Podcast appearances and mentions of jon young

As we head into the solstice- that moment when the sun stands still—whether you're in the northern hemisphere where we have the longest day, or the southern, where it's the longest night—this solstice feels like a moment of transformation. The world is turning over, turning a page. The old system is visibly—palpably—breaking apart. A new system will arise from the ashes, because there is always going to be a system. The question is what it looks like, works like, feels like. We are a prosocial, communitarian species, but our culture has shattered from our knowing of our integral place in the All That Is, so it's possible we might end up with a system predicated on hatred, underpinned by fear, where a small number of incredibly frightened people let their traumatised parts run a scorched earth policy in an effort to hold back everything of which they are most afraid, but I am increasingly hopeful that what we're seeing in places is the extinction burst of the old system: its death throes if you like. As I record this, there has been an estimated turnout in the US for the No Kings rallies of between ten and twelve million. This is an astonishing number. If it's true, it's well within shouting distance of the 3.5% of the total population that was considered a tipping point in previous social movements in our recent history: the abolition of slavery in the UK, the civil rights movement in the US, gay marriage in too many nations to count. The difference is that these numbers are based on a pre-internet age. We genuinely don't know what happens when people can see the images on their phones and realise how many of the people around them share the common values of decency, compassion, integrity, generosity-of-spirit.  So if this is potentially a turning point in the making in the US, how do we make this bigger, grander, more of a global movement?  We know we need total systemic change, but how do we make it happen?  How do we create lasting change in our ways of organising everything from food to water to shelter to education. How do we sort our mess of a governance system so we can find those with the greatest wisdom and give them as much power as they need and no more, at all the levels of our culture? As ever, I think the answer lies in our narratives - when ideas become common currency, then we begin to build them into our visions of how the world is and has been and could be. If we can become bold, evolutionary imagineers and craft stories of a different way of organising, loving, relating, caring…then we can live it into being. Which means we need to know in the marrow of our bones what this feels like. Imagination begins in our perception of the possible and part of the horror of the Trauma culture is the systematic stifling of possibility. From our books to our movies to our TV to our TikTok videos, so much is predicated on Trauma Culture narratives of scarcity, separation and powerlessness.  We are told this is the way the world is. That it is human nature to  lack all morality and engage in zero sum strategies that belittle, disempower and crush everyone around us.  Which it isn't. Nonetheless, predatory Capitalism is designed to keep us from imagining things differently. If we're stressed about earning enough to survive while at the same time being hooked on the things we absolutely have to have to feel better, and are being steadily more sedated by the incessant dopamine drips of social media…then we literally cannot step out into other ways of being. So this is our task now - to wean ourselves off the stuff we neither need nor (really) want; off the dopamine drips, and onto things that make our hearts sing so we can build new stories predicated on connection, agency and sufficiency; stories where we are self-conscious nodes in the web of life, and it's our job to ask 'What do you want of me?', listen to the answers, then carry them out to the best of our ability.  That's it. Easy to say. Harder to do.  But we can boil things down to 9 basic concepts:Three Values: Integrity, Compassion, Generosity-of-SpiritThree Baselines: Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Soil Three ReWoven Connections: between all parts of Ourselves; ourselves and Each Other; Ourselves and the Web of Life. What happens if every single thing we think or do or say or dream is based in these three sets of three? How would our days change? This isn't going to happen overnight, but we can make the commitment to live by them now. Here. This moment.  It's not going to be easy: changing behaviours never is. But we have baselines to work from.  And we might focus on one at a time.  What happens if Clean Water is our priority? How does it change how we live?  What happens if we make Integrity the heart and soul of every interaction through our days - beginning with ourselves? What does it feel like to commit to re-weaving clean, clear, courageous, compassionate connections between all parts of ourselves, ourselves and each other, ourselves and the More than Human world? Clearly I think the inner work is the foundation of everything, though I am aware that this isn't the case for everyone: if you work better in the outer world, if you'd rather lead with head than heart, that's fine, truly.  Go for it.  Find the Values that speak to you and the Baselines you can work with and go for it.  If the Inner Work speaks more to you then know that we in the west need to heal ten thousand years of Trauma Culture in half a decade. It's been at least that long for some of us since our ancestors knew themselves to be an integral part of the web of life. This is the work of the spiritual warrior. It's going to take astonishing levels of courage and commitment. Nobody is pretending this is easy.  But it is essential.And because this is the water I swim in, I'd like to share the basics of how we might get there. It starts with Grounding - with having a clear sense of our physical presence in the world, the flesh and the bones and the teeth of who we are; with sensing the solid earth beneath us as support, containment, holding, as the reality of who and what we are. When our feet are on the earth, there is nowhere left to fall. When we have a sense of roots going down into the earth, we have connection, holding and an open path from the heart of the earth to our heart. If we connect it on up to the heart-mind of the Universe, we have the three hearts in alignment. Just doing this is huge. But then, as we begin really to live in our bodies, so we can begin to recognise the places where trauma sits; the frozen places, the stuck places, the parts of ourselves that leap to our own defence - and are brilliant and wonderful and creative - but who are probably defending against threats that occurred decades ago, if not longer. We carry generational trauma, civilisational trauma. And the healing is ours to do: the good news is that there's a lot of help out there - that just as we really need it, we're beginning really to get to grips with how healing can happen. One to one work is good if you have the means: the time and the money, but many of us don't - and that doesn't mean we can't do the work.  If you'd like to work in groups there's a huge amount.  We offer Gatherings and the Membership, but there's Listen to Thomas Hübl Mystic Cafe — I'll link to his podcast Point of Relation in the show notes —Tara Brach, Michael Meade, Bill Plotkin, Jon Young…a host of others are offering online work that helps you to reconnect to yourself and the land. You have to find out what helps you best, but there's a lot out there. So we do the inner work. And in doing it, we become the still point in the whirling world that...

If we are in the midst of the Great Derangement (thank you Amitav Ghosh), what tools do we have to help us shape a system that is actually fit for purpose? Who are our elders and what can they teach us? How do we learn to listen to our heart's (and hearts') desire and shape the communities of place, passion and purpose that will allow us to emerge into a different culture? Our two guests this week live and work at the heart of a global movement for cultural change.  Looby Macnamara is the co-founder of the Cultural Emergence movement. She is an author, designer, gardener, song leader, mother, and artist. She has written four influential books including People & Permaculture and Cultural Emergence - and she has a new one coming out in September: Design Adventures: Discover a Creative Framework for Effective Change.  She is also creator of the CEED card deck - Cultural Emergence Empowerment & Design.  With her partner, Chris, Looby runs Applewood Permaculture Centre in Herefordshire, UK, where they facilitate courses and demonstrate permaculture of both land and people . Leona Johnson, host of Connection Matters Podcast, is a transformational life coach, connection facilitator, and guide dedicated to personal growth, cultural emergence, and regenerative ways of being. She has spent decades exploring how we heal the crisis of disconnection, within ourselves, in our relationships, and in the world around us.Through her work in nature connection, rites of passage, life coaching, and cultural emergence, she supports people to step into Connected Self-Leadership and what she calls ‘Everyday Spirituality' practical, embodied ways of living with depth, purpose, and alignment.Leona co-hosts the PEACE course with Looby and online with Jon Young, runs the Connection Matters Leadership Programme, Nature Quests around the world, and Children, Nature & Spirituality courses. At the heart of her work is a simple but powerful message: When we remember our interconnectedness, with ourselves, each other, and the other than human world, we step into our fullest potential and create the conditions for a thriving world.These two transformational women are part of a growing movement to shift the entire foundation of our culture. What happens if we stop being the hamsters in the wheel of modernity and become the lively, inspiring, inspired - and connected - individuals we could be?  In this episode we explore the nature of cultural emergence, the values that could underpin our new culture and the real, grounded, practical ways we can begin the journeys of shift in ourselves and our communities. Cultural Emergence www.cultural-emrgence.comCultural Emergence Courses https://cultural-emergence.com/courses-overview/PEACE Course (24th - 29th June 2025)  https://applewoodcourses.com/uk_courses/peace-empowerment-and-cultural-emergence/Applewood Courses https://applewoodcourses.com/courses/Looby's Books https://applewoodcourses.com/sales/books/Leona's website: https://www.leonajohnson.life/Leona's podcast Connection Matters https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/connection-matters-podcast/id1515564368Leona's FREE mini course on Elemental Connection  https://pages.leonajohnson.life/elemental-connections-helloandIf you want to share the journey with Accidental Gods, we're here: Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/

On this week's episode of Out and About, Dr. Mae Gilliland of ArtsPartners of Central Illinois talks with Jon Young, owner of Young Dance Inc., about his passion for making ballroom, Latin, and swing dance accessible across Central Illinois.

Episode 65 - Reconnect With NATURE and Awaken Your Body's Innate Wisdom with Jon Young and Sarah Fontaine. Disclaimer: Please note that all information and content on the UK Health Radio Network, all its radio broadcasts and podcasts are provided by the authors, producers, presenters and companies themselves and is only intended as additional information to your general knowledge. As a service to our listeners/readers our programs/content are for general information and entertainment only.  The UK Health Radio Network does not recommend, endorse, or object to the views, products or topics expressed or discussed by show hosts or their guests, authors and interviewees.  We suggest you always consult with your own professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advisor. So please do not delay or disregard any professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advice received due to something you have heard or read on the UK Health Radio Network.

“I define tracking as paying attention to the movement of energy.”What are the birds telling us and how can we learn to notice more of what they have to say?In this episode, Dan Gardoqui joins us to share stories from his 35+ years of teaching bird language, tracking, and nature connection. We explore mentoring someone in bird language, what gets people to pay attention, and how the process of learning bird language has evolved over the years. Plus, Dan shares some of his incredible animal imitation skills with us. Enjoy!About Dan GardoquiDan is a nature-based consultant & coach, award-winning educator, seasoned guide, naturalist & bird language expert, and the founder of Lead With Nature.As a suburban New Jersey teen, Dan met his first mentor, Jon Young, who set him on a journey as a naturalist, a mentor and a leader. That journey led him to many other mentors, students and landscapes that have taught him priceless lessons. For the past 25 years, he has lived and worked in both human and wild communities in New England. He has served as a resource for many leaders in the field of Nature-Connection, consulting and training many teams and executives in finding excellence through role modeling, mentoring and training programs.Learn more about Dan here--Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.--Our next episode will release on November 6, 2024.The transcript for this episode is available here.

This week we talk about the heartbreaking passing of PWW Talks own Jon Young.

Newsletters and podcasts have a lot in common. As well as being low-cost, they can be intimate and personal; perfect for building lasting relationships with readers and listeners. Neither format is new, but as it becomes increasingly more challenging to reach and engage people online, publishers are seeing the opportunities they offer for more sustainable audience-building. That's one of the reasons we put on a dual-stream Podcast and Newsletter Summit aimed at publishers in London last month. This special episode in collaboration with journalism.co.uk brings out some of the key lessons and learnings from the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summits. There are clips from some of the stage sessions, as well as exclusive interviews with Jon Young, Publisher at Reby Media, Sarah Ebner, Head of Newsletters at the Financial Times, and Rosalind Erskin, host of The Scotsman's Scran podcast. Missed the Publisher Podcast and Newsletter Summits? You can access the session videos of each Summit on-demand here. Thanks to Jacob Granger at Journalism.co.uk for joining us at the Publisher Podcast & Newsletter Summits and putting together this episode with us. Check out the Journalism.co.uk podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud and Spotify.

