Podcasts about tracker school

One of the key aspects of wildness is adaptation. Being able to change and adapt to different needs, in different environments, is a cornerstone of resilience. While a large part of this involves getting to know the land where you dwell, it helps to know multiple landscapes. It can teach you how to think on your toes and figure out how to do things in new ways. While rewilding leans more toward longer term ancestral living within a culture, and survival is more about meeting immediate needs in a context removed from culture, survival skills are a necessary base that culture builds on top of. In this way, people into rewilding should consider practicing survival skills in multiple environments, as a way of building the foundations of resilience. To talk with me about this today, is Tom McElroy from Wild Survival Skills. Tom McElroy has taught Survival and Primitive Skills to more than 15,000 students worldwide over the past 23 years.  During his twenties Tom spent an entire year living 'off the land'.  He built and lived in a shelter made from forest material, rubbed sticks together to make fire, purified water naturally and hunted, fished and gathered his own food.  Tom has taught at various schools around the world, including Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School. He holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and Geography from Rutgers University and a Master's in International Policy related to Indigenous Peoples from the University of Connecticut and has studied with indigenous people all over the world. Notes:InstagramYouTubeWild Skills SurvivalDesert Island SurvivalSupport the show

It was through Tom Brown Jr and his Tracker School that I came to meet John.  It was 1984, on a farm in western New Jersey, and he was an instructor at the school, and spending seven days with him and the rest of the staff and Tom changed the direction of my life in a radical way. John was pulled to New Mexico in 1986, where he founded The Tracking Project, and began running rites of passage camps for boys and girls, as well as adult trainings and retreats. I was incredibly fortunate to spend time in his Nurturing the Roots Mentoring Program, where he had gathered elders from Australia, Sweden, Hawaii, Mexico, Brazil, and across North America.   Learning and connecting with those elders and John and his staff was a revelation that blew my mind, because they held a mentoring space that was unlike anything I had experienced before.    This experience changed the way I tracked animals, connected to nature, taught and led my camps, trainings and programs. It even affected my personal and community relationships   In this first of a series of conversations, we dive into what learning tracking does to us and for us as human beings, and John describes his apprenticeship with some of the best trackers in the world.    Please enjoy Episode #133. Website:   https://thetrackingproject.org/ Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/thetrackingproject/ Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/TheTrackingProject/ YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@thetrackingproject Forest Educator Bonus Content Page: http://foresteducator.com/bonuscontent Join the Forest Educator Patreon! https://patreon.com/ForestEducatorPodcast Connect with Ricardo: https://www.foresteducator.com/ https://www.theforestboxforkids.com/ https://www.hawkcircle.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-sierra-5980931/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_forest_educator_podcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RicardohawkSierra

“There's an intelligence that emerges out of being together in a connective way, that we can call The Keeper, or we can call it The Emergent Mind in interpersonal neurobiology.”"It was an example for me of what I want to build as a community and how I want to build it and participate with people."Susu, Martha, and Patrick joined us to share about their transformational experience designing a weekend program together for the first time, using principles like Designing with Natural Cycles and the Ten Stones. Everyone that participated was moved by the way the experience unfolded, and what is possible when we slow down and listen deeply to The Keeper, remaining present to what most wants to emerge in that moment within the group. If you have been considering starting a program or offering something, this conversation will inspire you and give you insight into what's possible. Enjoy!Janet (Susu) Marley is earning an MA in Ecopsychology from Naropa University. She is currently researching styles of governance in traditional indigenous societies of Turtle Island and how such wisdom ways can positively influence contemporary ecocentric and regenerative residential communities and bioregional initiatives. She is a dedicated student of the Tracker School, and committed to carrying the wisdom of the lineage into the future. Janet is a community organizer with an abiding interest in co-creating intentional living and learning centers that model and teach connection and reciprocity with the natural world. She is integrating the 8 shields design model into this work. Her gifts and roles include mentor, healer, event producer, and guide to ceremony, council, rites of passage, ecotherapy, and trauma integration work. She is a Montessori-trained educator and mom of two young children.Martha Meacham is a professional educator with a Ph.D. in Education living in the Austin, Texas area. After decades in higher education, she is focusing on bringing people together who want to explore deep relationships within nature, themselves and others. She brings natural design principles (8 Shields) to her classroom for first time-in-college students to reflect on what they need from their college experience to successfully accomplish what they want. As a Niasziih practitioner, she promotes mind~body~spirit~soul wellness, rooted in the Earth. Aligned with this, she is an Apprentice Tracker, and a Quest protector. She has also learned Tellington TTouch Method for humans and companion animals from Linda Tellington-Jones. Learn more about Martha's healing work at heartfelttouch.usPatrick Monroney lucked into some great mentors and teachers in the outdoors when he moved to Alaska in 1987. He learned fishing, plants, and survival, and started an outdoor school for kids and adults. Patrick has taught flora, plantlore, fishing, survival skills, leadership and community building to children and adults for thirty years. He is a cancer survivor, and his current communities are the Tracker School Keepers group and the Helpers Mentoring Society.Show Notes & ReferencesIf you want to learn more about the Ten Stones, join us for Embodying Unity With Nature, which starts on Oct 17, 2024. We are also holding a free event, Harmonizing with Nature, on Oct 3rd, 2024Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that Tom Brown Jr leaves quite a 'wake' in his passing.  He's taught thousands of students, both through his books and Tracker School, and he's been a 'force of nature' in these past five decades.   He's been a mentor, a guide, a father figure to many whose fathers were absent, and he won't ever fully know the depth of his presence or impact had on those who leaned in to his teaching.    He was complicated, and a little wild.  Untamed, I guess I'd call it.  Kinda like the ocean, where you never turn your back on him if you could help it!  Not dangerous, but man, that piercing gaze that was like X-ray vision, peering into your soul.    It didn't happen often, but when he'd mention something he'd seen in my tracks, about my life or work, it would always be spot on.  Every time.    I took a lot of classes back in the 80's and 90's, and was an assistant instructor on many classes too, and he always had something new to teach, that I had never heard or seen before, so I knew he was just scratching the surface of his skills and abilities, even in the 'advanced classes'.    He didn't tolerate mind games, or time wasters or fools, and I learned a lot about boundaries, and inner strength and conviction from observing his teaching style over the years.   On the flip side, he was funny.  REALLY FUNNY, and he had that type of humor that was 'old school' but also not aimed at putting someone down in a mean, or harsh way.   When there were students who were more serious or sensitive, his gentle side would come out as well.  It was always a joy to see. This episode is about the impact he had on my life.   I trust he's tracking in the canyons of the Other Side, following Grandfather or one of his older instructors through the sage.  Journey well and good medicine to you, my friend. Forest Educator Bonus Content Page: http://foresteducator.com/bonuscontent Join the Forest Educator Patreon! https://patreon.com/ForestEducatorPodcast Connect with Ricardo: https://www.foresteducator.com/ https://www.theforestboxforkids.com/ https://www.hawkcircle.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-sierra-5980931/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_forest_educator_podcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RicardohawkSierra

This episode originally aired on November 4th, 2022. Today's guest is Claire Dunn, here with us to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection. Speaking to us from Melbourne, Australia, Claire is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator, and founder of Nature's Apprentice, a platform for education and guidance in rewilding our souls and the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals in ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soul-centric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony, and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of the memoir, My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild – and the recently released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul exploring how we might embody wild consciousness even while living in the setting of a city. Topics Covered: Rewilding as a new human movement Cultivation of a "Wild Mind" Claire's childhood and background in the environmental movement  How Claire's introduction to primitive earth skills led her more deeply into the human nature relationship  Richard Lou The Last Child in the Woods Vitamin N (Nature)  Tom Brown's Tracker School in New Jersey Australia's first Independent Wilderness Studies Program Claire's one-year self-initiated deep nature immersion The sacred order of survival Bill Plotkin Claire's emergence from her immersion, and sharing the immersion experience with the world Nature's Apprentice Rewilding the Urban Soul - Claire Dunn My Year Without Matches Jon Young's Core Routines of Nature Common threads of people who come to Claire for instruction What is a vision quest?  The urgency of climate change Bringing back the species of the wild human Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone Connect with Claire: Her website, naturesapprentice.com.au/ Claire's Books: Rewilding the Urban Soul My Year Without Matches Follow her on Instagram @_natures_apprentice_ Claire's Facebook

This episode originally aired on November 4th, 2022. Today's guest is Claire Dunn, here with us to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection. Speaking to us from Melbourne, Australia, Claire is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator, and founder of Nature's Apprentice, a platform for education and guidance in rewilding our souls and the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals in ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soul-centric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony, and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of the memoir, My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild – and the recently released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul exploring how we might embody wild consciousness even while living in the setting of a city. Topics Covered: Rewilding as a new human movement Cultivation of a "Wild Mind" Claire's childhood and background in the environmental movement  How Claire's introduction to primitive earth skills led her more deeply into the human nature relationship  Richard Lou The Last Child in the Woods Vitamin N (Nature)  Tom Brown's Tracker School in New Jersey Australia's first Independent Wilderness Studies Program Claire's one-year self-initiated deep nature immersion The sacred order of survival Bill Plotkin Claire's emergence from her immersion, and sharing the immersion experience with the world Nature's Apprentice Rewilding the Urban Soul - Claire Dunn My Year Without Matches Jon Young's Core Routines of Nature Common threads of people who come to Claire for instruction What is a vision quest?  The urgency of climate change Bringing back the species of the wild human Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone Connect with Claire: Her website, naturesapprentice.com.au/ Claire's Books: Rewilding the Urban Soul My Year Without Matches Follow her on Instagram @_natures_apprentice_ Claire's Facebook

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

“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.

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.

In this episode of “In Stride,” Sinead is joined by horse development specialist Jake Biernbaum. Jake completed a two-year Horse Management Program at Michigan State before working for Parelli Natural Horsemanship on the Ranch Crew and Tour Team. Jake also spent two years as a part of the Parelli Mastery program, graduating as a 3-Star Instructor and Horse Development Specialist. He traveled the country helping horses and humans for 5 years as a Licensed Parelli Instructor. Before his horse career, Jake spent almost 5 years learning at Tom Brown's Tracker School, where he practiced tracking, wilderness survival, and primitive skills. Jake now teaches clinics across the country and runs a business out of Pear Tree Farm in Citra, Florida, where he builds successful relationships between horses and humans. In this episode, Jake discusses various topics related to horse and human training, including: • Working for Pat and Linda Parelli and the education he gained from that experience. • His approach to teaching pressure, feel, and timing to horses and humans. • How expectation plays a role in a rider's relationship with their horse. • Identifying fear in horses and humans and helping them overcome it. • The difference in the nature of sport horses vs. recreational horses. Join Jake and Sinead in this exciting conversation on developing horses to be productive members of their community.

