Regenerative Ed

A podcast from Grounded Teaching, Regenerative Ed explores how thinking about education as a living system can help all of the humans in this system to grow and thrive...from the ground up.

Plot Twist: We're Still Alive (And Here's What We've Been Up To!!) 05/30/2025

AIR ELEMENT Deep Dive: What Can Air Teach Us About Reimagining & Remembering A Thriving Education System? 04/20/2023

AIR ELEMENT Deep Dive: What Can Air Teach Us About Reimagining & Remembering A Thriving Education System? Today we get into our about deep-dive workshop-in-a-podcast-series! We're tackling the first element in this deep dive series on what Air, Fire, Earth, and Water, and we're asking: What can air teach us about reimagining and remembering the ed system? 00:00 - Introduction - Why We're Doing This 07:30 - Part 1- Respect, Appreciation, Embodiment 17:53 - Part 2- The Invisible Source of Life (Definitions and Foundations) 35:37 - Part 3- Making Space and Knowing Not Everything is For Us Part 4 (Feeling Deflated or Winded), Part 5 (Taking Shape and Elasticity) and Part 6 (A Catalyst and Circulation) PLUS the 10-page workbook for this workshop-in-a-podcast series is available in three ways. Same content, three ways. It's like Skyline Chilli. (anyone?) You choose! Option One: One-time Purchase. Receive a link to the extended version (which includes the entire part you just listened to as well for easy repeat-listening), and the 10-page workbook. Click . Option Two: A Monthly Contribution to We Are Verbs: Receive access to a private section on We Are Verbs where we'll house this and all future deep-dive, extended podcast episodes, including the workbook. On deck: fire, earth, water, AI, body systems. Sliding scale starting at $5. Click . Bonus-- once you're on We Are Verbs Study Club, there's so much there to do (and it's free)! Note- if you already contribute to We Are Verbs, you should already have access! Simply click and reach out if there is an issue. Option Three: A Monthly Contribution via Patreon: Thank you so much to our patreon members who support this podcast. We appreciate it so much. You can click here and become a Patron starting at $3 a month, but the extended version and workshops are available starting at $5 a month. Click . Other announcements-- join the book club (free) on We Are Verbs Study Club! This spring season we're reading Rick Rubins The Creative Act. Join on up! Thank you for sharing this podcast with your friends and colleagues, and liking and subscribing. We love you all! /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/26600382

Intro to the ELEMENTS series: What Air, Fire, Earth, and Water Can Teach Us about Re-Modeling the Education System 04/06/2023

Intro to the ELEMENTS series: What Air, Fire, Earth, and Water Can Teach Us about Re-Modeling the Education System Today is an introduction to a 4-part deep dive (well, 5 if you count this intro). It’s a workshop-in-a-podcast learning series on the the four elements of air, fire, earth, water, what we can learn from them about creating new systems and structures around education. The goal of digging into the elements here is to view ourselves and our work in education as part of a LIVING SYSTEM. Not part of an industry or a factory, which is no secret that’s how we operate! We know this. We see it. We dwell on the problems! What we’re talking about here is a way of connecting to paradigms outside of industrial, extractive, colonial, capitalistic paradigms to see if there’s something here we can learn about setting up these new systems. We deal with education here in this Regenerative Ed Podcast, but, I often get folks saying, hey, this applies to the food system or the healthcare system or the personal systems I use in my household. Yes, yes! Definitely it does. We are in an age where it’s clear as day that the old systems aren’t working and we’re looking at what to do differently. I’m suggesting here that there are an infinite amount of things we can look to for inspiration, which is what we do on this podcast. In this series, we are focusing on the four elements. We’ll talk about science, we’ll talk about symbols, we’ll talk about cultural phrases, we may even dip into the cosmos. NOTE: I am not an expert in the elements! I am a human being with a history of experiences, many of which involve the educational system and textile systems, and I simply can observe patterns and connect them to ways to be in these new systems that has proved helpful for people. There’s no capital T Truth here! Take what works and leave the rest. Add to it and create your own. Next week, we’ll start with the air element! I’ll see you next week to chat more about movement, currents, music, libras, and what it all has to do with education. Come and join us for this workshop-in-a-podcast format, wherever you are, whenever you are. For full transcript, you can head to Thank you for your support-- like, subscribe, share this podcast with a friend or colleague! It means a lot. /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/26467830