"Tracking is like dancing because your body is happy. You can feel it in the dance. It tells you the hunt will be good."_“You want that part of you that can feel the dance to be in the driver's seat, and the thinking mind in the passenger seat.”This is the first episode in our series dedicated to discussing the Attributes of Connection. We look at the Quiet Mind. What do we mean by having a quiet mind? How can we tell when we're in the quiet mind? What are the benefits of a quiet mind? How do we practice and deepen our ability to have a quiet mind?Jon, Sarah, and Aidan share stories of their own experiences and get curious about these questions. You won't want to miss this one. "Tracking is really just us having questions that are coming from that core childlike place inside of us."-Bird Language is one of the best ways to develop a quiet mind. Jon shares about bird language in the 512 Project videos (link below), and gets really in-depth in his book What The Robin Knows.Check out the 512 Project Ring 1This 8 part video series features Jon Young teaching and sharing stories about Sit Spot and seven other Cultural Elements - ways in which healthy cultures foster and promote connection to nature and other people. 1. Greeting Customs 2. Errands 3. Peer Bonding 4. Sit Spot 5. Culture of Allowance 6. Wiping Off the Road Dust 7. Sensitive Conduct 8. Bird Language

"Start to become aware of the need to be aware"This is the first of several episodes where we will explore the Core Routines for Connection. Today, we look at the sit spot routine, which may be the most important routine of all. Jon, Sarah, and Aidan reflect on their own experiences of going to their sit spot, the challenges they faced, the lessons they learned, and what they have taken with them from those experiences."When I first went to my sit spot, I didn't even know there was a chipmunk. Then when I slowed myself down, and learned to move from the animals, I would see that chipmunk in the distance run down its hole and make a noise. Then over time he wouldn't run away, and sometimes I would arrive at my sit spot and he would be sitting there eating."We also provide some ideas for how to establish the routine for yourself, whether you live in an urban setting, have limited time, or are trying to include your children in the routine. Sit spot can take many forms, and the long term benefits you get from committing to making space and time for the routine are worth it.“The way that I started back into the rhythm of [sit spot] as an adult was I said 'I'll just go there for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, however long it is,' and over time it became a very organic unfolding of the true desire to be there.”Interested in Learning More About Sit Spot?Check out the 512 Project Ring 1This 8 part video series features Jon Young teaching and sharing stories about Sit Spot and seven other Cultural Elements - ways in which healthy cultures foster and promote connection to nature and other people.1. Greeting Customs 2. Errands 3. Peer Bonding 4. Sit Spot 5. Culture of Allowance 6. Wiping Off the Road Dust 7. Sensitive Conduct 8. Bird LanguageVisit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

Our guest this week is Dr Deborah Benham, Biomimicry Educator, Transition Town Co-Lead Link and Deep Nature Connection facilitator - which puts her in a place to really unpick what it will take for us to depart the crumbling remains of late-stage capitalism and build a world based on connection, coherence and community. From her early days as a Marine Biologist, through her PhD on sea otters (I am not remotely envious of someone who gets to study sea otters for 3 years!), to her time in a community near Findhorn and now in a co-housing community in Dorset, Deborah's life has been oriented towards holding a vision of humanity as a helpful species on this planet. As you'll hear, she's the co-Lead Link for Transition Network, the charity which supports the international Transition towns movement; she's a trained Biomimicry Educator and with a background in Jon Young's Deep Nature Connection work, Deborah brings a practical, experiential lived and living toolkit that she shares and teaches - of how we can build thriving human societies, cultures, communities and businesses, designing with and as nature, creating mutual benefit for all life, using tech in life affirming ways, and uplifting justice, kindness and cooperation. We often reach an impasse where we know roughly what needs to happen, but don't have the conceptual or practical tools to bring it into being. Deborah has both - she's fully grounded in the theory of how communities of support, practice and place can come into being and she's teaching and living the practice. In fact - she's one of the core team creating the Nature Connection Camp from 4th - 10th August near Bedford in the UK so if you're around and want to experience the many ways we can weave the four threads she talks about, please hit the link in the show notes. Nature Connection Camp link for Tickets  - https://natureculturenetwork.org/connection-camp/  USE THE DISCOUNT CODE MandaConnection - VALID TILL JUNE 14TH Promo short video - https://youtube.com/shorts/924rR_uZtdA?si=DfbMMEIdg7PSNCwtVideo channel with testimonials from previous camps - https://www.youtube.com/@NatureCultureNetworkFacebook event page - https://www.facebook.com/events/1338787930132432Resource List Connect with DeborahDeborah's website www.deborahbenham.comDeborah on Linked In Deborah on Instagram - Nature's Guide to Thriving WebsitesBiomimicry 3.8Biomimicry InstituteNature Culture Network - UKLiving Connection 1st / 8 ShieldsTransition NetworkBridport Co-HousingEvents, Courses, Online materialsIntroducing Biomimicry to your communityBiomimicry - Ask Nature Learn Biomimicry CourseCapra CourseGaia EducationNature Culture Connection Camp August 2024Nature-Based Village Building (enquire directly to Deborah to join the prototype 2024 membership)ProjectsBonn im Wandel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2pywGzsH0Liege Food Belthttps://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/16/the-good-life-in-liege-the-start-of-a-food-revolutionResearch and BooksAldrich, Daniel -   social ties in disaster recovery Bregman, Rutger (2021).  Humankind: A Hopeful HistoryMacdonald, Miriam Kate (2022).  Emergent: Rewilding Nature, Regenerating Food and Healing the World by Restoring the Connection Between People and the Wild. Pedersen Zari, M.; Hecht, K. (2020). “Biomimicry for Regenerative Built Environments: Mapping Design Strategies for Producing Ecosystem Services.” Biomimetics 2020, 5, 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics5020018  Young, Jon, Ellen Haas and Evan McGown (2009).  Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature.Zelenski, J.; Warber, S.; Robinson, J.M.; Logan, A.C.; Prescott, S.L. (2023).  “Nature Connection: Providing a Pathway from Personal to Planetary Health.” Challenges 2023, 14, 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe14010016

In this conversation, Brian Knittel shares stories and design principles learned from his ten years at the Bay Area Tracking Club. Brian shares what it was like to experience the 8 Shields principles at work from the student perspective in the beginning, and then his observations as he grew to be a station guide and then leader of the club. We hear from Brian and Jon about the finer points of using the Art of Questioning to facilitate the tracking journey, including how it relates to how the San people still train trackers to this day. If you are interested in tracking, or interested in starting any sort of group based around learning nature together, you won't want to miss this episode."That was really the biggest draw for me; turning that curiosity on and getting people excited to learn more.”About Brian KnittelBrian Knittel's professional career was as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. He has been on a lifelong journey of spiritual exploration and nature connection.His journey deepened when he started searching for ways to explain spirituality to his young kids and found Tom Brown Jr.'s books, which sparked a series of "Aha!" moments. He resonated deeply with Tom's teachings and has been training at the Tracker School since 2000. Once he found Jon Young's work he trained intensively in the Kamana Naturalist journey and the 8 Shields model. He is a long time wildlife tracker and helped lead a vibrant Tracking Club on the California coast for close to a decade.He is deeply involved in these lineages, taking classes, mentoring others, and has been on a path towards Elderhood. Helping people learn about the essential nature of core routines, community building, and living in harmony with nature brings him immense joy. He has been a leader of groups within the Mankind Project, mentoring heart-centered men on a personal growth path, which has further shaped his beliefs about the importance of cultivating a state of personal peace.Today, he uses many healing methods – Shamanic, elements of power, nature connection, and more – to help others find their own paths to peace and well-being. His vision is to create a world filled with love, healing, deep connection, and a deep respect for Mother Earth.He lives in Mendocino, California with his amazing partner Amanda, who shares his passions for healing and nature. They have a blended family of four wonderful children, and when he's not exploring the natural world or helping others, you might find him practicing martial arts – something he's been passionate about for over 30 years.He's excited to share his experiences with others, exploring the world of spirituality, nature connection, and living a life of purpose and joy together.About Bay Area Tracking ClubBay Area Tracking Club meets on the second Sunday of each month from 8am-11am. Locations change based on where the great tracks can be found, although our home base and most consistent venue is at Gazos Creek State Beach on the San Mateo County coast.Connect with Bay Area Tracking Club on Facebook to learn more

Jon Young is a master storyteller, tracker, and mentor. He is the author of “What the Robin knows” and “Coyotes guide to connecting with nature”. Jon was mentored by Tom Brown Jr after meeting him at the age of ten years old. He has also spent time learning from the San bushmen. He has taught wilderness survival, tracking, and bird language professionally for decades and was featured on TED Talks. Currently he focuses his teachings on the importance of deep nature connection. We get to discuss his history, the art of intuitive tracking and the wonderful ancient skill of bird language. https://www.jonyoung.org/https://bushsurvivaltraining.com/https://www.learnhuntharvest.com/

“The coyote's on the edge of your awareness. Where's your edge? Where is your student's edge? That's what you're trying to find and push gently out.”In this episode Jon, Sarah, and Aidan are joined by Rick Berry from 4 Elements Earth Education. Rick shares his story of nature connection and how that has led to mentoring others over the past 30 years. He shares about how land and place influence our lessons, how he guides teens in transformational ways, and the importance of modeling the values we want to pass on to the next generation. Rick shares stories of his own lineage of mentoring, including how coyote teaching was passed on to him through Tom Brown Jr and Jon, and how that has contributed to his own teaching style. Rick shares a beautiful vision for unity and the role we can play in welcoming and allowing each other's unique ways of being, before closing with an invitation for each of us that might offer a little healing today. “We do have a common vision and we each do this in our own unique way. We have to come together to Heal”About Rick BerryRick Berry began with the Tracker School in 1986 at the age of 15, and has been teaching these skills for the past 30 years. After graduating with a B.S. from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, Rick honed his skills in the remote Klamath Mountain range where he immersed himself for 12 years in indigenous life-ways--passed on to him by Gary Morris who himself had lived with Yurok Elder Calvin Rube for 20 years. Later, Rick spent two years in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey as a care-taker for the Tracker School, refining his tracking and survival skills. Rick taught with both Jon Young and Tom Brown, Jr. through the Tracker School's Coyote Camps, and moved on to serve seven years as Director of The Children of the Earth Foundation. Rick, Cherokee Descent, (Grandmother was part of the Red Bird Stokes Stomp Ground in Vian, Oklahoma), has been working in collaboration with the Siakumne Maidu Tribe for the past 14 years creating the Fox Walkers youth programs at Pata Panaka / Burton Educational Preserve in Nevada City, CA. In 2019 Rick was asked to be the Executive Director of The Children of the Earth Foundation; Rick will oversee Coyote Tracks Programs under the 4EEE west coast non-profit umbrella.Learn more about Rick at https://www.4eee.orgVisit https://www.livingconnection1st.net/ for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

