The Regeneration Lab
Welcome to The Regeneration Lab. The podcast of the Regenerative Thinking research group at the the Mission Zero centre of expertise at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where we conduct integrated research to come up with regenerative solutions for a more sustainable future. Each episode features a leading educator, activist, professor, or researcher who is already engaging in more regenerative forms of higher education. Join us on this journey as we discover how these educational innovations emerged, how they are practiced, and the beautiful futures that are envisioned for more regenerative higher education. Along the way we will explore the systemic and personal challenges, barriers and opportunities that our awesome guests are facing to do this. You can reach out through mission-zero@hhs.nl to respond or connect to any of the episodes!
Episodes
85 episodes
What if the cracks were where learning begins? A conversation with Bas van den Berg
What if education began by paying attention to the cracks, in ourselves, our institutions and the systems around us? In this conversation, Bas van den Berg explores regenerative education, nature-inclusive learning and the possibilities of more...
What if education were more like rain? A conversation with Michael von Kutzschenbach
What if education created the conditions for something new to emerge? In this conversation, Michael von Kutzschenbach reflects on nature connectedness, transformative learning and the role of openness in business education. From rain, seeds and...
What if education planted seeds of hope, and resistance? A conversation with Arjen Wals
What if education helped us reconnect, regenerate, and disrupt? In this conversation, Arjen Wals explores transformative learning for socio-ecological sustainability, from childhood encounters with nature to social, emotional and outdoor learni...
What if we learned to befriend uncertainty? A conversation with Tobias Luthe
What if education prepared us not to control complexity, but to move within it? In this conversation, Tobias Luthe explores embodied learning, systemic design and our intrinsic relationship with the more-than-human world. Drawing on decades of ...
What if we learned to see what grows through the cracks? A conversation with Nathalie Baumann
What changes when we learn to notice nature already growing through our cities? In this conversation, Nathalie Baumann reflects on urban ecology, biodiversity and experiential, interdisciplinary education. From pioneer plants breaking through c...
What if learning began with the ground beneath our feet? A conversation with Hans Lodders & Sunamita Iris Rodrigues Borges da Costa
What happens when students learn not only about sustainability, but by working with real places and real challenges? In this conversation, Hans Lodders and Sunamita Iris Rodrigues Borges da Costa share how QXote has become a living laboratory f...
What if we connected as nature, rather than with nature? A conversation with Anaïs Sägesser
What changes when we stop thinking of nature as something outside ourselves and begin connecting as nature? In this conversation, Anaïs Sägesser explores regenerative leadership, embodied and experiential learning, and the creation of safe-enou...
What if education helped us become with the world? A conversation with Reineke van Tol
What if education helped us experience ourselves as part of a relational world? In this conversation, Reineke van Tol shares how wild pedagogies, relational outdoor learning and more-than-human perspectives can move education beyond learning ab...
What if education learned to listen to trees? A conversation with Robbie Nicol
What changes when education moves beyond institutional walls and into relationship with the living world? In this conversation, Robbie Nicol reflects on decades of work in outdoor, place-based and environmental education. From “trees that speak...
What if nature became a “who” rather than an “it”? A conversation with Ash Brockwell
Episode descriptionWhat changes when “nature” stops being an abstract idea and becomes a relationship? In this conversation, Ash Brockwell shares how fieldwork, creative practice, Indigenous knowledge and different ways of knowing sh...
What if it is the student's mountain to climb, not ours? A Conversation with Yolan van Gielen
Yolan uses the metaphor of a mountain climbing expedition to describe teaching: students must learn to be responsible for themselves first, then work interdependently, and ultimately collaborate with non-humans—the circular economy, energy syst...
What if we taught like gardeners, not mechanics? - A conversation with Lucia Walsh
"We are not mechanics, we are more like gardeners or stewards who plant seeds," Lucia tells us, describing her teaching philosophy organized around the four seasons. From winter's inner work to autumn's harvest, she guides students through natu...
What If Love for People and Planet Guided Teaching? A Conversation with Eddy van Hemelrijk
The role of business should be to do good for society and the planet," Eddy declares. "Business and being a business person is not about individual wealth and fame." Having transformed from what he calls "a regular businessman trained in a very...
How Do We Equip Students With Empathy for Non-Humans? A Conversation with Kristin Krebs
For Kristin, regeneration isn't just an add-on to entrepreneurship education—it's an invitation to fundamentally rethink what entrepreneurship even is. "I hope entrepreneurship education is opening up to rethink what entrepreneurship is, and it...
Can we make the planet a stakeholder? A Conversation with Mirjam Pfenninger
Mirjam sees herself as an incubator preparing caterpillars to become butterflies—holding a safe space where transformation can happen before students are ready to fly. Having grown up close to nature, she's evolved from human-centered design to...
What If Nature Was Our Teacher? A Conversation with Trudie Murray
Trudie's journey from humanitarian aid to entrepreneurship education was shaped by witnessing the limits of well-meaning interventions and the dangerous lack of systems thinking in development work. Fear for her children's future drove her to c...
Can Unlearning Be the First Step to Regeneration? A Conversation with Ilona Klama
"It is important not to jump straight into solutions but staying in the uncomfortable, not knowing, having to listen, understanding better, do it all over again - staying in the zone of discomfort," Ilona explains. As the guardian of winds who ...
How Do We Shift From Extraction to Contribution? A Conversation with Rob Lubberink
Rob's research in Malawi on material arrangements and entrepreneurial behavior led to a profound insight: it's not just entrepreneurs who have agency—the everyday materials and systems around us shape what's possible. Using the metaphor of a fo...
How Do We Move From Profit-First to Values-First? A Conversation with Bruno Delepierre
Bruno's metaphor of the chef supporting apprentices to find their unique expression captures his belief that education is fundamentally about connection and craft. But what makes Bruno's approach distinctive is his willingness to be vulnerable....
What If We Started With Potential, Not Problems? A Conversation with Charles van de Kerkhof
Charles uses the metaphor of animal tracking—where many different paths lead to the same animal, and complexity increases the more you zoom out—to describe the intricate work of regenerative entrepreneurship education. Inspired by witnessing va...
How Do We Weave Academic Networks of Care? A Conversation with Sergia Lage Arias
While mainstream entrepreneurship is about acceleration, innovation, and speed, Sergia offers a radically different metaphor: compost—slow, natural growth through decomposition and regeneration. Growing up connected to the land and sea in Galic...
What if we viewed uncertainty as possibility? A Conversation with Yvette Baggen
"We don't start-up businesses, we start-up people," Yvette declares, capturing her fundamental reframing of entrepreneurship education. For her, uncertainty isn't something to fear—it's a source of hope and inspiration. Yvette's teaching is cen...
What If the Classroom Was a Relational Field? - A Conversation with Catherine Brentnall
Catherine doesn't see the classroom as a space for delivering content - she sees it as a relational field where she's deeply interested in what's happening between people. Driven by a strong sense of justice and what she describes as an "obsess...
What If We Designed Futures We Can't Yet Imagine? - A Conversation with Sebastian Planck
Sebastian opens with a bold pedagogical move: meditation on the floor, shoes off, in the middle of an entrepreneurship class. As someone who deliberately challenges himself to push students out of their comfort zones -even when it makes him fee...
What If We Created New Maps for Entrepreneurship? - A Conversation with Juliane Schuster
"We need to let go of some of the old maps," Juliane tells us, describing herself as a mapmaker who sends learners out to explore their own paths. But this isn't about abandoning students—it's about recognizing that in the current system, the o...
