Building Opportunity from the Ground Up: Community and Environment on Chicago’s South Side | Quilen Blackwell

Nature Journaling with John Muir Laws: Cultivating Curiosity and Observation

What does it mean to truly notice the world around us? For naturalist, educator, and nature journaler John Muir Laws—known to many simply as Jack—careful observation is more than a skill. It's a way of building curiosity, deepening understanding, and strengthening our connection to the natural world. In this episode of The World We Want [https://naaee.org/podcast], host Gerry Ellis explores Jack's commitment to helping people learn through direct experience. Through nature journaling, drawing, questioning, and close observation, Jack has inspired educators, students, scientists, artists, and lifelong learners to slow down and engage more deeply with the living communities around them. The conversation explores how observation strengthens learning, why curiosity is a critical part of environmental education, and how paying attention can transform our relationship with nature. Together they discuss: * Nature journaling as a tool for learning and discovery * Observation, curiosity, and scientific inquiry * The relationship between art and science * Environmental education through direct experience * Building stronger connections to place and nature * Why attention is one of the foundations of care * At its heart, this conversation asks a simple but powerful question: What might change if we learned to see the natural world more carefully? Learn more about John's work and find related resources for educators on our website > [https://eepro.naaee.org/eepodcast/john-muir-laws] Send us your thoughts! > [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398854/fan_mail/new] The World We Want: The NAAEE Podcast is an educational outreach project of the North American Association for Environmental Education [https://naaee.org]., in partnership with nonprofit GLOBIO [https://globio.org/]. Find us on: Instagram: @thenaaee [https://www.instagram.com/thenaaee/]Facebook: @THENAAEE [https://www.facebook.com/TheNAAEE] LinkedIn: @NAAEE [https://www.linkedin.com/company/naaee/] YouTube: @thenaaee [https://www.youtube.com/@thenaaee] or Email us at: podcast@naaee.org [podcast@naaee.org] Thanks for listening, and thanks for sharing The World We Want!

Building Opportunity from the Ground Up: Community and Environment on Chicago’s South Side | Quilen Blackwell

A lot of conversations about the environment focus on distant places—forests, oceans, and wildlife. But for many people, the environment is much closer: the neighborhood around them, the vacant lot down the street, the air they breathe, and the spaces where children grow up and play. In this episode of NAAEE’s The World We Want [https://naaee.org/podcast], host GLOBIO [https://globio.org/]’s Gerry Ellis speaks with Quilen Blackwell, founder of Southside Blooms [https://www.southsideblooms.com/] and Chicago Eco House [https://www.southsideblooms.com/chicago-eco-house/], about reimagining what environmental work can look like in urban communities. Over the past fifteen years, Quilen has worked on Chicago’s South Side transforming vacant lots into flower farms, creating jobs for young people, and building a model that connects community development, environmental stewardship, and economic opportunity. Drawing from his experiences growing up in Wisconsin, serving in the Peace Corps in Thailand, and working in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, Quilen reflects on how place shapes perspective—and how reconnecting people to land, even in unexpected places, can create meaningful change. This conversation explores: * How environmental work can begin at the neighborhood level  * The connection between land, opportunity, and community well-being  * What it means to create pathways for young people through meaningful work  * How small, local efforts can grow into larger systems of change  At its core, this episode asks a simple but powerful question: What if the environment we care for begins right where we live? Learn more about Quilen's work and find related resources for educators on our website > [https://eepro.naaee.org/eepodcast/quilen-blackwell] Send us your thoughts! > [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398854/fan_mail/new] The World We Want: The NAAEE Podcast is an educational outreach project of the North American Association for Environmental Education [https://naaee.org]., in partnership with nonprofit GLOBIO [https://globio.org/]. Find us on: Instagram: @thenaaee [https://www.instagram.com/thenaaee/]Facebook: @THENAAEE [https://www.facebook.com/TheNAAEE] LinkedIn: @NAAEE [https://www.linkedin.com/company/naaee/] YouTube: @thenaaee [https://www.youtube.com/@thenaaee] or Email us at: podcast@naaee.org [podcast@naaee.org] Thanks for listening, and thanks for sharing The World We Want!

