HeyJaredPlay Nature Podcast
Welcome to Play Nature Podcast, a podcast dedicated to celebrating the beauty and benefits of outdoor, nature-based play—for all children (and us adults too!) Hosted by Rusty Keeler, a passionate play advocate, with over 30 years of experience designing natural playscapes,…
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Aug 25, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 14, 2026
Latest episodes
Ep 39 | Should Kids Go UP the Slide? (opens the original)
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What happens when one kid climbs up the slide while another is coming down? Is going up the slide really dangerous? Or is it just one of those playground rules we’ve inherited without thinking too hard about it? In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler dives into one of the surprisingly spicy debates of early childhood play: Should kids go UP the slide? Rusty shares stories from risky play conversations with educators, including a triumphant tube-slide climb, a former emergency r
Ep 38 | Let’s form a Nature Play Community! (opens the original)
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What happens when children meet a muddy hill, a dangling rope, and a whole lot of possibility? They climb. They slip. They tumble. They try again. In this episode of Play Nature Podcast , Rusty returns to Six Mile Creek and shares the story of Challenge Hill, where preschoolers in mud suits showed him just how capable, joyful, and determined children can be. That wide-eyed moment is part of what inspired Rusty’s newest adventure: Nature Play Academy. After years of visiting inspiring play spaces
Ep 37 | Nature-Based Learning Doesn’t Need a Forest with Dr. Rachel Larimore (opens the original)
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Nature is everywhere. In the trees. In the rain. In the crack in the sidewalk where one determined little plant is doing its thing. In the tree that looks like a butt. In this episode of Play Nature Podcast , Rusty talks with Dr. Rachel Larimore about helping children build real relationships with the natural world, even when a school does not have a forest, a fancy outdoor classroom, or a flock of woodland creatures waiting at the gate. Rachel shares simple ways educators can bring more nature
Ep 36 | Outdoor Learning, Risky Play, and Food Education with Louise Licznerski (opens the original)
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A school that smells like mud, woodsmoke, porridge, and possibility? Well…that sounds perfect! In this episode of Play Nature Podcast , Rusty chats with Louise Licznerski about outdoor learning in Scotland, where children run, wander, forage, climb, get muddy, and settle into the slow, steady rhythms of the earth. This conversation is all about what happens when children are trusted with space, time, nature, and real play. Louise shares how outdoor nurseries and school-age nature programs can he
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