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Connect to Nature

Log off. Touch grass. 🌍 Join us to connect to nature, big feelings and positive actions with Amy Chapman &amp; Katrina Ridley.

 

Connect to Nature is a new visualised podcast and social media brand with a strong focus on nature and the environment, discussing eco-anxiety and embracing positive actions. Hosted by Amy Chapman (@inthecottagegarden) and Katrina Ridley (@katrina_ridley) Connect to Nature redefines what it means to get close to nature and looking after the planet.

Immediate

Can nature help you grieve? 🏔️In this episode, Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley chat with Tinuke Oyediran, outdoor presenter, Guinness World skater record holder, adventure therapist in training and self-proclaimed nature addict, about how she turned profound loss into healing through adventure.After losing her immediate family, Tinuke solo-hiked the Grand Canyon, mountaineered in Iceland and climbed Kilimanjaro, all the while spreading her mother's ashes on mountain peaks along the way. She shares how she adapts EMDR therapy while hiking (tapping and eye movements on the trail) and why movement and nature can work when traditional therapy rooms don't.We also talk micro-adventures (you don't need Everest!), representation for Black women in the outdoors, her directory Elsewhere for diverse outdoor events in the UK, cold water swimming, and how forest bathing can help you feel calmer TODAY.



🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation

If you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.



Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at https://action.fairtrade.org.uk/page/186243/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=fair-on-the-planet-connect-to-...



Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.
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The HEALING power of micro adventures with Tinuke Oyediran

Chef Doug McMaster explains how the food we eat can reconnect us with nature, from regenerative farming to zero-waste living and healthier systems.



Food is one of the most powerful ways we connect with nature, but how often do we stop to think about where it comes from? In this episode of Connect to Nature, zero-waste chef Doug McMaster explores how food, philosophy and regenerative farming can help us build a healthier relationship with the natural world. From creating the world's first zero-waste restaurant to rethinking waste, soil and sustainability, Doug shares how nature's circular systems can inspire the way we cook, eat and live. It's a thought-provoking conversation that challenges us to see food not just as nourishment, but as a connection to nature itself.



🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation

If you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.



Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at https://action.fairtrade.org.uk/page/186243/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=fair-on-the-planet-connect-to-...



Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eating for a BETTER future: sustainable food secrets with Doug McMaster

What does your weekly shop have to do with climate justice? 🌍In this episode of Connect to Nature, Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley are joined by Larissa Kennedy, doctoral researcher, community builder and trustee of the Fairtrade Foundation, to explore how our food choices connect us to people, planet and heritage.Raised in Croydon, she is a 'granddaughter of the Windrush generation', with family roots in Jamaica, Barbados, the Grenadine and St Vincent. Here, Larissa shares why her grandmother's garden offered her first connection to nature, food systems, and climate justice, and how fair trade creates real solidarity between shoppers and farmers on the front lines of the climate crisis.From a sick turtle on a beach to Kenyan tea farmers feeling climate change in real time, this is a conversation about bringing "far away" issues close to home, starting with what's on your plate.🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade FoundationIf you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at action.fairtrade.org.uk/page....Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.
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Why your food choices are a climate justice issue with Larissa Kennedy

Johnathon Miller-McCall was on his way to becoming an accountant. Instead, he handed in his notice, started an animal management and conservation degree that same week, and never looked back.The naturalist and content creator, known online as J Talks Nature, has built his work around one simple belief: you don't need to live in the countryside to connect with nature. Growing up in South London, he caught insects in containers, dragged his mates to a wildlife-taken landfill, and was called a 'weirdo' for loving bugs. Today, he's proving that nature is for everyone.In this episode of Connect to Nature with Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley, he explains why 'messiness' is actually nature functioning perfectly, how to find your own sit-spot in the city, and the one small thing he wants you to do on your next walk.



🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade FoundationIf you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at https://action.fairtrade.org.uk/page/186243/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=fair-on-the-planet-connect-to-...Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.#ConnectToNature #UrbanNature #NatureForEveryone




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Johnathon Miller-McCall: from credit control to London's WILD spaces

After walking runways for a living, Poppy Okotcha found herself empty, unwell, and searching for something the fashion industry could never give her. She found it in soil.The regenerative grower, author, and new mother has become one of the UK's most compelling voices in ecological gardening, but her path to homegrown living was anything but straight.From a buddleia bush crawling with butterflies in her mum's modest London garden to a brief stint growing on a canal boat to an encounter with a soil-covered British farmer in an Indian intentional community that changed everything... Now, Poppy runs a free community food garden called Grow Share in Devon, a space where people contribute time instead of money, grow their own produce, and donate the surplus to families in need.In this episode of Connect to Nature with Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley, she explains why gardening is a radical act, how composting taught her to process grief, and the one decadent crop she says everyone should start with.



🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation

If you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.



Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at https://action.fairtrade.org.uk/page/186243/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=fair-on-the-planet-connect-to-...



Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What Nature taught Poppy Okotcha about life and death

From diving with bubble-loving manta rays in Indonesia to wrestling off nibbly seals in the Bristol Channel, Madeline St Claire’s tales of life underwater are full of unexpected twists and turns.



The marine biologist and underwater filmmaker has travelled the world exploring and even restoring some of our ocean’s most precious ecosystems.



For many, her job is the stuff of childhood dreams, but it was the loss of one of her close friends at the age of 16 to cancer that set her on this path: ’It’s a weird thing to look back and see this tragedy as having anything other than sadness, but I'm forever grateful that it’s the legacy of my friend’.



Now 15 years on, Mads is a fierce advocate for protecting marine life at home and overseas. In this episode, she shares the highs and lows of ocean conservation, demonstrates (quite literally) what a healthy coral reef really sounds like, and explains how she founded Women in Ocean Science to elevate women’s voices and tackle gender inequality head-on.



🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation

If you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.



Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at https://action.fairtrade.org.uk/page/186243/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=fair-on-the-planet-connect-to-...



Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mads St Claire on the secrets of our underwater worlds

Who gets to be British? Writer, broadcaster and DJ Zakia Sewell wants you to look beneath the surface and discover the ancient stories, folk traditions, and seasonal customs that offer a radically different answer

In this episode, Zakia joins Katrina and Amy to explore her book Finding Albion, why folklore offers an inclusive alternative to traditional British identity, and how Morris dancing, May Day celebrations, and winter solstice festivals can reconnect us to the land and to each other



🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation

If you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.



Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at https://action.fairtrade.org.uk/page/186243/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=fair-on-the-planet-connect-to-...



Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zakia Sewell on folklore, identity & the magic beneath the surface

Ecologist and entomologist Connor Butler joins Connect to Nature to challenge our ideas of what nature really is. From dung beetles and cockchafers to queer ecology and the hidden wildlife beneath logs, this thought-provoking episode explores how looking closer at the small, strange and overlooked parts of nature can change the way we see the world.



🌍 Connect to Nature Season Two is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation

If you care about nature, climate change and where your food comes from, Fairtrade's Do It Fair campaign is calling for a future that's fair on the planet. You can help by choosing Fairtrade products and adding your voice to Fairtrade's petition calling for stronger laws to protect people and the planet.



Find out more and sign the Fair on the Planet petition at https://action.fairtrade.org.uk/page/186243/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=fair-on-the-planet-connect-to-...



Together, we can help build a future that's fair to people and fair to the planet.


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Queer Ecologist Connor Butler on Bugs, Bias and Belonging

Connect to Nature is back for a second season, with hosts Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley exploring fresh and inspiring ways to deepen our relationship with the natural world. Through conversations with a diverse range of guests, the series uncovers practical, hopeful and imaginative approaches to living more sustainably, discovering urban wildlife and creating greener futures for people and the planet.
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Connect to Nature - Season 2 Trailer

In this episode of Connect to Nature, we’re joined by climate justice advocate, writer and speaker Dominique Palmer. Dominique shares her journey into activism, from discovering a deeper connection to the natural world to speaking at the UN and championing change on a global stage.