What do we mean when we say we want to "opt out" of the system? Firstly, it's the system(s) - the means of production, transport, communication, value transmission etc that we have to interface with to acquire the things we need to live in the modern world. In general, the further the distance a product or service must travel and the more technology involved means you will have less control over how to source it, how much you pay for it, when (and if) it is available etc. If it is produced or provided closer to home you have more agency in how you obtain that product or service and it is more resilient to "disruptions" Why are so many of us drawn to opting out? We have no agency over the direction of the system(s) - they are by and large completely hijacked by parasites - the political technocratic oligo-corporate controlling class. If we want to have more agency, and thus freedom to live life on our own terms - in alignment with our innate intelligence - the solutions are found in living in closer connection with Nature and other decentralized/distributed systems based on Nature. Fundamentally, this is about designing your life to create freedom from the system(s) via interdependence with Nature. We all have an ecological umbilical cord - we are completely and utterly dependent upon functioning ecosystems to provide us with ALL of the things we need and want to live well. The sooner we acknowledge this the sooner we can be FREE from pretending we don't have an ecological umbilical and all resulting pathology that follows. What We Can Do To Opt Out By Opting In To Nature Connection Create freedom from the system(s) by leveraging your interdependence with Nature - choose to ally your life with Nature - Nature is what "they" fear and cannot ever control. Harvest and use Nature's gifts - everywhere nature gives us gifts for free Become ecosystem literate where you live - every place has something that wants to grow there - use analogs to find productive species to meet your needs Embrace Cyclical vs. Linear Cyclical = biology-based - slower, but infinitely more resilient and powerful - where how you grow & harvest can enrich the whole ecosystem. Trust in Distributed wisdom vs. Centralized “intelligence” centralization of decision-making authority and technical know-how is a hallmark of the technocratic system being pushed upon us the opposite of this is Nature - wisdom in every cell YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE CELLS - composed of trillions of other cells - each with it's own innate wisdom Find your place and commit to it and it's people - so much of the control system is commodification of the things that used to be provided via reciprocity by close human relationships. Show Resources The Regenerative Agora - Counter-Economics For Stewards Of The Future Epi-73 - Debt, Wealth and Counter-Economics As A means to create a world worth inheriting Epi-009 - Green Is The New Gray For Thriving In The Dim Age Epi - 005 - Light, Water, Soil and Life - The 4 Pillars Of A Productive And Profitable Homestead Ecosystem DIY Soil Fertility series - ways to start engaging with more natural cycles that reduce your need to buy   ____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: On-Site Consultation Online Site/Project Consultation Holistic Ecosystem Design   Implementation: Water Harvesting Earthworks High-function, Low-Maintenance Access Living Systems Spring Development   Courses: Minimum Holistic Goal Building Your Sovereign Homestead   Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast YouTube Instagram      

“I'd been working for an organization trying to connect people to nature, who were walking past everything. And it made me kind of slow down and notice the tiny things.”In this wide ranging conversation, Ciara shares about the challenges of working in an organization that lacks a connected culture and leadership, and finding that culture through nature connection. Jon, Aidan, and Ciara reflect on Greg Sommer, his learning journey and mentoring style, and the impact he has had on each of their lives, and the story of how he introduced Ciara to sit spot for the first time and it transformed her journey. She continues by sharing her story of connecting into the forest school movement, the work she does with children through Forest School Ireland, and the impact nature connection can have on both the students and the teachers. “Everybody walks into this going, 'Oh, I'm just going to learn a lot of activities, I'm going to write some essays, and I'm going to be a forest school leader.' And afterwards, there's tears at the end of the training, going, ‘Oh, my God, it's epic, my whole life has changed.'”About Ciara HincksmanCiara Hinksman owns and runs Forest School Ireland – formerly Earth Force Education, founded in 2009. In 2008 she lived off-grid in Co. Kerry for three months immersed in bushcraft, nature awareness and sustainable living practices. She went to the first Art of Mentoring camp in the UK, based on the work of Jon Young and the 8 Shields Institute. Subsequently, she traveled extensively in the UK and USA meeting and learning from nature connection mentors, powerful youths, and Elders. Truly inspired by these people Ciara wanted to be part of bringing connection to nature, to self, and to others, back home. Her passion is facilitating place-based, learner-centered development through story, wildlife, plants, crafts and play whilst also following the natural cycles of our seasons and lives.Learn more about Ciara at https://forestschoolireland.ie/Visit https://www.livingconnection1st.net/ for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

Sarah and Aidan offer Jon an audience as he shares the origins and mission of the Tracking Connections Podcast to lift up and honor the amazing projects of so many people around the world.Jon shares the story of how his research began from reflecting on his teen years and the values and ethics that he shared with his friends who were also mentored by Tom Brown, Jr. in the 1970's. Though Tom never told any of them directly to care for nature and the future of our planet, all the teens reflected to one another that this was how they felt. They could not understand why all their friends in high school did not share their concern for the way construction was changing the land.Jon took this question further, "What had Tom done for them? Could we find a way do this for many others?" This began the research and development that led to the founding of the first project to mentor children in the way that Jon was mentored.Soon after founding this first program, Jon met Ingwe, an elder raised by the San Bushman and Akamba Tribe in Kenya. The two faced many challenges in the early years. From their collective effort emerged the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and the Shikari holistic tracking training, bird language training and the 8 Shields and The Art of Mentoring. These models and principles have been taught all around the world and have collectively reached hundreds of thousands of children who Jon has never met. Surely, Jon's co-founder, the late Ingwe (1914 to 2005), is smiling down on us.Visit https://www.livingconnection1st.net/ for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

Sarah shares how the 8 Shields Design Principles can be seen as a map to our our original design of interconnectedness, and as Jon Young often says, to our ‘ancient nervous system'.First through the lens of the senses, Sarah explains how we process information from our environment, and presences the drastic shift in what our senses experience in modern times versus the purity of Nature that we evolved with over millions of years. The effects on our well being become apparent when we consider our neurobiological responses to external stimuli, and our need for physiological homeostasis to live with health and happiness.Secondly, Sarah shares about humans as innately social beings, and how our evolutionary success is in large part to cooperation and coordination with other humans for safety, food security, and division of labor. Our nervous systems are wired for safe social engagement for survival, and what we experience in modern family and social systems is in dire contrast to what our nervous system is reaching for.Using the 8 Shields as a map, we can take inventory of our sensory and relational experience to see where we are on the journey back to our original design.About Sarah FontaineSarah is a Energy work Practitioner, Wildlife Tracker, and Interspecies Communicator.For over 25 years, Sarah has been practicing various healing modalities including Chakra-work, Craniosacral Therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine Meridians and Five Elements, Emotional Clearing, Interpersonal Neurobiology, Somatic Trauma Therapy, and Polyvagal Theory.She has studied wildlife tracking through Shikari Tracker Mentoring with Jon Young and Josh Lane, Tom Brown Jr's Tracker School, and Cybertracker Conservation. She is a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and studied Interspecies Communication with Anna Breytenbach and Wynter Worsthorne.She currently offers Earth-based energywork sessions, and lives near the Pacific Ocean in the sandhill mountains North of Santa Cruz, CA with her partner Jon.You can connect with Sarah at www.earthnectar.netVisit https://www.livingconnection1st.net/ for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

Connection 1st principles can be applied to wedding planning, and other community events, with each archetype contributing in a valued way.In this episode, Deborah and Root share their origin stories, Village Building experiences, and how they used 8 shields principles with help from their community, to design an unforgettable wedding. Jon reflects on where Village Building comes from and how it has led to vibrant communities all over the world. Root reflects on his marriage to Deborah, and the sense of connection they feel with one another and their wider communities, emphasizing the importance of reciprocity and mutual support. They share stories about the growth of The Art of Mentoring and how the village at the last event in Scotland was supported by musicians, storytellers, bards, traditional elders, families and a full complement of guilds and layers based on age and experience. Now Deborah and Root are building community with their new intergenerational neighbors, and feeling grateful for simple acts of support and connection, building community and finding common ground.Using 8 Shields practices creates a sense of community, relieves stress and generates a wonderful loving spirit.About DeborahDeborah's PhD, MSc, and 15 years of experience are in marine mammal conservation, ecotourism, and interpretive wildlife guiding. Her work on non-disturbing interactions with sea otters is still being applied by tour guides in Monterey Bay, California. For 6 years she coordinated an accreditation program for dolphin-watching tours in Scotland, while consulting on international multi-stakeholder sustainable wildlife tourism projects. For 12 years she co-managed a sustainable living center associated with the Findhorn ecovillage in Scotland. She became an 8 Shields practitioner in 2011, and began co-leading the Village Builders program with Jon Young in 2015. Deborah is co-leader of the online courses Pathways to Village Building, Designing for Peace, and Introduction to Regenerative Community Building.Connect with Deborah on LinkedinAbout RootRoot designs experiential opportunities for learning by creating strong containers for the graceful facilitation of group energy. He holds a Master's Degree in Environmental Education, and certificates in Sustainable Curriculum Design, Participatory Facilitation, and Ecopsychology. He has co-led short courses on regenerative cultures and cultural mentoring for Schumacher College, Findhorn College the ALT program in Thailand, and is a certified trainer in Gaia Education eco-social design. With his wife Deborah Benham, he has delivered trainings on Sociocracy, Designing for Peace, Positive Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship, and Culture Repair.You can find all of Deborah and Root's links here.Visit https://www.livingconnection1st.net/ for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

Ancient cultures prioritized connecting children to nature for survival and well-being.In this wide-ranging and personal Episode, Jon Young has a conversation with Arnaud Gagné about deep nature connection and cultural norms. Arnaud is a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, an experienced mentor and leader in the Art of Mentoring and a passionate holistic tracker and mentor who has been involved in the Shikari Tracker Training Program for many years. Jon shares his thoughts on the lack of connective cultural norms in modern times, citing personal experiences from his Irish ancestry. Arnaud discovers his passion for wilderness survival skills through backcountry skiing and mentorship. He discovered Tom Brown's books on wilderness survival and tracking, which sparked a solo journey of practicing and learning the skills mentioned in the books. Arnaud shares a personal story of how to bring healthy culture back for himself, his wife Kristyna and son, Nolan. He discusses the importance of and his commitment to cultural momentum in connecting people to nature and to each other. Arnaud hopes to be an elder in his community, passing on knowledge and healing to future generations.A good culture connects people to themselves, others, and the natural world, while fostering awareness of ancestors, the unborn, and mystery.About ArnaudArnaud has been a deep nature connection mentor and facilitator for 20 years. With deep gratitude, he continues to be mentored by master holistic tracker Jon Young, one of the global leaders in the nature connection movement.Alongside his wife Kristyna, he is raising his son at home with the physical, emotional and spiritual nourishment of nature, family and community. He is deeply passionate about helping other parents create a deeply connected natural way of life for their families.​Arnaud has a life-long commitment to helping restore a culture that prioritizes connection to nature, spirit, self and community for all ages and stages of life locally and globally. He lives and breathes what he teaches, not only as a livelihood but as a way of life.Learn more about Arnaud at https://www.connectionpathways.com/Visit https://www.livingconnection1st.net/ for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

A new month of episodes starts with Christine Hass, a field biologist with a background on social behaviour of mammals. She has extensive recordings and stories from her journeys in the American West. You'll be drawn by Chris' attentive ear to environmental subtleties and connection to place with all her (truly) wild adventures outdoors. We also talk about the various impacts of forest fire and how to listen and record water. Please check Chris blog containing not only journal entries from her trips as well as equipment and techniques advice. Episode's references: Field Recordist Lang Elliott Book What the Robin Knows, by Jon Young

durée : 00:59:01 - Cautionneries - Par La Caution. Embarquement immédiat pour un voyage musical avec Nikkfurie.