Lords: * Alex * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSjSkaBRD7k&list=PLBk6-z6v3pDKi3Q-9MeqUfupJswozircH&index=7 * John Topics: * That time I spent 4 days fasting in the woods * Twins! Coming soon! Ahhhhh! * The Zelda 1 second quest * https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/806592-now-the-world-has-gone-to-bed-darkness-won-t-engulf Microtopics: * Joyful communities. * Whether discord logs can be subpoenaed. * Encoding all your mail in ROT13 to keep them safe from the snoops at the NSA. * Finishing with your DSP design work so your employer sends you into the basement to make cardboard boxes. * Someone in the early 2000s with a high pitched voice. * Remembering your grandma's phone number from when you were six but not remembering any phone numbers since then. * Thinky Puzzle Games. * An Alan Hazelden thing. * Tom Brown's Tracker School. * Going into the woods and sitting in one spot for four days. * A good, productive, safe time. * Keeping control of your emotions. * How to know when to stop. * Doing a ritual at sunrise. * Having animal encounters. * Trees dripping water on you. * Doing the most boring thing for four days straight so you can never be bored again. * A really cool thing to do in your twenties. * Sonic showers screaming at you until you're clean. * Lacking the experience to understand what's coming for you. * Going through some shit and loving it. * What if it all works out? * The experience of knowing twins. * Taking advantage of the Groupon for college tuition. * Hanging your fears on milestones. * Taking your parental leave consecutively. * Daycare as a microcosm of communal living. * Showing people what you're working on. * Making a living putting your kids on social media until your kids get old enough to express that they don't like it. * Wearing a shirt saying "I do not consent to be photographed." * A conversation with a five year old about scrub jays. * Sharing media with an allowlist. * Setting permissions on who can see your photos. * Sharing photos with your family by handing out USB drives. * A visual novel that is extremely interested in your personal financial information. * A pen connected to a matrix of hundreds of other pens so you can sign your name hundreds of times at once. * The Zelda one-second quest. * Naming yourself Zelda as a shortcut for understanding this topic. * Naming your character Zelda without understanding the consequences. * Red bubbles that take your sword away. * An obvious door that you can walk through. * Iwata Asks. * Accidentally using only half the space available. * Zelda randomizers. * SMZ3. * How to make Super Mario World a metroidvania. * Marvin putting in work. * Capturing a particular level of snark. * Reading books in high school that you won't understand until you're 30. * The California Raisins as the sequel to the Grapes of Wrath. * The kind of person who works really hard in high school. * Xanthan gum. * Trochaic something or other. * I had a theory about music and then I made all these friends!

You have to become aware of who you are as a human being. We depend on other people to tell us who we are, we're not confident in ourselves to say: I can know myself, I don't believe this to be true. - Mark Tollefson Are You Stressed Out Lately? Take a deep breath with the M21™ wellness guide: a simple yet powerful 21 minute morning system that melts stress and gives you more energy through 6 science-backed practices and breathwork. Click HERE to download for free. Is Your Energy Low? Looking for a cleaner brain fuel? Just one daily serving of Ketone-IQ™️ will help you feel sharper, more focused, and ready to take on the day. Click HERE to try HVMN's Ketone-IQ™ + Save 20% with the code "JOSH" *Review The WF Podcast & WIN $150 in wellness prizes! *Join The Facebook Group Wellness + Wisdom Episode 521 Mark Tollefson, a mentor and vision quest leader, guiding people through rites of passage into their most authentic selves, joins Josh Trent for the first time on the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast to share his journey back to nature and spirituality, and the lessons he learned throughout his life about happiness, wisdom, and wellness. What does it mean to live a spiritual life? In this episode, Mark and Josh discuss the purpose of vision quests and how the modern vision quest has adapted to our society, why living the "right way" won't bring you happiness, and what it means to love without control.   Listen To Episode 521 As Mark Tollefson Uncovers: [01:30] Celebration Of Men's Spiritual Awakening Mark Tollefson The differences Mike sees between California and Austin. 405 Tim Corcoran | Vision Quest: How To Find Your Place In The Ecology of Life, Purpose Mountain & Spiritual Courage His journey to vision quests through a book. Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking by Tom Brown How he faced cultural misappropriation and found a way to make vision quests understandable to modern people. Josh's experience on a vision quest. Traditional Native American quest VS modern quest. How the quest celebrates men's spiritual awakening.   [19:30] Embarking On A Quest The reason why quest participants become a family after only 3 days. Why we should fall in love with people every day and why we don't anymore. The different levels of intensity, mythologies, and types of quests. Why we have to allow ourselves to be claimed by nature. 510 SOLOCAST | Rite of Passage: What Your Ancestors Are Trying To Tell You What it means to live a spiritual life and why people spiritually bypass. The importance of knowing who you are as a human being and the consequences of lying to yourself.   [34:10] Searching For Answers Within Us How the demographics of quests have changed throughout the years. Why people are miserable even when they have lived the "right way." 512 Alison Armstrong: Unconscious Emasculation, What Women Don't Understand About Men + How To Get The Love You Want The three core griefs we have about ourselves, other people, and the world. How we bury the feeling that there is something bigger than you in the world. Why we need to stop believing what other people say about us and start asking better questions and letting the universe reflect back to us what the answers could be. The relational space between people. 416 Ben Stewart | Awakening In The Midst of Crisis How we can put the universe together moment by moment.   [52:40] Self Introspection How talk therapy is a complementary tool in the search for who we are. Why elders never tell you directly what to do. Shortening the cycle of recommitment. Why committing to hard work is often more important than having talent. Essentials for introspection: Going in nature, building an altar, and disconnecting. The Map of Consciousness Explained: A Proven Energy Scale to Actualize Your Ultimate Potential by David Hawkins How spiritual learning never actually ends. Allowing yourself to stop to be found when you get lost. The essence of committing to something, and why intentions need motivation.   [01:18:10] Healing Generational + Collective Trauma Tim Corcoran 499 SOLOCAST | Emotional Epigenetics: The Missing Link In Holistic Medicine Today Epigenetically we remember what life in a village is like. We are responsible for taking care of our generational trauma. How Mike's work honors and helps heal the collective trauma and why he doesn't work in a binary system. Dancing With a Ghost: Exploring Indian Reality by Ruppert Ross Why we have to come together in order to heal. Alan Watts The reason we have to stop lying to ourselves so that we can collectively heal.   [01:35:50] Love Without Control Why Mike finds commitment to change to be a crucial step in growth. What loving without control looks like. Why expectations kill relationships. How we are conditioned to love with control and how ceremony can help remove this conditioning if we commit to healing. Why we have to build our connection to nature and spirit. How we can find the capacity in ourselves and others to awaken. The prophecy of the elders.   [01:54:00] Transforming Our Emotions Why Josh was angry at the collective. Why it's our responsibility to heal despite our unconscious incompetence. The challenge of having children. E. E. Cummings Four basic emotions: Anger, sadness, fear, and joy. Depression is a combination of anger and sadness. How Mike transformed his hate for the world into something better. Why Mike sees wellness as beautifying relational spaces and making peace. Discovery Sessions Mentoring with Mark Tollefson Vision Quest   Power Quotes From The Show The Wisdom Of Elders "Elders are crystal clear about who they are as human beings. They know their foibles, they know about anger, sadness, fear, joy, and they're able to feel and express those fully and completely in their day-to-day lives." - Mark Tollefson   The Land Will Claim Us "The land speaks. When we are born of this land, the lands will claim us. When we come here and make this land our home, the land will claim us. When we come here and sleep under these mountains, the land will claim us." - Mark Tollefson   Building The Connection "What we have to do with ourselves and our relationships is to be building our connection to nature and spirit as fast as the constructs of technology are being built around us." - Mark Tollefson   Links From Today's Show  Mark Tollefson 405 Tim Corcoran | Vision Quest: How To Find Your Place In The Ecology of Life, Purpose Mountain & Spiritual Courage Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking by Tom Brown 510 SOLOCAST | Rite of Passage: What Your Ancestors Are Trying To Tell You 512 Alison Armstrong: Unconscious Emasculation, What Women Don't Understand About Men + How To Get The Love You Want 416 Ben Stewart | Awakening In The Midst of Crisis The Map of Consciousness Explained: A Proven Energy Scale to Actualize Your Ultimate Potential by David Hawkins Tim Corcoran 499 SOLOCAST | Emotional Epigenetics: The Missing Link In Holistic Medicine Today Dancing With a Ghost: Exploring Indian Reality by Ruppert Ross Alan Watts E. E. Cummings Discovery Sessions Mentoring with Mark Tollefson Vision Quest Shop the Wellness Force Media Store breathwork.io Save 20% on LiftMode Products until February 13, 2023 with the code "JOSH20" Cured Nutrition - Save 20% with the CODE "WELLNESSFORCE" PLUNGE – Save $150 with the code “WELLNESSFORCE" HIGHER DOSE INFRARED MAT - Get 15% off with the code “WELLNESSFORCE15“ Organifi – Special 20% off to our listeners with the code ‘WELLNESSFORCE' HVMN - Get 20% off your Ketone IQ order with the code "JOSH" MitoZen – Save 10% with the code “WELLNESSFORCE” Paleovalley – Save 15% on your ACV Complex with the code ‘JOSH' NOOTOPIA - Save 10% with the code "JOSH10" Activation Products – Save 20% with the code “WELLNESSFORCE” NEUVANA - Save 15% with the code “WELLNESSFORCE” SENSATE - Save $25 on your order with the code "JOSH25" DRY FARM WINES - Get an extra bottle of Pure Natural Wine with your order for just 1¢ CHILISLEEP - Save 25% on Josh's favorite ChiliSleep products with the code "JOSH" ION - Save 15% off sitewide with the code ‘JOSH1KS' TOUPS - Save 15% with the code "JOSH" Feel Free from Botanic Tonics – Save 40% when you use the code ‘WELLNESS40′ Drink LMNT – Zero Sugar Hydration: Get your free LMNT Sample Pack, with any purchase BREATHE - Save 20% by using the code “PODCAST20” Essential Oil Wizardry: Save 10% with the code ‘WELLNESSFORCE' MY GREEN MATTRESS - Save up to $125 on your order with the code "JOSH" NEUROHACKER - Save 15% with the code "WELLNESSFORCE" ALIVE WATER - Save 33% on your first order with the code "JOSH33" M21 Wellness Guide Wellness Force Community Leave Wellness + Wisdom a review on Apple Podcasts Mark Tollefson Vision Quest Instagram Facebook   About Mark Tollefson Mark Tollefson has been teaching nature-based connection and facilitating transformation for 30 years. From a young age mentored by people intimately connected to their lineage and nature-based roots, he brings rich life experience and wisdom to his work. Mark has been a survival skills instructor at Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School, and the executive director of Wilderness Youth Project and the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens in Santa Barbara. He has owned a pub and restaurant, worked as a roughneck in the oil fields, helped open an international high school in New Zealand, and founded his own non-profit working to promote sustainable farming with the Maya of southern Belize. He has participated in and started many men's groups and has sat in a circle with men for many years. He has guided hundreds of people through rites of passage into holistic living and thinking, helping those he works with to step into a new paradigm of being that is based on Thriving Life, connected to our true purpose for being alive at this time.

Today's guest is Claire Dunn, here with us to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection. Speaking to us from Melbourne, Australia, Claire is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator, and founder of Nature's Apprentice, a platform for education and guidance in rewilding our souls and the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals in ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soul-centric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony, and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of the memoir, My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild – and the recently released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul exploring how we might embody wild consciousness even while living in the setting of a city. Topics Covered: Rewilding as a new human movement Cultivation of a "Wild Mind" Claire's childhood and background in the environmental movement  How Claire's introduction to primitive earth skills led her more deeply into the human nature relationship  Richard Lou The Last Child in the Woods Vitamin N (Nature)  Tom Brown's Tracker School in New Jersey Australia's first Independent Wilderness Studies Program Claire's one-year self-initiated deep nature immersion The sacred order of survival Bill Plotkin Claire's emergence from her immersion, and sharing the immersion experience with the world Nature's Apprentice Rewilding the Urban Soul - Claire Dunn My Year Without Matches John Young's Core Routines of Nature Common threads of people who come to Claire for instruction What is a vision quest?  The urgency of climate change Bringing back the species of the wild human Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone Connect with Claire: Her website, naturesapprentice.com.au/ Claire's Books: Rewilding the Urban Soul My Year Without Matches Follow her on Instagram @_natures_apprentice_ Claire's Facebook About Lady Farmer: Our Website @weareladyfarmer on Instagram Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC Leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you! Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com Get 15% off your order of all-natural plant fertilizers from BIOS Nutrients with the code LADYFARMER15. Original music by John Kingsley. The Good Dirt podcast is edited and engineered by Aleksandra van der Westhuizen and produced by Mary Ball. Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered as medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well being.

