Psychological Safety and Democratizing Outdoor Access with Sally Steele of Outdoorithm
Scroll through dozens of outdoor brand websites and you'll read the same sentences: Everyone belongs outside. Nature doesn't discriminate. All are welcome here. Those words are free to say. The actual work, the kind that changes who shows up at a trailhead or a campground, costs something those sentences don't: money, data, and a willingness to look at what's actually kept people out.
This episode's guest is Sally Steele, and this conversation goes straight at what breaks a family's connection to land in the first place, and what it takes to build it back. Sally Steele is a tech founder, nonprofit executive, and ordained minister. She's the co-founder and CEO of Outdoorithm, a platform that makes it easy to find the right campground for your family, and of Outdoorithm Collective, a nonprofit that brings underrepresented families onto public lands for rest, nourishment, movement, and community. A 2024 REI Path Ahead Ventures Embark Fellow, she lives in Oakland, California, with her husband Justin and their four daughters.
Sally and Angie talked about:
Finding her family's name on the Wall of Names at the Equal Justice Initiative's Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
How slavery, then sharecropping, disrupted her family's relationship to land for generations
Growing up without any exposure to national parks or outdoor recreation
The barriers to belonging outdoors: logistics, the cost of gear, and physical and psychological safety
Why "will I be physically safe" and "do I belong here" are two different, equally real questions
The unspoken hierarchy of outdoor activities, and why hunting and fishing get left out of it
Scarcity mentality, geotagging, and the difference between gatekeeping and entitlement
How a conversation on the drive home from Yosemite became the idea for Outdoorithm
Building a "Community Vibe Score" for campgrounds, modeled on the Negro Motorist Green Book
Outdoorithm Collective's free family camping trips, and the five mantras that anchor them: camp as it comes, leave anyway, nobody solos, dirt don't hurt, and take up space
Why cultivating belonging on public lands is part of what protects them
Listen: Follow on Spotify | Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Amazon | Pocket Casts | iHeartRadio | other platforms
Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!
Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don’t miss a story!