Teaching Black History All Year + Joy, Picture Books, Teaching Teachers, Kindergarteners, and more. 03/28/2023

Rebecca Harrison and Mending for a More Regenerative Future 03/06/2023

Rebecca Harrison and Mending for a More Regenerative Future What does mending have to do with reimagining education? Check out this conversation I had with Rebecca Harrison of Rebecca is the person you'd turn to when you rip your absolute most favorite pair of jeans that fit you like a glove and you're having an internal dilemma as you hover them above the trash can. Off recording, Rebecca and I were chatting a lot about her team which she describes like a dream team full of some of the most talented sewists in Pittsburgh, and I was struck by the power of community. You’ll hear us chat about some of the logistics of mending– where to start personally or in a classroom, the importance behind the story of the clothing, how little is beyond repair and almost nothing is beyond repurposing, how mending is for everyone, not just people who have expensive clothing, and so much more. I have tremendous respect for Rebecca and what I’ve watched her build as a part of our fibershed since pre-pandemic. It is inspiring to see the growth of Old Flame Mending and also the culture at large, who, and it might just be my circles, but folks are starting to embrace this as a little protest to fast fashion and disposable culture. Maybe it will inspire you to embroider a little heart on your shirt over a coffee stain, or maybe it will inspire you to teach mending in your learning spaces. Maybe it does none of that, really, but gets us all thinking a little more deeply about the work that’s happening out there in the world to find a way forward– a way that is filled with more healing. A way where we don’t just discard things that– at first glance–might seem to not be of use to us anymore. A way to flex our own creativity, our own voice, our own sense of style even. Maybe you can see mending as a way forward in a world where we’re sick of standardization and we want our own thing. There are a lot of implications here for education and just how to be as educators. Stay tuned at the end of the podcast after the interview for some questions and thinking about the application to your learning space! Oh! And one more thing– you have the power, right now, right as you’re listening this, to make a stand for a less disposable future and it will only take you 45 seconds without having to give any personal information away– vote for rebecca and to win this small biz grant. The link is in the show notes. Bonus– when you go to the link you see a whole slew of amazing visible mending designs they’ve done. You’ll be floored, just check it out. It takes less than 45 seconds and is a vote that you’re putting out into the universe for a future based on care. Deadline is March 8 so do it now! Show links: (and check out images of their visible mends on their website) Check out I forgot about adding this to the interview, but check out FROM THICK AIR! It's our April creative workshop for educators-- find all the details . If this podcast meant something to you, would you please share it with a friend? Give it a like and subscribe? Maybe even add a comment? I know this is something I don't often do even though it really puts that good reciprocal energy out into the universe. I'm taking my own advice. Thank you so much! You can also support us by donating to our , coming to one of our , or checking out our . /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/26143929

Episode 52: Twins Talking About Teaching, Trains, Poisons, Place-Based Education, SAT Tests & more 02/28/2023

Episode 52: Twins Talking About Teaching, Trains, Poisons, Place-Based Education, SAT Tests & more Today is a special podcast because I’m chatting with Jess, my twin. She’s here and well with a new baby in tow, and I for one am so very very very grateful that she is here and well and that we can continue our chats like we have since the womb (I assume?!). This morning we were chatting about the Norfolk Southern Train Derailment that is so close to our houses and talking about what it has to do with extraction and systems like education– you know, a normal conversation for us–and I was like, maybe let's record this? So, we hopped on Zoom. And what you'll find (after my framing and announcements), is a meandering conversation between two sisters about ecological disasters, separation, education, and more. I hope you experience this conversation as a jumping off point for your own thinking. FREE RESOURCE: ! LINKS: It's a fundraiser for East Palestine Community- 100% of money collected will be donated. Saturday, 3/4. 1 hour class + PDF resource, $15. Recording will be provided if you can't attend live. Join We Are Verbs to get resources, community, join book clubs and community skillshares (and hear some mini podcasts related to place-based education! Scroll down .) Come to our In this live (and recorded) two week, four-part class, you'll have the chance to progress through designing for a change you want to make, an idea you want to bring to life, or a solution you want to present. I'll challenge you to concentrate on your intention and its connection to what we can learn from the air element as we move through the progression of the classes: class 1: our gut-→ class 2: our heart-→class 3: our head-→class 4: our hands (as directed by Tyson Yunkaporta in his book by Sand Talk). You'll have the chance to get unstuck and explore your own creative wavelength. In addition to the two weeks of class, you'll receive a 30+ page beautifully designed PDF workbook filled with extra resources, reflection prompts, and key takeaways. Want Sarah to speak to your school or organization? See or reach out [email protected]. /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/26085849

