Chris Holland has spent over three decades helping people - young and old - find their way back to the natural world. In this warmly personal conversation, Robin and Chris reflect on the threads that have woven their lives together: a shared love of plants, the legacy of plant mentor Frank Cook, and the quiet revolution taking place in nature connection education.

Chris is the author of I Love My World, widely regarded as the unofficial Forest School manual, and the founder of Natural Musicians. A practice that democratises music-making in wild places, inviting children and families to listen deeply and celebrate landscape through sound.

His work sits at the intersection of nature pedagogy, John Young's Eight Shields framework, and a profound belief that connection to the other-than-human world is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

They explore how children learn differently when handed a stick and a stone instead of a worksheet, why making music in a stone circle might change the listener more than the landscape, and what it means to truly stay — with a plant, with discomfort, with belonging.

For educators, parents, and anyone who has ever felt the pull of a hedgerow, this episode is a quiet reminder that the wild is always closer than we think.

This Episode Is Brought To You By

• Robin Harford

Transcripts

• This episode

Connect with Chris Holland

Website | Youtube | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn

Books

• I Love My World
• Plant Of The Week
• Sharing Nature With Children
• The Heat Will Kill You First

Courses

• Natural Musicians

People, Places and Things Mentioned On The Show

• Buzzard Yurt
• Kingfisher Yurt
• City of Bath Roman Baths
• Fluxus Art Movement
• Frank Cook
• New Age Fraud
• Pam Horton
• Pauline Oliveros
• Sandor Katz
• Schumacher College
• Trill On The Hill

Related Resources

• 30 Days of Domei
• Domei Newsletter