Manda Scott

It seems to me that we broadly have two choices.

We can, if we choose, crash into chaos and extinction, and that may well be our default.

But we can also choose, each of us, to step into our birthright as fully conscious nodes in the web of life, and thereby offer all of the astonishing creativity of humanity in service to life.

This is a fairly common refrain on this podcast, but it's not often that we speak with someone whose entire life is given to helping other people step into our birthright, to open the doors of what we might call nature connection, but is so much deeper than this, so that anyone, of any age or circumstance, can step forward into whatever it is that our birthright becomes in the 21st century.

Our guest this week does exactly this.

I've known of John Young for decades, heard of his eight shields practice and have friends who have trained in his art of mentoring.

But it was only this last September that we met in person and I was struck by the deep inner stillness he brings to everything he does.

The sense that his awareness stretches out across space and through time and

And he's listening to layers upon layers of meaning in all of the worlds.

John is a deep nature, people and self connection researcher, mentor, naturalist, wildlife tracker, author, consultant and storyteller.

He was mentored by his grandmothers.

and then by Tom Brown Jr., who, as you will hear, had been mentored in turn by Grandfather Stalkingwolf.

John has connected through the years with a whole host of elders and experts, and has spent over four decades leading the field of nature-based community building.

His work explores the impact of nature on mentoring, human intelligence, spirituality, well-being, and development.

influencing tens of thousands worldwide.

He's the author and co-author of seminal works such as What the Robin Knows and Coyote's Guide to Connecting to Nature.

And he's appeared in documentaries, including The Animal Communicator, which I highly recommend that you watch.

I have put a link in the show notes.

In 2016, John received the Champion of Environmental Education Award,

for his innovative and globally impactful contributions to the nature connection movement.