The Wild Academy
Wildheart
Welcome to Wildheart, a podcast hosted by Maddy Winterbrook and Eleanor Cheetham, founders of The Wild Academy and authors of The Rewilding Yearbook. Flowing with the changing phases of the year, each episode is guided by a seasonally-inspired word: a seed of curiosity that takes our conversation from the roots of definition and etymology to the branches of meaning and story, exploring how rewilding language can help us rewild ourselves. Like Maddy and Eleanor, this is a podcast that’s slightly feral around the edges - not polished perfection, but thoughtful, wandering dialogue that invites li...
Be sure to visit the podcast's website and support the creator: thewildacademy.substack.com
Author
The Wild Academy
Category
Podcast website
Latest episode
Oct 28, 2026
Where to listen?
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Episodes
A Re-Introduction 05.11.2025 42:06
In this week’s episode we’ve chosen to talk a little bit about how the Academy came to be, and what have been the biggest markers in our personal rewilding journeys. Why have we chosen to re-introduce ourselves? * The festival of Samhain arrived a few days ago, marking the end of one cycle through the Wheel of the Year and the beginning of another - it’s an ideal time to pause and reflect before b...
Enchantment 08.10.2025 38:05
In this week’s episode we explore the concepts of magic, joy and beauty through the lens of enchantment. Why have we chosen to talk about enchantment? * We’re coming into witching season - this is a time of year that’s strongly associated with ‘the otherworld’; with magic, mystery and phemerality. For the next few months, we’re invited to connect with our intuition and with ways of knowing and bei...
Honour 01.10.2025 47:13
In this week’s episode we celebrate 100 episodes of Wildheart podcast, alongside our usual conversation about how we can approach the word ‘honour’ with a wilder perspective. Why have we chosen to talk about honour? * To recognise and celebrate everything we’ve achieved in our work up to this point - The Wild Academy, the book, and most importantly the amazing community we’ve all built together. W...
Expression 24.09.2025 50:12
In this week’s episode we chat about expression, authenticity, and being able to voice our truth. Why have we chosen to talk about expression? * As we move further into autumn, we reconnect with our soul, which invites deeper connection to our emotions and inner world * We are then faced with the process of communicating those emotions (our inner self) with the world (our outer self) in an authent...
Wane 17.09.2025 42:09
In this week’s episode we chat about what it means to wane, and why this part of the cycle is so essential to embrace in the world right now. Why have we chosen to talk about waning? * Not only is the moon currently waning as this episode goes out, but so is the energy of the season overall: our arrival at the Autumn Equinox marks the noticeable descent into the darker months and the lower energy...
Richness 10.09.2025 44:13
In this week’s episode we chat about richness, and why this feels so apt right now, both in the wild world and in ourselves. Why have we chosen to talk about richness? * The season of autumn is full of richness! Think jewel-like colours (flowers, berries, fruit), hearty soups and stews, and deep orange sunsets * There’s an invitation at this time of year to ‘sink in’ to life - deepening into our i...
Gather 03.09.2025 39:55
In this week’s episode we chat about gathering, the continuation of harvest season, and how / why we might welcome in a more reflective month. Why have we chosen to talk about gathering? * It’s the guiding word for September in our Rewilding Wheel framework * There is a strong association with the harvest theme that continues from August into September (and even October) - ‘gathering’ from the lan...
Edge 27.08.2025 46:49
In this week’s episode we chat about the concept of the ‘edge’, and what it means to embrace this in our lives. Why have we chosen to talk about edge? * The sense of an ‘edge’ symbolises the threshold between summer and autumn * There’s a sense of blurred boundaries within ourselves at this time of year, and often we can struggle to find and hold our ‘edges’ when everything feels fluid * Autumn us...
Linger 20.08.2025 44:46
In this week’s episode we chat about what it means to pause and still in the liminal month of August, and in our lives. Why have we chosen to talk about lingering? * It captures the liminal feeling of August - the sense of it being a month that almost exists outside of the usual rhythm of life, when our relationship with time can often feel a bit different. * However you feel, when we look to the...
Alchemy 13.08.2025 41:28
In this week’s episode we chat about the magical, golden, transformative process of alchemy. Why have we chosen to talk about alchemy? * Our seasonal symbol for August within our Rewilding Wheel framework is golden fields - gold is a colour that’s very present in the British landscape at this time of year as all the grain and grasses dry and mature, and on a breezy day the rippling movement throug...
Soften 06.08.2025 45:44
In this week’s episode we chat about making a conscious choice to soften, especially as we navigate the shift from late summer into harvest season and beyond. Why have we chosen to talk about softening? * ‘Soften’ is our word for August within our Rewilding Wheel framework * It reflects the slowing of the wild world throughout this month - the mellowing as green turns to gold, the ripening rather...