Today I am speaking with the founder of First Men, Sam Adams about practices for mental and emotional health.We talk about rewilding ourselves.What does that mean? And what does it look like?We also talk about reconnecting with nature and how important being outside is for our mental well-being.A really fascinating conversation.---Sam Adams is the founder of First Men and Red Phoenix Rewilding which are companies that offer workshops and gatherings to create a more connected world, through rewilding ourselves and the planet. He has two decades of experience in the fields of land care, permaculture, and mental health. He belief is that our wounds can become our greatest gifts.Some questions for Sam:I would love for you to share about how you got into the work you now do?Life is a journey. We need a map to find our way.Problem = men are lost ('broken/traumatised/identity-lost/cultural orphans')Solution = mapNature provides that map. Reference points in each direction. The elements. Exploring fire/water/earth/air as metaphors for our personal psyche. Identity. Mental health. The compass points. E/S/W/N, above and below. We are in the middle. Knowing our relationship to all of nature, helps us on a healthy journey of life. What are some of the practices we can do in nature for our mental health?Some of your stories and life experiences around natureWhat are you seeing with men? Where are they stuck?Some of the stories about the power of men and women in circle - Menfest and the Mankind Project.The importance of emotions and dissociation#rewildyourself #mentalhealth #natureawareness #mensmentalhealth #emotionalhealthTo find out more about Sam's work please visit: https://www.firstmen.co.uk or https://www.redphoenixrewilding.com--- Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems. He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man. He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1 For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community Many blessings, Piers Cross http://piers-cross.com/

Jon Young and guitarist Andrew Pippin join DJ Dugan at the Smith Music offices in the Fort Worth Stockyards to chat about the new Jon Young Band album, starting bands in the nineties, and recording in analog studios with producer Taylor Tatsch. Powered by Smith Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.smithmusic.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Texas Tailgate Playlist.⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen to ⁠⁠⁠⁠Texas Tailgate Radio⁠⁠⁠⁠. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/texastailgate/message

In part 3 of our series, we talk with Jon Young from the Hawaii Asphalt Paving Industry to take a look at the project from his perspective. Related InformationS4 E1: Paving with Recycled Plastic – Hawaii's Pilot Project - Part 1S4 E2: Paving with Recycled Plastic – Hawaii's Pilot Project - Part 2http://hawaiiasphalt.org/http://hawaiiasphalt.org/education/hapi-shorts/

Engineering Matters is celebrating its fifth anniversary this week. Podcast founders Bernadette Ballantyne and Jon Young, along with the rest of the Engineering Matters team, tell the story of the show's creation and rapid growth, and share a behind-the-scenes look at how some of our favourite and most popular episodes have been put together. Engineering...

Emma Gorbutt from the Mother Nature Team turns the tables and interviews Looby Macnamara our regular podcast host. They have been friends and co-workers for nearly 20 years and in this interesting and thought provoking conversation they explore our cultures of leadership and mothering. How recognising as mothers, we are already 'Natural Leaders' who bring a different style, which can support Humanity to grow up! Their conversations also touch on how we support the next generation to surface their gifts and tackle the challenges of our time and come into their own leadership. Looby shares about her journey creating the Cultural Emergence toolkit and bringing intentional design into all areas of our lives using the Design Web and how we can use it to create the world and cultures we want for ourselves and our children to live in. They explore Looby's own leadership journey including her Song Leader Training and they sing a song together. They also share about the FREE Leading Mother Nature Circles Training available online and the power and magic of these circles. About Looby Macnamara Looby Macnamara is mother, author, facilitator, designer, gardener and song leader. She is author of Cultural Emergence, People and Permaculture, 7 Ways to Think Differently and Strands of Infinity. People and Permaculture Is the first book globally to translate the use of permaculture principles and design for people based systems. She is creator of the Design Web, a holistic design framework that has been used thousands of times globally for all sorts of personal and social designs. Looby has co-developed the Cultural Emergence toolkit with Jon Young to support personal and global shifts towards a regenerative culture. She has been part of the Mother Nature Project Team since 2018 and Looby lives on a 20 acre smallholding in Herefordshire, where she runs an education and demonstration centre - Applewood Permaculture Centre. She is a mother of 2 wonderful daughters, loves to sing and makes amazing apple crumble! Looby's Websites Cultural Emergence https://cultural-emergence.com https://loobymacnamara.com Applewood Permaculture Centre https://applewoodcourses.com Song “Put Your Roots Down” by Molly Hartwell. DESIGN WEB - https://cultural-emergence.com/the-design-web/ FREE Online Leading Mother Nature Circles Course https://mothernatureproject.org/leading-mother-nature-circles-online-course CEED - Online Cultural Emergence Effective Design Course Other online and in person courses from Looby https://cultural-emergence.com/courses-overview/ Find out more about Looby's books People and Permaculture, Cultural Emergence, 7 Ways To Think Differently and Strands of Infinity and buy signed copies direct from her here Newsletters Sign up to Cultural Emergence Newsletter Sign up to Mother Nature Newsletter Disclaimer: The Mother Nature Project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Chris Lappin & Nick Davie are joined by the host of the PWW Talk Podcaat Jon Young to createt their perfect AEW card world be using only AEW PPV Matches from 2022. The Pro Wrestling World Facebook page which is dedicated to all professional wrestling fans who love open debate. Please LIKE the page and podcast - https://linktr.ee/prowrestlingworld checkout our Wrestling Tees store – www.prowrestlingtees.com/bbg-wrestling.html Support Lance by checking out his merch – lancerevera12.bigcartel.com/ You can follow Chris – twitter.com/bbgchrislappin www.instagram.com/britwresjourney/ Nick – twitter.com/nick_davie Lance – twitter.com/lance_revera Instagram www.instagram.com/lance_revera/ www.facebook.com/LanceRevera12 www.facebook.com/BBGWrestling Follow the show – twitter.com/BBGWrestling

In this episode Looby talks to Shore Charnoe an indigenous mother and grandmother. We know each other though our mutual friend Jon Young and it was a delight to bask in her wisdom in this podcast. We dive deep into gratitude, ceremonies and how to change perspectives and so much more. In fact this conversation with Shore was so rich it will be shared in 2 parts. Do sign up to our newsletter to be notified of all the latest episodes. https://mothernatureproject.org/ About Shore Charnoe Shore Charnoe has had a private counseling practice since 1994. As a traditional counselor, helper, and social worker, she has directed several community clinics and many highly-effective community helping programs. These programs have focused on at-risk youth and have included suicide prevention, apprehension prevention, parenting skills, lifeskills, adoption facilitation and short- and long-term foster care. She has helped foster, raise and mentor over 100 children. She is a mother of eleven adopted and biological children and a grandmother of six. A number of her adoptive children were born with fetal alcohol syndrome and came from abusive homes where they were victims of severe abuse, neglect, and trauma. She has been a consultant for child welfare organizations. She credits much of her effectiveness to the lessons she has learned from over 20 Indigenous Elders. To name just a few specifically: She studied for 10 years under the Odawa Medewin Elder Eddie King. Shore's husband and partner, Richard Szponarski, was a student of Eddie King for over 30 years. She took her degree in Indigenous Social Work through First Nations Technical Institute under the direction of Banakonda Kennedy-Kish (Bell) , an Anishinaabe (Ojibway) Elder; Katsitsiase, also known as Betty Maracle, a Bear Clan Grandmother of the Mohawk Nation, Elder and Wisdom Keeper, and Ben Carniol, who was a Holocaust Survivor, social activist and author. Shore also studied language and traditional stories with Basil Johnson, an Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) Elder. Shore's unique gift and skill is her ability to make the lessons she learned from these and many other Elders accessible to others. She has a deep gratitude and love for all the Elders and their teachings. https://www.thecircleforchange.com/ Mother Nature is a project funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

The Jon Young Band my guest this week. I love this job… getting to know stellar humans like Jon are such a highlight. Don't miss this one- you'll laugh as well as tear up with joy hearing about his message through music to our world. Jon is a sweet human with a beautiful soul and can he ever write and sing!! Originally aired 10/02/2022 on 95.3 FM KYHI the Range in Dallas, TX.

Alan, Frid, & special guest Dr. Jon Young discuss what the Portland Trail Blazers need to accomplish this off-season for success.

It's been quite a 2022 for Cherry Hill West's Jon Young Jr. - starting with his verbal commitment to dream school UNC, continuing with a strong sophomore campaign for CHW, and moving forward with a strong summer on the circuit that saw Young emerge as perhaps the top hitting prospect in the Class of 2024. So what comes next for this South Jersey dude who will talk Phillies and Eagles with you all day? Find out as we sit down with the fiery middle infielder. Driven to be his best, Jon plans to work hard in the offseason to make 2023 even better! Hear those plans and more on this edition of JBS Back to School!

The core of my shamanic practice is my sit spot, inspired by the book, Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature, by Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown. In this episode. Learn what a sit spot is and get some tips on finding your own.You can find information and the schedule for upcoming virtual Shamanic Reiki Level One, Level Two and Master Practitioner trainings at https://debbiephilp.com/shamanic-reiki-training/I would like to welcome new My Shamanic Life patrons. Thank you! If you like this podcast and would like me to keep recording new episodes, please visit my Patreon page and become a patron for as little as one dollar a month. When you do, you will have access to patron-only guided shamanic journeys to meet animal helping spirits and read posts about the animals' symbolism and archetypal energy as well as the natural history and conservation challenges those animal face in their living incarnation. As you work with different animals, you connect more deeply with the natural world and may be inspired to advocate for one of the wild beings you resonate with.If you would like to chat about this episode and connect with others who share your love for the wild beings, join the Shamanic Flow Circle group on Facebook. Visit myshamaniclife.com and get the free Guide to Getting Real when you sign up for the email newsletter, which is full of moon magic and upcoming virtual events.Much love and gratitude to Blair Sutherland for the beautiful intro and background music. Blair is also an outstanding webmaster and makes sure I can share these episodes with you. Thank you, Blair!While the yoga and other practices presented are intended to be accessible to most, please be open to practicing in an appropriate and safe way for you. It is recommended that you consult your physician before beginning any new exercise program and that at any time during a practice you feel nausea, dizziness, or pain you stop and seek medical advice. I accept no liability whatsoever for any damages arising from the use of my podcasts and, while I make all reasonable efforts to share accurate instruction, the podcast may contain unintended errors. Before all else, listen to your body and trust your inner knowing.

