Raising a Generation of Nature Lovers: The Jeff and Paige Story (Episode 21) Transcript

[Melissa Arnold - Host]: When I told my kids, who are now teenagers, that I would be talking with you two today, their reaction, which consisted of wide eyes, mouth dropped open, a flurry of questions of why should I be so cool as to have this opportunity, it confirmed what I have known all these years, and that is that you two have built something really special here in Boulder County. Something that's far-reaching, has positive impacts on the youth in our community, that you've helped raise awareness for the preservation of and enjoyment of our natural environment, and that you are indeed local legends. 

Jeff and Paige, thank you so much for joining me for today's episode of Boulder County's Parks and Open Space podcast, Voices of Open Space. Like a kid waiting for one of your concerts to start, I am pumped for our conversation today.

[Paige]: Thank you so much. We're so happy to be here. What a beautiful intro.

[Jeff]: You are cool, Melissa.

[Melissa]: Thanks, Jeff, Paige. 

Oh, that right there could just be the end of it. But instead, let's get into your story a little bit. So for those out there who have not had the privilege of hearing your music yet and learning about what you do, I just wanted to paint a little picture. I think what you do is described really nicely on your website, jeffandpage.org. You bring science and nature to life through kid-delighting music and stories. But I think beyond that, you offer engaging and educational concerts for the younger audience, though you have many adult fans as well, which we'll talk about. You use songs, storytelling, and interactive play to engage kids with nature, music, and movement, almost always somewhere outdoors. You create characters and set the scene with fun costumes and props, often weaving a plot throughout your performances. You have also produced several albums over the years, and with your joyful spirit of play and passion for ecological awareness, you've reached thousands of children and have had endless impact. Quite an introduction, I think.

[Paige]: Than You.

[Jeff]: That all checks out.

[Melissa]: And I think one of the reasons that I was very excited to have you here in this episode is because there's a connection between the work that we do at Boulder County Parks and Open Space and what you do. One of the things we do in delivering our mission is bring education and outreach to our community on the importance of caring about nature and explaining that we're a part of it and our actions have impact and also that it's there for us to enjoy nature. Move our bodies, interact. 

These are things that you have really focused in on in your career. I would love to hear from you now that I've given that background, there was once a beginning, and I think you've been doing this now for over 20 years. Share with us your story. Like how, how did you begin on a path like this of creating music about nature for children?

[Paige]: I always say there's like two entry points to that, the answer of that question. Why don't I start? Go for it. Yeah? Yeah. So like many folks who are passionate about the environment or social justice or any of the at times overwhelming issues that we face here on planet Earth, Jeff and I were both through our own separate journeys in some measure of despair about what's happening in the world. And this is 20 years ago, maybe probably more actually. And we met in graduate school where we were studying a lot of those issues. Our graduate degrees are in environmental education. And In the throes of that despair, we found each other and we found that we wanted to tell a different story. And that's how we started making music about nature and science. Because despair leads us nowhere. And recently Jane Goodall passed. And I believe that's one of the things that she left as her legacy is that we have to give children hope. And when we just talk about all the problems and we get really serious about everything, there's no hope and there's nowhere to go. And that's so that's my answer to how we started.

[Jeff]: I like that. That's

[Melissa]: Beautiful, Paige. I

[Jeff]: Haven't heard you talk about that slant on things. Really?

[Paige]: I've told it so many times.

[Jeff]: I should pay more attention to

[Paige]: You. You should, darling. We're

[Melissa]: Married. Yes, let's make sure the audience knows that connection. Let's get that

[Jeff]: Out of the way right away. We love bringing that to light in our shows as well. I think for both of us, music and storytelling, costumes and characters have been a way to put some of these things that we feel really passionately about into a form that makes sense, not just to kids, but grownups and to us. And there's joy. There's no shame.

[Paige]: Will you speak to that idea of how a character can...

