Today, we get to learn from Matthew Paneitz, founder and executive director of Long Way Home. This organization built Hero School, a student-built and community-built campus in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. Built from recycled tires and trash, the campus took 16 years to build and serves 178 students enrolled in PreK through High School. The school campus is almost complete. Matthew is also the recipient of the 2020 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service for his work in Guatemala. This award, presented annually by the National Peace Corps Association, honors Peace Corps volunteers who continue to contribute to humanitarian causes.

Today my guest is fundraiser and impact growth leader, Alexandra Dumitrescu. In this episode, we discuss nonprofit funding. Alexandra highlights the potential of technology to enhance fundraising efforts and presents ways nonprofits can diversify income streams. We discuss e-commerce models, leveraging SaaS platforms, improving donor relations, and lost funding opportunities. We also discuss initiatives Alexandra founded to help nonprofits create sustainable income and integrate social impact features in business products. How might Alexandra's ideas (or some version of them) be applied to your project, organization, or partnerships? How does this conversation reframe what you see as being possible in environmental education?

Rob Law is a musician and composer with decades of experience in the music industry. He has composed music for films and advertising campaigns. Rob is also a podcaster, a storyteller, and an advocate for outdoor learning. In this episode, Rob and I talk about The Creek Kids, his podcast for children inspired by the radio plays from the Golden Age of Radio.

You may have heard about the value of collaborating with others. I suspect you and I can probably point to several examples of collaborative projects within the world of environmental education. Today we’ll see an example of what cross-sector collaborations can look like as we learn about partnerships from guest Dinah Awino Kawino.

Christina Carter is the author, illustrator, and founder of Gumnut Trails—a collection of hand-illustrated, story-led Outdoor Adventure Guides based in Melbourne. Inspired by her own nature-filled childhood, Christina set out to create the “Lonely Planet of childhood adventures.” Each guide transforms local walks into immersive experiences with creative missions, storytelling, and joyful artwork. In this episode, we explore how Gumnut Trails began, why it's resonating with families, and what’s next for this growing movement.

Our guest today has a special fondness for environmental educators because she was a former Outward Bound Instructor. Louise Karch (pronounced carsh) went on to become career management professional serving sectors from banking to health care to sports professionals. She studied and worked with Richard Bolles, the author of the bestselling career/life planning in history, "What Color Is Your Parachute?".

Episode description: Join us as we dive into the world of innovation with Vanessa Thompson, Managing Director of The Sustainability Experts. Vanessa shares bold strategies for sparking disruptive ideas, seizing new opportunities, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies to transform businesses and careers.

Project announcement and an introduction to the newsletter "Transferable Solutions." The theme of the newsletter is "Environmental Skills, Reimagined."

Today we get to learn from Kalliopi Monoyios, visual science communicator and lead author of "Visuals as a Catalyst for Climate Science Communication," a chapter in the book "Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions" (Springer Nature, 2024). In this episode, Kalliopi and I discuss the value of visuals in climate change communication. We discuss what effective visuals look like and also talk about creating culturally relevant and sensitive information. Kalliopi shares how someone can become a visual science communicator and what a collaborative project between a visual science communicator and a client might look like.

A conversation with Emily Coren and Hua (Helen) Wang, editors of "Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions" (Springer Nature, 2024). They collaborated with 44 authors to create a resource addressing many forms of climate communication. Each of the book chapters addresses a specific type of storytelling. You’ll find chapters about entertainment education, locally-driven narratives, youth engagement, Hollywood, climate fiction, music, news reporting, geospatial tools, interactive storytelling, mental health, and telling stories through food. There is also a chapter about using visuals as a catalyst for climate science communication.  “Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions” is an open-access title. You can download the entire book or individual chapters for free.