Tanner Griggs interviews Jon Young on his album “Ashes of Dreams of Fire”. Originally aired as part of The Rattle Hour for Rattle Music Magazine in 2016. Listen to “Ashes of Dreams of Fire”. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/texastailgate/message

Jon Young, bird language master and author of What the Robin Knows discusses what constitutes “nature connection”, why it is important, and how practices like bird language and wildlife tracking can facilitate bringing nature connection back into our individual lives and our culture at large.

The Book Interrupted women welcome Virginia and kickoff the first fan book choice of Season 2: “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig. The women individually give their first impressions of the book, and continue in the group chat. They discuss fate, soulmates, parallel universes, purgatory, Gene’s Picks from Seinfeld, and (of course) regret. Discussion Points: Book Interrupted welcomes Virginia to the fan book cycle Devouring the book – the right way and wrong way Gene’s Picks – finding your Gene or your Elaine for books or beliefs Fate, soulmates, parallel universes, and purgatory Bad things can be good things Poetry, philosophy, and book coming into life at the right time Bird interruption aka Jon Young is a sneaky guy Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Matt Haig The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brené Brown Lean in: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg Leading Change by John Kotter Seinfeld Gene’s Picks Another Earth - Official Trailer Spiderman: No Way Home - Official Trailer

Concluding their series on “What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” by Jon Young, the women discuss follow-ups and fan responses during the book cycle. Naked in the forest, multiple penises, doing it birdie style, self-esteem & mirrors, and Bird Call Challenge. Discussion Points: Squiggy’s Stumble Forward T-shirt Twitter reactions & realizing Twitter account names aren’t always their real name Topic Tuesday quote: “Every living being has a purpose” More on naturists, naturalists, and nudists Multiple penises (or is it peni?) Self-esteem, self-consciousness, and mirrors. Doing it birdie style These are the birds in our neighbourhood Book Interrupted members answer the Bird Call Challenge Do you read one book at a time or multiple books? Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young Bird Language Audio Library Jon Young Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Bird Songs A Fed Bear Is A Dead Bear The Kids in the Hall -- Chicken Lady