Place-Embedded Learning with School Leader and Teacher Rachel Balkcom 02/23/2023

Place-Embedded Learning with School Leader and Teacher Rachel Balkcom I felt really privileged to have this conversation with such a light! Rachel is so clearly passionate about her work, and it's contagious. Our conversation discusses the model of place-based--nay, a place-embedded micro-school, La Luz, and the ripple effects that happen when you embed students in the community. And, true to form as folks who care about questioning the whole system, we get into a lot of other territory: a respectful process for listening for what the community needs then designing curriculum from there, working with partners and being open to wherever they are right now, getting kids outside, school funding, Montessori curriculum, failure, emergence, brain development, being really compelled by what you're doing so it feels energy, leadership that breaks rules, and so much more. I hope that you enjoy this conversation with Rachel as much as I did! More about Rachel: With over two decades’ experience as an educator, school co-founder and director, curriculum and fieldwork designer, and teacher coach, Rachel teaches for social justice and the equitable regeneration of people and planet. She is a contractor working with schools and organizations and School Designer/Guide at La Luz Micro-School in Denver. Rachel facilitated the group creation of the high school at Denver Montessori Jr./Sr. High School and served as High School Director through the graduation of the first class before transitioning into other leadership and guide roles at the school. Episode Links: Contact Rachel: , who deserves an immense amount of credit for the manifestation of the Montessori Farm School model in the US. Grounded Teaching Links: 3/4 FUNDRAISER: Register for ($15) fundraiser! All funds go to East Palestine Train Derailment Victims (only 85 miles from our homes here) COMMUNITY: (free/donation) and get More information on the Pokok-Ed Community Skillshare More information on The Creative Act spring book club starting in March You literally have nothing to lose by checking out We Are Verbs. Come join our awesome community of educators who want a more regenerative future! WORK IT: Get more info on our Seasonal Sessions class coming this (eek, earlybird pricing happening through March 3. Check it out now!) KEYNOTES/TAILORED WORKSHOPS: you want us to come/zoom talk to your school or organization, c Our calendar for Spring/Summer is filling up quickly. Please reach out! Like what we're doing? We'd love your support! Like, subscribe, and share this podcast with a friend! You could financially support us by attending a or make a We'd love a cup of coffee! <3 /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/26029131

Maja Watkins: Improv for Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom 12/08/2022

Maja Watkins: Improv for Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom I was thrilled to get the chance to interview classroom teacher, author, founder (and so much more!) Maja Watkins recently! When a colleague said I needed to connect with her, I Googled her up, and there I saw-- for the first time-- "Improv Curriculum" related to social emotional needs. IMPROV CURRICULUM?! Sounds pretty not-mechanical: not perfect, not scripted, not standardized, rooted in connection and joy and humor. Maja is so passionate about students, and she draws on her creative improv background when it comes to their social and emotional needs. She's created literally hundreds of games to play with students to help them connect to each other, to class content, to themselves. This is one of those episodes that was not only enjoyable, but really helpful. I took away some concrete games that I've already played with my own kid. :) Definitely check out Maja's resources below to see her books and services! About Maja: Maja is a mother, author, teacher, and founder living in Los Angeles, Ca. Through her work with children in various settings, and her experience growing up with a brother on the autism spectrum, Maja has developed an understanding of how powerful communication is for all people. Maja is the author of The Brain's Playground: Using Improv Games To Teach Social and Emotional Learning as well as the author of a parenting guidebook titled: 10 Minutes of Play for 10 Days. The Brain’s Playground includes her valuable research, data, and curriculum. Maja holds a degree in Child Development and is also a graduate of The Second City in Hollywood where she studied improvisation and sketch comedy. Maja works as a Social and Emotional Learning Specialist and creates inclusive opportunities where the curriculum is designed to allow children and young adults to reach their highest potential in whichever way they feel most comfortable. Show Links: Maja Watkins and More about the this month related to scarcity /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/25270131