[Jeff]: Sure. Okay, so we're both trained in environmental education. I could stand up and do a lesson for grownups or for first graders on decomposition. I could talk about vermicomposting. I could talk about carbon cycles and nitrogen. But if I do that dressed up like a dead tree covered... In uh velcro creepy crawlies with a big mushroom hat and I'm talking about it from a first person perspective we can often embody it in a different way we can bring out some goofy some silly but also some actual messaging in a way that feels different than a teacher presenting it's like sharing of a story I feel like I didn't answer at all the question though

[Paige]: You kind of did, but you got into the details of it. We find that teaching children and their adults through embodying the first-person perspective of the creatures that we're teaching about offers this very different perspective than standing up there and wagging a finger and saying, do this and don't do that. Because what we're asking them to do is there's a bit of a model we use, which is inviting children to become the thing. Mm-hmm. So that's where our kinesthetic movement and teaching comes in as

[Melissa]: Well. I want to talk a little more about that, the anatomy of your songs and your performances. I really like what you've hit upon. And I want to just take a minute, though, and just say that what you said resonated very deeply with me because something that I think everybody needs to know is that I was absolutely, my kids were Jeff and Paige and are still Jeff and Paige fans, as I described in the beginning. I met you all before I had children. It was actually over 20 years ago. Wow. My background, even though right now I work in land conservation at Parks and Open Space, my background is also in environmental education. And I first met you, Jeff, first at Thorne Nature Experience, where I was on the board, and you were teaching. And I remember we were at an event where you played, and I remember my head just whipped around like, wow! what is this, what does this human have to share with us here? It was so powerful, so amazing to hear what you had to share. And then I just, the more and then the more I got to hear you and then Paige, I was just really riveted by the messaging and then my kids' response to it once they hit those. I think he once told me it was right around the age of six or seven or something that sometimes, or maybe it's earlier, I'm trying to remember, my kids like lit up to your music. It was always on in our car and I think um what you just described is absolutely true where it's approachable allows us to approach very difficult subjects like your album that talks about solving climate change with um levity realism um some excitement and and hope like you say well stated So I've really enjoyed being a part of that journey from that perspective over the years and seeing the impact it's had on my children and on me even as an adult. So let's talk about some of your songs because you, you know, they are so complex really in that you're able to weave together fun stories, incredible facts about nature that I continue. I listened to your newer album. Is it Hey Alice? 

It is. I continued to learn things I didn't know. Plus some of these ecological, these concepts of stewardship and ecological conception and concepts of how we can become more responsible stewards of the earth. I also noticed some of your songs actually have like human element factors. Like the one in your recent album, People Fall Down.

[Paige]: One of our weirdest songs ever that teaches about the idea of gravity through people falling down in ridiculous situations. Actually, it's one of my favorites. It's a sleeper hit. Nice. Oh, I picked

[Melissa]: It up. I picked it up. Yeah.

[Paige]: So this would be a great place to maybe hear a little bit of that.

[Melissa]: Yeah, let's take a minute and hear. Let's hear some from the song People Fall Down.

[Paige]: Ooh, ah, ah. Ooh, ooh, whoa! Oh, ouch. I fell down, tripped over a tree root. Don't worry, I'm fine. Just a little embarrassed.

[Jeff]: Paige, you don't have to be embarrassed, because it's just gravity.

[Melissa]: Hey, who forgot to shovel the driveway? Hey!

[Jeff]: Hey, who put this crack in the sidewalk? Whoa, there's a banana peel on the kitchen floor. Ah, who left their skateboard in the foyer? People fall down. Yeah, people fall down. Yeah, people fall down, but then they get up. They're standing around until they've had enough. Resting their feet, whoops, they slip off their seat. Yeah, people fall

[Paige]: Down. Gravity pulls them to the ground. That's when people fall

[Melissa]: Down. What are some of the songs that have had impacts to your young community listeners that have surprised you, maybe? Oh,

[Jeff]: That's an excellent question. I think every time I hear, like, I love hearing what kids' favorite songs are. There's a few songs that we don't perform live that, like, that kids say that they love and they love listening to at home, like Dead and Delicious, for instance. Yeah, it's from the first-person perspective of a raven as a scavenger, essentially, that it eats roadkill and that there's no waste in nature.

[Paige]: But then you've woven in the human element of food waste. So Jeff is the songwriter of the two of us, and he does things that are very unexpected sometimes. But I think it's such an incredible and beautiful connection between that in nature there is no waste and that we are, quote unquote, wasting how much of enough food to fill the Rose Bowl every day? Yeah. Something like that. It's in the song. You can listen. Oh, my. Good fact. That's one that you find surprising. Yeah, I find

[Jeff]: That surprising. Any that come to mind for you?