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this episode.Competition ends October 1st 2022. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-weller-8171688b/ Katie Weller has been appointed Travel Trade Sales Manager at the National Gallery. Joining the fascinating world of art, she is excited to be embarking on a new challenge. Having worked in the tourism, entertainment and leisure industry for over 18 years, her roles have ranged from working at James Villa Holidays as a Travel Advisor, Tour Guide at Shakespeare's Globe to PA for the critically acclaimed band Westlife. Starting her trade career at a top ten visitor attraction- Royal Museums Greenwich as Trade Sales Executive, she developed an award-winning product for the international education market and gained a wealth of knowledge about trade. Katie then went on to work as Trade Manager at the iconic Westminster Abbey and went on to open her own business as a successful sweet shop during the pandemic. She is now very excited to be developing and launching new products at the National Gallery.  Transcriptions: Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. In today's episode I speak with Katie Weller, Travel Trade Sales Manager at The National Gallery. We discuss the process of developing new paid for guided tours, making the gallery inclusive for all and how travel trade works for attractions. If you like what you hear, subscribe on all the usual channels by searching to Skip the Queue.Kelly Molson: Katie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's lovely to meet you.Katie Weller: Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here.Kelly Molson: Ah, me too. We've been chatting for a little while on LinkedIn, haven't we? So I'm glad that we've got this booked in the diary now. So I'm going to ask you loads of questions. We've got something really exciting to talk about but first, icebreaker questions.Katie Weller: Yes, go for it.Kelly Molson: Okay. What sport would you compete in if you were in the Olympics?Katie Weller: Oh gosh, that's a hard one, isn't it? I'm actually rubbish at sports. Oh gosh. What would I go for? I was always good at javelin. Is that a sport?Kelly Molson: Yeah.Katie Weller: Can I compete in that?Kelly Molson: Absolutely.Katie Weller: Let's go for it. I'm going javelin.Kelly Molson: All right. I like it. Take your anger out.Katie Weller: Exactly.Kelly Molson: All right. Last place that you went on holiday?Katie Weller: Oh, we went to Mykonos in Greece.Kelly Molson: Oh, lovely.Katie Weller: Well, so it was supposed to be... So I'm getting married in a couple of months and so it was my hen do. And we managed to do the hen, but not the wedding. I was happy with that as long as I... Kelly Molson: This bit.Katie Weller: Exactly. And do you know what? It was just so lovely to get on a plane and travel again. So yeah, we had a brilliant time. Spent way too much money, but yeah, absolutely fantastic.Kelly Molson: Oh, lovely. What a treat. I'll bet you had a whale of a time.Katie Weller: Oh, we did.Kelly Molson: We won't ask because what goes on in hen stays on hen.Katie Weller: Exactly. I think it's for the best.Kelly Molson: All right. If you could choose any two famous people to have dinner with, who would they be?Katie Weller: Gosh. Leonardo DiCaprio, just because he's always been my number one. I'd always have him at the table there. And the second one, who would I... Does it have to be someone alive?Kelly Molson: No, it can be anyone you want.Katie Weller: I would go for Van Gogh.Kelly Molson: Wow.Katie Weller: It would be a bit of a messy dinner party, but I think he would just be so amazing to talk with, try and get into his brain. Yeah, I'm going to go Van Gogh and Leo. What a party. Do you like an invite?Kelly Molson: What a mix. Will there be cocktails?Katie Weller: I think we'll need it.Kelly Molson: I'm there. All right. Katie, what is your unpopular opinion?Katie Weller: Oh, do you know what? I've really been thinking about this and I didn't think it was an unpopular opinion, but it clearly is and I've got a lot of passion about it. Crocs should stay in hospitals. I can't even look at them. They're just the most ugliest shoes. How last year they were like trending number one? Why people put them on their feet? It really upsets me. You will never, ever see me in Crocs, ever.Kelly Molson: Wow. That is a massive passion.Katie Weller: Can you feel my anger? This is why I want to do javelin.Kelly Molson: Now, listen, I'm just going to say, I should probably hook you up with Michelle from Eureka, the National Children's Museum, because she was very passionate about wearing Crocs with socks at work.Katie Weller: She wants to do that?Kelly Molson: No, she does do that. Yeah, no, she does.Katie Weller: Each to their own, but not for me.Kelly Molson: All right. Okay.Katie Weller: Fantastic quote.Kelly Molson: They are. Let's see what our listeners feel about that. I think there might be a few people that agree with you on that one.Katie Weller: Yeah, I think since lockdown a lot of people went in that direction. But yeah, not for me. Sorry, guys.Kelly Molson: Those things. Okay. Love it. Katie, tell me a little bit about your background before we get onto what we're going to talk about today.Katie Weller: Yes, really I've been in arts and tourism for about a 20 years, which makes me feel really old now. So I started off as just a theatre steward, so working in the local theatres, and I loved it. How cool to be able to get paid and just watch shows? And back then I thought I was going to be an actor. And obviously life changes, you realise you need to get paid. So I didn't end up going down that route, but I always had a passion for it. So in terms of getting involved in sort of travel trade, that was a bit later on. I was a PA for a very famous boy band, Westlife, if you've heard of them. So I've had lots of random jobs as well. But yeah, it was the Globe Theater. So I was a tour guide there for quite a few years and absolutely loved it. And that's really where I started sort of finding out about travel trade.Katie Weller: We attended a few shows and then from there I started at Royal Museums Greenwich, and that's where I really started my career, built up all of my contacts and really got to learn about travel trade and just loved it. It's such a niche thing. And a lot of people don't understand what travel trade is and how it works.Kelly Molson: Well, actually, for the benefit of our listeners that might not know, can you explain what that actually means?Katie Weller: Yeah, definitely. So you will actually find in a lot of attractions, they have a travel trade and groups department. So travel trade works on a business to business basis. So we would push our product through third party platforms. So I don't know if I'm allowed to mention names on here?Kelly Molson: Yeah, go for it.Katie Weller: Like Virgin Experience Days or Viatour or Golden Tours. I'm not pulling out favourites at all here, but it just means that you are pushing out your reach to new markets, new audiences that you wouldn't necessarily get in otherwise. You pay them a commission and in return they push out your marketing, they'll do campaigns for you and they just drive in different people. So yeah, most attractions have a travel trade team, but a lot of people just don't really understand what it is. But it's a huge income driver to attractions.Kelly Molson: Yeah, great explanation.Katie Weller: I hope that makes sense.Kelly Molson: Yeah, it made perfect sense. And I also really appreciate that you thought we were a little bit like the BBC there and you couldn't mention other brands on it.Katie Weller: I know. I know. Well, just in case. I'm going to get other partners ringing me now like, "Why didn't you mention me?" Sorry.Kelly Molson: All right. So this is really exciting. So we had a little chat on LinkedIn quite a while ago actually now, isn't it? We were chatting. But National Gallery, where you are now, is launching paid for guided tours which are geared towards kind of tourist, domestic and international.Katie Weller: Mm-hmm (affirmative).Kelly Molson: This is really exciting because the National Gallery is a free gallery. So you don't need to pay to go into this. So this is quite a new thing that they're launching. How did this idea come about?Katie Weller: So it's a bit of a long story. With the National Gallery, yes, it's always been free of charge. However, it can be for, not just for an international customer, for a domestic one as well, if you're not necessarily an art buff, you can walk inside the Gallery, it can be quite overwhelming because you don't really know where to start, what to look at. So we know there is a demand for tours because they're coming in anyway. So they're coming in. So other tour companies are charging the customers and they're coming in and doing tours. So the issue with that... It's great because there's a demand there and we know people want to be educated and that's what we want to do. We want to educate them on our amazing collection.Katie Weller: However, sometimes with that, it means that we haven't really got any quality control over what's being said. A lot of people think they're buying an official National Gallery tour and it's not. So we get customers coming through to us. So for us, how it all came about really is my head of department, Claire, she looks after events and our catering team as well. And next year we're closing our Sainsbury Wing. So the entrance is actually going to be the Portico Terrace, so the beautiful steps going up, only because we are just completely redeveloping that side of the Gallery. And it means that we lose a lot of our daytime space. So we would normally get a lot of income coming through from daytime hire, that's going to be lost. So she thought, "Do you know what? Let's bring in travel trade."Katie Weller: We actually worked together at Royal Museums Greenwich so she was head of events there. And she just saw the benefit that travel trade had and she knew there's a demand for tours. So she just decided, "Let's get up and running." So it wasn't really anything off the back of COVID. It was always there as a plan because we knew we had those closures coming up.Kelly Molson: That's interesting. Yeah, because that was going to be one of my questions, actually, was this something that came out of COVID? Because obviously being a free museum during that time, it's really difficult. You've got additional challenges that some of the paid institutes might not have had in terms of raising funding and keeping the building and the paintings safe and looked after. So yeah, it's really interesting that hasn't come from that, which is a good thing.Katie Weller: Yeah.Kelly Molson: I guess an element of it has been about customer feedback, right? Like you said, there is a demand for it because people are already booking tours elsewhere.Katie Weller: Well, yeah, and they're paying anything between 10 pounds... You'll be amazed at what has been pushed down there. PDFs, where customers pay 10 pounds for a PDF and walk around. So that's what I mean about the quality. You think we want to mirror a high quality tour in line with the National Gallery, but some people are paying up to 400 pounds for a tour that's happening during the day. So we want to make sure that it's a fair price but we are delivering a top quality experience as well. I think people... Yes, we are free of charge, but the British Museum, they do the same thing. So you do have paid for tours as well. And I'm such a tourist. When I go abroad, I always pay for a tour because I think it's the best way. You've got an hour, for example. The international market, they're very tight on time. They've got one hour, what's the best way to do it? Actually, not everyone wants to do the free thing where you walk for... People want to have a better understanding of where they are.Kelly Molson: Yeah, that's interesting that you mentioned the time thing, isn't it? Because if you've just got that restriction you would want someone to show you the best of the best, "I'm coming to this gallery. What is the best thing that I need to see while here? What's the thing that I can't leave without seeing?" And actually, if you are kind of left to your own devices, you might not find it. You might not know where it is and your time is then gone.Katie Weller: Exactly. So I just think, with the guided tours, we are really going to ensure that it is a highlights tour. You could go on a tour with a curator or you could have a bespoke experience. Most of these tourists, they just want to get a sense of the Gallery. They want to hear brilliant stories that you just can't pick out of a book or, "Let's talk about the fun stuff." I said to the Blue Badge Guides, I was like, "Sex, drugs, rock and roll." I was like, "That's what they want to hear." I was like, "Maybe not too extreme. It is the National Gallery, but let's tell them just brilliant stories and they'll leave and ..." And when you go on tours, do you remember the dates? Not really. You remember the amazing stories that they tell you. So yeah, the guides have been brilliant at putting this all together and we've sort of left them to their own devices because their knowledge far exceeds mine. So yeah, really, really looking forward to pushing them out.Kelly Molson: It's really the stories thing is something that keeps coming up and up again, again, again on the podcast too. We just spoke to Kelly Wessell from London Zoo and she was kind of talking about the visitor experience and engaging people back, like their team, back to the zoo, getting them to fall back in love with the zoo. And she was saying that it is the stories that they know that makes people's experience better on the day. And it's only the stories that the team know, like little things about, I don't know, the giraffe house and how that was constructed. And it's those stories that make the visit more memorable for people. And that's what people are looking for, isn't it? To make that more kind of personalised and more special.Katie Weller: Well, that's it, it's about personalisation. And it does make them feel special because they probably think they might be the only person that's been told that. And also the Blue Badge Guides, we've said to them, "It's flexible. If you want to tell a different story on a different tour, that's absolutely fine." Obviously, they keep to a bit of a structure, but if they've got something cool to tell, go for it.Kelly Molson: So the tours, so how have they been developed? You decided, "We need a tour." How do you work out what are the highlights that people need to see on this tour?Katie Weller: Yeah, so really, it's been six months in the making. I don't know why I gave myself this, but I was like, "April, that's the go." I think it's beginning of financial year. You go, "Yeah, that's fine." But obviously, it's quite hard to push out something new especially in a Gallery as well. So everything can be a bit slower, I guess, and it has to be approved at so many different levels. But really, starting off with the tours, initially, we'd love to have kept it in house, but of course the resource isn't available at the moment. So we decided, "All right, second best thing is to use the Blue Badge Guides." They've just got such a wealth of knowledge and they're accredited. Tourists trusts them. They know what a Blue Badge Guide is. And the joy of having the Blue Badge Guides is that there is such a large pool of them. They can speak in different languages so that means that we can offer multi-language tours as well if you're a private group.Katie Weller: And they guide inside the Gallery anyway so they know the space very well. And they were so excited at this opportunity. I think we went to a show, it was a trade show on the Strand and it was just a happy accident. I bumped into a lovely Blue Badge Guide called Sarah. And she said, "Oh, you're from the National Gallery?" I said, "Oh, well actually I'm looking for some Blue Badge Guides." She was like, "Right, that's it. I'm your main contact going forward." And Sarah Reynolds, her name is, and she's been brilliant at... I just gave her a brief and I just said, "Storytelling." I know I keep going back to this, but I was like, "You need to tell great stories. I don't want the tourists to be drowned in facts. Let's make it fun for them." In terms of highlights, it's a difficult one but it is up to the guide. Obviously, we've got some of the most famous paintings in the world. So we've got Van Gogh Sunflowers. We've got the Turner. We can't guarantee on any given day that they will necessarily see those pieces of art.Katie Weller: So we don't promise that they're going to see those paintings because the paintings move around quite a lot. We might have room closures, depending on what's going on. So the tour is very flexible, so we really do leave it up to them. But as I say, for us, it really is about bringing the Gallery to life and just telling the best stories they can, but yeah, without going into too much depth. It can make people feel unwelcome and a bit out of their comfort zone if you start going into so much detail.Kelly Molson: So this was one of my questions, actually, about accessibility. So I think when we chatted and what you've mentioned at the start of this chat is that the National Gallery, it can seem a bit daunting for people if they're not art buffs or they maybe feel that it's not the place for them.Katie Weller: Yeah.Kelly Molson: So yeah, part of what you've described, in terms of accessibility, different languages and things like that, how do you make people feel that these are inclusive for them, that it is for me or for Joe down the road?Katie Weller: Yeah, I think this is going to be a really interesting year in terms of learning as we go. There's going to be a lot of test and trial. Actually, only last week we had some EDI training, so equality, diversity, inclusivity training that was put on by the Gallery and it really opened my eyes up. It's such a big beast, doesn't it? And there's so many things to tackle. So I think it's really important when you push out a product, you've got to keep developing it. You can't just leave it. It's not done. It's not done with, so we really need to listen to our customer feedback, "How can we make them more inclusive?" So I don't know. I think that would just be a thing as we go and we will have to develop and change it. But we are aware that people have that view of us and we are actually going to be celebrating NG 200 soon and we want to change our customer welcome and we want to make it more friendly.Katie Weller: And that's the whole part with the Sainsbury Wing at the moment, it's not very friendly. It's not a friendly welcome. So we're going to get rid of the big black gates and we're going to make it more open. It's going to feel a lot more airy in there, whereas at the moment it can be, like you say, a bit