We explore the link between slow fashion and sustainability, how the fashion industry impacts people and the planet, and why embracing your personal style can be a powerful form of activism. Dominique also talks about rejecting perfectionism, finding joy in secondhand fashion, and making climate action more accessible for everyone.

Plus, we share simple, practical ways you can start connecting with nature in your everyday life, no matter where you are.

💚 “We are nature - and when we remember that, everything changes.”
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🌿 What does it really mean to connect with nature and can your wardrobe play a part?

In this episode of Connect to Nature, we’re joined by Joshua Ademi (Tales by Josh), adventurer and founder of Black Scottish Adventurers. From growing up in Lagos to exploring the Scottish Highlands, Josh shares how discovering the outdoors changed his life—and how he’s helping others do the same.

We explore how nature can improve mental wellbeing, reduce loneliness, and build stronger, more meaningful connections. Josh also shares practical advice on getting started, why you don’t need big adventures to feel the benefits, and how small, local walks can have a powerful impact.

In this episode:


  Connecting with nature for better mental health

  Outdoor adventure and community building

  Overcoming barriers to hiking and the outdoors

  Why the journey matters more than the destination


Whether you’re new to the outdoors or looking to deepen your connection with nature, this episode will inspire you to step outside and start small. 🌿
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Can getting outside really transform your mental health and sense of belonging?

Climate justice campaigner and author Tori Tsui joins Connect to Nature to share how growing up by the sea in Hong Kong shaped her love for the natural world, why cold-water swimming keeps her grounded, and how music can be a powerful tool for climate action.
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How Music Can Drive Climate Action (and Beat Burnout) with Tori Tsui

In this episode of Connect to Nature, hosts Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley sit down with environmental campaigner and lifelong birdwatcher Dr Mya-Rose Craig, also known as Bird Girl, to talk about how we really connect with nature.

From defending misunderstood animals to rediscovering playfulness outdoors as adults, this conversation explores why birds might just be the most accessible (and joyful) gateway into nature. Mya-Rose shares how growing up loving wildlife shaped her activism, why she started Black2Nature at just 13, and how simply paying attention to the birds around us can support wellbeing and mental health.

Together, they discuss:


  Why birdwatching doesn’t need expertise, equipment, or rules

  Breaking down stereotypes about who nature is “for”

  The quiet power of everyday encounters with wildlife

  How nature can be grounding, healing, and fun


You don’t need to know bird names.You don’t need binoculars.You just need curiosity.

🎧 Tune in and let nature take up a little more space in your life.
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What do vultures, judgmental magpies and oak‑tree swings have in common? 🌿🦅

No time, no money, no idea where to start: YoungWilders once asked why reconnecting with nature seemed so complicated... Then they went and changed it.YoungWilders is, in their own words, a 'matchmaking service connecting young people with landowners who want to do ecological good'. But that doesn't mean their conservation work is boring. Far from it. Just ask them about the time they 'stole Christmas' in Grinch outfits (there were a lot of spruce trees, we're told) or spent the day running around fields digging holes in pig masks 🐷.

On this episode of Connect to Nature, Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley are joined by Noah and Molly from YoungWilders to learn more about the nature connection gap facing 18-30 year olds, why the conservation sector needs a serious shake-up, and how their youth-led rewilding projects are changing both land and lives.👋 Make sure to follow along on Instagram and TikTok @connect2naturepodSeason 1 is brought to you in proud partnership with the Woodland Trust 🌳
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YoungWilders are Doing Nature Recovery Differently

Joycelyn Longdon grew up surrounded by London's concrete cityscape, feeling isolated from traditional environmental movements, but now she's rewriting that narrative and connecting to nature in ways many could barely imagine.

