A WILDWARD INSTITUTE PODCAST
Hopeful by Nature
Connecting kids and communities to the natural world — one conversation at a time.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Stories of people doing the
work
Hopeful by Nature travels the world to find the educators, parents, organizers, and community leaders who are connecting young people to the natural world in ways that build something real. Each episode is a conversation with someone who refused to wait for permission — and built something anyway.
Hosted by Scott Shepherd, founder of Wildward Institute.
LATEST EPISODE
Episode 01 — From Fear to Frontier
with Forbah Sandra Ngwemetoh, National Geographic Explorer · Cameroon
ABOUT THE EPISODE
Each of my second graders at High Tech Elementary learned to swim and ride a bike.
I believed — and still believe — those are the foundational skills to a life spent outdoors. You can't fall in love with the ocean if you're afraid of water. You can't explore a trail if you've never trusted your own balance. By the end of that school year, we'd partnered with San Diego Junior Lifeguards and taken every kid to the beach for a single day. Surfing, boogie boarding, kayaking, stand-up paddle. All of it, in one day. We called it Bridge to Beach.
Some of those kids had been in the ocean their whole lives. Others had never been comfortable getting wet.
I thought about that day a lot during my conversation with Forbah Sandra Ngwemetoh.
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