A Buffet of Failures (and Feedback) 11/09/2022

The Industrial Education Complex & Clinging to Rot 10/20/2022

David Bidler: A Compelling Conversation on Why Education Needs to Consider Physiology, First 09/13/2022

David Bidler: A Compelling Conversation on Why Education Needs to Consider Physiology, First Tune into this amazing conversation I have with David Bidler, founder of Physiology First, where we explore the role physiology plays as educators who work, primarily, with the student brain (and, who do THAT, with ... our own brains)! What would happen if we were to put the physiology of the brain & body first? David's organization, Physiology First, aims to do just that by not only teaching skills like how to breathe, how to lift heavy weights, and how to endure cold plunges and ice baths (and how all of that improves hormones and brain health), but also how to envision the most inspiring version of your life, how to build relationships, how to become empowered. How, basically, to thrive. I know you'll get as much value out of this show as I did! Physiology First LINKS: Regenerative Ed Links: ! It's a program and a community. UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. Check it out! Thanks for your support for as little as $3 a month! and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to Thank you! ABOUT DAVID David Bidler is an author, speaker, and social entrepreneur. As owner of The Distance Project, a human performance training center in Freeport, Maine, David has studied and applied the science of physiology across the lifespan. Through assessments on breathing, heart rate variability, and biometrics related to health and longevity David has utilized science-based tools to optimize human performance for close to a decade. In 2018 David began collaborating with Dr. Jose Herrero, a NYC based neuroscientist specializing in how breathing impacts the brain. This collaboration led to David’s participation in clinical research with patients, presentations on respiratory physiology for hospitals, and application of science-based breathing exercises with students and athletes across the globe. This collaboration inspired David to author Breathe to Perform: Simple Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress, Improve Energy, and Peak Athletic Performance. As co-founder of Breathe to Perform, a consulting company specializing in the science of stress physiology, David works with companies and teams to implement health and wellness practices with measurable, scaleable results. David was instrumental in founding Physiology First in 2019. “The greatest problem of our time is the mental health of the next generation of problem solvers. We need to employ every tool in the health, wellness, and performance training toolbox for give the leaders of tomorrow the skills and tools they need today.” David is currently co-designing curriculum for the New Teacher’s Academy in Hoboken, N.J as well as a worldwide professional development program, The Functional Physiology Certification, to help educators and allied health professionals bring the Physiology First model to their private practices, schools, and communities. /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/24364536

Jennifer Lumpkin and Molly Martin: Expanding Democracy and What That Has to Do with Education 08/30/2022

Jennifer Lumpkin and Molly Martin: Expanding Democracy and What That Has to Do with Education This episode I'm in conversation with Jennifer Lumpkin and Molly Martin, two Cleveland Community Organizing powerhouses. We're talking about the role of expanding democracy and what that has to do with viewing education as a living system. We get deep into the specific structure that they are working to promote called Participatory Budgeting. Why are we talking about Participatory Budgeting on a podcast about education? First off, civics education is severely lacking and we can't expect ourselves to help ourselves into a new system if we don't understand how the old system functions. But, maybe even more importantly, PB is a way to think about flattening the hierarchy and distributing power, which is pattern we see over and over again in living systems, and if we want to mimic our systems (like Education!) after a living one, we might as well learn some structures that work well to flatten them, like PB! I hope you'll listen and be as inspired as I was after talking to these two, then share it with a friend and rate and review it. It means so much! Today's Guests: Jennifer Lumpkin is a community organizer and supporter in coalitions and efforts across the City of Cleveland. Jennifer founded Creative Community Builders, LLC in 2016 after organizing in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. with a foundation on legacy farming and intercultural solidarity. Her organizing and partnership practice, My Grow Connect, is rooted in supporting the development of sustainable communities through creative relationship building, cultural organizing and mindful resource connections. Molly Martin works for the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless to support the organization’s advocacy and organizing work and their mission to eliminate the root causes of homelessness. Molly grew up in Cleveland and is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She is passionate about homeless civil rights, housing justice, and deepening anti-racist commitment through policy advocacy and community organizing. She is an Advisory Board Member of Cleveland VOTES, a democracy-building organization strengthening our community’s civic muscle, and she is a Coordinating Committee Member of Participatory Budgeting Cleveland, a grassroots coalition of Cleveland residents actively organizing for a participatory budgeting process in Cleveland. LINKS Regenerative Ed Links: WE ARE VERBS! It's a program and a community, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to Thank you so much! Most of all, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you! /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/24216195