Today's guest is Claire Dunn, here with us to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection. Speaking to us from Melbourne, Australia, Claire is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator, and founder of Nature's Apprentice, a platform for education and guidance in rewilding our souls and the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals in ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soul-centric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony, and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of the memoir, My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild – and the recently released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul exploring how we might embody wild consciousness even while living in the setting of a city. Topics Covered: Rewilding as a new human movement Cultivation of a "Wild Mind" Claire's childhood and background in the environmental movement  How Claire's introduction to primitive earth skills led her more deeply into the human nature relationship  Richard Lou The Last Child in the Woods Vitamin N (Nature)  Tom Brown's Tracker School in New Jersey Australia's first Independent Wilderness Studies Program Claire's one-year self-initiated deep nature immersion The sacred order of survival Bill Plotkin Claire's emergence from her immersion, and sharing the immersion experience with the world Nature's Apprentice Rewilding the Urban Soul - Claire Dunn My Year Without Matches Jon Young's Core Routines of Nature Common threads of people who come to Claire for instruction What is a vision quest?  The urgency of climate change Bringing back the species of the wild human Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone Connect with Claire: Her website, naturesapprentice.com.au/ Claire's Books: Rewilding the Urban Soul My Year Without Matches Follow her on Instagram @_natures_apprentice_ Claire's Facebook About Lady Farmer: Our Website @weareladyfarmer on Instagram Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC Leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you! Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com This episode is Sponsored by True Leaf Market: Use our promo code: TGD10 - for $10 off an order of $50 or more (expires June 15th. Limit to one use per customer) at https://www.trueleafmarket.com/ Original music by John Kingsley. The Good Dirt podcast is edited and engineered by Aleksandra van der Westhuizen and produced by Mary Ball. Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered as medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well being.

My young friend Ryan Holsapple and I had a long philosophical chat on zoom recently, which he recorded and I am sharing in case there are ideas of interest for you. Ryan has achieved a master's degree in Depth Psychology with a specialization in Jungian and Archetypal Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is certified in Self Soul Spirit and Gestalt facilitation through life-long psychologist Dr. Roger Strachan. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute continuing his study of Depth Psychology. He is a certified Nature-Connected Coach (NCC) and alumnus of the Earth-Based Institute (EBI). He is an alumnus of InnerPathWorks, having trained with Randy Russell. Ryan has additional training from the Tracker School under the guidance of Tom Brown, Jr. Ryan is passionate about supporting others in the process of accessing and unlocking their own innate wisdom and empowerment through one on one work in his private practice as well as through teaching and mentoring in a group setting.   Also available on Ryan's podcast: https://linktr.ee/ryanholsapple32 Ryan's website: https://www.ryanholsappleguide.com/ Ryan's YouTube: https://youtu.be/p43X0jU57nE

Based on the principles within Micah's book, "Rewilding: Meditations, Practices and Skills for Awakening in Nature" we're going to discuss how to apply breath and mindfulness practices help to deepen our connection with Nature. About Micah Mortali: Micah Mortali is the author of “Rewilding: Meditations, Practices and Skills for Awakening in Nature”, published by Sounds True. His life's work is reconnecting modern people with the restorative powers of nature through mindfulness in the great outdoors. Micah is the founder of the groundbreaking Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership at the renowned Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. Micah is also a 500-hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher, a Level 2 Mindful Outdoor Guide and is wilderness first aid certified. He has studied with Tom Brown Jr. at the legendary Tracker School in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, and holds a Master's Degree in Health Arts and Sciences from Goddard College. Micah leads trainings, corporate events, wilderness retreats and seminars on rewilding and mindful outdoor leadership at Kripalu and across New England. He lives in the Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts with his family. Follow Micah: Website: https://micahmortali.com Facebook: Micah Mortali Instagram: micah_mortali Book: "Rewilding: Meditations, Practices and Skills for Awakening in Nature" Learn More About Breathwork Therapy With Ed Harrold: 1) Breath AS Medicine e-Learning Breathwork Trainings 2) Ed's books: 1) Life With Breath IQ + EQ = NEW YOU and BodyMindBusiness The Business Of BE'ing Within (Both available on Amazon)

The first episode of Manhunter Radio with Jeff Schettler.  Gwinnett County Officer and K9 Handler Brian Doan discusses his time behind the leash and working with his dual-purpose Malinois Nitro.Learn more about Jeff Schettler, available books, and The Tracker School by visiting TTTK9.com. 

Tom Brown III is back. In this episode, we delve into the importance of nature to our well-being and into how to live and thrive as the human animal that we are. Tom's bio: Tom, otherwise known as “T3”, has been a practitioner and teacher of primitive living skills, wilderness survival, tracking, and nature observation from an early age. Growing up in New Jersey at the Tracker School, he was raised with deep reverence and respect for wild places and the skills our ancestors used to live close to the land. After graduating high school, he spent a few years wandering the country, practicing the skills he learned as a child in both urban and wilderness environments. He eventually returned to Tracker School and after a few years became head instructor and director of operations. In 2009 he left Tracker School to start the Primitive Arts Collective, an outdoor education program that sought to teach people in small groups in many different states across the country. In 2016 Tom moved to Oregon and now works with Trackers Earth. Tom’s role at Tracker’s Earth involves being both the land steward and an adult educator. His unique insight and first-hand knowledge about how large groups of people interact with the landscape help him and the Tracker’s team ensure healthy land management practices. These pratices will benefit not only the students but also the wild things that are the centerpiece of these rural locations. Tom loves all things wild and free. During his downtime, you can find him on a river somewhere fly-fishing for steelhead with his Spey rod and exploring all the beautiful things the PNW has to offer. He is also the Foraging/Homesteading Coordinator and contributor for Anchored Outdoors. Tom's bio on Trackers Earth: https://trackerspdx.com/staff.phpTom's Instagram: Tom_brown3Tom's Website: www.tombrown3.com Contact Michael:1. ccerpodcast@aol.com2. http://www.goldams.com 3. https://www.facebook.com/EpistemeRx/4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-gold-2883921/External links to what we discussed and to further research:1. Biophilia: our love for and connection to naturea. "Humans have always been drawn to, dependent on, and fascinated by the natural world. Biophilia, which literally translates to “love of life,” is the idea that this fascination and communion with nature stem from an innate, biologically-driven need to interact with other forms of life such as animals and plants." (from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/biophilia)b. "a hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature " (from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biophilia)c. the biophilia hypothesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophilia_hypothesisd. The book Biophilia by E.O. Wilson will give you more information if you want to dig deeper: https://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Biophilia-Diversity-Naturalist-Library/dp/1598536796/2. Our need for naturea. "What is Nature-Deficit Disorder?" by Richard Louvhttp://richardlouv.com/blog/what-is-nature-deficit-disorder/b. "No More 'Nature-Deficit Disorder' " by Richard Louvhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-in-nature/200901/no-more-nature-deficit-disorderc. Nature Deficit Disorderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_deficit_disorderd. The book "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv will give you more information if you want to dig deeper: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/156512605X/e. The book "The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative" by Florence Williams will give you more information if you want to dig deeper: https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Fix-Happier-Healthier-Creative/dp/0393355578/3. Health and Fitness"Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases" by Boothe, Roberts, and Layehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4241367/4. Aristotle and biologya. the stars for ancient Platonists seem to be like modern technology for too many moderns: it distracts them from and pulls their attention from life, the earth, and reality. Aristotle calls us to focus on life and this earth, and to be real. b. A quote about Darwin and Aristotle: "Charles Darwin's famous 1882 letter, in which he remarks that his ‘two gods’, Linnaeus and Cuvier, were ‘mere school‐boys to old Aristotle’, has been thought to be only an extravagantly worded gesture of politeness. However, a close examination of this and other Darwin letters, and of references to Aristotle in Darwin's earlier work, shows that the famous letter was written several weeks after a first, polite letter of thanks, and was carefully formulated and literally meant. Indeed, it reflected an authentic, and substantial, increase in Darwin's already high respect for Aristotle, as certain documents show. It may also have reflected some real insight on Darwin's part into the teleological aspect of Aristotle's thought, more insight than Ogle himself had achieved, as a portion of their correspondence reveals." (https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287956.001.0001/acprof-9780199287956-chapter-15)c. . Prof. Armand Marie Leroi (Imperial College London), who wrote "The Lagoon: how Aristotle invented science," talking about Aristotle and biology (a beautiful and fascinating video):i. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN8ortM4M3oii. same as above, but in four parts starting with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW77zp-1Onsiii. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYro4kkPxiAd. Aristotle and biology (article for philosophers or the "intelligent, studied layperson"): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-biology/5. Health and COVIDa. "Low Vitamin D Levels Tied to Odds for Severe COVID"https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200925/low-vitamin-d-levels-tied-to-higherb. "Obesity And Covid Death Rate Closely Linked In New Study"https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/03/04/obesity-and-covid-death-rate-closely-linked-in-new-study/?sh=4b606fa46436. Some info on social media and suicide.a. "Social media, internet use, and suicide attempts in adolescents" by Sedgwick, Epstein, et. al. https://journals.lww.com/co-psychiatry/Fulltext/2019/11000/Social_media,_internet_use_and_suicide_attempts_in.12.aspxb. "Suicide and Social Media" by Libby Mitchellhttps://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/postings/2017/08/suicide-sm.phpc. "Social media use can be positive for mental health and well-being" https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/social-media-positive-mental-health/?fbclid=IwAR30NPrm6xKKludWyssYkwCf0WyEikExyTqrE88n58ysWxxrLYMuFFPOQagd. Suicide in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States7. Embracing the cold -- in a smart mannera. The dialogue in "ICE SWIM | Feeling the power from the cold" is deep, beautiful, and poetic.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEDmZlVCCzcb. "Explained: How Tibetan Monks Use Meditation To Raise Their Body Temperature" by Jessica Bush: https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-temperature/c. "Harvard Study Confirms Tibetan Monks Can Raise Body Temperature With Their Minds" by Alex Kasprak: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harvard-study-confirms-tibetan-monks-can-raise-body-temperature-with-their-minds/d. "Wim Hof, The Iceman Cometh | HUMAN Limits"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XKcsm3dKse. Wim Hoff's Website: https://www.wimhofmethod.comf. Wim Hoff bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof8. "The Science of Wool" https://weatherwool.com/pages/the-science-of-wool/9. Breathinga. How to breathe | Belisa Vranich | TEDxManhattanBeachhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sgb2cUqFiYb. box breathing: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321805#takeawayc. another about box breathing: https://www.healthline.com/health/box-breathing#getting-startedd. How to breath properly:i. https://www.coreexercisesolutions.com/belly-breathing/ii. https://yurielkaim.com/belly-breathing/10. Walking and running wella. "Kelly Starrett & the 12 Steps to Running without Pain" (podcast episode)https://lifeafterpain.com/info/posture/kelly-starrett-pain-free-running/b. "How Kelly Starrett and Japan Fixed My Running Form"https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/how-kelly-starrett-and-japan-fixed-my-running-form-w209367/c. The podcast "Foot Function with Mobility Wod’s Kelly Starrett" (The Barefoot Movement Podcast 16 July 2019) is interesting and good. https://overcast.fm/+OOePzyCXMd. "Ready to Run" by Kelly Starretthttps://www.amazon.com/Ready-Run-Unlocking-Potential-Naturally/dp/1628600098e. "Becoming a Supple Leopard" by Kelly Starretthttps://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Supple-Leopard-2nd-Performance/dp/1628600837/f. The podcast "Natural Running with Dr Brett Hill" (The Barefoot Movement Podcast 28 June 2019) is interesting and good. https://overcast.fm/+OOeO-qNmUg. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seenby Christopher McDougall, Fred Sanders, et al.: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/h. Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance by Christopher McDougall: https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Born-Heroes-Mastering-Endurance/dp/0307742229/11. Rewildinga. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding_(conservation_biology)b. https://rewildingeurope.com/what-is-rewilding/12. The ecological role of mosquitoesa. https://animals.mom.com/mosquitoes-valuable-ecosystem-8494.htmlb. https://science.thewire.in/environment/the-ecological-importance-of-mosquitoes/c. https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.htmlImage and bio courtesy Tom Brown III