An award-winning environmental justice researcher, founder of Climate in Colour, author, and part-time DJ, Joycelyn is currently pursuing a PhD at Cambridge University, investigating the justice implications of conservation technologies.Her work sits at the intersection of AI, nature, and racial equity. From using eco-acoustics to monitor biodiversity in Ghanaian rainforests, to challenging the colonial history baked into conservation science, Joycelyn's perspective is both urgent and radical: that the environmental movement's biggest problem isn't what it's doing, but who it's doing it for.



In this episode of Connect to Nature with Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley, we explore:

🌍 Why environmental movements have historically excluded communities of colour

🎙️ How eco-acoustics is changing the way we listen to and protect ecosystems

⚡ Why urgency might actually be harming climate action — and what to do instead

🤝 What real community trust looks like when working on environmental justice

🌿 How people of colour are reclaiming their ancestral connection to nature



Whether you're an activist, a nature lover, or just curious about the politics of the planet, this conversation will shift how you think.



Season 1 is brought to you in proud partnership with the Woodland Trust 🌳


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The environmental justice technologist fighting for a better planet

Nadeem Perera says his earliest connection to nature was watching macaques scrabble over balconies and geckos slither over paths while visiting family in Sri Lanka, but it was a chance encounter with a woodpecker in a London graveyard that really set him on his current course.



Born and raised in East Ham, the co-founder of Flock Together has always been anything but conventional. Now, he's finding new ways to challenge the underrepresentation of Black, Brown and other POC in the outdoors space.



What started as a birdwatching club in London has now grown into an unstoppable community movement with chapters in Tokyo, Toronto, and New York. Flock Together is so popular that it's even caught the eye of global brands. But for Nadeem, it's all about inspiring others: "Before we started doing our thing, people didn't see black people with binoculars. And black people hadn't seen that either".



In this episode of Connect to Nature, Amy Chapman and Katrina Ridley get the lowdown on exactly why Nadeem was hanging out in that graveyard, what niche hobbies he wants to 'make sexy', and what it means to be a change-maker in a traditionally white, middle-class world.



#Birdwatching #FlockTogether #Connect2Nature



👋 Follow Connect to Nature:Instagram: @connect2naturepodTikTok: @connect2naturepod
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Flock Together's Nadeem Perera on being his own role model

Liz Bonnin says she was 'born into nature'

The wildlife biologist and broadcaster spent her childhood summers running through the mango groves of Martinique and snorkelling with her cousins around the coral reefs of Trinidad. Now one of the nation's most recognised science communicators, she's spent most of her adult life communicating the magic of nature on screen.



But it hasn't been easy, and even Liz admits that documenting the climate crisis up close has taken its toll at times. 

In this episode of Connect to Nature, she shares her life tips with Amy and Katrina ('you don't have to have it all worked out'), explains why indigenous communities hold the key to a better planet, and opens up about the time climate anxiety kept her in bed for a month.



👋 Follow Connect to Nature:Instagram: @connect2naturepodTikTok: @connect2naturepod
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Liz Bonnin hasn't given up on the planet, and neither should you

Log off. Touch grass. 🌍 Join us to connect to nature, big feelings and positive actions with Amy Chapman & Katrina Ridley.

 

Connect to Nature is a new visualised podcast and social media brand with a strong focus on nature and the environment, discussing eco-anxiety and embracing positive actions. Hosted by Amy Chapman (@inthecottagegarden) and Katrina Ridley (@katrina_ridley) Connect to Nature redefines what it means to get close to nature and looking after the planet.

 

Season 1 launches on March 30th. From discovering wild places, rewilding responsibly and challenging fast fashion to embracing technology, battling eco anxiety, and exploring how creativity and music and bring us back to the wild. It's about climate, connection and community, but also those small everyday moments that remind us how good it feels to step outside.

Join passionate guests Liz Bonnin, Nadeem Perera, the Youngwilders, Joyceleyn Longdon, Dr Mya-Rose Craig, Joshua Adeyemi, Tori Tsui and Dominique Palmer and connect to nature.
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