[Paige]: I'm really bad at remembering our songs. Yeah.

[Jeff]: Okay.

[Melissa]: What I really like to hear about, and something you just touched upon, Tell us a little bit about your creative process. These are not just poems. These are songs with complex stories and facts, and they're beautiful. I mean, they're catchy as heck. You get them in your head, and you're going to sing them everywhere. Tell us about your creative process. How do you come up with these songs?

[Jeff]: Well, even to touch back on your initial question, which I kind of didn't answer, neither of us have... Like, we didn't set out to become children's performers. It's not something we've studied. I never studied songwriting, so this has been a very organic career that has just unfolded naturally one step at a time, one year at a time, one show at a time. We're now over 2,000 live events. How's that? But when I... 

Well, okay, and in terms of the creative process, and I'll keep it brief, like... It's changed a lot since the early years when I had no children and I was hiking a lot and I would, you know, experience something along the way. I'd see a little pattern in the bark and I wonder what that that would be an interesting song. I'd like to write about about the beetle that made that and go home and do the research. I feel like now since becoming a parent, I don't have as much time for those long, long rambles in nature. And. But I will still kind of give myself little assignments. Then I will do the research and I'll have a notebook with like four pages and then start plugging them into a verse and crossing them out. But usually I will come up with a catchy hook first and then be like, OK, that's the part we're going to come back to. Now I want to weave in a bunch of scientific data. And I often find, I don't think I've ever said this before, when I get stuck on a rhyme or I'm trying to fit too many syllables into a rhyme, that is when the best part of the song comes out. Like the tricky part that requires more time and thought becomes my favorite part of a song.

[Melissa]: Can you think of any examples?

[Jeff]: One of our favorite songs to play and most requested is called the Bobcat Walk. And when I first wrote that song, I realized, oh, I didn't really put in any aspects of the food web, the different roles that creatures in the ecosystem play, including the bobcat. And I couldn't fit it into the existing structure of the song. And so we came up with this little intro part at the beginning. Producers are collecting the sunlight.

[Paige]: Herbivores are feasting on plants.

[Jeff]: But then the carnivores, they eat the herbivore. That's

[Paige]: Right. It's a wilderness dietary

[Jeff]: Dance. And they say she's at the top of the food chain.

[Paige]: Uh-huh. So rabbits and rodents, beware.

[Jeff]: Because that ravenous, carnivorous Felix Rufus is standing right over there.

[Paige]: What am I doing, Jeff? The Bobcat Walk. Huraka, huraka, the Bobcat Walk.

[Melissa]: That is such a great example of not just what you were talking about, but also how beautiful your music is. You said you had an environmental education background. Tell me about your musical experience, training, exposure growing up. I'm really curious to know how that developed.

[Paige]: Well, you mentioned earlier that you didn't have musical training. So Jeff taught himself to play the guitar with a Beatles songbook on the Appalachian Trail. Oh, my gosh. Essentially. Did I get that right? I'll take that. Did you hype with a guitar?

[Jeff]: Yes, I went a section of the Appalachian Trail after my sophomore year of college with a ukulele and two other friends, one with a mandolin and one with like a little backpacker guitar. And we kind of learned along the way.

[Paige]: I would add that you, Jeff, he's just an incredible musician and has a natural ability to pick up many instruments and play. 

Thanks, Paige. Yeah. Well, you're welcome. I don't think everyone has that. And I'm one of those people. But I've always loved singing and dancing. I don't know if it's unique, but it's defining about our journey is that we both followed our passions. And those are the passions as in the things that filled our cups up and then connected meaningfully to the community around us. Because passions without that feels empty for both of us. And that's what really was our musical training. Was, you know, I got a lot of mine on the job. You know, I did some singing when I was younger and then we just started working together and, you know, singing in front of people. And I can't imagine doing that if it was adults. But I think because it was kids, there was more permission to play and to experiment in this different way. Perfect. And we did. And we just kept going. Again, not through formal training, but I love theater. We're now working on our Rainbow Sox Rangers TV show. I've been writing all of the scripts and stories for that as well. So it's been fabulous.