Noticing the Natural World | Poetry, Curiosity, and Environmental Education with Aimee Nezhukumatathil

What does it mean to really notice the world around us? In this episode of The World We Want, host Gerry Ellis speaks with poet and nature writer Aimee Nezhukumatathil about curiosity, attention, and the role that observation plays in environmental education and our relationship with the natural world. Aimee’s work explores the connections between poetry, science, nature, and memory, and how naming plants, animals, and landscapes helps us build a deeper connection to the places where we live. Her latest book, Night Owl, looks at the natural world after dark and invites readers to slow down, listen, and rediscover a sense of wonder and curiosity about the living world around them. This conversation explores the quiet heart of environmental education—not just learning facts about the environment, but learning how to pay attention, how to ask questions, and how to remain curious about the world throughout our lives. We talk about nature writing, teaching, curiosity, naming species, childhood wonder, and how observation can lead to care, connection, and lifelong learning. This episode is about noticing, curiosity, poetry, and our shared relationship with the living world. Learn more about Aimee and find relevant resources for educators on our website > [https://eepro.naaee.org/eepodcast/aimee-nezhukumatathil] Send us your thoughts! > [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398854/fan_mail/new] The World We Want: The NAAEE Podcast is an educational outreach project of the North American Association for Environmental Education [https://naaee.org]., in partnership with nonprofit GLOBIO [https://globio.org/]. Find us on: Instagram: @thenaaee [https://www.instagram.com/thenaaee/]Facebook: @THENAAEE [https://www.facebook.com/TheNAAEE] LinkedIn: @NAAEE [https://www.linkedin.com/company/naaee/] YouTube: @thenaaee [https://www.youtube.com/@thenaaee] or Email us at: podcast@naaee.org [podcast@naaee.org] Thanks for listening, and thanks for sharing The World We Want!

Love as the Root of Impactful Nature-Based Education with Sean Southey

What does it mean to fall in love with nature—and why does that love matter for the future of our planet?  In this episode of The World We Want: The NAAEE Podcast, host Gerry Ellis sits down with Sean Southey, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Federation and longtime champion of nature-based education, to explore how love and connection form the foundation of lasting change.  Sean shares powerful stories about how nature-based education transforms not only classrooms, but also communities, shaping how we live, lead, and care for the world around us. This conversation reveals why fostering a culture of care begins with the simple act of helping people connect—and fall in love—with nature. Sean guides listeners through the stages of reflection from childhood memories of wild play to global movements like Nature for All and Outdoor Grannies, from that one teacher who planted seeds of connection with nature to the potential for a more caring and connected community spanning countries and continents. Join us as we hear from someone whose confidence in love’s ability to change the world and our relationship to it is both inspiring and activating: “When you have that continued immersive experience in nature, your learning outcomes get better. Your health outcomes get better. Your empathy, anxiety, your trauma all go down.  Nature's an incredible healer. Nature's also a teacher. It's also a classroom. It is a soother. A calmer and a stimulator.  So what I'm advocating a lot more for is to recognize that we need more nature in the classroom, and we need to put the classroom more into nature. It's a very simple but profound idea, and the best ideas are both simple and profound.” Send us your thoughts! > [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398854/fan_mail/new] The World We Want: The NAAEE Podcast is an educational outreach project of the North American Association for Environmental Education [https://naaee.org]., in partnership with nonprofit GLOBIO [https://globio.org/]. Find us on: Instagram: @thenaaee [https://www.instagram.com/thenaaee/]Facebook: @THENAAEE [https://www.facebook.com/TheNAAEE] LinkedIn: @NAAEE [https://www.linkedin.com/company/naaee/] YouTube: @thenaaee [https://www.youtube.com/@thenaaee] or Email us at: podcast@naaee.org [podcast@naaee.org] Thanks for listening, and thanks for sharing The World We Want!

Through the Lens: Environmental Education Efforts from the South Side to San Antonio

How can environmental education (EE) serve as a bridge in our increasingly fractured society? Filmmakers James Parker and Juliet Grable are exploring a powerful question through their upcoming documentary, In Our Nature. Drawing on their previous work documenting rural Oregon communities adapting to a changing climate, James and Juliet have discovered that assumptions about populations different from our own often dissolve when people connect over what we share: the planet. In Our Nature investigates how environmental education is one of our most effective tools for building community and finding common ground across perceived divides.  Learn more about James and Juliet's work and find the educator resources and insights that demonstrate how environmental education can create bridges and connect communities. Visit https://eepro.naaee.org/eepodcast/James-Parker-Juliet-Grable/ [https://eepro.naaee.org/eepodcast/James-Parker-Juliet-Grable/] Send us your thoughts! > [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398854/fan_mail/new] The World We Want: The NAAEE Podcast is an educational outreach project of the North American Association for Environmental Education [https://naaee.org]., in partnership with nonprofit GLOBIO [https://globio.org/]. Find us on: Instagram: @thenaaee [https://www.instagram.com/thenaaee/]Facebook: @THENAAEE [https://www.facebook.com/TheNAAEE] LinkedIn: @NAAEE [https://www.linkedin.com/company/naaee/] YouTube: @thenaaee [https://www.youtube.com/@thenaaee] or Email us at: podcast@naaee.org [podcast@naaee.org] Thanks for listening, and thanks for sharing The World We Want!