Sama Wareh discusses the importance of incorporating being outdoors for children, especially homeschooled children. She shares her passion for nature and gives some advice on how to incorporate it creating a wholesome schooling experience. For those that are local to southern California, she talks about GPS adventures and how it came about. You can learn more at https://www.artandwildernessinstitute.com/About Sama WarehNaturalist, University Lecturer, Artist, Author of "How to Draw 60 Native CA Plants and Animals: A Field Guide" and Environmental Educator for over 14 years.Sama has a Masters Degree in Environmental Studies from CSUF. Her Bachelors is in Filmmaking and she has a minor in Art. Wareh has led over a thousand hikes, taught TK to the university level, and has done workshops for arboretums, nature centers, OCParks, and museums all across California. She has spoken before the UN, given a TED-X talk, and has received multiple awards, including the OC Register's 40 Under 40 award, OC Weekly's People of the year, and Access California's Humanitarian Heart Award. She has received a certification in Wildlife Tracking from Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School, is a certified Project WILD and Project Wet Facilitator. She founded the Art and Wilderness Institute along with Dr. Khadeeja and Syma.

It is my pleasure to share this discussion I had with Micah Mortali, MA. Micah is the author of Rewilding: Meditations, Practices and Skills for Awakening in Nature, published by Sounds True. His life’s work is reconnecting modern people with the restorative powers of nature through mindfulness in the great outdoors. Micah is the founder of the groundbreaking Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership at the renowned Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. Micah is also a 500-hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher, a Level 2 Mindful Outdoor Guide and is wilderness first aid certified. He has studied with Tom Brown Jr. at the legendary Tracker School in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, and holds a Master’s Degree in Health Arts and Sciences from Goddard College. Micah leads trainings, corporate events, wilderness retreats and seminars on rewilding and mindful outdoor leadership at Kripalu and across New England. He lives in the Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts with his family.In this episode, we talk about so many pertinent topics, from nature deficit disorder to how to really appreciate (and get out during) the winter, plus a really special way we can dive into a deeper relationship with the area right around us (especially useful during quarantine times). This is a must-listen and inspiriting talk for us all.To learn more about Micah and his offerings, please visit www.micahmortali.comThis podcast is hosted by author and teacher Heidi Spear, MA, www.heidispear.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey! Welcome to Move Wild Podcast, a podcast dedicated to understanding human health from an evolutionary perspective, and integrating the universal principles of human health and wildness into our lives. Each week I interview and discuss with guests on topics and conversations entered around re-wilding, natural movement, nature connection and ancestral living practices. Thanks for joining me on this journey! About today’s show: Today I have the pleasure of sharing a conversation I recorded with Tom Brown III of Trackers Earth. Tom, also known as “T3,” has been a life long student and practitioner of primitive living skills, wilderness survival and nature connection. Born in New Jersey in 1978, he grew up learning the skills our ancestors used to live close to the Earth from his father, Tom Brown Jr, founder of the Tracker Wilderness Survival School. Growing up at the Tracker School showed him the profound effect reconnecting people to nature can have not only on the individual but on the planet as a whole. After spending a few years wandering across America, he has spent the last 20 years teaching the skills he learned as a child. Currently Tom lives in Oregon and works with Trackers Earth as the director of adult programming. He is also the foraging/homesteading coordinator for Anchored Outdoors, which is a new website dedicated to hunting, fishing, foraging, and homesteading. When not teaching or writing, Tom is an avid fly-fisherman, traditional archer and nature photographer. Links to connect with Tom: www.anchoredoutdoors.com www.trackersearth.com Instagram: @tom_brown3 Follow me and get in touch with me on Instagram, @move_wild, to stay up to date and stay inspired to keep connecting to your true nature! For more on what I offer and upcoming events I will be running, head over to my website www.movewildcollective.com. Always feel free to reach out with questions, suggestions for podcasts, feedback, collaborations, ideas etc. I’m always happy to connect :) Alright, thanks for tuning in, I’ll catch ya next episode, and as always, get outside, grow strong and Move Wild!

Hey! Welcome to Move Wild Podcast, a podcast dedicated to understanding human health from an evolutionary perspective, and integrating the universal principles of human health and wildness into our lives. Each week I interview and discuss with guests on topics and conversations entered around re-wilding, natural movement, nature connection and ancestral living practices. Thanks for joining me on this journey! About today’s show: Today I have the pleasure of sharing a conversation I recorded with Lee Trew. Lee taught bushcraft and 'coyote mentoring' on youth camps, before training as a psychotherapist and counsellor. Lee has been using Jon Young's coyote mentoring approach for over a decade, and began learning and teaching bushcraft as a teenager at the Forest School Camps in the UK. He studied indigenous survival skills at Tom Brown Jr's Tracker School, and Practical Primitive, both in the US, and spent a year living in the bush, finding shelter, water and food on the landscape; putting it into practice. More than that, he found a radically new experience of what it means to be human. Now he brings psychology and bushcraft together for rewilding; helping people of all ages to reawaken their wildness and deepen their connection with the natural world. He was also: - A speaker on rewilding at the Ultimate Health Event in Sydney - Featured in ABC's Life at 9 documentary - An instructor for Claire Dunn during the period she wrote about in her book, My Year Without Matches - The bushcraft and trapping consultant for Australian film, The Hunter.Links: Links to connect with Lee: Bluegum Bushcraft - https://www.bluegumbushcraft.com.au Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wildhearttribe/?ref=page_internal Follow me and get in touch with me on Instagram, @move_wild, to stay up to date and stay inspired to keep connecting to your true nature! For more on what I offer and upcoming events I will be running, head over to my website www.movewildcollective.com. Always feel free to reach out with questions, suggestions for podcasts, feedback, collaborations, ideas etc. I’m always happy to connect :) Alright, thanks for tuning in, I’ll catch ya next episode, and as always, get outside, grow strong and Move Wild!

