Raising Wild

When Grayson Murphy was four years old, her dad let her jump off a 30-foot diving platform. A year or so later, he sent her and her twin sister down a black diamond ski run, tears and all. Today, Grayson is a professional runner and world mountain running champion who credits experiences like these with helping her develop the confidence to do hard things, even when they're scary. In this episode...

What happens when we slow down long enough to let a place come to us? Ashley sits down with her longtime mentor and Wild Idea Media founder Bill Hodge to trace his relationship with wild places back to childhood camping trips in the mountains of North Carolina. They talk about the people who taught Bill to pay attention, the unexpected career path that eventually brought him back to conservation,...

How do we prepare children for a rapidly changing, increasingly digital world while keeping them connected to what is real? Ashley talks with Genevieve King, founder of Origins Education, about childhood freedom, boredom, emotional regulation and why nature may be the most important counterbalance we can give children. Genevieve shares how ordinary moments such as breathing, handwashing and eating...

How do we raise children who care about the world without letting worry overwhelm their sense of wonder? Author Jennifer Case joins Ashley Arnold to explore how caring for our children connects to caring for the earth. Drawing from her book, The Carework Project , Jennifer shares how childhood experiences outside shaped her—and how she’s creating opportunities for her own children to find connecti...

Joey Pointer grew up working six days a week on his family’s tobacco farm in rural North Carolina. At the time, he hated it. Today, as president and CEO of Fleet Feet, he recognizes how that childhood taught him to work hard, contribute to something larger and remain steady when there is no obvious or perfect answer. Ashley and Joey explore the connection between farm life and his comfort in the g...

Mike Foote is a race director, small-business owner and dad to two young boys—and a longtime friend Ashley first came to know through the trail-running world. Years ago, they raced and traveled together. Now, they find themselves in a very different season of life, navigating parenthood, work and changing relationships with adventure. Mike shares how his own free-range childhood shaped the way he...

What if getting outside weren’t treated as an optional activity, but as something essential to our health, development and daily lives? Jessica Turner, president of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, joins Ashley to talk about the outdoor freedom of her childhood, what those experiences gave her and how she is trying to create that same connection for her own children. They also explore the vision...

In the first episode of Raising Wild, Ashley Arnold talks with Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and Noticing: Intimate Encounters with the Natural World , about what children lose when they lose regular, direct contact with the natural world, and why the answer isn't as simple as blaming screens. Richard traces the roots of nature-deficit disorder through technology, parental fear,...

Welcome to Raising Wild! This is a podcast about raising kids—and ourselves—a little more feral. On purpose. In this short trailer, host Ashley Arnold introduces Raising Wild, a new podcast from Wild Idea Media about childhood, nature, freedom, risk and the wild parts of ourselves we don’t want to lose. Through conversations with writers, scientists, educators, adventurers, leaders, athletes and p...