[Melissa]: Tell us a little about that because some people might not know that that is something that's in the works is a Rainbow Sox TV show. What can you share?

[Paige]: We've filmed the first season. So we have 10 episodes that are ready for distribution. And we are figuring out our distribution plan right now with our producer director, who's the amazing Dia Savage. Making the show is probably the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. It's been just an absolute dream. Which to ground it, you know, we've spent about 20 years performing live, just the two of us for the most part, with very little infrastructure support. And so to show up day one on the set and have a 23-person crew, makeup, hair, cameras, gaffers, all the things, food provided, and to just be invited to get up there in front of the cameras and do what we actually are really good at, which is act and perform, was revelatory. 

Will you share a little bit about your experience of that?

[Jeff]: Well, sure. The TV show is, and it's called Rainbow Socks. I think this is a good time to show off my sock.

[Paige]: Oh, yeah. I did put mine

[Jeff]: On. This is kind of our signature. We wear these at all of our live events. Wow. Well, the show Rainbow Socks is a combination of... Of our music and our theater that we've done in a live context and then brought to life through the medium of television. And it's just so much fun to have that experience and to have the crew as you've mentioned. 

Um, but we did create it even with all the tools and magic and animation possibilities that television has. We've created the show in the vein of Mr. Rogers reading rainbow. Um, it's got a vibe to me even of like, peewee's playhouse at times quirkiness um yeah really weird like nature inspired 90s sitcom and just that element of real people no missions no jetpacks no problems to be solved because nature is slow and it's all filmed right here in boulder county including on some of our trails some of the farms out here in Longmont Yeah, it's just been really good to keep the ethic of our music and our performance career and translate that into the television world.

[Paige]: We would be remiss in not mentioning that we have a third cast member in the show with us as well. Sean Derrick, who is a nationally renowned motivational speaker for youth. We brought him on. He actually lives in Mexico City, but he's American. And he's an incredible addition to the show. And the chemistry, creative chemistry between the three of us was amazing. Like a dream come true. I will add to doing this as a live action series right now is really going against the grain of what's out there, which is kind of what Jeff was referencing. I've been actually learning a whole lot about children's media and television because of this project. And what most buyers are looking for is animation and now AI. People are looking not to create shows that are good for children's bodies and brains and mental health, but that will sell. And what that means is animations that you can dub into every language on the planet and get in front of as many kids as possible. There's a lot of emphasis towards moving towards really short, kind of like YouTube shorts and reels, which we know from scientific research is not good for our kids. So we feel super passionate about creating this long form live action TV show at a time when everyone's looking the other direction. So it's also a little bit of an uphill battle in terms of our distribution, but we feel really confident that it's going to find an awesome, excellent home.

[Melissa]: Oh, absolutely. Oh, I'm really excited for when that one becomes available. Will we be seeing some of our favorite characters like Marty the Norwegian Troll or Rigatoni Spumante?

[Jeff]: Oh

[Melissa]: The famous opera singer

[Jeff]: Sadly spumante is not in

[Paige]: Season one okay we he almost made the cut and then we decided that giardia was too weird for season one okay but he's he's slated for season two yeah Did you know that? I did not know that. He's hopefully in there. My

[Jeff]: Favorite character to play in season one is Professor Sparkles.

[Paige]: He's a newer character. He's after your time, Melissa. He's Colorado's least renowned scientist. And

[Jeff]: Boy, does he love geology.

[Paige]: He loves it so much. The Bobcats in there. We have two Owlette characters that are new. Is a little I'm a little bit afraid to weave the nest my name is bob and I have a little brother and his name is talon and it's the day we're supposed to fledge we're supposed to go out there but I don't know about jumping out of here

[Melissa]: Don't you have a new song about that in your album because I listened and everyone else can listen on spotify and other platforms we'll get to that later too but

[Jeff]: Seamless plug

[Melissa]: One of the things that is so fun about your live performances that you've just described as really being the front and center of the future Rainbow Sox series is the way you don't just sing songs on stage. You perform, you put on costumes, you engage the members of the audience. They're moving their bodies there. Oh, yeah. And Paige is really out there working the groups. This is obviously how you hook them. You bring them in. They feel a part of it. Kids are spontaneous. And what are some of the unexpected moments you've had on stage that have turned into, for better or for worse, unexpected? Something exciting.