Claire Dunn joins Tahnee on the podcast today. Claire is an author, journalist, educator and barefoot explorer. Claire is dearly passionate about fostering a deep connection to the earth, the self and community. Claire's work centres around ‘rewilding’ both the inner and outer landscapes. Claire has a keen interest in the psychology of the human-nature connection and offers retreats and Vision Quest's to help guide people back to their true and wild selves.  Tahnee and Claire discuss: The journey that led Claire to her rewilding work. The universality of our human connection to earth. The concept of "claiming place". Supported solitude and Claire's year without matches. Moving out of patriarchal cultural conditioning into an embodied feminine space. Claire's new book Rewilding The Urban Soul. The importance of knowing your neighbor in these isolating times. Self sufficiency vs community sufficiency.   Who is Claire Dunn? Claire Dunn is passionate about connection - to earth, self, and other. Claire believes that rewilding of our inner world is the key to rewilding our planet. Claire connects through her work as writer, journalist, educator and barefoot explorer.  In 2010, Claire immersed herself in the Australia bush for four full seasons as a kind of self-designed initiation. She tells her story of this transformational experience in her book, My Year Without Matches. Claire also worked for many years as a campaigner for The Wilderness Society and as a freelance journalist, writing for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, while studying postgraduate psychology. Claire is a passionate advocate for “rewilding” our inner and outer landscapes, and she facilitates nature-based reconnection retreats and contemporary wilderness rites of passage. She currently lives in Melbourne where she writes, offers personal mentoring, and lovingly tends her garden.   Resources: Claire's Website Claire's Facebook Claire's Events and Workshops   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Tahnee: (00:00) Hi everybody, and welcome to the SuperFeast Podcast. Today I'm here with Claire Dunn. I'm very excited to have her on the podcast. Claire is one of those amazing people that I got to meet a few years ago in Newcastle. And I've been following along with her journey ever since. And she's just this really beautiful passionate woman who is all about connection to earth and so and to each other in community and her work around rewilding, rewilding ourselves in order to be more connected to our planet, I think is really important and really powerful.   Tahnee: (00:32) So we'll be talking about that kind of thing today. But just to introduce Claire, she works as a writer and a journalist, as well as an educator and a Barefoot Explorer. And in 2010, she spent four full seasons in the Australian bush as this initiation, which she writes about in her book My Year Without Matches. I've passed that book around to so many friends who've all had similar experiences to me with tears and joy and inspiring us to go and hike barefoot through the bush and all that kind of stuff.   Tahnee: (01:03) But yeah, she's also done activism work, campaigning, she studied psychology and she now lives in Melbourne where she teaches rewilding skills to people in the city and outside. She does workshops and also retreats. So, pretty cool. Oh, and also personal mentoring I saw on your site as well Claire, which is really cool.   Claire Dunn: (01:23) Thanks Tahnee for [inaudible 00:01:25] here.   Tahnee: (01:25) Doing all good things. So tell us, is there anything I missed in that intro?   Claire Dunn: (01:31) I think you've covered all-   Tahnee: (01:33) Your entire life story. Yeah. I actually wanted to start there because I met you in Newy and I know you are ... Are from Newcastle? Are you definitely born there?   Claire Dunn: (01:42) On that area. Yeah.   Tahnee: (01:43) Okay. And were you raised there or were you ...?   Claire Dunn: (01:46) Yeah, I was raised on a farm about 45 minutes away.   Tahnee: (01:50) Which town?   Claire Dunn: (01:51) Outside Maitland.   Tahnee: (01:52) Oh, yeah. Nice.   Claire Dunn: (01:55) But yeah born in Newcastle when the hospital was right on the main beach there.   Tahnee: (02:00) I love that hospital.   Claire Dunn: (02:02) In my blood yeah.   Tahnee: (02:03) I can't imagine my ex partner's mum laboured through the storm while giving birth to her daughter and I ... Yeah, I thought that would have been a really powerful experience back in the day. Your whole life work is about this reconnecting to nature. But was that a theme in your childhood, or were you drawn to this a bit later on in your life? Or how did you end up where you are?   Claire Dunn: (02:26) Well, I was unconsciously drawn to it during my childhood, just through sheer luck of growing up on a farm that happened to be bordered by a river, with siblings who wanted to be outside and not much in the way of screens to draw us inside. So I yeah, I had a natural inclination to be climbing trees and exploring along the riverbank and making witches brews of herbs and flowers from the garden and planting my own garden and my parents were both gardeners and horticulturalists. So, we were just outside a lot. Always had animals and feeding animals and caring for pets and it was ...Now I think about it, there was that ample unstructured playtime in nature which is so vital for instilling that sense of nature being a friend an ally, a resource, a teacher, and for really instilling that magical sense of connection.   Claire Dunn: (03:32) But of course it wasn't until my adult years that I started to realise that that foundation, had really informed me and had set the scene for my passion and how my journey's unfolded.   Tahnee: (03:48) So did you end up in Newy university? Is that-   Claire Dunn: (03:52) No, I went to Sydney. Yeah, I started in Sydney, studied journalism and communications.   Tahnee: (03:57) I did that too. Isn't that funny?   Claire Dunn: (03:59) Yeah.   Tahnee: (03:59) Here we are full circle.   Claire Dunn: (04:00) I knew that I was going to have [inaudible 00:04:02] yeah might be like a lof journalist one of the major newspapers but, instead I really got my teeth stuck into environmental activism while I was at uni and that changed the direction of my life away from the career corporate orientation and really towards the ... Initially what was towards social justice and as fierce, what grew to be a fierce protection motivation for these wild places and wild creatures. And, that's when I moved back to Newcastle and started working for the Wilderness Society there and had five years.   Claire Dunn: (04:45) Yeah, living by the beach and working on forest protection and thought that that would be the continuation of my passion, but of course things change.   Tahnee: (04:55) That was always one of my favourite buildings in Newcastle, don't think it's there anymore. Like the building is but not the Wilderness Society. I saw while I was researching this some of your achievements in that role, which were huge, hectares of land protected, and I'm sure, lots of other accomplishments that weren't documented on the internet but, what drew into that, and then what pulled you away? Obviously you weren't there for longer than five years. So, what happened?   Claire Dunn: (05:26) What drew me in was ... It was what people describe as an eco awakening. Where even though I'd grown up immersed in nature, I wasn't really across the political and the global state of the ecological crisis until I went to university and had a close experience with a forest that had been cut down, got involved with a group of activists. And it was really turning my attention towards not so much the beauty of nature which had been my foundation, but really the crisis that we were facing. And it was a eco awakening in terms of both feeling out my deep love of nature, but also the peril that our planet was in.   Claire Dunn: (06:21) It really was a case of I can't just turn my face away anymore. Yeah, that became a passion for pretty much the most part of my 20s. The better part of my 20s was this environmental activism conservation work, but what started to happen was, on one hand there was just simple reality of burning out, expanding too much energy and putting all the youthful, idealistic values into way too much action and not enough stillness and rest. But there was also a deeper thread emerging which was, this growing interest in the human nature connection, and the realisation that the real threat, the underlying threat, the reason for our ecological crisis is, how our culture has become so disconnected from the more the modern human world, disconnected from our life support systems, disconnected from this sense of living in an animate sentient world.   Claire Dunn: (07:35) And I corresponded with a pull towards knowing myself more. I realised that I just hadn't really had the opportunity or had the motivation to peel off layers of the self and see what really lay beneath. So it was this merging of this interest in the human nature connection, and also this momentum towards individuation or greater self knowledge. And they kind of combined into a passion for wilderness survival skills, shamanic practise, nature observation and awareness tracking, which I really launched myself into in my late 20s.   Claire Dunn: (08:22) That propelled me in a whole new direction.   Tahnee: (08:28) This is a personal question, but I personally have found there's often a bit of a crisis of health, like a bit of a crash that comes with those big shifts. Seriously, it's like every time for me. And I know you've studied Jung's work, so when I heard you say individuation, but yeah, I think there's those like Dark Nights of the Soul and then we realise that we're close to what we were wanting to do, but it was maybe the wrong shoe on our foot or something was that a sense for you?   Claire Dunn: (08:57) Yeah, sure. Yeah, very much so in my life. I've been able to identify I guess what I would call moulting's is moulting's which happened multiple times in life.   Tahnee: (09:10) Oh, yeah.   Claire Dunn: (09:12) And they are often catalysed by crisis in some way. Break up, loss of faith in the path, health crisis, whatever. And they catalyse this moulting. But there's also a very particular moulting, that's a much deeper moulting, which only happens once in life. And that really is that shift that initiatory period of life where one moves their centre of gravity from more of an adolescent mindset into an adult. And it has [inaudible 00:09:43] ages within it but, most Westerners actually never go through that. They never go through that initiatory stage. And, I recognised it in hindsight as that pull towards an initiatory experience to myself in my later 20s.   Tahnee: (10:03) Because we don't have those experiences at all. Childhood to adolescence. I'm a mum.   Claire Dunn: (10:11) Right.   Tahnee: (10:12) Yeah [crosstalk 00:10:13] adults are children. Like they're still carrying those, that lack of sovereignty and responsibility I suppose that happens if you aren't initiated.   Claire Dunn: (10:25) Yeah, lack of knowledge of what their true gift is in the world and a way to, and a vehicle to give it, that's essentially what emerges after that initiatory period.   Tahnee: (10:38) And so you started to study these things, and did you spend some time in the States? I remember.   Claire Dunn: (10:45) Yeah. So that was part of my wandering within the cocoon if you like, was going over to study at this place called Tracker School in America, which was a wilderness survival skills school, but it was also very much based in a Shamanic lineage and Native American lineage, and it was full of wild people and wild experiences and craziness and magic and mystery, it really was such an incredible experience to land me into that place of deep listening and is very different way of being in the world, which is really about trained awareness, a deep curiosity, a caretakership, and the literacy in the universality of tracking in nature observation, and also in ceremony and ... Yeah, it was profound couple of summers I spent over there.   Tahnee: (11:53) There's something there for me when you said universality because, I speak to people sometimes and there's this, "Oh, well, it's cultural appropriation." And then we're bringing these traditions here and I don't belong here. But then in speaking to the elders that I've been fortunate to speak to, not to say that they're same, but they're very similar, the overlaps ... And I've studied a lot of the Vedic traditions and again, there are overlaps are there. Obviously the outside structures may look slightly different but is that the sense that you have now having worked with these things for a while, that they're quite universal, or do you still feel that maybe we need to be careful when we're talking about how we work with different cultural?   Claire Dunn: (12:41) Yeah, no, it's a really good question. And a really poignant question for us. And for me. I always feel like it's important to acknowledge the source of anything that I'm bringing, whether it's from a particular lineage, and I've been lucky enough to be handed down the skills like I did with Vision Quest like there's a training that is directly handed down from a lineage. And I always would give acknowledgement and credit of that source. And that's important for all the skills that I learned and the ceremonies that I learned.   Claire Dunn: (13:19) However, very few of them have had a direct lineage. Most of them have been born from direct experience from trial and error, from what one of my teachers calls dirt time, just being out there with the elements on the land. And, there is a universality. Because we're all indigenous to the earth. Every one of us, there's different types of indigeneity and some of that lineage and an ancestry in place. And another layer of indigeneity is as our very basic, irrefutable Earth from the greater mother of earth. And so through that lineage that directly lineage with Earth, there is a universality of belonging, and deep connection and practises of deep listening and fasting out on the land, of singing and telling stories around the fire of literacy with plants and animals, of having a direct connection with the landscape wherever it is, wherever we are.   Claire Dunn: (14:28) So I emphasise that universality, because what we really need right now is for people to be able to unapologetically belong. To really belong wherever they are and to claim that, because that is part of the healing that's needed here.   Tahnee: (14:47) I'm like goose bumping and getting teary. It's so true though, because I think one of the reasons people don't act is because they don't have that connection and they don't feel like this is mine to tend to and take care of and so it becomes another way of ... I think it's a protection mechanism in some ways because, if we accepted and acknowledged it, then we are responsible for it. But ... Yeah.   Claire Dunn: (15:16) The people that are inspiring me at the moment, Martin Shaw, mythologist, he talks about that the era of the generation of the scatterlings, scattered across the earth and not claiming our place, not claiming our belonging.   Tahnee: (15:29) And here we are.   Claire Dunn: (15:30) [inaudible 00:15:30] and it's not necessarily where we're born. It's not necessarily where our heritage is from. It's like, both letting ourselves be claimed by a place and also claiming a place.   Tahnee: (15:41) Yeah, it's really interesting. I'm obviously not from here traditionally. But I'm Celtic, but then I travelled to places like South America where I got ... Like I was like, "I've been here before." And I've had it here in Australia like in the outback, and in certain parts of the Hawkesbury and stuff where I've just been like this is my place. And it's weird because obviously, but it's like, I think if we can start to develop our sensitivity, we can realise that it's all our land. And yes, the traditions are there. And yes, there might be spirits or ... Like you're saying lineage that needs to be acknowledged and brought in, but that's part of our sensitivity and our awakening I suppose that we can become attune to that.   Tahnee: (16:32) And then I had a really great conversation with a friend who does agnihotra which is a fire practise. And she was speaking of the people that taught her and I used to work on this farm when I was 17. It's a funny little coincidence that she had been trained by them and they are out in the Hunter Valley and they were doing this practise and they were having all these weird things happen. And anyway, turns out it was an Aboriginal burial ground and they hadn't checked in that what they were doing and what was happening there was kosher, to use another culture's word.   Tahnee: (17:10) But yes, anyway, they got an elder and they had a chat and they did some chatting to the spirits and everyone worked out that they were all coming from the same place. And it's been fine ever since. And I thought that was such a great example of how these two indigenous traditions can coexist as long as everyone's conscious and in communication and open so.   Claire Dunn: (17:32) Yeah, well, we certainly are not escaping the fact that it's a global melting pot of cultures overlapping and intertwining and to resist that fact is really resisting reality. So how to walk through with deep respect for the indigenous traditions of the land, and also have the wisdom to be able to bring in these other influences that we're privileged to be learning and to be carrying and to bring them together with gentleness and wisdom and insight.   Tahnee: (18:12) And so you're really doing that in Melbourne. I know you're doing a lot of just worked obviously pre COVID. But you were doing workshops and just what helping people in the cities reconnect to what's available to them in terms of their experience of wildness, or can you tell us a bit about what you do?   Claire Dunn: (18:32) Yeah, well, it's ever evolving, but it's certainly on a bigger picture. It's certainly cultivating and exploring this idea of wildness, and at its core, its soul centric nature based human work because, soul is in essence, wild. It's our wildest self. It's that unconditioned core essence of ourself that can really only be touched through deep exploration and one of those pathways is through nature. So, yeah, I offer a range of things and some of it is is really hands on and physical. So I have a program called Rewild Friday's, and every Friday, we gather in different park lands of the inner north in Melbourne.   Claire Dunn: (19:27) And we learn and reclaim these old skills of making fire by rubbing sticks together and the wild edibles and wild medicinals. We make water filters, we weave baskets, learn how to make string and work with fibres, learn tracking and ecological literacy and all the ... hide tanning and all these ancient skills and bringing them into an urban setting, which was edgy and fun, but what it really showed me was, I spent this incredible year in the bush but these people are turning up just for six and a half hours on a Friday, every Friday.   Claire Dunn: (20:07) But the same process of the pull towards deeper initiation, was happening for them, even though it was nested within an urban environment, even though it was this finite amount of time each week, it was enough of an anchor, in that that stripped back raw, direct connection with Earth and self and other, that it started to work on them in a really powerful way. And a lot of them started to need to go deeper into that inquiry and spend time alone in nature and much more wandering and really opening up the sensory body. So it was a great experiment for me to see that it doesn't take a year in the push to really spark that innate desire the human to connect, and to initiate.   Tahnee: (21:03) But there are two things I really wanted to talk to you about with that. Like first of all, how does one end up doing a year without matches? Because that's ... I know, for a lot of people, I gave it to a friend who grew up in Melbourne and is a bit of a city girl, and she was like, "How does someone even end up there?" That it made me laugh, but yeah, and then also the idea of solitude because, I don't know if it's a getting older thing or ... though I find the more sensitive I get I suppose, the more I just don't want to be around people and you're living in Melbourne now. So I'm curious as to how you go from really being quite fierce about your solitude in the matches book, to being now in an urban environment.   Tahnee: (21:49) So, if you could tell us about those two things.   Claire Dunn: (21:51) So how I ended up living without matches for a year and my relationship relationship with solitude? Well, the how, it's quite simply It was like I had one end of the thread that I was following, and I had fiercely following that thread that it took me to America that, took me to different teachers and mentors. And it became clear to me that I really wanted and needed a period of deep immersion in this whole inquiry of shamanic practices and nature connection. And the only programmes I could find were in America. And my friends and teachers at the time, were considering starting a year long program and I just said, "Sign me up, and I'm there. I'm your number one student, and I'm ready."   Claire Dunn: (22:48) I'm ready. And yeah, it was this spontaneous decision to run Australia's first independent wilderness studies program and cobble together another five people, they bought a block of land which backed onto national park on the north coast of New South Wales, and I began to ready myself for this experience. And it was a very, very loose program. It certainly wasn't a school. And it was probably looser than I needed in a way. But, what it did provide me, was a lot of solitude. Because after the first few months of working out the group dynamics, and once my shelter was built, then all I wanted to do was disappear into the woods.   Claire Dunn: (23:36) And to really enter into that cocoon and peel off the layers of self in this very elementally supported way. And that's what I did especially coming into winter, I really went into an intentional hibernation where I didn't see the others every now and then, but rarely shared, not only shared experiences because I wanted to, and did turn my attention quite fully to the more than human world. And spent most of my time after I'd looked after my survival needs like fire and shelter and water and so forth, I just wandered. I wandered the land and as I talk about now, I just have such a feeling in my body of, "Oh how, what an amazing opportunity to be able to get up in the morning and have that freedom to walk until I didn't feel like walking anymore."   Claire Dunn: (24:37) To sit, to watch, to listen, to observe, to befriend, to converse with the more than human world. And I ... Gosh, I miss that so much. But it was a kind of solitude that was only possible because the others were there. If I was really truly alone, it would have been quite a stark reality. So I call it supported solitude. Because it's a very particular kind of solitude which is very sweet. Because it's a choice, it's a day to day choice. It's not something that's impinged on. So, they're the type of experiences that I love to be able to provide for others, this sense I'm alone and I'm choosing to be alone and I know my community's got my back.   Claire Dunn: (25:33) There's gifts in the in the really alone. But they're harsh and I've experienced those as well. But it was such a privilege to have that time that six month period really where I went into my cocoon and I rummaged around and I peeled and we had moulting after moulting and just like the caterpillar turned to mush-   Tahnee: (26:02) Cicada, I keep thinking about?   Claire Dunn: (26:04) Yeah Cicada is another great Australian [crosstalk 00:26:07].   Tahnee: (26:07) ...leaving little bits of you over the forest.   Claire Dunn: (26:10) Yeah. Yeah, turn to mush caterpillars do in cocoons. Having no idea what would be on the other side of that. Yeah, and went into quite a deep introspective period which changed everything.   Tahnee: (26:33) Had you done Vision Quest at that point or?   Claire Dunn: (26:36) I had definitely apprenticed myself to the dark and to time alone in nature. Which wasn't necessary preparation really, it would have been quite a different experience. Because I used to have a raging fear of the dark, like a terrifying, trembling, shaking fear of the dark. Absolutely. The first time that I was asked to go and find somewhere to sit in the dark in the bush alone, even literally 200 metres from everyone. I was terrified. And it also showed up for me the real fear, which was the shadows within myself. You only feel what you don't know. So fear of the dark was a really powerful teacher actually, over the years.   Tahnee: (27:30) Yeah, it's funny there's things that terrify us often hold of that of wisdom for us. Even ... Yeah, if we can get through them. I remember reading it. I think it was at the end of the book, and you talked about Women Who Run with the Wolves and you had this piece about your womanhood and the book's at work unfortunately, because I lent it to someone but I was just thinking about that today because ... Yeah, I think that it's interesting how that really helped you find your strength as a woman in your own solitude.   Tahnee: (28:06) I think so many, I guess women don't have that experience of that opportunity. So could you tell us a little bit about that transformation?   Claire Dunn: (28:14) Yes, I also just lent out my Women Who Run with the Wolves. It's definitely one of my ... Like, it's a Bible really, that's very close to me. Anytime I need to be reminded of why I feel the way I do about my solitude and my wandering time in nature, just read the introduction. It's a very powerful piece of writing. But yeah, it was one of those key influences but not the only one that showed me, and reflected to me that one of the main tasks of that year was, reforming my motivational system and really my whole compass bearing, which had been trained in a patriarchal culture.   Claire Dunn: (29:02) I grew up with brothers and in a family that was very patriarchal, in a culture and a schooling system that was very patriarchal. Which held the traditional masculine values of goal orientation and productivity and momentum and movement and decisiveness and rational linear decision making as the pinnacle of human being [crosstalk 00:29:34].   Tahnee: (29:34) ... the world.   Claire Dunn: (29:37) And I didn't [inaudible 00:29:38] yeah, I wasn't really at all aware of how I'd internalised that. So, I quickly came to realise that my main task that year was to undo that conditioning, and to welcome in the more instinctive, intuitive, deeply feeling, wholehearted fluid, responsive, restful, sensual way of being in the world which can can be equated to the archetypal feminine which was a really really difficult transition.   Tahnee: (30:20) Yeah, because I remember reading you saying you didn't use your hammock for months. I think I read that in an Australian geographic article [crosstalk 00:30:29].   Claire Dunn: (30:28) Yeah, I was really driven. I was really driven even out there, driven to weave the basket right or to-   Tahnee: (30:34) Make a beautiful house? Yeah.   Claire Dunn: (30:34) Make the beautiful house [inaudible 00:30:37] all done at a certain period of time and oh my goodness, I've only got six months left, I better get tracking or whatever it was. And it really took a breaking in way of those old patterns, and a slow building of the faith in this, slower, more receptive, radically receptive way of being and there were certain practises that helped that so, really asking myself every day, "What do I feel like doing?" Not what's on the list or what I want to achieve, but what do I feel like doing? And then listening to that and responding to that.   Claire Dunn: (31:21) So if that was lying in the hammock, then that was lying in the hammock. If that was hiking up the mountain overnight, then that was hiking up the mountain overnight. Like all the parts of me need expression, the adventurer, and the cat curled by the fire. But there had been too much emphasis on the high achieving perfectionist. So I'm definitely a recovering perfectionist.   Tahnee: (31:51) Same. I'm curious how that's translated to Laugh in the City because, I think I've read again somewhere ... Sorry, I didn't take great notes on my research but that you said, you have to keep one foot in or else you can forget really easily into that wildness and, we have this thriving business and I've found myself in the last few years, really leaning back into things that I've chosen to steer myself away from. Because of circumstances that's so easy to get caught back into that to-do list, at the detriment to our sanity. Certainly for me anyway.   Tahnee: (32:32) Yeah, I'm just curious if you have any ... I don't know ... How are you going over there?   Claire Dunn: (32:36) It's a very poignant day that you should ask me because I actually chatted to my old mentor, who was mentoring me through that year actually, Malcolm, his name is. And I was talking to him about exactly this difficulty or struggle between the wonderful work that I do in the world that I love, the workshops, the people I get to meet, the deep stories I get to hear in the one-on-one sessions, the Vision Quest, but that's a full time job. With all these hidden demands on my time which keep me inside way more than I would and he asked me the really striking question, "Do you want to get to the end of your life and say, wow, I really helped a lot of people. Or do you want to get to the end of your life and say, wow, I really lived my ecstasy. I really lived my passion. I really thrived?"   Claire Dunn: (33:40) And I know that the answer is not one or the other. But it is way too easy to just keep saying yes to the doing and the building and the creating. And there needs to be for me, and I imagine for many other people, many more no's for the greater yes. In service of the greater yes. And for me, that might mean for instance, one week a month, completely blocking out any work related activity. Of course work and personal life are very intertwined for me but, giving myself that time to just wander, to sit in my sweat lodge, to do whatever I feel like doing.   Tahnee: (34:32) To check in with your feelings every day. Yeah, it's funny I spoke to a woman called Lara Owen who is based down in Melbourne. Unfortunately we lost the interview, but we spoke about that. She said she had this period of her life where she did that over ... I think it was quite a long time, like several years and she said it was amazing. She did it with her cycle, but so she took basically her luteal phase to her menstrual phase as far off as possible and she said it was so interesting how different her experiences were from month to month. Sometimes she was really excited and wanted to be out of the world and really creative and other times she just was like, no go into a cave, don't want to see anybody and I thought about how it's so ... Like our cycles are so ignored obviously, in this culture and even the seasonal cycles.   Tahnee: (35:22) Like, we mean, it's we're in Byron environments, barely even winter and we've been going to bed at like, 7:30 because it just feels right to sleep. Because it's that more Yin dark, quiet time. And if this was normal times and wasn't a pandemic, I think we'd be struggling to honour that and it's a curiosity to me that we're all happy to live this way. I've just resigned in my role this hopefully go live after that's made public. That visitors ... I'm the general manager of the company and it's like, that's not in service to my role as a mother in this stage of my life, which needs to be more free, some days I need to be more present with my daughter than others.   Tahnee: (36:09) And I don't have that freedom and flexibility right now. But yeah, I think what he says that ... And the ecstasy changes, right? Like for me ecstasy at the moment is being with my daughter, but I know that when she's older, it won't be that. So.   Claire Dunn: (36:24) Yeah. There's a sense that, we've all been sent to our rooms with COVID.   Tahnee: (36:27) So.   Claire Dunn: (36:27) Like feeling what our ecstacy is right now. Like, are we on track? Are we doing what we really want to do? It's like go to your rooms until you've worked out what a passionate life really is for you.   Tahnee: (36:40) Yeah. Definitely. So given that you're down there, I know you're working on another book is that around this idea of how we can be existing in these opposing roles, like the city in the wild?   Claire Dunn: (36:56) Definitely is. Rewilding The Urban Soul is its current working title, and it's due in a couple of months so I'm pretty ... Yep, head down. But it is absolutely that, how can we access this presence of the wild, this wild mind while in urban suburban settings? What adventures can be had? What nurtures and cultivates that sense of the wild, and what connects us and what disconnects us? What are the opportunities and what are the dangers? How can we experience more aliveness and more passion in a wild body, wild mind, wild spirit? So it's hopefully going to offer some possibilities for that and some stories that might serve-   Tahnee: (37:50) Become the new Bible maybe ... For us, ladies out here trying to work it all out. But yeah, because that was something I'm reading your Dumbo for the article about, you had the gathering and really the last bit where you had the key points I guess you said, "Know your neighbours, know your place, get skills, grieve, create, celebrate." I thought that was such a powerful statement because, it's really simple but it's really like ... The way in which ... and I'm not trying to be this person that bashes our modern world because we've all co created it but it seems to be difficult for people in cities especially to know who they live next door to and to connect in that way and I visit my partner's mother in Sydney and if I smile at someone in the elevator, they literally walk away from ... Lean away from me like, "Who are you?"   Tahnee: (38:48) I'm like, "Okay, cool." But yeah. If people are in cities are they getting together? Is it finding communities seeking out people that are doing what you're doing or, what's the solution there, I know you don't-   Claire Dunn: (39:05) I most necessarily think that this COVID time has brought it to our attention, that even though yes, we live in a global village actually, we live in the particular house that we live in. We live with these people. We live in this street, we live in this neighbourhood. And that's who we're going to rely on. And that is who our primary sphere of influence is. So I've met more neighbours in the last two months than I have in the last three years of being in this street. And it's been really wonderful. Because it's through vulnerability, and shared circumstance that we connect.   Claire Dunn: (39:49) We often have fires down here in the backyard and one of the neighbours has started wondering, "Oh." Because he's partner's stuck in England and he's lonely. So it's [inaudible 00:39:58] these relationships are forged but, I think there's a growing awareness that our city lives especially are missing that sense of connected community like sense of village, where multiple people each day, want to hear your story. Like what's your story of the day? How's your day really been? What have you been up to? What's your passion? We need multiple people each day who actually catch that story. And so there yeah, there is all sorts of incredible opportunities to tap into that in the city, especially because we live so close together.   Claire Dunn: (40:41) So, getting together for instance seasonal celebrations, so we're actually linking our community structures in with the natural cycles, because that's when it starts really humming along. When our connection is overlaid with self and Earth and other, so let's get together and celebrate when the Kingfisher returns from its migrational roots. Or when the dandelions start flowering whatever it is. But taking the opportunities to share food together, cook together, share stories together just really simply. Last week I embarked on a challenge with a friend of mine to only eat what we grew or had preserved from grown food or foraged, or bartered from friends who've done similar.   Claire Dunn: (41:36) And it has absolutely nothing to do with self sufficiency. It was all about community sufficiency. And that is what creates these really strong bonds of connection is through necessity, through food sharing, through supporting each other in this close geographical way through being immersed in nature cycles. That's where we really come home. It's such a joy for me personally, it was just such a joy to be out there with this direct connection with my food and my community.   Tahnee: (42:10) Yeah. I certainly have noticed, we're fortunate here because it's a culture of food being local at least to some degree. There's a big strong emphasis on farmers markets and community gardens. But even during the pandemic, suddenly you couldn't get spelt flour, which was partly the drought and partly the pandemic but it was like, wow we are really dependent on this supply chain and we don't even realise it because we go into the bulk store and it's all very good. That it didn't make me think we've got an older friend who is in her 60s and she lives to maybe an hour and a half up in the hills and so she rarely comes down to town and when you're out there with her or you eat eggs from the chickweed from the garden and like, random these like African yam things that she grows and I eat that for every meal because that's what [inaudible 00:43:04].   Tahnee: (43:05) But it made me like living with him [inaudible 00:43:07] for about a year. And I was like, "This variety we have and there's options to eat Thai food today and Mexican food later." And it's great, but it's a massive privilege. And we haven't had a great depression. We haven't had ourselves really drastically removed from our generations at least and, yeah I think if anything this awakening through COVID could be a really powerful one like they sold out of chickens in the Byron regions.   Claire Dunn: (43:42) I pretty much got the chickens I could find in the Melbourne region too.   Tahnee: (43:46) Yeah. This is the thing. And so I know even when you did the year without much as you were still dependent on the supply chain, you had to get stuff from town and things I remember, but I also remember some of the most powerful moments being when you created your own meal. I remember the pippies and the ... Was it the bird that you ate on the beach? But I can imagine. I can only imagine how empowering that was and how deeply transformational I'm sure that was but, we often try and encourage people who aren't maybe that confident with wild foraging or hunting or anything like that to try and just learn some easily identifiable species.   Tahnee: (44:30) So to start to get into that, are there any other ways you found for city dwellers to get that sense of empowerment that you found in actually feeding yourself from the land and being connected in that way?   Claire Dunn: (44:41) Yeah, forging is really such an accessible and powerful, connective activity. It's about being outside, it's identifying plants that are edible or medicinal. It's that direct relationship with them. It's having that confidence that ... You have confidence in his food. You know where it's come from, you've picked it, you're preparing it. And the city's actually awesome for forging. It's better for foraging than being out in the bush, because there's all these micro environments and micro climates and different niches and crossovers between indigenous and non indigenous.   Claire Dunn: (45:25) The amount of food that I collected last week just from street trees or edible weeds in the gardens and ... It's quite incredible. There's seaweeds in the bay and mushrooms just down the road here, edible mushrooms growing. Yeah, it's quite something. So, forging is an awesome doorway into that wild mind for city dwellers. Just be as simple as picking some dandelion leaves from the backyard. And another way is just letting yourself be a bit uncomfortable, like physically uncomfortable sometimes, a bit cold, going out walking in the rain, going out walking after to dark like mixing it up a bit.   Claire Dunn: (46:15) So there's just not this sense of this rush that we get into of, we go inside at night and we do these things but, "Can I actually put myself in positions where I'm a little bit moved and stirred by the weather, by the environment around me? How could I look up and see what I haven't noticed?" Climb a tree, get low, start to-   Tahnee: (46:37) Change perspective.   Claire Dunn: (46:38) Change perspective. Yeah.   Tahnee: (46:40) We cook on the fire a lot because you don't have to clean up, so that's a great option. We're really lazy. But seriously, I'm always like, no dishes. My daughters loves it because they're outside for three hours in the afternoon and it's the best. So I think those are such simple ... Fire is illegal in urban backyards in general aren't they, yeah?   Claire Dunn: (47:04) Actually if you're cooking.   Tahnee: (47:07) Yeah, great. Okay, awesome. Well, I don't want to take up too much of your time on these chilli nuts, but I wanted to let people know where they could find you. So you're on naturesapprentice.com.au, that's your personal website. And also on ... you're on social media, I found a Facebook page.   Claire Dunn: (47:25) Yeah, there's a Facebook page, Nature's Apprentice.   Tahnee: (47:27) Mm-hmm (affirmative).   Claire Dunn: (47:29) That's probably a good way to connect with me. I haven't quite got up to the Instagram.   Tahnee: (47:34) Don't do it to yourself it's just another thing-   Claire Dunn: (47:37) I can't do another medium, but yeah, I'd love to hear from people about their own adventures and interests and appetites in this work.   Tahnee: (47:45) Yeah, I know. We have a lot of people who are really drawn to these transformational rites of passage and things because, we hear from people a lot, just from the experiences we've shared, which have been more ... Mine obviously more from the yogic tradition, and then we've both done some work with plant medicines and that kind of thing. But yeah, I'd really love to Vision Quests. I've done my own, being alone in the bush things, it wasn't very structured. But yeah, just that idea, I think that people could connect to you and be guided, I think would be really powerful. So yeah, and Claire does mentoring and things as well.   Tahnee: (48:25) So if you're resonating with anything you're hearing, get in touch with her. Make sure it's on one of the weeks that she's offline. Just teasing, but anything else, when's the book due to be published?   Claire Dunn: (48:36) [inaudible 00:48:36] at least 12 months.   Tahnee: (48:38) Okay. Yeah. You're still in production stage?   Claire Dunn: (48:41) Production stage. Yes.   Tahnee: (48:43) Okay, great. But people can get My Year Without Matches still. I've seen it in stores locally.   Claire Dunn: (48:48) And online, for sure. Yeah.   Tahnee: (48:50) Anything else you wanted to share with people? Workshops way back on when the world-   Claire Dunn: (48:54) I am running a Vision Quest and also a week long rewilding camp in November, that's assuming we're able to gather outside by November, so they're on my website ready to go and also an online course starting in June.   Tahnee: (49:09) Oh, great.   Claire Dunn: (49:10) We connect just over four Monday nights.   Tahnee: (49:13) Oh, that sounds awesome. Okay, well, we can actually put links to those in the podcast page. Yeah. So that'll go straight to those if anyone wants to find those, especially the online one at this time will be awesome for people.So, yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much for your time Claire.   Claire Dunn: (49:27) Thanks Tahnee, thanks for [crosstalk 00:49:28].   Tahnee: (49:28) I really appreciated talking to you.   Claire Dunn: (49:29) Yeah. Thanks.