daunting, I think, for customers. We want the Gallery to be for everyone. So that's really important.Kelly Molson: Yeah, I think that is really important at the moment, because we need to get more people back to seeing these incredible spaces that we have and the incredible artwork that you have. People kind of need to see themselves there to be able to do that, don't they?Katie Weller: Yeah, of course. So we've got a lot of people coming on lunch breaks as well. So if they work around here, people do just come in on their lunch break, which is lovely.Kelly Molson: That is really nice. That's something that I spoke with Jon Young about, from BVA BDRC, which I might have just said wrong because I always say that wrong. But he was saying how he loves that flexibility of just being able to pop somewhere after work because he's in London and I'm like, "Oh yeah, that's really nice." I'm not in London so there isn't really anywhere that you just pop to. And I'm like, "How lovely would that be, just to be on your lunch break and go, 'I'm just going to go and look at Van Gogh on my lunch break?'"Katie Weller: Exactly. Why not? Or Mondays with Monet?Kelly Molson: I love that. Is that a thing? That needs to be a thing.Katie Weller: Do you like it? Yeah, I might do that tour on a Monday, Monday with Monet. I think it's something... I read an article about this. I think that was yesterday, actually. And they were saying people aren't traveling into London as much, maybe two to three times a week, because there's that hybrid way of working which we do at the Gallery as well. And when people are in London, actually, they want to make more of their time while they're here. So I think people are starting to do that. And actually, "What can I do? I'm in London. I've paid to come I'm in. What else can I do when I'm here?" So yeah, I think there's going to be a bit of a change there. But yeah, always welcome. Anyone who's around the National Gallery, come in on your lunch break, come on a tour.Kelly Molson: Yeah, I really love that. Yeah, do the tour. Monet Mondays, like that.Katie Weller: Do you reckon I've got something going there?Kelly Molson: Ticked a massive box there.Katie Weller: Probably right.Kelly Molson: You mentioned the Blue Badge team that you're working with.Katie Weller: Yes.Kelly Molson: And I know that you are leaving it up to them. But there must be some way that you kind of map out what they have to do, like where they take people around the Gallery. Do you have a loose plan of how you work it out or is it just like free reign to them to say, over to you, what do you think you should deliver to someone?Katie Weller: Yeah, as I say, they've got a structure. However, because the Gallery, on any given day, we might have 10 rooms that are shut so it has to be flexible. They can't have set routes. So that's really important because also we are looking at pushing out not only the daytime tours but our exclusive tours as well when we can. So with that, we might have an event being set up. So they might not be able to go in the room that they always go in. So it's really important that they have that flexibility. But they're brilliant at it. And also I've been on the tours obviously just to make sure that they are saying what we want to... Again, it's just reviewing as we go along and really listening to the customer and their feedback and we can change as we go.Katie Weller: But I have full faith in the Blue Badge Guides because they're just so fantastic at what they do. They've got a huge amount of passion for it. So I can't imagine we'll get many complaints from people saying they haven't covered the highlights. Because they've got it, they know what they're doing. It's not in my place to tell them otherwise. But, yeah. But no, we will review as we move forward.Kelly Molson: Yeah, I love that process. It's about iteration, isn't it? So you'll run them, you'll run a feedback process and then find out what your customers are really thinking about it. And then I guess just kind of evolving those tours as you go along.Katie Weller: Absolutely. And it's so important to listen because what if, all of a sudden, well, once international tourism really starts to make a comeback, maybe we can start doing French tours on a Friday. I don't know why I have to make this rhyme, French on Fridays.Kelly Molson: But I like what you do there.Katie Weller: Yeah, I know. I've just realised. So if there's a demand for it, let's go for it. So yeah, that's really an important part of the process for me, just reviewing that feedback on a really regular basis. And next week, we're doing staff tours. So I think it's really important. We are driving out this new product, actually let the staff be part of it. What do they think? What's their feedback? It's just as important.Kelly Molson: That is a really, really relevant point actually, because if they don't know what to expect and they can't answer questions about them either, can they? They don't know what the tour actually holds for them.Katie Weller: Yeah, and working in a big place like the National Gallery, communication is key. And we've actually put together some operational processes in place. We've got some PDFs so if they've got frequently asked questions from customers, they've got something there in front of them. If not, they can obviously come through to me. But that communication element we've really tried to lay the groundwork now so there's not so many issues when the tours do kick off.Kelly Molson: Yeah, you mentioned lates. So you mentioned like evening, after hours or when when the Gallery is not open events, which is really exciting. I think that that is such a treat to go somewhere when it's closed, isn't it? That you are like, "Oh, nobody's in here. This is exciting." And I know that those lates have worked really well for other organisations as well. So prior to the pandemic we worked with Eureka, the National Children's Museum, and they ran a series of lates for adults. And they were incredible. They were so much fun because obviously it's a children's museum so all of the galleries are geared towards children and they're fun and entertainment. But really, the adults just want to get in there and have a bit of a go.Katie Weller: Oh yeah. Well, didn't they do that with their dinosaur sleepovers, that they did it for adults?Kelly Molson: Absolutely. Yes, at the Natural History Museum.Katie Weller: At the Natural History Museum. Yeah.Kelly Molson: And then yoga. They did yoga sessions at the Natural Museum. And I just think that's such a massive opportunity, isn't it? So what might that be that you're going to instill?Katie Weller: So with that, we've had so much excitement. So every time I say, "Oh, the out of hours tours..." Since coming out of the pandemic, people, they want new experiences and they want to do things which are Instagrammable if you like. "Look at me. I'm in an empty National Gallery." It might not be empty. We're probably setting up for events and there's curators walking around and conservation, but that's all part of the experience. Also for me, we're in central London. There's that beautiful hour between six and seven where a lot of the attractions have closed. People are milling about because they're waiting to go to dinner or they're waiting to go to the theatre. Actually. let's plot some tours in and use that time where they can come in and have an absolutely fantastic experience.Katie Weller: People are willing to pay a higher price point because it's more exclusive. So I have no doubt that they will do very well. Our partners are so keen to get those up on sale. And yeah, I can't wait. And we will develop other products as we go, but initially we'll just be pushing out the daytime tours followed by the out of hours.Kelly Molson: Yeah, that's a great time as well, what you said, isn't it? Six to seven, because it is a bit of a dead time while, like you said, you're waiting between stuff or maybe waiting for the later train home so it's not busy.Katie Weller: Exactly. And we're right in the middle of London so it's like all these people wandering about, "Come in, come in." But again, we're going to make sure that it really is about that quality experience. So we'll only have 25 people on that tour which makes it a bit more special as well.Kelly Molson: Yeah, I love that level of exclusivity. It does make it feel like a real treat, doesn't it?Katie Weller: Definitely.Kelly Molson: All right. So let's talk about the benefits. What is this going to bring to the Gallery? Because it's obviously going to bring in revenue, but it's going to hopefully bring in a new audience.Katie Weller: Well, that's it, isn't it? It's bringing in those new markets, those new audiences, which we wouldn't necessarily be able to target otherwise or it would be really, really expensive for us to do so. So that's why we use trade because that maximises our marketing budget as well. So it will be really interesting to sort of review who is coming in and we'll capture all of this data as and when bookings come through. And yeah, we'll just go from there. But I can't remember what your question was now because I've just gone off.Kelly Molson: It was about what is it going to bring the Gallery? But I think one of the things that you just mentioned there is about using trade again. And I think this is quite important to highlight. Because one of the questions that I was going to ask you was where's the price point for these and how do you buy them? Are they available to buy? Can we go and get a tour now? But you're actually going to sell them through a third party.Katie Weller: Yeah, so I guess it's a little bit different here because at the National Gallery, there's no products to necessarily push out. Or there is, but through commercial, like the exhibitions, but we don't touch those. Or they are using us, I guess, as a bit of a trial to see how it goes with the tours, push them out to trade, iron out any problems. And it would make sense for them to sell it B2C, business to client, eventually. So that will probably happen. But initially, if you want to book a ticket it would be through those trade platforms, like I said before, Golden Tours or Expedia or any of those platforms. Because I guess it really is probably geared more towards the international market, but it is domestic as well. And something really important to remember, pre pandemic, the Gallery, 80% were international tourists, 20% were domestic. Obviously, there's been a bit of a change during the pandemic, but it's really important that we don't forget about our international audience.Kelly Molson: Yeah, definitely. And I guess it's a good way to trial it working as well, isn't it, rather than committing? So if you think about the process of where attractions have been able to reopen after the pandemic but it has to be buy a ticket in advance, times ticketing as well. That's a big financial commitment to make in terms of your digital processes. Someone's got to manage that process, get it all up and running. This gives you a way of operating like that but without those digital financial commitments until you know that it's working.Katie Weller: Absolutely. And it makes it nice and easy for the team who will then push it out because everything's done for them. They can just go, "Okay, that process has worked well, that hasn't." And they will review it and I'm positive they will push out the tours. When I say to people that we're doing tours they are, "Has the National Gallery not got tours anyway?" And they do. Sometimes they put on random free tours, but it's not necessarily advertised, "It's this time every day." So it is sort of as and when people will come in, "I'll join this tour." So we just want to put structured tours in place like most other places do, like the British Museum. We did a lot of benchmarking for the price points. I know you mentioned about those. We do have to be careful because we are free of charge. But that's why we did a benchmarking exercise and things might change.Katie Weller: We might push these out and actually those out of hours tours, they might go up in price. They're 35 pounds for the out of hours, which I think is fair. And I think we don't want to outsell... Is that the right word, outsell? Because you think some people, if we go into corporate, they've got a lot of money to spend. But actually your general tourist, you don't want to push it out so that it's not attainable. Does that make sense?Kelly Molson: Yeah, it can't be unaffordable to people, especially to a new demographic that you're hoping to bring to Gallery and that going back to what we said about making it accessible for more people and for all. You don't want to kind of out price yourself. But then also, on the flip side, it is a very exclusive tour. 25 people on a tour, that's very small. That's really kind of exclusive, isn't it, for an out of hours? So yeah, you've got to try and get that balance right to what that's going to look like.Katie Weller: And again, it's all test and trial, isn't it? And I think if they're really in demand, we can push it up a bit, then fantastic. Great. But yeah, again, it's just a matter of reviewing it and seeing what happens. But I'm hoping for lots of sold out tours.Kelly Molson: I have no doubt there will be. But we're recording this. This is the end of March we're recording it. It's the 30th March today. When do the tours go on sale?Katie Weller: So actually one of our partners went live yesterday.Kelly Molson: Oh wow.Katie Weller: So you'll see, over the next couple of weeks, ticketing will go live. It's been a bit challenging because there's been so many loopholes to go through. And there were no contracts in place so I've been working very closely with legal and with finance. And putting these processes in place, it's things that you don't think about when you're developing a product. And we've just had to make sure that we've got that right ahead of going live. And we had to put in a system that would fully support travel trade as well for our ticketing and making sure that we can connect live with partners. So there's been lots of stuff going on in the background. But the tours start April 12th.Kelly Molson: Oh, amazing. Literally, a couple of weeks.Katie Weller: And then I decided to get married a few months... I don't know why I did this to myself.Kelly Molson: When is the wedding?Katie Weller: June, June the 6th. I keep forgetting the date. So obviously, I'm the whole team at the moment. I am travel trade so I've already given Claire, my head of department, the heads up, "I hope you're available because I might need a bit of help." But we'll build and we'll expand as we get into next year and what have you.Kelly Molson: Yeah, definitely. And listen, hopefully, you'll only get married once.Katie Weller: Exactly. Well, let's hope for the best. We got through the pandemic, so...Kelly Molson: Oh, Katie, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure to talk to you today. I love the passion and enthusiasm that you've got for this.Katie Weller: It's been lovely. Oh, thank you.Kelly Molson: I'm looking forward to coming and visiting as well.Katie Weller: Yes.Kelly Molson: But before we go, I always ask our guests to recommend a book. So something that they love. It can be a personal choice, it can be a work related book. But yeah, just something that you'd like to share with our listeners.Katie Weller: So this book, you do have to take it with a pinch of salt. But it is such a good talking point. Let me know if you've read it. It's called the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.Kelly Molson: I have not read this.Katie Weller: You have to read this. So basically, in a nutshell, without spoiling too much, the Five Love Languages... So basically, he's looking at couples and he says that everyone's got a different love language. So the five of them, I've written them down so I don't forget, words of affirmation. So you might prefer it if your partner is, "Oh, you look lovely today. I love you," that might be your love language. Physical touch, so you might like it if your partner is very touchy, feely. Acts of service, so if they mow the lawn or do the washing up. I know for a lot of all people they're like-Kelly Molson: All of these things.Katie Weller: Yeah, you'd like every one, but they do say you normally have two. Quality time, so going out on day trips, going to the beach and stuff like that. Or receiving gifts, so that might... And they say it fills your love tank. It is a bit cheesy. It fills your love tank. So you normally have one or two that are your most prominent ones. For me, mine is quality time. I love experiencing. That's why I'm in this industry. Experiences and doing things. But my best friend, hers is acts of service. Or if he does the washing up she is so happy. Her love tank is full to the brim.Kelly Molson: That is really funny.Katie Weller: Isn't it?Kelly Molson: I've never heard of this before. I'm going to read this. This is really interesting. Mine would definitely be the time one as well. I think that it's so important. So you find this out about yourself and I guess then that sets you on your path of, "We need to make time for these things in our relationship?"Katie Weller: Well, what's really interesting about it is usually you reflect your love language on someone else because you think that's what they want. And this is where communication breakdown comes from. I think the couples that he's talking about, they're in bad times. And so it's like, "How could you actually communicate? He's cleaned up for you, but actually you are not very touchies because it's not your love language. But if he'd gone on a day trip with you, that might not mean much to him, but to you, "wow." So it's more about understanding what each other's love language is. So actually you might have to do things in a different way to what you would want. Do you know what? It's good for a pub chat.Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. This is a book to read.Katie Weller: Oh, you can read it in a day as well. Yeah.Kelly Molson: Love it. I'm going to pop out and buy a copy of this. Oh, but listeners, if you want to win a copy of this, head over to our Twitter account and retweet this episode announcement with the words, "I want Katie's book," and you will be in the chance of finding out your own love language. I feel like this podcast has gone a whole different way.Katie Weller: Well, I know. I know. I can't wait for you to read it. You have to come to the Gallery and we'll go for a lovely coffee and have a chat.Kelly Molson: I think that would be a treat, Katie. I'm going to do that. Thank you. Thanks so much for coming on today.Katie Weller: Oh, you're so welcome.Kelly Molson: Good luck with the tour launch.Katie Weller: Thank you so much. Thank you, Kelly.Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese,, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