[Jeff]: Let's see.

[Paige]: We used to like in, you know, that performing in front of a group of toddlers and, you know, lower elementary age children isn't that different than performing in front of drunk adults. Oh, my gosh. They lack filters and yell things out. And if they don't like what you're doing, they're going to let you know. Uh-huh. Or walk off. Yeah, exactly. Or just

[Jeff]: Leave. Or try

[Paige]: To touch the knobs. Or get disinterested. I think that that's kept us to a high standard, actually, of we design our set lists extremely carefully with just the right amount of this one you move around in, this one's a listening one. Where do we need to pull back and have this be a quiet story moment? And then how do we get them up and moving? That's one way. In the funny part of it, all the stories I can think of are terrible ones. Yeah.

[Jeff]: Yes, I've been punched a few times in the nether regions, not out of malice. Just height. Just eye level. The places that we perform, as you've mentioned, they're often outside. They're not official stages. We rarely have security. So we're very accessible and approachable. We like it that way. But every so often you'll look for an element of your costume or a prop that you're going to use and you'll see like a kid playing with it out in the field and be like, well, I'm not going to use that hula hoop. Quick pivot. Everybody pick up your imaginary steering wheel. And yeah, quick pivots like that. Yeah, we have a lot of kids that come up on the stage with us once in a while. Sometimes they're invited, but more often than not, they just crash the scene.

[Melissa]: There's no bouncers at your shows, huh? Yeah.

[Paige]: I think I've really learned, you know, I do think that's an element that's really different for any educational children's performers out there, which there are others. You know, you're doing classroom management the whole time as well. It's a very full on job, which is also why, as you know, we've been doing it for a while. We have pulled back a little bit from our live performing and are really putting our energy into our TV show, hopefully inspiring many more millions of kids with our content. But don't worry, we're still going to be live. I had somebody ask us. Oh, I'm so sorry. We're not going to see you anymore. Cause you didn't like, no, no, no. We're still going to be here. We're still here performing. Yes. It's both.

[Melissa]: Find ways to grow. Were there any moments when you realized that you had created something really special? I

[Jeff]: Love that question. For me, I would say the third season of Meadow Music. So Meadow Music is the program that we began doing in collaboration with our City of Boulders Open Space and Mountain Parks Department. And that program this summer of 2026 will be in its 22nd summer. And I remember in season three, I think it was the first time we surpassed the number 100 audience members. It's

[Paige]: A free open to attend concert that happens regularly throughout the summer on open space. And in season three, it started from a very small group of people. And then what happened in season three?

[Jeff]: Season three, it just started taking off and we were seeing, we weren't marketing it. It was long before social media was the norm. And it was just word of mouth of Boulder parents or Boulder County parents, I should say. And we just started seeing families showing up naturally and purchasing at the time with CDs, which we don't sell as many of those anymore. They're

[Paige]: Coming back, baby. Yeah. Yeah.

[Jeff]: Yeah and just being like oh my goodness like people I just I just remember having a feeling of like oh we've we've hit on something I don't really know what this is but it feels beautiful it feels right it honors my commitment to sharing my love and inspiration and appreciation for the natural world also my love of costumes and being goofy and young and music and I was just like let's keep going let's let's just keep doing this and

[Paige]: What happened, though, in season three? You said it surpassed...

[Jeff]: Oh, I didn't

[Melissa]: Say? No. There's a lot of people,

[Paige]: Right?

[Jeff]: It surpassed me in a running race. The thing was very fleet of foot. Okay, I think there was this idea of, like, when it passed 100 attendees at a concert, and this was before we were permitted to have amplification, too, so I believe during that concert I was attempting to address the audience through a large garden cone purchased from McGuckin's. Oh, my gosh. Which was quickly cast aside as

[Paige]: Odd.

[Jeff]: But Meadow Music and all of our other shows to boot have since been amplified, which is a great joy when addressing several hundred to upwards of 800 people now at our shows, which we love.