My guest today is the wild and wonderful Micah Mortali. Micah Mortali is the author of the book “Rewilding: Meditations, Practices and Skills for Awakening in Nature”, which is published by Sounds True. He holds a master’s degree from Goddard College and is the founder of the Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership and the Director of the Kripalu Schools. Today’s episode is a great overview of many rewilding practices covered in Micah’s book and many practices that can help keep us stay centred right now and going forward. What I love most about this episode is the depth of conversation and the ideas generated around how rewilding holds many answers for humanity and Mother Earth right now. Stick around to the end for a great nature connection meditation you can do in your home. Enjoy the show! Speak Player: Working on this... Topics Discussed: Intro; Desire for nature connection during quarantine and fragility of modern society; Micah’s journey into Yoga nature connection work; Nature deficit disorder and yoga removed from nature; Meditation in nature and biophilia; Fascination attention and meditating in nature; Sit spot mediation and place blindness; Animal medicine, species loneliness, synchronicities, and dreams; Civilization and disconnection of nature; Economic and geographic rewilding; Communing with the fire element; Fire birthing through modern and ancestral skills; Micah’s rewilding practice that keeps him connected; Micah’s dream for the people of 2230 which is inspired by the Haudenosaunee concept of the seventh generation; How to find Micah’s book and Kripalu Center. Show Resources: The Coronation Essay by Charles Eisenstein, Waldorf school,  The Road Book by Cormac McCarthy, Last Child In The Woods Book By Richard Louv,  8 Shields Institute, Dharma Bums Book by Jack Kerouac, Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership, Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School Connect with Micah Mortali Book Website: https://micahmortali.com/ Kripalu Center Website: https://kripalu.org/about/kripalu/faculty/micah-mortali Connect with Shawn www.rewildmybio.com Instagram: @rewildmybio Facebook: @rewildmybio Twitter: @shawnslade LinkedIn: @shawnslade Sign up for the Rewild My Bio Newsletter by visiting the website here.

