Ep. 68: Learn Your Land - Connecting to Natural Spaces, Finding a Sense of Belonging (feat. Adam Haritan)
Today we are blessed by the presence of Adam Haritan, founder of Learn Your Land. Adam started the famous Learn Your Land platform in 2014 out of a desire to connect naturalists with people who wanted to learn from naturalists. Learn Your Land is an advertisement-free media channel, helping people to improve their nature skills one species at a time. He spends most of my days either looking for mushrooms/plants/trees, researching mushrooms/plants/trees, filming mushrooms/plants/trees, or editing videos and content around mushrooms/plants/trees. Before his life became dedicated to this project, Adam studied classical piano and euphonium, toured as a drummer with a heavy metal band until his academic pursuits led him to study nutrition and dietetics at the University of Pittsburgh. I’m excited to probe the depths of a naturalist who has dedicated so much time and effort to help us all learn more about the land under our feet.
Topics Covered:
- Charting a New Life Course Through Nutrition
- Learning from Mentors and Naturalist Groups
- Western Pennsylvania Mushroom and Wild Food Community
- Finding Purpose in Sharing Information About Nature
- Foraging in Western Pennsylvania
- Connection with Land as Essential to Human Health
- Tips for Other Educators
- Content Creation as a Disciplined Learning Process
- Foraging Wild Water, Medicine and Food
- Land and Belonging
- Transcending Dystopian Futures
- Significance of Land Trusts & Giving Back to Natural Spaces
- Learning Each Mushroom that Crosses Your Path
- Future Projects for “Learn Your Land”
Episode Resources:
- Learn Your Land Website: https://learnyourland.com/
- Learn Your Land YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcbf8wnyVJl631LAmAbo7nw
- Learn Your Land IG: https://www.instagram.com/learnyourland/
- Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club: https://wpamushroomclub.org/
- Echinoderma asperum (Fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinoderma_asperum
Adam thanks for everything you’ve taught us and everything to come
Adam has become one of what I call ’nature’s noblemen’. Of course as he said there may not be many fungi in the desert but he would find the diversity of flora & fauna there is as enchanting as the Pennsylvania forest.