The Book Interrupted women finish their discussion on “What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” by Jon Young, then share their final book reports. Do they recommend the book? Discussion Points: The last chapter Listening to the birds Exercises and techniques learned from the book Mindful meditation, nature, and forest bathing Forest bathing and wine tasting Thinking about your senses Do we recommend the book? The Challenge - listen to a bird and replicate their song Final book reports Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young Bird Language Audio Library Jon Young

The Book Interrupted women continue their discussion on “What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” by Jon Young, exploring topics of balance, individuality in animals, bird calls, and learning from nature. Discussion Points: Did you like the book? Can being out in nature create a balance? Time management Connecting our book cycles together - what parallels do you see? Putting a sail on a canoe What did you take away from the book? Animals are individuals and listen to each other Learning from nature and paying attention, being part of the ecosystem not apart from it Learning the bird behaviour and calls Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young Bird Language Audio Library Jon Young Malcolm Gladwell Books Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

The Book Interrupted women share their personal journals while reading “What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” by Jon Young. They continued on to the group discussion, exploring whether energy and emotions are contagious across species, birds calls, pet versus city versus country birds, if they liked reading the book, and much more. Discussion Points: Personal journals How did the members like reading the book? Individual types of birds and their calls - can you distinguish them? From Collision to Connection chapter Energy and emotions are contagious - can the birds sense your emotions? Pet birds City park birds versus country birds Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young Bird Language Audio Library Jon Young Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell

The Book Interrupted women continue their conversation on “What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” by Jon Young, exploring topics of bird language, multitasking, interconnectedness, naturalists versus naturists, and so much more. The episode ends with a new challenge: can you master/mimic a bird call and spell it? Discussion Points: Technical aspect of the book Learning bird language and what it means Is it in our DNA to connect us to other animals, sounds, etc? Multitasking - is it good for you? Interconnectedness of everything Jon Young’s learning from Indigenous groups throughout the world Categorizing bird sounds and how other animals listen to them Naturist versus naturalist - which one is naked? Bird call challenge - can you master/mimic a bird call and spell it? The recordings of the bird calls - did you listen to them? Pop culture tangents Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young Bird Language Audio Library Jon Young Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens The Vinyl Cafe My Big Fat Greek Wedding

The Book Interrupted women continue Season Two with “What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” by Jon Young. Each member expresses individually how they feel either before reading or beginning to read “What the Robin Knows”, then they continue the discussion into a group chat. Through the topics of sit spots, Scouts, bird watching and putting random found things in your mouth, they talk about their lives, inspired by the words of the book. Discussion Points: Personal journals - what are the first impressions of the book? Do you have a sit spot/magic spot? Were you ever a Scout, Brownie, or Girl Guide? Animal and bird watching Do you put random found things in your mouth? What animals and birds do you see close to your home? Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer Your Parenting Mojo How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature by Scott D. Sampson The Life of Birds by David Attenborough

The following episode of Book Interrupted is Off The Shelf. Hold on to your bookmarks! The Book Interrupted women talk about “little t” traumas in their lives and bonus tarot card readings from Kim. What happened to them and what will happen to them? Discussion Points: Sarah’s wax on the eyeballs story Meredith’s Great Dane dog stories Lindsay’s falling Christmas tree story Kim’s bike accident and maxi pad arms story Lia’s curdled chocolate milk and public vomiting story Kara’s acne drawing story What do you think about the tarot card readings for the members - Page of Pentacles, Justice, Two of Cups, Three of Pentacles, High Priestess, Nine of Wands? Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted: Book Interrupted Website Book Interrupted YouTube Channel Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young

Have you ever wondered how to spend an entire day outdoors with your learners? How do you structure your time? What games do you play? What "lessons" can we explore?To help us dig into these questions, we invited Manon McPeters (from Wilderness Awareness School) back for Part 2!  Her passion and creativity for playing, learning and teaching outdoors is palpable! You'll appreciate her vivid description of a "typical" day and how they use Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature by Jon Young to guide their intentions.  My biggest takeaway from speaking with Manon was when she described what "peak fun" is and how we can use that as a classroom management strategy. This notion of reading the flow of our learners' energies is such an important key in how we observe, listen, and respond to the needs of our kids.  Want to learn a new nature game?! Manon gives a great description of how to play blindfold ninja!  Novelty nature note:Manon shared some tracking gems!  A domestic dog often has more ‘relaxed' foot muscles. The toes will be more splayed apart, the X negative space will be less defined and the star shaped peak will not be as high.  But when you're observing the track of a wild dog, it will have a more sharply defined X.  Cat has a C shape in negative space. Only one lead toe, not two lead toes. Usually don't register claws in tracks.  All toes can fit into a heel pad.  Toes of a dog will NOT fit into heel pad space.  My novelty nature note was about black bears and how their cubs can weigh less than a pound at birth and gain over 20 pounds in just their first 3 months of life. 

Join me this for this week's episode where we are rejoined by guest, Jon Young, as we dive deeper into what it looks like to become the change we wish to see in the world and how we believe passion projects & events are a great way for others to experience what we believe may be missing in today's society…love. You won't want to miss this inspiring episode! For more information on Rising Phoenix Transformations, you can follow along on IG @risingphoenixtransformations or online at https://www.risingphoenixtransformations.com/    

This week I am joined by Jon Young, owner of Rising Phoenix Transformations, where we talk about how he overcame drug addiction and found healing & transformation during his time in prison and how he now helps to support others in their own transformation journeys.  You won't want to miss this inspiring episode!   For more information on Rising Phoenix Transformations, you can follow along on IG @risingphoenixtransformations or online at  https://www.risingphoenixtransformations.com/  

Chris Green, our guest today, is the Director of The Guelph Outdoor School in Ontario, Canada. Website: https://www.theguelphoutdoorschool.com/aboutFacebook: The Guelph Outdoor SchoolInstagram: @TheGuelphOutdoorSchool  We begin by talking about how to make land acknowledgements more personal and authentic.  Chris suggests that we can do this by thinking about our relationship to the land. Guelph Outdoor School was inspired by the book Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature, by Jon Young.  Why? Because it's an attributes based curriculum that prepares learners with practical skills (like cardinal directions) but also ‘soft skills' (like learning about cooperation).  Chris also talks about how we live in an era that is ‘information rich but connection poor.' He believes that outdoor school not only helps disrupt this trend but it also helps to rebuild our connection and relationships with our land and community.  Chris describes how to use the Art of Questioning with your learners.  He paints a picture of finding a balance with the different levels of questions that you ask.  Level 1: confidence building, observable, simple.  E.g., “What colour is the mallards head over there?” Level 2: digging a bit deeper, have to explore a little bit more to gather more information, expanded observation, inquisitive focus. E.g., “What direction is the worm track going? Are you sure? How do you know?” Level 3: extension questions that sometimes can't be answered. E.g., “How does this worm see where it's going?”There's nothing wrong, however, with giving answers and information.  In fact, there's a common saying: “never throw seeds at unprepped soil…but if the soil is prepped, then give the seeds.”  Chris ends our time by talking about the importance of planning for down time – he calls it “making time for timelessness!” Novelty Nature Note: *you can determine the age of a sand dollar by counting the rings on it, like you do with a tree.*a woodpecker can coil it's tongue around it's brain!

Manon McPeters is a lead nature instructor trainer at the Wilderness Awareness School which is based in Duvall, Washington.  She has been working with the 8 shields framework for mentoring for over a decade and also grew up as a teen student of the Wilderness Awareness program.  Her passions are engaging with the human body and observing the connection between brain and body and how they collaborate together.Manon McPeters Instagram: asarum.caudatum Wilderness Awareness School:Instagram: wilderness_awarenessTwitter:  @teamcoyoteWebsite: https://www.wildernessawareness.orgKamana Independent Study courses: https://www.wildernessawareness.org/adult-programs/kamana/Book: Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature by Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown. http://coyotesguide.comThe Art of Questioning is an approach used in coyote's mentoring. I wonder how I can use questioning to support inquiry and nudge learning in new directions? This isn't formulaic or a set of check boxes that we need to complete.  We work with what our students are curious about.  What is catching their attention?  Manon also talks about how we can use storytelling as a way to infuse and weave information during our interactions with our learners.  I also ask Manon to talk about the ‘trickster transformer' mentoring approach.  It's a very powerful tool but we need to have a strong relationship with our learners first.  Trust is everything!  Novelty Nature Note:I've been learning how to identify the difference between a Coopers hawk and a Sharp Shinned hawk.  The Cooper's hawk is about 6 inches bigger than a Sharpie – but also their outer tail feathers are shorter than the rest of the tail feathers – so it looks rounded or like a rainbow Manon's Novelty Nature Note:Woodpeckers have retractable tongues!  It spirals around their skull or even around their eyes. 

This program explores a pervasive ailment of our age which is Nature Deficit Disorder. “The more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need.” Louv also adds, “Conservation is no longer enough. For everything we receive from nature, we need to give back, we need to nurture nature, as much as it nurtures us.” Richard Louv's writings and books have helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature. He is cofounder and chair emeritus of the nonprofit Children & Nature Network. In 2008 he was awarded the Audubon Medal which he shares with such notables as Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson, and Sir David Attenborough. Richard Louv is the author of many books including:Last Child in the Woods (Algonquin Books 2008), The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age (Algonquin Books 2012) and Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives—and Save Theirs (Algonquin Books 2019)Interview Date: 10/8/2020 Tags: Richard Louv, generation amnesia, Nature Deficit Disorder, Glenn Albrecht, Symbiocene Era, Ecozoic Era, Anthropocene Era, E.O. Wilson, Thomas Berry, Rouge River Ford Motor Plant, William McDonough, Singapore, Douglas Tallamy, Homegrown National Park, native plants, wildlife corridors, social capital, Jon Young, 8 Shields, Sit Spots, Children & Nature Network, octopus, Paul Dayton, reciprocity, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Social Change/Politics, Science

In this introductory episode for a series specifically about tracking, I introduce the concept of tracking by discussing what tracking is, why we as humans are all equipped to be trackers, why our history as trackers contributes to our capability to read words on paper, among other things, and the possibilities and feats of skilled trackers. I also discuss some basic terminology, talk about the meta-level questions of Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, which outlines the various arts of tracking including identification, interpretation, aging, trailing, ecology, and intuition respectively. Next I discuss some techniques for learning how to track including the prerequisite of curiosity, the importance of dirt time, how to study tracks, utilizing animal forms (moving like the animal), the importance of the sit spot, and the benefits of tracking with a buddy. I also give a short primer on the concept of inner tracking, discuss some resources for getting started, and give a brief overview of what to expect in the coming series.Videos:The Great Dance: A Hunter's StoryWeb Resources:Jonah Evans' Website and Tracking Schools Directory – A great place to find a school near you that teaches trackingPrinceton University's “Guide to Animal Tracking” – A great basic primer on the practical aspects of trackingKim Cabrera's Bear Tracker Materials – Database of accurate track drawings, videos, links to resources such as the “Animals Don't Cover Their Tracks” Facebook PageThe Art of Tracking Radio – A free podcast that goes in depth on many tracking topics with many leaders and big names in the tracking world“The Magic of Reading” Blogpost – A blog article describing Bill Hill's research into the way human's read and why our millions of years of tracking as a species contributes to our ability to read and imagine images and stories while doing soBook Recommendations:Animal Tracking Basics – by: Jon Young, Tiffany MorganTracker's Field Guide – by: James LoweryMammal Tracks and Sign: A Guide to North American Species – by: Mark Elbroch & Casey McFarlandBlood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West – by: Hampton Sides