Tyler Bastian on Starting a Farm School, Cultivating Belonging, and Spreading how Everything is Incredible 08/11/2022

Dr. Ruth Ann Smalley on Teaching, Homeschooling, Healing, and Writing for a Future Based in Care 07/29/2022

Dr. Ruth Ann Smalley on Teaching, Homeschooling, Healing, and Writing for a Future Based in Care Today we're talking with Dr. Ruth Ann Smalley, a former educator, about teaching, homeschooling, healing, climate change, and writing. Ruth Ann shares her journey and the threads that pull everything together. Our conversation feels really generative and hopeful in the midst of bleak climate catastrophes. She also shares a concrete healing practice, a classroom tip we can all use, and more about her work as an author writing the children's books she wishes she had when her kids were younger. Ruth Ann Smalley, Ph.D, is a children’s book author and energy practitioner living in upstate New York. Her work focuses on earth stewardship, healing, and sustainability; she loves using poetry, narrative, and humor to deal with the big, scary issues. Also a wellness and creativity coach, Ruth Ann helps people of all ages access their unique voices and healing powers. Her picture book, Sheila Says We’re Weird helps families discuss the simple values of green living, and is available online and through your local bookstore. She is currently at work on a middle grades eco-adventure trilogy, and has offered free video-recordings of the first two volumes, Defender of Dirt and Running with the Sun on her YouTube channel. She welcomes collaborative projects with like-minded educators! You can find out more at or at her website. Videos: Playlist for her book readings: Playlist for Energy Balancing exercises: A short list of high impact books on the environment, education, transformation that impacted Dr. Ruth Ann Smalley: Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards Sandra Steingraber, Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis Rob Hopkins, From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures Regenerative Ed Links: WE ARE VERBS! It's a program and a community, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to Thank you so much! Most of all, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you! /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/23900010

Ian Sanderson: Facilitating Experiences as a Blue Feather Educator 05/18/2022

Ian Sanderson: Facilitating Experiences as a Blue Feather Educator Eek! I'm thrilled to bring you a conversation I had this week with Ian Sanderson. Ian Sanderson is a member of the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. He is committed to serving people from all backgrounds as they develop and elevate their awareness—of themselves, their work, their relationships, and the world—through innovative synthesis and application of Indigenous, Eastern, and Western thought. He facilitates individual and group learning processes, serving a diversity of people and organizations whether in conference rooms, schools, or in a forest. He has 25 years of outdoor and experiential education experience, applying principles of tracking and other natural-world skills to present day situations. He owns the Boulder Quest Center, a martial arts dojo where he teaches and trains in the art of To-Shin Do ninjutsu; a modern application of timeless principles of how to intelligently handle the challenges likely to arise in our societies today. Utilizing reality-based empowerment training, he coaches students in ways to promote peace, security, well-being, and building the kind of resiliency and perseverance that leads to life mastery. He holds the rank of Yondawn- 4th-Degree Black Belt, and is also a student and practitioner of the Tendai and Shugendo Buddhist traditions of Japan since 2007 and took his deshi vows in 2017. Ian has also taught at Naropa University for over 10 years and is a Senior Adjunct Faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program. We hit on topics from breaking patterns to embodiment to disconnection because of covid to fear-based living, to the complication of a pendulum-swinging, reactive culture around very, very important justice issues. We sneak in a few things about teaching, too. :) Links to find out more about one of many aspects of Ian and to get in touch with him. by Tyson Yunkaporta Regenerative Ed Links: WE ARE VERBS! It's a program and a community, and we'd love for you to join! UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODE AIRED: You can now get a podcast-specifically-for-you, access to the resources on the blog, access to the breathing room (breathwork for educators!) for FREE (forever) by joining our first tier. If you love Patreon, we're on there! For as little as $3 you can support this podcast and join in the co-creation of this podcast. THANK YOU SO MUCH! If you enjoyed this episode, you could also choose to Thank you so much! Most of all, if this podcast meant something to you, please share this podcast with your educator buddies, share on your social medias, subscribe, leave a review-- it helps us out a lot! Thank you! /episode/index/show/regenerativeed/id/23155463