Dan Stanchfield, or as many know him Tracker Dan, is a warrior, artist, and scholar who is deeply experienced in wilderness survival, foraging, and hunting. His custom knife designs and his training services are based on years of field-testing and innovations out of necessity – across growing up in the outdoors to Tom Brown’s Tracker School to active and now reserve duty serving in the US Navy SEALS. Dan is also keenly interested in fitness and nutrition for health and longevity. The challenges of the coronavirus pandemic make this visit ultimately timely and valuable. You can also find this one in video format on YouTube at https://youtu.be/uRJ9XlMpHBc

Hey guys! Thanks for tuning in today for my wonderful conversation with Kate Rydge! Kate Rydge is the Co-Founder of Nature Philosophy Australia. She lives off grid with her family on the North Coast of NSW and when she is not hanging out in the bush you can find her facilitating a wide range of transformational Deep Nature Connection experiences through her Nature Philosophy offerings. She has put her love of survival skills into practise both in Australia and the USA and in 2003 she spent a year living primitively under the guidance of Tom Brown Jr, from The Tracker School, USA. The power of this experience later inspired her to offer Australia’s only year-long wilderness immersion program. Kate has been actively mentored by Aboriginal Australian Yolngu elders for the past 12 years and has dedicated her life to helping others return home to the earth. We talk all things deep nature connection and embracing what it means to be human! Enjoy! Links as mentioned in show: Nature Philosophy Website - https://naturephilosophy.com Move Wild website - https://movewildcollective.com Have an epic day! Get Outside, Move Wild

