— What it takes to start something from nothing in a place where nobody has done it before Cameroon has 28 million people. Forbah is, as far as she knows, the only person doing this work. If you work in ocean conservation or environmental education — this is for you. If you're a parent trying to raise a kid who cares about the planet — this is for you. If you've ever built something from nothing and wondered whether it was enough — this is for you. ABOUT FORBAH2024 National Geographic Young Explorer, environmental educator, and founder of Bridges and the Ocean Splash Academy in Limbe, Cameroon. Find her work at bridgesforocean.org. ABOUT YOUR HOSTScott Shepherd is a dad, burrito aficionado, surfer, educator, and founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 15 years in outdoor and environmental education, including California State Parks, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and High Tech Elementary. Find him at wildwardinstitute.net. SUPPORT BRIDGESThe Ocean Splash Academy needs books, VR headsets, volunteers, and a building fund. Reach out at bridgesforocean.org. New episodes every week. Subscribe and share this with one person who needs to hear it.

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

66 ratings

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