[Paige]: So to be real, and we are always real. We are married. And one of the things that I think that I know adults love about us and our shows is that we are transparent, that this is hard. It's hard to have a marriage dynamic and a working dynamic together. It's hard to have kids and show up on the weekends for shows. And so we're really open about that with people. So I'll be open here and say it's been a really hard journey at times, you know, to ego together, to find our correct roles, to know whose turn it is to speak and whose turn it isn't. There were a lot of moments along the way of wanting to quit and frustration and upset from both of us. Every time I would check in with my heart, like, is it time? Is it just time? Is this the end? Do I need to move on? It was just like this quiet, nope, stay. Nope, stay. And I'm so glad I listened to that because the moment when I knew we really hit on something was we celebrated our 20th season of Meadow Music and we invited alumni of the program to come back. So we had about 35 college age and high school age kids come and join us for the alumni version of Meadow Music. And I was floored. It was so beautiful. Every single kid that was there that was in college was studying either a science or music or both, usually an environmental science. They all spoke to us about how coming to our shows had changed their lives. And I just was, I don't even have words. I just cried. I just hugged and smiled and cried. And I've since said, if I could go back and talk to that young woman who wanted to quit so many times, I would say, just keep going. One foot in front of the other, you don't know what you're building and it's bigger than you. When we were scouting to film the first season of our TV show, it was this magical, really, I want to almost say spiritual experience I had with the land, where I was walking in many different parts of Boulder County trying to understand how we could film this show with a very small budget and what could happen. And we ended up finding these all amazing locations in the city of Boulder and in Boulder County. And I just had this feeling like the land wanted us to be here. Like the land was saying, yes, go make this crazy weird TV show because it's going to amplify the voice of nature. And I've just, I've wanted to share that with you as a representative of Boulder County Open Space. And parks because it's just so important that we have this space to enjoy, but also to give it a voice.

[Melissa]: Well, and interesting you should say that. I was reflecting as we're sitting down how our podcast is titled Voices of Open Space, which is very intentional to bring in all the different people and groups and things that make up our open space here in Boulder County. And you truly are the voices of open space, quite literally. 

Yeah. I thought that was really fun. And how great that you also do so much of your work out there on that land, pulling people out onto the trails and out into the beautiful open spaces so they can recognize that that's also there and accessible to them to go and explore. I know that's a really important part of what you do as well, drawing people out to say, get out, move your bodies. We're hiking.

[Paige]: Ooh. Ha, ha, ha. Uh, uh, uh, uh, we're hiking. Somos exploradores. Somos exploradores.

[Melissa]: I was excited to see that you've started incorporating a lot of Spanish into your music. Tell me a little bit about that.

[Jeff]: Yes, we do incorporate Spanish into all our performances now, our albums as well. Just our way of, you know, being inclusive and accurately reflecting the population of Boulder County. And it's been so much fun to see which families come up and say, thank you so much for including that in your concert. That was wonderful. My children really responded to that.

[Paige]: Especially in the public schools. That was a lot of where the decision started to come in. We perform at a lot of bilingual schools and we wanted to include Spanish. And you can just see the kids who are Spanish speaking in particular's faces light up with joy when they see us using their language. Makes us really happy. Yeah.

[Melissa]: Well, this is the perfect time for me to bring this out. Oh, what do

[Jeff]: You

[Melissa]: Have? So I used to work at Yosemite Institute, which is now called Nature Bridge. It's where I did a lot of my environmental education. And you all made me think of this very coveted, you can see it's beaten up, picture we would get when we left. And I taught there for over four years. And everybody who left would receive one of these from Pete Devine, our teacher mentor at the time, who now lives in Colorado. And everybody would just keep really quiet, a secret, what was on the back. You won't know until you leave. And it was kind of this moment of like, well, I don't want to leave, but I want to know what's on the back. And then when you finally were given one of these, it was this moment of just like, oh, that's the message. And you just described it. Because I think that... Education is so important, and that's understating it, as what you've just described. You know, what you do is fun, it's catchy, it's a great way to also weave in education, but it's more than that. It's helping our future understand the importance of environmental awareness and care. Care for each other, care for protection and exploration of open spaces. I mean, it is a big concept that you've taken on to teach. So what good old Pete would have to say to all of us and that I would say to you here, there will never come an end to the good that you have done. Many, many thanks for everything.

