All Bodies Outside

This episode features Dr. Janae Davis who is a social scientist. Her research seeks to understand how to effectively promote justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in biodiversity conservation. She works at American Rivers and is the Southeast Conservation Director. Dr. Davis’s work promotes the health of rivers and riverside lands to ensure clean drinking water supply, reduce flood risks, prot...

This episode's guest was Dr. Monika Stodolska who is a Professor within the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Additionally, she is the Director of the Diversity Research Laboratory at her institute. Dr. Stodolska’s research focuses on the roles of leisure, recreation, and sport in improving health and well-being among ethnic and racial...

This episode’s guest is Dr. Phiona Stanley who connected from Scotland. Dr. Stanley is an Associate Professor of Intercultural Communications at Edinburgh Napier University. Her research focuses on mobilities and how people engage in intercultural settings comprised of heterogeneous assemblages of humans, non-humans, and artefacts. Her research has a particular interest on how powerful normativiti...

This episode’s guest is Dr. Lisa Meerts who is a professor of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism at the University of Utah. Dr. Meerts’ research focuses on youth development and how recreation and leisure experiences, such as outdoor recreation and education, can promote healthy development and well-being. She is particularly interested in how recreation and leisure can serve youth from diverse and ma...

This episode's guest was author Tammah Watts and we discussed her upcoming book titled, ' Keep Looking Up … Your Guide to the Powerful Healing of Birdwatching' , which will be released on March 7th, 2023. In her narrative memoir, Tammah shares her emotional journey of overcoming chronic pain and finding resilience by connecting to the natural world of birds. Tammah’s book is about life being curvy...

This episode was extra exciting because All Bodies Outside had two guests - Kristin Sundquist and Kim Coleman. Both Kristin and Kim represent Green Mountain Cyclocross which is in Vermont. The mission of Green Mountain Cyclocross is to promote a vibrant and inclusive cyclocross community. To check out more about Green Mountain Cyclocross, visit their website at greenmountaincx.org and/or check the...

Dr. Aby Sène-Harper discusses her manuscript titled, A People’s Future of Leisure Studies: Political Cultural Black Outdoor Experiences . In this manuscript, Dr. Sène-Harper and her co-authors (Dr. Rasul Mowatt and Dr. Myron Floyd) engage in a historic and contemporary investigation of Black people’s political outlook of the outdoors and their political cultural engagement with those spaces. The r...

In this episode, ultra-endurance athlete, Cath Wallis, joins us from Australia. Besides her vast athletic accomplishments, she is an activist helping with breaking down social barriers at endurance events. Her mission is to encourage people who may never imagine they could do something extraordinary to take those first steps and overcome the fear. Cath reminds people to live life big in the body t...

This episode features Pei Ting whose nickname is PT. PT is Malaysian Chinese and works in the outdoor education industry in Australia. Our conversation progresses through her presentation titled, People of Colour working in Outdoor Education in Australia. In this presentation, two of PT’s written works are discussed. The first one is titled, Beyond Tropes: A Dialogue on Asian Women’s Experiences i...

This episode of All Bodies Outside was super exciting because three researchers joined for a fabulous conversation: Dr. Xiao Xiao, Dr. KangJae Jerry Lee, and Dr. Lincoln Larson. We discussed their peer-reviewed research manuscript titled, ' Who visits U.S. national parks (and who doesn't)? A national study of perceived constraints and vacation preferences across diverse populations' . Their resear...

On this episode our guest is Will Sprouse who has run a lot of 100-mile ultramarathons. In fact, he has finished 83 100-milers. However, his ability to run long distances has become more challenging. In 2020, he survived a stroke (caused by a birth defect) that left him with heart rate limitations and difficulty managing his balance. Despite these additional challenges, Will continues to run 100-m...

This episode's guest is Dr. Rachael Edwards who is a research fellow at University College London. Her research focuses on evaluating and improving equity of access to nature for underrepresented communities. During this episode we discuss two of her peer-reviewed research manuscripts. The first manuscript is titled, Accounting for diversity: Exploring the inclusivity of recreation planning in the...