Drift 09.07.2025 44:45
In this week’s episode we chat about what it means to drift, both in terms of the season and in our lives. Why have we chosen to talk about drifting? * We’re now moving into late summer, whcih can be a time of year when all our structures and routines start to stretch, loosen or even dissolve completely. * It can feel very much like a season of floating or flowing, especially when the weather is a...
Tend 02.07.2025 49:46
In this week’s episode we chat about tending to ourselves, and also the wider ecosystem of community and the earth. Why have we chosen to talk about tending? * There is a slowing of the season/year - we’re nurturing what’s already come into being rather than pushing for new growth * We can see the Summer Solstice as an invitation to pause and take stock - to tend to ourselves, our needs, our desir...
Alive 25.06.2025 42:53
In this week’s episode we chat about feeling alive, and what that actually means. Why have we chosen to talk about being alive? * We’ve now reached the peak of the year, when seasonal energy is at its height and the wild world is visibly most vibrant * This is a time when many of us can feel ‘recharged’ by the sun (though not true for everyone) * Aliveness is a word we use all the time in our work...
Reach 18.06.2025 43:10
In this week’s episode we chat about reach, and how it’s actually much more complex than we might imagine. Why have we chosen to talk about reach? * We’re coming to the solar zenith of the year - the highest point of solar energy. Back in early spring on the podcast we were talking about the word unfurl and how the journey through spring and summer is a kind of unravelling and stretching out - so...
Courage 11.06.2025 58:41
In this week’s episode we chat about courage, and how it can help us to find inner strength to walk the pathway. Why have we chosen to talk about courage? * At this time, solar energy (and the related fire element) is reaching its peak - this kind of energy is connected with fierceness and taking action, but this often requires courage * We’ve talked about permission and value recently, and an imp...
Value 04.06.2025 56:16
In this week’s episode we chat about value vs values, and how our relationship with these concepts impacts our lives. Why have we chosen to talk about value? * Summer is often considered a season of ‘productivity’ - both in terms of the fullness and abundance of the wild world in this ‘fruitful’ phase of the year, and also in terms of the busier way of life we tend to be called towards during the...
Permission 28.05.2025 48:05
In this week’s episode we chat about permission, and how it’s wound up in the journey to becoming your true self. Why have we chosen to talk about permission? * In our last two episodes we’ve talked about delight and thriving - both of which can be related to joy, abundance, pleasure, savouring… all things that summer encourages us to embrace, but can also bring up feelings of discomfort or guilt....
Thrive 21.05.2025 55:44
In this week’s episode we chat about thriving, and how we try and reframe our approach. Why have we chosen to talk about thriving? * It’s connected to high solar energy - the fullness and vitality of this time of year * Our guiding word for June is flourish , so it feels relevant as we start to look ahead to the Summer Solstice (we explored the word ‘flourish’ in Season 7 Episode 1 ) * Summer is o...
Delight 14.05.2025 58:09
In this week’s episode we chat about delight, why we weren’t sure how we felt about the word to begin with, and how we might reframe it. Why have we chosen to talk about delight? * It’s connected to many of the themes that emerge in early summer: joy, pleasure, beauty and sensuousness * It’s a word that seems to encapsulate the magical qualities and bountiful blossoms of the month of May What do w...
Ignite 07.05.2025 44:11
In this week’s episode we chat about ignition, and what connecting with and welcoming in the fire element can look and feel like. Why have we chosen to talk about ignition? * It’s our guiding word for May on the Rewilding Wheel * It captures the feeling of the sudden burst of colour, life and energy that happens in the wild world at this time - it’s been slowly building over the past few months, b...
Grow 09.04.2025 54:28
In this week’s episode we chat about growth, and the different ways we can choose to grow. Why have we chosen to talk about growth? * It’s our guiding word for April on the Rewilding Wheel * There is now evidence of the natural world’s movement towards growth - it really starts to become most noticeable from this point in the year * This is our final episode of the spring season (and halfway point...
Expand 02.04.2025 46:58
In this week’s episode we chat about expansion, and how spring encourages us to expand in lots of different ways. Why have we chosen to talk about expansion? * We’re in the cycle of the Seed moon - the last point of connection with our inner world ‘beneath the surface’ in terms of lunar cycle themes * Expansion connects with the Warrior energy we talked about last episode - our archetype for April...
Warrior 26.03.2025 49:41
In this week’s episode we chat about the warrior archetype, and what it means to connect with and embrace the sacred warrior within. Why have we chosen to talk about the warrior? * The Warrior is our archetype for the month of April, which will be here in less than a week * We’ve been sitting with a lot of hazy, push-pull energy since winter and talking a lot about how to navigate that - we made a...
Cultivate 19.03.2025 41:17
In this week’s episode we chat about the process of cultivation, and how we can apply this to our lives. Why have we chosen to talk about the idea of cultivation? * We’ve talked a lot lately about moving upwards and outwards with the coming of spring…but what do we do once we get there?! * As the Spring Equinox arrives, it feels like a good time to think about how we can ‘plant’ ourselves more ful...
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