What does emotional intelligence or EQ really mean? How can you begin to raise your EQ and use it for Mind Flipping? Jessica Moore shares what led her to learn about emotional intelligence and emotional training, the price of being disconnected from her feelings, her Shamanic Practice, common emotion myths, the science of emotions, and why negative emotions are important. Go to show notes at MindFlipping.com to get your free guide on Discovering Your Emotional Genius! Jessica Moore is a Licensed Dynamic Emotional Integration® Trainer and Consultant. She lives in Sedona, Arizona, and being surrounded by the New Age community has made her a staunch advocate for grounded and effective methods of healing and transformation. Her love for wildlife and nature first led her to a Bachelors of Science in Forest Ecology, and then into years of wilderness skills studies at the Tracker School. These were stepping stones in a lifelong quest to discover how we can become better humans in the world, which has culminated in 6 years of shamanic practice and her DEI licensing. Her passion for personal growth and empowerment fuels her learning and teaching.   Show Notes:   2:33 Mind Flipping story: How Jessica went from Vulcan Philosophy (using logic over emotions) to learning the importance of emotion   4:45 The difference between between feeling emotion and expressing emotion   6:02 The path of Jessica’s Mind Flipping journey   7:01 The personal price Jessica paid for not being connected to her heart or emotions   8:28 The external spark that started Jessica’s transformation   9:44 What is a Shamanic Practitioner?   11:13 Sensitive people and hyper-empaths   12:19  The correlation of highly sensitive people and anxiety   12:55 Book: The Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren and the lack of emotional education in society   14:24 The cultural challenge of emotions: The myth that emotions just happen to us   15:20 The science of emotions   16:20 The value of negative emotions and emotional labels   17:22 Emotions are just indicators to take care of something   18:23 Mind Flip Tip: How to use emotions to gain valuable information   19:27 What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?   22:01 What is Dynamic Emotional Integration?   22:04 Empathic Accuracy, Emotional Contagion and Perspective Taking   24:04 Paul Bloom’s Against Empathy and the scientific debate around empathy   25:32 The emotional perspective that’s bigger than science   26:48 Jessica’s Word of the Day: Schadenfreude   28:07 Feeling and regulating emotions is tied to our ability to communicate our emotions   29:05 The common belief in her field with which Jessica disagrees   32:34 The tricky part of working with overwhelming emotions   33:12 Emotions are action requiring neurological programs   34:56 The Shamanistic practice Jessica uses in with her clients   36:26 Mind Flip Tip: Down-regulating your emotions in the moment   37:29 What Jessica always thought she’d believe but doesn’t now 38:23 What is wisdom?   38:15 Jessica gets a Major Award!   40:09 Get Jessica’s 13 page guide to Discovering Your Emotional Genius HERE.    To learn more about Jessica, visit her website HERE.  

Simon Hasler bietet seit 2003 Angebote für Menschen in und mit der Natur an. Er ist in Masein im Kanton Graubünden aufgewachsen und verbrachte bereits in seiner Kindheit viel Zeit in der Natur. Schon während seinem Studium der Betriebswirtschaftslehre besuchte er Kurse bei Tom Brown`s Tracker School und vertiefte sich dabei im einfachen Leben in der Natur ohne moderne Hilfsmittel. Die Lebensweise der Naturvölker und deren Weltsicht inspirierte ihn, seine Liebe zur Natur anderen Menschen weiterzugeben. Simon ist Geschäftsführer der Naturschule Woniya, welche verschiedenste natur- und wildnispädagogische Lager, Kurse und Ausbildungen sowie Visionssuchen anbietet. Er lebt mit seiner Frau Sabine und seinen beiden Kindern Noah und Luana in Masein.   Buchempfehlung Wandernde Pflanzen, Wolf-Dieter Storl https://amzn.to/2JapqXv   Weitere Ressourcenquellen http://www.gerald-huether.de/   Website http://www.naturschule-woniya.ch/   Kontaktdaten  Simon Hasler Dalaus 81C 7425 Masein simon(at)naturschule-woniya.ch    

An interest in health and fitness may begin with a desire to look good on the outside, but most of us stick with sport because of the internal benefits—the sense of aliveness and vitality, the feeling of strength and connection to our bodies and the world around us. Training gives us a few hours away from our busy lives, and if we’re lucky, it allows us to be fully present. Now imagine turning those few hours of escape into a few days, a few weeks, or even a year! What would it be like to leave the modern world and spend time in the wild, developing a deep connection with yourself and the earth? Claire Dunn was living a typical fast-paced, urban lifestyle. Working as a lobbyist and environmental activist in a high-pressure, highly political environment, she longed for the opportunity to get closer to the wilderness she was fighting for and explore the human-nature connection. Starting in 2010, Claire spent a year in the wild, and that experience became the subject of her subsequent memoir, My Year Without Matches: Escaping the City in Search of the Wild. A trained Vision Quest guide, Claire offers rewilding workshops and retreats as well as personal mentoring for people seeking a greater sense of connection. She is a regular contributor to publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post, and The Newcastle Herald. Today Claire shares the inspiration for her year in the wilderness, explaining her preparation and the structure of the experience. She walks us through a typical day in the bush, sharing the skills she practiced, what diet and exercise looked like, and her core practice of wandering. Claire discusses her struggle to readjust to the modern world and her commitment to helping others find connection to themselves, others and the earth. Listen in for Claire’s insight on being versus doing, and learn to pursue rewilding in your own backyard. Topics Covered [1:02] How Claire’s upbringing influenced her interest in rewilding Grew up on farm by river, three brothers Comfortable with body, the earth  [2:37] The impetus for Claire’s year in the bush Working as environmental activist, conservationist Burned out on high pressure of political game Transformational course inspired deep nature connection [5:15] How Claire prepared for her year of living wild Turned attention to practices of tracking, wilderness survival skills Created independent wilderness studies program in New South Wales Spent two summers at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School [6:44] The structure of Clair’s year in the bush ‘Choose your own adventure’ Build shelter with found materials Follow sacred order of survival (water, shelter, fire, food) Perfect hand drill fire technique [9:28] Claire’s instinct to be alone Attention to elements, plants, animals and unseen Unraveling old way of being, learned fluid wandering [12:49] Claire’s lessons in being vs. doing ‘Trying negates the effort’ Making fire blindfolded taught surrender [14:14] A typical day in the bush with Claire Tried not to have routine Wake up with birds, go to sit spot Explore, journal and read Work on project (i.e.: tanning hide) [16:45] The skills Claire honed in the wild Hide tanning, basket weaving, rope making Fires, water, bush food and medicinals Bird language, naturalist awareness Expanded sense of vision, fox walking Dynamic listening meditation [18:28] Claire’s core practice of wandering Follow curiosity, no clear goal [20:20] How Claire pursued fitness during her year in the bush Bush gym, jogging loop and yoga Making fire = intense burst of cardio [22:16] How Claire felt after the experience Ready to see friends, family Hit wall of grief with loss of connection to self, others and land [24:22] Claire’s bush diet Varied quite a lot, restock in town once a month Rice, oats, quinoa and lentils Produce that would keep Lost weight, needed more fat/protein [27:04] The medicinals Claire utilized in the wild Bloodwood tree sap for cuts Blackened fern for bites, stings [27:31] How fit and healthy Claire felt during the experience Lost too much weight, depleted some nutrients Gained strength, felt incredibly alive [28:34] Why Claire is back in the modern world Heart of social activist, contribute to change Satisfying to tell story, explore skills in urban setting [30:07] Claire’s insight around rewilding in an urban context Connect deeply where you are Find a sit spot, immerse in wildness Forage for edible weeds Expand sense of vision, open senses [34:54] Claire’s definition of health and fitness Internal sense of aliveness, vitality Sense of purpose, contentment Body strong and flexible Learn More About Claire Nature’s Apprentice My Year Without Matches: Escaping the City in Search of the Wild by Claire Dunn Claire on Facebook Claire on Twitter Resources Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School

Today’s episode sounds like it was lifted off the pages of a Hollywood screenplay: two renown survivalists find themselves in an all-too-real survival experience, after a natural disaster decimates their tropical island home. Yet that has been the past five months of reality for my guests Carmen and Matt Corradino, husband-and-wife survival skills instructors who live on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where they have been dealing with the devastating aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria. The category 5 storms, mere weeks apart in a slew of powerful storms churned up in the Atlantic this past fall, were two of the most intense hurricanes in recorded history. Though there may have been no one better prepared for such a “force of nature,” as Matt referred to the storms. Together, he and Carmen have nearly three decades of survival skills experience, including a five-year stint living in a primitive shelter while teaching at survivalist Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. And for the past decade, the two have carved out a subsistence lifestyle in the tropical forests of St. Croix (now with their 3-year-old daughter Ilee), where they own Mt. Victory Camp eco lodge and teach primitive and survival skills by way of their school, Caribbean Earth Skills. Hear from Carmen and Matt as they not only share survival lessons learned from the hurricanes, but the paths that led them to their way of life, and the contentment they've found in an existence deeply immersed in the natural world—even in the face of natural disaster.

Over a decade ago, Jeannine Tidwell and her husband moved to Sandpoint, Idaho on a path to fulfill a goal she formed as a young adult. They founded Twin Eagles Wilderness School, a place where students can connect with nature and their community while learning wilderness skills and becoming mentors for others. Jason and Jeannine met one rainy afternoon and discussed the history of the school, the philosophy behind its core tenets, and mankind’s relationship with the natural world. LINKS: Twin Eagles Wilderness School: twineagles.org Tom Brown’s Tracker School: trackerschool.com en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brown_Jr. Coyote’s Guide: goodreads.com/book/show/6818078-coyote-s-guide-to-connecting-with-nature   Call us and leave a message (up to 3 minutes): 1-818-925-0106

When my good friend Mark worked at Tom Brown’s Tracker School, he often talked about a great herbalist who worked there named Betzy. Now, I finally get to meet her! She is an accomplished herbalist in many areas, and she is currently working with United Plant Savers! United Plant Savers’ mission is to protect native medicinal plants of the United States and Canada and their native habitat while ensuring an abundant renewable supply of medicinal plants for generations to come. I ask Betzy all about sustainable and ethical wildcrafting, her journey as an herbalist, and other practical tips and skills for collecting and storing herbs.

Karen Sherwood is a Northwest native who grew up studying the flora of the Pacific Northwest. While studying at the University of Washington, she was hired by Tom Brown Jr. to develop and expand the wild foods curriculum for the Tracker School. Karen gained a strong understanding of traditional uses of wild plants while teaching there. Since returning home to the Northwest, she continues to teach ethnobotany programs through Earthwalk Northwest and other organizations such as the Department of Ecology, Washington Outdoor Women, King County Parks and Wilderness Awareness School. In addition to her botany background, Karen also spent many years in search and rescue, fine tuning her wilderness survival skills. To balance her expertise, she also teaches utilitarian uses of plants, including cordage and natural plant dyes. Her professionalism and credibility are enhanced by a special gift for helping students become confident and comfortable with harvesting and using plants. Her current passion is teaching about the vast and wondrous uses of seaweeds, as well as traditional Northwest basketry. Karen Sherwood and her husband Frank run EarthWalk Northwest at http://earthwalknorthwest.com In this interview, Karen discusses all sorts of useful wild foods information, from foraging, harvesting, and recipes. Especially interesting is a segment on fermentation, views on wildcrafting, and recipes with burdock, yellow dock and much more.