[Paige]: Oh, you got me.

[Jeff]: Pete Devine, if you're out there. My wife. It

[Paige]: Is. Really. I think just in the times that we're in, that message is more important than ever. And we've said that so many times before in our history. And I mean it every time I say it. It's more important than ever to keep going, to keep putting one foot in front of the other when it's something that you love and care for. Right. And for us teaching kids to love and care for the earth and for each other and for our community, I can't think of a better way to have spent my last however many years we've been doing this.

[Jeff]: 22. Keep them going.

[Melissa]: Well, and I can speak as a parent in the community about that far-reaching impact and that impact that you've had on my children, my family, and even today as my children are now learning to drive and they remember your song, Share the Road, or they talk about turning out the lights when you leave the room or how to do the math around thunder, the importance of keeping climate change in mind and the impact we can have there to rectify things. It's far reaching, Jeff and Paige. And so thank you for being part of our village and for helping us to fulfill this mission. I think we all have to have our kids learn and care about our natural environment. 

How can people connect with you and support the work that you do?

[Jeff]: That's a lovely question. I'll start by saying that we operate under the nonprofit organization, Rainbow Socks, and we do fundraise all year round to support our live program. And our live programming. And we've also had to do a fair amount of fundraising to get this first season of our television show off the ground. So we have a Jeff and Paige membership. It started during COVID and it's now become more of like a sustaining membership, a fan club. And we also fundraise all year round, both in terms of grants and individual donations to support the work that we do.

[Paige]: So a way that you could support would be to make a one-time or sustaining donation through Rainbow Socks. That's a financial support. But other ways to connect with us and support us is to listen. Listen to our music. It's all out there. We don't get to sell many CDs anymore. We want you to listen. Listen on all the different streaming platforms and watch our videos and share it with friends and write to us and tell us what you thought and if you liked it and if you have ideas for other songs, engage with us. We're also on all the social media channels. But more so than anything, listen and enjoy it because we're putting it out there over and over again.

[Jeff]: And bring your little people to a show, especially if you're in Boulder County, because that's usually where we are.

[Melissa]: Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing more about your story.

[Paige]: It's been a pleasure, Melissa. Thanks for having

[Jeff]: Us. Thank you, Melissa. Thanks for watching out there.

[Paige]: We actually have a really fun and important way that we end our TV show. Would you be okay if giving it a try?

[Melissa]: I would love to hear

[Paige]: That. And then after that, we could also just send everybody out with a song. Yes. Let's do it. Okay. So we do nature and education. So a lot of times people ask us, well, how are you making a TV show? I'm not going to go into a long answer of that, but I think this ending of our show answers some of that question. So every episode ends this way. Now it's time to end. Feel your feet on the floor.

[Jeff]: Sit up straight with your head to the sky.

[Paige]: Take a deep breath in. Let it go. Now turn off this show. There's so much to explore.

[Melissa]: Beautifully said.

[Paige]: So this song is called Summer Canyon and it's on our new album, newest album, Hey Alice. And I love it so much because it's about one of the most important things we can do in nature, which is just be.

[Jeff]: In the canyon in the mountains in the summer rain coming down it's a trickle

[Paige]: It's a deluge it's amazing life all around all the frogs are making babies

[Jeff]: All the streams are swollen with snow smell the xylem feel the flow all of life containing that flow

[Paige]: The rain slows I get low so I can practically hear

[Jeff]: The roots sinking I feel

[Paige]: The squish of the soil and the sweat on my lip and I'm thinking that

[Jeff]: The very same water the very

[Paige]: Same water

[Jeff]: We've been drinking. Has been up in the clouds.

[Paige]: Out through the

[Jeff]: Leaves to my bloodstream. It's all

[Paige]: Linking together for me.

[Jeff]: I see. Yeah. Nature connects us. Yeah. Nature corrects us. Yeah. Nature directs us, yeah And nature respects us I'll do the same in return By sitting for a moment right here, right here I'm here, rooted in the canyon Right here, right here, right here

[Melissa]: Thank you so much for that most perfect send-off. For all the listeners, remember to also get outside, explore, enjoy. Thank you so much for sharing that song with us. And thanks for being here today.