Dr. Sandy Heath is a professor of parks and recreation management at Northern Arizona University and researches queer experiences in outdoor recreation. This episode focuses on Dr. Heath's dissertation which was titled, Queering the outdoors: 2LGBTQIA+ identity in outdoor recreation . This research was a big contribution and showcases the lived experiences of outdoor professionals with the underst...

Check out this episode with Coach Annie Spence, who is the founder of Unbreakable Strength (unbreakablestrengthco.com). She is an EXPERT at helping others live richer lives by developing resilient bodies and minds through strength, performance, and movement coaching. Her traumatic life experiences, innate curiosity, ability to face discomfort, care, kindness, and love are all wrapped up in her coa...

Dr. Jeff Rose's research has contributed towards a better understanding of the complexity of unsheltered homelessness within municipal public parks and has contributed towards a better understanding of long-term solutions. This episode focuses on Jeff’s research of exploring the social and environmental justice elements of homelessness across the urban-wildland interface.

This episode features Van Ethan Levy. They are the author of Exploring My Identity(ies) and are dually licensed as a marriage and family therapist and as a licensed professional clinical counselor. Van's identity is trans and nonbinary. They were socialized as a female, are autistic, and have dynamic disabilities amongst many more historically excluded identities. Van is a huge inspiration and has...

In 1978, Shlomo Nimrodi, was serving on the Israeli Special Forces when his leg was amputated above the knee due to an IED explosion. Inspiringly, his injury has not stopped him from being active and living a meaningful life. He has a long list of athletic accomplishments including skiing, triathlons, biking, hiking, and surfski. Additionally, Shlomo's mindset and his ability to not adopt a victim...

On this episode, we learn how a community came together to establish a park on sacred land. Historian Michael Stubbs details the history of Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park and how he formed a group to protect land that is historically and biophysically important. Mount Mitchell is now on a trajectory to hopefully become a National Monument someday!

On this episode, we have Leah Yingling and Mike McMonagle who discuss a variety of topics, including motivations, sense of accomplishment, learning about oneself, emotional intelligence, and making ultra running more accessible so that underrepresented populations can enjoy the benefits associated with ultra running. These two care a ton about the ultra running community and would love to see more...

Mike McKnight is an ultra runner and a coach (www.lowcarb-runner.com) who set the supported fastest known time on the Colorado Trail and within a 3-month span won the Tahoe 200 Miler, the Bigfoot 200 Miler, and the Moab 240 Miler. These accomplishments are strongly predicated on mental fortitude. On this episode, we learn how Mike mentally approaches his endeavors, how he maintains resiliency, and...

In this episode, Nik Hawks shares about his joy of paragliding and his work with Gristle King in which he helps people deploy Helium hot spots for building a decentralized wireless network. Helium hot spots have massive potential for collecting all types of data at low cost. Check out Nik at https://gristleking.com/. 

This episode's guest is Dax Ross who enjoys giving back to outdoor recreation through volunteering with the San Diego Mountain Rescue Team, crewing an aid station at the San Diego 100 Mile Ultramarathon, and starting his own races and running groups. Additionally, Dax intentionally maintains and strengthens family and friend relationships through outdoor recreation activities, which directly conne...

This episode features Nickademus De La Rosa. Nick and his wife are the founders of Lightfoot Coaching, which is a fabulous service that offers a holistic approach to coaching runners. They take a long-term, individualized approach to coaching and look at all facets of a person's life, including identity composition, stress management, and strategies for balancing running with life's responsibiliti...

Dr. Ashley D'Antonio is a professor at Oregon State University. She researches recreation ecology, which is a scientific field that examines and tries to manage the environmental consequences of nature-based recreation. Most of her research takes place in parks and protected areas such as national parks and national forests. Join All Bodies Outside to learn about Ashley's research and how she spat...

Akiebia Hicks shares her story about how she learned about the National Park Service (NPS) and her impactful research that aims to identify structures to better support black employees working with the NPS. Additionally, she discusses strategies for preventing tokenism and enhancing employee engagement. I learned a ton listening to Akiebia and I'm grateful that she was willing to come on to All Bo...