Run Away From Home What a Himalayan concept, a phone ban in Thailand, and a rain-soaked rafting trip taught me about designing outdoor programs that actually meet people where they are

Ghar Se Bhago. It's a Hindi phrase that means run away from home. But not away from something — toward something. The discomfort of the unfamiliar. The growth that waits just outside your front door.

Krishna Patel found that phrase on a sticker at a campsite in the Indian Himalayas after her 21-day NOLS backpacking course. She put it on her Nalgene. It became her life motto. And it might be the best framework for outdoor education we've ever discussed on this show.

Krishna is an outdoor educator based in Maharashtra, India. She grew up hiking Sayadri hill forts on alternate weekends with her dad. She went on to work with young people across India, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. She is NOLS-trained, adaptable, and one of the most globally textured thinkers I've had the pleasure of talking with.

In this episode, Scott and Krishna talk about:

• Growing up in Pune — joint families, Sayadri hill forts, and how hikes to 300-year-old ruins became a weekend ritual

• What NOLS changed — from 'get to the top' to 'what did you learn on the way?'

• The phone ban experiment in Thailand — and what happened when Grade 10 students were asked to make films instead

• Ghar Se Bhago — the Himalayan concept of running away from home as a philosophy of growth

• Why kids putting wet clothes in plastic bags instead of drying them in the sun is not a problem — it's information

• The cultural dimensions of outdoor access — why what works in Utah doesn't always work in rural India

• The Gates Millennium Scholar who almost didn't get outside because 'camping is for people with too much time on their hands'

• How to design programs for the community in front of you, not the community you imagined

This episode is for every outdoor educator who has ever taken a program that worked somewhere else and wondered why it fell flat. And for every parent, teacher, and program director who wants to meet the next generation where they actually are.

ABOUT KRISHNA PATEL — Outdoor Educator. NOLS-trained facilitator. Based in Maharashtra, India. Working with young people across four continents. 🌿

ABOUT YOUR HOST — Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 15 years in outdoor and environmental education. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.net

New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.