Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing

We ARE nature. Our disconnection from it leaves us feeling incomplete.Rooted explores how connecting with nature helps us feel whole again—without leaving the lives we're living. Host Susan Morgan Bailey, a former science teacher and transformational coach with 25 years in organizational wellbeing, brings her expertise in ecosystem thinking and culture transformation to peer-level conversations with practitioners, researchers, and people who've found their way back to wholeness through nature.Each episode explores different pathways to nature connection, the wisdom nature teaches us, and how to integrate this essential foundation for wellbeing into modern life. From forest guides to researchers studying nature's impact on mental health, from rewilding educators to transformation stories—these conversations address root causes of disconnection, not just symptoms.If you've tried every wellness approach and still feel exhausted, if you sense something fundamental is missing, if you

Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing is a health podcast hosted by Susan Morgan Bailey, with 100 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Susan Morgan Bailey hosts Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing, a health show with 100 episodes published.

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  Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing

  Walk with Holly Merker: Mindful Birding and Wellbeing

  Aug 18, 20261h 3m

  What if simply paying attention to birds could help us feel calmer, more present, and more connected to the world around us? In this episode of Rooted , Susan talks with Holly C. Merker, professional birding guide, nature-based wellness practitioner, and co-author of Ornitherapy and The Power of Birdwatching . Holly shares the practice of ornitherapy and mindful birding—an approach that shifts the focus from identifying and counting birds to slowing down, engaging our senses, and simply experiencing the birds around us. They explore the growing research connecting birdsong and birdwatching with human wellbeing, the power of sit spots, and how birds can draw us naturally into presence, curiosity, wonder, and awe. Holly also shares how birds became an important source of presence and support during her own experience with cancer, and why she believes developing a relationship with the birds around us can ultimately inspire us to care more deeply for them and the places we share. You don't need binoculars, a field guide, or even the ability to identify a single bird to begin. You simply need to notice. Connect with Holly: Ornitherapy: https://ornitherapy.com Mindful Birding Network: https://www.themindfulbirdingnetwork.com Connect with Susan: Website: https://www.rootedsoulliving.com/rooted-podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmbailey/

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  Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing

  Walk with SMB: The Dog Days of Summer

  Aug 11, 202618 min

  What do the dog days of summer have to do with a star? What does a coneflower have to do with echinacea? And what might a bald eagle flying over a busy city or a dragonfly resting in the grass reveal when we pause long enough to really look? In this Walk with SMB episode, Susan follows a handful of questions sparked by things she's noticed and learned this summer. The familiar phrase "dog days of summer" turns out to carry an ancient connection to Sirius, the Dog Star. A coneflower and echinacea reveal themselves as different ways of knowing the same plant. An unexpected bald eagle challenges assumptions about where nature belongs. And a close encounter with a female darner dragonfly becomes an opportunity to marvel at something as seemingly ordinary—and astonishing—as a pair of wings. Together, these observations lead to a larger question about curiosity, knowledge, and wonder. We often think explanation removes mystery: once we know how something works or what it's called, perhaps it becomes less remarkable. But what if the opposite is true? Looking closely can reveal how much more there is to notice. Learning one thing can lead to another question. And sometimes understanding a little more about the living world doesn't diminish wonder at all—it deepens it. During these dog days of summer, what are you curious about right now? What might become visible if you looked at something familiar a little more closely? Resources Mentioned Sirius (the Dog Star) and the origins of the "dog days of summer" Echinacea / coneflowers Darner dragonflies Connect with ROOTED https://www.rootedsoulliving.com/rooted-podcast

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  Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing

  Walk with Ber-Henda Williams: Remembering Our Natural Ways of Being

  Aug 4, 202650 min

  What if some of the capacities we long for aren't things we need to learn—but things we simply need to remember? In this open-ended walking conversation, I join Ber-Henda Williams, a womanist cultural strategist, storyteller, and convener, to explore what nature can teach us about leadership, culture, intuition, awe, and the seasons of a human life. Our conversation begins with formation—those quieter seasons when much is happening beneath the surface. From there, we wander through legacy, rites of passage, aging, the balance of the masculine and feminine, and what modern culture may have forgotten by losing touch with the natural milestones that once helped communities honor every stage of life. Along the way, something unexpected emerged for me. As we talked about intuition, I realized that every living being already knows how to respond to the conditions around it. Trees know when to unfold. Bees know where to gather pollen. The living world continually senses, adapts, and responds. If we are nature, perhaps intuition isn't something some people possess and others don't. Perhaps it's one of our oldest capacities—one we've become less practiced at hearing. This conversation doesn't offer simple answers. Instead, it invites us to slow down long enough to notice the patterns that surround us, reconnect with awe, and consider what becomes possible when we remember that we, too, belong to the living world. Sometimes the questions that stay with us are more valuable than the answers we hoped to find. Resources Mentioned Hagitude by Sharon Blackie The NeverEnding Story (film) Priya Parker's work on gathering Tricia Hersey and The Nap Ministry Connect with Ber-Henda Williams Ber-Henda Williams is a womanist cultural strategist, storyteller, and convener whose work centers placemaking, storytelling, and communal care through Culture Shifters Unite. Website: https://www.ber-hendawilliams.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berhenda/ Connect with Rooted Website: https://www.rootedsoulliving.com/rooted-podcast Connect with Susan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmbailey/

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  Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing

  Walk with Elayna Toby Singer: Creativity, Belonging, and Seeing the World Differently

  Jul 28, 20261h 3m

  What if creativity isn't reserved for painters, musicians, or writers? In this episode of ROOTED, I sit down with environmental artist and educator Elayna Toby Singer for a conversation about creativity, public art, nature, and the ways our surroundings shape how we experience the world. Elayna creates immersive installations and community-centered art that invite people to slow down, notice, and connect more deeply with the places they inhabit. Together, we explore how nature influences the creative process, why beauty and wonder matter, and how art can foster belonging, curiosity, and relationship. Whether you consider yourself creative or not, this conversation offers an invitation to see creativity less as a talent and more as a way of engaging with the world. In this episode, we discuss: • How nature informs Elayna's creative practice • Creativity as a way of paying attention • The role of public art in creating connection and belonging • Why slowing down helps us notice what has always been there • How curiosity can become a creative practice • What happens when we create experiences instead of simply creating things Connect with Elayna Toby Singer Website: https://elaynatobyart.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2083126150/ Connect with Susan & ROOTED Website: www.rootedsoulliving.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmbailey/

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  Rooted: A Podcast About Nature & Wellbeing

  Walk with SMB: Grounded Hope

  Jul 21, 202615 min

  Seeing images of the wildfires in Canada, I noticed fear rising. So instead of pushing the feeling away, I sat with it and found myself thinking about what years of observing the natural world have taught me about change. Nature is extraordinarily resilient. A landscape can be devastated and still hold the possibility of life. Forests change. Ecosystems adapt. Life finds a way to continue, although perhaps not in the same form that existed before. And because we are nature, I began to wonder: Is the resilience I see in the living world also something I can remember in myself? In this solo reflection, I explore what I mean when I talk about listening to nature, the difference between being smart and being wise, and the kind of hope that can emerge when we stay present with uncertainty rather than trying to immediately fix or escape it. Grounded hope isn't reassurance that everything will be okay. It's something steadier. It allows us to hold the paradox that destruction and regeneration can both be true. That grief and possibility can exist together. That we can be afraid of what is happening while still trusting in the resilience of life. When the landscape of your life changes, where do you look for hope? Maybe the Earth doesn't promise us that everything will be okay. Maybe she offers us something more honest: a reminder that life has been navigating change for a very, very long time—and that we are part of that life. Connect with Susan Morgan Bailey & Rooted Website: www.rootedsoulliving.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmbailey/

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